World-building is one of the most popular parts of DMing. It’s the bait on the hook; it’s what pulls us through the more mechanical, labourious parts of prepping games.
So why does sharing that fun sometimes feel like giving a historical lecture on a place that doesn’t exist? Have you ever seen your players’ eyes glaze over as you describe the finer points of Alaterian Politics, or the Orbits of the Moons of Mung? We all know the thrills of discovering a world through the eyes of a Tolkien, Sanderson, or Clarke. How do we give that to our players?
If you’re still improving your skills as a Game Master (and aren’t we all?), making this jump between ‘world-building you tell your players’ and ‘world-building your players eagerly squeeze from every corner of the game world’ can be one of the most daunting leaps in skill.
Step One: Humility
First, take some bitter medicine: no one cares about your world. Not at first.
Caring about politics, weird astrology, or ecology is going to come after your players buy into the world, not before. Abandon the fantasy that you can secure this buy-in by explaining the world-building to your players. Even master storytellers like Tolkien suffer from these limitations. There’s a reason no one reads The Silmarillion before The Lord of the Rings.
In the first session, your players will have three interests: self-actualization, self-improvement, and succeeding.
In other words, they want to do their guy’s funny accent, level up, and beat a baddie.
Actionable World-Building
So, when you’re world-building, especially before a Session One where players will be engaging with the world for the first time, you should be asking yourself two questions.
What do the players need to know to make their characters?
What do the players need to know to kick ass?
If your world-building isn’t going to change the way your players interact with the world, what good is it? Keep it simple. Let world-building inform adventures; the moment it becomes an infodump delay between bits of action, you’ll have lost your players’ interest.
Bad World-Building
“The Dark Elves worship a Spider God. In the Second Era, they built with pointy arches. Architects of the First Era had only rounded arches, so the arches get rounder as you go deeper in the dungeon. Their tunnels are full of secret doors and traps.”
Good World-Building
“The Dark Elves once worshipped a nameless god of secrets. In the First Era, their lairs were riddled with secret doors. In the Second Era, they abandoned their anonymous divine for the Spider God. She taught them the art of trap-making; Second-Era portions of the dungeon have no secret doors, but are full of deadly traps.
You can distinguish between the two periods of construction by looking at the door arches. Second Era means pointy arches and traps; First means round arches and secret doors.”
See the Difference?
Whether they figure it out themselves or hear it from the retired adventurers at the local inn over pints, these details will interest your players because they’ll change how they interact with the world. The price of failure could be getting hit by a trap, so the religious history of the Dark Elves is game-relevant.
So forget about telling your players about your world; make a world that tells your players about your game! Use this signpost technique to signal dangers and opportunities. Your players will be more engaged then ever before.
And now you can tell them about the mating habits of the Dreylar Elves and the Autum Rites of the Scorin Dwarves. You’ve got their attention.
Like this? Read more! We’ve got some articles on TTRPG design and door choices, as well as some DM Tips. If you like that, try our modules! Drawn from the Margins is a fun place to start, if you like Troika!