#worldbuildingrpg

There are two main styles people use when building worlds: Ground up, and Top Down.

Ground up is where you start with a small location- Typically a dungeon or town. Then you flesh that location out with possible NPCs, things of interest, history, etc. Then you figure out how things within that area relate to the nearby surrounding area, and then continue doing this process with ever-larger details until you have created the kingdom, continent, or whatever you think the largest relevant area would be.

Top down is the exact opposite. You start with the entire world (or even Realm) and figure out what the big details are- major kingdoms, continents, gods, etc. and then figure out how those relate to smaller things.

In short- Ground Up is creating small details and figuring out how those relate to a broader scale while Top Down is having a broad idea and working down to the finder details

While both of these require the same amount of work to complete a world, there are still advantages to both on a micro scale, and you may find that you prefer using one or the other overall. 

Ground Up is very good for oneshots and small campaigns. Unless your games are sandbox or high in improv, you may not need larger details at all- just a small contained area for your players to explore for a few sessions and some defined conflict in that area. If you stay focused on a small scope, it is much easier to determine what you might need to know about that area ahead of time. 

On the other hand, I have found Top Down to be a very good method for longer campaigns with overarching story lines. While the story line itself should change based on what your players do, mentally putting your focus on the big picture as a DM can make it easier to realize what could be happening in the world outside of your players. 

Considering how Sorcerer’s power comes from within, I think it might be cool if Sorcerer’s specifically had a mana pool similar to spell points (DMG page 288).

I would tweak the spell point cost so higher levels would cost a lot more as well as tweaking 

Okay, can I take a moment to just quick moment to stan the world building and presentation of The Dragon Prince series? I rarely watch shows anymore and can count the number of different books / shows that I have re-read/watched. That said, I am currently nearly finished with my second viewing, and considering re-watching it AGAIN. 

It’s animation is a combination of computer generation and the fine work of some of the people who animated The Avatar series. This isn’t super refined, but I find the willingness to experiment similar to the animation of 全职高手 (Quan Zhi Gao Shou) and some Chinese films I have seen. I appreciate this willingness to experiment and think it turned out nicely, and hope they continue with it in Season 2.

The design of the world is of the same vein as most Tolkien-esque Medieval low magic settings common in D&D / Pathfinder settings, but has its own distinct take on it and incorporates several ‘standard’ ideas clever ways. There are a couple cool animals that subvert expectations and fit naturally into the worlds ecosystem (IE: Bait). Magic has understandable component, location, and other limitations, and magical items have made sense and been pretty cool. 

The magic design of the entire world is also based around an ‘element’ structure similar to the Avatar, composed of the six Primal Sources (Sky, Moon, Stars, Earth, Ocean, Sun) and Dark Magic. It seems like Elves and Dragons are also based around the Primal Sources, and have their own unique powers (a concept that I think works REALLY well). 

There are also clear cultural differences that aren’t as explicitly stated as the magic design, but are indicated at a couple different points in the series. 

I see this across the board, but particularly with new DMs/creators. A lot of times when creating worlds, it seems like it was approached from almost a ‘go big or go home’ mentality where everything is over the top- Islands curated by demons, massive volcanoes, vast frozen wastes, etc. 

Using these isn’t a problem in and of itself, but it can get repetitive very quickly and generally I see a very small variety of things people use. This makes immersion hard, as the world design feels overwhelming, like you are getting hit by a truck of massive, over the top creations.