RPG Worldbuilding: Finally Get Your Players to Care!

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Are you a game master struggling to get your RPG players invested in your game world? In this video, we'll show you how to use player choice and character actions to bring your game world to life and make it feel like a living, breathing place. By incorporating player agency and making it clear that their actions have consequences, you can create a more engaging and immersive experience for your players. Whether you're running a D&D campaign or another tabletop role-playing game, these tips and techniques will help you take your game world to the next level. Learn how to make your players care about your game world and keep coming back for more!

IDEALISM & INFAMY | evolving the world, the Scourge of the Klarengeist adventure arc, disease-based traps, 15 new chaotic aberrant creatures, and more!

Concept Overview 0:48
Tier One 6:17
Tier Two 8:05
Tier Three 9:47
Tier Four 11:06
Specific Applications 12:56

~~2023 Convention Schedule~~
Please come up and say hi if you see me!

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#dungeonsanddragons #dungeonmaster #gamemaster

[theDMLair]

IDEALISM & INFAMY | evolving the world, the Scourge of the Klarengeist adventure arc, disease-based traps, 15 new chaotic aberrant creatures, and more!

[mathmusicandlooks]

I love evolving my world around my players! It not only gets them invested, but I feel like it gets me more invested as well.
In session 1, some wild magic randomly turned an oak sapling permanently blue. It is now a magical oak tree that has become a landmark place of refuge.
A few sessions later, the rogue stole a baron’s monogrammed pillow and replaced it with another thief’s calling card. Within days, the Baron helped organize a sting operation to capture the leader of the thieve’s guild, and the guild ended up with a new leader, who wanted to make into more of a mafia.
Stuff like that.

[timbomb]

I like the idea of playing multiple games set in the same world and having the actions chosen by players in the previous games become historical events and legends in the next game

[Cibbielle]

Heeeey that church you took a picture in the video(1:53) is my choir parish! It's called San Lorenzo in Damaso!!
Great video btw, your advices are helping me a lot to let me and my players enjoy playing!

[ianjohnson]

0:28 Evolving your game world based on character decisions
1:21 What impacts are the success and failures on the world
2:26 Scope and impact changes over levels (tiers)
<sponsor: 3:45 Apocalisse: John’s Guide to the Armageddon >
6:11 Tier 1: Local Heroes
<plug: 7:29 get the written version of this in Feb 2023 Lair Magazine >
7:58 Tier 2: Heroes of the Realm (impacts several cities)
9:41 Tier 3: Masters of the Realm (advisors of main cities)
10:59 Tier 4: Masters of the World (nearly demi-gods, changes will impact generations)
12:49 How to evolve the game world / 10 categories
13:13 1. Political Power
13:25 2. Religious Power
13:40 3. Economy
14:05 4. Social Attitudes
14:33 5. Military
14:59 6. Environment, Climate, Pollution
15:25 7. Underworld, Crime, Gangs
15:51 8. Ecosystem: changes to main predator / prey
16:18 9. Magical
16:45 10. Geography

[kudagras]

In my Theros game - the PCs came against some goblins that were hiding out in a cave where they tracked the cyclops that destroyed a farm.

They rescued the lady of the farm and after informing her nearly all of her workers were dead - they brokered a deal where the goblins would work the farm as hands and security for food and board.

In game weeks later they returned to the farm and found that it had been transformed into a pit stop on the road from Akros to Oreskos with the goblins acting as shopkeepers or tinkering with and improving weapons and farm implements.

That one sticks with me.

In a different game my players met a sentient alien party that were chasing an enemy, but crashed on a probation planet. And as one of the oarty sent back information regarding first contact their species would have gained more power in their galaxy...but the game ended due to time constraints.

[danielsigursson]

I am just getting into DMing and I find this kind of video very inspirational and helpful.

[Briandnlo]

Thanks for this one, Luke. It's well timed, and reassuring. I just watched a video on the difference between "High-Concept" world-building vs. "Kitchen Sink" world-building. It got my brain-blender spinning. I realized I had built a "High-Concept" setting for a bunch of ADHD&D players that'll leap off the setting as soon as they think they see a squirrel ("You guys are going to CANDLEKEEP?!"). I guess that; as long as I can keep paving the road ahead of them, and they keep showing up on Wednesday nights, I'm OK.

[bigHURRdontCURR]

This is so helpful! I try really hard as a DM to make my players an active part of the world. I tailored the story and BBEG to fit the backstories they gave me.

[rcschmidt]

Luke, ever the source of useful and detailed information. Player progression is a great reminder for game masters. I also am using this as a reminder to get back to writing my novel set in the fantasy universe.

[null_error_valuable]

My group's become very partial Phandalin from the Essentials kit Dragon of Icespire Peak. We're even running one of their one-off adventures in Phandalin in between the main campaign. I'm going to kick it up a notch when they get to mould Leilon in Storm Lord's Wrath and Sleeping Dragon's Wake.

[Teramin]

I’d love to get guidance from you on epic level consequences, I’ve found that one of the most effective ways to get a long term party invested in your world is to run a campaign into epic level at the beginning, and then shape a world around the decisions of those characters afterwards.
It is also an infinite story prompt generator to help with world building.

[rabbidninja]

Great video.

My own way to get my players more involved in my worlds is to make them part of the creation. I intentionally leave out some lore and locations and do things to make them paranoid. I listen to them chatter and build lore based on what they talk about. It's great fun bc they feel like they unraveled the mystery, but really I just let them follow their fish.

[stephenmoore]

"I'll see you on your next visit to... The Lair" (ominously) -your new sign off catch phrase

[RicardoPM]

I saw the golarion map on the thumbnail and came to see the video, nice video!

[hodgepodgesyntaxia]

Collaborative world building during session 0 is also a very effective way to invest your players in the setting.

Players almost always know and care more about a setting, when they had a hand in making it.

[TalonSilvercloud]

My party was aligned against a company of arms and armor manufacturers. The Lords of Iron. A fight broke out in one of the factories (super duper early industrialization blended with magic) and eventually the whole place went up. They were able to keep the collateral damage to a minimum, but the Lords of Iron were no longer the major employers of that region. First couple of days after the factory was destroyed, the players saw this first hand, and they helped distribute food and water to the city, and tried nudging people into different jobs. It wasn't great, but they were helping, and their presence prevented looting and riots and such. And there were long term ramifications, like preventing the buildup of arms that was to precede a major war.
But after a few days of the factory no longer billowing out smoke and soot? The first clear sunrise the party had seen since they arrived in the region.
It was a symbol, but it was powerful. If players have an impact in an area, always try to show it. The negatives and the positives, even if they are minor things. Even having an NPC speculate out loud that they might have averted or delayed a war helps them see impact. Once the players feel like they have impact, they'll get more invested in places, and that's when the worldbuilding starts to matter to them.

[theauthor-sta]

I evolve my world by considering what factions the players have helped or hindered. I also consider what magic or tech or science has been discovered and how that might affect each faction.

And then I consider how the neighboring faction might react to this faction being influenced. Will they exploit the new weakness, or will they shore up their own defenses. Or maybe they finally reach out a tentative olive branch in an attempt to persuade influence.

[anthonyambrose]

Just play with your family so they have to care.

[garland]

I've been running a Battletech AU RPG game for over 3 years (110+ sessions!) and world evolution is a huge piece of keeping my players invested. One of the things I can recommend that I didn't see mentioned here was to have SEVERAL items out there that may potentially impact the world and basically only allow the players to choose one. So in context, let's assume three dragons are ravaging the world as a whole. The players may choose to help eliminate the local white dragon, which takes them to level ten. While they're doing this, the locals will become their allies, friends, and compatriots. They may give them access to the rare mineral at the heart of the mountain.

Meanwhile though... the green dragon devastates shipping lanes, wreaking havoc on the coastlines. The people there are scared and afraid, goods stop flowing from other parts of the world. In the time you took to take the white dragon down, the green dragon has amassed many adherents - even locals now who follow it with a cultish fervor. The blue dragon, while ruling over the massive desert to the south (original, I know), has made a pact with a sphinx and has begun using a local religion to unearth powerful artefacts. The sphinx uses his vanity to guide him for it's own ends. So now the players have another choice - do they go after the green dragon and it's hordes? The blue dragon? What about the sphinx, as an alternate path for the sphinx?

This is exactly how I've allowed the world to form and one other further thing I've done is when players reach a level of supreme power (the system I'm in doesn't use levels so there is a point where they simply become overpowered and bloated) I offer them the opportunity to hang up their character as an NPC, further influencing the world. This gives them real purchase in what's going on, and some direct stake in the future.