Build, Don’t Borrow, Your Fantasy World
By: David Hill
Tags: Rpg, Creativity, Worldbuilding

Creation and development powered by ‘what-if’.

Photo by Eddy Billard on Unsplash

I’ve talked to writers/creators in the RPG industry that love to create fantasy worlds. Others find it a chore. When all cylinders are firing and the setting is coming together into something that almost seems to live and breathe on its own, well, that can be a godlike feeling. The power of creation, albeit on paper, in your very own hands. I find it becomes even more truly an act of creation when that world is shared with others in a gaming experience.

For my own experience, and the purpose of this essay, I’m talking about pen-and-paper role-playing games (RPGs). The classic nerdy experience of shared adventures at a table cluttered with dice, rulebooks, miniatures, character sheets, and snacks. That’s my jam. Not that what I’m writing can’t be applied to other mediums, but the focus is tabletop RPGs. Especially on creating a milieu in which to share adventures — from scratch. Many have done this, with varying degrees of success. I don’t mean financial or industry success. I don’t come to praise Caesar.

When I started playing fantasy RPGs, resources were limited. This was around 1979–1980. Besides, my own instinct was to create a realm of my own in which to offer adventure to players. In the intervening 40 years, fantasy gaming settings have popped up everywhere. That’s great for those who don’t create their own. It’s a godsend to those who want to be given a setting where they aren’t required to make any of the fundamental choices of worldbuilding. Plug-and-play can be a great way to go. For myself, I just never found a setting that suited my own vision. To be honest, a lot of them seemed to be elaborate variations on a theme: Fantasy Pseudo-Medieval Eurasia.

This is a theme that has been done often — and done well. Personally, I wouldn’t dream of competing with those existing settings. That niche has been adequately filled. My fantasy world started with a basic premise: what if humanity had come to the New World and failed to subjugate the natives? What-ifs are a great springboard for creativity. Minor tweaks or foundational adjustments to common tropes in order to present something that feels fresh and different. In fact, I’ve found that many people find this more appealing than something wildly unusual or challenging. For myself, the initial what-if set off a chain reaction of others.

So, humans came to the shores of my fantasy continent and encountered a native culture. In this case, the natives were Fae (and elves). As a diverse population of people living in harmony with the land and holding a great reverence for nature, I felt the Fae were a good analog for the Native Americans in my fantasy world. By means of a single device, the tone had been set for this milieu. Whereas the default flavor for existing fantasy settings tends to be Medieval Europe, this new setting was going to have a distinct Colonial America feel. In one bold stroke, there was a foundation or template for just about everything to come. And, at the time, I had yet to see a single fantasy gaming world that utilized the same framework. It felt like treading new ground. That was exciting.

What other details could I twist just a little to add flavor for my newborn setting? Recalling how important horses were to the settlement of the New World, I decided to get rid of them altogether. It amused me to replace horses with domesticated ibexes, or maybe oryxes. Bred to be as large as horses, but with the horns, agility, and digestive system of even-toed ungulates. Yes, I did a lot of research. Giving humanity these non-horse animals made certain mythic or folkloric creatures even more special. If someone encountered a creature with horse-like traits, it was obvious that creature was something monstrous: unicorns, centaurs, kelpies, pegasi, hippocampi, etc. Probably not to be trusted.

The idea of a Colonial America fantasy setting only took me so far. Remember the rest of that equation: humans came as settlers, turned into desperate conquerors — and lost. The Fae not only filled the speculative role of the Native Americans, but they had the forces of Nature on their side. In short, there were conflicts that escalated into full-blown warfare between humans and faerie folk. At some point during the struggle, the elemental forces of Nature came into play. The land rose up against the human trespassers. The winds raged against them. The waters surged against them. The seasons themselves refused to accept the human invaders. In the end, it was Winter that broke them.

It was another what-if moment. What if Winter was a personification of Nature and simply refused to leave in favor of Spring? Humankind was nearly exterminated. Mostly from starvation and exposure. There came a surrender, and a treaty. Humans were granted portions of land — the Fae were not needlessly cruel. Some are, but these were not. My world, remember? Driven by plot over actual necessity. But, necessity definitely comes into play throughout the building of a functional fantasy world. Of a world with basic verisimilitude. Where things aren’t just weird for weird’s sake. There is value in giving your players or readers a measure of familiarity to help them connect with your creation.

I find what-if to be a powerful tool. A frequent source of inspiration. It can be fun to explore a what-if during the course of a single adventure, or it can be leveraged into a means of shaping an entire setting. What-if you built a world of your own?