Taking 20 Podcast - Ep 55 - Making Your Campaign World Feel Different from Earth

Episode Date: January 10, 2021

Another worldbuilding episode where we discuss ways you can make your campaign world feel different than the mundane rock we currently live on.  Before you tackle making your first outlandish world, give this a listen!

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for tuning in to episode 55 of the Taking 20 podcast, how to make your campaign world feel different from earth. This week, I'd like to thank our sponsor, Steelman and Woodson Furniture. When you like your tables to be a flat-ish top, call Steelman and Woodson. World building from scratch is an incredibly complicated affair. And let me start this entire episode by saying if you're a brand new DM, it's great that you start writing down your ideas, but I wouldn't let your adventurers start adventuring in your world quite yet.

Designed worlds take time to complete. They have to slow cook like a good pork shoulder. Ideas will come to you over time, and the longer you let it simmer, the better your world will be. As you feel more comfortable in the DM's chair and your world's starting to take shape, then let the adventurers in. Like many of my world-building episodes, this episode will likely ask a ton of questions, but hopefully these questions will get you thinking about your world. But suppose you want to design a fantasy or sci-fi world, but you don't want it to be Earth version 2 electric boogaloo. You want it to be different, but you're not sure where to start. Well, there's a number of ways you can make your world feel different.

And let's start off with the number and type of dominant species in your world. At this point, we could devolve into a debate about the definition of a dominant species. I mean, here on Earth, there are about 7 billion people, but there are 10 quadrillion-ish ants. For the purposes of this episode, by dominant species, I mean the species that could be a player character, NPC, or an antagonist for the adventuring party. What if there were multiple dominant species on a planet? These species, each one of them, you need to make some decisions, like can the species survive or even thrive in only one of the planetary climates or in multiple? If they do live in multiple biomes, do they require biological, magical, or technological adaptations to survive? And if there are multiple species, what keeps the species from genociding each other?

Do they have friendly relations? Maybe there's enough resources on the planet for all the intelligent species and the cultures coexist and mutually respect each other. The populations of the multiple species could be low enough that there's no friction. Also, they could use drastically different planetary resources, so they don't compete for the same resources to survive. Maybe they don't genocide each other because they're equal strength, so a war would likely annihilate both species. Mutually assured destruction, if you will. Like the U and USSR during the Cold War, or maybe the US and China now. Perhaps it's beneficial to each species for the other to exist. They could have a symbiotic relationship where they need each other for quality of life or maybe even to survive. The existence of

each species benefits the other. One breathes in carbon dioxide and converts it to oxygen while the other species does the opposite. The underground dwarves have a resistance to the negative effects on one part of the planet that contains rich ores needed for the elves to build these technological marvels. The elves protect the surface and underground worlds from attacks from space-based goblins. Distance between the species could keep them from killing each other. Maybe they're on different islands, different continents, different areas of the world. One lives above ground, the other lives below ground. One lives in the sky, the other lives on the surface.

They could even coexist in the same physical space, just out of phase with one another, so they don't even know that they're there. Maybe the hints that they get are treated as ghosts or hallucinations. Perhaps one species is far more technologically advanced and could wipe the other one out, but is studying them like we anthropologists do to native groups here on Earth. Or are your multiple species at war with each other, even if it's only occasionally? If you have multiple intelligent species living on your planet, determine their relationship with one another. What are their standard interactions? Peaceful or warlike? Beneficial or neutral? Why hasn't one killed

the other one off yet? Is one subservient to the other? A great example I'd like to cite is from Time Machine by H.G. Wells about the Morlocks and the Eloi. They both evolved from humans, and they mostly exist independent of each other, with the Eloi leading this idyllic life on the surface and Morlocks toiling away underground to make food and clothing, etc. for the Eloi. Most of their interactions that are documented consist of Morlocks capturing Eloi for food. Yep, the Morlocks would eat the Eloi. You later learn in the book that the Eloi are basically cattle for the Morlocks. The two species both exist, but only very occasionally interact.

Now here's where things get complicated. If you have two intelligent species, there's one interaction to consider. As you start increasing the number of species, the number of interactions and the number of species relationships, if you will, needs to be expanded exponentially. Three species require three sets of interactions to be considered. For example, humans and centaurs, humans and elves, and elves and centaurs. With four species, it grows to six interactions, and it just grows from there. Ten species, for example, you have 45 types of

interactions to consider, and that gets crazy. Be very careful about designing a world that has a huge number of species without some sort of multi-species government or controlling body like the Federation from Star Trek. I mean, let's think about the way most fantasy towns are designed in Dungeons and Dragons. As a gross oversimplification, most cities fall into one of the following categories. A melting pot, where multiple species are accepted in the town and they all blend together. A tossed salad, where multiple species are accepted, but they tend to stay in their own little groups or geographical areas. Some towns are isolationist, where there's a dominant species in town, but other species may be at least tolerated. And then there are xenophobic

towns, where dominant species exist and the other species are simply not tolerated or they're treated as lesser creatures. Are most of the cities the players will visit one of these categories or something different? Do you want a city that breaks these molds? I mean maybe you have a city where there are five species continually vying for control. Five groups are continually trying to control the city and they're constantly at war with each other. You know that actually sounds like a lot of fun. Like five mob families competing against each other. I'm gonna throw that on the pile of adventure ideas that I'll never have time to make, but it sounds awesome.

In a huge percentage of gaming systems and mythical worlds, humans are the dominant species on the planet, even if it's not Earth. Or it happens long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away. Lots of humans with the occasional alien that glumped by. It doesn't have to be that way. Humans could be a small minority or maybe even foreign and strange to these creatures that live on the planet. But if you want your world to feel different than Earth, make humans not the only intelligent species and maybe not even the dominant one.

Second thing to consider to make your world feel different is what if the intelligent species isn't at the top of the food chain or food web? What spot do they hold? Who or what hunts them for food? And if they're not the top spot, how do intelligent species survive? Is it sheer numbers like think Tribble's episode of Star Trek? If they're not at the top of the food chain, maybe they are much smarter than the things that hunt them, or they have technology or magic that protects them. Are the dominant species purely herbivores and don't eat meat while there are carnivores who would gladly hunt them for food? What, if anything, has the intelligent species

done to minimize this occurrence? All creatures in a food web have a purpose. I mean, carnivores and herbivores gotta eat. On Earth, humans only get hunted usually if we go into other species domains. Yeah, if you go deep ocean diving where sharks rule the area, you're just a mobile buffet at that point. If an intelligent species gets hunted, just make sure it makes sense in your world, if they're not at the top of the food web. Okay, I've focused enough on species in the world. This is supposed to be about how to make the world feel different, not necessarily the species. So the third thing to consider, how can you make the environment and climate different? We're used to earth-type temperature variations, where temperature

difference is based on north and south. But what if it didn't? What if the temperature variations were east-west, not north-south? But Jeremy, that doesn't make sense according to physics. Yeah, you're right. Neither does the ability to conjure acid out of thin air or shift planes of existence to travel between galaxies, but we accept those as facts, so why not this? Maybe the planet is tidally locked, so one side is always hot and the other side is always cold because it never gets light from the sun. To a larger point, physical laws in your world don't have to make sense on Earth, but they do have to make sense on that planet.

What if there's a planet where all substances, once they're refined, exist in all four states of matter simultaneously and can be changed from solid to liquid to gas to plasma at will by specially trained creatures. How would that even work? What's the physics of that? Who gives a shit? The question is, how does that affect the game system and the rules of your world? I originally had a ton of material here asking questions like how this would affect creatures, societal infrastructure, and government, for example, if, say, 1% of the population could suddenly solidify the oxygen out of the air and throw it as a weapon, or sublime sections of the

street under your feet, but I had to cut it for time. But give that some thought. The point is, you can play with the physics of the world, but remember that to the inhabitants of that world, this is normal. On most planets, you'd think there would be different biomes, cold and frozen, far north and south, and getting warmer as you get closer to the equator, but it doesn't have to be. In multiple episodes, I've given crap to George Lucas about his world design, entire planets that are deserts, entire planets that are swamps or forests or cities or whatever.

It doesn't make sense given our understanding of the climate. But in a fantasy and sci-fi story, who's to say that it couldn't be that way? I mean, it's your world, your physics. Plus, George Lucas is richer than Croesus, and I'm not, so I guess he knows what he's doing. But how would your world be different if it were a little drier, or a little wetter even, more rainforests, more floodplains, and so forth? I read an interesting article about computer simulations of what the Earth would be like with retrograde rotation, so the sun rose in the west and set in the east.

It affects the Coriolis force, the ocean currents, wind direction, cyanobacterial blooms in the ocean, and of course the climate of multiple areas of the world. Your world doesn't have to be the one with a cold Arctic and Antarctic regions and hot in the middle. With the sun rising in the east and setting in the west, do something different.

It's okay to make a different choice here to make the world feel very different than Earth. Fourth thing to consider, cosmology of the world. Number of suns and moons in the sky. Bear in mind that heavenly bodies like suns, moons, stars, and constellations can dramatically affect everything from the way people navigate to the practice of religion on the planet. Remember that iconic shot in Star Wars? Oh, here we go with George Lucas again.

Episode 4 of Luke staring out at the multiple suns setting in the distance? It made the viewer realize that we're not in Kansas anymore, and unless Kansas is now a desert and there's multiple suns in the sky somehow, and Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru are cooked extra tasty crispy just outside the... You know what? Let's just move on. It was a great shot. In the Dragonlance books and RPG setting, the world has three moons. Each one represents the face of one of the gods of magic. One white representing good, one red representing

neutral, and black for evil. As an aside, I've always wondered how multiple moons would affect creatures with lycanthropy like werewolves? Do they change every time any moon is full? If so, I feel bad for werewolves on Saturn. As of this writing, it has 82 moons. The clothing bills for Saturnian werewolves must be enormous. I mean, every time they turn around, rip! How the hell did I get to werewolves on Saturn? Anyway, changing the sky makes the world feel very different,

from the number of suns and number of moons they have to the color of the sky. Who says the stars have to be fairly uniform in color when they're viewed off the planet? Make the different stars an array of colors, and each color star representing something having to do with the religion of the world. Think about how the contents of your sky would affect the species of your planet, how they live, how they navigate, how they worship. Fifth thing to consider, oceans and seas. A lot of people assume that their world has to have saltwater oceans because, well, that's the way it is here on earth. But think outside the box for a minute. Not just how many oceans and seas exist and how big they are, but what are they made of?

They don't have to be saltwater. What if your world's oceans were freshwater, lava, molten methane, liquid diamonds, jello, yogurt, urine, starship fuel? Are your oceans teeming with life, devoid of life, or somewhere in between? If there's life there, is that life edible by other species that are on land? If so, there's probably fishing of some sort. Oceans and seas can be wonderful sources for adventure. They don't have to be salt water. If you pick something unusual, just remember, this is normal for the planet, even if it's weird as shit for us. Another thing to consider about making it different from Earth is the whole surface habitable or only select parts? Earth-like planets may be habitable in almost every biome and

latitude. It might be uncomfortable as crap to live in Antarctica or the Sahara, but we can do it. Are there pockets of habitable space filled to the brim with humans or rat folk or whatever? Species are used to living on top of each other in these livable areas. At the edges, maybe the inhabitants get exposed to thinner air or poisonous gas

and have health problems as a result. Conflicts naturally arise between the species and maybe even animals as they all compete for this limited space. To make your world feel different, don't just jump to cities with safe trade roads and temperate climates. Think about how your world would be different if the entire planet was easily habitable and cities could spread like wildfire. Or if the cities are few and far between and the areas between them are absolutely lethal and people can't live there.

Figure out which parts of the planet are inhabitable by your intelligent species and which parts aren't. While we're talking about species, consider the population of the species. Is the population increasing or decreasing? On Earth, the population of the world increases by about 1.1% per year as of this recording. How would your planet be different if it were 2.2% per year? Or maybe even if the population was shrinking? I love the thought of huge megacities where population has naturally migrated closer to the center of the city, leaving behind an abandoned urban sprawl. Beastie or wildlife or other species can move in to fill the vacuum. Or the opposite, as one species slowly expands into lands already occupied by an indigenous

people, so they are demonized, called savages, given disease-ridden blankets to reduce their population. No, wait, we want it different from Earth. Okay, so the indigenous people are dwarves. There, it's very different from Earth. Phew, that was close and could have been really controversial. The population of your various species can dramatically affect how your world feels, so think outside the box when it comes to the quantity of each species. Does your world have four seasons per year? If it does, do the seasons vary as widely as they do on Earth? Imagine a

world where the seasons were just a five degree temperature change. Now imagine a world where the summer was scorching hot and the surface boiled, lethal to people, while the winter was witheringly cold and spring and fall was the only time humans can survive on the surface. I'm finishing up a Pathfinder campaign that spent part of its time on the planet Triaxis. This is a planet that has a highly irregular orbit that keeps it far from the central star for 200 or more years at a time, making the planet an icy, cold wasteland covered with glaciers and snow. But for 100 years of its orbit, it's relatively close to the star, turning it into kind of a steamy forested planet teeming with life during the summer. So you don't have to have four seasons

per year. Does your world have access to magic, technology, both, or neither? What level of control or understanding is there of each? Is it advanced or is it primitive? Imagine a world where there's a tremendous control and capability of magic, but technology never advanced past the Iron Age. Wait, that's basically every D&D campaign. Never mind. If everyone had access to magic, why spend a lifetime learning the laws of physics when you can just snap your fingers and conjure what you need out of thin air? If technology is readily available, there may not be a lot of arcane study being done when the replicator can make what you want with a push of a button. Now blend the two and you have an interesting world that would be a nice mix of sci-fi and fantasy. If there is control

of these various aspects of the planet, arcane, magic, and technology, is there equal access to this control or is it limited to a select few? The economic elites are those who can afford it. Higher social castes or classes have access to this technology and magic, but maybe the lower class doesn't. Maybe there's a chosen few marked by fate at birth who can control one aspect or another. I find it interesting the thought of having maybe a higher social class or the economic elite having access to technology, whereas the lower classes, since they don't, they spend a lot more time in arcane study and have access to magic, and the two kind of brush up against each other during somewhere in the middle class.

Another topic to think about. What does your planet look like, and how do the laws of physics work there? Every planet that we can see is somewhere between a sphere and an oblate spheroid, but it doesn't have to be. Imagine your planet is a donut, a flat disk, or a globe that had a massive impact in the past, so it's got a giant gouge taken out of it called the Great Crater. The planet's a cube, but gravity works like Earth that it pulls you towards the center of the planet's mass. At edge points or vertices, gravity could do some really interesting things. I mean, if a city was built that spanned an edge, what would the architecture look like? Would cars have to be built so they could make a 90 degree turn as gravity shifted? Or would they build tunnels

that cut the corner so cars wouldn't bottom out during the transition from one side of the cube to the other? Why limit your planet to a single mass? Imagine a planet that had been cracked in half during some cataclysm in the past. Instead of a single contiguous mass, you have two halves of a ball that slowly revolve around each other, with flat pieces colliding periodically, oscillating like they're on giant, slow springs. I love the thought that the two halves mostly exist independently of each other, but during brief periods when they're in contact, whether it's a day or a year, the two halves can interact and trade with one another. The orcs developed as the dominant species on one half and the elves on the other. Every 20 years, there's the Great Reconciliation, where the planet becomes one again for a week.

It's a time of commerce, exchange of ideas, and competition between the two species. There's nothing wrong with making your planet a globe and making it a traditional-looking planet as we understand it. But make it different. Change the shape. Change how gravity would work and see how that would change the way your species would interact. I am very much running short on time at this point, so I'm going to quickly cover a few things. A social utopia, a militaristic oppressive society, a rigid theocracy, a free love 1960s US type of rebellion against the previous generation's societal norms? Is it a representative democracy? A pure democracy? I mean, get creative. I once ran a campaign where the government was built around the tall people ruling over the short.

Strange worlds are so much fun to adventure in, especially for veteran players who have been to multiple worlds already. Take cues and hints from Earth and turn it on its ear. Nothing's off the table with stuff that you can change. But the main thing to remember is that you establish rules for the world. If most of the planet is solid iron but no gravity so people wear magnets in their shoes, sounds good. Oceans are made of soft drinks and are largely populated by a single intelligent species called the diabetes fish. Sweet! It's not one big planet but four smaller ones that are attracted to each other and revolve and rotate around each other. Do that and make each one of them different from the other one.

Or make it a hollow Dyson sphere around a stable black hole that converts gravitational waves into energy for the inhabitants. It also doubles as a place to dump your trash. Yay! Unleash your creative side when it comes to world building. Don't worry about whether it makes sense here. Just establish what the rules are, aka the normal there. No matter how crazy it sounds to us, it's not weird to the

people and things that live there. Thank you so much for listening to episode 55 of the Taking 20 podcast, how to make your campaign world feel different from earth. I once again want to thank this week's sponsor, Steelman and Woodson Furniture. We put extra parts in the box just to fuck with you and give you some paranoia. My name is Jeremy Shelley, and I hope that your next game is your best game.