Taking 20 Podcast - Ep 90 - The GRAPES Worldbuilding System

Episode Date: September 12, 2021

Building worlds, countries, and even towns can be tough.  There are a lot of moving parts to try to tame and it's easy to miss preparing some important information.  Luckily, the GRAPES worldbuilding system is here to help provide a framework on which you can build your world.  In this episode we talk about how we can use this great tool.

This week on the Taking20 Podcast. GRAPE stands for Geographical, Religious, Achievements, Political, Economic, and Social Structure. This system can be used whether you're building a medieval fantasy world, a galaxy-spanning federation, or a steampunk western world with strong Japanese cultural influence. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for tuning in to episode 90 of the Taking 20 podcast. This week, all about the Grapes World Building System. This week's sponsor, lawyers. Prosecutors really believe what they're doing is right.

Just look at their convictions. Okay, let's just forget that joke ever happened. And let's just continue on by saying if you're interested in supporting the Taking20 podcast, please head over to ko-fi.com slash taking20podcast. Donate a little, and all money donated there goes towards running and improving the podcast, maybe with better jokes in the future. Let me start this episode off by saying there's nothing wrong with using pre-built worlds. Exandria, Galarian, Kryn, Faerun, the Far World, the Space Station, whatever. Using pre-built worlds is a fast track to get to adventuring, and I'm not going to judge you for using them. Building your own world can certainly be rewarding, but world building is tough, complicated, involved, it requires attention to detail and a level of effort that, frankly, a lot of DMs just don't want to put

forth. When I was younger, I only had one job and limited family responsibilities, DMing one game every two to three weeks. I made a fairly complete and involved custom world with different governments and controls and interesting laws and rulers and societal structures. But now? Damn. I'm DMing two games, and I'm playing one to two others every other week. So most of my gaming is done in pre-built and writer-provided worlds. The Sword Coast, Galarian, the Pact Worlds, Earth 616, and maybe I sprinkle some customization on top of them. It's a bandwidth limitation issue. I just don't have time to dedicate to really building a world right. So when I wanted to build a custom world for a group of gaming friends who had requested something a little different,

I went looking for frameworks on how to quickly build worlds, and I found a few ideas that had some handy memory... ...acronyms to help you remember them. One used an acronym called SPERM, and yeah, no. A username 6trapak1 on Reddit had one they liked called HERMEDICS that is very detailed, and I think it's just too much for one episode. Another used GRAPES as its acronym, which was simple and elegant, and I think it's just too much for one episode. Another used grapes as its acronym, which was simple and elegant, and that's what I wanted to focus on, so I built my world around that. Partially, I wanted to not spend 20 minutes talking about the sperm system of creating

worlds, so I'm going to stick to the grape system for this episode. But hang on. If there's a sperm way of building your world, is there an egg system that complements it? EGG. Let's see. Economics, government, and gin. Yeah, that's it. You see, son, when a daddy civilization and a mommy civilization love each other very much, they put the sperm system over the egg system and a new civilization is born. That civilization is brought to you by the simple, thoughtful, organic, realistic kingdom method or STORK. All right, that joke horse is long dead, so let's move on. I went looking for the originator of the grape system and I finally found a graphic that credited it to Amanda Schlindwein's website. So Amanda, wherever you

are, thank you for coming up with this simple acronym. The GRAPE system is a simple mnemonic. It's a simple mnemonic to remember the different aspects of your world or civilization that will need to be considered. GRAPE stands for Geographical, Religious, Achievements, Political, economic, and social structure. This system can be used whether you're building a medieval fantasy world, a galaxy-spanning federation, or a steampunk western world with strong Japanese cultural influence. It's system agnostic and extremely easy to organize the creation of a city block, metropolis, state, country, or intergalactic civilization from scratch. Great, Jeremy. How the hell do you use it? Calm down, aggressive voice in my head. Jesus,

I'm going to tell you. Okay, so let's start with geography. How does the region and the climate affect your story and the characters in it? Is this a tropical forest or a frozen wintry hell like Antarctica or Green Bay? Is it an arid desert or humid swamp? Coniferous forest or wide open savanna? What water features are there for your adventure? Is there a river, lakes, a coastline? Is there an ocean? If so, the water will likely be a source of commerce,

travel, food, and of course, life-giving water. If there are water creatures in your world, are there invasions and dangers from these submerged fauna? When it comes to geography, another thing to think about is what natural resources are available. An adventure in a food-rich tropical forest will feel very different from one on the frozen roof of the world. How does the presence or absence of resources affect the city or region? How would it affect your adventure? Resources could be available locally via mining, farming, harvesting,

collecting, fishing, or some unique local feature or labor source. But don't limit yourself to thinking about resources as a toggle, present or absent. The quantity and diversity of available resources will dramatically affect the rate of growth and expansion for a city or region. More natural resources like oil, arable land, tritium for starship fuel, or other valuable resources will contribute to the rapid expansion and perhaps eventually overpopulation of the region. People go where the jobs are. Conversely, resource-poor areas will only have people who are willing to eke out a meager existence on the fringe of society. In other words, the desperate and maybe the lawless. What are the primary imports and exports of the area? Dovetailing off that previous

point, what abundant resources are available that can be exported to other cities or areas or regions or planets, and what missing resources are brought into the area to support the local populace? Is this a desert planet that provides the spice which is the life, but it needs food brought in in order for people to survive? What can they sell or trade, and how do they export their products? Is it via water, trade caravans across the desert, teleportation across the drift, and do they receive imports the exact same way? Last thing to consider when it comes to geography, how does the placement of the society or placement of the adventure affect chances for survival?

Cities at the center of a stable society tend to be more stable themselves, absent other criteria. There are exceptions, especially those brought about by other aspects of the grapes world building system. Religious uprisings, political rebellions, economic collapse can sow chaos in the most stable of regions. But generally, the center of a society tends to be safer than the fringes or edges. Also consider the geographical location of the area or city. Is it on a wide open plain or nestled in a mountainous cul-de-sac? Cities in more dangerous areas will likely have more of a military presence or weapon ownership, and use of weapons in town may not only be tolerated, but may be even encouraged.

Alright, so let's leave geography and go to religion, the R of grapes. What do people in your world believe in? religion, the R of grapes. What do people in your world believe in? Are they primarily monotheistic, polytheistic, atheistic, or a mix of all of the above? Do these different belief systems follow established groups? Like, do orcs believe one thing while dwarves believe something different? Do the nobility have a certain belief that the working class do not? Also, who are the deity or deities? How many of them are there? Keep in mind that different groups, species, ancestries, and races may worship the same deity under different names and different aspects. For example, in Pathfinder, Calistria and Shailen are worshipped by the gnolls as the elder and younger sisters, twin goddesses of power and beauty. While in other areas of the world,

Calistria may be referred to as the Sacred Sting and Shailen as the Eternal Rose. They're the same goddesses, but different names and maybe even different ways of worshiping. A lot of gods and goddesses have multiple aspects and can be worshiped multiple ways. But what do the deities even look like? Are they consistent across your world? I mean, they could be different. Very, very different. Humans may worship Grumbar and Faerun with a very human-like shape, while hobgoblins may mostly have images of him as a more rock-like with large fangs and closer to their image. What are the deities named? What domains do they control? Are they benevolent, malicious, aloof, or a mix of all three? Do people turn toward the deities in times of trouble,

or do they blame them when the troubled times come? How do people worship the gods and goddesses? Are there different ways to worship the same deity? For example, if there's a god of, I don't know, storms and banking in your world, could one group only worship the tempest while another group worships focusing on taking donations and building money? Is attendance to service mandatory or optional? The people that are there, are they excited to be there and worship or does it feel more perfunctory and robotic? Are there large cathedrals with soaring ceilings and stained glass windows where worship takes place? Or is worship simpler, taking place in simple huts, fields, or a grove of trees?

What myths and legends do people believe in in your civilization? What great heroes from the past took on great challenges and overcame them? And what were those challenges? Also, what horrible people from the past affected the town and the effects of their actions still linger. What names are whispered in reverent or fearful tones. Legends have some basis in reality, whereas myths are usually larger than life, so you can adjust slightly based on whether it's a myth or a legend. Every civilization, by the way, also has rites of passage, a lot of times tied to religion. They are anything that really marks a transition in a stage of life. For us here on

earth, a lot of times that's a coming of age or puberty type rite, a betrothal and marriage, graduation, funerals, proms, spirit quests, whatever it happens to be. Maybe children in a lumberjack town in your world have to find and chop down a tree as thick as they are and carry a perfect wedge back to town so that the rings can be counted. Jumping to A in Grapes, achievements. What has stood the test of time? This is a little bit different from myths and legends

because myths and legends tend to be older with people we're not even sure existed. They could be just allegories and not actual history. Achievements are confirmed accomplishments from history, possibly done by one person or an entire town or nation. So what's been accomplished in that area of the world, for good or for ill? What's the area or its leaders known for? Does it produce the best warriors in the land? Are they best known to be physically beautiful? Maybe they're known for being the best sewers in the world and they can make hats and outfits in order to better defeat El Guapo.

They could be known for negative things, though, as well. Are they sympathetic towards those who have committed crimes elsewhere? Maybe they're an entire nation that has banned anything religious, like Rahadum and Galarian. Or maybe the town is a wretched hive of scum and villainy where Han shot first. Stupid re-release where Greedo shoots first. It's just dumb. It's part of Han's character development where he starts out as a ruthless killer and ends, spoiler alert, and I'll give you a second to turn the volume down for about 10 seconds or so, he puts himself in harm's way trying to redeem his son. Hi everyone who turned the volume down not to hear spoilers. Just so you won't feel left out,

Raymond Burr's character did kill his wife while Jimmy Stewart watched from the rear window. By the way, if you want to watch a really underrated Alfred Hitchcock film, don't watch Rear Window. It's good, it's okay, but I love Lifeboat. It's a tense movie after a freighter sunk by a German U-boat. I'm looking around trying to figure out how we got here from Achievements. I need to fucking start writing scripts one of these days and follow that.

Anyway, back to accomplishments and achievements. How are these accomplishments and achievements honored and celebrated? Are there parties? Somber days of remembrance? Do they throw colorful powders at each other, wear skeletons, fly kites, and cut them loose? Do they have competitions to see how far they can throw their spouses? Be really creative with these, by the way. If it commemorates a hero saving a town from a fire,

maybe the young women in town have to carry water from a faraway well and put out the fire set by town leaders. Years ago, I went to an IT conference in Germany, and it happened to be during a spring festival where the young single men in town were expected to go into the forest, chop down the tallest tree they could find, prepare it by shaving it, cutting it, and then raise it like a flagpole with colorful banners tied to the top.

It was fun being married, drinking Hefeweizen, watching these young men sweat their balls off, cutting it, and then raise it like a flagpole with colorful banners tied to the top. It was fun being married, drinking hefeweizen, watching these young men sweat their balls off trying to impress the young women in town. Never been so thankful to be married in all my life. But anyway, this whole thing supposedly honored some past man who had done just this to win the heart of the woman that he loved. So let's jump to the P in grapes. Don't get me wrong, do not pee on your grapes. That's not what I'm advocating. Let's go to the letter P in the acronym grapes. Politics. Politics can be complicated, but it boils down to who controls the area of the world and how. What's the system of government? Is it a family dynasty, an oligarchy, representative democracy? How are

leaders selected and how long do they serve? How are laws created and how vigorously are they enforced? Are there many laws or very few of them? Are they decreed by a single person or is there an approval process? Are there checks and balances built into the system of government? Are the existing laws enforced with gusto or is it really easy to get away with crimes due to lax enforcement or corrupt police? Finally, when you're thinking about the politics of the world and who rules whom, start thinking about how power gets transferred

from one person or group to another. When the old leader is ousted, whether it's because she died and her daughter inherits the throne, or democracy where a new leader has been elected, how does that transition of power occur? Is there a celebration called something like the, fuck, I don't know, the Day of the Phoenix, when the town is born anew in the flames of the old? Not literally. Hopefully they don't burn down the village to build the next one. Although, fuck it, maybe they do. That may actually make for a really, really interesting town to visit. But either way, the town has a new leader and a new direction

once the new one comes into power. But keep in mind, there are some leaders who don't want to willingly give up their power. They may fight to keep it, and you could build a heck of an adventure around that concept. Not that that ever happened. Moving on to E in grapes, economics. How are goods and services bought and sold? Do you need a license to sell items in town, or even maybe a license to make purchases? Maybe buying items requires time working in town, so that meal costs you 30 minutes of washing dishes in the tavern. What, if anything, by extension, is used for money? tavern. What, if anything, by extension, is used for money? The town could be completely on the barter system, where if you want to buy that shiny new sword you want, it'll cost you 20 light horses,

and the town has no use for gold. Maybe imperial credits, gold pieces, or bottle caps can't even be accepted or used as currency in that town. But however wealth is measured, how wealthy is the society as a whole? Are the streets paved with gold, or are they farming mud to make ends meet? Most likely somewhere in between, but find where that balance is for this particular area of the world. While we're at it, how great is the economic disparity between the richest and the poorest? Economic is so complex. I've barely scratched the surface here, but I'm starting to run out of time, so I probably need to do a full episode on something like this. Message me or leave me a comment if

you're interested in it. Finally, S, social structure. How is society structured from the most important to the least important people? Are there castes or striations in the social structure of the town? How do people of different social structures or castes live together? Do the disparate groups mingle at all? Do they work together at all? How tolerable or tolerant are the people in this town? Both tolerable and tolerant. They could be insular and distrustful of outsiders or people that look differently.

They could slowly warm up to new people but initially treat them with a mixture of disdain and distrust. Or they may even be welcoming and warm to anyone and everyone. Especially if there's a dark town secret they're trying to hide. They're really warm, they just want you to ignore the whole cannibalism that's going on in the background. These aspects of a civilization, geography, religion, achievements, politics, economics, and social structure can help you build a realistic, believable town. and social structure can help you build a realistic, believable town. Use grapes to come up with the basic ideas of how the town or area of the world operates. Augment that information with random generators to fill in the fine details.

Generating your own world is tough when you try to freeform it. Some very smart people have come up with some standard frameworks to assist you in building your world. The skeleton is there, you just have to be creative with the way you attach the muscles and sinews of your world to make it feel like a real and believable body. The Grape System is one such framework and I loved it. I built an entire civilization around it and I'm running a few one-shots based in this little civilization. So I'd say give it a try next time you're building a village, nation, remote outpost, or even an entire planet. It helps you get this done faster, and hopefully it'll help you have fun doing it. Thank you so much for listening. Please give us

a like or rating wherever you found us, and if you have a topic you'd like to hear about, reach out to me on the Facebook page or send me a message at feedback at taking20podcast.com. Once again, I want to thank our sponsor, Lawyers. They struggle with fornication cases because they have a lot of sex appeals. Oh, God, the first one was bad and this one's worse. I'd like to apologize to all of you out there. I promise next time to be more brief. Get it? Lawyers have briefs, and brief can also mean short duration. Tune in next week where I'll talk about introducing new gameplay features and class abilities unless someone shuts me down for all my bad jokes. This has been episode 90, The Grapes Worldbuilding System. My name is

Jeremy Shelley, and here's hoping that your next game is your best game. The Taking 20 Podcast is a Publishing Cube Media Production. Copyright 2021. References to game system content are copyright of their respective publishers.