While at Tacticon last weekend, I was lucky enough to help playtest an adventure in a new RPG setting, Dragon Kings, run by its creator himself, Tim Brown. Now, Tim’s been creating worlds for RPGs for 20+ years, so it was exciting to see what I could learn from the session and add to my own world-building techniques.
Without spoiling the adventure, I can share one thing that stuck with me: It is concrete, player-scale details that really make a setting come alive.
For example, it’s one thing to say, “This is a world in decline.” It’s another to start players out with sharpened sticks for weapons, and make claiming a rusty short sword from a fallen enemy a serious cause for celebration.
Note that it’s both concrete (“Metal weapons are rare”) and at a scale that players care about (“So you don’t have any”). Concrete details are fine (“The temples of the old gods have fallen into disrepair”) but they’re even better if they’re at a scale which can affect the players.
I probably could have taken a few more notes, but I was more concerned with surviving the adventure. I have my priorities, people!
If you’d like more details on Dragon Kings, you can check out the website or follow the project on Twitter or Facebook.
