Adventure-Guided Worldbuilding
One way to build a world is to start with a single adventure and build outward. You make it up as you go along, based on elements suggested or implied by the setting. This can be a published adventure, whether or not it’s supposed to be part of a specific setting, or a story you make up on your own.
As an example, let’s take an old standby known to old gamers everywhere: You meet in a tavern. A merchant hires the player characters to guard his caravan. Along the way, the caravan is attacked by goblins. Or bandits. Or goblin bandits. The player characters fight off the goblins, the caravan arrives safely at its destination, and the player characters get paid. Let’s break this down, and see how we can start building a world.
You meet in a tavern.
Why this tavern? Is this a place where adventurers looking for work gather? Is it at a major crossroads in the relative middle of nowhere, or in a big city? Big tavern, or small tavern? The state of the tavern is going to inform the state of the local economy, and to some degree in turn the state of local politics, in the area. Is this tavern a one-shot location that we’ll never see again, or a possible base of operations for the adventuring party?
A merchant hires the player characters to guard his caravan.
Why doesn’t the merchant have his own guards? Were they killed? Did they quit? Can he not afford guards and is looking for gullible adventurers he can stiff at the end of the line? Why does he even need guards? What’s so dangerous along this trade route? If it’s a regular trade route, why doesn’t the local king or government dispatch men to protect it? If they did, what happened to them? Or is this a new trade route? If so, what’s at the other end and who does the merchant hope to sell to?
Along the way, the caravan is attacked by goblins.
Or bandits.
Or goblin bandits.
Everyone has a motivation, even villains and monsters. Especially villains and monsters, in good stories. Do the goblins consider this to be their land, and the humanoids are encroachers? Do they work as scouts and saboteurs for a neighboring kingdom that’s trying to start some trouble? Is there, in fact, a war on? Is the caravn carrying something special that the goblins, or whoever they work for, want or need? Have the human settlers ron off all the game, and the goblins are just hungry and trying to feed their families? Or are they just criminals, looking for easy prey because this trade route is unguarded for some other unrelated reason?
The player characters fight off the goblins, the caravan arrives safely at its destination, and the player characters get paid.
This is a big assumption. Do they get paid? What currency do they get paid in. What kind of cargo were they carrying, anyway? Was it simple trade goods, or stuff the people on this end needed, like medicine? Where are they, anyway? A city, a village, a military outpost? Now that they’re there, is the cargo going to get them in trouble? Were they hauling contraband? Is thise where all the normal protectors of the orad have ended up, gathering to fight something bigger? Does the merchant need an escort back? Is this is one-shot destination, or is this a recurring location, or even the new base of operations for the player characters?
Does your head hurt? It should. Every decision you make, every detail you fill in, on this simple adventure will lead to more questions, more details to fill in, more story ideas. You’ve taken the first steps toward making your world unique. Give this exercise to 10 different gamemasters, and expect to see the seeds of 10 different fantasy worlds.
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