I genuinely cannot for the life of me worldbuild a single setting detail. (For a TTRPG campaign of course). As soon as I think about adding something, I wonder if it thematically fits with any of the other ideas in the idea soup, and as soon as I commit to something and write it down, I can't even read it come a week or two later.>Just start with le town and le dungeonAlready did that, not good enough and not what I want.So many GMs/DMs have these intricately crafted worlds with insane detail and fantastic thematic fullness, and I can't even begin to work on one. None of my ideas can be combined into a greater whole, they only exist in little compartments and mixing them into a complete work feels impossible. What do?
>>98109889Thematic cohesion is something that emerges during the creative process. You put in the details you want, then figure out how to get them to fit together, and then discover how to integrate those into a larger theme. It’s like ceramics: you don’t just set details next to each other, you need to wet and score them, smooth over the seam by blending their materials together, and even then you have to fire the thing once before you even think of applying your glaze.
>>98109889put in stuff that makes you smile, your characters don't really give a shit anyways
>>98109889>None of my ideas can be combined into a greater whole, they only exist in little compartmentsThat's what D&D has always done anyway.
>>98109889Work on those bubbles of details. Don't feel like you have to make them interconnected. Keep them as seeds for ideas later or premade details to pull out when the opportunity arises.
>>98109889tell us about one of your idea bubbles
>>98109889I have this same problem. And then when I do commit my autism kicks in and I feel very constrained by the imaginary walls I've put up.
>>98113244I think about seals a lot.Animal people/furry races are a common staple in fantasy media but I feel like having too many (or ones that are too weird) kinda mess up the vibe and make it feel like a weird furfantasy world instead of a traditional fantasy world with one or two animal races. Maybe that's the reason lizardfolk and cat people (Argonians & Khajiit) are so common in so many fantasy worlds. I keep thinking about seals though. What if there were anthropomorphic seals? I study different cultures and I think a Hawaiian or Polynesian inspired race of seal people, big and burly using wooden weapons and armor, would be a cool aesthetic twist and a unique "animal person" race that isn't just a cat or lizard. But then I think, wouldn't it be too furry? Would having these and NOT having the other traditional fantasy races make it feel too strange? Does it rob the world from having human races who live on these islands, which are already interesting enough as being restricted by technology and land is a unique gimmick to develop a fantasy culture. I imagine a lineup of humans, elves, dwarves, and then big ass seal people and I'm like "yeah this is dumb" so I shelve it.
>>98113981Have you considered selkies, perchance?
>>98113981Just use selkies. Human most of the time, can turn into a full on seal as needed. Maintains on-land usability while providing aquatic utility, unappealing to all but the most extremely deranged of furries.
>>98109889Pick a central archetypePick a central themePick an approximate time period (medieval, classical, modern, etc.)Figure out details based on these central pillarsIf you focus on the big stuff first, you can set some basic rules that you can refer back to. And if you really, really want some aspect added to the pile, tweak it until it fits in with the rest of the setting.Details come from ("I wanted X, how do I justify X's inclusion?").
>>98109889>So many GMs/DMs have these intricately crafted worlds with insane detail and fantastic thematic fullnessThey don't you just don't notice the gaps because you have goldfish brain.
>>98113981I honestly think you need to learn how to be less critical of your own work before it's complete and work through the feeling of stupidity.
>>98113981>instead of a traditional fantasy worldFigure out what this means to you, what you want from it, and what you want to eschew. At the extremes, "a traditional fantasy world" is going to mean just playing as close to generic as possible, with little to no worldbuilding on your part necessary. But you clearly want to build, so figure out what you actually feel like keeping and commit to your changes. What you're doing as a worldbuilder is deciding what to include, what to exclude, and what to invent whole cloth.The sort of comparison you describe, where you picture a lineup, isn't terribly useful until you actually have art in a consistent style SHOWING that lineup. Otherwise, you're probably going to picture the Tolkien-derived races in a Todd Lockwood style or something similar, while your seal person idea might be rendered in a more cartoonish fashion. It's the consistency of style that's going to matter more - someone like DiTerlizzi or Brian Froud could absolutely draw a lineup with elves, dwarves, and seal people without it clashing. But you can't know that for sure until you commit enough to line things up together.I wasn't convinced of my own racial lineup until I worked with a few outside artists to develop the different designs and then had one of my players draw them together in a lineup. And, you know what? I'm happy with them now. The different subgroups work towards different themes, but they can stand next to each other without feeling like they belong in entirely different settings.But it'll never - and I mean NEVER - click immediately. You have to make your choices, then iterate upon them and how they influence the other setting details. That iteration is the secret sauce that separates a setting that feels (to the players) like it's well thought-out and fleshed out and one that feels like a kitchen sink.
>>98109889Yeah, I have similar issues, though for me it’s more overthinking things and second-guessing myself.
>>98113981Just do it. Get it all out. Unleash your ideas on a document and let it flow.
You’re too afraid of the possibility of failure to actually make an attempt. But the cost of failure is minimal, while the lessons it could teach are valuable.
>>98116436>like it's well thought-out and fleshed out and one that feels like a kitchen sink.I don't know. I kinda like "kitchen sinks" in a way, but really I just feel inadequate that there are all these games and TTRPGs with "complete" worlds that fill full and interesting but whenever I make one they just feel flat and boring and bad in some way.
>>98120930A setting written by someone else has things you don’t know about it. Everything you look at seems like it could have a lot of depth because you have no way of knowing whether or not it does. So, when you do find that depth, it feels like everything in the world has it.By contrast, you know the full extent of anything you wrote yourself. You know exactly how deep or shallow everything is, and so you never get the benefit of wonder.
>>98109889>So many GMs/DMs have these intricately crafted worlds with insane detail and fantastic thematic fullnessThey really don't though they just ripped off whatever game, movie or book they recently consumed that you don't know about it so you don't see the near word for word plagiarism. It doesn't need a ton of fluff, everyone just ignores that shit anyway. They just blunder into the ruins looking for phat loot, trust me absolutely no one gives a flying fuck about the ancient banana people of zogbor who built the ruins or their advanced terchnomagic civilization they had built by doing mescaline and learning steam power from machine elves. It'll never not be eyeroll worthy to throw exposition at your players unless they explicitly ask for it. Also its extra annoying when you entrap them into asking about it so you have an excuse to loredump in addition to explaining how a lever works, never do that shit either.Just build a setting that facilitates exactly what you want to do with it and elaborate on it no further than is explicitly necessary for that purpose. If you want to make a world people appreciate just for the sake of it write short stories or something.
>>98110055SPBP. Rip off all your favorite things, change them so they're cohesive with each other, put them all together. If you have a genuine love for your setting then your players will find that they enjoy it more because your excitement to run the game will be infectious. If you're worried about shit not making sense, then just be vague and fill in the details as you go.
>>98109889You are unfit to play. It does happen. Find another hobby.
