Aug 26, 2026 · 46 min · 17 segments
Join Ang, along with Chris and JT as they talk about world building, both what you need to have set up before you start and what you can add on the fly when you need it. Links…
So first up, let's clarify, what do we mean by worldbuilding in relation to RPGs? What are we talking about? JT?
All right.
So world building is a generic phrase.
It doesn't mean that you have to involve an entire world.
You haven't been there, done that.
What? You don't?
No, no.
And a lot of people get intimidated by like, I have to build a whole world.
No, it's a generic phrase that's used to describe establishing a setting.
Setting could be a neighborhood, a city, a sector within the city, a village, a string of underground caverns where people live in, like the Underdark kind of thing, right? a single continent, a small island, a full world.
Like, if you really want to go full hog and create a whole world before your game starts,
have fun.
Yeah, go
have fun.
You'll
be playing that game five, six, seven
years from now, not tomorrow.
It could be a star system, galaxy, multiverse, whatever, right? In the case of RPGs, this is establishing the setting in which the characters will embark upon their adventures.
It is one thing if, you know, you talk to a GM and they have a homebrew world that they have been running off and on for the last 30, 20, however many long years, and they have a whole lot of things established.
But if you're just getting started yourself, you don't need to have the entire world in play.
You just need where are your characters starting and what are you kind of thinking they're going to be engaging in?
Absolutely.
I'm zero to add to this.
That's what you both said.
It's fine.
So first up, let's clarify, what do we mean by worldbuilding in relation to RPGs? What are we talking about? JT?
All right.
So world building is a generic phrase.
It doesn't mean that you have to involve an entire world.
You haven't been there, done that.
What? You don't?
No, no.
And a lot of people get intimidated by like, I have to build a whole world.
No, it's a generic phrase that's used to describe establishing a setting.
Setting could be a neighborhood, a city, a sector within the city, a village, a string of underground caverns where people live in, like the Underdark kind of thing, right? a single continent, a small island, a full world.
Like, if you really want to go full hog and create a whole world before your game starts,
have fun.
Yeah, go
have fun.
You'll
be playing that game five, six, seven
years from now, not tomorrow.
It could be a star system, galaxy, multiverse, whatever, right? In the case of RPGs, this is establishing the setting in which the characters will embark upon their adventures.
It is one thing if, you know, you talk to a GM and they have a homebrew world that they have been running off and on for the last 30, 20, however many long years, and they have a whole lot of things established.
But if you're just getting started yourself, you don't need to have the entire world in play.
You just need where are your characters starting and what are you kind of thinking they're going to be engaging in?
Absolutely.
I'm zero to add to this.
That's what you both said.
It's fine.
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