Tabletop RPGs have to be one of the most creative intensive activities to take part in, at least in my opinion. There’s so much that goes into crafting things like your character, the gameplay system and even the world that the game takes place in that it can be daunting and intimidating, especially for first timers. That’s why author James D’Amato’s “The Ultimate RPG Guide” series of books have been very helpful with the activities and exercises in them. In “The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide” we learned how to give characters a more in-depth and unique backstory that’s not just your basic “me good guy, me fight evil”. With “The Ultimate RPG Gameplay Guide” DM and player work together to set the tone and flow of the game. From how the player character speaks to how the DM sets the mood, we learn that gameplay is a collaborative effort. Which brings us to D’Amato’s latest entry to the series, “The Ultimate RPG Game Master’s Worldbuilding Guide”. After all the player characters need a world to adventure in and save.
But first, what is worldbuilding? According to the guide “worldbuilding is the process of creating places, objects, characters, cultures and history for a fictional setting” and “finding ways for concepts like these to exist in the same space”. As I mentioned in the beginning this can be very daunting and imitating, but that’s what this guide is for. Much like the previous books, “The Ultimate RPG Game Master’s Worldbuilding Guide” is filled with exercises and activities to help guide you in deciding what kind of world you want to build for your game. The book is divided into five chapters, each detailing five of the most common themes that are used to build worlds. These are fantasy, sci-fi, horror, x-punk (ie cyberpunk, steampunk etc) and neutral, with neutral being concepts that can be applied to any theme. Now each of the themes has exercises/activities that have you really think about how you want to shape your world. For example, in Fantasy the book asks you a few questions about magic. Does it currently exist? If it does, how is it casted? Who can use it? Is there a limit? Can it be learned/taught? As simple as these questions sound, they greatly affect the world on a grand scale, from the types of enemies and monsters the player characters fight along the adventure to quests that they take and the NPC that they meet. Personally I never really thought about these types of things and how even the tiniest detail can affect the whole game. Another good example is creating mega corporations in cyberpunk RPGs. I’ve always just seen them as faceless evil organizations, but there’s actually more to them. Such as what industry they’re in, the name of the company, how they became evil etc. Exercises like these really help flesh out the details of the world your building while being really simple to understand and follow.
After reading and going through some of the exercises and activities in The Ultimate RPG Game Master’s Worldbuilding Guide, I learned that there is more to worldbuilding than just saying there’s things and stuff in the world. I’ve also gained a new appreciation for the GMs/DMs that take time to flesh out the world, making each little detail feel important. The Ultimate RPG Game Master’s Worldbuilding Guide complements the other two books in the The Ultimate RPG series and is a must have for those who want to level up the world their game take place in.
