Worldbuilding | Writing Prompts

I've only recently discovered your channel, and I love it! I came here for the rpg talks, but I stayed for the art and the fun names of your map locations. I'm looking forward to more worldbuilding videos because I'm always looking for inspiration for my games and stories.

I had heard of the quiet year, but hadn't ever considered using something like that for building a setting for a campaign. I do definitely feel like involving the players as a group in the worldbuilding process early is great. Having a session together I think helps get everyone on the same page and shared lore. I remember having a problem where some players would have reading more of the setting info and others would contradict stuff in improv. I remember working with players individually on changing the world for character backstory. That often came with the problems with worldbuilding that doesn't tie deeply in with the other players. Or you get some "main character syndrome" when players connection to the world is unbalanced.

The Quiet Year hype! I used the free sister-game (The Deep Forest) with a friend to tentatively build some backstory for a large world project I was working on at the time. I didn’t keep everything that we made in the map game, and the map itself won’t be used in the world since the era we played the game in is years and years before the worldbuilding project, but I got some great ideas for the possible social structure of the people, some strange and beautiful anomalies, and some events and people that will make for great legends in my world! I also agree that I wouldn’t use it quo pro as the map world for a ttrpg, but it does set a nice scene and can clue you in/create discussion on what your players might wanna see in the world, which is great for sandbox games!

Loved this, just so many good ideas. I could hear the pure joy in your voice when you talked about cool worldbuilding. Thankyou.

I've applied the tips from your videos to my last dnd session I had, and both me and players had a great time! I also feel like I got better at DMing, thank you for your amazing work!

I've come to love worldbuilding games - sometimes that's for starting a campaign and sometimes not. For example, we recently used "...i'm sorry did you say street magic" to build a city for our new "Masks: The Next Generation" campaign, which worked stupendously well. But that same group has also played "Dialect", which is sort of a conlang-building game, just for the pure experience of experiencing an isolated Martian colony, and that's a beautiful creative endeavor all on its own.

I've only discovered your channel about a week ago but you have already influenced my ideas on world, map, and character design. My creations already feel more solid and unique. Thank you for sharing your creativity with us. I look forward to seeing more videos from you.

Great episode! Really excited for the world building series :)

Your passion is contagious

Yo! This was really cool! I've been itching to do some world-building and play an rpg; this would be an exciting project. I also really like you idea of podging some old maps together. I might steal this

The next step to make it more immersive is the name for that object/area that the locals call the prompt. Eg: The Shoe Tree, Sneakthieves Alley, River Rat Territory, The Big Rusty Thing, etc. 😁 with names like that, the players will definitely want to explore those areas!

Reminds me heavily of the movie Dark City and the game Microscope.

I really love your videos, keep it up!

Thoroughly in love with this map as a functional piece but also a tool of intrigue.

Great video and thinking excerize. Love the map too, and may try to figure out how to make my own.

you're videos inspire me 😊

This weird surreal approach is really gonna help me map out the feywild in my setting. Thanks

Hey map crow! Have you ever played Sunless Sea or Sunless Skies? I would highly reccomend them for this kind of imaginative, cryptic and out-of-box storytelling. They're "travelling"/resource games basically, where you explore a dark vast sea or a shifting cosmos that isnt space at all; the biggest draw for me is the place descriptions, gorgeous prose, the interactions you can have with people/creatures/gods/demons/bats and the wonderful writing. It makes players imagine a lot about the setting on their own by enticing them to fill in the gaps. You can start with whichever one you like (and frankly i used a cheat engine to focus on exploration/story instead of resource management LOL) and theyre set in the same universe but in vastly different historical eras. The flash description i could give you is that in an alt-industrial-gothic-timeline, the queen of england was so taken by mourning after the death of her husband that she makes a deal with a [classified] entity to change her fate, and London is stolen away and sunk into a cave by a storm of bats. (In sunless skies, the entirety of the world has instead been elevated to 'the heavens' - a breathable deep space with native flora and fauna and where looking at the stars induces madness - oh, and by the way, instead of a spaceship, you pilot a flying, chugging, smoking locomotive. )

I love using playing cards in conjunction with our normal ttrpg mechanical systems. 😁👍 ~ Adam

Aahhzz!!! Damn you, I had plans for today, now I am incredibly motivated to make another tabletop story for my friends and won't get anything done! And possibly spend 50€ on Itras by, but hey, I can live with that Seriously, your work is amazing and of such high quality, thank you for sharing!!