Why Dense Worlds Kill Immersion

Comments · 471

• ED

  @Edariad · 1 year ago · pinned

  What's a detail you've added to your own world that made it feel real? I'd love to hear from all of you!

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• ME

  @MegaGuitarist15 · 1 year ago

  I have learned that players are far more forgiving when stumbling upon a detail that doesn’t exist rather than a detail that steals their agency. Allowing them to be part of the builders of the world around them is so much more engaging then letting them play in a “finished” sandbox

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• YA

  @YanniCooper · 1 year ago

  One of my favorite bits of DMing advice comes from Monsterhearts - Ultimately, the PCs are stronger than any villain you introduce. Remember to treat your NPCs like stolen cars. They aren’t your property, so you don’t need to worry about losing them. Have fun with your villains, cause chaos with them, and abandon them the minute they’re played out.

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• 엘제

  @엘제-k9u · 1 year ago (edited)

  Not a TTRPG, but I ran an OC community based off from a shared fictional world that we collectively created. After about a decade, the newcomers had to read like 50 core lore articles to even grasp what this place is, and if they were to dive any deeper, there was a literal 4-digit-long list of information to be checked (like literally, I was the one who did the counting, and it was almost 1,050 pages long).<br><br>At that point people just... stopped coming. So me and the staff members had to divide the articles into 3 layers: core lore, details, and trivia. We posted the 5 core lores on the front page, and put links that allowed anyone who got interested in certain parts of the story go for the details. Trivial articles were archived with tags to be more easily searched if anyone felt like it. It was a messy job, the older members arguing about what should be kept and what can be deleted. But once it was done, most of the members agreed that keeping the information simple is better than stuffing themselves with every detail.

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• IM

  @ImperatorCalvus · 1 year ago

  This guy has so much potential. In a few years, when he has millions of subs, Im gonna be a guy saying been subbed since 7k! So good, keep it up.

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• GR

  @gryllodea · 1 year ago

  Also, yes, a video on Obsidian, please! I&apos;ve been using it to an extent, but I&apos;m lazy with my notes and can&apos;t find a way to organize stuff in a manner that would help with future planning and preparation.

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• JU

  @JulianSloman · 1 year ago

  I can&apos;t believe that wasn&apos;t a hook to a sponsor for World Anvil when you were like &quot;I can&apos;t find the NPC - too many notes&quot; - &quot;use obsidian or something for free&quot; Lol

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• HE

  @HelotOnWheels · 1 year ago

  This is an ongoing theme with Edariad; the problem isn’t how we build the world, but how we <b>present</b> the world. As he says, front-loaded complexity will always turn off the players. I never present more than a few paragraphs’ view of the world from 50,000 feet up, emailed or posted on Discord before Session 0. And even that may be too much.<br><br>Rather than exposition dump, pique the players’ curiosity. In a Dwarven Imperial City, I might mention, “A sweaty, dusty dwarf runs into the middle of the market square, and a crowd forms around him. He shouts in Dwarven at the top of his lungs for a minute. The dwarven town priest gives him a wooden token that he strings with a bunch of other tokens around his neck.” I don’t just tell the players what this means. I let their characters try to find out, or ignore it, as they please.<br><br>While I agree that DMs mustn’t get too attached to the world as they made it, and it must be kept flexible, they shouldn’t make it too easy to change either. The characters shouldn’t be &nbsp;the first people to think, “Couldn’t we negotiate peace between those two warring kingdoms?” If the obstacles to change in some longstanding problem weren’t seriously formidable, someone else would already have changed it. &nbsp;So let them try to change the world, and let them succeed if they do well enough, but make it tough enough that by the end they know why only they could have done it.

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• EM

  @emilschneider467 · 1 year ago

  I might be wrong, but this feels more like a case of &quot;present the right information&quot; and &quot;have a open and flexible mind&quot; rather than &quot;do not prepare to much world building&quot;.<br><br>If you have vast stores of lore and world knowledge to draw on it does make you more aware of the affairs of your own world. I think that as long as you are willing to work with your players rather then make them sit through a &quot;live book&quot; you can world build as much as you like. <br><br>That being said I can definitely see how people get overly attached to their world building projects and refuse to work with their players. <br><br>Over all it&apos;s a great video with good advice, I just feel the beginning part of the video could have been framed as &quot;don&apos;t get to stuck in your own world building&quot; rather then &quot;don&apos;t world build to much&quot;

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• MY

  @Mystic-t2r · 1 year ago

  In the simplest way, how I tend to personally write a larger factions with grand schemes and such is I write what they would have done if the party did not interfere. It lets me write a decently extensive world and faction interactions but doesnt lock me into anything. It also doesnt feel like my prep is &quot;ruined&quot; as it still establishes the goal and is all written to be disturbed.

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• WA

  @waffleswafflson3076 · 1 year ago

  We&apos;re 17 sessions into my campaign that takes place in one city. &nbsp;Giving my characters a box to work in yields more creativity. &quot;You are all retainer families to the emperor, tell me what your family is known for&quot;

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• SI

  @silvercyon527 · 1 year ago (edited)

  Your videos are exceedingly useful for overly confident newer DM&apos;s such as myself. Many thanks

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