worldbuilding Archives - Tribality https://www.tribality.com/tag/worldbuilding/ D&D / Role Playing Wed, 19 May 2021 00:47:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.4 https://www.tribality.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/cropped-logo-2020-icon@2x-32x32.jpg worldbuilding Archives - Tribality https://www.tribality.com/tag/worldbuilding/ 32 32 Worldbuilding: Create your own Trinkets table https://www.tribality.com/2021/05/19/worldbuilding-create-your-own-trinkets-table/ https://www.tribality.com/2021/05/19/worldbuilding-create-your-own-trinkets-table/#respond Wed, 19 May 2021 13:00:54 +0000 https://www.tribality.com/?p=32531 Thumbnail image from Pirates of the Caribbean While doing some worldbuilding of my own I found a note my past self has left for me detailing that I should create a trinkets table. I thought of them and what each trinket might mean for the player characters. That’s when this article idea sprang. I haven’t got to fully do it for my own homebrew world but I believe this technique is a great enough worldbuilding technique to build an article […]

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]]> https://www.tribality.com/2021/05/19/worldbuilding-create-your-own-trinkets-table/feed/ 0 Why Magic Shops Ruin the D&D Fantasy https://www.tribality.com/2021/04/28/why-magic-shops-ruin-the-dd-fantasy/ https://www.tribality.com/2021/04/28/why-magic-shops-ruin-the-dd-fantasy/#respond Wed, 28 Apr 2021 13:00:24 +0000 https://www.tribality.com/?p=32466 Thumbnail art by Robin Olausson Magic shops in D&D and other fantasy games have always been something that came and went throughout the different editions. They were a vital part in 3e and 4e as the game highly demanded the PCs to have magic items to progress. Where does 5e stand in this? Magic Shop Purpose A magic item is usually created by the DM to have an easy fun way for the player characters to access cool magic stuff […]

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]]> https://www.tribality.com/2021/04/28/why-magic-shops-ruin-the-dd-fantasy/feed/ 0 Designing a Realistic Map For Your Campaign https://www.tribality.com/2021/04/20/designing-a-realistic-map-for-your-campaign/ https://www.tribality.com/2021/04/20/designing-a-realistic-map-for-your-campaign/#respond Tue, 20 Apr 2021 14:10:11 +0000 https://www.tribality.com/?p=32406 When designing your map there are a few rules of thumb to keep in mind. These mostly have to do with how water moves across the land, and subsequently where life tends to be. Keep in mind that when breaking these rules, just justify it with an in-game reason. After all Dungeons and Dragons is a fantasy world. Want a waterfall that goes up instead of down? Magic! Look at Real World Maps Start with a real-world map. I like […]

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]]> https://www.tribality.com/2021/04/20/designing-a-realistic-map-for-your-campaign/feed/ 0 A Villain’s Fatal Flaw https://www.tribality.com/2020/09/15/creating-an-organization-of-evil-2/ https://www.tribality.com/2020/09/15/creating-an-organization-of-evil-2/#respond Tue, 15 Sep 2020 14:10:52 +0000 https://www.tribality.com/?p=31236 So far we have looked at how to create a compelling villain and how to create their organization of evil, so now let’s look at what makes villains sympathetic and compelling to fight against their fatal flaw.  A fatal flaw is defined as “a flaw which causes an otherwise noble or exceptional character to bring about their own downfall and, often, their eventual death.” Let’s take a look at how interesting villains can be made by emphasizing this flaw. Flaws […]

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]]> https://www.tribality.com/2020/09/15/creating-an-organization-of-evil-2/feed/ 0 Creating an Organization of Evil https://www.tribality.com/2020/09/08/creating-an-organization-of-evil/ https://www.tribality.com/2020/09/08/creating-an-organization-of-evil/#respond Tue, 08 Sep 2020 14:09:53 +0000 https://www.tribality.com/?p=31205 So you have your big bad evil guy, right? You’ve developed their motivations, their world view and have given them a compelling reason for their actions. What’s next? Well, they need henchmen to carry out their will! Let’s do some recruiting and develop a cadre of evil for your heroes to face. Creating the Organization The first step is to create the organization that the villain uses to achieve their dastardly plan. This organization should reflect the villain’s core motivation […]

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]]> https://www.tribality.com/2020/09/08/creating-an-organization-of-evil/feed/ 0 How to Create a Compelling Villain https://www.tribality.com/2020/09/01/how-to-create-a-compelling-villain/ https://www.tribality.com/2020/09/01/how-to-create-a-compelling-villain/#respond Tue, 01 Sep 2020 14:10:54 +0000 https://www.tribality.com/?p=31150 Creating great villains for your campaigns has as much to do with their deeds as it does their motivations. Memorable villains should present not just mechanical challenges to the party, but roleplaying challenges. A great villain forces player characters to make difficult choices that make them choose between their values and their motivations.  So, how do you make a multi-dimensional villain? One place to start is by developing their worldview. For this article, we’ll define worldview to include: their values, […]

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]]> https://www.tribality.com/2020/09/01/how-to-create-a-compelling-villain/feed/ 0 How to Create and Use Lore in a Tabletop RPG https://www.tribality.com/2020/07/14/how-to-create-and-use-lore-in-a-tabletop-rpg/ https://www.tribality.com/2020/07/14/how-to-create-and-use-lore-in-a-tabletop-rpg/#respond Tue, 14 Jul 2020 14:10:55 +0000 https://www.tribality.com/?p=30650 Lore — huh! What is it good for? I’m sure that joke has never been used before. Lore refers to the world’s backstory, and it serves to help give the campaign setting its own sense of character. Good lore creates depth, makes it world feel lived in and real. Bad lore is exposition that is skipped or ignored and often can stifle a session. The key difference between the two is not what the lore is, but how it is […]

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]]> https://www.tribality.com/2020/07/14/how-to-create-and-use-lore-in-a-tabletop-rpg/feed/ 0 Crafting Mythologies for Your Campaign https://www.tribality.com/2020/06/30/crafting-mythologies-for-your-campaign/ https://www.tribality.com/2020/06/30/crafting-mythologies-for-your-campaign/#respond Wed, 01 Jul 2020 00:10:50 +0000 https://www.tribality.com/?p=30527 One of my favorite aspects of world-building for a campaign is crafting a pantheon of gods and weaving myths together with visions of my players being enthralled by my epic tellings of how the world was ordered.  Of course, the reality often is that the myth gets stuck in a world guide and barely mentioned in the campaign. So, how do you incorporate myths into your campaign? Let’s take a look at some ways we can incorporate myths in our […]

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]]> https://www.tribality.com/2020/06/30/crafting-mythologies-for-your-campaign/feed/ 0 How to Make A Basic Conlang, Part 3: Verbs https://www.tribality.com/2020/06/02/how-to-make-a-basic-conlang-part-3-verbs/ https://www.tribality.com/2020/06/02/how-to-make-a-basic-conlang-part-3-verbs/#respond Tue, 02 Jun 2020 14:10:52 +0000 https://www.tribality.com/?p=30231 In the previous articles, we looked at how to create phonology for our language and we began creating some morphology for nouns. Today, let’s create some for our verbs.  Verbs are “Big Chonky Bois” as the kids say, and there are so many options of what you could do. The ones I present here are by no means the only one. Do your research to see what natural languages do, and what other conlangers have done. You can even use […]

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]]> https://www.tribality.com/2020/06/02/how-to-make-a-basic-conlang-part-3-verbs/feed/ 0 How to Make A Basic Conlang, Part 2: Nouns https://www.tribality.com/2020/05/26/how-to-make-a-basic-conlang-part-2-nouns/ https://www.tribality.com/2020/05/26/how-to-make-a-basic-conlang-part-2-nouns/#respond Tue, 26 May 2020 14:10:16 +0000 https://www.tribality.com/?p=30227 Last week, we tackled the first step in creating a constructed language: choosing the sounds. It was also pointed out to me that an example lang would be hugely beneficial, so here is my phonology for the Example lang. I also generated a few words for us to play with today. Example Lang Phonology I decided to create a language for halflings. I decided to see what would happen if I followed the suggestions I listed out in the last […]

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