In the last Shadowrun Sundays post, we discussed a basic overview of worldbuilding. I’ve often heard it said that Dungeons and Dragons was originally based on The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. These books included species like orcs, dwarves, elves, and hobbits (halflings in D&D), which inspired Gary Gygax.
Whether or not the Tolkien inspiration myth is true, we can still see the echoes of these books in the world and the technology. Looking at the armor and weapons available in the game, we can place the period between the 12th and 14th centuries C.E. Based on that, the rest of the gear is created to keep the feel of the same time period. And then we have the infamous Bag of Holding.
Personally, I think Gygax based this one off someone’s purse. @=)
Because this is a fantasy world, we don’t see a whole lot of science technology in this game. In the original game, there wasn’t anything steam- or electric-powered. There were certainly no computers. Gygax added (at some point) a form of artificer species called gnomes who did build technological gadgets, but that came in at a later edition. We do, however, see a lot of magic and magical gizmos that take the place of technology.
Magic has rules (like all magic or other powers in various games). It needs to have rules or it can’t be used effectively in the course of the game. In Gygax’s original vision, magic’s source is primarily religious. One has to worship something (usually a god, but sometimes being a tree-hugger works too) in order to obtain one’s spells and power, then pray each day to renew the spell-casting ability.
These are the things we need to think about when worldbuilding for our RPG. The rules of our power system–whether we have superpowers (like Champions / Heroes), magic, or psionic abilities–must be well established enough that the players know how to use them and combat them during the course of play. It’s not enough to know that my character has teleportation powers. I need to know if I can teleport other objects or other people, if I retain my clothes and backpack when I teleport, and if I can teleport into places I can’t see or don’t know. Without knowing these things, a player can run roughshod over the game master and the other players, ruining the game.
In addition to knowing the rules of our powers, though, we also need to keep our powers appropriate to the world we’re creating. Giving someone the ability to teleport between worlds, for instance, doesn’t fit for the original D&D world.
Next Shadowrun Sundays, we’ll move on to more worldbuilding notes such as gods, religions, etc. I hope to see you then!
