As a medium for storytelling, role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) are potentially my favourite. Which is strange, because other than a small number of notable exceptions, its reach is limited only to the players, unlike a novel which can be read by anybody. For me, the draw to D&D is that it is immersive, dynamic, and collaborative; you get to build a world with naturalistic geography, discover its history and fill it with people, develop cultures and religions, set up narrative hooks and the potential for conflict, and then watch it all come to life as the players explore and interact with the world in real time.
I have built countless worlds, histories, cultures, peoples, and languages in historical, high fantasy, grim-magic, and science-fiction/future fantasy settings. The most recent example is the world of Ath Ah-lagon which I have developed into a campaign guide for new players, as well as the Psycher class whose mechanics are currently in playtesting.
Here are two example texts to be used as books that players can buy from a bookshop (in game) and then read, providing a more immersive vehicle for lore.
Here are two examples of world-building in a historical fantasy setting. First we have the continent of Lucidia, dominated by the Theodesian Empire and the subjugated northern kingdom of Svellnottr. I provide a detailed breakdown of the the two states, their geography and culture, notable places and cities, a historical timeline, a description of the Svellnottan pantheon, and an example world map (made by me).
In the second example, we consider three Kingdoms drawing on European inspired visual themes, as well as European sounds when constructing names or words to act as cultural touchstones.
