Adding Depth to the World Your Players Live in.

I have recently received a special request for more information on one of the points in my recent How to be a better gamemaster series. I look forward to these kind of requests because they do allow me to dig deeper into these concepts and something that I can explore more of if the interest exists. This article is going to focus on The fine art of balancing the main story and side events/stories.

I will admit putting this into a forula is difficult and if I try to, I will fail to do so. Like a painter kows when they have the hue, shade and color just right. You will know as well. That being said lets look at a couple of helpful hints and tricks to keep in mind.

1) At the speed of news: This is a tough idea to keep a handle on. Today if something happens ont he other side of the world we know within a few minutes of its occurance. Thanks to the digital and media age that we live in. News at the speed of life. We go back to the days before radio and we start to see a very different timeframe that we have to keep in mind. News had to travel via print or word of mouth, stories often broke down and were not quite the same as they were when it happened. Medieval times the capital cities enjoyed news quickly thanks to town criers, if you lived outside of the main cities you had to wait till a trader, or some kind of entertainer came into town. Also from the source of the event it tended to break down into rumor and heresay so something to keep in mind as the information that the players are receiving may not be true. A travelling bard would of been a huge deal since they would hear of the happenings from outside of their little hamlet or city.

2) Didn't ask, Don't tell: Players love options, there is nothing quite like going into the local tavern and hearing about goblin attacks. Electing yourself as a Goblin exterminator and collecting the bounty. This is something that the players went looking for. Keep in mind, if a player did not ask about rumors, side quests or current events in the surrounding or local area. Then at this point they don't care. they are focused on the task at hand and adding this in will only muddy the waters and they will believe that the reason that you added this is because you wanted them to follow up on it. Hide those cards for a while longer.

3) The money knows where the trouble is: this is an extension of the speed of news, more of a successful way of integrating your events into the game. Contempt, distrust, disease, disaster and war have one thing in common is that they normally affect the distribution of raw materials of finished goods. normally the ones that the players are interested in buying. Going to use a fantasy game example for this. Your players are looking for a rare metal to be forged into a sword. they find the weaponsmith and he happens to have the metal. it just happens that it is the very last ignot of it because of a mine collapse where he gets his materials. Of course because of this he charges a little extra. News travels with traders, bards and the military. these are three very effective way for news to move around the world.

4) Why is this relevant to the group?: This is one of my favorite and the most important point. I should of put this as number one. Why should I bother with all of this? Simply, it lets you be a pain the backside to your players. I also lets you explain things such as the borders to the country are closed because of an invasion that they heard of a few months ago has escalated into a situation that now impacts them. Then the players in character can say, "I remember that the Innkeeper at the Brown Pony told us that there was some problems in the kingdom of Jasper and that is why he couldn't get the Jasper Fire Wine that our elf wanted, because ale wasn't good enough." They then know that there actions are important but the there are other forces at work that are beyond the immediate scope. also when you revisit the world more of the history is already taken care of.

The four points are what I feel are the important features to the landscape of your world. These next two are "minor" points that also help things out. Only write about important things. Don't worry about things on the other side of the world.. Those events unless you plan it will not impact the players. while the neighboring kingdom will impact them more.So in short, limit your scope, you will get bogged down in your own story and lose sight of the current story. Make it interesting, Just not to interesting. After all you don't the players running off after that adventure. after all in the player creation session you picked different a different adventure.

These simple steps should add that extra layer of depth to your world that will let the players know that your worlds are a living breathing thing. Now back to the series "how to be a better GM"