When you’re hip-deep in worldbuilding, details are your greatest tool and worst enemy.
Details ground your audience in your world’s reality, but diving too far into details can make them change the channel or put down the controller. Because let’s face it: who really cares about your fantasy world’s aqueduct system?
Inspired by a post from Susan O’Connor, I started thinking about worldbuilding and urban planning, and how to convey details without making players drink from a firehose of exposition.
One killer trick? Show knock-on effects.
Imagine a sub-plot or side quest about a criminal enterprise stealing water runoff from public fountains. That’s weird, right? You audience wants to know: How can they make money that way? Why is it illegal in the first place?
Now the player WANTS to know about the backstory. We can explain that in our fantasy world homes and public spaces fed by aqueducts were required to have fountains, where the runoff water flowed into the streets. This provided public sources of running water, and the runoff flowed into the streets, cleaning the dirt and dung that built up on a daily basis. A public service so essential that our fantasy city has strict proscriptions against using runoff for personal use. (I lifted all of that from ancient Roman cities, btw)
Now, imagine walking down the street of our fantasy city. You feel the press of bodies, the rattle of mule-drawn carts, the cries of vendors hawking wares, and under it all… trickling water.
These small details set the stage for the side quest, so that our exposition will feel natural and satisfying, rather route and encyclopedic.
Because details are like spices -- you need to have enough to trigger tase buds, but not so much that the core flavors are drowned out.
