Lore & Mortar #2: What to Ignore

In our first issue of Lore & Mortar, I discussed the importance of figuring out what people in your fantasy world eat. I believe you should literally always make an effort to consider how a society feeds itself as you build your worlds. It is a worldbuilding necessity 100% of the time. 

Before I explain other topics that you’ll definitely want to explore each time you craft a setting, I thought it might be useful to list some topics you can safely ignore. I’m not saying that these are worldbuilding dead ends or that media that focuses on each is poorly designed. Instead, the topics I want to discuss here have the following traits: 

• They are unlikely to have strong implications for the rest of your worldbuilding
• Your players are unlikely to care much about these topics
• They will likely have a minimal mechanical impact on your campaigns

I’m listing these topics here because I want you to know that worldbuilding need not be daunting or exhausting. You don’t have to consider every possible facet of a setting just to make it feel “real enough” for a campaign. If your goal is to create a setting that facilitates fun gameplay and compelling narratives, you might as well focus your worldbuilding on the stuff that matters!