Does your world feel better? More fantastic? And do your players notice that your world’s sociopolitical and ecological spheres have gone bonkers?

For the next couple of months - at least five full sessions - stop worrying about ecologies and economies and see what happens. Because most people can’t even get as far as articulating their problems. Here’s your homework: fix your own damned problem. If only there was some simple thing you could do - or stop doing - that would help you determine if you maybe have the solution right in front of you. If only there was some way to easily test that hypothesis. You got as far as creating an actual, working hypothesis. Hell, you recognized a possibly irrational motivation that might be driving you to do the thing you think might be causing the problem. You clearly put thought into what might be causing the problem. Because you’re so frigging close to doing this right. And I’d be doing you - and everyone else - dirty if I didn’t address it. And that problem is your inability to solve your own problem. You’ve got a way bigger problem than your inability to make magical worlds. I ain’t even gonna talk about the whole fantastical worldbuilding thing.

What you’re doing? The thing you think might be causing your problem? If you want to submit your own dumbass question for future self-tortu… a future Ask Angry Mailbag column… e-mail it to Remember to grant me explicit permission to call you whatever I’m to call you, to get to the point, and to keep it brief.īy the way, when I say “keep it brief,” I don’t mean, “keep it brief until you get to a question mark and then tack on a paragraph or three of extra background context that, ‘I don’t have to read but which might clarify your question’ or whatever.” I mean that if I glance at your e-mail in a preview window and see more lines of text than I feel like reading, I ain’t even going to get to that question mark.ĭo you have any suggestions for keeping the fantasy in worldbuilding? I feel like I need to put so much effort into plausible ecologies and economies and understand how things work (for fear my players would pick up inconsistencies), only to discover that I’ve removed all the magic from the world.ĭo I have any suggestions for you, Rob? Why yes, Rob, I do have a suggestion. I’m answering reader-submitted questions. I’m rounding out this shitty-ass month with some self-torture. I feel like I’ve been saying this a lot, but…

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