One of the more difficult aspects of a game master’s job in any role playing system is building out the setting. Trying to create a living, breathing, world for players to interact with. Plenty of us are tempted to build an entire world before a single die is ever rolled. Filling notebooks with landmarks, notable characters, historic events. Realistically though, the players will mostly not give a crap. Sure there will be interesting areas or characters they latch on to, for the most part interaction with the world itself will only be so deep. The more grand the world becomes the more shallow each piece of it is. It’s just not feasible to give every character depth when there are hundreds of them who may or may not even make an appearance.

On the other side of the spectrum are the random generators which give the illusion of a living world, creating set pieces on the fly to fit in as needed. Handy for filling out a town players are passing through but the result is essentially a handful of adjectives with a silly accent. Sure you can flesh things out as needed, except the single serving nature doesn’t give much to attach to in the first place. I could not recall the name of a single NPC I’ve used from a generator, and there have been plenty of them. They’re set dressing. Usually not even worth adding to the session notes.

Solving the Problem

I started thinking about the space in between. Satisfying the world building itch without getting bogged down in the broad details. Zooming in instead of building out. The solution I’m working on is build one piece, and build the hell out of it. A village, a fort, a ship, a group. Something neutral that can be dropped in anywhere in any setting. A collection a dozen or so fully fleshed out details that can build connections. Instead of players looking for a blacksmith, they will want to go visit that blacksmith. It becomes their blacksmith.

Now, a game master has introductions for future story beats. How do you hook players into a one shot search for a random MacGuffin? Easy, their blacksmith mentioned it. Hand players a relic that needs investigation? Well look at that, they know a guy to point them in the right direction. The more fleshed out an NPC is, the more reason to interact. Fill a place with those NPCs and players will be popping in regularly on their own. Have a handful of these places ready to drop in as needed and you have the best of both worlds. Depth where it counts, added on the fly, ready to expand as needed.

Building the Solution

The obvious place to start is the tavern. Cliche as hell, sure. On the other hand tropes exist for a reason. It is the starting point of countless adventure and may seem uninspired until you look at the whole picture. What does a tavern have besides the obvious endless supply of booze? Well, someone has to run the place, right? You will have an owner with goals, struggles, and a personality that sets the tone of the establishment. They know every bit of local news and have connections thanks to the nature of the business.

A tavern has customers. Local merchants, passing travelers, tradesmen and traders. What you really have is a room full of plot hooks and tie ins just waiting to get chatty. There’s no need to justify why these people are all in one place, ready to give their life story. It’s a bar. Why wouldn’t they be? It’s a place to get answers, or at least be set on the right track. A place to ask for help or be asked for help. Flesh out a handful of regulars with backstory and personality that offer some utility and even the most murderiest of hobos will make a point to stop in often.