World Building Bureaucracies!

Hey Scribblers,

Lately, I’ve been deep in the weeds with a video game company, piecing together the nuts and bolts of a universe. It’s got me thinking about the often-overlooked side of world-building. It’s less about those sprawling family trees and more about the frameworks that let other creative minds run wild.

Building a world is like setting up the ultimate sandbox. Obviously, you need sand, but don’t forget the toys you scatter around. The best D&D sourcebooks nail this—they’re jam-packed with artifacts, guilds, maps, and monsters, ready for players to weave into their own epic yarns.

Some folks yawn at the thought of drafting bureaucratic intricacies or fleshing out economic systems. But me? I live for this shizz. There’s something satisfying about constructing the cogs and wheels of a world and then stepping back to see what stories emerge.

It’s not about controlling the narrative or populating it with personalities. It’s about laying down the background beats for others to remix, crafting a world so rich and detailed that the stories folks come up with are inevitable and infinite.

Keep loading that sandbox with toys, and find your joy rising when the kids start playing and turn it all into a magnificent mess!