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Join #My30DayWorld RPG World Building Challenge with Jorphdan

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Renowned YouTuber Jorphdan’s (the PH is silent) normal repertoire includes Dungeons & Dragons lore videos on everything from Forgotten Realms to Spelljammer. Spurred by My 30 Day World challenge put out by Absolute Tabletop and a Fantasy World Building Guide from WebWriter.net, Jorphdan concocted a challenge to end this 2020 — 30 Days of RPG World Building! If you missed out on NaNoWriMo or GamoWriMo never fear because there’s still plenty of time to do #My30DayWorld challenge!

World Building through correlation

One of the coolest things about combining these challenges is they coincide so well. Maybe it’s just my individual world but it feels like every time I read the question for one challenge then hop over to the other the questions compliment one another. Each develops the other in ways I would not have necessarily connected doing only one challenge versus the other.

Because this world building through correlation fosters a deeper understanding of the world at large the end result is a much more thorough development of your tabletop roleplaying game world. The open ended questions allow for any fantasy subgenre.

One of the other really fascinating things to come out of My 30 Day World challenge is the ability to look up the various places others are world building their own TTRPG settings. It’s a phenomenal way to connect the community across multiple social media platforms. From YouTube to Discord to Twitter and beyond there are so many amazing creators out there pushing out inspired content for their fantasy worlds.

I do get frustrated when certain fantasy tropes — like the dwarf race — tend to muddy into sameyness but with this exercise I’m seeing the depth of variety in classic interpretations. In fact a favorite aspect of these fantasy worlds I’ve discovered is people developing unique twists on classic fantasy races in general.

As a fan of dwarves in particular I love reading how others treat their dwarven races. For myself I usually differentiate my dwarves by their obsession with law and strictures, specifically via caste system. Then as I was building Tallismor I realized there might also be dwarves who reject said systems and have a mass exodus to form their own nation. Things just evolved from there.

If you love dwarves as much as I do when it comes to fantasy world building, check out this video by Nerdarchy, discussing new ways to present dwarves in your setting!

World Building in 30 days — It’s kinda perfect!

Some might see the 30 day constraint and think about the commitment. After all 30 days is a lot — it’s a whole month! However, others might see the 30 day marker and think about how little time this actually is.

Whether your world building continues for months on end or you’re just dipping your toes into the world building pool this challenge is nearly perfect for everyone. If you want to stick to the 30 day limit it gives you a time frame and structure in which to work so you’re guaranteed to have something to show for it by the end.

Not every aspect has to be equally in depth but if you can get something — anything — on the page it ensures you made progress. If the time constraint is too stressful for yo, then throw it out the window. Make it a 30-week challenge, or do it all in a single sitting.

Regardless of how you do it or make it your own the important thing about this prompt is it’s intended to get you to write something. Too often we drag our feet or simply talk about our ideas for world building but never put anything out in a proper sense. This challenge is designed to give you a deadline — a loose one, but a deadline nonetheless. This ensures you make progress on being able to share your fantastic world with others.

Tell your story, your way

One of the main things I built my entire YouTube presence on was empowering people to tell their own stories in their own way. I literally end almost every video prompting people to do this. The point is your story is worth telling and your world is worth gaming in.

Feel free to take up the My 30 Day World challenge on YouTube like myself or Jorphdan. If YouTube isn’t your thing make an art piece depicting how the prompts fit together and share it on Instagram or Facebook. Not an artist and camera shy? No worries! Tweet something within the character limit (it’s harder to keep it short than it sounds).

Whatever your means of connecting with others, share your story! Write up a word document and give it to your friends, your gaming group, whoever! This challenge is about telling your stories and building your world, your way.

What do you think?

Are you participating in #my30dayworld challenge with the rest of us? Link us your work, wherever it is, here in the comments and over on our Facebook page or share your world by tweeting us @Nerdarchy. Until next time, tell your story, your way!

Jorphdan’s playlist

My world building playlist

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Steven Partridge

The quill is mightier than the sword, and the partridge quill never falls far from the pear tree. Wait, this was going somewhere. Either way, Steven Partridge is a staff writer for Nerdarchy. He also shows up Tuesdays at 8:00pm (EST) to play with the crew, over on the Nerdarchy Live YouTube channel. Steven enjoys all things fantasy, and storytelling is his passion. Whether through novels, TTRPGs, or otherwise, he loves talking about storytelling on his own YouTube channel. When he's not writing or working on videos for his YouTube channel, Steven can be found swimming at his local gym, or appeasing his eldritch cat, Yasha. He works in the mental health field and enjoys sharing conversations about diversity, especially as it relates to his own place within the Queer+ community.

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