What Pokemon Taught Me About Worldbuilding

This is the first in a series of articles I started on Reddit and will be porting over to my blog for the sake of longevity. It's a series about looking at some of my biggest influences and seeing *why* they influenced me, and how. This one's about Pokemon.

1. Episodic Adventuring

• Set yourself up for an easier time prepping by using an episodic structure. This will allow you to have generalized ideas of your world as a whole while only focusing on one location per session. 
• It stops you from having the "open world" vs. "linear story" discussion because there isn't one with an episodic story. 
• Each episode is linked, but how they are linked can be handwaved as traveling. 
• The direction of travel isn't as important because you are essentially resetting the party's footing with each session. 
• It creates a definite end and beginning to each session. Each session begins with the party coming to a place, or experiencing something new. Each episode ends with them moving on. 

2. Build the map as you go

• You have your starting town and your first adventure, plus you have your list of ideas that sound cool. 
• At the end of each session you can lay out some rumors for the party to choose from. 
• When they pick one, just place that as the next spot on your "map". No fuss, no hassle. 
• After 9 or 10 sessions you'll have a whole region mapped out. 

3a Theme

• In the World of Pokemon, there is a core theme. Capture pokemon, battle them to become stronger, become the "very best". 
• This is a goal and an attainable one. 
• What is the core theme of your world? Boiling your world down to an idea this basic can free you up to explore ideas that are not complete in your head. 
• You don't need to know why the nations are at war if your theme boils down to: go to town, capture base, win the war. 
• Everything else can come from that and you can give your party this information as a pitch. If they're in, they're in. If not, try the next idea.

3b Location Theme

• Instead of focusing on the minutiae of worldbuilding, when it comes to new locations in Pokemon, each one is based around its *own* theme. 
• In Pokemon, each gym has its specialty, and from that specialty, the town grows. The rock town is rough and stoic. The ghost town is spooky and horrifying. 
• Use those random ideas you have to be the fuel to flesh out the locations of your world. 
• If we continue with the war example, you might have a list that includes: the horrors of war, the downward spiral, losing a friend, letters from home. 
• Each of those will be a location in your world: a fresh battlefield where shellshocked soldiers call for the party's help, a wasteland where the weirdness of war pull at the party's sanity, a makeshift gravesite where the party faces their fallen comrades, a base with working water/comforts and a mailbox.

4a Enemies

• The World Theme creates the enemies. 
• In Pokemon, it's other trainers. 
• In this War World (which I'm starting to grow fond of) it's the opposing army. 
• You don't need to know everything about them, just that they are on the opposite side of your Party. 
• They fight against the party because of the Theme. 
• They oppose the party to fulfill the theme.

4b Recurring

• Recurring enemies creates fondness, understanding, and something *other*. 
• Just like a player can learn about their character by experiencing various situations and reacting to them, so can we learn about the enemy by experiencing them every session. 
• And not a group of faceless nobodies. But people with faces and names. 
• In Pokemon, it's Jesse and James. 
• In this War World, it might be the seductress who is a double agent, or an opposing sniper who radios in to taunt the party. 
• It's through repeated exposure that relationships and life are brewed. 

5. Random Encounters

• In Pokemon, between each of gym battles, the gang has an encounter. Usually out in the woods, or on the road. 
• These are just random encounters, and random encounters done right. Each one is impactful and lends itself to the overall theme. 
• Each one involves the gaining of a pokemon, the battling of some strange trainer, the accomplishment of some bonding exercise, or the thwarting of the enemy trying to steal your power. 
• In the War World, the random encounters could be POWs, a ruined village with survivors, mortar attacks, ambushes, a strange adventure where you have to dress fancy and mingle at some benefit. 
• Create a list of 10 ideas and use that as your springboard for random encounters. 

6. Re-imagining the old

• Pokemon is just a homebrew DnD world where the spells are living and wizards capture them to battle and grow stronger. 
• You can create a fresh spin for *your* world just be fluffing something old (spells) as something new (pokemon). 
• What if all monsters were just people, the name in the monster manual was their nickname? 
• What if all the races were actually animals (humans are dogs, elves are cats)? 
• What if dragons are just ideas that you can be infected with? 

-----------------------------------------------------------

These are some ideas that influence my worldbuilding. Maybe you can see them in some older posts. You can follow me on reddit. I've got a book coming out soon! It's at the printers, just making sure it all came together okay before it goes up in the shop. Stay tuned!