Building Your Own Campaign Setting (with Matthew Mercer) │ Adventuring Academy

Do you think it has any real use for the player characters at this point, or just knowing if you're dealing with a demon in disguise and things like that? Any thoughts on the early alignment of an axis that assumed a certain cosmology where law and chaos were at war, and characters could be aligned with one side or the other, or neutral in the conflict? -Ah. I think this is a broad topic. I think the alignment system as presented in D&D, the popularized alignment system of those days, I think can be a good utility for people who need a guide to build a character around.

For people, as artists, we're used to taking on roles and creating in that space, and letting the character's personality inform their decisions. But for some people, it's not a comfortable thing to do, and the alignment choice can help them feel comfortable with where that character will go. Instead of going, I just made this character and then over time, okay, yeah, I think they're making good decisions, maybe they're a good person. People say, I want to know if this is a good character because that will make me feel comfortable making decisions and choices as this personality. - Good. - I do not think that it's necessary.

I think it's a good training wheels type scenario when it comes to roleplaying, but once you get more experienced you're more interested in what

your

character's personality and goals are than whether they're good or not. evil, neutral and across the spectrum of order and law. -I totally agree and I think, interestingly, as someone who formally studied philosophy, Five E took a very strong step towards, I think, a more realistic depiction of human nature when he emphasized bonds, ideals and flaws. - Yes. - Again, I don't want to be an expert on how human beings work, but generally speaking, it seems truer to me the idea that, oh, people have their bonds, their attachments to a group and to a community. , or if not to a community, then to something else that is something tangible.

They have their ideals, which may or may not be organized according to good or evil. I have a long running

campaign

that is set in a kind of colonial period, where there are a lot of humans fighting other civilizations of humans, and detecting evil and detecting good becomes very difficult because you wonder what does that mean in this context where There are no demons? And one of the things we ended up doing was that detecting evil became a cultural spell, so we had a character from this culture called Ashod, where detecting evil from him is just detecting cowardice.

And it just means that if you're physically and martially brave, you register with this guy as a good guy, and if you're not, you're not. So you might be the nicest, sweetest guy in this other little gnome culture or whatever, but if you're scared of physical confrontation, this guy will register as evil. - It's interesting. Yes, because when you look at it, there are universally good things that people can do, and there are universally bad things that most people agree that it is an evil person to do this. - Yes. - There's no one like, I don't know, Jeffery Dahmer, they just got it wrong. (Brennan laughs) That guy was a jerk.

But the 95% gradient between those two is a lot of relative morality that can't be defined on a universal scale. And to that point, I like

setting

s like that, where you can customize aspects on a cultural level, on a perspective level. Yes, I think it's an interesting tool on a basic scale, but as you become a more advanced player and want to get more delicious, detailed, and, I don't know, philosophically satisfying storytelling at the table, you really have to ask

your

self what they mean or if they are even necessary. - I think it's very, very appropriate for almost any DM who hears this to customize it back to their table.

However, I would also say that I think alignment isn't going anywhere anytime soon, in part because it's directly tied to the cosmology of the D&D

setting

. As long as there is Mount Celestia, Arborea, Baator, and the Abyss, you will have these four cornerstones of lawful good, chaotic good, lawful evil, chaotic evil, and what that means. - Mm-hmm. - Which I think is interesting, there are other ways around it, but I think the usefulness of alignment in D&D is pretty much equal to the usefulness of things like Myers-Briggs and other things in our world, where it's like, oh, this is a way of describing something that was already there to begin with.

You know what I mean? It makes more sense to say, oh, this person has these tendencies toward order and goodness in that classic paladin style, but that's the kind of person he should be, and this describes him. Instead of someone being like that, I have dedicated myself to the ideals of legitimate goodness! (laughs) Which is kind of a cart before the horse scenario, you know what I mean? - Yeah, well, I think that's also why in previous additions, paladins were a very difficult class to model or play, because players would have a hard time enjoying or adapting to this preconceived notion of a good lawful paladin. - Yes. - I can only do this, my character can make decisions in this box, and anything beyond that, I attack you.

You know, for a long time, that was the perspective, and people played paladins to be a jerk to the rest of the players at the table and fulfill a kind of power fantasy of, ha ha! You looked at me wrong! Stab! - Yeah. (laughs) - Or they just didn't want to address it and said, "That's too restrictive." Like they're powerful, but I never want to try to fit into this unrealistic perception of a good character. - Good. - So yeah, it's not going anywhere and it has utility. It has utility for the world, for the setting, it has utility for being able to understand that in a game like Dungeons & Dragons, or in a lot of role-playing games where, ultimately, part of the game is defeating the villains and getting up and stopping. become a hero, there has to be some level of universal antagonism.

And that's where the Demons come in. That's where part of that cosmology, there is an entity of pure and defined force that is evil. - Yes. - It may not be realistic for some stories, but I think alignment comes into play more in the Outer Planes type aspect. But when it comes to more personal stories in the world of humans, dwarves, and tieflings living together, a mass hysteria type scenario does, yes, get a little stranger. - Yes, I totally agree. That makes sense to me. This is good. Of, oh, we don't have a name here. Well, whoever you are, thank you. - Thank you. -From a DM's point of view, what do you think of the stereotypical accents used by NPCs? - Hmm. - I'm torn because I can see how having a gruff and mean character use a Russian accent, for example, increases players' immersion, but there has to be a line where he gets a little derogatory at some point. - Very much so, actually that's something I'm very sensitive about.

As a voice actor, I have studied many dialects and accents. It's something I've personally enjoyed. Both immersing yourself in cultures that you haven't had the opportunity to really engage with and just, I don't know, I love the beauty of regionalisms and accents. I love hearing the wide variety of interpretations of English and other languages, and what it sounds like, and it's like there are so many languages ​​that are poetry. I love hearing a strong Scottish accent, I love hearing fluent Afrikaans, I love hearing all these beautiful and different things, and I want to incorporate and show a diverse world.

And part of that is trying to walk that line of what is considered appreciation versus what is derogatory. I'm not saying I've always done it right, but as long as you're aware of it, I think it's a step in the right direction. I think the important thing is to make sure that, first of all, you're not necessarily trying to play it for laughs. - Good. - Sometimes you can't help it. I say this as a Scot. Sometimes it gets really ridiculous at times and you can't help but laugh. So it's okay... - Yes! - But if you think, well, these people are bad, so I make them all Russians, that falls into a classic kind of, you know, American hero media trope that maybe isn't the healthiest thing. - It is very difficult.

And you know, I remember I was teaching an improv class where this comes up all the time, right? When someone mentioned a regional accent and said that regional accent bothered me. And I said, well, let's stop, let's talk about it. Yes, I see that confirming some harmful stereotypes. We should worry about that. And the student who had raised the point said, yeah, I'm very uncomfortable with that. And one thing I ended up talking to that student about afterwards was, hey, just so you know, in an earlier scene that we didn't dwell on, you were playing a character who was in the scene saying, wow, everything here is really nice!

Wow! And it's like that's classism. You are making a low class voice. You're doing the voice of a poor, underprivileged guy, you know, that idea, and the problem is we all laugh, because there's this horrible thing in comedy where you're like, oh, yeah, a redneck who becomes the King of England, that's crazy, that would never happen. But why do we laugh? Oh, there's some class stuff in there, and that's a bummer, and you have to look into it. Especially, I think this comes up a lot when you're in an environment that actually has real groups of real people from the real world, right? - Yeah. - But even when you think about, if we go and watch The Lord of the Rings, is there something fucked up about the fact that all the orcs are cockney and all the elves are RP? - Yes. - Yes. - Yes. (laughs) - Yes, there is.

Why can't we have an orc who says, I mean, I love destroying the world of men? - I'm sorry, Sarumon. (Brennan laughs) Oh, sorry, I'm on the phone. - Or, conversely, why can't we have an elf who says, look, there are a couple of things I love, okay? I love Rivendell, I love a good bottle of wine. Like, why? (laughs), why not? - Yes, no, no, I think one thing is that, if your players express discomfort at the table, you take it into account and say, okay, well, I need to work on this. - Mm-hmm. - Another thing is if you're included, because I think accents and regionalisms are a great way to show a variety of personalities and characters in your world if you're comfortable with that, but make it varied.

Don't attribute one to a certain stereotype of a bad person, or you can show that culturally diverse life in the world you lead and the world you are

building

, but you also have to keep in mind that people from all walks of life come from all backgrounds. areas, and you might have a bad guy who is Russian, but also make sure to include some good guys who are Russian. - Yes. - I could have a bad guy with an Irish accent, maybe include a good guy with an Irish accent. Try not to make it about the accent, but simply a layer of cultural flavor based on where you're from and how you grew up, that adds to the world and the experience and doesn't become a defining characteristic of your personality. - I agree 100%.

And I think there's that, you're talking about this balance between, on the one hand, yes, we never want to become derogatory or fall into stereotypes, but if you're employing voices, which I think creates immersion and It's fun at the table to have a variety of Character voices, plus the reason I started doing voices as a kid for characters was just to keep them all clear. To keep it literally, who is speaking now? But I think one of the things you should also do is look, without going too far, for the other way to avoid voices, which can be almost strangely like erasure.

Our world is full of people who sound different, and if your world reflects that, then you should have people who sound different. But that idea of ​​nothing ever being monolithic, or a group of people being one type, I'm just remembering all the characters I have now. There's one, in the long-running 3.5

campaign

that I have, the nation of inventors that a bunch of these little hobbits that live in a big Grand Canyon, they're all Texans. And they are the species that gets a bonus in intelligence and they are the inventors, and I think you can do fun things like that.

Like taking an accent that we wouldn't associate with higher education and making people say, yeah, I'm the college principal in Tenfalls. A professor of golem studies, or whatever, right? (Mathew laughs) Yes, I think using voices to challenge them is really beneficial and healthy. - I agree and I love dwarves. They were my favorite race in D&D. I grew up and love the Scottish accent, as you know. So for me, as a Tolkien fan, it's hard not to put the two together. And even in my home game, a lot of dwarves are like that, but not all of them are, especially when we see them in other parts of the world and stuff.

And that's hard for me. - Yes. It is difficult for me to break with that, because I love that combination very much, but I also want to recognize that there is also diversity in that space. But I mean, I'm not perfect. I'm sure I mess it up too. And the idea is just to be aware and sensitive to it. You come from a good place and are aware of incorporating these aspects into your game. Brilliant. You are not infallible. Be open to feedback and adjust and adapt accordingly.incredible things? What holiday will you celebrate when you get there?

Great, this is like the gloomy port city, the crime city? That one needs thieves' guilds, and that one should have some street thugs who might try to rob the PCs. So I think instead of having to do everything everywhere, you think what is the job of this part of the stage? What's this in my swiss army knife of narrative things that I'm creating about how they're going to interact with the PCs? - Yes, and also consider that this is world

building

at the scale of a microcity. On a macro scale, there are just enough themes that you can similarly build on.

The cities you want to develop, the places the group is headed, you want to lay out the path in front of you a little bit, but you don't have to develop the entire pantheon and its history. You can ask yourself: are there gods? Is there a singular god? Are there no gods? and have they been destroyed? That's enough information. Have a god of love with a name. That's all you need, you don't have to talk about 2000 years before, they emerged from the waters in this era and then fought. You can do it, of course, but if you know that there is a god of love, that is enough for you to see a statue of a young woman holding a crown made of flowers and she is Dena, the goddess of love.

The player is like, oh shit, okay, cool. That's all you need. And you can take advantage of that, or the players will just keep walking, and you're like, great, they didn't need more information about that. (Brennan laughs) That's all they need. So yeah, it's like on a macro scale, you just need a few sentences, you just need something that you can reference in the story, or that you can use as inspiration for other more microworld builds. And then as you get to continents and regions and cities, that's when you get a little more detailed. And even then, a lot of my world-building, especially during the last campaign, was done only as the players progressed. - No, yes, that's huge and you can't discredit it.

Because there's a funny thing, I think there's two things: there's a great old quote, it's like a quote from World War II, a general said: plans are useless, planning is essential. Which I love, right? - Yeah. - And the cool thing about that, when you look at it, is that I think it's important for you, as a DM, to think: what is this world going to feel like? As will be? What is the vibe I'm going for? Classic high fantasy, something more. But also, everything you make has to be able to be thrown away if what happens at the table changes things.

And there's an element there that's really fun. I made this scenario that I thought was like sky pulp, steampunky, Miyazaki biplanes and this, and that, and that! And I thought, yeah, this is going to be great! And then my PCs at level three or four said: we're going to organize a revolution against the empire and we're going to overthrow them. And I thought this got really dark. (Both laugh) And over the last few years, the whole tone has changed, it's the kind of aesthetic of these biplanes and zeppelins and things like that, but it's taken on this emotional tone that we're trying to overthrow an evil empire, and we We are revolutionaries, we are freedom fighters.

And so as a DM, on the level of macro things like theme and world, and then on the micro level of who you thought they were going to talk to in the tavern, you have to be ready to completely change things in their head based on about what the PCs are going to throw at you. - Oh, easily, easily. (Brennan laughs) I mean, and once again, the players will ruin everything. (Brennan laughs) And they'll report your maddening chase to make things right. So there is enough preparation to have things to fall back on, but you don't need to develop everything beforehand.

It's too intimidating. I didn't expect my current campaign to have so many dark themes, but all the players created characters with super tragic backstories for the most part. And I thought, well, there's going to be a lot of tragedy... (Brennan laughs) that we're going to go through, so I hope this is cathartic for all of our viewers, because it will be for us. (Brennan laughs) - It's almost like an episode of Chopped or Iron Chef, where the DM is this chef, and then what's the special ingredient? Sadness. - Yes, well, I built this new campaign to have much more intense conflicts and show the disparate challenges of power and class structures, and the different societies and conflicts that affect that space.

And on top of that, they added tragedy. I say, okay, so we're doing Dickensian fantasy, practically, in a way. That wasn't expected, but I guess that's what we're working with. (Brennan laughs) So yeah, you have to be prepared to be malleable and prepare the players to screw you. - (sighs) And they will. They always do it. - Always. - But you know what? That's why we do it. - Exactly. - That's why we do it. (laughs) Guys, this has been Adventure Academy. Many thanks to my guest Matthew Mercer. - Thank you very much for inviting me, guys.

I really appreciate it. - Greetings and see you next time. Thanks for watching. - Bye bye! - Wow!