Heheh got your back buddy! When researching this one I found there was a load of advice on how to get started, but not much on knowing when you've done enough. My challenge is definitely to heed my own advice - that Goblin aristocracy doesn't need a coat of arms for EVERY noble house... does it?
Encounter balancing is something I don't think I've ever got right, but I don't think my players have ever said "that felt unbalanced". I quite like the Baldurs Gate 1 and 2 approach of the world being full of enemies of all levels, and if you stumble into the lair of something well beyond you, you'd better stumble out again quickly! I've found that my players don't really need deep worldbuilding to have fun, but they do need a sense of purpose, unless they're already intrinsicly motivated. A fleshed out world can definitely help them know where they'd like to go (A BBEG to go towards / run away from can help with that too!)
Something I've struggled with myself, but I like the concepts and way of thinking. The dark playground is probably one of the best ways I've heard that put across. As you said "Why are the cats blue?"
That took me a second to figure out - I was pretty sure I didn’t say it in the video! …then I saw your profile pic - see you next week! The cats are blue because in previous generations, the local stray cats would all hang around the wizards tower. He was EXTREMELY absentminded, but would always remember to feed them scraps. What exactly those scraps were… well that’s the mystery, but now all the local cats are various shades of blue from deepest navy, to dazzling aquamarine.
Great advice! I wonder if there's a trend that GMs tend to worldbuild (and prep in general) more at the beginning of their tenure and less as they gain more experience - that's definitely what I experienced and it sounds like it is for you too. Having had my second session of 100% collaborative storytelling with Daggerheart (a second group), that's definitely where I want to take my games in the future. Keep up the videos, Rich! Sadly I'm on hiatus for UKGE prep!
I love how Daggerheart makes the collaborative side as something that's built in to so many of the game mechanics: those maps, the downtime activities etc. It ticks so many of the boxes in what I want from a TTRPG! (still waiting for proper friendly NPC rules though) Good move not over-stretching yourself - definitely a smart decision, but we'll miss you on here! I'll be staying up late on election night with my multicoloured tiny cakes again. I'll need to figure out whether to make more than one green one... or any blue ones for that matter.
@renegaderolls yeah, I had trouble with "allies" in a large combat I ran (3 players, 3 NPCs and a horse vs. 6 mercenaries, the dodgy dealer the players were after, and 4 servants holding up the palanquin. I essentially just handled their flow by interspersing some narrative as to what was going on between every few player turns. What's with the cakes?
I think I use the ‘bottom up’ approach… i don’t go into any great detail (nor any detail prep) re location specifics and details (and no world view) but I ask my players to come up with character aspects like their Homeland and Goal and then we use that to ‘create’ the world. That said, I only run oneshots in a west marches style drop in and out game so maybe that wouldn’t work for campaigns