What Mundane Details Are Important In Your Fantastical Game/World?

[Reynard]

I was scrolling through my FB feed and in the Shadowdark group some asked whether Western Reaches would come with a calendar with holidays and all. This got em thinking about the sorts of mundane details that people often find important and/or satisfying in world building.

Note: when I say "fantastical" in the title I mean any sort of fantastical, not just "fantasy."

So what mundane elements of world building do you find important, interesting and/or necessary? Things liek calendars with month names and holidays? Fashion and dress? Food and culinary? Languages? Cultural practices? Consumer goods or brands? That sort of thing.

(I was going to make it a poll but then realized it would be terribly long and I would still miss a bunch of stuff.)

For my part, I am not much into deep world building and I don't mentally assimilate things like different names months or fashion well. I prefer my world building shallow (Star Wars levels of shallow) or modern earth plus some minor bits.

 

[DragonLancer]

For me, probably a calendar with with holy days and lunar cycles is important. For some reason my players like to track such things.

Otherwise, bar a few areas, it needs to look what we imagine a fantasy medieval world looks like, so that includes architecture, fashions/clothes, the food people eat...etc. Otherwise nothing is so important that we would need to consider it.

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

Memes.

What characters do people use as nicknames? What quotes do they spout at each other without understanding the context? What minute details do people have loud, nit-picky debates over?!?

Without it, settings feel sterile. It's why I don't care for much of pseudo-Europe outside certain places like Ireland, Scandinavia, and Greece: I only know enough stories from those few locations to insert my own knowledge into that gap.

EDIT: It's why I don't mind joke settings that borrow copiously from American pop-culture at all: it's what feels "real" to me.

 

[payn]

I don’t make up too much ahead of time in these elements. I have no idea if the players will care or not (usually not). Though, when they come up organically they tend to stick around and get filled out.

 

[Voadam]

I hate in world calendars with different names for days and months and such, it is just something I don’t want to have to remember in my head like translating to a different language.

I like quirky little cultural details like a PC of a dwarf in my game came up with the fact that dwarves who are sailors shave all their hair off because while living off the sea they are not dwarves, seagoing is a big sacrifice involving death and rebirth for a dwarf.

 

[aco175]

I tried using Forgotten Realms (FR) names for months and 10-day weeks for tracking things back in 2e/3e days. I added moon cycles and holidays and made up things for different gods and had local founder days and such. Problem was that the players did not care. They thought it was cool and all, but it just did not add anything except work to me for no return.

Now, I will add something if it is needed for the story. If I need a festival or full moon or a NPC dresses in a different way than the locals, it happens. The players do not track anything like this so it does not affect them. I track days very roughly and campaigns tend to start in mid-spring when the roads first open and sometimes it is now early summer or cold wind blows in as the first signs of autumn roll in, but generally it only happens if needed.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Now, I will add something if it is needed for the story.

That. Unless you're using this kind of detail for something of narrative importance or the players express a specific interest by asking questions, there's not much point in this kind of worldbuilding. You'll get players and whole groups who want more atmosphere and then you can elaborate and feel good about it, but all too often you'll just be wasting effort on something that will barely be noticed and may actively get in the way for some people.

Gotta learn to cater to the table you've got, and remember you're not writing a novel.

 

[AnotherGuy]

For our Forgotten Realms campaign - Time, Date, Seasons and Holidays
Everything else is only and if it is pertinent for the session or immediate storyline.

When the campaign was set in Mystara the mundane details were far more present.
I'm far more familiar with this setting and the campaigns were of much lower level.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

What do people call each other? Like, name calling, swearing, pet names, how is religion and culture mixed into ordinary speech.

Just calling people Berk in Sigil or having guards say “Get back here taffer!” In the old thief games adds a lot

Politics and government that makes sense is another one for me. Who is in charge of what and why. Who can sway that power also helps players participate in world building by being able to leverage people.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I was scrolling through my FB feed and in the Shadowdark group some asked whether Western Reaches would come with a calendar with holidays and all. This got em thinking about the sorts of mundane details that people often find important and/or satisfying in world building.

Note: when I say "fantastical" in the title I mean any sort of fantastical, not just "fantasy."

So what mundane elements of world building do you find important, interesting and/or necessary? Things liek calendars with month names and holidays? Fashion and dress? Food and culinary? Languages? Cultural practices? Consumer goods or brands? That sort of thing.

(I was going to make it a poll but then realized it would be terribly long and I would still miss a bunch of stuff.)

For my part, I am not much into deep world building and I don't mentally assimilate things like different names months or fashion well. I prefer my world building shallow (Star Wars levels of shallow) or modern earth plus some minor bits.

First of all, Star Wars world building is quite deep (it should be after nearly 50 years), but the most well-known peaks of the setting are considerably less so, so I don't think that's an accurate comparison to "shallow" worldbuilding. Say rather that your preferred level of engagement with Star Wars demonstrates shallow worldbuilding.

To answer your question, I want as much detail in my worldbuilding as practically possible, including all the aspects you mentioned, because it all contributes to the image of a "living" setting that exists outside of the immediate needs of a bunch of PCs currently on camera.