Edit sorry I was way to vague and bad explained question. But great explanation everyone.
If you start playing as a player in a homebrew world that I built. How little information would you feel needed to be able read before you can build a character in it?
I have been planing to start looking for players soon but I struggling as I don’t want to give them a whole novel of mostly boring lore dump but sending them like two sentients feels just silly.
Not to mention would you as a player like reference to other mediums so you could quickly know what to expect or would you rather have a in game view of it?
Have much more written than you initially tell the players. Not because you’re trying to keep a lot of it secret, but because as you said you don’t want to loredump. That said, if players start poking around with reasonable questions, you should have some answers prepared. If they don’t ask, then they don’t ask.
I’d say your players and you should both agree on all the lore relevant to their backstory. If you’ve got a dwarf, you don’t need all the lore on all things dwarvish but you should both agree how their home clan or town or whatever works.
If all the players are coming from somewhere else and meeting in a place that none of their characters have been in before, this will be a good excuse to put in hooks. Example: All the players traveled by boat to a city, for various individual reasons. In the city you can have statues of your homebrew gods around. Hey if the players stop and ask, or read the plaque, they get some info. If they don’t they don’t. Same deal with the rest.
You should know in broad terms what the gods are like, what magic is like, what the major cities/states are like (you don’t need micro detail just enough to flesh in later), and then more detail on what the immediate location is like. If you have a gimmick, introduce it early.
Highly advise you have a notebook ready so that when you make something up on the spot during a session you also write it down and add it to your worldbible so that you don’t contradict yourself in front of players later.
However much the players ask for, the world must always seem like there is more they don’t know about.
If you start playing as a player in a homebrew world that I built. How little information would you feel needed to be able read before you can build a character in it?
I mean, nothing. I’ll just assume standard fantasy tropes exist somewhere, keep my pitch brief and anywhere I need proper names you’ll get <INSERT NAME OF SLUMS IN CITY> or whatever.
It’s not ideal but I’ve done it plenty of times.
Not to mention would you as a player like reference to other mediums so you could quickly know what to expect or would you rather have a in game view of it?
Comparisons with other media can be a powerful shorthand, but reference the wrong things and it can be extremely off-putting. Over the years I’ve learned that DMs referencing some media, even things I like, can be a massive red flag. Nothing triggers my flight instinct from a game quicker than seeing the advert reference anime.
Good it sounds like I ahould work on a little crash course but I don’t need to to worry to much what I miss
I felt the same regard reference but wanted to check as it saved some time this like Stormfell but with undead servants. Instead of a three sentences but it felt so cheep.
Being able to say something like “It’s like ___ but with ___” isn’t cheap, it’s crucial. Being able to play out scenes at the table relies on everyone having a similar (-enough) idea in their head about what this world is like, and the amount they’re going to be able to get from you in advance is very limited. That’s why standard settings like the Sword Coast can feel so cliched - D&D runs on cliche. Short blurbs are better than detailed infodumps, and art is even better if you can find any.
I ran a game of Blades in the Dark for some friends a while back, which has a really cool setting, but because it was so out there it kept getting in the way - we’d be getting into a scene, and then someone would remember “Oh yeah, it’s always night here” or “chickens don’t exist here” or “Don’t we all know that corpses turn into ghosts after a while? Maybe we shouldn’t have left that guy there” and it would derail the whole session.
Also that’s another reason letting your players fill in the gaps in your worldbuilding is so powerful - not only does it make them more invested in the world and story by giving them a feeling of ownership, which changes the way they behave towards NPCs and reduces the risk of them going full murderhobo on your beautiful creations, but also having information about the world be tied to cool moments at the table makes that information way stickier in everyone’s minds. I’d go even further and say make sure you leave plenty of gaps for them to fill in - every detail you ‘miss’ is an opportunity.
But would you not feel the scene was even more derailed if the player said remember this is like Halloweentown when they trying to figure if it worth buying the fancy torches?
Also don’t it give “demand” that all player know the reference? Because for me I know it ever darkness but you didn’t? Instead had a 5 sentence description that you can quickly look it up and said it was ever lasting night.
Absolutely with you on giving the players the freedom to shape the world from mine to ours. That is the very reason I try to figure out how much lore I can get away not giving players so they feel part of world but also shape it.
more derailed
Not at all, although admittedly my table is definitely more on the slapstick than the dramatic side.
everyone knows the reference
Absolutely, e.g. BitD referencing the game Dishonored, which some of my players hadn’t played.
I guess I should walk that recommendation back and say that if everyone is familiar with the media, and it fits the tone of the game you’re running, then references can be a powerful tool.
Personally I would always ask the DM how my desired race fits into their world. If I’m playing a religious character I’d also ask them to explain the how religion works in their world.
Dose it need a written form so you can look over in peace and quite. Or could it be like three sentences more getting sense of it and if you have further question you could ask the DM?
This would be a conversation I’d have with my DM during character creation. And the level of detail depends on the DM. If the DM says “they’re like regular elves but blue”, then that’s easy. But if the DM says “they’re nothing like regular elves, you need to read this 3-page short story in order to understand elves in my setting” then I probably just wouldn’t play an elf.
In my experience as a DM, players don’t like the information overload of a handout that covers things they don’t need to know about.
