Welcome to today's #WorldbuildingWednesday post! For those of you new to this series, I'm @oblivioncubed. In this series of posts, I break down what Worldbuilding means to me, how I build a setting, why I choose to build what I do, and hopefully provide you some inspiration to use in your Worldbuilding.
My world - Trothguard - is a setting I've created as a catch-all location for any tabletop RPG games I run, so everything I build is filtered through a lens of 'how will this improve the game for myself and my players?'.
Today we're going to look at Creating Governments.
Happy WorldbuildingWednesday folks! We're building on our ongoing series of helpful worldbuilding articles today with Governments! Please note that going forward, I'll be moving this series of tutorial articles to be Bi-Weekly, with the intent of providing examples of my own worldbuilding or worldbuilding I think is particularly cool, every other week. So, content should come out weekly (pending any random things that come up) but will be split between showing off cool worldbuilding, and showing how to build your own.
This one may be short and sweet, given that we've already done a lot of the heavy lifting for this by completing Cultures, Religions, and Economy - which are going to play into our government very heavily. So, lets dive right in!
First and foremost, you'll want to choose a form of government. There are lots to look at, so I won't specifically name them here (plus, if you're actively building a world already, you probably have a pretty good idea of what type of government you want already).
When choosing your government type, try to keep in mind the values of the culture you're building this for. The things they find important should be reflected in the government type, structure, and the importance of the various branches.
Also keep in mind that the Economy building we did last time should be controlled by at least one part of your government.
If your culture heavily features a certain religion, also consider how that will affect the government.
So, basically - if you've been following along - make sure to review the last few things we worked on because they will be very helpful today!
The next thing we should consider is our Leadership. Consider:
- Who leads your government (or branch of government)?
- What rules or expectations keep them in check?
- How much direct power do they have?
- How are they chosen / how do they become leader?
- How much direct control do they have over the military?
Next, we should start developing the various Branches or areas of responsibility for your government. When creating these branches, keep in mind that you don't need to do this all at once. I often will build sections of my government when I realize I have a need for them. That said, some things to consider are:
- How is the responsibility of the government divided up? Who handles what?
- How are the members for the rest of the government chosen? Are they land-holding nobility, elected representatives, friends of the dictator, etc?
- Some very common areas that someone should be responsible for, are things like taxes, military, education, public infrastructure and planning, trade, laws, and diplomacy.
With our branches picked, we should look at how our government is Structured. Consider:
- How does power work between the branches? Who out-ranks who / has final say on issues that might affect multiple branches of the government?
- Are all the various branches structured the same?
- Are all branches of the government appointed in the same way?
- Are all branches funded in the same way?
That's it! That's all folks! Short and sweet, like I said. With governments, I usually take the approach of only building what I need when I need it, and having a vague broad-strokes idea of how it works. Of course, if you are one of those people who prefers to dive deep into everything you build, you may find that this is only a primer for your government building - and that's okay! Hopefully it gives you something to think about regardless of how you choose to Worldbuild.
Thank you for reading today's #WorldbuildingWednesday! I hope this has provided you with some inspiration!
If there's something else you'd like to ask me about, please do so! I will make every effort to answer it next Wednesday.
For previous #WorldbuildingWednesday post you can read them here:
0: Introduction to WorldbuildingWednesday
1: Starting the World
2: Kingdoms, Factions, and Notable People
3: Creation Facts and Creation Myths
4: Shaping History
5: Myths & Legends
5.a: Player Visions (Supplemental)
6: Gods & Lesser Deities
7: Creating Cultures
8: Making Religions
9: Building Cults
10: Economy & Currency
