I am wondering what value people feel that worldbuilding has in RPG games and some of the effective (and ineffective) ways people have experienced it being implemented. I am sure that part of the reason certain worlds are so popular (like Dune, Lord of The Rings, Game of Thrones, The Elder Scrolls) is because the creators put a huge amount of effort into making comprehensive, breathing, organic worlds where emergent stories can take place.

I am trying to capture a little piece of this magic for my RPG. Some of the ways I am experimenting with this is commissioning a short comic book or two that have self-contained stories set in the fictional world that are separate from the main game story. I am also writing the story of the game as a novel, and creating a kind of encyclopedia of the monsters in the world (these items can also be given away as high tier Kickstarter rewards). Although these projects are very costly in terms of time and money.

What are some less intensive ways you might suggest to create a more immersive world and qualities to aim for and avoid?

If this topic belongs in Writing For Games then I apologize for the mistake.

Think of a world as a collection of stories, even if you only ever explore that world to tell one of them. A living world is one that has history to it, one that wasn't constructed for the purpose of telling a story, but one that stories are born into; everything that happens in a living world is built upon the consequences of what happened before. Now, this doesn't mean you have to create your world in a linear fashion, but you must keep everything in line so that all of your world's stories are believably set off by the stories that preceded them.

Visit your world constantly, and ponder the stories it holds that you don't even plan on telling (not that you can't; with enough time you could conceivably tell the whole story of a single world, though it might end up being your life's work). If you have a story that you don't originally plan on being a part of this world, examine it deeply and question whether or not it truly doesn't belong. Realize that all around you, in our own world, there are billions of stories going on at once and not all of them quite mesh with each other. Consider that then consider just what it takes for a story to be a part of your world, and you just might realize there's more going on in your world than you first thought; that will help make it more realized.

Unfortunately, there's just no way that this process won't take a lot of time; I've been exploring my own world for over 7 years now, and I'm barely even ready to begin telling its stories. Fortunately, it doesn't take very much time or resources; you just need to have this all going on in the back of your mind, keeping note of everything that happens for when you're finally to share your world with this one. My recommendation to you is that you don't fear telling what will seem like a single story at first. Once you build upon that, in time, what was once a story will become part of a larger world, and you'll have that magic in the long run, even if things don't look that way in the beginning.

I did think this belonged in the writing forum, so I moved it there but left a link here.

I personally think worldbuilding is important because I know a lot of people who won't play games with certain types of worlds; RPGs with no worldbuilding on the other hand are bland and unmemorable, resulting in players either never trying them or losing interest easily. Worldbuilding is also usually a major inspiration for the art of a game, and the art is the most memorable factor aside from the main points of the worldbuilding and plot.

Writing a game's story as a novel isn't really necessary to the development process, and normally I'd consider it too intensive/inefficient unless the game is a linear single player RPG which will stick strictly to the novel's plot. Though, on the other hand, for a tabletop or MMO game which does not have a linear story, novels can be good merchandizing specifically because they aren't redundant with the game's plot.

Qualities to aim for and avoid: many of the really popular series of the past decade feature teenage characters gaining a new ability and going through adventures as they learn how it works. This is nicely game-ify-able. Just make sure the character's ability and the social role they use that ability to fill aren't something everyone's seen before. And don't make the ability something purely about combat; explore how enterprising people would use such an ability to make money, create technology or art, gather information, all those other things people are ambitious to do. Players like worldbuilding mysteries they can find clues about over the course of a game (same with readers finding clues over the course of a novel or series). I'd also avoid having either a purely good vs. evil world or an everyone's-a-bad-guy world. The first is too unrealistic to be popular any more, while the second doesn't inspire love and fond memories in fans.

(Personally I find plot much more difficult than worldbuilding, but different people have different affinities.)

--Never mind what I wrote--

After realizing this topic has been moved to the Writing forum, it seems like you are interested in writing a lore, not building a dynamic living game world.

--Never mind what I wrote--

After realizing this topic has been moved to the Writing forum, it seems like you are interested in writing a lore, not building a dynamic living game world.

Actually, I think it would be valid advice for the topic if you wanted to say something like, "For immersive emergent story with a less intensive creative process, try taking advantage of the fact that you are making a game by making the world partly generated and AI-powered..."

Thank you for the great advice. I see that me writing the story in novel form is not nessessary but it might help me consider elements of the story and world in different ways.

A conversation about how to make an immersive living game world in a mechanical and feature sense would be very valuable, but might belong in another forum.

Fortunately I have the plot nailed down, so now I am focused on drawing players into the world, making sure it is engaging. It is a typical teen discovering new powers heroes journey arc, but I am dangerously close to having a world where everyone is a bad guy...

If it is a game you are making the lore for then it is a game in which the lore should be featured. I would put all extraneous projects on the backburner.