Does Your World Revolve Too Much Around Your Protagonists?

Are your players or main characters the subject of every prophecy? Does every conflict and plot twist exist just to give them power? Basically: do you ever worry your setting revolves a little TOO much around your main characters?

If so, you might be trapped in snow globe worldbuilding! And sadly this is not the cozy, holiday kind: it's a world that feels small, contrived, and closed off—like a holodeck, or the world of the Truman show.

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6 Signs You Have a Snow globe World

How do you know if you have snowglobe worldbuilding? Here are some signs that your characters might be caught in a snow globe:

1. Every major event or conflict ties directly to your characters.

If every villain has a personal vendetta against your protagonist, or every major quest is about your players’ personal growth, your world may feel too character-centric. 

‍2. NPCs or secondary characters lack their own motivations.

Are your NPCs only there to serve as quest-givers? Or as clue vending machines? If your innkeeper has no motivations except providing a mysterious map, or your wizard villain only exists to thwart your hero, your world can feel artificial.

3. The world stops existing when the characters leave.

Areas of your world should develop, grow, and change, even when your heroes aren’t there! If they return to a village from the beginning of their adventure and literally everything is the same… they might as well have been trapped in a snow globe! 

‍4. The world’s history and lore only exist to serve the main plot.

If all your of lore, historical event, or prophecy ties back directly to your main characters or their current quest, it can make the world feel like it was crafted specifically for them. 

‍5. The setting lacks external consequences.

And even if your characters’ goal is to change the world, if the world only changes as a result of their actions, that’s a problem. Other events happening in the world should also create ripple effects, even when the protagonists aren't directly involved.

6. Supporting characters are overly loyal or obsessed with the main characters.

And finally, the Samwise Gamgee disorder: it’s wonderful storytelling when it happens as a one off, but when every secondary character - and even random NPCs - constantly prioritize the main characters above all else, it can make the setting feel unnatural. In a realistic world, people have their own obligations, motivations, and lives. If they drop everything to aid the heroes, it makes them feel like a plot point, and it makes your world feel fake.

How to Break Out of the Snow globe

OK, so maybe some of those sounded familiar to you. But it’s OK: Here’s how you smash your snow globe constraints, and make your world building feel alive!

1. Build current affairs that don’t revolve around the main characters.

To start with, create background drama and current affairs in your worldbuilding. Adding conflicts and world events that are independent of the main cast - maybe a political struggle between two nations or a guild war  - adds depth and movement to your world. It gives NPCs and side characters things to talk about that AREN’T the main quest. Your characters might get involved with these tangentially - or even in a later book or adventure —but they don’t have to. 

2. Give your NPCs their own lives.

And speaking of side characters and NPcs, make sure you give them real concerns, goals, dreams, and motivations that don’t revolve around your protagonists. What does the guild-master or the villain really want out of life? How do they plan to achieve it? This is especially important for repeating NPCs or side characters, or any character with importance in the story. 

A great example is the Cabbage Merchant in Avatar: The Last Airbender. This poor guy really just wants to sell his produce in peace! He’s never more than a background character - but he has an entire fanbase of his own!

If you want to build a world with rich, repeating side characters like this, you’ll need to keep notes - and World Anvil is the perfect tool to help! I use it for my own professional worldbuilding, and literally built it for just that! You can develop your characters using the character template, adding motivations, grudges and secrets to make your characters feel alive. You can track NPCs and complex political structures, develop cultures, and breathe life into your world beyond your main story. So go create a free account at WorldAnvil.com, if you’re not already an Anvilite!

3. Create independent factions with their own agendas.

Speaking of complex political factions, let’s talk organizations, countries, guilds and megacorporations. Your world’s factions should have their own goals and conflicts... even if the main characters never interact with them directly! The mere existence of these groups will add depth to your world. Imagine political intrigues, secret societies, or religious factions with their own power struggles and motivations. 

4. Focus on worldbuilding outside your plot.

But what about worldbuilding beyond characters? Even if your main story is set in a smaller location, make sure to give a sense that your world stretches beyond that. Add characters and imports from far away lands. Consider diplomats, trade envoys and even just a cosmopolitan marketplace to allow you to share details from beyond the location your characters are in. It will make your world feel richer and more immersive.

5. Add changing environments and evolving situations.

If you’re worried your worldbuilding is feeling flat and constrained, remember that time is a dimension too! Adding events that change the landscape, society, or economy over time can make your world feel vibrant and fresh. Perhaps a once-bustling city falls into decay, or a forest becomes haunted, or maybe a slum city is revitalized - change can be positive too! This creates a world that’s dynamic, where time affects everything. Remember to add reasons these changes occur - which might be related to the focus points or themes of your world! 

Of course, your audience has to SEE these changes too. When your adventurers return to a village from the beginning of their adventure, it might have new buildings… - or have been decimated by a goblin horde! 

6. Use different perspectives to expand the audience’s world view.

And another way to make your world seem varied, and not trapped in a snow globe, is to show it through different eyes! Your main characters have a certain way of looking at the world, and it’s easy for them to think that’s the only way. For writers, use different point of view characters to further the story. For GMs, you can share in-world letters, or simply have your characters overhear candid conversations. This shows off the world through fresh perspectives, and makes the world feel larger than just your main characters - which is the whole point of the exercise! 

If you’ve struggled with snow globe worldbuilding, if you have more ideas on how to weave depth into a snow-globe setting, let me know if then comments, please throw this video a like when you’re down there… then grab your hammer and go worldbuild!