Actual Test: Downtime as Worldbuilding

In the back of the Downtime in Zyan zine, after the downtime actions, we get 10 prompts for prepping your campaign to help "develop your setting, create your starting community, and stock your map with sites of exploration and treasure that encourage the use of downtime activities." I reviewed Downtime in Zyan previously and decided to test out this workflow as a world-building tool.

The prompts, or steps to run through, are:
1. Institutions operating in the starting community where play begins.
2. Master artisans that currently reside there.
3. A rival adventuring party.
4. A secret location where spiritual exercises can be performed.
5. A secret location with a trove of otherwise inaccessible and valuable information.
6. A secret location where special revelry can be engaged in.
7. Some legendary institutions, now gone.
8. Some prolific master craftsmen of the distant past.
9. A tragically lost magical book.
10. A remarkable material that could be used to fashion splendid artifacts.

Downtime in Zyan, showing cover art by Evlyn Moreau

Our starting setting is centred on the Flytrap Inn in Balronco ("Broken Promises" in old elvish) a village clinging to the side of a river beneath a steep slope. High winds howl incessantly through the abandoned cliff-top town of the vanished insect-folk, though rumours are afoot of sightings in the ruins. Behind this village lies wetlands extending from the river delta up into swamps all along the Balronco side of the river.

** Institutions about Balronco **
1. Inconsequential: Order of the Rolling Cask, a local bunch of blow-hards, with ambitions to become a vitners or brewers guild.
2. Minor: Sages for the Preservation of Architectural Heritage - sages who study the ancient insect-folk, including some animal-lings looking for deeper heritage connections.
3. Middling: Balronco Brotherhood of Beast-hunters - overly ambitous hunters and trappers; some successes blown wildly out of proportion.
4. Major: Friends Over the River - local smugglers affiliated with the Knight of Shadows, criminal godfather of nearby port city Dotheas. Discreet, overworked.
5. Influential: Swamp Iron Guilders - miners, smelters and smiths, scattered across the wetlands with a trading post in Balronco. Affiliated to the fighting guilds of Yehlune.
6. (In)Famous: Mage guild of Sinenyame - faraway rulers of the realm, rarely present except through heralds with edicts.
7. Legendary: Knights of the High Church of Hluthudore (Numira, Melora, Sehanine) - patrols and traveling arbiters, posters of the Princes Bounties, the true power this close to Hluthudore, prone to poking their nose where noone wanted them to but also willing to face down the threats that crawl out of the swamps unpaid.

** Master Artisans
Almar the Blacksmith (squirrelkin, Swamp Iron Guilder) - most likely to ask for feats of strength or aid in delivering mighty weapons, arms and armour - or the lifting of carts, shoeing of great beasts
The Widow Guineve - (human, Sage) Bookbinder - legendary local beauty, most likely to seek hunter and searchers for ink and other components
Brother Jesop - (horned one, local factor for the Mages) Alchemist - all created as brews, distilled spirits and other cousins of monkish beers. Will demand some charitable service to members of his flock in need.

* * * Rival adventurers
Brothers of the Muddy River - minor league brigands, traders, plunderers and last resort aid. In good standing with the Friends Over the River.
Mulberry (Coatikin, leader) master of the legendary fifth paw of woe, student of the Huntmaster of Tlaumasalian
Abernath (owling) wielder of the Dancing Spear Silence, which they had from the horde of the dragon Frostmere
Ruisc (bearkin) initiative of ley-running
Sengal (lizardfolk) bearer of the Book of Guided Enlightenment, written by an elven high wizard, the Master of Hluthotrell, contains a wide range of alteration spells, including a number tailored to those with fangs, claws and natural armour

* * * Sacred location
There is a sacred pool at the edge of the greater and lesser forests of Heng, where bathing under the full moon can cure any ailment, or if combined with the right kinds of mushrooms that grow beneath the falls, induce prophetic visions

* * * Trove of secret knowledge
House library of an extinct animalkin house, one of the closest to the elves, greatest of their students, the best became elves and departed with the Retreat, the remainder fell to despair and it is said they wandered off. The exact location of the summer house has been lost, but from tavern tales told by the last despairing wanderers, it held their greatest works.

* * * Place of Revelry
The Cascade of Stars bath-house, set deep in the bayous, where all demands can be catered to - if you can find the place. People swear that time can get strange there, that they only intended to spend an afternoon though they were gone for a week.

* * * Legendary institutions that no longer exist
- Elven Imperial Guard - once conquered and held half the world, including all this continent - old watchtowers and castles
- Shapers of Olhein (wizards of incredible power, formed the animal-lings, built the great works of the elves) - monuments, great bridges, aquaducts and viaducts.
- Court of Masks (fey, archfey, animists, druids) - groves, grottos and caverns - natural spaces shaped into amphitheatres, etc.

* * * A Prolific master craftsmen of the distant past
Jolisentis Redbanner - master of the Elven Guard - works are complex, organic looking, shells and stones inspired - known for his great Horn of the Guard, formed from a dragon turtles tooth, said to be able to blast apart walls, rally troops and terrify foes.
The Master of Hluthotrell (near Hluthodore) - write of the Book of Guided Enlightenment, identifiable by complex mosaic-work - said to contain all knowledge about conjurations and alterations and the secrets of the creation of the animal-lings
Hlon the Gifted (owling, patriarch, founder of the Guild of Sinenyame) - highly textured detail work - embossing, embroidering, information worked into decoration - created the Mantle of Hlon, said to enable passage across great distances and between worlds

* * * A tragically lost magical book.
The Great Red Folio. Said to have been written by the mage-king Luthiendar, conqueror of the Southern Reaches, it contains the spells he learned through his conquests, interspersed with other secrets and now-lost knowledge. Believed to be the only true record of what existed before the elves came - dragon lairs, dwarf holds, giant steadings and others now lost to time. A thick folio bound in red-scaled sea-serpent skin, with mother of pearl detailing. Said to have been lost during the elven retreat.

* * * A remarkable material that could be used to fashion splendid artifacts.
- Structural wax - produced by insectfolk, typically found by salvaging scaffoldings from beetlescale dwellings - can be reformed by heating into incredibly durable and hard-wearing items. Much prized for repairs to heavily used things like mill-wheels, ship-masts or for creating the best grips for weapon

Thoughts

Overall I like this workflow, it pushed me off my usual ways of worldbuilding and got me thinking along new avenues. I will be intrigued to see how certain things play out - whether or not the players pay any attention to who the old masters of magic crafting were if there is not an item right in front of them. Understanding who shaped the realm is a good prompt, and seeding the local surrounds with remnants of those institutions is a good idea. I liked this quite a lot and I can see it being helpful at the table. It also, through the institutions and the rival adventurers, provides a great store of answers to 'who is active around here' if a party asks.