Selecting Your World Players

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages

— William Shakespeare

It never hurts to think of your key world players. Those that control the major events of your world shape how your smaller players, your protaginists and antagonists will behave. Is there an Order of Knights, which seeks to rid the world of evil? How do they do it? Better yet, how are they not?The Government of a small, landlocked country can be your biggest player in your story, or even the city gangs.

Your Major Players can be Faceless Shadow Organizations, or Charismatic bringers of hope. No matter what though, they must control an important aspect of life within your Setting. Trade, Safety, News, Military. Anything that your Characters could rely on or be against can be under the purview of one or two Major Players, even multiple things under one!

Common Examples are the Ministry of Magic from Harry Potter , King Richard in the Adventures of Robin Hood , and the News in Starship Troopers . Beyond this, you can begin to delve into Players that your Characters can belong to, such as being a Jedi, a Wizard, a Knight, Police Officer, Judge. These smaller Organizations serve to act as both foil and mentor to young Characters, shaping them into the archetype they are to fill.

PatheticBarrel's Choices

For me, the idea of having a merchandiser be the primary source of the plot in my world was a must. I needed some bit of satire in order to make my secondary organization, a Disney-expy, be viable as an antagonist to the first and a possible ally of my heroes With one providing all of the consumable needs of a populace and the other the entertainment, my secondaries get to be subsidary manufacturers of said goods.

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Cooper's Toolbox

Question of the Week

How do you handle inter-Organizational Intrique? How does one Organization affect another?

— Crimeindex

This depends highly on what level your Organizations work on. Governments are supported either by Militaries or Shadow Cabals, which will either work with each other, or be driven against each other by the Government to keep them distracted and hopefully keep their leaders from attempting to gain control.
Smaller, or weaker, organizations can focus more on building themselves for the greater good or some other higher goal. Here, the Organization may interact with others, but will more likely interact with characters and be involved in how their actions will affect their motives.

Important Resources

Having touble picturing how your Organizations Rank system works? Use Playing Card Suites and Ranks to get a visual of who is in charge of who. -Tip from Crimeindex