Building a World Through an Ecosystem
In this article, I will be looking at the themes and world-building of the Netflix animated show "Delicious in Dungeon". The only major plot point I will be discussing happens in the first 30 seconds of episode one, so it is as spoiler-free as I can make it. Having said that, I will be diving deep into the show's themes, so if you want to experience it for yourself first, please take this opportunity to leave and come back once you've watched it. I personally can't recommend it highly enough :)
Last week I had a conversation with a client for our new One-to-One GM Training, talking about building a more detailed an intricate world for their players. And ever since I haven't been able to stop thinking of the world of "Delicious i” which does a lot of fascinating things.
For those who haven't had the pleasure of watching "Delicious in Dungeon", it is a new Netflix animated series following a group of adventurers as they delve deeper into a dungeon to fight a Dragon. The twist is that they eat the monsters they find instead of bringing their own supplies to save time and money, often with comedic results. The tone is very light and quite silly, and it is definitely not for the seriousness of temperament. But despite this, the show has one of the most fascinating and detailed worlds I've seen in anime in a long time. It is full of clever ideas and exciting twists on concepts that fantasy fans will have seen a million times over. The show uses many tools to build this world, but the lynchpin of its world-building is using an eco-system.
Thematically, it makes a lot of sense to have a strong sense of the eco-system of this dungeon in the show because the main focus of the program is on the food the characters cook, and as such, this means understanding the origins of the ingredients (ie the monsters they are turning into a souffle!). It would be simple just to hand wave this - it's a dungeon, monsters live here, adventurers kill them for loot - but doing so would be very one-dimensional. "Delicious in Dungeon" shows off a varied and detailed ecosystem, where all the monsters have their place inside it. This makes the monsters feel a lot more interesting because instead of being a random monster, it is part of a living world that you get to see through the eyes of the protagonists. It also gives the show a chance to include the history of the dungeon through this lens, as you learn that as adventurers started exploring the dungeon, many monsters started moving to lower levels to avoid the people disturbing their environment. This, in turn, has changed the environment that the Dragon lives in, which has become more active and is pushing other types of monsters to return to the surface to avoid it.
It also suggests questions to the viewer without explicitly asking them, like "Where did these monsters come from?", "Why is the Dragon suddenly moving around?", "What happens when all the monsters die out?". This, after all, is the point of world-building: to make the audience question what they are seeing and want to know more about it. This is the tipping point for most players in RPGs, turning them from your typical munchkin players who want to kill the baddies and get the loot and making them into characters who have their place inside this world you have built. This plays beautifully with the themes of "Delicious in Dungeon", and the audience gets to watch in real-time as the characters ask these questions and grapple with the answers. Is what they are doing a good thing? Or are they part of a systemic ignorance that is actively destroying a delicate ecosystem that would be better off if they just left it alone?
Those are big, meaty questions for a comedy anime to be asking. And by the time you reach the dungeon's heart and find the dragon, it isn't just a beast anymore. It's a vital part of this dungeon that you understand, and you have a real and grounded reason for rooting for the characters as they fight it. This elevates this silly show about adventurers who eat monsters into an emotional and compelling story I have been riveted by.
So what lessons can we learn from looking at "Delicious in Dungeon"?
Everything in your world is connected. Whether you like it or not, your world binds creatures and environments together, and having a strong sense of how that works can make it feel much more detailed.
We can use the focus of our themes to add detail to our worlds. "Delicious in Dungeon's" main theme is eating, so it makes sense to look at where that food came from.
A compelling world presents questions to its audience, making them want to know more. This is a great way to make your audience invested in the story.
I hope you got something from this article, and I plan on doing more of these. If you want to suggest a topic for a future article, head to our Discord Server and tell me all about it! And if you want to learn more about how to build a detailed, intricate world like this for your own players, don't forget to check out our One-to-One GM Training, where we can provide one-to-one coaching to help you become the Greatest Game Master Who Has Ever Lived!*
*Entirely hyperbole, please do not sue us when we cannot turn you into Brennan Lee-Mulligan!