Thinking "What If?" In Detail

setting-design world-building design-technique arcanum troika

Abstract

Problem: How do you create compelling, original game settings without alienating players with something entirely unfamiliar?

Approach: Tim Cain describes a technique he calls "thinking what if in detail" — take a familiar setting, change one thing, then rigorously trace every consequence of that change through society, architecture, culture, and daily life.

Findings: Even a single speculative change (like clothing printers) cascades into enormous societal shifts — eliminating entire industries, reshaping architecture, transforming travel, and altering social norms. This method produces rich, believable worlds that players can still relate to because only one variable changed.

Key insight: The best settings aren't built by making everything alien — they start from something recognizable and change one thing, then follow every implication ruthlessly.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nOwzRRGEhI

1. The Clothing Printer Thought Experiment

The technique originated from a lunch conversation at Troika Games (during Temple of Elemental Evil development, early 2000s). The group was discussing what would amaze people from a century ago about modern life, and Tim flipped the question: what would people a century from now find disgusting about us?

His answer: we re-wear clothes. This launched an extended thought experiment about clothing printers — machines built into your wall that know your exact measurements (via body scanning), offer unlimited fabric, pattern, color, and style options, and print fresh clothes in five to ten minutes.

1.1. Personal Effects

  • You never wear the same outfit twice
  • Every garment fits perfectly — no more "between sizes" compromises
  • Baggy or loose clothing becomes a deliberate style choice, not a sizing limitation
  • You'll essentially never encounter someone wearing the same thing as you
  • Clothing repair (needles, thread, sewing machines) becomes unheard of

1.2. Impact on the Home

  • Closets, dressers, wardrobes — gone. No need to store clothing.
  • Washers and dryers — gone. Clothes go into a recycling hamper each night, material is reclaimed, dirt flushed away.
  • Laundry rooms in apartment buildings — gone. No more assigned laundry nights.
  • Irons — gone. Every garment is freshly made and wrinkle-free.
  • Entire rooms and architectural features of homes disappear.

1.3. Impact on Retail and Commerce

  • Traditional clothing stores may vanish or transform into boutiques selling exclusive patterns unavailable online
  • One-use specialty shops could emerge — need a tuxedo for a wedding? Print one at a store with an industrial printer (seconds, not minutes). Caught in unexpected rain? Duck into a shop and print a raincoat.
  • Vintage clothing stores might still exist as luxury goods for the wealthy, since old-style physical garments would be rare and require the forgotten infrastructure of washing and repair

1.4. Impact on Travel

  • Luggage disappears. No suitcases at airports or train stations.
  • Hotels would have in-room clothing printers, or nearby one-off print shops
  • No checked bags, no overhead bins, no wheelie carts
  • Travel becomes dramatically simpler

2. Extending the Technique: Food Printers

Tim briefly extends the same logic to food printers, showing how the technique scales:

  • Kitchens, pantries, ovens, refrigerators, pots, pans, Tupperware — all gone
  • Possibly even plates and cutlery, replaced by printed biodegradable substrates that get recycled back
  • Grocery stores might survive as farmers markets for foodies who prefer "real" produce
  • Restaurants could persist for exclusive recipes not available publicly, or for foods that printers handle poorly (Tim's example: raw fish and sushi bars)

3. The Design Technique

The core method for setting designers:

  1. Start with something familiar — a setting players already understand
  2. Change one thing — introduce a single speculative element
  3. Trace every ramification — follow the change through daily life, architecture, economics, culture, social norms, and technology
  4. Resist the urge to change everything — if everything is alien, players have no touchstone

Tim emphasizes that this should be the first step in game design, following his preferred design order: setting → story → system mechanics.

4. Arcanum as a Case Study

Tim cites Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura as a direct product of this technique. The "what if" was simple: what if an industrial revolution happened in a Tolkien-esque fantasy world? From that single change, the team explored:

  • Technology versus magic — pros and cons of each
  • How different fantasy races would participate in or be affected by industrialization
  • The broader societal effects of an industrial revolution on a magical civilization

5. Other Setting Seeds

Tim rattles off several example "what if" prompts to illustrate the technique's versatility:

  • Near future: we discover warp drive
  • Near future: aliens arrive
  • Near future: we discover how to copy brains — wealthy people achieve immortality by buying young bodies, wiping the brain, and copying themselves in

6. References