“The most important part of an RPG is the player feeling like they are taking the role of a character in a fully realised fantasy world. They can explore, visit various towns and places, talk to people, customise their character, collect various items, and defeat monsters. The story is not the focus of the experience and is only there to make the atmosphere of the fantasy world more interesting and engaging during the course of the game.”- Yuji Horii
Dragon Quest VII (2000)is infamous for its lengthy opening segment devoid of any game systems other than walking around and talking to NPCs. There are two verbs here: move and talk. The game uses these to an extreme fullness in creating a truly living world. The game opens with not a great opening scrawl lore dump but just some early CGI zooming into an island alone at sea. At no moment in these opening hours does the game give you an explicit mission and certainly nothing that would take any meaningful amount of time. Instead the game invites you to explore its lovingly created 3D environments.
Maribel the hero character’s osananajimi (oldest childhood friend that is usually of the opposite sex with an expectation that they will marry)may ask you to go with her to Estard or your father (male parent) Borkano may ask you for a sandwich. In the initial village of Fishbel going to the church at night the priest will mention that the island you’re on is the only island in the entire world. Here Enix used diegetic character interaction to explain large world shaping lore, whereas something like this in a DnD campaign might be explained in a session zero as you desperately try to get your friends to read your newest world building project it's much better to invite players into talking to your characters about this wondrous world you’ve crafted or that you’ve decided to play in. Particularly in addressing the player character’s uncle, characters always use different words, his name, your fathers brother or just uncle and usually have something negative to say about him. The characters here know you, they know your family. These familial connections of your character connect to the wider gossip of a town creating a much greater verisimilitude.
While Captain Borkano holds authority as the ship's captain in our fishing village, it's important to note that the vessel itself is owned by the father of your childhood friend. Never explicitly said or used in the introduction of the game, this interesting power dynamic between two men and the weaving of it into the life of a player character can create some real investment from the players into a world you’ve put so much time into. Sometimes I find that TTRPG sessions lean toward “Strangers in a Strange Land” too often (or at least that might just be my table) and every NPC reacts inhospitably to the player's existence in their world. Completely understandable, players either have a lovingly crafted backstory or none and the GM doesn’t want to take charge and suddenly give them a sister or a village they are from, but I think they are missing something here by not integrating their world with their players.
For your next campaign perhaps put a pause on your next great empire shattering or god killing plans and instead give yourself a slow start of fetching your father a sandwich to fully bathe in the depths of your fantasy world.