Good world building guide

I commented in my last post that I have some ideas for my setting. The thing is that this is my first time doing this seriously. I want to use other people experience in order to make my own experience more fruitful.
I want to know if you have used in the past some guide to create your own setting or if you have some method. Maybe an advise too.
Im aware of kobold guide for world building but maybe an entire book is too much... Or maybe not. Have you tried this kind of books?

I am quite fond of the World Builder's Guidebook, although sadly I have lost the pad of maps that came with. I think they're in a box somewhere....

You could also check out Welsh Piper's Mid-size Campaigns and Hex-Based Campaign Design, although they don't cover a whole world (and who has time for that -- besides Ed Greenwood?).

EDIT: There's also Ray Winninger's helpful column Dungeoncraft, which was published in Dragon Magazine ... gosh, fifteen years ago. If you happen to have access to someone's collection.

Seconding the recommendation of the World Builder's Guidebook. Its just a fun book all around and easily adaptable to other editions and games.

I'll check if I can find that book.
Thank you both.

If I remember correctly, the 3.5 ed DMG2 had a bunch of good info. for world building.

I used the D&D 3.5e DMG as my guide to building a world for my homebrew game. I started big, naming the continent, countries, capital cities and developing a pantheon*. From that point I began to focus on the country that I planned to start my campaign in, adding some major cities and what they were known for (import/export, type of government, that kind of thing). Once I had my first country developed in a rough draft it was only then that I started to look at ways to map the entire continent, for which I used Hexographer to randomly generate until I found one that I actually liked and could build off of.

From this point I went back to focusing on that first country (most likely point to start a campaign in). I developed the national demographics, style of government, major religious divisions and active/previous conflicts with neighboring countries. I didn't particularly care to delve any deeper as I wanted my players to tell me what they had in mind for the campaign, etc. and felt that any more level of detail would cause some of my hard work to go unused.

Once I had my framework for that one country, I emulated the details from it to the other eight countries, doing my best not to duplicate government types so that we had as diverse of a world...well, as we do here on Earth. From the point where I had all my countries framed up and my leaders named (King So-and-So, Empress La-Ti-Da) I went back and reviewed all of it to start looking for holes, then plot opportunities.

Finally, I started to really develop the major factions in the world external to the governments and religious organizations, looking for other plot opportunities and goals. From that point forward I've just been adding details as my group has been playing through the campaigns, making sure that I pay special attention not to duplicate names or locations so each place the group goes feels special/unique.

Hope this helps - and one more piece of advice: The process I went through above took weeks of real time (hour here, hour there) to create and develop. Don't put yourself on a timeline for completion if you can possibly help it. I've found that I become more concerned with the deadline than the quality of information that I'm trying to put together.

*Note - The pantheon was a primary driver for the world being in the condition that it was in; one country had already been destroyed in the process of the gods' displeasure displayed to the races. Depending on what you plan in terms of the gods' involvement in the world, this could absolutely wait until much later in your world's development.

That is a good guideline. I'll check the DMGs I have and will add their advises on worldbuilding to the 2e guide you have told me.
Thank you!

My favourite is the "Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide" (though I'm hesitant to recommend DTRPG right now... )

delericho said:

My favourite is the "Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide" (though I'm hesitant to recommend DTRPG right now... )

Click to expand...

Yes, listen to anything Jennel Jaquays has to say.

One pitfall to the inside-out method, where you start with a point and expand outward. The Known World grew that way in the 80s, and it seems like every time they decided to expand the world, they compacted the scale so each hex had more miles in it, but still made countries cover about the same number of hexes, so the countries they detailed in the Companion and Master adventures were much bigger than the Grand Duchy (and suddenly there was an empire with 1,000 or so 36th level mages!).

It is probably best to sketch the continents, then make notes about what you want where. Like, taking the Forgotten Realms as a hypothetical, you might start by listing out barbarians, feudal kingdoms, Arabian adventures, pyramids and Egyptian stuff, Lankhmar, pirates, the remnants of a fallen magical empire, and the obligatory Land of Evil Mages. Then you'd sketch out a continent map roughly, probably just a number of rough circles with notes for mountains, forests, rift valleys, inland seas, etc.

Then you'd sketch out locations: Barbarians (and orcs for them to fight) in the northwest (the Savage Frontier/Silver Marches), the feudal kingdoms nearby to the south so they're handy, some of the Arabian stuff below that and the Egyptian stuff to the east of the Arabs, with jungles below the Arabs (because you've decided it's mostly in the northern hemisphere). Then, on a whim, the fallen magical empire (now a vast desert) smack dab in the middle of the barbarians, and Lankhmar on the coast so it's handy to those feudal kingdoms as well. Then it seems like a good idea to put the evil mages near the Egyptian stuff so they could compete with adventurers for magical secrets in the pyramids and tombs, and you sprinkle the pirates wherever there's water.

So that's good for a first pass (and probably not at all how the Forgotten Realms was actually written). Then go in, pick an area and refine it.

I'll add that too to my sources.
Thanks a lot