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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SWBaxter" data-source="post: 2734490" data-attributes="member: 27926">Well, what's essential varies from DM to DM, group to group, and setting to setting. For me personally to get a world to a playable state, I need a regular group that's willing to give me an idea of what they want to do (rather than just say "here we are, entertain us") and a big idea of my own to make the world distinctive. Absent those, I might as well just use Greyhawk or Wilderlands or whatever, why reinvent the wheel?Given that I have both of those, what the players enjoy will have a big influence on how I go about developing the world - some players really enjoy learning about history and visiting strange lands and cultures, so if I've got a few players like that in my group then I'm definitely going to start with a map and work out some history before moving to the small scale stuff. Others like plausible D&D societies, which means that I'd better work more on rules-type stuff and how it intereacts with the game world. Still others are more locally oriented and for them the overall picture isn't that important so long as I have a rich micro-setting with lots of plot hooks. Those are all questions worth answering, but how you get there is a unique process. There ain't no one true way.</blockquote>