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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Janx" data-source="post: 1611869" data-attributes="member: 8835">I spent maybe 10 hours preparing my homebrew world, before the first game.  This occurred over about 3 weeks.First came the idea.  I chose to emulate a story/universe I had seen somewhere else (tv/book/movie - not spoiling it here).For me, I knew I needed racially divided lines.  I made a list of all the races/countries I needed (and linked them to the original races/organizations from my source for quick mental reference)At this point, I knew that the players would all be humans, and the game would start out with the human race having limited knowledge of the world beyond their border.  The humans had made contact with a few races, namely gnomes and dwarves.  This is what spawned my world-map drawing.  I went to a fractal map site and had one done up (mostly water, lots of islands).  I then used my Paint Shop Pro to re-arrange the islands a bit to my taste (spreading things out).  I then assigned a race to each island area, with the humans in the center.My last step was to write a 3 page hand-out for the players, explaining the basics of the world.  Namely, covering the military, the primary religion and the role of Wizards.  It also had a short timeline so the players had some backstory.  Lastly, I zoomed in on the human homeland and pasted a map with the specific provinces named.  I also named the capitol.  I did not do any city maps or individual province maps.Later, as I needed to in the game (which has been running for 8 months now), I've added a document for the Monk's Dojo, the Cleric church/religious structure, and a guide for the Wizard players.  Each document is 2-4 pages long and is pure fluff.  It describes titles for ranks, attitudes of the people towards that class (and vice versa).I keep several files handy, which I update before and after each adventure.  One is an NPC list, a spreadsheet naming all the NPCs I've invented, their class, location, and a brief explanation.  This helps me find people who I've mentioned in the past, but can't remember their name.I also keep a timeline spreadsheet.  One tab holds the secret Plot outline, where I lay out the general flow of the big story arc.  For instance, I knew when the elves and humans went to war, and how long that will last.  I also know when the next big event will take place.  Other tabs are used to track the player's adventures.  I know when each adventure started, and I log the exact date that major events in their campaign took place.  This lets me keep track of things like knowing when they sunk the first elven ship, which might come up later in a parallel game I'm running with a different set of characters.  It also helps me keep pace for tha characters with the big secret timeline.  I know how much time has gone by in perspective with the big story.And that's about all I do.  I'd say my current method is pretty low maintenance while still keeping track of details and continuing the world building.</blockquote>

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