Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
How to build a world
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Nonei" data-source="post: 5102595" data-attributes="member: 88176"><p>I have done two campaigns, the first was decidedly a bottom-up - as my first campaign, I decided that it would be just a standard world lol, and pretty much knew absolutely nothing more than the local area, a trade town on the edge of the desert. I then added as things came up; it was a fairly short campaign, only got to about level 8-9.</p><p> </p><p>The one that we are well into now, I really wanted to have a better idea of, and so I did kind of a mixture in that I decided what the world looked like and what generally had been happening over the last 1000 years - not as much as I would like to have, but it definitely added a lot of depth to the campaign. I have also added many details as we've played through. I never have as much prep time as I would like!</p><p> </p><p>I think perhaps the best approach - for me - is slightly more top-down even than my last one. I would handle it the same way that I currently do my sessions: I have well-planned one-two sessions in advance, semi-plan between that and the end of the current storyline (i.e. have a directionish and know a bit about key NPCs and what the party might encounter, depending on their choice of paths, but no stats or anything like that), and then have kind of a grey foggy idea of overarching plotline. This lets me be extremely flexible during the game as I can easily ad-lib NPC/monster reactions, and since I don't really know what will happen in the future in the story I don't get too attached to a specific plotline and so am not tempted to railroad.</p><p> </p><p>So, this is my plan for making the world when I start my next campaign, perhaps it will help: </p><p>I will start just by brainstorming. What's unique about this world? How is it different than other worlds? How do the races interact? Anything geographically unique? What sort of religions might there be? Do people worship one god, many gods, spirits, all of the above depending on culture? Are the gods actively involved? That sort of thing. I won't have the answers to all of those questions I'm sure.</p><p> </p><p>Once I have a good idea of the feel of my world and the uniqueness of it, I should in the process have gotten a general idea of how it looks - if it's earth-like, more desert, more water, or cloud cities, etc. I probably would stick with one land mass or island (or group of islands) rather than an entire world, but have an idea if they are aware of any other lands, if there's any trade, suspicions about the sea, etc. Then for that land mass kind of figure out about deserts, rivers, mountains, etc, decide how big it actually is. Kind of have an overview of what and who is where, where the "civilized areas" are, and the wild areas, etc. </p><p> </p><p>Each kingdom/area at this point would just be a barest sketch of what's there: maybe what major creatures/races are there, what sort of political system it has (or doesn't have), religion, persecution, any secrets; if it's a kingdom what sort of "feel" it has (i.e. loosely policed, military state, mage state, etc) and maybe - if I think of it - a few key NPCs in power (not necessarily named although they can be) and a 4-5 words about them. So that would be the "foggy grey areas" - basically only decide just enough about them that you can respond if the PCs ask "what's over that way", or can have the PCs bump into someone from there.</p><p> </p><p>Then depending on time can pick 1-3 areas that the PCs might start in and get into much more detail. I saw a map somewhere here on the enworld forums that was drawn so each hex (it was 36x36 hexes) represented 1 day of foot travel - that seems like a great size for more detailed knowledge. The actual town/area they start in you of course want to know everything about (but leave room for flexibility) and then further out than that you probably just want a semi-solid knowledge about who's there, a couple key named NPCs they might run into or encounter, where the treasure's supposed to hide, who's been raiding who or making nice, etc.</p><p> </p><p>Granted, I doubt I will have enough time to do all that but if I did, I would. lol.</p><p> </p><p>Personally, I go by the philosophy that what the PCs don't know about the world/plotline/NPC is 100% changeable,so I try to note down the things that actually come up in game to keep them consistent and then change anything else to fit what seems interesting or seems to fit.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Nonei, post: 5102595, member: 88176"] I have done two campaigns, the first was decidedly a bottom-up - as my first campaign, I decided that it would be just a standard world lol, and pretty much knew absolutely nothing more than the local area, a trade town on the edge of the desert. I then added as things came up; it was a fairly short campaign, only got to about level 8-9. The one that we are well into now, I really wanted to have a better idea of, and so I did kind of a mixture in that I decided what the world looked like and what generally had been happening over the last 1000 years - not as much as I would like to have, but it definitely added a lot of depth to the campaign. I have also added many details as we've played through. I never have as much prep time as I would like! I think perhaps the best approach - for me - is slightly more top-down even than my last one. I would handle it the same way that I currently do my sessions: I have well-planned one-two sessions in advance, semi-plan between that and the end of the current storyline (i.e. have a directionish and know a bit about key NPCs and what the party might encounter, depending on their choice of paths, but no stats or anything like that), and then have kind of a grey foggy idea of overarching plotline. This lets me be extremely flexible during the game as I can easily ad-lib NPC/monster reactions, and since I don't really know what will happen in the future in the story I don't get too attached to a specific plotline and so am not tempted to railroad. So, this is my plan for making the world when I start my next campaign, perhaps it will help: I will start just by brainstorming. What's unique about this world? How is it different than other worlds? How do the races interact? Anything geographically unique? What sort of religions might there be? Do people worship one god, many gods, spirits, all of the above depending on culture? Are the gods actively involved? That sort of thing. I won't have the answers to all of those questions I'm sure. Once I have a good idea of the feel of my world and the uniqueness of it, I should in the process have gotten a general idea of how it looks - if it's earth-like, more desert, more water, or cloud cities, etc. I probably would stick with one land mass or island (or group of islands) rather than an entire world, but have an idea if they are aware of any other lands, if there's any trade, suspicions about the sea, etc. Then for that land mass kind of figure out about deserts, rivers, mountains, etc, decide how big it actually is. Kind of have an overview of what and who is where, where the "civilized areas" are, and the wild areas, etc. Each kingdom/area at this point would just be a barest sketch of what's there: maybe what major creatures/races are there, what sort of political system it has (or doesn't have), religion, persecution, any secrets; if it's a kingdom what sort of "feel" it has (i.e. loosely policed, military state, mage state, etc) and maybe - if I think of it - a few key NPCs in power (not necessarily named although they can be) and a 4-5 words about them. So that would be the "foggy grey areas" - basically only decide just enough about them that you can respond if the PCs ask "what's over that way", or can have the PCs bump into someone from there. Then depending on time can pick 1-3 areas that the PCs might start in and get into much more detail. I saw a map somewhere here on the enworld forums that was drawn so each hex (it was 36x36 hexes) represented 1 day of foot travel - that seems like a great size for more detailed knowledge. The actual town/area they start in you of course want to know everything about (but leave room for flexibility) and then further out than that you probably just want a semi-solid knowledge about who's there, a couple key named NPCs they might run into or encounter, where the treasure's supposed to hide, who's been raiding who or making nice, etc. Granted, I doubt I will have enough time to do all that but if I did, I would. lol. Personally, I go by the philosophy that what the PCs don't know about the world/plotline/NPC is 100% changeable,so I try to note down the things that actually come up in game to keep them consistent and then change anything else to fit what seems interesting or seems to fit. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
How to build a world
Top