Making a Homebrew World...

[KrazyHades]

OK, I'm making a homebrew campaign and world, and I was wondering how in-depth other DMs out there tend to go in fleshing out each nation/plane/city etc. I've made a map of the world they start on (...btw, one thing I've always found amusing is how its easier to get to OTHER PLANES OF EXISTENCE than to go to another world/the moon on the material plane) and a map of the planes (as in, "where" they are in the astral plane relative to the material).

I mean, looking at something like The Forgotten Realms, with its extremely in-depth descriptions of every major city, and of every nation, important people/places in that nation, and every culture...its just intimidating...
Since this is my first real homebrew world (though I'm using the Forgotten Realms pantheons, since I just love them), I wanted to know what other DM's with homebrews have done.

 

[Andor]

Flesh out as much as you enjoy fleshing out. A homebrew is for the fun of exercising your imagination.

 

[Storm Raven]

OK, I'm making a homebrew campaign and world, and I was wondering how in-depth other DMs out there tend to go in fleshing out each nation/plane/city etc. I've made a map of the world they start on (...btw, one thing I've always found amusing is how its easier to get to OTHER PLANES OF EXISTENCE than to go to another world/the moon on the material plane) and a map of the planes (as in, "where" they are in the astral plane relative to the material).

I mean, looking at something like The Forgotten Realms, with its extremely in-depth descriptions of every major city, and of every nation, important people/places in that nation, and every culture...its just intimidating...
Since this is my first real homebrew world (though I'm using the Forgotten Realms pantheons, since I just love them), I wanted to know what other DM's with homebrews have done.

Flesh out as much as will affect the characters in the campaign. Then flesh out anything you want to spend some time on. It's okay for the distant northern kingdom that the PCs will never visit are no more detailed than "Alzon, a northern kingdom, snowy, mountainous, violent barbarians who run with wolf packs live here". But the town they are living in right now should be detailed as much as you need to make it seem real and alive to the players.

 

[jdrakeh]

Download and Read -- this short PDF covers the different types of world creation (which you seem to be unfamiliar with), as well as ways of gauging the method that will work best for your specific needs.

 

[KrazyHades]

No, I'm aware of the different types. Before, I have always worked up from a small point (usually a village a few days away from a town...), expanding on what the players needed. But this is my first time doing a "top-down" world, and I wanted to know what other DMs did.

The link you posted has some great suggestions, but I also want to hear those from EnWorld DMs.

 

[jdrakeh]

The link you posted has some great suggestions, but I also want to hear those from EnWorld DMs.

Backtrack a bit to the author's main site. He's the authority on world-building (too bad he doesn't invest that much time in learning HTML). He's done tons of seminars at cons on the topic. As for how I do it. . . pretty much like Dr. Game suggests.

I start with the map (specifically, geographic features) and then work in cities, towns, and ruins where they look good and/or would naturally occur (depending on the reality level of the campaign). Then I get to detailing each of those places with words.

Lately, though, I've been toying around with starting the other way. . . with the words and, then, adding the map after the fact. We're playing Exquisite Corpse over at theRPGsite, with the goal of the first round being the creation of a fantasy setting.

So far, we have missing heavenly constellations, mischieveous gods, neurotic elves, lipid vampires (yes, vampires that survive on body fat), metal bards, and other fun stuff. It's a nice blend of traditional fantasy, sci-fantasy, and tongue-in-cheek weird.

 

[fusangite]

OK, I'm making a homebrew campaign and world, and I was wondering how in-depth other DMs out there tend to go in fleshing out each nation/plane/city etc.

The important thing is to strike a balance. You need certain things to stay un- or partly-defined because, in order to make something work in the part of the world your players are in will something will suddenly need to be true of a place way over on the other side of the map because of what the plot demands here and now.

My rule is that I make the whole world before things get going but this doesn't close me off to changing parts that I have made as I go, provided they are places with which the characters have no direct experience.

So, make things as detailed or as vague as you want. Just don't reveal too much about the world to your players and be prepared to rewrite stuff once or more before the characters actually get there or meet someone from there.

I've made a map of the world they start on (...btw, one thing I've always found amusing is how its easier to get to OTHER PLANES OF EXISTENCE than to go to another world/the moon on the material plane)

How do you know the moon is not another plane? In a campaign I ran, it was the underworld and home of the dark elves.

And besides, who knows how hard it is to get to the moon if fire really is an element, in which there is no such thing as oxygen and in which people can make giant exploding balls of fire out of bat excrement and words? The rules of chemistry and physics are so different in D&D worlds, it may be flat-out impossible to build rockets.

and a map of the planes (as in, "where" they are in the astral plane relative to the material).

Great example of something you can afford to revise as you go.

I mean, looking at something like The Forgotten Realms, with its extremely in-depth descriptions of every major city, and of every nation, important people/places in that nation, and every culture...its just intimidating...

The amount of detail in FR, in many people's view undermines rather than reinforcing suspension of disbelief. Don't be intimidated.
Since this is my first real homebrew world (though I'm using the Forgotten Realms pantheons, since I just love them), I wanted to know what other DM's with homebrews have done.[/QUOTE]

 

[Nonlethal Force]

I think one of the best pieces of advice was already given here: Do what you enjoy fleshing out and then stop until necessary. For example, I have a fairly in-depth homebrew world. (See link in the Sblock in my sig) However, I didn't want to post it all online. So, I began by posting what needed to be posted. Eventually, one of the games got going on cosmology and gods. So then I posted that bit. And so on and so forth. I have much more I could add, but it hasn't come up yet so I haven't added it.

Beyond actually building the map, I've found that the world makes more sense when it evolves out of gameplay and experience than when it is simply written. Things written in one night tend to be flat and uninteresting. Things evolved by playing over the span of hours, days, weeks, and perhaps even years tend to be much more interesting and realistic.

 

[WayneLigon]

I mean, looking at something like The Forgotten Realms, with its extremely in-depth descriptions of every major city, and of every nation, important people/places in that nation, and every culture...its just intimidating...

It is. The booklet that came with the orginal World of Greyhawk said something about it being the minimum amount of work that should be considered for a good campaign. That intimidated me for years.

Then I got over it The best way to go about doing a campaign is to have a broad framework and then only do detail for the areas you need right then. Ed Greenwood didn't (well, it's extremely unlikely) sit down and write out a thousand pages of Realmslore before the game began. That was accumulated piece by piece over decades of time.

 

[Woas]

Read these old Dungeoncraft essays from Ray Winninger.


http://www.darkshire.net/~jhkim/rpg/dnd/dungeoncraft/


It may be called Dungeoncraft, but all these ones deal with are creating a new homebrew.