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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 4032526" data-attributes="member: 18280">Thank you.  Now, for an honest moment....the world is not as detailed as it sounds.  It is detailed in a broad way, and some areas are detailed in a narrow way.  I do a lot of broad-strokes, and fill in the fine details as needed.  The trick is, of course, to have enough of an overview of the world that the players can never tell what was just added, and what was always there.   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> I start with the present, do a long zoom on history (i.e., how the world was formed, etc.), and then fill from both directions as the need arises.  My world has been formed by the squabbling of divine powers, and civilizations have been lost when those powers transformed the world in nasty ways.  Because outposts of those lost civilizations still survive, as do undead from those times, I need an overarching idea of who was around, and what they were like.  Thus, I know a bit about the ancient Hak, Esk, and Parthelonian peoples, and I certainly know how an ancient Esk wizard would differ from his modern equivilent.  After all, the Esk lich will only be different if I do this work.I try to do the more interesting, focused historical work within the last 500 years.  I want to know what will affect the PCs:  What holidays there are, and why.  What calendar is used.  What is going on in religion.  What places people pilgrimage to, and what happened there to make them famous.  Where the big battles were.  Where ruins are located.When devising a specific location, like Selby-by-the-Water, I come up with ideas, and ask "Why?".  Detail:  Selby is down on spellcasters.  Why?  Because decades ago half the town collapsed, and the townsfolk blame a local wizard, Amoreth the Arcane, for the collapse.  Is Amoreth still around?  No, but his ghost is.  What about his tower?  Still there, but even entering the grounds is punishable by death.  What really happened?  Amoreth discovered that the aboleth were mining under the town, and decided to do something about it.  Unfortunately, he failed.(Later on, when a PC decided that his parents were friends of the villified Amoreth, and left him at a young age to fend for himself, he was gratified when he finally learned what had happened, and that his parents had died slaying one of the aboleths.  Little bits of history, and little bits of implied history, can go a long way toward making a campaign setting seem "real" to the players.  When the PCs stories can get hooked into the story of the world, there is a level of satisfaction for both DM and players that is otherwise hard to evoke.  IME, anyway.)Try this:(1)  Decide on the general course of the world.(2)  Generate as many cool ideas and cool things as you can.(3)  By working backwards from the present, and forwards from the past, try fitting as many in as you can without making the world muddled.  (4)  Remember to have some of these cool things as part of the past.  Dungeon-delving is exploration of the past.  Talking to undead, dragons, or other long-lived creatures is the same.  "Cool" should not be reserved for the present.(5)  Likewise, keep the world moving.  Have some "cool" ideas show up as new fads, new products, new places.  For example, when the party was having downtime in one game, I told them that a new, chess-like game with pieces carved into various draconic forms had appeared, and it was taking the town by storm.  Everyone was playing it.  Needless to say, although the game hasn't had a game effect yet, the PCs bought an expensive game set and felt really happy that they had learned the rules.  They may yet discover that Dragonchess was an ancient game in southern lands, and make use of their interest in some way.Really, that's all it takes.Cribbed wholecloth from H.P. Lovecraft.  Creepy, scary guys who pretend to be human.   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> RC</blockquote>

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