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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MNblockhead" data-source="post: 7006761" data-attributes="member: 6796661">I also take a top down approach. I will write out high level notes on geography, politics, culture, groups, philosophies. I flesh out the rest as the campaign progresses. To make this approach work, I find the following helps:1. Base areas/cultures on cultures and history you are interested in or have been toI've traveled alot and lived in other countries. One advantage of this is I can make a mental note that a particular culture is inspired by, say, Chinese culture. That way when I get random player questions, I can come up with a town name, person name, or bit of lore or trivia on the fly without needing complicated sets of name generators and fully written out backstories and histories. Even if you have not traveled or lived in other countries, read up on your history. Even if you are playing a game set in the future, reading history and anthropology will expose you lots of very different world views and ways of living that can inspire your creations. I like to play "what if" games. What if two cultures that never mixed had made contact, how would they influence each other, what third culture would arise?One of may regions in my game world is a mix of Aztec and Harapan (ancient Indus river valley civilization), influenced by modern Indian cultures (because easier to get info on than Harapan).  Going through this exercise and writing up some notes on it gives me a base to present a rich experience that seems like I put in more planning than I did. In another, I asked, what would happen if the Etruscans were never overshadowed by the Romans? Now here, I spent a lot of time reading up on the Etruscan civilization and on early Roman civilization and how they influenced each other. But my time was spend mostly reading and taking some skeltal notes. I fill in the rest as I need to or with on-the-fly BS that becomes canon because I left lots of room for me to make stuff up rather than having to plan and memorize it all before hand. 2. Have a good note-taking systemFor this to work, you need to remember the what you made up on the spot. Otherwise you'll lose continuity. Take notes as you DM and have some system for organizing information about your campaign. I use RealmWorks for this. There are other tools like Obsidian Portal, City of Brass, or generic Wiki's. Other use Onenote, Evernote, Scrivenor or a combination. For a low tech approach, see the Drunkens & Dragons YouTube videos where the DM (his name escapes me) shares his campaign note book. He's got some great tips on preparing for and managing your campaign.</blockquote>

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