So I ask the proponents of "living world" play --- how do you solve these problems without turning to player-facing tools and techniques?
So, I'm not--or at least I don't feel like--one of the proponents of "living world" play, but I have a couple of campaigns going in 5E that might have taught me stuff I can pass along, if you're interested.
In case you want to see what there is for results,
this is a link to the GDrive folder I share with players, with world information and houserules and stuff. You're welcome to look at anything in there you want to, but the world stuff is probably most relevant, here. Also, the setting is explicitly incomplete and a work in progress--I'm not done, and I intend to leave spaces for players (or me) to put stuff.
My
pre-campaign process (order probably isn't super-important, here):
--Pick a Big Thing or two for the world, and maybe a knock-on-effect or three. For Erkonin, it's that the Gods have been cut off from the world (The Severance), and right after that the demons and devils fought a portion of their eternal war on Erkonin (it was not a pleasant time). The big knock-on effect is that the planar boundaries are a bit porous--and some of the rules related to the planes and planar creatures are a bit different. If you want to work out a different calendar, now seems like a good time--though really any time will probably do.
--Roughly map out like a continent.
--Place your starting point on that continent map. Work out relevant details of that starting point. For my first campaign, that was Embernook; everything else on the continent came later. I don't map cities in more details than broad neighborhoods. I have started putting specific site names in the neighborhoods, in the city info I give to players, but not defining what those sites are. You plausibly want some NPCs you can rely on the PCs interacting with, written up as much as you need them.
--Suggest that the players write up some small amount of backstory for their characters. Opinions on the right amount vary. What you want is stuff that connects them to the setting, stuff you can use later to tie them to the campaign.
--Figure out how you intend to start the campaign. I generally start with the PCs all in the same place at the same time, and then throw brown stinky stuff at a convenient fan. I plant some information at that scene, with plausible directions for them to go from there.
My
in-campaign process (like, between sessions):
--Look at where the party stopped, the previous session. Ponder what they're likely to do next (here, it helps to know how the players are playing their characters, and to have good notes of the previous session). Prepare for what they're likely to do--so, opposition, scenery, and other incidentals. If there's something going on offscreen (which I've done) this is also when you probably want to advance that.
--Don't try to prep more than a session ahead. There may be prep that carries over--that's fine. You might have something like a BBEG with larger plans or goals, but you don't need to detail those (or the BBEG itself) out until/unless the PCs directly interact with them. Sometimes stuff you prep for one session won't matter in play until a session or three later than you thought--as with prep that carries more directly over, that's fine.
--Occasionally, drop stuff in that's not entirely related to what they're working on. Some of this should tie to PC backstories, but not necessarily all of it. In my first campaign, I dropped the first hints of the Hunger Between Worlds in the fourth session, and the first interactions with the Tundra Queen in the fifth; the first mess the PCs interacted with was still kinda ongoing. Both of those threads are still ongoing, nearly seventy sessions later. One of those was specifically inspired by a backstory; the other was not.
--Things about the world will emerge as the campaign progresses--both in play and in prep. This is good. Add those things to the world.
These days, my prep is like maybe a couple of hours per session, and it seems to be getting shorter as the campaigns progress--though part of that may be that when we were gaming in person, I transcribed monsters onto index cards, because we weren't gaming at my place and I didn't want to lug my monster books around. Obviously, what works for me isn't at all guaranteed to work for someone else, or anyone else, or everyone else; but I hope this is helpful.
