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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 3493946" data-attributes="member: 18280">I can't speak about what the average DM does; if anything, EN World has taught me that there isn't any hard-and-fast rule about that.  What I can do is describe my own method, which I think qualifies as world-building.My own method is bottom-down, top-up, bottom-down.I'll start with creating the adventure setting that I want play to begin in.  This might mean a dungeon, wilderness encounter tables, a village, whathaveyou.  As a result of the choices I am making, I will do some top-down work.  I decided I want encounters with tribesmen; who are these tribesmen?  I placed some spider-cultists; who do they worship, and why?From these questions, I create a short player briefing on the area.  It might include new options based on my decisions (such as the Lakashi tribesmen in my Lakelands, that came from a desire to run a "tribesmen" encounter).  I might create some extra crunchy bits that PCs can play with (Totem Spirits of the Lakashi).  When the PCs decide to go from Long Archer (initial setup) to Selby-by-the-Water, I start the process over again.When working on the first part, I decided that there were "Lake Monsters" (pleisiosaurs) because I liked the Loch Ness image of them.  When working Selby from rough to ready, I added "leatherwings" (small pteradactyls) that largely take the place of pigeons and seabirds.  This in turn, perforce, makes me think about the place of dinosaurs in my world, and I decided that there are larger, more common reptiles in the warmer south....a detail that piqued the interest of at least a few players.And so on, and so on.  What is done at the "bottom-up" level drives what is done at the "top-down" level, and vice versa.I've never actually seen anyone approach worldbuilding in a different way, although I am sure that people do.   <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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