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<blockquote data-quote="Treebore" data-source="post: 4340417" data-attributes="member: 10177">Part of the problem with &quot;world building&quot; is this idea that you have to build a whole world to be a &quot;World Builder&quot;. Greyhawk didn't. Forgotten Realms didn't. The Wilderlands didn't. Blackmoor didn't. They built regions or a continent or 3, not a whole world. A whole world is there, but these settings only care about what is &quot;right here&quot;.So world building is really just creating enough of a world in which to run the campaign you want to run. If your campaign ideas require a whole world, then you detail the whole world.About two years ago my campaign finally became a whole world. I cheated a bit though. I took all my favorite settings, that weren't already fully detailed worlds themselves, such as Oathbound, and put them all on the same world. I finally did this because I was finally given a &quot;needle&quot; with which I could connect/sew all these settings together with.So now I know what every bit of my world looks like.This is not needed for &quot;world building&quot; though. Your world only needs to be big enough, or be able to become big enough, to run with whatever your players do.So creating a hamlet/village/town/city in which to start your campaign and then add on from there is still world building, its just building at the smallest scale possible.Anyways, if you want to get serious about world building I can suggest a nice &quot;World Building Library&quot; that has helped me with every aspect and question I have had to answer. Plus helped me do it in a consistent and cohesive whole.The World Builder books from Troll Lord Games, such as &quot;World Builder&quot;, &quot;Nations Builder&quot;, &quot;Cosmos Builder&quot;, &quot;Canting Crew&quot;, etc...&nbsp; The other books I have found to be a huge help, especially for trade and economics issues, are &quot;Magical Medievel Societies: Western Europe&quot; and &quot;Silk Road&quot; from Expeditious Retreat Press.Do you have to have these books? No. They are just invaluable in helping me pay attention to the details and creating and maintaining a cohesive whole, as well as working out as &quot;realistic&quot; a trade and economic system as I can for my world. So these books are far from a &quot;have to have&quot;. For me, anyways. However I probably would have considered them &quot;essential&quot; 20 years ago, when I didn't have such a deep understanding of economics, business, religion, politics, laws, beliefs, history, science, etc...Now the books are largely guide lines, that help me make sure to look at and consider as many variables as I want to consider, and to detail trade routes and wealth levels of whatever location(s) I decide I want to know that level of detail about, and to make all these decisions in a consistent and cohesive manner.Most DM's don't worry about that. They get along just fine &quot;winging it&quot;, and you will too. You just may reach a point, though, where you want to be as &quot;realistic&quot; as possible, and have your world work together as cohesively as possible. If you ever start desiring to do that, then get the books I have mentioned. Plus there are others that can help with writing up guilds, and other more specific aspects of your campaign. In fact ENWorld has published a series of PDF's that are very helpful.Another thing I suggest about world building is to not hurry. Take your time. You have years (hopefully) to work everything out.So yes, I love world building. I like a high degree of realism. It doesn't have to be &quot;real world realism&quot;, just &quot;it works realism&quot;. Plus it doesn't have to be a whole planet to be &quot;world building&quot;. A world is as small or as big as you want it to be.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Treebore, post: 4340417, member: 10177"] Part of the problem with "world building" is this idea that you have to build a whole world to be a "World Builder". Greyhawk didn't. Forgotten Realms didn't. The Wilderlands didn't. Blackmoor didn't. They built regions or a continent or 3, not a whole world. A whole world is there, but these settings only care about what is "right here". So world building is really just creating enough of a world in which to run the campaign you want to run. If your campaign ideas require a whole world, then you detail the whole world. About two years ago my campaign finally became a whole world. I cheated a bit though. I took all my favorite settings, that weren't already fully detailed worlds themselves, such as Oathbound, and put them all on the same world. I finally did this because I was finally given a "needle" with which I could connect/sew all these settings together with. So now I know what every bit of my world looks like. This is not needed for "world building" though. Your world only needs to be big enough, or be able to become big enough, to run with whatever your players do. So creating a hamlet/village/town/city in which to start your campaign and then add on from there is still world building, its just building at the smallest scale possible. Anyways, if you want to get serious about world building I can suggest a nice "World Building Library" that has helped me with every aspect and question I have had to answer. Plus helped me do it in a consistent and cohesive whole. The World Builder books from Troll Lord Games, such as "World Builder", "Nations Builder", "Cosmos Builder", "Canting Crew", etc... The other books I have found to be a huge help, especially for trade and economics issues, are "Magical Medievel Societies: Western Europe" and "Silk Road" from Expeditious Retreat Press. Do you have to have these books? No. They are just invaluable in helping me pay attention to the details and creating and maintaining a cohesive whole, as well as working out as "realistic" a trade and economic system as I can for my world. So these books are far from a "have to have". For me, anyways. However I probably would have considered them "essential" 20 years ago, when I didn't have such a deep understanding of economics, business, religion, politics, laws, beliefs, history, science, etc... Now the books are largely guide lines, that help me make sure to look at and consider as many variables as I want to consider, and to detail trade routes and wealth levels of whatever location(s) I decide I want to know that level of detail about, and to make all these decisions in a consistent and cohesive manner. Most DM's don't worry about that. They get along just fine "winging it", and you will too. You just may reach a point, though, where you want to be as "realistic" as possible, and have your world work together as cohesively as possible. If you ever start desiring to do that, then get the books I have mentioned. Plus there are others that can help with writing up guilds, and other more specific aspects of your campaign. In fact ENWorld has published a series of PDF's that are very helpful. Another thing I suggest about world building is to not hurry. Take your time. You have years (hopefully) to work everything out. So yes, I love world building. I like a high degree of realism. It doesn't have to be "real world realism", just "it works realism". Plus it doesn't have to be a whole planet to be "world building". A world is as small or as big as you want it to be. [/QUOTE]

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