when building a homebrew world for campaigns, what lore do you prep ahead of time? what do you wait for it to become relevant and what do you just improvise in game?
some larger things seem obvious: what countries are present, what are their governments like, what religion/s are in place, what major historical events have occurred, etc, but how much detail do you typically go into? i'm sure it in part depends on the kind of campaign you're running, and how much roleplay/lore you expect your party to be interested in, but assuming the answer is 'as much as possible' (this tends to be the answer in my games), what do you recommend having ready before the campaign even begins?
Also, you have to create the gods in most homebrew worlds. You will probably need to do this before the campaign starts, especially if the party consists of a cleric or paladin.
yes! sorry, i assume gods/pantheons/etc to generally be a part of religion, although i suppose there definitely could be religions without it. i did have a campaign run at one point that actually had no pantheon/religions in place at all, but that was a deliberate choice in the lore-- noting what classes/races are allowed are definitely a thing to be prepared before the game, as well
when building a homebrew world for campaigns, what lore do you prep ahead of time? what do you wait for it to become relevant and what do you just improvise in game?
some larger things seem obvious: what countries are present, what are their governments like, what religion/s are in place, what major historical events have occurred, etc, but how much detail do you typically go into? i'm sure it in part depends on the kind of campaign you're running, and how much roleplay/lore you expect your party to be interested in, but assuming the answer is 'as much as possible' (this tends to be the answer in my games), what do you recommend having ready before the campaign even begins?
In broad strokes, I'll come up with everything that's relevant for the main plot, and for the PCs themselves
For the party I'm currently DMing, that meant things like coming up with a homebrew fantasy Greenpeace sort of organization for the ranger to be part of (and a network of poachers for her to go after), and a brief history of piracy in the land for the swashbuckler rogue with the Pirate background
I also come up with some "color" that doesn't really matter but can help me describe stuff -- different types of booze that might be available in a tavern beyond Ye Olde Ale, or what different coinage looks like, that kind of thing
Otherwise, it's just coming up with things in the flow of the campaign depending on what the party shows an interest in and where they go -- not necessarily full improv, but there are definitely things I wouldn't have added if a player hadn't said something that spurred the idea
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I went about preping by coming up with the main kingdoms and important NPC’s that the PCs would probably know. I also noted towns and major landmarks that were important for the history of the world. I wrote a brief history of the events leading up to current time, but only included the things that have lead up to the main conflict of the story. I made note of connections to that history, (like the bloodlines of the BBG) so that eventually the PCs might be able to put it together who he is. I also added a few legends and prophecies to add foreshadowing and some guidance for the PCs later on. Other than that, I come up with everything else as the campaign progresses, filling the map out as we go. This was and is my first campaign, so it’s definitely been a learning experience. I didn’t take into consideration deities and such, since I was still pretty new when I started, and didn’t know I would need them. As it is, I don’t really need any yet as I have no religious PCs in my party. Even if I did, I don’t think my players really care about those elements. So it really just depends on your party. My group had never played until we started this campaign, and they just care about how interesting the dungeons are and whether or not there is a potions shop in town.
There is a lot I will do differently when I get around to writing a new campaign, but for now, what I have seems to work well enough.
Religion (a list of deity names with key concerns)
Major world events that the PCs would know about (one line description)
Major starting region events of the last 100 years (one line descriptions)
Key events that begin the story (one or more paragraphs)
Key figures from those events - legendary heroes and villains
Info just for me:
A map of the continent - possibly share with the players but probably not
The starting location that the PCs will begin their adventure in - map, NPCs
That's about it. Everything else will be created as part of adventure design, as it's only relevant when the PCs encounter it.
This is all the information that I gave my players before we started our most recent campaign. It was also intended to assist the players in their character design, and ensures that they understand the type of game that they'll be playing.
Your homeland has never been a paradise but neither was it a nightmare. You each hail from the minor kingdom of Anathly, a place of wind and rocks on the north western coast of a continent called Palass. You have trained in a martial discipline of some kind, whether it be among the barbarian tribes, the more cultured townsfolk, at a sorcerous academy or within the walls of a monastery. The people of Anathly worship deities in the form of cosmic events and natural phenomena, whether it be the sun god, the tide, or the Ever Storm that rages around the Tharada Taan mountain.
The people of Anathly migrated to its fjords and forests to escape a great calamity that befell the other nations of the world several generations ago. A vast and terrible war was fought against the people of the city of Kaloss, which ended in its complete destruction. But when Kaloss was destroyed, vast magics swept the world and shattered much of civilisation in an event known as The Collapse. The lands of your great grandparents were flooded, swept with hordes of chittering insects or torn apart by great eruptions of lava. Much of the old world was destroyed.
Note: Anathly is not a large kingdom. The most powerful characters there were level 7 at most. You have not seen vast and powerful magic.
Despite having to fight off the denizens around Anathly, your forebears found themselves a new home. They were a ragtag mixture of refugees, encompassing all of the peaceful races, and they took with them as much of the old world as they could. The coastlines of Palass have been wracked with storms and high winds for nearly eighty years, which has left your community largely isolated from the rest of the world.
The people of Anathly were also afflicted by the turbulence across the rest of the world, but they had brought with them a number of powerful magical artifacts called Eblis Stones. These stones made the crops hardier, giving them resistance to poison rain and helping them to grow in the weak soil. One by one, however, these Eblis Stones have begun to drain of their magic until only three remain. The stones were kept by the larger temples.
A week ago, a ship came to dock near the Temple of the Eclipse. All you have been told is that the Temple of the Eclipse was attacked by unknown enemies, and the maroon coloured Eblis Stone (a sphere the size of a melon) known as the Eclipse Stone was stolen. Without the stone, the southern region of Anathly is likely to suffer and its people may face famine. Many people at the temple were killed, both the warriors who protected it and the peaceful monks who served there. Horrified, the ruler of Anathly, Duke Skald, had his magic users scry for the Eclipse Stone’s location. All that you have been told about the raiders is that they possessed magic unlike anything that has been seen in Anathly before, half of their leader’s face was covered in tattoos, and there are even whispers of demonic entities manifesting.
The duke’s most decorated warrior, Commander Dainefyre, has gathered together sixty young warriors to board the Vanguard, a ship that has been in service since The Collapse and set out to recover the Eclipse Stone. The war party consists of combat-ready warriors and spell casters. Some serve a lord, others have volunteered. The ship also carries 20 sailors and 20 non-combatants.
You are a person of special skills, brought onboard the Vanguard because you will be useful on the mission. The five of you are, however, outsiders of one kind or another. You possess no rank on this expedition. Commander Dainefyre orders his warriors by separating them into small combat units.
The Vanguard has been following the coast south for a week. This is where we will begin our story.
That depends heavily on what will be relevant, and what you have your heart set on for your lore!
For example, in my world I have homebrew lore for the elves. It only affects their lifespans but it's something I wanted to include. It may or may not become relevant in a campaign, but I made it anyway because I liked it.
In other aspects, I have the lore of an ancient hero after whom many parts of the world are named, who I included for later use - he's not relevant right now.
I then had to make lore for a temple of the Golden Dragon, for a monk character who wanted to have this as their origin. This led to a combination of the above and the dragons to say that the hero slew the dragons, which made a swathe of lore for the history of the world.
I have made races and creatures and made lore to back them up, then given them places to go. I made my first quest a long travelling one to maximise the map I could create and then went for it.
I've made folklore and real lore and all sorts in between, and I'm still not sure how much will ever be more than notes for me to use!
Much of the lore I have is made for me, the DM. The world is a loose plan. I set up the basics of the world, who did what years ago, but I keep it simple.
I will share names of places and seats of power for backstory purposes. I will explain things to the players if they ask or it becomes relevant to the story. Much of what I envision is to help me tell the story or improvise what happens next on the fly. Instead of having to think up, on the spot, a thieves guild wholesale I think where would the guild occur and what would they smuggle. I have an idea where the desert is but if the story doesn't go there, I leave it vague. Sometimes I don't even name the things. I let the players come up with a name from their imagination or interactions with the organization. I keep things intentionally vague until a player is inquisitive. I have an idea of how things will work but if I lay out a specific plan for myself the PCs usually screw it up anyway. I can morph the idea to what the players want to do then. I get fewer disappointments this way.
I paint the world in broad strokes until I need to add detail. Any detail can be used to fix errors in the broad-strokes because the PC didn't understand it very well in the first place. This helps with organic world building, reduces retcons of things, and cuts back on unnecessary prep.
some larger things seem obvious: what countries are present, what are their governments like, what religion/s are in place, what major historical events have occurred
I don't prep any of that, lol.
What was important for my particular game were 1) gods and their portfolios, 2) key NPC relationships/motivations, 3) economics/magical trade, and 4) monster ecology (particularly, what monsters live in my version of the Underdark). I think I had like 3 continents named, 2 cities fleshed out and an idea of what the gods were doing when I started the campaign, as well as the starting hook. Everything else I made up as we went along. I found that my improv tends to be more fun and creative than my planning. I guess I'm that kind of a DM, lol.
It's more important to me to have a clear sense of ambience, tone, themes and recurring motifs than to sit down and write a comprehensive campaign history. Naturally, there's going to be things I need or want to establish ahead of time. And I know there are some DMs out there who love writing up lore. I'm just not one of them. I also give control to players when it comes to their backstory. They tell me what their hometowns are like and I sew it into the fabric of my universe pretty much without adjustment. I'm all about collaborative worldbuilding.
One thing I wish I had done better is a date system, though. I couldn't be bothered to create a calendar, and it turns out that it's awful handy for players and DMs alike to be able to reference how long ago something happened in-game. Next campaign, I'm keeping track of adventuring days with a number (e.g., Day 6 of the Fourth Month) to facilitate this.
When I fleshed out my world, I came up with a few general tenets that describe the general world - Magic is the lifeblood of my world and is prevalent to the point most people have some latent magical ability (everyone gets a cantrip or a first level spell they can cast {spells once a day}).
After that I fleshed out the general pantheon of gods names and their portfolio (stuff beyond that is only created once needed ), the nations and their general feelings towards each other (Example: Calcezus is allies of Telicusia and the Iron Coast but adversarial towards Alher) and then the starting city fully fleshed out with about 15 locations and 3-4 people they may need to interact with. Added in the initial adversary of the first arc and 2 allies they may encounter.
That was it. The rest comes out in prep for future sessions (they plan to go to another town) or improved to add fun to the story.
It's more important to me to have a clear sense of ambience, tone, themes and recurring motifs than to sit down and write a comprehensive campaign history. Naturally, there's going to be things I need or want to establish ahead of time. And I know there are some DMs out there who love writing up lore. I'm just not one of them. I also give control to players when it comes to their backstory. They tell me what their hometowns are like and I sew it into the fabric of my universe pretty much without adjustment. I'm all about collaborative worldbuilding.
i honestly find myself somewhere between all of this; i do love giving my players freedom in creating their own things and contributing to the world, and one of my player's characters from our first campaign actually ended up entirely inspiring the method of worship of one of my deities in this campaign, but i find they tend to enjoy building in-between major pieces of lore-- so things like the governments, dieties and religions, major world powers, etc were all important for me to build out before the campaign began.
honestly, it sounds like i do more prep than a lot of people already, but i do still find myself feeling like im missing some. i think part of it just comes down to my group; we're extremely roleplay and lore heavy, and my players also tend to go off in directions i didn't expect during sessions, meaning i often find them outside the range of space i was prepared to improvise in and in a space i have absolutely no idea about.
(maybe part of it is also that i'm terrible at taking notes during the session.)
I keep things intentionally vague until a player is inquisitive. I have an idea of how things will work but if I lay out a specific plan for myself the PCs usually screw it up anyway. I can morph the idea to what the players want to do then. I get fewer disappointments this way.
I paint the world in broad strokes until I need to add detail. Any detail can be used to fix errors in the broad-strokes because the PC didn't understand it very well in the first place. This helps with organic world building, reduces retcons of things, and cuts back on unnecessary prep.
my problem is that if there is one thing i can count on, it's my players being inquisitive into something, and often out of the blue. i absolutely agree with avoiding creating a concrete plan for what the players are going to do, i don't want to railroad them, but because we tend to approach the game so heavily from a roleplay perspective, i've found it difficult to properly play the character's surroundings in reaction to what they do end up doing. i think as long as prep is approached from a lore perspective versus a plan perspective, it's pretty easy to avoid unnecessary prep or becoming disappointed by what your players do or don't do, but there are a lot of things within lore that can be hard to prepare for or know if your players are going to approach until they do, and on that front, i'm a pretty poor improviser.
tl;dr: i'm good at improvising the world's reactions to what my players do, but not information about the world to feed my players when they ask about it out of the blue. i guess it is pretty hard to have a definitive checklist of here's what worldbuilding you need to prep when dnd is such a fluid game, though.
My players are huge into RP, and I run a political intrigue campaign. There's a ton I used to prep for each session!
I would easily spend up to 20 hours a week figuring out all the nuances, motivations, connections, historical tidbits, and faction activity surrounding the party's investigations. Then one day, I realized that I would prepare all of this material only for my players to pull on other threads - or create conspiracy theories based on unsupported hunches or ideas that were just better than mine. It wasn't fun for me to create all this lore on the off chance someone asked about it and then never have it see the light of day. So I made my 2022 New Year's resolution to improv more, and it's been great for my own enjoyment of the game. Took so much pressure off myself.
That said, I've been running this campaign almost 2 years now and I know my players very well. I would never have felt comfortable winging as much as I do earlier in my DM career. I used to suck at improv. Practice has made it easier.
We all have our own DM styles, and we learn what works for us as we go along. Ginny Di recently released a pretty helpful video on overpreparing which basically boils down to, "prepare to your comfort level." For some, that's going to be writing down every little detail, having maps ready, and NPC personalities/voices. For others, it's a post-it note with "zombie clowns" on it. I'm somewhere in the middle, closer to zombie clowns, and I only learned that after being a mega prepper started to make me hate DMing. My advice is to listen to your gut and experiment a little until you find your sweet spot.
I introduced my homebrew world via a one-shot, so I had very little lore. I didn't even define the geography of the world beyond the single city it took place in. I really only wrote about the very recent political situation, most of which was ripped right from current events.
When I expanded that into a full campaign, I created:
an atlas (replete with regional maps I made in the Civilization VI world editor)
an Evolutionary History of the Sentient Species (explaining where every race in D&D fit into the evolutionary tree in my world)
an Annals chronicling every major event that would be common knowledge
a metaphysical treaty that explained how Religion works in my world (to simplify greatly, it's more or less Deistic, with a First Cause who no one worships. There was a Providential Plan for History, but it was derailed, and the major question each Faith seeks to answer is what to do with the knowledge of God's apparent failure)
an explanation of the Sexual Mores each culture engages in (there's no concept of marriage in my homebrew, but even with its ubiquitously patriarchal and heterosexual norms, there are a lot of diverse ways of arranging sexual relationships)
My homebrew is essentially The Boys if it were set in the fantasy-equivalent of the Roman world circa 44 B.C., so its a fairly large departure from most official settings, and I wanted my players to have a clear grasp on what they were getting into. Plus, worldbuilding is the most fun part of D&D.
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when building a homebrew world for campaigns, what lore do you prep ahead of time? what do you wait for it to become relevant and what do you just improvise in game?
some larger things seem obvious: what countries are present, what are their governments like, what religion/s are in place, what major historical events have occurred, etc, but how much detail do you typically go into? i'm sure it in part depends on the kind of campaign you're running, and how much roleplay/lore you expect your party to be interested in, but assuming the answer is 'as much as possible' (this tends to be the answer in my games), what do you recommend having ready before the campaign even begins?
Also, you have to create the gods in most homebrew worlds. You will probably need to do this before the campaign starts, especially if the party consists of a cleric or paladin.
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HERE.yes! sorry, i assume gods/pantheons/etc to generally be a part of religion, although i suppose there definitely could be religions without it. i did have a campaign run at one point that actually had no pantheon/religions in place at all, but that was a deliberate choice in the lore-- noting what classes/races are allowed are definitely a thing to be prepared before the game, as well
In broad strokes, I'll come up with everything that's relevant for the main plot, and for the PCs themselves
For the party I'm currently DMing, that meant things like coming up with a homebrew fantasy Greenpeace sort of organization for the ranger to be part of (and a network of poachers for her to go after), and a brief history of piracy in the land for the swashbuckler rogue with the Pirate background
I also come up with some "color" that doesn't really matter but can help me describe stuff -- different types of booze that might be available in a tavern beyond Ye Olde Ale, or what different coinage looks like, that kind of thing
Otherwise, it's just coming up with things in the flow of the campaign depending on what the party shows an interest in and where they go -- not necessarily full improv, but there are definitely things I wouldn't have added if a player hadn't said something that spurred the idea
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I went about preping by coming up with the main kingdoms and important NPC’s that the PCs would probably know. I also noted towns and major landmarks that were important for the history of the world. I wrote a brief history of the events leading up to current time, but only included the things that have lead up to the main conflict of the story. I made note of connections to that history, (like the bloodlines of the BBG) so that eventually the PCs might be able to put it together who he is. I also added a few legends and prophecies to add foreshadowing and some guidance for the PCs later on. Other than that, I come up with everything else as the campaign progresses, filling the map out as we go.
This was and is my first campaign, so it’s definitely been a learning experience. I didn’t take into consideration deities and such, since I was still pretty new when I started, and didn’t know I would need them. As it is, I don’t really need any yet as I have no religious PCs in my party. Even if I did, I don’t think my players really care about those elements. So it really just depends on your party. My group had never played until we started this campaign, and they just care about how interesting the dungeons are and whether or not there is a potions shop in town.
There is a lot I will do differently when I get around to writing a new campaign, but for now, what I have seems to work well enough.
Info that I give to the players:
Info just for me:
That's about it. Everything else will be created as part of adventure design, as it's only relevant when the PCs encounter it.
This is all the information that I gave my players before we started our most recent campaign. It was also intended to assist the players in their character design, and ensures that they understand the type of game that they'll be playing.
That depends heavily on what will be relevant, and what you have your heart set on for your lore!
For example, in my world I have homebrew lore for the elves. It only affects their lifespans but it's something I wanted to include. It may or may not become relevant in a campaign, but I made it anyway because I liked it.
In other aspects, I have the lore of an ancient hero after whom many parts of the world are named, who I included for later use - he's not relevant right now.
I then had to make lore for a temple of the Golden Dragon, for a monk character who wanted to have this as their origin. This led to a combination of the above and the dragons to say that the hero slew the dragons, which made a swathe of lore for the history of the world.
I have made races and creatures and made lore to back them up, then given them places to go. I made my first quest a long travelling one to maximise the map I could create and then went for it.
I've made folklore and real lore and all sorts in between, and I'm still not sure how much will ever be more than notes for me to use!
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Much of the lore I have is made for me, the DM. The world is a loose plan. I set up the basics of the world, who did what years ago, but I keep it simple.
I will share names of places and seats of power for backstory purposes. I will explain things to the players if they ask or it becomes relevant to the story. Much of what I envision is to help me tell the story or improvise what happens next on the fly. Instead of having to think up, on the spot, a thieves guild wholesale I think where would the guild occur and what would they smuggle. I have an idea where the desert is but if the story doesn't go there, I leave it vague. Sometimes I don't even name the things. I let the players come up with a name from their imagination or interactions with the organization. I keep things intentionally vague until a player is inquisitive. I have an idea of how things will work but if I lay out a specific plan for myself the PCs usually screw it up anyway. I can morph the idea to what the players want to do then. I get fewer disappointments this way.
I paint the world in broad strokes until I need to add detail. Any detail can be used to fix errors in the broad-strokes because the PC didn't understand it very well in the first place. This helps with organic world building, reduces retcons of things, and cuts back on unnecessary prep.
I don't prep any of that, lol.
What was important for my particular game were 1) gods and their portfolios, 2) key NPC relationships/motivations, 3) economics/magical trade, and 4) monster ecology (particularly, what monsters live in my version of the Underdark). I think I had like 3 continents named, 2 cities fleshed out and an idea of what the gods were doing when I started the campaign, as well as the starting hook. Everything else I made up as we went along. I found that my improv tends to be more fun and creative than my planning. I guess I'm that kind of a DM, lol.
It's more important to me to have a clear sense of ambience, tone, themes and recurring motifs than to sit down and write a comprehensive campaign history. Naturally, there's going to be things I need or want to establish ahead of time. And I know there are some DMs out there who love writing up lore. I'm just not one of them. I also give control to players when it comes to their backstory. They tell me what their hometowns are like and I sew it into the fabric of my universe pretty much without adjustment. I'm all about collaborative worldbuilding.
One thing I wish I had done better is a date system, though. I couldn't be bothered to create a calendar, and it turns out that it's awful handy for players and DMs alike to be able to reference how long ago something happened in-game. Next campaign, I'm keeping track of adventuring days with a number (e.g., Day 6 of the Fourth Month) to facilitate this.
When I fleshed out my world, I came up with a few general tenets that describe the general world - Magic is the lifeblood of my world and is prevalent to the point most people have some latent magical ability (everyone gets a cantrip or a first level spell they can cast {spells once a day}).
After that I fleshed out the general pantheon of gods names and their portfolio (stuff beyond that is only created once needed ), the nations and their general feelings towards each other (Example: Calcezus is allies of Telicusia and the Iron Coast but adversarial towards Alher) and then the starting city fully fleshed out with about 15 locations and 3-4 people they may need to interact with. Added in the initial adversary of the first arc and 2 allies they may encounter.
That was it. The rest comes out in prep for future sessions (they plan to go to another town) or improved to add fun to the story.
i honestly find myself somewhere between all of this; i do love giving my players freedom in creating their own things and contributing to the world, and one of my player's characters from our first campaign actually ended up entirely inspiring the method of worship of one of my deities in this campaign, but i find they tend to enjoy building in-between major pieces of lore-- so things like the governments, dieties and religions, major world powers, etc were all important for me to build out before the campaign began.
honestly, it sounds like i do more prep than a lot of people already, but i do still find myself feeling like im missing some. i think part of it just comes down to my group; we're extremely roleplay and lore heavy, and my players also tend to go off in directions i didn't expect during sessions, meaning i often find them outside the range of space i was prepared to improvise in and in a space i have absolutely no idea about.
(maybe part of it is also that i'm terrible at taking notes during the session.)
my problem is that if there is one thing i can count on, it's my players being inquisitive into something, and often out of the blue. i absolutely agree with avoiding creating a concrete plan for what the players are going to do, i don't want to railroad them, but because we tend to approach the game so heavily from a roleplay perspective, i've found it difficult to properly play the character's surroundings in reaction to what they do end up doing. i think as long as prep is approached from a lore perspective versus a plan perspective, it's pretty easy to avoid unnecessary prep or becoming disappointed by what your players do or don't do, but there are a lot of things within lore that can be hard to prepare for or know if your players are going to approach until they do, and on that front, i'm a pretty poor improviser.
tl;dr: i'm good at improvising the world's reactions to what my players do, but not information about the world to feed my players when they ask about it out of the blue. i guess it is pretty hard to have a definitive checklist of here's what worldbuilding you need to prep when dnd is such a fluid game, though.
My players are huge into RP, and I run a political intrigue campaign. There's a ton I used to prep for each session!
I would easily spend up to 20 hours a week figuring out all the nuances, motivations, connections, historical tidbits, and faction activity surrounding the party's investigations. Then one day, I realized that I would prepare all of this material only for my players to pull on other threads - or create conspiracy theories based on unsupported hunches or ideas that were just better than mine. It wasn't fun for me to create all this lore on the off chance someone asked about it and then never have it see the light of day. So I made my 2022 New Year's resolution to improv more, and it's been great for my own enjoyment of the game. Took so much pressure off myself.
That said, I've been running this campaign almost 2 years now and I know my players very well. I would never have felt comfortable winging as much as I do earlier in my DM career. I used to suck at improv. Practice has made it easier.
We all have our own DM styles, and we learn what works for us as we go along. Ginny Di recently released a pretty helpful video on overpreparing which basically boils down to, "prepare to your comfort level." For some, that's going to be writing down every little detail, having maps ready, and NPC personalities/voices. For others, it's a post-it note with "zombie clowns" on it. I'm somewhere in the middle, closer to zombie clowns, and I only learned that after being a mega prepper started to make me hate DMing. My advice is to listen to your gut and experiment a little until you find your sweet spot.
I introduced my homebrew world via a one-shot, so I had very little lore. I didn't even define the geography of the world beyond the single city it took place in. I really only wrote about the very recent political situation, most of which was ripped right from current events.
When I expanded that into a full campaign, I created:
My homebrew is essentially The Boys if it were set in the fantasy-equivalent of the Roman world circa 44 B.C., so its a fairly large departure from most official settings, and I wanted my players to have a clear grasp on what they were getting into. Plus, worldbuilding is the most fun part of D&D.