I’m needing to pick someone’s brains about this new homebrew I am working on. 

World setting: ???? NO IDEA (HELP) Honestly I’ve been exploring more about a world that has monsters everywhere...Kind of like a smash up of Castlevania, Avatar (blue people, with all those flying things), Dragon Prince ( Netflix series that is BOMB), Skyrim. 

Wvyerns are common and a serious danger in some areas of my world. 

Starting plot so far I have: 

The party will all be in one village, one or two might have grown up there, or whatever the reason. This village is based around farming, the rich soil makes it almost too easy. There a family owns a large farm, the head of this farm is a man named Hank and his wife Maeve and their daughter, Lori. Lori is a tiefling somehow. Her parents aren't.
The party will be introduced to them somehow, hank will ask them for a favor (a starter quest) eventually leading to his daughter being kidnapped in the night by a group of thugs.

(Hank has a deep past, he used to work in a smuggler group that his parents were the heads of back in the main city. He found a wife, tried to heist a local noble but ended poorly with his parents dead)
So now the party has to figure out why she's been kidnapped and where they are taking her.

Lory is a quest inside a quest but we will retouch on that later. 

SO! I’d really like to pick some brains, brainstorm together. I have a pretty good idea where I am going to take this but having someone’s opinion might turn decent into gold. 

If wyverns are that common, then there are no villages and probably no farming.  It just couldn't evolve that way in a world where humans were constantly subject to death out of the sky.  Humans would live in forests and caves and subsist by hunting and gathering.  The ruling class would probably be whoever managed to domesticate wyverns.  Those people would fly from village to village demanding tribute, which would be in the form of food or pelts or something, since the humans in the area never bothered minting coins.  The humans in the forests and caves would make alliances with the Elves and Dwarves, respectively.

I'm not criticizing your idea, I'm trying to see how far we can push it.  This sounds like a wild, savage kind of world and one that ACTUALLY LOOKS DIFFERENT to most of our game worlds (certainly different to mine).

So now let's start over on our kidnapping story.  Putting aside who Hank is for a moment, how much more fun would it be to have to scale the cliffs to steal the daughter back from the City of the Wyvern Riders?!  How do you get back down from there, even?

Why are there so many wyverns anyway?  Do people just leave their garbage lying around?

I think it sounds pretty cool for wyvern attacks to be a commonplace. I would consider working out some interlinked mechanics for this:

• The wyvern riders that TimCurtin suggested is a really good idea. Think further on the mechanics and social structure of Wyverns - I suspect that they will be highly territorial creatures, with perhaps the youngsters living in groups but the adults being more inclined to territorialism and violence. 

As such, the best way to keep the flocks of young Wyverns away? have a fully grown Wyvern making its nest above your city. Keep the Wyvern fed, perhaps have it trained by the city's ruler, and in turn the young Wyverns avoid the area for fear of death.

Then think - what happens if an intrepid wyvern rider brings a bigger wyvern to town, and ousts the old wyvern? then they take control of the city, because if they leave, the city will soon fall prey to flocks of young wyverns.

As such, cities would be very few and far between!

An alternative is someone finding other creatures wyverns fear - perhaps the gaze of a Nothic, for unknown reasons, will drive a Wyvern away? Work out some "how to train your Wyvern" type interactions for them, so the players can learn to (for a direct loot from the movies) keep a smoked eel on themselves to ward off Wyverns, for example. Have various claims from folklore on ways to drive them away, and have a few of them work!

Quote from ThorukDuckSlayer >>

I think it sounds pretty cool for wyvern attacks to be a commonplace. I would consider working out some interlinked mechanics for this:

• The wyvern riders that TimCurtin suggested is a really good idea. Think further on the mechanics and social structure of Wyverns - I suspect that they will be highly territorial creatures, with perhaps the youngsters living in groups but the adults being more inclined to territorialism and violence. 

As such, the best way to keep the flocks of young Wyverns away? have a fully grown Wyvern making its nest above your city. Keep the Wyvern fed, perhaps have it trained by the city's ruler, and in turn the young Wyverns avoid the area for fear of death.

Then think - what happens if an intrepid wyvern rider brings a bigger wyvern to town, and ousts the old wyvern? then they take control of the city, because if they leave, the city will soon fall prey to flocks of young wyverns.

As such, cities would be very few and far between!

 

An alternative is someone finding other creatures wyverns fear - perhaps the gaze of a Nothic, for unknown reasons, will drive a Wyvern away? Work out some "how to train your Wyvern" type interactions for them, so the players can learn to (for a direct loot from the movies) keep a smoked eel on themselves to ward off Wyverns, for example. Have various claims from folklore on ways to drive them away, and have a few of them work!

 i think this is a great idea, maybe there could be an especially powerful wyvern that is  controlled by the king

as for your finding a setting, i'd suggest making your own, its what i always do

Wyverns hate the smell of their poison. You could use that as a world building tool.

Dungeoncast has a great episode outlining wyverns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51wTKLhgsMc&ab_channel=TheDungeoncast

Ok a suggestion, forget about the world, right now the world doesn’t matter, you have a farm and some interesting NPCs and an idea about wyverns, start off with that first concept written out as a short paragraph, no more then 6-10 billet points. Then sit down with your players and ask them what they want to create PC wise. Again don’t worry about rolling dice or anything, don’t ask for pages and pages of backstory, all you want are race and the class they think they want o play, maybe a couple of bullet points on background. Now you have a next step, you have a cleric who wants to be a trickster, what are your trickster god options in your pantheon, don’t worry about the others yet. You have a tiefling, where are they from, how are they looked at, you have an elf or a halfling. You start shaping your nation based on what your players need to know. You then leave lots of blank space to play with as the campaign proceeds. 

For your first 1-6 levels your players won’t be dealing with world building events they will be making coin, or surviving. You can shape encounters and your world based on what they want to do and where they want to go. But all you need first off are those 10 bullet points and some brief player details. You create the starting area and work from there.

I am loving all the feedback. Keep it coming 

So there is a geography acronym I use when world building. Also I know what it spells but I promise I am not making it up.

Social Political Economic Religious Military.

So you have your starter setting buts let’s consider the world of Wyvernia

Social - what kind of traditions exist because of the wyverns, do people live in fear (how to train your dragon - the movie) or alongside (how to train your dragon - the book) or just live inspite of the threat pretending it’s not there (buffy the vampire slayer). Are there festivals or rituals to keep them at bay, do they have a whacking day where the wyverns are driven out of time. Are there hunters of the creatures that are  cheered (dragon heart), feared or both (the Witcher).

political - if there are dangers there is the need for protection which comes at a cost, is there a feudal system of warden protectors that tax the people to keep the wyverns at bay. Is there royalty, an emperor, a war. Does anyone control the wyverns, what do they do with that power. Are there houses (GoT), Tribes (ATLAB), an evil empire (Star Wars), guilds (discworld) etc

Economic - what do they grow, and sell. What is traded, what does the kingdom value. Are there businesses that exist around the wyverns threat, security, hunters, skinners. Is there wyverns fashion items they are doubt after. Has the threat made people lean more socialist or more capitalist.

religious - who are your gods, how are they worshipped, is all the pantheon legal. How have the wyverns threat effected this, are there cults that worship them. How common are temples and churches, how do people treat the dead, is death eternal?

military - who protects the people, who polices , are they one and the same. Is there one military force or multiple. Are they dogs of the ruling organisation or separate. Are they good? How martial is the law? How severe the punishments .

if you think all those things through you will have a pretty strong foundation to then start planning out pockets of world for the party to interact with.

Quote from Metgodinc >>

Wyverns hate the smell of their poison. You could use that as a world building tool.

Thats a cool point - if Wyverns hate the smell of their poison, then the most valuable elixer of the land would be Wyvern Poison, which would be difficult to obtain.

I also happened to pass a truck the other day which was plastered with "Wyvern Cargo" on the side, and that got me thinking of domesticating wyverns as packhorse type animals. To do it safely, I would expect trained wyverns to be de-stingered and possibly muzzled. The removal of the stinger might be a legal obligation for peoples safety, and this would mean that to get wyvern poison you would need to find wild wyverns (otherwise someone would just farm wyverns for their poison - perhaps they stop producing it if they are domesticated because it needs a specific food found only in their mountain homes to produce it?).

Quote from Scarloc_Stormcall>>

Then sit down with your players and ask them what they want to create PC wise. Again don’t worry about rolling dice or anything, don’t ask for pages and pages of backstory, all you want are race and the class they think they want o play, maybe a couple of bullet points on background.

also just ask your players about the world they want to play in, let them add ideas to the world building it helps get them invested. Keep the stuff you want secret to yourself. Maybe one of your players always wanted a sky ship, maybe another likes the idea of an assassins guild. 

do the same with races and class - what even is a cleric or monk in your world? how are wizards viewed? Is a pact with a fiend an anomaly for your warlock? Are dwarfs a race people don’t often see? Are lizardfolk considered heroes of the realm?

Worldbuilding is hard!  But so so much fun!  Depending on the type of campaign you want to create, you can go almost anywhere with it.  Figure out what type of campaign your players want to play in before you get too deep into building an entire world from scratch.  Lore eight layers deep won't help you build the hack & slash campaign your players want to run around in.  I have run campaigns where entire game sessions didn't call for a single dice roll, and that is a whole different type of game, the quirks and mannerisms of the Big Bad are much more important than whether his sword was +1 or +3.

I like to start creating a world where I nail down a few bits of information, ask myself "What had to occur to get to this point?" And work my way out from there.  A game where the characters have to walk everywhere (starting out) is much easier to create than one where they have access to TRAVEL (whether that's horses, caravans, teleportation or plane hopping) early on.  You create a starting area (smaller towns are best if you have to build everything).

Once you have a starting point, determine where the players are going.  I am not talking about a travel destination,  but what is the overall story arc?  Are the players going to help establish a kingdom, tame the world, or simply amass power & wealth?  I have already decided what my players roll in world is to be, and also the reason why (the why is a potential second campaign, and an entire new arc for new characters).

Once you have established a beginning and a potential end, it's easier to develop a road map of how to get from where they are to what they are going to accomplish. Don't let the players know where they are going until you know that's the direction they want to travel.  If they don't know they are are to become the next dragonborn (Skyrim-style, not the character race), they can't say they are being railroaded.

Quote from sardonicmonkey >>

 

Quote from Scarloc_Stormcall>>

Then sit down with your players and ask them what they want to create PC wise. Again don’t worry about rolling dice or anything, don’t ask for pages and pages of backstory, all you want are race and the class they think they want o play, maybe a couple of bullet points on background.

 

also just ask your players about the world they want to play in, let them add ideas to the world building it helps get them invested. Keep the stuff you want secret to yourself. Maybe one of your players always wanted a sky ship, maybe another likes the idea of an assassins guild. 

do the same with races and class - what even is a cleric or monk in your world? how are wizards viewed? Is a pact with a fiend an anomaly for your warlock? Are dwarfs a race people don’t often see? Are lizardfolk considered heroes of the realm?

 This as well, I tend to let how the players want to shape their backstories help this, once they have decided on race I will spend some time workig with them on the rest of the backstory. Because the world is a blank canvas and I have not pre populated it all it allows them to be as free as they want with ideas, you can then take those ideas, fit them into your world and then work with the player to make minor tweaks. 

My current campaign is in a home brewed world (the following is a bit longer then I intended when I started typing lol) 

https://inkarnate.com/m/Ydkkjv--abolonia/

This world started out with a simple 3 line idea. 

Smallish nation sits between several larger ones, it survives and thrives by being the centre of trade and diplomacy, Canals, river trade, boats. 100 years ago the main river was tamed by engineering and magic, and a canal system created.  
Dwarven City States in the mountain, large lake and mountain port, Giant locks down to river, river runs through nation, Dwarfs only trade through nations seaport. 
Starting town, Off the main trade routes, on a small canal/river, small mine 5 days travel away, trade is down, town is slowly becoming less rich. 

From that idea I had the basis of my world. I expanded to a paragraph
My main nation (Ilantia, although the name was one of the last things I came up with) is the youngest nation on the continent, forged out of an area of land between 2 rivers, with another river running through it, this river (the gold river run) is the main artery for trade which happens on barges that are powered by magic. 
The dwarven realm trades down this river because it is the easiest route to get to the wider world, initially travel was by land, but 150 years ago the trading port they used expanded back making the river more and more navigable. At the same time they tames much of the land and unified the small villages and towns forming one nation. 
The bordering nations all used to fight alot, so the formation of a single nation between them helped create peace. They didn't realise at the time that the Dwarven realms would trade soley through Ilantia. 
The nation has become one of the richest in the world, this attracts all sorts of people to it, it also means that it is the most accepting and open, it doesn't matter who you are, your race, your gender or sexuality as long as you are not causing trouble and hopefully are contributing to the added wealth of the nation you are accepted 

So at this point I have determined that there doesn't need to be any limit on which races my players can choose, that paragraph above was the point I told them the campaign was ready to get going. No map (I had scribbled some rough shapes on a bit of paper), I simply asked them to tell me 3 things. 

Race and Class. 
3 things about your home nation/town/family
Why you are an adventurer 

There was no formal creation process yet, no dice rolling. 
the details I got where as follows 

Dragonborn Cleric (life) - Family are the high end of society the dragonborn is the younger son and wants to help 
Tabaxi (twins) Rogue and Warrior from another nation, on a coming of age quest
Half elf bard May have got the wife of a king pregnant while he was the court bard, is in hiding 
Minotaur barbarian Family are criminals, think Russian Mafia, comes from an area similar to russia, father is in prison and character is escaping something
Warforged Artificer no idea what his background is, why he was made or if there are more like him
Halfling Warlock Has lived his life in his little village, reading about the fey wild, came across a merchant being attacked, powers manifested and saved the merchant and was drawn away from home on an adventure without understanding why. 
Satyr Sorcerer Left as a baby at a "house of ill repute" has been raised by the madam and the women and became an escort, 

Those one line descriptions as you can see then help shape the world.
The cleric, which gods might they have access to, what are the roles of the gods, where is Dragon born society, how is it structured, are they common in the world or rare. 
Tabaxi - much the same where have they come from what are they here for? 
Minotaur Where is that nation on my map. 

All of that then fed into my map and my world slowly filling out where things went. As I drew the map then I realised I needed a reason why the Dwarfs would not just build ports to the west and ignore the eastern coast, that led to the shattered shore, which led to the idea that 1000's of years ago the dwarven realm sat in the middle of a much larger continent and then something happened to destroy half of it shattering it. 

My next stage was to focus on the town, the politics, the important NPC's and the situations that might arise from the economic issues it was having. The main thing for me is that you don't need to dive into the detail before you start involving your players, and as you can see from the map I have left large swathes of my land to still be worked out and populated