This proves quite helpful in covering all the bases that you may not have thought of, or if you're stuck. Not to mention, all the other random generators that the site can assist with. Check it out!
When I was younger I'd spend an entire series of weekends delving into the creation of a world with a detailed map, reams of paper detailing NPC's, monster lairs, etc. It was lots of work and fun!
Now, decades later with far less free time I tend to build a world around the campaign hook I'm looking to explore. I answer enough questions to spell out the setting for me and then shift focus to a player guide that gives (just) enough for a person to make a character that feels native to the adventure setting. Then I start writing out the adventures and factions and plots and ideas to explore. Again, not in great detail.
When I'm done, I can answer the following basic questions:
Where am I?
What can I do here?
Who do I know here?
Why are heroes needed?
What groups try to influence the world around me?
What makes me cool?
Stuff on that general path. Going deep down the rabbit hole is fantastic adventure for a DM, but I just don't have the time, so I've learned to do the work that helps me frame the world and adventure, and then work just ahead of the ripple of player effects on the world itself so it behaves in a rational manner.
Most of the Time I look stuff up online. Just browsing Google Images always helps. Most of the time I use Magic the Gathering Cards to make a backstory or to base an idea off a spell, weapon, NPC. Since there's so many and such different worlds, it provides a lot of good start up ideas.
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PbP Character: Stribog Northson(Zendikar/Eberron) "Why chase them when a bolt of lightening goes so much faster"
PbP Character: Vilk Dusza (The Peak's of Winter's Hold)
Check out free PDFs for my designs (cyberpunk superheroic D&D 5E, eastern fantasy noir steampunk D&D 5E, and post-apocalyptic D&D 5E!) at https://mikemyler.com/ !
My Homebrew world started more than 30 years ago. In the little village of Homlet. I had nothing else other than a village. Background were not such big deal back than other than showing up with your first level character and begin to play this new Adventure I had picked up. There was very little background given as to place this village so I drew a quick map. Once the adventure was finished I had added a few things to the map like a ruined temple and a large city close by I named Witaman.
The rest is history as the players explored the world that was literally being drawn as they moved from place to place.
Today I have 3 full giant land masses ruled by some of the same characters that started in the tiny village so many years ago. It's been a while since I've pulled it out but it's there waiting for a group brave enough to venture into the Lands of Llusser.
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JT "You will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."
If you are interested in world building, and are ready to go down this rabbit hole, there is a great sub reddit for it. I totally agree with Agile_DM, design the basic concepts of your world and start on a small scale, you can develop areas as your players start exploring your world, just make sure that you are consistent with your descriptions NPC names and personalities.
just make sure that you are consistent with your descriptions NPC names and personalities.
^^^ That's what I'm driving at with that whole "North Star" word business :D
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Check out free PDFs for my designs (cyberpunk superheroic D&D 5E, eastern fantasy noir steampunk D&D 5E, and post-apocalyptic D&D 5E!) at https://mikemyler.com/ !
You have a lot going on there already! One thing you might find interesting is this app for world building. The advanced features are for paying but I thing you can already do a lot with the free ones.
When I wrote/made the world in my current campaign, I started with the various tables in the DM's Guide. I rolled for traits (and also picked ones that just really stood out to me) and started from there. Personally I think that's a great place to at least get a rough outline for a sort-of story and just go from there. I also tend to pull a lot of inspiration from video games and movies that I've seen. Also, when building your world, think of specific cities that would probably exist in that setting.
For example, next week my heroes are going to the stronghold city Caershire. This castle of a city is surrounded by the bizarre and dangerous Drucest Wilds, so it makes sense that it would be so secure. But at the same time, Caershier is very heavily influenced and designed off of Gran Soren from Dragon's Dogma. Some of the best ideas for a city/quest/plot hook in a campaign come from compiling scenes and moments from video games and movies you love, or from old story ideas that you could never get anywhere with. For me, at least.
Either way, I wish you the best of luck with writing and developing your campaign!
I started with some fairly generic adventures, and made a few tweaks to make it feel unique (I made my dwarves have a symbiotic relationship with giant ants, as an example). From that point let my players influence the worldbuilding through play.
Then whenever I have an idea for an area, faction or whatever, I think about how it fits in the world. If I can't find a place for that thing I put it on the back burner, or start designing another game.
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
This might seem a little late, but I find that building a campaign is easiest when I either start doodling on paper ( a simple line or two ) and then turn it into a map from there. I typically go one of two ways from there. I either develop the terrain further, adding features and biomes, trying to adhere to basic geographical laws, or I start writing the story. As prior mentioned, movies, TV, and video games can influence your story however much you wish. I once had a campaign where I had created the land around the story. This particular one took place in the land of Edhorad. I had recently re-watched The Fellowship of the Ring. You can guess that the land I created was Elvish and showed some aspects of life in Lothlorien. From there, I decided that an Elvish king had died and that, against their nature, three of the king's children started a great war of ever changing tides. Then, following typical Elvish preferences, I created the terrain. It included lush forests, great expanses of plains, and high, misty mountains. Going back to the first approach, creating the terrain first is almost always my way to go. I create campaigns that include races and cultures that fit the surrounding area. For example: I would put dwarves in mountainous or hilly areas, not in a bustling city by the coast. The same goes for elves, orcs, and other creatures. This works for me. If it doesn't work for you, I'm sorry. If it does work for you, great!
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Not sure if this is answered somewhere else so I decided to just start a new thread.
What do all the DMs do about creating their own worlds, cultures, languages, etc?
I have just began creating my own world with regions, cities, and specific important locations. Where should I go from here? What's next?
Any help/discussion is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
I usually skim through the below site for specifics or ideas when creating new lands/kingdoms/etc:
https://donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/demographics/
This proves quite helpful in covering all the bases that you may not have thought of, or if you're stuck. Not to mention, all the other random generators that the site can assist with. Check it out!
I actually just found donjon yesterday. That is what got me thinking about World Creation.
When I was younger I'd spend an entire series of weekends delving into the creation of a world with a detailed map, reams of paper detailing NPC's, monster lairs, etc. It was lots of work and fun!
Now, decades later with far less free time I tend to build a world around the campaign hook I'm looking to explore. I answer enough questions to spell out the setting for me and then shift focus to a player guide that gives (just) enough for a person to make a character that feels native to the adventure setting. Then I start writing out the adventures and factions and plots and ideas to explore. Again, not in great detail.
When I'm done, I can answer the following basic questions:
Stuff on that general path. Going deep down the rabbit hole is fantastic adventure for a DM, but I just don't have the time, so I've learned to do the work that helps me frame the world and adventure, and then work just ahead of the ripple of player effects on the world itself so it behaves in a rational manner.
Most of the Time I look stuff up online. Just browsing Google Images always helps. Most of the time I use Magic the Gathering Cards to make a backstory or to base an idea off a spell, weapon, NPC. Since there's so many and such different worlds, it provides a lot of good start up ideas.
Not sure if I should repost from another thread so: https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/homebrew-house-rules/755-creating-a-world :)
Check out free PDFs for my designs (cyberpunk superheroic D&D 5E, eastern fantasy noir steampunk D&D 5E, and post-apocalyptic D&D 5E!) at https://mikemyler.com/ !
My Homebrew world started more than 30 years ago. In the little village of Homlet. I had nothing else other than a village. Background were not such big deal back than other than showing up with your first level character and begin to play this new Adventure I had picked up. There was very little background given as to place this village so I drew a quick map. Once the adventure was finished I had added a few things to the map like a ruined temple and a large city close by I named Witaman.
The rest is history as the players explored the world that was literally being drawn as they moved from place to place.
Today I have 3 full giant land masses ruled by some of the same characters that started in the tiny village so many years ago. It's been a while since I've pulled it out but it's there waiting for a group brave enough to venture into the Lands of Llusser.
JT " You will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."
If you are interested in world building, and are ready to go down this rabbit hole, there is a great sub reddit for it. I totally agree with Agile_DM, design the basic concepts of your world and start on a small scale, you can develop areas as your players start exploring your world, just make sure that you are consistent with your descriptions NPC names and personalities.
Check out free PDFs for my designs (cyberpunk superheroic D&D 5E, eastern fantasy noir steampunk D&D 5E, and post-apocalyptic D&D 5E!) at https://mikemyler.com/ !
You have a lot going on there already! One thing you might find interesting is this app for world building. The advanced features are for paying but I thing you can already do a lot with the free ones.
When I wrote/made the world in my current campaign, I started with the various tables in the DM's Guide. I rolled for traits (and also picked ones that just really stood out to me) and started from there. Personally I think that's a great place to at least get a rough outline for a sort-of story and just go from there. I also tend to pull a lot of inspiration from video games and movies that I've seen. Also, when building your world, think of specific cities that would probably exist in that setting.
For example, next week my heroes are going to the stronghold city Caershire. This castle of a city is surrounded by the bizarre and dangerous Drucest Wilds, so it makes sense that it would be so secure. But at the same time, Caershier is very heavily influenced and designed off of Gran Soren from Dragon's Dogma. Some of the best ideas for a city/quest/plot hook in a campaign come from compiling scenes and moments from video games and movies you love, or from old story ideas that you could never get anywhere with. For me, at least.
Either way, I wish you the best of luck with writing and developing your campaign!
I started with some fairly generic adventures, and made a few tweaks to make it feel unique (I made my dwarves have a symbiotic relationship with giant ants, as an example). From that point let my players influence the worldbuilding through play.
Then whenever I have an idea for an area, faction or whatever, I think about how it fits in the world. If I can't find a place for that thing I put it on the back burner, or start designing another game.
Futuaris nisi irrisius ridebus.
Please don't Necro threads - it's against the site policies.
This thread had been dead 14.5 months before you commented.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
This might seem a little late, but I find that building a campaign is easiest when I either start doodling on paper ( a simple line or two ) and then turn it into a map from there. I typically go one of two ways from there. I either develop the terrain further, adding features and biomes, trying to adhere to basic geographical laws, or I start writing the story. As prior mentioned, movies, TV, and video games can influence your story however much you wish. I once had a campaign where I had created the land around the story. This particular one took place in the land of Edhorad. I had recently re-watched The Fellowship of the Ring. You can guess that the land I created was Elvish and showed some aspects of life in Lothlorien. From there, I decided that an Elvish king had died and that, against their nature, three of the king's children started a great war of ever changing tides. Then, following typical Elvish preferences, I created the terrain. It included lush forests, great expanses of plains, and high, misty mountains. Going back to the first approach, creating the terrain first is almost always my way to go. I create campaigns that include races and cultures that fit the surrounding area. For example: I would put dwarves in mountainous or hilly areas, not in a bustling city by the coast. The same goes for elves, orcs, and other creatures. This works for me. If it doesn't work for you, I'm sorry. If it does work for you, great!