Some friends and I are planning to organize a campaign that’ll start over this summer, and I am not 100% sure how to start constructing everything. I have a lot of different basic ideas and worldbuilding elements (as it is a homebrew world that uses elements from canon DnD, just for ease), as well as ones that I have created more thoroughly, but I am having trouble organizing and prioritizing my work. Do any more experienced DMs have tips on ways to organize the work or strategies on how to go about working on the elements of the campaign in an effective way?
So since you are specifically starting a campaign and not talking about world building per se, I will make the assumption that you are putting the story of the campaign in the centre.
I know there are lots of different campaign style, ranging from fairly tight railroads/journeys along a story path, to completely open "let's see what we do next week" stories that tend to instead centre around a location or base.
Almost no matter what type of campaign, there are some big pieces you need in place in terms of the world: countries, religions/deities, resources, and culture
These will help shape the area your party is adventuring in - but the exact level of detail is largely dependent on your style of campaign - if its high political intrigue, be prepared to spend time on describing the council members, factions etc. If it is a dungeon crawl, maybe that is not so important - but clerics still need a link to a deity, and maybe there's a history to that dungeon that fits in with the wider geogrpahy?
If the campaign is more story driven or have a big arch - I would focus down on that after getting the big world things in place. It will allow you some elementary planning and ordering of things. If the campaign starts and ends in the same barony, with little or no travel - then flesh out that barony in great detail to allow exploration.
If the story likely spans half a continent or more, you will have to forego some of the detail to reasonably be able to cover it - and instead focus on describing the region briefly, it's people, and perhaps the most current/urgent events in that area - especially if they are linked to adventuring opportunities.
Tool wise, there are sites like kanka and world anvil that allow you to set up relations between everything from characters, regions, historical events etc. They can be a great help in structuring material, but can also end up feeling overwhelming (like you are supposed to have everything for every location) - so many stock to notebooks, google docs, one note and similar.
I think the key for your campaign is perhaps to start outlining the early parts of the story, and then develop the setting around that area/location - once you have the biggest blocks in place.
Start with the micro: What can the players see and do at the start-- and then work your way up to the macro-- worldbuilding, culture, world politics, etc as you go from there.
You should not try to "finish" worldbuilding before you start playing. There's not really a way to do that, and anyways the most common DM complaint is "players don't pay attention to my worldbuilding" and that's cause, unfortunately, worldbuilding is way more fun for the DM to do than it is for the players to play. Players don't like info-dumps, so the worldbuilding that does make it into the game will be filtered through what it is about the game that players feel compelled by and seek to learn more about. With that, you might actually find it beneficial to leave some decisions about how your world works unmade until you see how the players interact with it, maybe even be ready to change some things you thought were already decided.
All you really need prepared is content, and for a campaign just starting out, embrace the small scale. What's happening around the starting town? What needs doing? Who's antagonizing the locals? The great thing about starting small is that you can plant seeds that tie into the macro-scale conflict without having to start waist deep in context the players don't have yet.
One useful tool for organizing a campaign is to look at the table of contents for the published adventures. Even if you don't own them, you can still look at the ToC here on DDB. Those give you a rough outline of the campaigns and provide a template to follow.
I find it helpful to think of the campaign in acts, where each the tiers of play has its own goal that points towards the final resolution. Whether this is a fetch quest, like gathering artifacts for killing Strahd or a location change like finding the lost city of Omu.
A campaign is really just a series of connected game sessions with an over-reaching story arc. Planning can feel overwhelming, but actually it can work with a general idea of where you want to go, then let the story tell itself based on how your sessions pan out. Pick an interesting start point, set your players running and see where they end up. It can be a mistake to over plan as ideas and key events will evolve as they play out.
Keep your advance session planning to two or three. Have a sheet somewhere where you note down plot ideas, main antagonists/allies etc as you go along. Use that, along with the decisions and choices your players make to evolve and progress your story. A campaign can be a journey you share with the players rather than a pre-written path. That's the best thing about them - and gaming generally IMHO. Best of luck with it all.
Sounds like you are working on multiple fronts at the same time.
Since I am starting to build by next campaign, I'll share a bit of what I am doing.
I have a general idea of what the arc of the campaign is and where the group will start. I write down General parts of the story, highlights, events, notable enemies, plot hooks, random ideas. Then I flesh out the area the characters will start in. In this next campaign, the characters will start in a port town that was completely destroyed about 80 years ago (close to where the current campaign is ending). Building out the town is where I will start. Usually, I will start with something like the smith or Inn or something similar.
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Some friends and I are planning to organize a campaign that’ll start over this summer, and I am not 100% sure how to start constructing everything. I have a lot of different basic ideas and worldbuilding elements (as it is a homebrew world that uses elements from canon DnD, just for ease), as well as ones that I have created more thoroughly, but I am having trouble organizing and prioritizing my work. Do any more experienced DMs have tips on ways to organize the work or strategies on how to go about working on the elements of the campaign in an effective way?
So since you are specifically starting a campaign and not talking about world building per se, I will make the assumption that you are putting the story of the campaign in the centre.
I know there are lots of different campaign style, ranging from fairly tight railroads/journeys along a story path, to completely open "let's see what we do next week" stories that tend to instead centre around a location or base.
Almost no matter what type of campaign, there are some big pieces you need in place in terms of the world: countries, religions/deities, resources, and culture
These will help shape the area your party is adventuring in - but the exact level of detail is largely dependent on your style of campaign - if its high political intrigue, be prepared to spend time on describing the council members, factions etc. If it is a dungeon crawl, maybe that is not so important - but clerics still need a link to a deity, and maybe there's a history to that dungeon that fits in with the wider geogrpahy?
If the campaign is more story driven or have a big arch - I would focus down on that after getting the big world things in place. It will allow you some elementary planning and ordering of things. If the campaign starts and ends in the same barony, with little or no travel - then flesh out that barony in great detail to allow exploration.
If the story likely spans half a continent or more, you will have to forego some of the detail to reasonably be able to cover it - and instead focus on describing the region briefly, it's people, and perhaps the most current/urgent events in that area - especially if they are linked to adventuring opportunities.
Tool wise, there are sites like kanka and world anvil that allow you to set up relations between everything from characters, regions, historical events etc. They can be a great help in structuring material, but can also end up feeling overwhelming (like you are supposed to have everything for every location) - so many stock to notebooks, google docs, one note and similar.
I think the key for your campaign is perhaps to start outlining the early parts of the story, and then develop the setting around that area/location - once you have the biggest blocks in place.
Start with the micro: What can the players see and do at the start-- and then work your way up to the macro-- worldbuilding, culture, world politics, etc as you go from there.
You should not try to "finish" worldbuilding before you start playing. There's not really a way to do that, and anyways the most common DM complaint is "players don't pay attention to my worldbuilding" and that's cause, unfortunately, worldbuilding is way more fun for the DM to do than it is for the players to play. Players don't like info-dumps, so the worldbuilding that does make it into the game will be filtered through what it is about the game that players feel compelled by and seek to learn more about. With that, you might actually find it beneficial to leave some decisions about how your world works unmade until you see how the players interact with it, maybe even be ready to change some things you thought were already decided.
All you really need prepared is content, and for a campaign just starting out, embrace the small scale. What's happening around the starting town? What needs doing? Who's antagonizing the locals? The great thing about starting small is that you can plant seeds that tie into the macro-scale conflict without having to start waist deep in context the players don't have yet.
One useful tool for organizing a campaign is to look at the table of contents for the published adventures. Even if you don't own them, you can still look at the ToC here on DDB. Those give you a rough outline of the campaigns and provide a template to follow.
I find it helpful to think of the campaign in acts, where each the tiers of play has its own goal that points towards the final resolution. Whether this is a fetch quest, like gathering artifacts for killing Strahd or a location change like finding the lost city of Omu.
A campaign is really just a series of connected game sessions with an over-reaching story arc. Planning can feel overwhelming, but actually it can work with a general idea of where you want to go, then let the story tell itself based on how your sessions pan out. Pick an interesting start point, set your players running and see where they end up. It can be a mistake to over plan as ideas and key events will evolve as they play out.
Keep your advance session planning to two or three. Have a sheet somewhere where you note down plot ideas, main antagonists/allies etc as you go along. Use that, along with the decisions and choices your players make to evolve and progress your story. A campaign can be a journey you share with the players rather than a pre-written path. That's the best thing about them - and gaming generally IMHO. Best of luck with it all.
Compulsive homebrew creator and GM!
Feel free to check out my Period Fantasy novella: Storm on the Cathe
Sounds like you are working on multiple fronts at the same time.
Since I am starting to build by next campaign, I'll share a bit of what I am doing.
I have a general idea of what the arc of the campaign is and where the group will start. I write down General parts of the story, highlights, events, notable enemies, plot hooks, random ideas. Then I flesh out the area the characters will start in. In this next campaign, the characters will start in a port town that was completely destroyed about 80 years ago (close to where the current campaign is ending). Building out the town is where I will start. Usually, I will start with something like the smith or Inn or something similar.