Hello there :)

I'm starting a homebrew campaign in a few months and I'm doing some research on do's and don't's on the subject. The main advice I saw online was to take it slow on the world building at first, start small, maybe just the starting village. However, I'm a bit shivery at the thought of how the f I'm going to plan the world after a while.

One thing in particular that has always bugged me, even when making characters when I'm not DMing is religion. How are you supposed to fletch a whole pantheon of gods in your world in a way that is believable? Do you guys use resources from the core rulebooks on that regard? Do you create everything from scratch? I know this is future me problem, but present me wants to do it right for my players (especially if some of them are planning on building clerics, paladins or other divine characters).

Also, I'm a big Critical Role fan. And I know that our games will not be remotely like theirs, they are professionals with years of experience (no need to brief me on the Matt Mercer effect, I love having fun with my friends and can do that at our level). I'm just in awe before the world building that Matt's able to do. Spoiler if you've not seen any CR, I'm going to talk about his worldbuilding for the ancient times before any of the campaigns.

 How do you build the history of the world in your campaigns in a way that is interesting and that can unravel in the story you tell your players?

The most important thing when homebrewing your campaign is to do what works for you.  Maybe that is starting at a village scale and working your way out, but maybe it is starting at a continent scale and working your way in. (Note: In reality, you’ll probably do “a bit of both at the same time”, but you likely will still focus a bit more on either macro or micro when first getting started).

The advantage to village-then-continent is you get to start with something small—just a few NPCs, buildings, etc.  This buys you time to think of some of the more big picture things, like countries, politics, conflicts, etc. The advantage of continent-then-village is you have a general outline of the entire world. This gives you time to think of some big ideas, which you can lay the foundation for when in the village, and it gives you the context the village is placed in, so you can design it based on geography, politics, etc.

Neither is right or wrong, it just is about what you would find easiest for getting started and finding your inspiration.

Regarding making a pantheon, you could always use the D&D gods if you are feeling overwhelmed by the religion side.  This was basically the primary model for Fourth Edition’s rather sparse setting—“please homebrew your own world, but here are some gods and some lore, so you can use this as a skeleton and not have to do some of the mundane work.”  This is what Matt Mercer did—Vecna and the Raven Queen, for example, are both D&D gods he just decided to use.

If you do want to make a pantheon yourself though, start by thinking about what they represent.  Once you have some core concepts, then you can try to flesh things out from there.  Think about what you want the gods to do. Are they active or inactive in the world?  Feared, loved, both?  Heroes in their own right, or terrifying divine entities who convey blessings and smites with equal ease?  Ask yourself since of those questions first, and see if they give you any ideas. 

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How do you build the history of the world in your campaigns in a way that is interesting and that can unravel in the story you tell your players?

Let the players tell you where to start

If someone's playing a cleric, then you need to figure out who they're a cleric of, and then to creating your pantheon (or importing one from another source, or some mix of the two -- you could, for instance, take an existing pantheon and just re-name all the gods, keeping their portfolios and personalities intact). If no one's playing a character with any kind of religious vibe though, that might not be something you have to worry about right from the jump

If someone's playing a rogue, or even just someone with the criminal background, then you might need to figure out the guild situation in your starting village or the nearest big city (maybe the small village has a waystation in their smuggling network, that sort of thing)

Warlocks need patrons. Soldiers need armies. Paladins need causes. Pirates need ships. Drunken master monks need favorite alcohols. Etc etc. As your players come to you with ideas for their characters, use that to inform the world around them, even allowing them to help create a corner of it themselves as they develop their backstory if they're so inclined (think Taliesin and Whitestone, which is as much his as Matt's)

Remember too that this is supposed to be fun for you as well as them. If there's a particular subject or area you'd find fun to create, or if you're the kind of person who has fun writing reams of lore, then do it! It's only at the point when it starts to feel like a chore that you need to step back or slow down and think, "Do I really need to develop this right now?"

When I started building my world, I started with a world map, divided it into countries, then picked the country I wanted my campaign to start in. Then I did a loose country map with a dozen main cities then I picked the city I wanted the campaign to start in. Then I mapped that city.

After that, I defined 4 things. Gods, guilds, government and general descriptions of each major city. That was enough for me to start my campaign and I'll flesh things out as they move around the country. I've just started mapping my second city.

How are you supposed to fletch a whole pantheon of gods in your world in a way that is believable?

Well, for one, it doesn't have to be a pantheon. It can be a single deity, a group of pantheons, a bunch of single deities, no deities, -- the possibilities are kinda open. If you are going to use existing Domains of Clerics, then those give you a general guideline to run from and use in creating your Gods -- and they are somewhat but very generally based on the old PIE deities (from which norse, greek, roman, egyptian, etc gods came about -- but they do very, very poorly for deities from other cultures).

I've done variants of all of the above -- my current set up is "a bunch of single deities" that van be very, very loosely grouped into three very rough pantheons called "bright", "Shadow" and "Dread" and that have nothing to do with good, evil, or neutrality. None of them have a single domain -- technically, they all have all the domains.

Believability doesn't come from the rules, though -- it comes from understanding the nature of the gods, how they would operate in the world, and so much yada yada that it really is easier to just use the Domains as they are provided. THen think about how they are worshipped -- prayer can attract attention or push it away, some want a blood sacrifice, others want an offering, others just need you to love them. Baptism can be done in all manner of ways, from symbolic burial, water, fire, exposure, whatever. Most of it won't have much of an impact on how one plays, though -- even role playing, unless you push it, and then only if the players are into doing so.

Do you guys use resources from the core rulebooks on that regard?

Me? No. I take ideas from them, yes, but then I go off on my own and do my own thing, wholly. But I've been doing world building since I was 10, and I'm nearing 60.

Do you create everything from scratch?

Not if I can help it, lol.

However, I follow an old standard: the Rules bend to fit the World. SO when I create my world, I don't think about the rules of the game. I create the world first, and then start making the rules work to that. Sometimes that's almost noting to change; other times, like my next campaign, that means completely redoing all the classes, races, and magic system. Everything is dependent on the world I create, and the world I create is always based in what my players say they want to try out next as it is filtered through my creativity. My next campaign world is built without using any fiction or fantasy stuff created between 1920 and 1980 -- which is pretty much all the core canon of D&D.

 How do you build the history of the world in your campaigns in a way that is interesting and that can unravel in the story you tell your players?

Well, first, I have to figure out what the characters probably know about that history. Then I write out the highlights -- the stuff that is passed down from family and people you encounter and that still has an impact on the lives of people. WHen it is a lot of history, it only ever touches on really important things in the lives of the people who live in that world at the time that adventures begin.

For example, everyone knows that once a year a holiday is celebrated called lanning day, but no one really knows why, and over the centuries it has had other things layered on top of it that have slightly changed it -- but at the very heart of it, tied to the history, is a story of "first people" -- giving it a mythical quality. The truth is something else, but this is like 5,000 years ago -- how much do you know of holidays celebrated by people circa 3000 BC?

That write up gets passed out. If players want to read it they can, but I won't force them. Then, through the adventures, as things come up that need to be part of the hsitor I use that vague write up (and my notes about the truth of it) to create the details on the fly.

ANd that takes me to the most important thing: Details are for the moment when they matter, and the don't matter when creating a world. Do it in broad strokes -- as everyone else has noted, it is always easier to start small and build out -- the bottom up approach.

I tend to do essential pieces very broadly -- Cosmology, Gods, History, Countries -- and then only do details for the stuff that requires actual details. Races, classes, equipment, backgrounds. THen, during the adventure, if I need to reference history, well, I have a whole thing I can reference that won't be changed by adding in details.

To drive this point home, in my signature is a link to a website where the world I created for the next campaign is being set up. The world itself is done -- I am slowly finishing up classes, feats, and odds and ends around that, spells and the like. I created the website for my players, but it's there for anyone to look through.

The thing about doing serious worldbuilding is that, unless you're doing it for a wider audience than your play group, it's about 90+% for you. Almost none of your players will care about the depths of history. They certainly won't notice if there are contradictions caused by you making it up on the fly.

That's not to say it can't be useful for you -- knowing the big historical forces that drive things is useful for figuring out how it will all shake out if the players don't interfere. But it does mean the finer details aren't that big a deal.

(A common problem for SFF authors just starting out is to spend so much time worldbuilding that they never actually write the book. Blame Tolkien.)

So what I'd suggest is make up some big-picture stuff about the world: the major powers, their current general relationships, any major ongoing conflicts and looming threats. Then fill in everything else from the small scale on up, as you need it. (And what you 'need' is vague. If you're filling in the next city, and your imagination comes up with the legendary hero it's named after and some of her major exploits, go right ahead. Just don't be sad when the players never ask.)

As for gods, it's hard to construct a pantheon that feels believable. Part of this is that they're too tidy. Real-world pantheons have weird portfolios, contradictions and varying versions, and gods for all the important parts of day-to-day life. They have gods of the sun and disease. They have multiple war gods. They have differences of opinion on who's in charge of the pantheon. They get built up over time as different groups meet and assimilate. Constructed pantheons often have nice symmetrical structures, broad portfolios, no real overlap, and far too much attention paid to the "big picture" stuff and not enough to the stuff that people deal with every day. (Have a farmer's god. And a mother's. People pray to the gods that the harvest will be good, and that their baby won't die far more than they'll ever pray to the "god of light". Similarly weavers, fishers, etc. Also, have a trickster god. They're pretty much inevitable.)

My preferred way of doing things is to invent a few of the important gods to set the tone, then ask the players to make up their own gods, and fill in the gaps when and if needed.

I would caution against treating “start with a village” as the be all end all. I’ve definitely gotten use out of it as a tool, and it can be a good way to establish the “status quo” of your world. However, speaking only for myself, I can never lock down details in a way that feels right until I get a good sense of what the setting or campaign I want to run in it is about. An once I discover that, a lot of what I made previously is liable to be scrapped and replaced or modified.

For instance, originally fiends very much like the canon devils and demons were the primary enemies, and the villages I started with were based on having to protect themselves from those. But as I hammered out the overall concepts of this world, it became more fitting for a heavily expanded version of the sorrowsworn to become one of the most prominent threats. Thus the settlements had to change to fit this. (And eventually the lower planes and Shadowfell concepts began to bleed together a lot more, but I won’t ramble).

Likewise, I would suggest holding back on developing gods until you have a setting theme or concept that you feel right about, then making deities to support that concept. But that’s just what works for me, the best creative process for you might be completely different.

We just altered the Roman gods.

Since in most D&D setting each race had its own pantheon then just changing the names worked pretty good for a start.
This would give a general back ground for each god and their area of influence.

This doesn't stop a Dwarf god from having a few non dwarf followers but it gives a nice quick general overview of the general populations beliefs.

In most polytheistic religions the priests work with all the gods in the pantheon and just tend to specialize in their own chosen one. So one priest could ask a god he does not normally "work" for for a blessing or guidance as long as its inside the same pantheon.

https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/gods-and-goddesses-greek-and-roman-pantheon

There are no known written records of the actual rites or services for any of them.
Most have all been lost because of the 'secrets' of all the old religions. None of the old pantheons have much if anything written about their specific rites.

So go ahead and make up anything you want.

In most games I just use the Gods in the source material just because it's easier. The only worldbuilding advice I would give is don't be in a hurry to lock yourself down. Give yourself lots of blank space to put the things that are going to arise during the campaign. The longer you wait to define anything, the more flexibility you have.

Regarding gods, you either need a handful or need none. Generally there will be a PC that has some sort of religious link - Clerics, Paladins, Druids. The Clerics give examples in the subclass description. You can use those or ask the player for one. Nothing wrong with player input. Starting out, most villages don't have a dozen main religions going on at the same time. They often worship the same god, maybe two.

Starting in a village is totally fine. You don't have to worry about too many details and it gives the players a safe base that they can get attached to. Whether they grew up there or are traveling together and ended up there are both fine. 

After that you only have to worry about what is between the village and whatever goal you give the party. Every other direction doesn't matter. Yes, the group could ignore your hooks and then you just have to improvise a little. If they ignore your hooks again, ask them what they are looking for as far as adventure/advancement.

The rest of the world doesn't matter. Only the area around where the party is located matters. You can build it if you want, but for the game it doesn't matter until the party hears about it or they get there.

So, I was asked if I do stuff the way I do it, wh I have a dozen different cultures that are spread all over the place, and how this gets int he way of the "start with a village".

SO, my players don't really like to all come from the same place. They even complained about it the last time I did just one place.

Plus, I am all about cultures and such. So, I create a bunch of cultures. I need the map so the players know where they come from, and I give them info, but I don't actually create those places. As I pointed out in a reddit thread, if I need a place, I run to a generator site, save that, iport it over to inkarnate, and whip up a quick map.

I know a lot of "big things" bout my world -- I know the major cities and the towns, for example, but I couldn't tell you who rules any but two of them (I know the Emperor and the Duke, and only because they feature in a planned adventure). I don't know what the places look like. I know what they have in them, though -- I know that a village isn't big enough to have a large market, probably only has a few craftfolk, and will have a purpose, even though I don't know where any of the villages are. I know that Towns and cities have certain specifc features and that they are generally grouped into sections, and what is required for a section.

I don't need to know the rest.  Unless they wander over there, odds are good I won't have any reason to do so.