Hello, I've been DMing for my friends for a while now and recently I had an idea for a new world but I've created a lot for my current world and granted a lot of my stuff maybe is a little generic but I really like what I've created and don't wanna lose all of it like deities, nations, etc. Just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience or anyone has suggestions on what I should do.

i don't understand. why you think you would lose content you have developed? a new world is just an evolution of your setting.

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Gods are fickle. They reshape the world to their whims.

What it sounds like, however, is that you have an idea for a different world, and it is different enough from your current one that you don't think the existing deities and such will fit into the new place.

I've created dozens of worlds, and one I have returned to often is the one I just finished creating a new iteration for. HOwever, for me the joy of creating all new stuff is the attraction, so I don't worry about the gods and such...

But if I have a thing that I like, then I will indeed keep it and carry it over -- often changing it to fit the new concept. An example is that I have always loved the way that ERB's Tharks were oviparous -- so I translated that concept into a feature of different races in several of my worlds.

I've used the Gods of one world in another world, as well -- and even done it while changing the domains they have for that world -- even though the gods are explicitly the same god, it is just a different way that they manifest.

lore and stories I often re-use, changing names, and locales and things, but keeping the ideas underneath it all the same -- if it works for the new world.

Because I have a rule when I create a world: everything in that world has to make sense for that world, and everything else (gods, game rules, classes, races, etc ) has to bend to fit the world -- never the world bending to fit the rules.

Why would you lose anything? I am confused. Like, you have your info stored somewhere, so just don't press delete and go make a new folder or something? 

I feel like I'm missing something here.

Sorry if I'm not being clear I wouldn't literally lose the stuff I've made I would still have it in my documents. My issue is basically I have a lot of things I've created that I have established for example I've created entire pantheons for races that I feel like in the process of creating a new world I shouldn't reuse, even though I've spent so much time making art, crafting lore, and making them fit the world. It's causing me to be very conflicted on not using things I've created and like a lot as to me it's like losing it, but I really want to create this new world but reusing stuff just feels like why did I even create the new world. It probably a real dumb way to look at it but that's basically the issue lol 

Oh alright, so basically while I create this new world if something I really like from the past version of my world fits I could try just possibly change some history, names, etc. thank you for the info :)

You don't need to lose anything. You can keep the current world and game, and start building the new one for the next game, or even run two at once.

Now, you may not have time nor energy to do that, but that's a different problem.

Quote from Lvl_64_Gengar >>

Sorry if I'm not being clear I wouldn't literally lose the stuff I've made I would still have it in my documents. My issue is basically I have a lot of things I've created that I have established for example I've created entire pantheons for races that I feel like in the process of creating a new world I shouldn't reuse, even though I've spent so much time making art, crafting lore, and making them fit the world. It's causing me to be very conflicted on not using things I've created and like a lot as to me it's like losing it, but I really want to create this new world but reusing stuff just feels like why did I even create the new world. It probably a real dumb way to look at it but that's basically the issue lol 

 
Oh I think I understand now. No, I totally get that. However, you can re-use stuff with tweaks and renamed or even try the Forgotten Realms route of the pantheon being the "same", sorta, except the gods were replaced. For instance the Goddess of Magic Mystra is not the original, she replaced the previous Goddess Mystra, and took her name, and even that Mystra was a replacement of Mystryl. Stuff like that. You could even base the new world as being born from the destruction of the previous one - maybe something happened in your current world to destroy it all and a new world emerged, but there are 'remnants' from the previous that survived into the one (this is a Marvel take: in Marvel comics, the previous universe was destroyed and the new, current, one came about but remnants of the previous world remained like Galactus, other celestials and the gods). 

There are various ways to use pieces of your current lore as a basis for your new one. Another example: you could have both worlds being parallel to each other, so things may be similar but there are differences, like the Multiverse concept used by various comics, shows, and even D&D (because every campaign, even if all set in the same worlds like FR/Eberron/Etc are all 'multiverse' alternatives, and some people will use a spell like Dream of the Blue Veil to travel between them).