So, decisions, decisions. There are so many to make when developing your world. I suggest starting with the most obvious: that which has inspired you to make this world. What is important about it? Are dinosaurs and other megafauna running around everywhere? Perhaps alien technology is scattered throughout the land in the ruins of an ancient and advanced civilization. These basic principles or ideas are the start to every world.
Once you have that, and you have defined it, you need to really get into the meat of the statement that defines the world. There are so many worlds out there. People have been writing stories for, well, ever. Games are abundant and varied with concepts and unique worlds. Chances are you got your idea from a movie, a book, or a video game or some combination thereof. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, creative and new ideas stem from something that has already been made. What makes it new and exciting are the twists you make to the ideas or the direction you take them. That is what you need to do. Begin defining what makes you world unique.
For me, the continent of Atlazan (see previous two posts), is based on an idea that has defined all of my worlds. Gods and other deities are incredibly powerful, able to influence and rule over the lives of mortals as they see fit. But, they are also the creations of the mortals. Sentience begets high concepts and the belief in greater beings. I'll get into better detail on this next week, but the take home is that sentient beings, whether they are elves or humans or goblins, evolved naturally or magically and any hand the gods had are self-prophesizing and the results of the future beliefs of those same people. Atlazan arose from the idea that perhaps mammals are not the dominant species. Instead a race of dinosaur people (using the inappropriate lay-term here, it took me a 30 page paper to define what is and isn't actually a dinosaur, if you want to know more feel free to ask!). And what if they separated, in civil war, eventually resulting in the scale-kin and feathered-folk. The answer was Atlazan.
So where does all that other stuff come from in the histories? What about everything I haven't yet told you? Well that is your next step! You have a concept. You have what makes it unique. Start asking questions of your world. Is there magic? How much? Technology? What races live there? What classes are available to players? Why or why not? I recently wrote an article about paladins, and from there you can get my opinion on them, but the idea that every god has paladins with their own orders and tenants defines my world to a very important degree. A city of necromancers worshiping the god of undead becomes all the more dangerous when there are black-plate clad paladins wielding fel energies and deadly weapons.
The more of these types of questions you can answer, the better. You'll never answer them all, that's the point of playing right? But there are important ones. Gods, kingdoms, leaders, powerful races, dangerous monsters. What's real, what's legend, what strafes the line between the two. How complicated is your cosmology? Or get smaller. Is the campaign undead focused? If vampires are important and you define that, what mythos are you going with? How do you kill them, weaken them? What's urban legend and what's true?
This is starting to look like a lot of work right? Well, in a way it is. But it doesn't have to be. If you really want to make this world, if you are passionate about realizing this world and getting people to experience what is happening in your head this will not be work. In fact, it will be fun and you won't be able to stop thinking about it. Once you start asking questions and answering them, the world should begin informing itself. My history of Atlazan started with less than 5 major concepts.
- dinosaur people turning into two groups, reptile people and bird people
- dragons play important role as rulers, especially to the reptile people
- the gods are important to the bird people
- the Kai-rella (from other campaigns of mine) are important
That's it. That is what I wanted. So I started thinking about it and how the separation may have happened. Who their enemies are. A few extra concepts came into play. Secrets for DM's eyes only right now, sorry folks. Surprises must remain so. With these thoughts all separate and disparate and completely unfleshed out I went straight to work at the history of the continent. I was purposefully vague and outlining in my style, but wanted it to be informed and complete. I started at the beginning, and with each coil, the world began informing itself and me as to what had happened. I learned at least as much about Atlazan as I already knew just writing the history.
Let your world do that. Let the answers to your questions inform you as to what questions you need to ask next. Let the inspiration flow from itself. Once you get into it, the world may just start creating itself. And finally, know when to stop. An outline of history is good to have. Races, monsters, and gods are all good. Defining the most important parts and knowing some of the less important ones are all good. But do not stress yourself that you don't have enough. Don't force yourself to create something just to have an answer to a potential question. You will find out quickly enough when you begin to design the campaign, when you build characters, and when you play. As problems come up, figure them out. As you realize new things write them down. And if things need to change, for the better of the world as a whole, change it. It is your world after all.
Like I said, next week I am going to use pantheons as a specific example of complexities of world-building. I hope to use it to inform you how to go about laying out the information of your world. I understand much of this article was vague. Telling you to ask yourself questions and kind of just let things come to you. The development of my worlds have never taken the same path of creation, but the general method has been the same. I'm not trying to create a set of rules for world-building, but a guidepost to point you in the right directions when you get lost.
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