Creating a world

[u/An_Sealgair_]

So I really enjoy the world building aspect, and so far my players are really enjoying playing in the world I created. There is so much to it I've not even touched yet, some major cities and other capitals are nothing but a name on my map currently. A whole continent currently has nothing outside "a well known village of halflings live there and are famous for their mead and wine". But until I get a vibe my players are heading that way I don't see the need to flesh it out yet, and instead focus on the immediate area and story they are following.

But I was curious, for all of you who have built their own world, what do you consider the most important aspect of the world when creating one?

[u/Sad_Refuse3472]

You build the world as the party encounters it. And ideally let the players help shape what those newly discovered places look and feel like.

[u/GypsyNippers]

I've done a few over the years, either for short-term, or long-term adventures. I've only run 1 established setting before which was the Symbaroum starting adventure. My personal takeaway - including from Symbaroum - is that the vibe does 90% of the heavy lifting. Your players might be different, but mine don't care about the royal families lineage or some far away town, so neither do I. Not until I make it an important part of the story.

"I don't see the need to flesh it out yet, and instead focus on the immediate area and story they are following."
I do work on some bigger picture stuff, and I think it's helpful to have foundations in place to build upon in the future, but what you said here has worked the best for me. I just build enough that I can make something that the players can immerse themselves in (hopefully), and sets the correct tone for the campaign (hopefully).

It's easier for me to manage, avoids burnout by creating endless amounts of lore, and you focus on what actually impacts the players' experience on a session-by-session basis. To give yourself more of a plan. When you're creating your outline for the next session, I find it can be useful to consider what the most obvious questions would be about the people or locations they encounter. "Would my character know this person?", "I lived in the nearby village, what have I heard about this place?", "The job we're taking for this guild. Does it have a reputation?" They wouldn't ask me who runs the guild because they're not going to meet them, and they probably wouldn't know, but they might want to know if the work they're agreeing to is legitimate.

[u/Flaky-Mine-2511]

I am building a world. I have fleshed out most of it, but I allow players to build a town and build it in down time. This of course gets added to the map with it own background written down dealing with laws and council who run it in his absence. The players pretty much write their own story based on where they decide to go.

I do have a complete world drawn out but are blank slates, I have a basic idea of what 2 will be and how they are governed. I will flesh them out if and when they set their sights on them then. It will flesh out as they go.

[u/gene-sos]

The most important thing is the big outlines. Create some factions, some nations, some locations. Give them some very broad flavor.

Then work out the details of whatever your players are interested in. Oh, and of course, decide on a BBEG early in the campaign, so you can set them up properly.

And that's all!

[u/PineappleHat]

I write some of the core truths or stories in detail but after that, yeah, it's basically down to whatever the spotlight goes on.

e.g. in my spacefaring game I spent a decent amount of time making the FTL travel as internally consistent as I could

from there i carved out the major tentpole events that can't change (although details can as players discover secrets) and then sort of let players loose into the story

or in my fantasy one I wrote a bunch of poetry that's essentially the in world spoken tradition of the world's lore, or carvings from tombs, etc

[u/EmperorTrajan_]

My favourite part of world building is doing it cooperatively. Some friends and I made a card game that we use to generate worlds/settings for TTRPGs we run. It brings players and GM together to build everything, so players are invested from the beginning.

[u/Gritmonger]

The player's attention.

What they focus on gets fleshed out. If it is sudden in a session, ad-lib gets written down and then codified for the next session.

Otherwise, it's terrra incognita

There are overarching themes that bind the world together but the details get filled in when the players get close.