Need help for new world!!!

[Calliope121]

Hi so as this is my first time creating a world, I could use some helP with it. I am currently running a game for mostly new players, so I am trying to make a " normal" world so they can be introduced to the game in a typical setting. So... What I have so far is a map, and a few ideas. The plan is to have a world on the brink of collapse. The campaign will be focused on a fairly small area of the world with only nine countries. So starting from the top of the world, there is Tussaedo, a Greek inspired matriarchal direct democracy, Felsen, a free and easy land of gnomes known for it's black-market and ... Unusual laws ( which literally state that possession is nine tenths of the law, Alyssair, the introverted elven nation, and Riassyla, the other elven nation well known for it's drow, black markets, and demonic possesions, The Freemarch, rather like Golarions river kingdoms, the wanderlands, a land of nomads, but with enormous moving palaces, The Deeplands, a land where the dwarves are losing a fight against orks, and the hordes of demons don't help either, The Demonlands, the result of a spell gone crazy, swarming with demons and only held back by the last country lastwall, the only thing holding them back. Any advice/ ideas/fluff for the setting would be greatly appreciated. I am looking for feedback on how I'm doing in general. As well as your thoughts on my general ideas

[Strormer]

It's tough building a whole world while also trying to bring new players in. If you're wanting a world on the brink of its apocalypse (which is what I think I got out of your post) then you might want to try them on Dark Sun and see how they fare before you throw an original world at them.
Still, if you're certain you want to make an original creation, trust me I understand the desire, then you'll want to make sure that the world is user-friendly. Pull out a few simple tropes of the genre. Honestly OotS is a good reference guide for the tropes.
Other than that, try not to alter mechanics, only fluff, and you should do great!
Good luck.

[hydroplatypus]

It's tough building a whole world while also trying to bring new players in. <snip> Still, if you're certain you want to make an original creation, trust me I understand the desire, then you'll want to make sure that the world is user-friendly. Pull out a few simple tropes of the genre. Honestly OotS is a good reference guide for the tropes.
Other than that, try not to alter mechanics, only fluff, and you should do great!
Good luck.

Depends on the world. I am currently doing just that. That being said it is a lot of work, and unless you plan on railroading you need to design quite alot in case the players decide to go to the other side of the continent (general details only). That being said, what I have done is created the general details of the country, and told the Players that they should stay within its boundaries as this makes my life easier. This solution will not work with all players, but it is working with mine, as they are too new to really care about this restriction.

I am continually creating the country in more detail, but have only gotten about 1/3 of it done enough to really play in. As such I try to provide enough questing material that the PCs don't really want to leave the general area (by general area I mean like 1/3 of a country, so I use this term loosely) they are currently in. I also create a few villages/towns that don't actually have a location, so that if they must explore that lake on the map they can, and run into one of these towns. These will help with improv if the PCs detract from where I expect them to go.

[Icedaemon]

Start with one small number of countries and give them a lot of thought. Place the players in one close to either the centre or this region or a part thereof close to the border of the reachable world. Think these places through. Make travel from one place to another difficult - magical travel is a luxury afforded only by the wealthy and powerful, so most people ride normal mounts or go on foot. Animals which inhabit the world do not confirm to the characters' level - an adventurer who wanders into the land where elephants are common is just as likely to walk up to a bull elephant at level 1, 10 or 20 and if a low-level character decides to attack, he gets a large if temporary ivory piercing followed by massive blood loss. Any powerful monsters you use as such roadblocks should either have difficulty chasing down fleeing PCs (killer trees, water monsters in the river ect) or be generally peaceful and only enter combat in self-defense (as the elephant example above) or distracted by something more pressing. The players should be smart enough to be careful about progressing in this region, especially if they understand that the elephants are far too dangerous for them and suddenly come across something big feasting on a freshly dead elephant. They might not stop entirely, but take the stealthy approach instead. If that slows them down enough that by the time they reach whatever they were going for that any new regions have been worked on well enough for future play, the threat and blockage was perfect.

In addition, smaller nations, where one civilization having many different nations with some differences as the norm will make the world feel larger. As an example, let's say that your dwarfs, while currently united into some form of alliance, do in fact hail from several dwarven nations with subtly different cultures. The ones far from the orcish hordes might provide their allies with weapons, food and volunteers, but not take an active part in the fight and might even try to profiteer from the war by issuing any necessities as some lend-lease sort of deal. The ones which are partially or wholly taken over will have more grizzled, dour and careful warriors, who want their homes back and might live in barracks or slums. The nations which are holding the line are jingoistic, with plenty of propaganda and an economy geared wholly towards the war effort, but a more optimistic outlook.