How detailed should I prepare my world?

[Albions_Angel]

Hi all

Worldbuilding here. In my playable region of my world, I have a rough population of 400,000 people in about 500,000 square miles. The way I am building it, that works out to be 9 major cities, 3 towns per city (27 towns), 2 forts per city (18 forts), 3 villages per town/fort (135 villages), 90 assorted hamlets and farmsteads, and 7 specific communities.

With this world, I plan to run a fairly open campaign. With a story driven element to it.

Obviously the 9 cities need names, and the 18 forts shouldnt be hard, and I can probably manage the 27 towns, but do the 135 villages all need names before the players go there? What about the hamlets? Should they just have locations until they come up? Or not even that?

I have some naming conventions, so thats not a issue, but I just wondered what everyone else does.

Thanks

[CharonsHelper]

I wouldn't worry about planning every location out too much. Most of your legwork would likely go unexplored/unappreciated.

Even if you want to lean your campaign a bit on the sandbox side of the spectrum, just have your players tell you where they're going next at the end of the session so that you have time to prepare the area before they get there.

[OldTrees1]

How many minutes of prepared material do you need as buffer before you have enough time to generate enough same day material through the rest of the session? That will give you a good first estimate of buffer prep. The tendency for you to correctly (accuracy & precision) guess where the players will go will shrink the amount of that buffer that is likely to be needed.

Likewise identify what information is important. Is the name of the village really going to be relevant even if the PCs go there? Only your group can answer for you. However I have found names to be rather unimportant for my games.

[Honest Tiefling]

I think this depends on the playstyle of your games. Since you mention story driven, I toss out an idea to save some time.

Name the cities. Don't name the other bits. Just generate a list of 10-12 names you can use to slap onto wherever the PCs wander to. Place names can get pretty kooky over time, so you can chalk up any weirdness to crazy royalty or names passed down for generations that no one can remember. Increase the number if the PCs get vehicles or mounts.

It'll save you some time (135 hamlets!?), but things get names in the end. You can also repeat names (I'm sure hamlets did this all the time, there's only so many geographical features to go around) for the hamlets, as long as they are far enough away from each other.

[Ken Murikumo]

Random name generator that i use. (One of the ones i use)
http://www.namegenerator.biz/place-name-generator.php

[nedz]

Have a good map, but don't worry about the detail.

Prepare resources: Encounters, Buildings, etc. - which you then assemble, ad hoc, as you go - improvising.
Record what you did so that you have consistency when the PCs return to the same spot.
The only detail you need is that which you communicate to the players - the rest is for your benefit alone.

This said: having multiple layers is good - this adds depth.

Show, don't tell, of course - but keeping some things back will add to a sense of mystery and increase interest.

[DeadMech]

It's best to just go with what works for you. Which is a vague answer.

Some people are really good at making up things on the fly and some details are so unimportant that spending a night slaving over lists and maps isn't really worth it.

I've never DM'd DnD or any other out of the box ruleset before but rather self made games. So something that never occurred to me was reusing assets. Since games would vary in setting, genre, rules, ect.

If you plan a level appropriate encounter for a group in one game and it goes they way you wanted then save it. Stash it in a folder somewhere. Such your current group is never going to face that same group of kobolds at the same level but maybe a future group might. Over time you'll build a portfolio of prebalanced encounters that you can pull out randomly. Great for when your players go off the rails and exploring territory you haven't planned out yet.

Some DM's set multiple games in the same world. Maybe it's in different corners. So things like town names, their important npc's, factions, dungeons, maps, ect flesh themselves out over time.

I really wish this was something I had been told years ago. I used to spend hours, maybe days, making bit art tilesets for one games hex grid. It looked pretty good if you ask me. Really captured the retro gaming snes graphics that inspired me and my friends to even get into the hobby in the first place. Not so humble opinion, much better than most of the retro indy stuff you see in gaming these days. I never made any effort to save it for posterity though so now it's gone. Which is a damn shame because now that I think of it, that was entirely too much work to not try to have reused elsewhere.

kinda like building level appropriate encounters, especially with PC race npc's as the enemies every time your group wanders itself into the slums of some city, or into a bandit's nest.

[Hecuba]

Name the cities. Don't name the other bits. Just generate a list of 10-12 names you can use to slap onto wherever the PCs wander to.

While I might disagree on the precise number, I agree this is generally a good way to go about it.
To generalize this a bit so that it matches up more to my preferences.

First name the places that are capital "I" Important. Places that matter to the setting even if the players never go there. Places like Myth Drannor, The Mournland, and Qualinost probably needs to be named even if the party will never go there. These places are important enough that they have political implications for other locations in the setting.

Next, name the places that the characters are almost certainly to visit. This certainly contains your 9 cities, and probably the 18 forts.

Next, generate a list of names appropriate for the lower sized settlements. Depending on how distinct you want (for example) hamlet names to be from village names, you may need separate lists.

Generate enough names to cover a what you expect to come up (note - come up, not just visit: it could be something as simple as a questions or something you need for a bit of navigational description) in a session. Then, because humans are silly meatbags who are bad at planning, generate half again that many just in case.

Refresh the lists between sessions. Be sure to take notes or update maps to keep track of the names as they are used.


P.S. - This method also works well for other things.
For example: I keep a similar list for nobles of each races in a setting who are not important (initially) enough to have names unless interacted with. Because the party occasionally latches onto one, I also keep a list of motivations/courtly intrigue to attach to them in case they become recurring characters.
Having extras become major NPCs because of PC interaction is always a nice grace note for a setting.

[Darth Ultron]

In general you want to name everything. Not every name needs to be Shakespeare, you can name places like ''Moortown'' or ''Highpoint''. And it's best to have at least one line about the place. ''Moortown is a simple farming town''.

As the game goes on, you can add more details as needed.

[CharonsHelper]

In general you want to name everything. Not every name needs to be Shakespeare, you can name places like ''Moortown'' or ''Highpoint''. And it's best to have at least one line about the place. ''Moortown is a simple farming town''.

That is a lot of work - 95% of which will never be used.

[Darth Ultron]

That is a lot of work - 95% of which will never be used.

If that sounds like a lot of work...then maybe you should not be a DM. Being a DM is a lot of work.

[OldTrees1]

If that sounds like a lot of work...then maybe you should not be a DM. Being a DM is a lot of work.

Yes, but an efficient usage of prep time tends to lead to more prepared sessions. How much of your time do you want to spend on something with a 5% chance of being used vs something else with a 30% chance of being used? At some point the name+one line description is the appropriate amount of prep. Beyond that point you might not even name the place.

This is of course before considering what parts of something are important. If you only have time to either name the town ''Moortown" or to describe it as "a simple farming town'', which is a better usage of your prep time? What about 2 lines of description vs 1 line & a name?

[Darth Ultron]

Yes, but an efficient usage of prep time tends to lead to more prepared sessions. How much of your time do you want to spend on something with a 5% chance of being used vs something else with a 30% chance of being used? At some point the name+one line description is the appropriate amount of prep. Beyond that point you might not even name the place.

This is of course before considering what parts of something are important. If you only have time to either name the town ''Moortown" or to describe it as "a simple farming town'', which is a better usage of your prep time? What about 2 lines of description vs 1 line & a name?

Sure, you can do it the easy way and just make the town the PC's are in and the whole rest of the world is blank. So if someone asks ''what is to the north?'', you'd just say ''nothing''. Of course you can do the super random ''improvise'' and just randomly say things ''Um..to the north are barbarian orcs that ride giant rams !" Though this will require you keep track of all the random stuff and that you at least try to have it all make sense...unless your game is to just make on sense.

[OldTrees1]

Sure, you can do it the easy way and just make the town the PC's are in and the whole rest of the world is blank. So if someone asks ''what is to the north?'', you'd just say ''nothing''. Of course you can do the super random ''improvise'' and just randomly say things ''Um..to the north are barbarian orcs that ride giant rams !" Though this will require you keep track of all the random stuff and that you at least try to have it all make sense...unless your game is to just make on sense.

And since that is nothing like what I said, how exactly is your post relevant?

I said it usually makes sense to prioritize the amount of prep one does on something based upon where it lands in the probability density of the next session/sessions.

[Endarire]

The most important details for your world generally happen in the beginning. You need to know what this world is about. Is it high fantasy? Magitech? Otherwise?

Who are the major players in this world (beings and organizations)? Where do they live? What do they want? What can they (not) do currently? Approximately what happens if they're left alone? If the party interferes and fails? Interferes and succeeds?

How much do you intend to scale the world to the party or/and the party to the world? If the script calls for a 'white dragon,' do you make it a wyrmling (or an adult, a great wyrm, etc.) if that's what you expect the party to be able to handle at that time? How often can the party find stuff way below or above their level? What options do they have if the want to skip an area or retreat? How viable is retreat from a fight? From an area? Do people pretty much need super stealth/invisibility/teleportation to escape an area they found too difficult for them?

How do you handle character death and replacement? What penalties or bonuses exist for changing characters? What happens if there's a total party kill?

What rules do you really want enforced? What rules do you really not want enforced? Some people like encumbrance. (I'm presently OK with it.) Some people dislike tracking rations (like me). Some people want to ensure multiclassing is easy. Some people simply disallow stuff X from source Y because Z (usually flavor, familiarity, or/and balance).

Are you OK with an 'imbalanced' party? This may mean a party without all the traditional roles (tank/healer/Rogue/arcanist), but also may mean a party where some members notably under- or overperform. I've built a character (Hood) who soloed a Huge Red Dragon at level 7ish. No other party member came close. (In fact, the other party members were moving as fast as they could toward the Red Dragon to fight it before it went splat!)

How many mission spots are you allowing open at a time? For example, in the original Dragon Age, after the initial set of missions, the world opened to the player. He was able to visit about 6 major places in the world. Each major place had a major event. Some also had sidequests and side areas to explore. Some areas were linked, such as hearing about a mission in a town's bar would let you do a quest in another zone. Each mission was worth about a level or 2, and the game somewhat scaled to the party, meaning the game authors had an idea of how powerful a party would be at each point in-game.

If you make a mistake, how OK are you with admitting it? What about trying to correct said mistakes? I've redone a major fight because I messed up, and the death of a certain party member would have changed the campaign drastically!

What are your thoughts on using music and visuals to set the moods for areas? Giving each area and major character a musical theme helps establish and convey tone and personality in ways textual description is suboptimal. I also like to find pictures (even on Google Images) for major characters to quickly convey information, like character quirks.

Remember, you're working with your players to build this world! What do they want in a world in terms of NPCs, locations, and quests? Consider it!

[Albions_Angel]

Thanks guys

What I think I will do then is name the 9 major cities and all the towns and forts. I will then generate a list of names for a variety of locations that I can use for villages, hamlets and farmsteads, and apply them as and when I need to. A few might get their own names if they are important.

I will also attempt to place all the settlements roughly on the map that I have, and start connecting them with roads.

That shouldnt take me too long. The main problem is, I want my world to feel real. Its a high fantasy setting, but slightly earlier than most games (thinking of banning fullplate, or maybe even only having it available to craft), centered around an Anglo-Saxon/Viking style race in about 900 AD. That poses 2 problems. Towns, cities and villages have to feel like they exist in the right places. Near rivers, at crossing points, natural high points, etc. They also have to sound authentic. Moortown doesnt sound very viking. Vollboer (Plain Town, or the closest I can get to Moor Town) does. But then Vollboer appearing in the middle of a lowland forest doesnt make sense.

Sure, some things are easy. I have have a few religions towns and villages. Brighidro (Brighid's Rest) for example, would be like the english town "Godstow". And villages and towns can be named for famous people. Bjordon is Bjork's Town. Hrollding is Hrolldr's People, while Skogring is the People of the Forest (a small lumber village perhaps).

With a few exceptions, the races are all fully mixed, with loyalty to the local Jarl being far more important than race. So the language is mostly unified. I dont have to worry about elvish towns being named elvish things and because there are no elvish towns (there are a few Dwarf only settlements, both along the Fjords and in the mountains, but I may just name those in runes, rather than latin script).

Thanks for all your help. I have DMed this world before, but in a proto form and i am now changing everything about it, rebuilding from the ground up, making it make more sense.

[Endarire]

You could use Dwarf Fortress to generate a world for you, complete with names and history. You don't actually need to play Dwarf Fortress.

Download the Dwarf Fortress Lazy Newb Pack.

[CharonsHelper]

If that sounds like a lot of work...then maybe you should not be a DM. Being a DM is a lot of work.

Only if you force it to be. The players will never know the difference between naming every individual town/village beforehand and having a list of 10-12 potential names ready on hand as they come up.

[OldTrees1]

Only if you force it to be. The players will never know the difference between naming every individual town/village beforehand and having a list of 10-12 potential names ready on hand as they come up.

You probably do still agree that being a DM is a lot of work, even if that particular example was excessive work.

[CharonsHelper]

You probably do still agree that being a DM is a lot of work, even if that particular example was excessive work.

It's work, but it's shouldn't be anywhere near as much as Darth Ultron is implying is required.

It's like if I agreed that it'll take awhile to get from New York City to Chicago, and Darth Ultron is insisting that you need to walk. Not at all the same scale.

[OldTrees1]

It's work, but it's shouldn't be anywhere near as much as Darth Ultron is implying is required.

It's like if I agreed that it'll take awhile to get from New York City to Chicago, and Darth Ultron is insisting that you need to walk. Not at all the same scale.

I agree. Driving is much better.

[CharonsHelper]

I agree. Driving is much better.

Or even do the equivalent of flying and buy a campaign world book. Not for everyone, but it definitely decreases the work required drastically, though a bit more expensive. (Actually - the metaphor is holding up better than I thought it would. :P)

[Darth Ultron]

It's work, but it's shouldn't be anywhere near as much as Darth Ultron is implying is required.

It's like if I agreed that it'll take awhile to get from New York City to Chicago, and Darth Ultron is insisting that you need to walk. Not at all the same scale.

It's more like I have the USA map made up and a bit about each major city. So, I'd have a place named Chicago that says ''lots of good pizza, lots of crime, and so forth. The other side just has New Your city and the whole rest of the world is blank. So if a player asks what is west the DM can say ''nothing'' or just ''randomly improvise'' something.