As a Dungeon Master, worldbuilding is one of the most time-consuming parts of my work. I spend far more time writing stories, developing systems, creating monsters, imagining scenarios, and planning factions than actually playing Dungeons & Dragons.

Every time I build a world, I do it differently, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. When I first started playing D&D, I used to begin with the broad strokes: the creation of the universe, the gods, the continents, and then worked my way down to the towns and villages the players would visit. Later, I tried the opposite: starting from small local details and expanding outward. Eventually I began mixing both approaches.

Years later (around the D&D 3.5 era), I started designing worlds around specific game mechanics I wanted to explore, and that approach has worked surprisingly well for me.

To be honest, I’m writing this mostly for my own future reference. But if it helps someone else, even better.

I have three main goals for this guide:

• To organize my thoughts and notes on worldbuilding so I can refer to them easily when working on new projects.
• To highlight aspects of worldbuilding that I sometimes overlook, and that others probably forget, too.
• To create a repeatable worldbuilding framework. Even if I only use it once before starting another world (which is likely), it might still help someone else.

Here’s the planned structure for this guide:

• Introduction: Why write a new setting, and how to start?
• The Signature and the Big Picture
• The Details
• Tools, Inspirations, and Resources
• The Process:
  • People
  • Monsters
  • Places
  • Events
• The Maps
• The Development

Of course, these sections may change as I write the guide.

Introduction

Why?

Common sense says this is impractical, it doesn’t make sense to spend more time preparing the game than playing it. But I enjoy it. I loved worldbuilding even before I played D&D, and I still do, now that it’s part of my work.

The best analogy might be cooking. Some people love to cook. They can spend days preparing a meal that will be eaten in half an hour, but they still love every part of the process.

I, on the other hand, don’t like cooking. I love eating, but I can’t justify hours of effort for five minutes of food. And I suspect that people who say, “Don’t do too much worldbuilding before starting your campaign,” feel the same way about worldbuilding that I do about cooking.

Aren’t there enough fantasy worlds already?

Maybe. The world you want to play in might already exist. If you want to play in Krynn or the Forgotten Realms, you can. But in my experience, that’s rare. Every time I find a world I like, I immediately want to change about 90% of it. Maybe I love the concept but want to fill in everything else with my own ideas.

Good reasons to build your own D&D (or other RPG) world

If you still need reasons to start writing your own elaborate setting, here are a few:

• Your work is never wasted. Even if your campaign only lasts two sessions, you can reuse everything you wrote later. You can even run multiple campaigns in the same world.
• You’ll know your world better than anyone. That makes for richer, more confident storytelling. Your players might know every secret of the Forgotten Realms, but they won’t know yours.
• You can run any style of campaign. Sandbox, railroad, West Marches, one-shot, whatever suits the moment. When you know your world deeply, you can adapt easily.
• Consistency. A well-developed world tends to stay thematically and tonally consistent, more so than one built session by session.

Where and How to Start

You can jump into worldbuilding with no plan and see where it goes, but it’s much more effective if you know your goals. A little planning can prevent a lot of frustration later.

Before you start, answer these three questions:

• What system will you use?
• What’s the short description of your world?
• What’s the tone of your world’s adventures?

Then review your answers to make sure you know what you actually want to create.

1. What system will you use?

This might be the least important question, especially if you don’t yet know which system you’ll run, or if you plan to adapt your world to many. But it matters once you commit to a system and want to use it as written. Some systems are tightly linked to certain world types; others are flexible.

If you’re comfortable modifying the rules or using a system-neutral approach, then it doesn’t matter much.

Examples of possible answers:

• “5e D&D” or “Vampire: The Masquerade.”
• “Any D&D edition.”
• “Any system with strong combat rules.”
• “Any system with strong social mechanics.”
• “I don’t know yet.”
• “Whichever system best fits my vision.”

For my example world, my answer is:

System: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition. I’ll add world-specific rules, including new kits and at least a couple of custom classes.

That’s the system I’ve customized most often, hundreds of times, in fact. This question is here mostly to get it out of the way. Its purpose isn’t to limit you, but to keep you grounded.

2. What’s the short description of your world?

This is the most important question, your world’s elevator pitch. Some people phrase it as “how is your world different from others?” but I think that misses the point. It’s not about difference for its own sake; it’s about clarity.

For example, you might describe your world like this:

“A post-apocalyptic world destroyed by magic, where good spellcasters are hunted and killed.”

That sounds a lot like Dark Sun, but your world might differ completely. Maybe there are no dragon-ascendant wizards, no widespread slavery, and no cannibal halflings. Maybe your adventurers are heroes, not survivors. The tone, the focus, and the details make all the difference.

When describing your world, focus on what you want from it, not on making it “original.” True originality comes from combining familiar elements in new ways.

Examples:

• Classic book pitch: “Like Discworld, but horror.”
• Genre mix: “Pokémon meets Fullmetal Alchemist meets Dino Riders.”
• Concept-driven: “People gain powers by consuming metals.” or “Everyone is born with an animal companion that embodies their soul.”

Remember: this describes the world itself, not just its story. “Harry Potter, but in an office” describes a premise, not a world, and that’s fine for adventure writing, but not for worldbuilding.

For my example world:

Short description: “What I hoped the Game of Thrones series would be, but never was.” A late-medieval, low-magic world struck by an ice age. Monsters stronger than humans roam freely, and humanity teeters on extinction. I’ll include some demi-human races, but they’ll be rare and distinct from the usual D&D lineup.

3. What’s the tone of your world?

Tone defines the emotional and narrative flavor of your setting, the mood of its adventures. For example, your world might resemble Pokémon’s on the surface, but if its monsters are possessed by abyssal demons that devour souls, the tone is entirely different.

Many assume that worlds within a game share the same tone, but that’s not true. Spelljammer’s humor, Ravenloft’s horror, and Dragonlance’s epic drama all live within D&D, yet feel completely different. Likewise, Call of Cthulhu and Big Eyes, Small Mouth couldn’t be further apart in tone.

This question is easy to answer but vital to remember. Tone influences every design choice, from classes and races to lore and mechanics. Even Wizards of the Coast sometimes overlooks this; not everything in the 5e Ravenloft books feels like horror to me.

You don’t have to avoid odd elements, just know what tone you’re aiming for, and be intentional when you break it.

For my example world:

Survival horror. Life is already harsh under the ice age, and monsters make it even harder.

Thank You for Reading

That’s all for today. The next part will cover “The Big Picture and the Details” (title pending). There we’ll finally start real worldbuilding, creating the actual elements of the setting rather than just its framework.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please leave them in the comments. I’m still writing this guide and hope it will be useful to others as well.