D&D Advice: 10 Best Worldbuilding Tips for Dungeon Masters

So you want to design a fantastic and memorable world for your players? Well, you’ve come to the right place. The best part of any roleplaying game is building a world and stories with friends. This can seem like a daunting task. But with this simple list of tips, you will create fantastic worlds and memories with friends to last a lifetime.

1. Establish the overall theme and tone of your world.

   Do you want it to be a dark, gritty place full of danger and intrigue, or a more lighthearted and whimsical setting? The world tone helps to guide you as to how the world is perceived by the players and their characters in addition to how they will play the game. Light-hearted jokes and jabs are more prevalent in a whimsical game versus a serious and dark tone of a gritty murder mystery. The overall theme and tone will help ensure that you fill your campaign with quests, monsters, and NPCs that fit the world.

2. Develop a detailed history of your world.

   This can include events such as wars, revolutions, or natural disasters that have shaped the world and its cultures. The history is certainly something that gets overlooked by many Dungeon Masters. I’m not suggesting that you create an entire book of history. But, taking a bit of effort to create a simple timeline of major events can help spur random NPC conversations, references to past world-changing events, or even new discoveries of technology, locations, or magic. This powerful tool can help guide conflict and alliances within your world. All are plotted on a simple timeline for reference.

3. Create a pantheon of deities and religions that are important to the people of your world.

   This can give players a sense of the culture and belief systems of the different regions they explore. You don’t have to delve into great detail on each of the pantheon gods, but a simple one-line description can go a long way in the game. For example, following Ares, the god of war, or Aphrodite the goddess of love and beauty immediately gives the players a sense of the types of people that will follow and worship them. A simple pantheon or religion is another tool to help you fill out conflict and societal structures within a world where these gods and faiths reside.

4. Design the geography of your world, including the layout of continents, oceans, and other landmasses.

   Simply drawing a map helps inspire the greatest of concepts and locations. If you’re not particularly skilled at drawing, you can use map generators or (my personal favorite) spilling a large number of dice on a table and tracing it to build the world. Decide on the climate, vegetation, and natural resources of each region, and how these factors might influence the cultures and societies that have developed there. Most conflicts and interactions stem from the available resources in a particular area. Use your map to create resource needs to flesh out trade and commerce, as well as threats.

5. Determine the political landscape of your world.

   Who holds power, and how is it maintained? Are there multiple competing factions, or is there a central government that controls the world as a whole? As mentioned previously, geography, religion, resources, and history can all help drive political intrigue within your world. You don’t need to be exceedingly detailed, just enough to explain why one group may be allied with another, neutral with an ally's enemy and why they are hostile to another. Considering these three simple political details will allow you and the characters to see the world as a large interconnected set of gears and cogs all turning with or without the character’s interactions. If you struggle to track this sort of stuff, I recommend an RPG management system such as Obsidian Portal.

6. Establish the social hierarchy of your world.

   How are different classes and races treated? What are the roles and expectations for men, women, and children within different societies? Simple changes to hierarchical norms can completely turn the world and the player's experience on its head. For instance, the ancient capital of the greek Amazonian women warriors, Themiscyra was governed as women being superior to men. This means men are treated as simple servants and housekeepers. How different a world or country feels with this simple change. Break the mold of social norms to set your world apart.

7. Determine the magical and technological capabilities of your world.

   What types of magic exist, and who has access to it? How advanced is the technology, and how does it compare to the magic of the world? In a world where not everyone has access to magic, technology is bound to grow. How far along is it in your world? Does your world have firearms and explosives or does it mix magic and technology to form something unique? These considerations are perfect for expanding your player’s options into new classes or subclasses as well as the types of enemies they will encounter. In one place magic may be used to lift people up a tall tower, while in another place it’s a large metal box with contained lightning powering it. This balance can greatly impact the world, so consider it well when answering this question. Remember, the world is a large place, and perhaps these two haven’t met at all. In either case, your world is going to be that much more interesting.

8. Create a calendar and system of measurement for your world.

   This can help players keep track of time and place, and give your world a sense of realism. Beyond just that, a calendar dotted with special holiday events such as Winterfest, Winter/Summer Solstice, or Day of Rebirth help with noting the passage of time. The NPCs talk of upcoming plans for special events based on traditions. Players who take interest in this are likely to ask questions, to which you can already have the answer, or create it as needed based on their interest. Perhaps your Day of Rebirth is a moment when the people of the world celebrate their survival of a falling star crashing and nearly wiping out all living things. If you have a general idea, and the players ask, you can then flesh it out in more detail. This interest could then repeat in the future as you expand on the holiday when another falling star is spotted in the sky, adding a new campaign hook. You also tie the calendar in with your pantheon for easy celebrations and events. Tools such as Fantasy Calendar really help track events in the world you’ve created.

9. Decide on the major events and conflicts that shape your world.

   These could be wars, revolutions, or other large-scale events that have had a significant impact on the world and its inhabitants. Your world is living, and the best way to show that to your players is with NPCs discussing current events and major conflicts. What is great about this little technique, is that you don’t have delve to much into a lore dump for your players. It could be as simple as “During your travel to the inn looking for rest, you overhear an old couple bickering about whether or not the Ronen is going to attack the Boldar.” If the players ask around, it means they are interested and you can engage them in conversation as the NPC or later on at the inn. In either case, you’ve shared a small snippet via a single sentence about major events. Later down the road, you can expand upon this by limiting resources such as steel that is normally imported from Boldar. Since they are under siege the characters can feel the pressure through price hikes in metal equipment and repairs as a result of the Ronen attack. This reminds the players that events are taking place outside their personal stories and may perhaps hook them into it.

10. Populate your world with a diverse cast of characters.

    These can include NPCs (non-player characters) that the players encounter on their travels and important figures in the world's history and politics. Make sure to give each character their own unique personality and motivations. While this last one seems simple and obvious, it’s been my experience that often times as a DM it’s easy to fall into you meet a human, barkeep, bandit, noble, etc. I don’t think this is intentional, but it just kinda happens. Don’t let it.

    While it can seem like a big chore to make each NPC unique, it really is simpler than it seems. Give the NPC just ONE stand-out feature. Whether it is an eye patch, a cross-shaped scar on their cheek, a broken-misshapen nose, a missing finger, or broken teeth these simple adjustments can make each character unique. Then just mix it with a description of their hobby and race and you’re good to go. Beyond that, let the characters encounter NPCs of import (even if they don’t know it right away). A traveling king or queen on their way to sign a treaty on the roadside says a lot about the political climate and allows the characters a chance to get noticed. If you struggle to create your own, I recommend this powerful tool by DoJon. Its generator will help in fleshing out the world and having great descriptions for your game.

Overall these are just some of my favorite tactics for building a world that my players will really enjoy. But, I know it can seem like a lot of work. So, if you’re really dedicated and are willing to give up some creative freedoms, you can spend one night with your players and create the entire world history and more with Dawn of Worlds as a game of world-building.

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