Warning: These games may contain intense violence, blood and gore, and/or strong language.
If you ever have had a great idea for a campaign, or want to get into being a DM, you have to know how to build a world or setting. This may sound like a daunting task but if you communicate with your players, and you take inspiration from others, it gets much easier. To give a more in depth example, I will be referencing my recently made world Erodia, focusing on the main location of the campaign, the megalopolis of Vrada.
When you start worldbuilding for DnD, the first thing you need to do is talk with your players about what kind of tone they want to play in. You also need to think about what will be most enjoyable for you to create. If you start making a setting that you don’t really want to DM for, you’re going to lose focus really quickly. For example, one of my players wanted to have a sci-fi setting, which was not something I was interested in for the campaign. Instead of just saying no however, I ran my next idea’s by him to see what he was ok with otherwise. Another thing I would recommend is looking around you for inspiration. My setting is supposed to be a magic 1920’s NYC-style megapolis, and it’s not a coincidence that I came up with that idea right after my history class was learning about the roaring 20’s!
After you have a very broad idea for a setting, you should see what your players are planning on playing in this setting. That same friend who wanted to have a sci-fi setting was quick to decide on playing a detective. That also reminds me of another tool, which is recommending that your players use stereotypes of that setting to make it easier for you to tell the story. In a magic 1920’s NYC inspired city, of course there is going to be a gritty detective, a war veteran with PTSD, and a magic jazz performer! This makes it easier to make NPC’s(non-player characters) that are connected to the players.
A piece of advice I was also given by the wonderful Mr. Merker was to name a signature dish of a location. That way you can flesh out what needs to be there to produce that food. Vrada’s most popular dish, for example, is steak, eggs, and pancakes. Therefore in the working class layer of the city there are cow farms, chicken farms, and wheat farms and mills.
My few final pieces of advice are first, use the website fantasy name generators, this will save you a lot of time crafting the perfect unique name for your NPC’s. The second bit of advice is to just write whatever you’re thinking about the setting and then organize it later on. And my final bit of advice is to not go into full and complete detail, your players aren’t going to be concerned with the tax codes, or what the exact measurements of a building are! Write just enough that you can easily improvise when your players do finally do something you didn’t plan for.