My Forays into World Building

I love epic stories. I think that’s why I love playing Dungeons and Dragons. I love long narratives full of adventure and crazy villains. Give me a 20 book series and I will gobble it up in a week or two. So I wanted to try my hand at creating my own world. I wanted to see if I could create a living place where stories and adventures could take place.

I did some research online and found a bunch of websites with different ways of approaching the world building process but they all had one thing in common. They had a bunch of questions about my world they wanted me to answer. Well it wasn’t built yet so I didn’t know. I am a visual learner and seeing things in front of me makes it easier to understand the concept or figure something out. Instead of answering a bunch of questions I began with a map.

It wasn’t super intricate but on a page I drew the continents of the world I wanted to build. I worked with some shapes until I reached something that was appealing to me. Next, I identified any major cities or countries. I wanted a desolate world without much of a human presence for a few reasons. One, it gave space on the map for other species’ to live if I decided to use it in a campaign and two, it allowed for growth in a world that isn’t very populated. The map could change in a few hundred years and people could be all over the map.

After identifying the major points of civilization I added things like forests, mountains, and rivers. Nothing too intricate, just enough to show water flow from the mountains to the seas and what kind of land lay between cities. I also named the ocean and the seas within it as well as most of the continents. I have an entire continent that is molten and dry lava because of a giant volcano that constantly spews lava into the seas. Just think of what you would have in a world you created. What you want to see and experience in that world.

Once you have a visual representation it might be easier to create background information for your world. Seeing how things are place, how far apart they are can come in very handy when making up a brand new world. I am still working on it but I have a map and a reference point to start. I hope this has been helpful for any world building of your own.

Have any questions or comments? Message below or find me on Twitter @DnDWifeStories and on Instagram @dndwife. I would love to hear from you!