I know all the things I don't want but don't know what to actually put in the damn thing. I have a few ideas but don't know how to pull them all together.

First: Do I draw a map? Build the nations/societies?

I'd like multiple pantheons (I think). How do you make something like the god(ess) of the harvest different from one pantheon to the next? Can you? Should you?

Maybe I'm just realizing this is going to take more effort than I thought, becoming more work and less fun.

Looks like there is going to have to be some research. I don't know. Just thinking out loud.

I think archetypes might be your best friend here.

Most cultures have stories to cover the basic needs of society. In close geographical regions they are going to be very similar with some twists in the details.

I would recommend limiting the number of societies in your world and starting with an origin story for each. Then change a single detail that gives the societies an opposing view.

This one detail can give your entire world story all of the conflict it needs.

Start small and build from there rather than trying to do everything at once. Also check out Ray Winninger's Dungeoncraft articles.

You don't need to go overboard. To prevent being overwhelmed keep things small and vague at first. If your PCs are starting off in Italy you don't need to detail what is going on in India and China or Scandinavia. And frankly, everything beyond Italy is "Barbarians" anyway. So vaguely sketch in the rest of the Mediterranean and maybe a few key cities that are trading centers. Note who competitors are so people know who to grumble about: "Man, those Scythians are bastards..."

I often do start with a map, but then I've always liked maps. Again, it doesn't have to be detailed. I played in a campaign where the GM's map was centered on one major city and maybe 400 miles in any direction, we never knew what was beyond that accept in vague, general terms (my character knew a bit more than the others because he was a trader sea captain, but even that knowledge was mostly waved aside.) And even most of that map was "wild" lands with a few named towns scattered about.

Don't get too fancy with pantheons. Most players won't care (maybe the priest PC will, a little.) Stick with one main pantheon and only vaguely lay out a second or third. And what people think they know doesn't have to be true. "We have 8 major gods while those barbarians over there have 3." "Uhhh, they have 4." "Shut up, apostate!"

You can flesh things out later when needed. If the PCs head north into Gaul, fine, detail Gaul and their pantheon then. You don't need to worry about what is South until/if they head in that direction.

Define the core: time, place, scope. Time and place comes with its own tropes, such as tech, culture, environment, etc. and scope deals with how far PCs will generally travel, and what scale you need to focus on.

Examples would be: Bronze Age Horn of Africa, in an area located, and in size of, what is now Djibouti.

Then we can work on what's next. So what do you have in mind?

Starting small and expanding outward is a tried and true approach, and it may tend to get you something like a Greyhawk or possibly a Forgotten Realms type setting. Nothing wrong with these.

That's the bottom up approach. There's also the top-down approach.

I tend to prefer a high concept; stuff like Ravenloft, Dark Sun, and Spelljammer. I start with a science fiction styled premise-a "What if" question.

"What if it was like typical D&D, except there was no divine magic (ever)?" Then I work on a cosmology and backstory to justify my premise, then think about what major aspects of the world would be changed, and come up with cultures that might highlight different aspects of the premise- a culture of necromancers overrun with undead with a powerful church-like organization, A culture of Evokers in a blasted elementally-controlled land, etc.

There's no divine healing, so if I want adventurers to run around doing adverturer stuff, I'd better come up with a solution; maybe certain plants or minerals can offer the effects of specific divine spells. This might involve a powerful form of alchemy, or it might not. I probably decided to hinder divine magic to see what a world without divine casters was like, so I'd probably avoid introducing the classes through the back door of using alchemy; instead, I might make certain positively charged springs offer free healing potions. The springs are guarded by countries and powerful individuals, and the water is sold as potions.

That kind of thing. From the premise, I get an idea for resources, interests, and themes, and I can build the broad strokes of the world from there. It really wouldn't take more than an afternoon to outline a world this way.  

Once you have your broad strokes in, you can zoom in (to the country level, say), and add more detail, then zoom in on that (province level), then again (city and town), etc. you don't have to zoom in on everything- just the areas you're going to start in. But you'll have your whole world outlined and ready for more detail when you need it.

As others said, you can start small if you want, you don't have to build a world - you can start with a small village (or island) and build out as play progresses if you want. If you're feeling sneaky you can have PCs be newcomers to the area to cut down on stupid questions, though the drawback is this limits your ability to apply stuff from character's backgrounds during the game.

If you're definitely going to build your own campaign, I'd suggest work with one continent or kingdom to start with, with just a few ideas or rumours for other continents. A map is a good idea, and also try to think about the history of the place at least a bit- in more detail for recent periods. Consider if it was colonized recently and from where, how natural barriers like mountains or rivers will affect boundaries of countries, noteworthy magical events or disasters (particularly if ruins, etc. are going to be important in play). Oh and if there's anything you want from any other setting/book you've read/movie, just steal it (and adapt it if necessary to work with your other ideas).

When you get to the map making stage, this tutorial may prove invaluable if you have Photoshop. It has for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRaxI7EnX-k

IME the best worlds grow organically in play, you only create stuff when inspired to do so or to fit the current needs of the game-at-table. So any initial continental map should be kept very vague and sketchy. Thematics are a lot more important than details.

A 100 miles/cm continental map created ca 1986 was the nucleus for one of my most successful game worlds. That worked well, as it sketched out the major nations but didn't restrict what I could create at a smaller scale to fit the needs of particular campaigns & adventures.

Here's a MSPaint version of (most of) that map, from ca 1996:

Quote from: Thanos;752433I know all the things I don't want but don't know what to actually put in the damn thing. I have a few ideas but don't know how to pull them all together.

First: Do I draw a map? Build the nations/societies?

I'd like multiple pantheons (I think). How do you make something like the god(ess) of the harvest different from one pantheon to the next? Can you? Should you?

Maybe I'm just realizing this is going to take more effort than I thought, becoming more work and less fun.

Looks like there is going to have to be some research. I don't know. Just thinking out loud.

Just pick a theme and start creating, then see where it takes you. Edit as needed.

Here is an example of what can be created with that, Eire Subsector from The Zhodani Base which was created to honor Saint Patrick's Day.

Quote from: Thanos;752433I know all the things I don't want but don't know what to actually put in the damn thing. I have a few ideas but don't know how to pull them all together.

Having some ideas is a good start.

Quote from: Thanos;752433First: Do I draw a map? Build the nations/societies?

Drawing a map is a very good idea, as you can hang things off the map.

I would sketch out any surrounding areas in a paragraph or two, just to give them some flavour. Detail the current area slightly more, but don't go overboard. Give each major town a sentence or two, so that when the players ask you about a town, you don't go "Er, um, er, don't know, it has pigs".

Quote from: Thanos;752433I'd like multiple pantheons (I think). How do you make something like the god(ess) of the harvest different from one pantheon to the next? Can you? Should you?

Look at RuneQuest for some very good ideas about how to handle pantheons. Most of the ideas can be ported to other systems.

• Each deity has its own powers, derived from its realm of influence and its actions
• Worshippers of a deity get access to spells particular to that deity
• Worshippers of a deity have restrictions and benefits particular to that deity
• Worshippers of a deity should behave in a certain way
• Certain professions/classes tend to migrate to worshipping certain deities, so Fighters worship gods of war

I wouldn't go into much more detail than that. Sketch out the pantheons, write a sentence for each deity and perhaps detail the spells they get access to. Maybe highlight why the pantheons are different and maybe say which pantheons are worshipped in each country.

Quote from: Thanos;752433Maybe I'm just realizing this is going to take more effort than I thought, becoming more work and less fun.

Looks like there is going to have to be some research. I don't know. Just thinking out loud.

How much is work and how much is fun depends on how much detail you have. Writing everything in depth up front is very hard work and can drain the fun. Writing it as you go along and when you need it is much easier and actually adds to the fun, as you and your players explore the world together.

Consider first the scope of the planned campaign.

Is it small or localized to a single area? Or is it going to sprawl all over the continent or planet?

Look at your start area. How long are the PCs going to be there? The more based they are to one place the more you can flesh it out.

Then consider who the neighbors are. What the neighbors are. This may give ideas for the general layout of the lands adjoining.

And from there you can get ideas for pantheons. Whats an elven harvest goddess and an orc harvest god got in common? And what is different? Are they even seperate beings? Will it be important or is it just background info?

If the adventure is going to really sprawl and there is lots of travel then you may not need to flesh much out aside from points of interest as the PCs may breeze through and never pick up a tenth of the info.

Funny thing, that ... I wrote a series of articles giving a low-key overview as to what to do:

Opening Gambit: Your town and its NPCs

Faith Manages: Designing religions

Setting The Table: Party composition and equipment

The Appetizer Round: Tips on portraying your world's NPCs

The Main Course: Your First Adventure

The Dessert Round: Random tips and suggestions

Spicier Cities

Medieval Demographics Done RIGHT (pt I)

Medieval Demographics Done RIGHT (pt II)

Quote from: Thanos;752433I know all the things I don't want but don't know what to actually put in the damn thing. I have a few ideas but don't know how to pull them all together.

First: Do I draw a map? Build the nations/societies?

I'd like multiple pantheons (I think). How do you make something like the god(ess) of the harvest different from one pantheon to the next? Can you? Should you?

Maybe I'm just realizing this is going to take more effort than I thought, becoming more work and less fun.

Looks like there is going to have to be some research. I don't know. Just thinking out loud.

I'm looking for a post I made a few years ago about this, and of course, I cannot find it.

I always recommend going large, then small.  In other words, build the big picture ideas, plots, and themes.  Then make a basic map with that, and always make the cosmology fit in.  What powers spells, is there divine magic, is it a good-vs evil thing, or are there divine factions?  Do you want belief to matter, or are the gods very clearly affecting the world?  What is the population density and what % of the population can touch/cast magic...in a class based game, what % is level capable?  Do you have races, sub-races, crossbreeding?  What types of political systems, what sort of relationships, what sort of economies?  And make sure the classes or game archetypes have a background for existing...for example, who teaches magic?  is it an organization, many organizations, or individuals?

After all the Macro, go micro...create a village or something small that expresses all of the big stuff on the molecular level.  Represent the racial stuff, the economic stuff, the church and faith stuff, the guilds, etc, on a small scale.

Start by drawing a map, then let your imagination flow. Ruthlessly mine Wikipedia for info, reality is wonderfully bizarre and bears no onus of "believability" the way fiction does. Don't worry about gaps, often your players will like to fill those in, here is a world written by one of my players:

Tetlae/Vilian (Astron 1038) E360502-6 De Ni 524 Na F2V

Starport E Frontier Fuel none Facilities none
Planetary Size 3 4,800 km Mercury, Ganymede Surface gravity 0.6
Atmosphere 6 Standard Earth Pressure 0.71–1.49
Hydrosphere 0 0%–5% Desert world No free standing water
Population 5 Hundreds of thousands Average city
Government 0 None No government structure. In many cases, family bonds predominate. Clan.
Law level   2 Portable energy weapons (except ship-mounted weapons); Highly addictive narcotics; Agent programs; Alien technology
Visitors must report passenger manifest, landing is permitted anywhere; All psionic powers must be registered; use of dangerous powers.
Tech level   6 Industrial Atomic age. TL 6 brings the development of fission power and more advanced computing. Advances in materials technology and rocketry bring about the dawn of the space age.

Tetlae is a cold, small desert far satellite, one orbit outward from the habitable zone, with a diameter of 4,820 km and a circumference of 15,140 km. It has no surface water, and its surface gravity is 0.6 G. It has a year of 526 24-hour days; its actual day length is 21 hours. There are no moons. Average temperature is -11 C, with a temperature change of -12 C per kilometre of altitude.

Tetlae is a non-aligned world with a transient population of +/- 500,000. It has no central government, and is governed by clan structure; clan custom forbids portable energy weapons. Its tech is equivalent to the atomic age. This world is poor and non-industrial. It relies on industrial imports.
 
The clans are traditionally nomadic, in order to not over-exploit the few natural resources of their world. They travel from sietch to sietch in tribal convoys of large, bio-ethanol powered vehicles – home cars – accommodating extended family units. Mobile workshops provide for many of the necessities of life, and comprise the local light industrial base, which functions as much as a craft as it does an industry. There is a dependence on imported components and raw materials for fabricating major installations, or even for maintaining anything above medium tech.

Image
Typical Tetlaean home car

The native Jonkeereen stock was originally seeded here in a joint SuSAG/MinCol program to test their adaptability and suitability to dry/cold conditions. The program faltered with the Collapse, but the hardy Jonkeereen prospered despite abandonment amidst adverse conditions; this was despite the inevitable differences which arise between competing groups in a scarcity environment. The last few generations of clan elders have been forming plans to terraform this world; this has meant a move towards burying inter-clan rivalry, and towards cooperation on large-scale projects. Many Tetlaean youth have been sent offworld on clan bursaries to study methods to achieve this end.

Unfortunately, this has meant conflict has been generated in new areas – within the tribes, between those forward-thinking members following this tendency towards mutual aid, and the 'primitivists', who are often organised into quasi-religious sects. These luddite groups desperately wish to reinvent and defend a semi-mythical, less-complicated vision of the Jonkeereen past – and one which is more conservative, patriarchal and ruthless. Their tactics include intimidation, sabotage and terror.

http://dragonersdomain.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=131

See, you would be surprised at how much creativity can slip through the gaps. It is nice to have a whole theme across what you are doing, but it isn't necessary.