Ed Greenwood, the creator of the classic Dungeons & Dragons world of the Forgotten Realms, revealed his best advice for Dungeon Masters making their homebrewed TTRPG world.
In an exclusive with CBR discussing Neverwinter's 10th Anniversary Protector’s Jubilee in which he cameos, Greenwood gave advice to writers and DMs hoping to create a memorable fantasy world. "A world, a setting, is people first, geography second. The worst rabbit hole that most world builders start with is they start talking about the history of the world. Then it becomes like the beginning of the Bible where it's so and so begat so and so begat so and so begat so and so, for 82 pages. No, no, no. Tell me what's happening right now, and make it about the people," Greenwood explained. "It's the characters first and how they're bouncing off each other. What are their conflicts? What are the things they band together for? What excites them? What are they trained for in life? What are their aims? From that, the world will grow as you need your story to grow."
Ed Greenwood's World-Building Advice Also Suits Video Games
Brett Norton, the executive producer for Neverwinter, agreed with Greenwood and noted that much of that can be translated into creating video games. Namely, Norton acknowledged that in fictional mediums like D&D, players remember characters more than locations. "I would like to say that is also excellent advice for people that might want to get into writing for video games," he said. "How do you interact with these characters? What are they telling? Why are they interesting? Tell me more about what they're doing right now than about why they exist and what's going on. Memorable characters stand out in video games far more than memorable locations do."
Settings for Dungeons & Dragons
Greenwood's Forgotten Realms, which he first created as a child before selling it to TSR, is perhaps Dungeons & Dragons' most well-known and best-loved settings. However, there are numerous settings for D&D beyond the Forgotten Realms' high-fantasy world. The sci-fi space exploration Spelljammer is another popular one that only just got its D&D 5E introduction in 2022. Much like Pathfinder's Starfinder setting, this one allows players to travel the cosmos as merchants, pirates or explorers. In some cases, players choose to homebrew a D&D world, despite the overwhelming undertaking.
Neverwinter's annual Protector’s Jubilee for its 10th Anniversary is going on now through June 22 at 8 AM PT.
Source: CBR