How to Create a Homebrew D&D Setting

Why Should You Homebrew a Setting?

Many GMs are happy to use a published setting for their RPG campaigns. For good reason - there are a lot of great options out there, whether it's established DnD Settings like Forgotten Realms or Golarion for Pathfinder. However, a homebrew setting provides the opportunity to flex your creativity and truly craft a world of your own. And World Anvil is here to support those efforts, with a complete suite of GM tools!

A homebrew setting provides a blank slate with limitless story potential. You don't need to account for the existing canon lore. You also can create a world that takes into account what really matters to you and/or your players. For example, if you have a passion for a specific element of worldbuilding, a homebrew campaign setting can let you build your whole world around it.

Another consideration is eternal fame and glory - or at least, possibly a few bucks on a 3rd party creator marketplace. If you enjoy your setting, maybe others will as well. It's also great skill-building to practice and playtest a core building blog of game design, if you're interested in exploring that as a career or side hustle. Maybe you're not quite ready to write your own system; creating your own setting can be a solid step in that direction.

Why Should You Not?

Of course, if you're going to ask "why should I homebrew a campaign setting?" it's only fair to ask "why shouldn't I create my own campaign setting?"

The truth is, creating a homebrew setting can be a lot of work. Only you (and your players) know whether the end result will be worth it. Another reason might be if a close match to the setting you envision already exists. Unless you're invested in the process itself, you might be better off finding a published RPG setting that would work.

Lastly, you may have a party of players who are really anxious to get started. They may not want to wait for you to get to a point in your worldbuilding where the setting is ready-to-play.

1. How Can You Come Up with The Premise/Core Concept?

To build your own campaign setting, you'll need to start with a Big Idea, aka your premise or core concept. This is the unique element that sets your world apart from other settings. World Anvil encourages you to document this in your World Meta. It's a good place to make note of the foundations of your setting. If you get stuck later, you can always come back to it and remember why you were so excited to create this world.

But how do you formulate this core idea for your homebrew RPG setting? You can approach this brainstorming from several different angles.

Homebrew RPG Setting Inspiration

There are many potential sources for inspiration when creating your own RPG setting. For example, you can look to other popular media and pop culture references to come up with your hook. This can include movies, books, television shows, even plays and musical theater productions.

Examples: Avatar, Stranger Things, The Magicians, Hamilton

Another place to look for inspiration for your tabletop RPG setting is asking "what is the foundational conflict for this world?" There are many classic sources of conflict in literature and media. Whether it's nobility versus the bourgeoisie, magic versus science, or a clash of fictional cultures, conflict creates drama. In some cases, you can even tie this conflict to aspects of the world itself. For example, resource scarcity or global environmental threats can cause societies to fight for survival.

Lastly, you can look to some kind of transformational progress to inspire your worldbuilding. Advances in technology, discovery of new sources of power (literal and metaphorical), the exploration of previously uninhabited continents or anything that could be defined as "the moment that changed everything" are rich storytelling opportunities for your homebrew RPG setting. Ask yourself what major historical event might shift society so dramatically that even the humblest person might have the chance for an epic adventure.

RPG Setting Brainstorming Techniques

For visual thinkers, creating a "mood board" can be a powerful technique to come up with the basic look and feel of a homebrew RPG setting. Whether your visual aesthetic is steampunk, cyberpunk, or gothic horror, a curated collection of images can help you dial in the exact vibe that makes your setting truly unique and special. A mood board can also be helpful with a "piecemeal premise." Instead of one big idea, if your concept is more subtle and complex than a simple mashup of two elements, a mood board can help you with the mosaic worldbuilding to create a harmonious whole.

For more narrative thinkers, crafting an elevator pitch might be a more logical starting point. This elevator pitch can be as simple as "Like X but Y." It can mean fixing a "broken" premise, for example, if you like the class tensions and near-space sci-fi of The Expanse setting, but hate the "and then the alien tech showed up" twist, create your own setting that keeps what you liked, and drops what you didn't. Combining two harmonious (or contrasting) existing concepts is another path to a satisfying and original elevator pitch for your RPG setting.

2. What RPG System Should You Choose?

Once you have your core concept, it's time to consider what RPG system you'll be using - or if you'd rather go for a more system agnostic approach. There are a lot of options, with more being developed all the time. You'll have to think through many different considerations, including genre fit, play style and purpose.

When it comes to genre fit, you'll need to thing about what the RPG system was designed around. Do the rules as written support the kind of story you and your players want to tell? Just because you can use an epic fantasy-oriented system for your gothic horror setting, that doesn't necessarily mean you should.

You'll also need to ask yourself if the system's basic mechanics emphasize the kind of play your table wants. A system that is heavily combat-oriented isn't going to work well if your players would rather explore roleplaying opportunities - or vice versa. You also need to think about your overall purpose and use case for the setting. A private home game among friends in real life has different considerations than a livestreamed game, or a setting you might want to consider publishing commercially.

3. What Kind of Tone & Aesthetic Should You Use?

Alright! Once your homebrew RPG setting has its beating heart (core concept/premise) and a solid skeleton (RPG system), it's time to make it fancy. You'll need to establish the details of visual aesthetic, as well as the tone and the ethos of the setting.

Your visual aesthetic might be based on a real-world culture or your wildest dreams! What colors, materials and textures are common in your world? How do these different visual elements shift across different regions, or among different social classes? Tone is more about the narrative bits and bobs of your world; it's analogous to a writer's voice in fiction. Is your setting humorous or angsty? Epic or grounded? NSFW or family friendly? Lastly, consider the overall ethos or philosophy of your RPG setting. Is your world gritty, whimsical, or a mix of both? Is it more grimdark or noblebright?

Creating an RPG Setting in World Anvil

Naturally, we think World Anvil is the best possible tool set for creating a homebrew RPG setting. No matter what RPG system - or a totally system agnostic setting - and regardless of genre, there are templates that can help! World Anvil's meta prompts will walk you through building the core elements of your setting. There are also templates for virtually every aspect of your world - from geography to politics to species and everything in between. If you're a visual thinker, you can use whiteboards to build a mood board or mind map. And you can choose to either publish your world for everyone to enjoy, or keep it all private - just for you and your players!

Plus, if you get stuck, World Anvil has a robust community of over 2 million users. Jump on our Discord, Reddit, or other community outposts - someone will be happy to help!