World Building: Starting a World Book

A World Book (often called a Campaign Bible) is exactly what it sounds like. A book of your world. It describes the people, places, and things in the world and provides a way to organize your thoughts. It's not something your bring to the table (usually) but rather a resource for preparing adventures. The structure of a world book should be well-defined, with sections divided by subject matter and a regular template within each section. You don't want to spend all of your planning time rummaging through disorganized notes.

A World Book can take many forms. It can be a simple notebook with pages between sections left blank to fill in later, a 3-ring binder, or even an online wiki. What medium to choose largely depends on personal preference and how much exposition and detail you want your world to contain.

Sections of a World Book

There are four major sections of a World Book: People, Places, Things, and Events. Each of these sections can have subsections, but try not to divide any deeper. Nothing needs to be written out long-form; every section can just be full of bullet-point notes. See the examples section at the end of this post for some excerpts from my own World Book.

People

There's going to be two definite subsections to People. The first is Peoples. In the Peoples section you describe each race's ethnic traits, religions, and cultural history. The second section is Important Individuals. These are the important players in your world, past and present. Describe their physical traits, achievements, and legends that may have appeared around those achievements.

Places

Primarily this section is interested with describing the regions of your world. Focus on background details like climate and geography and then start thinking about territories. At the highest level of detail a page in this section might outline a nation-state including its climate, people (referring to the People section), imports, exports, and political/military situation. This section is part of a feedback loop with your world map. The map creates natural barriers and biomes that form the basis of territories, which in turn inform where on the map you draw borders, roads, fortresses, etc.

Things

This is a bit of a catch-all, but most importantly this section describes technology. How does the complex interaction of magic and technology play out in your world? Who makes the best weapons in the world? What do the armies of the richest nations equip their soldiers with?

Events

History should be spread throughout your World Book where appropriate to help describe things. This section is for describing the world-changing events that shape the course of your world's history and influence everything that happens after.

Examples from Teredahar

Example of a detailed cultural history

The Psionic Peoples
Sometime around TR 8000 the Illithid race began expanding their domain in the deep subterranean of Tereredahar. Their conquests brought them a vast number of new peoples to consume or enslave. They already had Gith slaves since before coming to Prime. The Drow make poor slaves, but the dwarves and humans they found in their midst proved quite suitable. Modern Illithid society in The Deep and on the Astral Plane was built on the backs of legions of human and dwarven slaves.
In addition to simple slave labor, members of the Prime-native races were subjected to scientific experimentation. It was the survivors of these experiments who became the first psionics. They would come to be called Wilders. The trauma of their ordeals became a source of power then turned to rage against their captors.
Together with a force of natural-born sorcerers, the wilders staged a slave uprising and overthrew their masters. They fled deeper into The Deep to hide from reprisal and there began to study their powers and form a society. They called themselves the Deep Covenant.
With the help of the Deep Covenant more slaves where freed and more psionics joined their cause. The generation of formally-trained psionics were called Psions. In time they became the majority among the Deep Covenant. In time different ideological groups broke off from the Deep Covenant and chose to live elsewhere in The Deep and on the surface of Teredahar. They are Dal'Hellum, The Deepstalkers, and the Wind People.

Dal'Hellum

• Comprised almost entirely of Duergar (deep dwarves)
• Largest population is under Ashdar in the Upper Deep and in some mountainhomes, most notably Kor's Geode, where they overthrew the Mountain Dwarf ruler in TR 10080
• They're known to be sneaky and cunning
• They practice an ordered, logical training regimen that makes them good soldiers when they choose to act openly (which is infrequent)

Example of a Nation-State

The United Republic of Din

• Boundaries (neighbours): The Pale River (Kurudar), Balsom River (Koldar), Koldar River (Ashdar), The Dragon Ocean
• Primary inhabitants: Plains Dwarves, Hill Dwarves, Humans
• Biomes: Coastal lowlands, swamp, volcanic wash, damp coastal islands
• Climate: Temperate with humid summers and rainy winters
• Political: Elective representative republic. One of the few democracies on Teredahar.
• Largest Settlement: Dolvan Keep, a large city built around an old fortress. It is the seat of government and a major north-south trading hub, particularly for the export of refined metal ingots.
• Exports: Raw and worked metal, lumber, fish
• Imports: Food, textiles, magical goods

Example of a piece of technology

Powerstone Cannon

• A typical powerstone shell is a rough sphere, about 8" wide. Some are larger or smaller.
• Powerstone shells are very prone to breaking (and exploding) if damaged
• They handle blunt impacts ok, but if hit on a point will shatter
• Before the invetion of metal jackets for the shells, the cannon barrels had to be completely smooth to avoid breaking the shell in the barrel
• Metal jackets have led some weaponsmiths to experiment with rifled-barrel artillery pieces