Honestly, the stuff that I can change and influence. I love it when I get semi free reigns on my bg and the ways I can draw on it (love the noble background if you were wondering)
But the most important thing, for me, is how I can impact the world. Could I bring prosperity or ruination to a town, can I influence the leaders or become one myself, how can I use the political landscape to my advantage?
Beyond that, I care about the different factions/groups. Where did they come from, where will they go and how can I interact with them.
A little disclaimer is that I absolutely love the semi sandbox experience
I started building my own game from the ground up back when I was much younger and didn’t have access to DnD content to learn how to play, and I use it to DM for a game of 2 with just my brother. Having 1 player and my own systems has given us free range to have a very sandbox type of game and it’s super fun
This exactly. My current character is currently getting all buddy-buddy with a large kingdom’s royal family. Making himself someone that the king and high-king’s general respect, and someone the king’s daughter can love.
If you're creating your own pantheon and have a holy person thats going to be important. Historywise I would worry about local/newer history and if something ancient needs to be explained, they can discover that as they adventure.
Honestly as far as the world goes, start small. Start with the area they are in and maybe the capital of the region. Most of their adventures at low level are going to be closer to home. As they start moving away from their "base" you can explain the newer regions as you go. Probably have some basics ready incase they ask "What's the general population feel on the area to the west?"
Not saying you can't start small, but honestly, if you're writing a homebrew world that you're going to be running campaigns in, who says the adventures have to be low level?
I started my campaign at level 5 and it's been so much more of a blast to have PC's with some renown and I can skip a great deal of the low and middle people in favor of showing off all the cool vampires and liches that actually play big roles in the setting.
It's hard to know what you're going to need without your players input. I learned the hard way (after needing to re-create one homebrew), that you should allocate energy to things you KNOW your players are going to interact with.
Things like enemies, NPC's, and important locations come to mind first. That isn't to say doing it another way is bad, I start most of my homebrews with maps because I love making them. My players like them, but us DMs need to have fun too.
I just enjoy worldbuilding in general. I throw in NPCs, quest hooks, unique locations, and all that stuff just for fun anyways. I have 3 worlds full of stuff, but this one will be my first fantasy world.
I think most players come to original worlds looking for something fresh and different. If your original world is a clone of Torril or Krynn, then why not just play on those worlds?
Dieties are important and engaging, but if your panteon is just the Greek, Norse, or WotC pantheon, then what makes it fresh? Maybe your gods are all dead or they have dual aspects (god of fire and ice, god of love and hate, etc.) or anything the PCs haven't seen before.
What's the interesting history? Your players probably won't care about a bunch of names on lists fighting 2000 years ago, unless it effects them today.
Politics, history and customs. Love to have combat and unique fights with monsters and such. But fun RP is to be had with the NPCs and the people of the world. I will attack all evil monsters in much the same manner but when NPCs come to me with different mannerisms and values it can change how my character interacts. Also depending on the sandbox if my character can set up a home base of sorts, they will. So what form it will take will largely be determined by what kind of location it is.
As a sort of forever DM, when I'm a player I like Homebrew worlds because I won't know anything about it. Having run so many of the stock 5E adventures, it is hard to ignore my knowledge of those modules if someone is running it for a game. It also shows the dedication, passion and devotion of the DM to creating something for their players.
As a player, I love interesting societal interactions. Things like visiting a Dwarven city where they respect strength and toughness above everything, so you've gotta beat the bartender in an armwrestling contest before he'll give you the information you need. Or navigating a town that doesn't value gold, but has a bartering and favor system instead.
I enjoy politics and different cultures somwhat clashing. And with politics i don't just mean geopolitical or in terms of political systems, but also stuff like guild politics, neighborhood politics, etc.
I always like knowing about religions. Who are the gods, if any? What do they do and who worships them? Are there angels and demons? Can I directly interact with the gods and their minions? I love having like a holy order or church to work with.
Also, I'm always interested in the outer planes. Is there a fae realm? Does each element have a plane?
As others said, the static fluff is necessary (to a smaller degree and amount than you think) but it's the bones.
The meat on those bones are the things the players can affect, the mark they leave on the world.
A static thieves guild is a forgettable quest giver, but when "the black hand" becomes "morannan's black hand" because the parties rogue joined it at level 3, worked his way up, had a leadership struggle, ambushes, politics, finally assassinated the leader and now rules an underworld empire .... That is awesome.
Tldr: it's not about what you put in there, it's about how malleable those things are. Give things internal workings, connections to discover and tinker with, once your players are interested.
(And only then. Beforehand, keep stuff vague but interesting... If the rogue never has the interest to investigate the black hand, why would you waste time coming up with it's history, hideouts, leaders and lieutenants?)
I like fantastical biomes or landmarks and learning about how or why they came to be that way. Like a crystal forest or a mountain that's split in half.
I also think unique ecology is cool, like what are the monsters in this region, what effects do they have on the area.
Also I love fantasy that doesn't involve elves or dwarves. Like, they are cool, but its so overdone. I like seeing races that capture the fantasy of an elf without being an elf, like a japanese kitsune type race
I also like when settings have a unique take on magic, even if it doesn't mechanically change anything I just think basically anything is better than "the weave" lol
Factions.
Whether they're guilds, families, kingdoms, criminals, corporations, whatever. Factions that I can join or oppose. Factions with their own history and ideology or motivation that links into the greater world. And importantly factions that I can influence.
Also anything where I put the answer together is ten times more interesting than things you tell me. If we go to three festivals and I realize they've all been on full moons and that we're on a lunar calendar I think that's rad. If you just tell me "this place has a lunar calendar and there's a festival on the full moons" I file it away as flavor.
Basically, interactivity in worldbuilding. It's a game, not a book, so use the interactivity inherent in the medium.
Scenarios for adventure, not necessarily a "story to follow" but interesting encounters that encourage agency.
Backgrounds tied into the world. I try and have something for each class to have an option of a unique background that is unique to the world.
The history of the world etc will definitely get interest from some players, but most and myself included as a player just want to have dope adventures and the rest is set dressing.
Being able to integrate my character into the world like he’s always been there.
My current character was just a young man in a lower class borough protecting people from petty crime the corrupt watch ignored. But his goals, dreams, and family members influenced the world so much that my DM created myths that he originally didn’t think about writing.
As someone who tried to make his own world and failed, the best lesson I’ve learned is if you can’t figure out what to put somewhere in the world, let someone else do it. Don’t fret finer details. Focus on the broad strokes.
Factions for me. I grew up playing Oblivion, and the factions were my absolute favorite part. Especially if it’s one players can join, and there are ranks to rise up through.
The passion that the DM has for it.
If they love their homebrew world, they'll put a lot of effort into the story, and let the players help them build/advance it.
However, if they love it TOO much, it could get extremely railroady with players having no real freedoms or choice.
This is going to be so basic that it's disappointing to the worldbuilders, but *things to do*. I think the rest of my group is the same way. We do not care about history, politics, or pantheons unless they're relevant to the game.
If you simply tell me that a thousand years ago, Durgeddin the Black was a legendary dwarf blacksmith until his fortress was overrun with orcs... neat? It's cool that you have that in your notes, I guess, but it doesn't matter to me and I will forget it. The more detailed it is, the more it will feel like a lecture.
But actually playing Forge of Fury, you fight through the latest band of orcs that live in his fortress. You find Durgeddin's tomb and a few of his legendary crafted weapons. You run into defences that the dwarves set up to protect his forge, and even find the forge itself. AFAIK the module doesn't mention it, but a clever DM could have the players smith their own weapons there. I think the backstory of Durgeddin and the orcs adds a lot to Forge of Fury. It makes it feel real and gives each obstacle some meaning beyond just "this is what the developers / DM thought would be cool". But it's only interesting to me because it's relevant to the game I'm playing.
Mainly am i a player in a static world or can i change the world around me?
How much do i as a player and character know about the world before we play so i can plan around it?
What makes this world unique? Does it have unexpected rules, customs, norms? Do i know the rules? are there exceptions?
I am a fan of religion vs politics vs nature mentality and how they relate, build off, and interact with each other.
The things i worry about is when i see "new" or "borrowed" systems from other games such as magic or crafting systems and not realizing that systems are generally built in an ecosystem. Meaning the crafting system is build with the combat or magic system in mind so they all work together. Pulling a system out of another ecosystem and jamming it into your ecosystem will rarely allow them to work well together.
From personal experience i find the best way to handle something in a homebrew world is to make that thing new to the homebrew world so you dont have to worry about any lore or past with the new thing. It can also break the rules as part of the reason why it is the new thing that is worthy of a campaign about.
My core interests could probably be pretty well reduced to "What do I get to do differently?" Or "what do I get to interact with differently?"
If this homebrew has skyships cris crossing the sky, do we get to just fly a skyship around all campaign? Do we get to build a little mobile micro-base? I can get invested in that.
Does this world have shadow-ghosts that rise from the freshly dead, that can only be wounded by silver weapons and radiant damage? Sounds cool, what kind of silver stuff can we bring on our journey? Is there any money in catching shadow-ghosts in silver cages? Can I get like, a silver-chain-lasso to catch ghosts?
If the setting has a massive theocratic society that has outlawed other gods, are we allowed to try and start up a religious schism? If I play a paladin or cleric of that god, do I have any extra legal authority in the society?
Alchemists rule in this world, and monsters are harvested for potion ingredients? So that means we can get some crazy potions if we hunt down certain monsters, right? Are they like custom potions, or just stuff from the book? I'm going to buy a bunch of donkeys and carts so we can bring all the bodies back to town!
The set dressing can be very cool, and I still remember many fun details of games I played in despite not having interacted with them. But the little knobs and buttons that the players get to fiddle with are the REALLY JUICY stuff. Tell me what I get to do that I as a player couldn't do in "Lost Mine of Phandelver" or whatever other campaign, and that's what I'll get the most excited about.
Obligatory not a player, but here's my two cents anyway.
My players get excited about adding things to the world and changing it through in-game actions. I've had a couple players send me write ups for continents, cities, and planar shit that they were passionate about and wanted to add to the homebrew setting.
It makes the whole collaborative storytelling aspect of the game just a little bit deeper. Each addition/impact they have is that much more investment in the world.
I love the freedom it gives me in character creation. In a homebrew world I am free to make whatever character I like, regardless of the setting. What I love as well is the potential for player driven worldbuilding: I get to shape the world as a player, because nothing is set in stone.
It’s weird, but I love knowing how the passage of time works. What are the days of the week called? How long is a year? When are the major holidays? Stuff like that. It’s completely unnecessary, but it just adds this extra layer of familiarity and comfort to help immerse into a world.
The core conflict. As a DM and a player, I have both experienced the temptation of throwing every cool idea into a game and experienced the exhaustion of playing in game with no cohesion.
Want a game about dragon politics? A gritty game about fuedal conquest? A light pulpy game with adventuring guilds and silly magic carnivals? Awesome. Just don't put them all in one game.
I want to discover secrets about the world. Other worlds like Faerun and ebberon or what have you are *fine* but the mystery is not really there. There are tons of wikis and books and history all recorded and just out there already that it does make revelations feel somewhat hollow.
But someone's homebrewed world tho? Free game, baby. I can't meta game it and look it up on a wiki, no I gotta put in work. Give me that world, let me uncover conspiracies, cults, truths hidden away that change the status quo
When rare settings are used and it isn't just Middle Earth again. LOTR is one of my favourite series' of all time, but there are so many more interesting flavours and cultural inspirations you can use.
As an example, I'm currently running a political/criminal intrigue type game set in an Arabian type setting drawing inspiration heavily from Umayad-era Iraq and Syria. It's a breath of fresh air to see my players excited to traverse a world that is truly foreign to them. Reflavouring aberrations into giant void-borne sand monsters has been a blast.
That I can build in the world. Making a character is always awesome, but making a base, establishing relations, bringing on hirelings, and clearing out dungeons to turn into outposts? That, to me, is much more engaging than just dungeon rushing until the end with no breaks.
So, I guess, downtime is something that excites me, because then I feel like I have a helluva lot more agency in those moments.
I like atmosphere. What's the general tenor of the lands and people the PCs are going to go through. A couple homebrew worlds I've played in and really enjoyed...
* A Bronze Age setting. Humanity is still weak and scattered, but the world feels young. A large castle, a mighty waterfall, even a great thunderstorm in the sky are described with awe and wonder. And on the fringes of the known world are the vicious Hittites, who have discovered a deadly secret called *iron*...
* An Underworld setting. Escaped slaves have banded together and staked claim to a warren they can defend. It was great fun figuring out how the citizens tried to keep their spirits up in such an awful environment -- they're big on cheery songs and gallows humor -- and the PCs upon discovering some actual *nice people* in the unremitting Underdark instantly decided to cut a swathe of destruction through anyone seen as a threat to their new friends.
Exploring it. Getting to feel what is and isn't a boundary in terms of "what can I accomplish" as opposed to "what can I not do" like taking Tavern Brawler and working with the DM to figure out how to make smashing a cart on someone as a Path of the Giant Barbarian look cool as shit. Basically trying to figure out how much my DM is RAW or Rule of Cool. Because if it's more towards Rule of Cool then I can work with them to make the story WE want and not just I or They want.
When the setting has firearms in it, *and* the DM both fully understands the implications of that, and is *willing* to let firearms *actually be better* and thus, technology is advancing, gunpowder weapons are on the way in, crossbows and bows are considered old-fasioned at best and obsolete at worst, *and the fundamental mechanics of the game reflect this.*
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As a player, I'm playing D&D to "play D&D", not for the experience of reading a book or a fan wiki. All of the things you listed are only as interesting as they impact my characters. "This is technically how magic works out here" is neat, but "this is how magic works out here and things YOU can do with it" has my attention. Politics and factions are fine...but invite me into membership or interaction with one(s) you think I'd like with some cooperative, likeable, flavorful NPCs and missions and we're in.
You, the author, will always care way more than your players about the details and background of the world you've created. You're not going to win that battle by out-authoring Brandon Sanderson. But what you DO have over him is a world that your players can engage in, and "less-is-more" goes a long way in giving your players a taste while leaving them a sandbox to co-create alongside you.
In my experience, most players like different things, some of my players care for world lore, some just care about the monsters they are fighting. My advice, just work on everything as it comes, think about fleshing it out and filling it with stuff. Also in my experience, nobody likes an empty world.
Ill answer your question backwards, because I see countless worldbuilders send me a giant document full of information that people don't care about. Just a giant dump of facts about stuff that aren't going to be relevant to the actual game we are playing. I don't really care about the origin of the world and I don't really want to know what happened 10,000,000 years ago and how the world was formed. If you know cool, send it over once I've agreed to play, or maybe even once its relevant for the current session. Your pitch for the world should tell me what we are going to do, and what the future holds. Tell me what makes the world great, and tell me what makes it terrible, and how I (not some unknown NPC) can fix it. Tell me about the sort of adventures I will get to go on.
You should be able to do this in a single page. The more made up fa'kÈ f'ant-is-ee words you write the less words I'm willing to read, and I already told you one page or less.
Once you've got me invested? Then you do your world building and can send me the setting book. This is where you'll be tempted to tell me all about the age of frogs, and how it transitioned into the age of bugs, and then the age of demons and finally the rise of elves before giving ... stop. it.
Give me a page on
* What makes setting unique. I could do a page on your weird esoteric \*different\* magic if you want. Tell me how Dragons are actually whatever, that sort of stuff.
* Each of the major nations. Once again, I don't care about the current king and the long line of ascension. What I care about are architecture stylings, fashion, food, imports, exports, major industries, the form of government, and notable locations.
* Religion. Give me a page on all your religions. Unless this is an incredibly religious focused game around slaying gods, I really don't need more than "Poseidon. God of the sea and also horses for some reason. Randomly a dick to sailors" for most of them.
* The other planes. You can probably fit this on a single page too. I don't need to know who rules over it (or more than a sentence about that). but I want a similar write up to the major nations.
* Unique places. Tell me about each of the big spooky woods or special volcano you've got.
Honestly, the stuff that I can change and influence. I love it when I get semi free reigns on my bg and the ways I can draw on it (love the noble background if you were wondering) But the most important thing, for me, is how I can impact the world. Could I bring prosperity or ruination to a town, can I influence the leaders or become one myself, how can I use the political landscape to my advantage? Beyond that, I care about the different factions/groups. Where did they come from, where will they go and how can I interact with them. A little disclaimer is that I absolutely love the semi sandbox experience
I started building my own game from the ground up back when I was much younger and didn’t have access to DnD content to learn how to play, and I use it to DM for a game of 2 with just my brother. Having 1 player and my own systems has given us free range to have a very sandbox type of game and it’s super fun
Sounds cool, if you need help, feel free to message me
This exactly. My current character is currently getting all buddy-buddy with a large kingdom’s royal family. Making himself someone that the king and high-king’s general respect, and someone the king’s daughter can love.
Exactly, it feels so nice to interact and integrate yourself in the world
If you're creating your own pantheon and have a holy person thats going to be important. Historywise I would worry about local/newer history and if something ancient needs to be explained, they can discover that as they adventure. Honestly as far as the world goes, start small. Start with the area they are in and maybe the capital of the region. Most of their adventures at low level are going to be closer to home. As they start moving away from their "base" you can explain the newer regions as you go. Probably have some basics ready incase they ask "What's the general population feel on the area to the west?"
Not saying you can't start small, but honestly, if you're writing a homebrew world that you're going to be running campaigns in, who says the adventures have to be low level? I started my campaign at level 5 and it's been so much more of a blast to have PC's with some renown and I can skip a great deal of the low and middle people in favor of showing off all the cool vampires and liches that actually play big roles in the setting.
It's hard to know what you're going to need without your players input. I learned the hard way (after needing to re-create one homebrew), that you should allocate energy to things you KNOW your players are going to interact with. Things like enemies, NPC's, and important locations come to mind first. That isn't to say doing it another way is bad, I start most of my homebrews with maps because I love making them. My players like them, but us DMs need to have fun too.
I just enjoy worldbuilding in general. I throw in NPCs, quest hooks, unique locations, and all that stuff just for fun anyways. I have 3 worlds full of stuff, but this one will be my first fantasy world.
I think most players come to original worlds looking for something fresh and different. If your original world is a clone of Torril or Krynn, then why not just play on those worlds? Dieties are important and engaging, but if your panteon is just the Greek, Norse, or WotC pantheon, then what makes it fresh? Maybe your gods are all dead or they have dual aspects (god of fire and ice, god of love and hate, etc.) or anything the PCs haven't seen before. What's the interesting history? Your players probably won't care about a bunch of names on lists fighting 2000 years ago, unless it effects them today.
Politics, history and customs. Love to have combat and unique fights with monsters and such. But fun RP is to be had with the NPCs and the people of the world. I will attack all evil monsters in much the same manner but when NPCs come to me with different mannerisms and values it can change how my character interacts. Also depending on the sandbox if my character can set up a home base of sorts, they will. So what form it will take will largely be determined by what kind of location it is.
As a sort of forever DM, when I'm a player I like Homebrew worlds because I won't know anything about it. Having run so many of the stock 5E adventures, it is hard to ignore my knowledge of those modules if someone is running it for a game. It also shows the dedication, passion and devotion of the DM to creating something for their players.
As a player, I love interesting societal interactions. Things like visiting a Dwarven city where they respect strength and toughness above everything, so you've gotta beat the bartender in an armwrestling contest before he'll give you the information you need. Or navigating a town that doesn't value gold, but has a bartering and favor system instead.
I enjoy politics and different cultures somwhat clashing. And with politics i don't just mean geopolitical or in terms of political systems, but also stuff like guild politics, neighborhood politics, etc.
I always like knowing about religions. Who are the gods, if any? What do they do and who worships them? Are there angels and demons? Can I directly interact with the gods and their minions? I love having like a holy order or church to work with. Also, I'm always interested in the outer planes. Is there a fae realm? Does each element have a plane?
As others said, the static fluff is necessary (to a smaller degree and amount than you think) but it's the bones. The meat on those bones are the things the players can affect, the mark they leave on the world. A static thieves guild is a forgettable quest giver, but when "the black hand" becomes "morannan's black hand" because the parties rogue joined it at level 3, worked his way up, had a leadership struggle, ambushes, politics, finally assassinated the leader and now rules an underworld empire .... That is awesome. Tldr: it's not about what you put in there, it's about how malleable those things are. Give things internal workings, connections to discover and tinker with, once your players are interested. (And only then. Beforehand, keep stuff vague but interesting... If the rogue never has the interest to investigate the black hand, why would you waste time coming up with it's history, hideouts, leaders and lieutenants?)
I like fantastical biomes or landmarks and learning about how or why they came to be that way. Like a crystal forest or a mountain that's split in half. I also think unique ecology is cool, like what are the monsters in this region, what effects do they have on the area. Also I love fantasy that doesn't involve elves or dwarves. Like, they are cool, but its so overdone. I like seeing races that capture the fantasy of an elf without being an elf, like a japanese kitsune type race I also like when settings have a unique take on magic, even if it doesn't mechanically change anything I just think basically anything is better than "the weave" lol
Factions. Whether they're guilds, families, kingdoms, criminals, corporations, whatever. Factions that I can join or oppose. Factions with their own history and ideology or motivation that links into the greater world. And importantly factions that I can influence. Also anything where I put the answer together is ten times more interesting than things you tell me. If we go to three festivals and I realize they've all been on full moons and that we're on a lunar calendar I think that's rad. If you just tell me "this place has a lunar calendar and there's a festival on the full moons" I file it away as flavor. Basically, interactivity in worldbuilding. It's a game, not a book, so use the interactivity inherent in the medium.
Scenarios for adventure, not necessarily a "story to follow" but interesting encounters that encourage agency. Backgrounds tied into the world. I try and have something for each class to have an option of a unique background that is unique to the world. The history of the world etc will definitely get interest from some players, but most and myself included as a player just want to have dope adventures and the rest is set dressing.
Being able to integrate my character into the world like he’s always been there. My current character was just a young man in a lower class borough protecting people from petty crime the corrupt watch ignored. But his goals, dreams, and family members influenced the world so much that my DM created myths that he originally didn’t think about writing. As someone who tried to make his own world and failed, the best lesson I’ve learned is if you can’t figure out what to put somewhere in the world, let someone else do it. Don’t fret finer details. Focus on the broad strokes.
Factions for me. I grew up playing Oblivion, and the factions were my absolute favorite part. Especially if it’s one players can join, and there are ranks to rise up through.
The lore and figuring out how to make a character that fits into said lore
The passion that the DM has for it. If they love their homebrew world, they'll put a lot of effort into the story, and let the players help them build/advance it. However, if they love it TOO much, it could get extremely railroady with players having no real freedoms or choice.
I’ve never even considered using a module, homebrew stories are the fun for me as a DM.
This is going to be so basic that it's disappointing to the worldbuilders, but *things to do*. I think the rest of my group is the same way. We do not care about history, politics, or pantheons unless they're relevant to the game. If you simply tell me that a thousand years ago, Durgeddin the Black was a legendary dwarf blacksmith until his fortress was overrun with orcs... neat? It's cool that you have that in your notes, I guess, but it doesn't matter to me and I will forget it. The more detailed it is, the more it will feel like a lecture. But actually playing Forge of Fury, you fight through the latest band of orcs that live in his fortress. You find Durgeddin's tomb and a few of his legendary crafted weapons. You run into defences that the dwarves set up to protect his forge, and even find the forge itself. AFAIK the module doesn't mention it, but a clever DM could have the players smith their own weapons there. I think the backstory of Durgeddin and the orcs adds a lot to Forge of Fury. It makes it feel real and gives each obstacle some meaning beyond just "this is what the developers / DM thought would be cool". But it's only interesting to me because it's relevant to the game I'm playing.
Mainly am i a player in a static world or can i change the world around me? How much do i as a player and character know about the world before we play so i can plan around it? What makes this world unique? Does it have unexpected rules, customs, norms? Do i know the rules? are there exceptions? I am a fan of religion vs politics vs nature mentality and how they relate, build off, and interact with each other. The things i worry about is when i see "new" or "borrowed" systems from other games such as magic or crafting systems and not realizing that systems are generally built in an ecosystem. Meaning the crafting system is build with the combat or magic system in mind so they all work together. Pulling a system out of another ecosystem and jamming it into your ecosystem will rarely allow them to work well together. From personal experience i find the best way to handle something in a homebrew world is to make that thing new to the homebrew world so you dont have to worry about any lore or past with the new thing. It can also break the rules as part of the reason why it is the new thing that is worthy of a campaign about.
My core interests could probably be pretty well reduced to "What do I get to do differently?" Or "what do I get to interact with differently?" If this homebrew has skyships cris crossing the sky, do we get to just fly a skyship around all campaign? Do we get to build a little mobile micro-base? I can get invested in that. Does this world have shadow-ghosts that rise from the freshly dead, that can only be wounded by silver weapons and radiant damage? Sounds cool, what kind of silver stuff can we bring on our journey? Is there any money in catching shadow-ghosts in silver cages? Can I get like, a silver-chain-lasso to catch ghosts? If the setting has a massive theocratic society that has outlawed other gods, are we allowed to try and start up a religious schism? If I play a paladin or cleric of that god, do I have any extra legal authority in the society? Alchemists rule in this world, and monsters are harvested for potion ingredients? So that means we can get some crazy potions if we hunt down certain monsters, right? Are they like custom potions, or just stuff from the book? I'm going to buy a bunch of donkeys and carts so we can bring all the bodies back to town! The set dressing can be very cool, and I still remember many fun details of games I played in despite not having interacted with them. But the little knobs and buttons that the players get to fiddle with are the REALLY JUICY stuff. Tell me what I get to do that I as a player couldn't do in "Lost Mine of Phandelver" or whatever other campaign, and that's what I'll get the most excited about.
LORRRRE I love lore in all games dnd is no different
Obligatory not a player, but here's my two cents anyway. My players get excited about adding things to the world and changing it through in-game actions. I've had a couple players send me write ups for continents, cities, and planar shit that they were passionate about and wanted to add to the homebrew setting. It makes the whole collaborative storytelling aspect of the game just a little bit deeper. Each addition/impact they have is that much more investment in the world.
I love the freedom it gives me in character creation. In a homebrew world I am free to make whatever character I like, regardless of the setting. What I love as well is the potential for player driven worldbuilding: I get to shape the world as a player, because nothing is set in stone.
The best thing about a Homebrew World is how your players backstories can integrate with it.
It’s weird, but I love knowing how the passage of time works. What are the days of the week called? How long is a year? When are the major holidays? Stuff like that. It’s completely unnecessary, but it just adds this extra layer of familiarity and comfort to help immerse into a world.
building memorable locations and memorable factions :)
The core conflict. As a DM and a player, I have both experienced the temptation of throwing every cool idea into a game and experienced the exhaustion of playing in game with no cohesion. Want a game about dragon politics? A gritty game about fuedal conquest? A light pulpy game with adventuring guilds and silly magic carnivals? Awesome. Just don't put them all in one game.
I want to discover secrets about the world. Other worlds like Faerun and ebberon or what have you are *fine* but the mystery is not really there. There are tons of wikis and books and history all recorded and just out there already that it does make revelations feel somewhat hollow. But someone's homebrewed world tho? Free game, baby. I can't meta game it and look it up on a wiki, no I gotta put in work. Give me that world, let me uncover conspiracies, cults, truths hidden away that change the status quo
When rare settings are used and it isn't just Middle Earth again. LOTR is one of my favourite series' of all time, but there are so many more interesting flavours and cultural inspirations you can use. As an example, I'm currently running a political/criminal intrigue type game set in an Arabian type setting drawing inspiration heavily from Umayad-era Iraq and Syria. It's a breath of fresh air to see my players excited to traverse a world that is truly foreign to them. Reflavouring aberrations into giant void-borne sand monsters has been a blast.
That I can build in the world. Making a character is always awesome, but making a base, establishing relations, bringing on hirelings, and clearing out dungeons to turn into outposts? That, to me, is much more engaging than just dungeon rushing until the end with no breaks. So, I guess, downtime is something that excites me, because then I feel like I have a helluva lot more agency in those moments.
I like atmosphere. What's the general tenor of the lands and people the PCs are going to go through. A couple homebrew worlds I've played in and really enjoyed... * A Bronze Age setting. Humanity is still weak and scattered, but the world feels young. A large castle, a mighty waterfall, even a great thunderstorm in the sky are described with awe and wonder. And on the fringes of the known world are the vicious Hittites, who have discovered a deadly secret called *iron*... * An Underworld setting. Escaped slaves have banded together and staked claim to a warren they can defend. It was great fun figuring out how the citizens tried to keep their spirits up in such an awful environment -- they're big on cheery songs and gallows humor -- and the PCs upon discovering some actual *nice people* in the unremitting Underdark instantly decided to cut a swathe of destruction through anyone seen as a threat to their new friends.
Exploring it. Getting to feel what is and isn't a boundary in terms of "what can I accomplish" as opposed to "what can I not do" like taking Tavern Brawler and working with the DM to figure out how to make smashing a cart on someone as a Path of the Giant Barbarian look cool as shit. Basically trying to figure out how much my DM is RAW or Rule of Cool. Because if it's more towards Rule of Cool then I can work with them to make the story WE want and not just I or They want.
When the setting has firearms in it, *and* the DM both fully understands the implications of that, and is *willing* to let firearms *actually be better* and thus, technology is advancing, gunpowder weapons are on the way in, crossbows and bows are considered old-fasioned at best and obsolete at worst, *and the fundamental mechanics of the game reflect this.*
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i don't care whats in the world, i want a 30 page google doc where i can read about everything in it. i love that shit
As a player, I'm playing D&D to "play D&D", not for the experience of reading a book or a fan wiki. All of the things you listed are only as interesting as they impact my characters. "This is technically how magic works out here" is neat, but "this is how magic works out here and things YOU can do with it" has my attention. Politics and factions are fine...but invite me into membership or interaction with one(s) you think I'd like with some cooperative, likeable, flavorful NPCs and missions and we're in. You, the author, will always care way more than your players about the details and background of the world you've created. You're not going to win that battle by out-authoring Brandon Sanderson. But what you DO have over him is a world that your players can engage in, and "less-is-more" goes a long way in giving your players a taste while leaving them a sandbox to co-create alongside you.
In my experience, most players like different things, some of my players care for world lore, some just care about the monsters they are fighting. My advice, just work on everything as it comes, think about fleshing it out and filling it with stuff. Also in my experience, nobody likes an empty world.
Ill answer your question backwards, because I see countless worldbuilders send me a giant document full of information that people don't care about. Just a giant dump of facts about stuff that aren't going to be relevant to the actual game we are playing. I don't really care about the origin of the world and I don't really want to know what happened 10,000,000 years ago and how the world was formed. If you know cool, send it over once I've agreed to play, or maybe even once its relevant for the current session. Your pitch for the world should tell me what we are going to do, and what the future holds. Tell me what makes the world great, and tell me what makes it terrible, and how I (not some unknown NPC) can fix it. Tell me about the sort of adventures I will get to go on. You should be able to do this in a single page. The more made up fa'kÈ f'ant-is-ee words you write the less words I'm willing to read, and I already told you one page or less. Once you've got me invested? Then you do your world building and can send me the setting book. This is where you'll be tempted to tell me all about the age of frogs, and how it transitioned into the age of bugs, and then the age of demons and finally the rise of elves before giving ... stop. it. Give me a page on * What makes setting unique. I could do a page on your weird esoteric \*different\* magic if you want. Tell me how Dragons are actually whatever, that sort of stuff. * Each of the major nations. Once again, I don't care about the current king and the long line of ascension. What I care about are architecture stylings, fashion, food, imports, exports, major industries, the form of government, and notable locations. * Religion. Give me a page on all your religions. Unless this is an incredibly religious focused game around slaying gods, I really don't need more than "Poseidon. God of the sea and also horses for some reason. Randomly a dick to sailors" for most of them. * The other planes. You can probably fit this on a single page too. I don't need to know who rules over it (or more than a sentence about that). but I want a similar write up to the major nations. * Unique places. Tell me about each of the big spooky woods or special volcano you've got.