Hello Pathfinders of new and old.
It's time to discuss, give and take advice, and overall just have a healthy debate about the topic of campaign -- and on the broader scope, world -- building for your TTRPG sessions.
In this thread, I'd like there to be civil discussion on such topics with no barriers. I'm by no means an expert, with my piddly fifteen years of tabletop experience with only five or so of which I've focused on Pathfinder, but I keep seeing small threads about this get little to no love and I find it's a topic that many out there need help with.
So, do you have any tips or tricks? Broad generalizations or fine-tuned theories? I want to hear them! There's a brand new DM out there somewhere who could use our knowledge and what better way than to finally have a standardized thread on all topics of game mastering, campaign design, works building, and all that fun stuff in between!
Best advice - know your group. Some groups like a vivid world with lots of new concepts, or exploring a new cosmology / theme / concept. Some groups just want to blow off steam, kill monsters and take loot.
You will need a lot of work to entertain the ones that appreciate detail. You will do way too much work for yourself if you flesh out a Tolkien-worthy amount of detail for a group that wants mindless murderhobo fun.
Making some stuff up during the session and going with it can work really well. Just make sure you write it down afterwards or you'll never keep it straight.
On a more general note, I can recommend two splendid books by Kobold Press, the "Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding" and the "Kobold Guide to Plots & Campaigns", which are collections of essays written by some great designers out there and cover a lot of stuff regarding those topics.
Would you happen to have links for those?
When it comes to being a dungeon master, I prefer to build from the ground up but not necessarily on my own. The world map and general direction of the campaign will be all me; however, finding loot and crafts every single room and hallway can sometimes be cumbersome. I found an app a while back called ProDnD that generates some fairly interesting maps you can work with. Maybe not square for square every time, but decent as far as apps go.
What I hands down recommend is donjon. It's a website that generates names, maps, loot, encounters, etc. It's fantastic. The encounters are a little repetitive and the loot can be, too, but for a website that you can spam a randomize button on makes it more than worth your while.
As far as little ideas go, I'll be fishing soon for the old encounter threads to post links here. Our quaint little community came together for several hundred different scenarios that one could easily draw from.
Start with a small town far away from anything major cities and 'civilized' lands, and slowly expand from there. Trying to create an entire, fully-realized campaign setting all at once will either drive you insane or make you put all your spare time into it. At the end of the day you're only one (hu)man.
Personally, I like starting with islands.