To tell a truly great story, you need to lay some decent foundations down first - such as a history for the world your ttrpg campaign takes place in.  

The characters, cultures and events that your players will interact with over the course of your campaign, should all be shaped by the history that came before them. Otherwise, these elements can seem vastly underwritten and shallow. Afterall, human society didn’t spring from nothing. 

But how to tackle such a daunting task as crafting the history of an entire world? Learn what steps a game master needs to take to help create a rich, believable history that you can use as a jumping off point for any number of stories and campaigns, whether you’re using dnd or another system. 

How does history work?

History is a series of actions and consequences. Though not every historical event leads directly into one another, they cause ripples that can shape a world wherein the next major event is possible. 

A prime example of this, and one you might already be familiar with, are the ways in which World War One laid the groundwork for the start of World War Two. None of the major factors behind the rise of the Nazi party and the subsequent conflict - the terrible economy of 1930s Germany, the interference of international powers and the rise of Soviet Russia - would have come about without World War One. 

Hindsight is a powerful thing, as it allows us to recognise the importance of certain historical events and their connection to each other. Today, we see some events as playing a fundamental part in shaping our current world, whilst others act as a quieter footnote. Other events are more like long-term periods of time - such as the Cold War - that are really just a series of smaller events with a shared theme and timeframe. 

Your roleplaying game world’s history should feature events that feed into one another in logical ways, as well as a good variety of big events, small events and long-term periods of time. 

Take some inspiration

This is not to suggest that you should put events from real world history directly into your own tabletop rpg history. Instead, focus on what you like about certain historical eras and events, and use that as a source of inspiration. 

For example, if you enjoy historical periods like America in the 1920s or Britain in the 1960s, then consider crafting a period of rapid societal change brought on by massive cultural influences, like jazz and silent movies in the ‘20s and rock-and-roll in the 1960s.

Or perhaps you’re drawn to the Japanese Edo period or Renaissance Italy? How about making the history of your rpg world be built around the struggle between warring lords and provinces, all vying for power in a time before a unified nation? 

Writing and creating from genuine inspirations is where we get our best results, so don’t be shy in browsing some Wikipedia pages, reading some articles and watching some documentaries when creating your RPG or d&d campaign. 

Make it varied and exciting 

We, in the real world, document history into different categories - not just the already mentioned major and minor events, but also around certain shared themes - and you should make sure to include a variety of these in your campaign setting history in order to make it truly believable and interesting.

Conflicts are probably the most well-documented events and your worldbuilding history should contain at least a few of them. Think about the catalysts for your conflicts: they could be wars over contested lands and resources, or battles between groups with vastly contrasting ideologies or religious beliefs. 

Another major category of event is the formation of new nations, counties and alliances. Real world history has seen the creation, reunification or division of nations countless times and for numerous reasons. Nations are formed through a desire for greater safety, economic potential and resource sharing. They can also form through the creation of a shared ethos, religious or ideological beliefs.

Other categories of historical events can include scientific discoveries, societal changes, cultural movements, major occupations, significant immigration and shifts in political power. 

Make a timeline 

Once you have a collection of major and minor events in mind for your worldbuilding history, the next dungeon master task is to get them nicely organized into a timeline. 

Just like we know less about ancient history because it was a very long time ago and we didn’t have as many foolproof methods of documenting events as we do now, there can be times in your campaign world’s history that people don’t know much about. Perhaps there was a devastating famine or plague that wiped out entire nations, maybe a magical event led to people’s memories being erased or perhaps the government deliberately altered historical documents. You don’t need to accurately chart the entire history of your roleplaying world, but instead focus on either one select period of time or a few periods of time. 

Once you’ve selected a time period or periods to create, you can go about placing your various events and periods onto your worldbuilding timeline - making sure to consider whether they have any connection to each other and if people in the current timeframe remember them. You’re encouraged to make notes on how these events and periods are remembered in the current timeframe, alongside documenting what actually happened - a contrast that can provide the perfect material for dramatic dungeons and dragons/RPG storylines. 

Then you can consider how these events have shaped your campaign world at the current timeframe - or even work back along your timeframe and craft events that way (how did this nation form? Why are these countries in conflict with one another?). 

Conclusion

If you really want to get started with worldbuilding your RPG/d&d campaign history, take a moment to brainstorm some key events. Come up with some simple examples of a conflict, an alliance, a scientific discovery and a societal change that could take place in your campaign world. You’re free to add more details, connect these up, and even place them within an exact time period if you’d like, but the focus here is to simply stimulate your creative thinking and form a rough foundation for the history of your fantasy world. Once you’ve done this, you can start thinking about how the other points in this article can help you to further flesh out the history of your fantasy setting, to make it as compelling as possible

Legendkeeper will soon be launching its very own timelines feature, which will allow users to create easily trackable, editable and sharable timelines for their worlds. Find out more by starting your free trial now.