Guides

What Goes in a Worldbuilding Template for a Long Campaign?

Published October 6, 2026

Short answer: eight sections cover a campaign world. Concept and goals; the starting place; the land around it; factions; gods; magic, or whatever bends the rules; history; and the people, how they greet, eat, pay and travel. Under each, three to five questions, some quoted from the published lists, the rest this page's phrasing of their headings.

How much to fill in, the lists answer themselves, and not all the same way. Patricia C. Wrede, whose list for fantasy authors runs to dozens of headings, says it is "not necessary for an author to answer all, or even any, of the questions in order to start writing". Mike Shea, writing for GMs: "build each part as you need it for the next session." Paizo's GM Core rulebook: "you don't need to make every decision for every aspect of your world all at once"; the same chapter keeps a longer way for those with "a lot of time". Both ways are set out below, side by side.

The one-page version

Eight lines, one per section, for a printed page or the top of your notes.

The counts and fields are Shea's (factions, gods) and Haeck's (settlement, map); each section says whose. Existing notes sort the same way: a page from a notebook or wiki goes under the closest heading; a heading with nothing under it can stay blank.

Where the sections come from

Four published lists stand behind the eight sections. Wrede's "Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions" (1996, reprinted in 2009 by SFWA, the science fiction and fantasy writers' association) is the long one, written for "authors of fantasy fiction". Two are written for GMs and start from the ground: James Haeck, lead writer for D&D Beyond, starts his 2020 guide from one settlement and a ten-mile map; Mike Shea, who writes the GM site Sly Flourish, starts "Lazy World Building" (2025) from where the campaign is set, with numbered lists of gods and factions. GM Core, Paizo's Starfinder Second Edition rulebook for game masters, opens with a step of its own: decide what the campaign is for (Shea's list opens with a campaign hook too). Brandon Sanderson's two "laws" of magic, blog essays he calls "simple guidelines that have worked for me", shape one section only.

Quoted questions below are the authors' words; the rest are this page's phrasing of a heading. Wrede, on her own list: "If it's useful, use it. If not, don't."

The template

1. Concept and goals (GM Core; Shea)

"Before you decide anything else," says GM Core, "you should establish your concept and your goals."

• What is this campaign, in one line? Shea: "Have a clear campaign hook we can say in just a few words."
• How long is it meant to run: a one-shot, a season, years?
• Who are the villains, and what does each one want? Shea: "a handful of villains with their own goals and quests."
• What do the players know from session one? Shea: "truths we share with the players to separate this campaign from others."

2. The starting place (Haeck)

Haeck starts with one settlement and five places in it: "A place of guaranteed safety / A place to find something to do / A place to buy gear / A place to spend money for pleasure / A place unique to that town." Then five questions, in his words:

• "Who lives here?"
• "What problems does this settlement have?"
• "Where is this settlement, in terms of climate and geography?"
• "When was this settlement founded?"
• "Why was this settlement founded?"

With those answered, he says, you have "enough information written down to improvise an answer to just about any question your players ask you about the town."

3. The land around it (Haeck; Shea; Wrede)

Haeck draws a ten-mile zone around the settlement on graph paper and stocks it from what he calls "four types" of location, then names five: village, town, abandoned settlement, mysterious location, dungeon. "Only include one dungeon in your 10-mile zone." A map that size "can easily fill ten sessions of gameplay". Shea's measure: "Three adventure locations within a day or two of travel works well."

• Where is the campaign set? Shea: "Where do you want to set your campaign? Start there."
• Which places can a party reach in a day or two, and which one is the dungeon?
• What is the climate, and what does the land yield? Wrede's headings General Climate and Geography, and Natural Resources.

4. Factions (Shea; Wrede)

Shea's "Power Tip: Build a Faction List": "Write numbered lists of gods and factions. Roll on them to flavor locations, monuments, items, NPCs, encounters, and anything else the characters run into." How many? "Maybe three to five will do." Wrede's headings here: Government to Waging War.

• Who holds power in the starting place, and who wants it?
• Which factions can the party run into this season?
• For each: what does it want, and who stands in its way?
• What did each one do last?

That last line moves between sessions. AtelierMonde's free Continuity Sheet, one printable page with a table each for factions, cast and timeline, holds it, filled in by hand.

5. Gods (Shea; Wrede)

Shea's god entry, field by field: "A name / Three alternative titles / Domains (light, darkness, death, life, nature, etc.) / A symbol (something you might find on a shield or a holy symbol) / A short description of the god." Length: "Usually just a few lines will do." His count, not a rule: "Start with twelve and try to build gods around the characters." Haeck's guide leaves gods for later; his reason is quoted below.

• Which gods do the player characters already follow, or fear?
• For each god on the list: name, three titles, domains, symbol, a few lines.
• What does a holy symbol look like on a shield in the starting place?

6. Magic, and what it cannot do (Wrede; Sanderson)

Four of Wrede's "Rules of Magic" questions, in her words:

• "What things can magic not do? What are the limits to magical power? How do magicians try to get around these limits?"
• "What is the price magicians must pay in order to be magicians — years of study, permanent celibacy, using up bits of their life or memory with each spell, etc.?"
• "Where does magic power come from: the gods, the 'mana' of the world, the personal willpower of the magician?"
• "Is magic an exhaustible resource?"

Sanderson's second law, which he says "is meant for writers", puts limits before powers: "Limitations > Powers"; "Superman is not his powers. Superman is his weaknesses." His first law is about readers, not tables: "An author's ability to solve conflict with magic is DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL to how well the reader understands said magic." Whether your players are that reader is your call; Sanderson himself grants those who want their magic unexplained "another complete school of thought".

7. History (Wrede; Shea)

Wrede's headings: World History, Specific Country(s) History. Shea's way of filling them: "Reveal history in secrets and clues as the characters explore the world."

• When and why was the starting place founded?
• What happened here that someone at the table could still find a trace of?
• Which secrets about the past can the party uncover this season?

8. People and daily life (headings from Wrede; questions this page's)

The long tail of Wrede's list lives here: Peoples and Customs, Daily Life, Commerce, from Greeting and Meeting to Fashion and Dress. The five questions below are this page's pick from under those headings, in its words, not hers:

• How do people greet a stranger, and what gives a foreigner away?
• What do people eat, and what does a meal cost?
• How do you get to the next town, and how long does it take?
• What is the date, and what does the calendar count from?
• What do people wear, and what does clothing say about rank?

Two ways to build it, and what each costs

GM Core names the choice: "Do you start at a high level and zoom in, or do you start small and build up?" And declines to make it: "it fundamentally comes down to a simple preference." This guide picks no side either; it calls the two ways from the map down and from the village up.

From the map down. GM Core: "The top-down approach is great if you have a lot of time to dedicate to world building"; "your initial focus is on the big picture." Haeck's warning is about the same hours: nation-scale politics, gods, the planes, "these things are all very fun to think about. Unfortunately, for most DMs, they're a waste of time." That is Haeck's position, written for first-time worldbuilders; GM Core, above, treats the same hours as a trade.

From the village up. GM Core: "you start small and local. Focus on the starting location and immediate needs of your campaign, then expand outward as the story unfolds." It "works well for those with less time", since you prepare "only the minimum detail necessary", "fleshing out your world only as the campaign requires it." That clause is the trade: the building moves with the party. Shea's own method, "spiral campaign building", is "the bottom up approach" plus "a little bit of top-down campaign building": the hook, villains and shared truths of section 1. Haeck: "start small"; "the biggest mistake that most first-time worldbuilders make is by starting too large."

Shea and Haeck each recommend the small way; that is their call, not this page's. GM Core's own chapter "outlines a largely top-down approach, but you can design from the bottom up simply by starting at the end of this section". The eight sections above are numbered for reading, not for filling: from the concept downward or from the starting place outward, as you prefer.

Filling it in without writing an encyclopedia

What the sources say about how much to fill.

Wrede: not every question applies. "While many of these questions may be helpful or crucial to certain stories, they will not all apply to every story."

Shea: fill for the next session. "Don't get overwhelmed building an entire planet and an entire cosmos above it. Instead, build each part as you need it for the next session." GM Core, on the same risk: "Focus first on the elements you need for your story and the game, then add as much of the rest as you'd like."

GM Core: a living document. "A campaign reference: a living document that you can easily review and annotate during gameplay". And: "You'll also want to allow room for input from your players." A template with blanks is a template with room.

Shea: the session has its own list. His one-session prep checklist has eight steps, "Review the characters" to "Select magic item rewards", and in a homebrew world "all eight steps are still relevant for the next session you plan to run." They prepare the session, not the world; what a session notebook holds, in five sections, is its own guide on this site.

Questions

What goes in a worldbuilding template? Eight sections: concept and goals, the starting place, the land around it, factions, gods, magic, history, people and daily life. Under each, three to five questions, quoted from Haeck, Shea, Wrede and GM Core or phrased by this page from their headings.

Do I need to answer every question? The lists say no, each to its own readers. Wrede, for fiction authors: it is "not necessary for an author to answer all, or even any, of the questions in order to start writing, (or to finish writing, either)." Shea, for GMs: build "each part as you need it for the next session."

Worldbuilding template or campaign notebook: which one do I need? Different things. Shea's split: "Campaigns are large stories"; "Worlds are independent of the characters and their goals." The template holds the world: gods, factions, history, geography. The notebook holds the session: the log, the scenes, the names you need tonight.

Printable or digital? GM Core asks only that the campaign reference be easy to "review and annotate during gameplay"; Haeck draws his ten-mile zone on graph paper. The one-page version above fits a sheet; the lines that change every session belong within reach mid-game.

Sources

• Patricia C. Wrede, "Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions" (SFWA, August 4, 2009; © 1996 Patricia C. Wrede, reprinted with the author's permission), https://www.sfwa.org/2009/08/04/fantasy-worldbuilding-questions/ (read 6 October 2026).
• Patricia C. Wrede, "Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions: Magic and Magicians" (SFWA, August 4, 2009; © 1996), https://www.sfwa.org/2009/08/04/fantasy-worldbuilding-questions-magic-and-magicians/ (read 6 October 2026).
• Brandon Sanderson, "Sanderson's First Law" and "Sanderson's Second Law" (brandonsanderson.com, undated), https://brandonsanderson.com/sandersons-first-law/ and https://brandonsanderson.com/sandersons-second-law/ (read 6 October 2026).
• Mike Shea, "Lazy World Building" (Sly Flourish, 4 August 2025), https://slyflourish.com/lazy_world_building.html (read 6 October 2026).
• Mike Shea, "Choosing the Right Steps from the Lazy DM Checklist" (Sly Flourish, 20 May 2019), https://slyflourish.com/choosing_the_right_steps.html (read 6 October 2026).
• James Haeck, "New Player's Guide: Building Your Own Campaign Setting" (D&D Beyond, Apr 17, 2020), https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/772-new-players-guide-building-your-own-campaign (read 6 October 2026).
• Paizo, "Building Worlds — Design Approach" (Starfinder Second Edition GM Core, p. 138, via Archives of Nethys, undated), https://2e.aonsrd.com/rules/1066-design-approach (read 6 October 2026).

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