As a Game Master of two homebrew D&D campaigns, worldbuilding is a skill I pride myself on. But like any skill, practice makes perfect, and I definitely started out and still am far from perfect. Allow me to share some mistakes I’ve made and why I think they should be avoided.

Worldbuilding Mistake #1: Rushing to the finish line

Looking back on my mistakes, I can confidently say that taking your time is the best advice I can give. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is a fantasy world. Take your time. Be methodical. This will help you avoid plot holes and help garnish your creativity.

I know from experience that it’s easy to get overly excited when worldbuilding and moving too fast. Don’t rush into publishing facts about your world. Whether you are thinking of starting a Dungeons and Dragons campaign or starting to write a fantasy novel, worldbuilding is the foundation of your story, and being hasty in this phase will leave you open to more significant problems down the road.

Worldbuilding Mistake #2 Starting with the middle ground

Now I am sure there are some extremely skilled world builders that can start in the middle and expand in either direction, but in my first campaign it became very clear that I did not have said skill. I started my world with a dungeon. I fleshed out the whole thing and then tried to place it in a world that hadn’t been built. I found this trapped me as a creator. Like I said not everyone will find this limiting, but I did. In the end I believe it contributed to the large plot holes within my first campaign. Since then, I have found that working from the very beginning of my world’s creation and expanding from there is by far the easier option. Ask yourself how did your planet come to exist and build on from there.

#3 Assigning too much value to the finer details

As a game master, this is a HUGE mistake. The big difference between ttRPG(tabletop Role-playing Game) worldbuilding and fantasy novel worldbuilding is the characters. By this, I mean the characters in a book change as the writer chooses, while the main characters or player characters in the ttRPG setting are determined by a different person entirely. Therefore, getting attached to the fine details in a ttRPG campaign is asking for disappointment. However, this mistake also applies to fantasy novel worldbuilding. Locking in fine details can often stifle creativity. If you set your mind on a fine detail, it is impossible to play around with the more significant information for fear that the more minor stuff will no longer work. Remember to remain flexible. Think of everything you build as being written in pencil. Erase as often as you need to make it fit.

I share this as a novice worldbuilder. I don’t claim to be an expert on the subject. These are simply tips I find help me avoid big mistakes. Take what works and leave what doesn’t. In the end it is your world and you can build it however you’d like. I wish you the best of luck.