Dividing the Work (CSC)

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From this point onward, the goal will be to get the DM up and running, creating his game world, moderating game play, and dealing with one of the more challenging aspects of gaming-the players themselves.
The first task then, is that of world creation. It is possible to avoid this step completely. Commercially developed campaign worlds like the WORLD OF GREYHAWK®, FORGOTTEN REALMS™ or DRAGONLANCE® campaign settings, can set things moving quickly for the DM. Much (though not all) of the background work involved in creating a fantasy game setting has already been done. These fantastical game worlds have been mapped, populated and imbued with life by the designers, writers, artists, and editors involved in their creation. They are rich in details and good examples of what campaigns can develop into. Still, most DMs get the urge to create worlds of their own, making fantastic realms based on their own fertile imaginations.
For the determined DM, a challenging task lies ahead. Campaign creation is fun, often even more challenging and exciting than actually playing, but it's also worktime- consuming work. For both the novice and experienced DM alike, the time required to create a new, original game world can be daunting. The thought of spending endless hours building a world from scratch may seem overwhelming. There is a lot of work involved, but it need not all be done at once. Start small and work upward and outward from the core of ideas upon which the campaign is based. Don't do more work than is initially required to give the players a taste of the world in which they live. The wise DM will never put more work into a campaign than he can reasonably get back in play value and neither must he do all the work himself.
The DMs first step is to get organized. Have a folder ready for notes about the campaign world. Three-ring, loose-leaf binders are a good way to keep your notes in one handy place. Don't mix unrelated information. Use index dividers to keep related notes together. Even if the sewers beneath the city are the place where the PCs will adventure, keep those "dungeon" notes separate from the city descriptions.
Next, think about the general nature of the world and focus on the locale in which the characters will adventure. Will it be a land of warring medieval baronies, a remote and rugged wilderness, an arid desert realm, or a sophisticated oriental empire? The DM may wish to base the world around a favorite fantasy novel or even historical Earth. Whatever the desired feel, the DM should keep his plan in mind when developing pieces of the world.
Third, divide the work of creating the world into easy-to-handle stages. Don't try to do it all at once. Start small. Write ideas down as they come and leave room for them to grow. Not everything need be in place before the first game session, just enough to give a bit of local flavor, or a sense of position limited area, called a core area, need be described. Beginning player characters need not know much more.
Consider starting in a remote part of the world, close enough to civilization to be settled by humans, but far enough away to be of little immediate concern to the lords of the land. A village or even a friendly wayside inn provides a base of operations for the characters, a place for them to rest, recover from adventures and spend treasure gained during encounters. A road or two should go somewhere, though the locals may only know that it goes to the next village. If the village has a temple or a shrine attended by a cleric (who is willing to heal wounds), determine which deity the cleric serves.
Build outward from the core area. Before the second play session the DM should map out major terrain features for several days' journey around the characters' base of operations and have a large-scale map of the land in which the adventures take place, including the positions and names of major cities and landmarks.