How to Flesh out a Country or Region in Your Fantasy RPG World

Last Updated: October 8, 2020 Approved

If you think about real life, countries and regions are often very different from each other, with distinct history and culture. When creating your own, there are lots of different aspects to consider. This article will help you organize and sort out the finer details and aspects of your country or region to help you and your players delve into the role-playing aspect of your game.

Steps

1
Give a one or two paragraph overview of the region or country. Highlight unique or unusual aspects about it and where it is geographically in your world.
2
Detail the culture(s) of the people who populate the region. Make sure to consider and cover the following:
- Social Dynamic: Are there different races, clans, or tribes within the region? How do the people treat each other and outsiders on an individual basis? Any out of the norm national or domestic traditions or practices? On a larger scale, what is the overall societal feel of the region? Perhaps it's coming apart at the seams from civil war, with roving death squads or maybe there's a tentative peace. On the other extreme, it could be highly patriotic or religious, full of tight-knit, radical nationalists, or zealots.
- Fashion and Language: Decide how the people of the area dress, how they adorn themselves (popular jewelry, hairstyles, tattoos?), their language(s) and how they speak.
- Calendar: What are some holidays, festivals or other popular observances?
- Religion: What is the dominant religion, if any, and how powerful is the priesthood?
- Art: Cover some artistic output and distinctions: music, high art, and folk art, literature, folklore, theater, architecture...
- Come up with one or two other societal and social aspects, like caste systems or major cultural taboos.
Advertisement
3
Consider laws and leadership. Are there any specific laws governing magic? Are servants and landholders free/serfs/indentured/slaves? What is the judicial system like, if there is one (a trial or hearings, representation, guilty-until-proven-innocent/vice versa, thrown in the dungeon and wait for the Holy Fruit Bats of Kayobish to decide)? What other fundamental rights do people have under the law, again, if any (property rights, parental responsibilities, due process)? What are the rulers like? Are there different duchies, protectorates, or provinces with different laws? Are the rulers themselves of the regular variety (officials, nobles, bureaucrats) or unusual (mages, undead lords, priests)?
4
Provide details on politics and social structure. Think about the influential, local interest or power groups in the area. A strong ruling family, an influential priesthood, thieves' guilds, good or evil mage cabals, druid circles, competing political factions, secret societies are all good examples.
5
Decide how much interest and influence the region has with the rest of the world, if any, and how the rulers, ambassadors, and dignitaries go about achieving their goals.
- What interaction does the region have with its actual geographical neighbors? Are they a conquering empire or do they trade and interact peaceably? Are there old feuds or alliances? Could they care less about each other?
6
Consider how the economy works. What makes the country money? What do they import? What do they export? Are there taxes of any kind (usually yes if it's a kingdom)? What are the local resources (from the land and the populace)? How much influence do the merchants and traders have? Describe the country's specific currency system if they have one, or do they barter or trade gems or something else? Are there any disproportionate gaps in economic classes that could potentially cause trouble?
7
Describe the military capabilities of the country or region. How advanced or crude are their tactics, weapons, and war machines? How about standing forces versus reserves? Drafting? How do they all coordinate and react in times of war and conflict? Does the army hire mercenaries? How many? What kind? What arcane-aided tactics do they employ (undead or supernatural troops, magical weapons among the forces, war wizards or, for the overly dramatic, flame throwers)?
8
Give an overview of the land. Think about the flora, fauna, and weather. What kinds of "uncivilized" humanoids live in the wilderness? How does the local geography and weather affect the populace, if at all (if it's a mercantile society are they coastal and sea-faring merchants or maybe land-bound nomad traders)? Create one or more encounter tables for the wilderness.
9
Provide detail on any outstanding geographical features found within the country's borders. Are there stone arches or canyons? Lush river valleys? A vast field of geysers? Forests, cave networks? A mile-high cliff or waterfall? A magical desert in the middle of a jungle? Limestone cliffs that fall into the ocean when there's an earthquake, causing immense tsunamis?
10
Describe notable sites in the region. These can include cities, towns, villages, camps, ruins, dungeons, castles, keeps, fortresses, blockades, or natural landmarks. Cities and dungeons often need detailed descriptions all on their own. Create encounter tables for cities and dungeons.
11
Plot out main routes between cities, sites as well as other trails in the wilderness. Also, use this section to describe the main types of transportation found within the region as well as any prominent nearby currents or maritime trade routes for sea-faring cultures.
12
Provide a rich history for the region. Try to deviate from the standard RPG historical interactions (that is, 'barbarians fought the mages' or 'dragons attacked'). Come up with a few twists to make it interesting. For example, perhaps the dwarves and the gnolls are loyal allies after they had to band together thousands of years ago to fight an even greater evil. Maybe the gnolls even let the dwarves ride them into battle now. Figure out why.
13
Think on any other important details about the country not listed above and write them down.
14
Brainstorm ideas and adventure starters. What is happening currently in the region? Are there coups or power-plays in the making? Is a colossal monster, plague or natural disaster about to strike? Maybe all is well and quiet for a change or maybe happenings here could affect the entire continent or world.
15
List two or three types of PCs that are likely to come from this region, using the culture and history backgrounds as a guide. Note here if there are any popular mercenary or adventuring companies in the area and how adventurers are treated.
16
Create full stats for one or two prominent NPCs from your area and provide for them a background story, fitting it into the regional flavor and history. Use them to maybe introduce your players to the area.

Community Q&A

Question

If I have 6-8 people, can I have two lands?

Evans Hale

Community Answer

Sure. It's your fantasy world, you decide it. You can imagine it as a deserted land newly discovered.
Question

Would it be good to have two countries with different currencies and have a value like 2a = 51b or a barter system?

Community Answer

Yes, that sounds realistic. The non-rounded ratio makes it seem more like these two didn't make their currency value with the other in mind.
Question

How should an elf kingdom treat outsiders and other kingdoms?

Community Answer

Elves traditionally are quite friendly to good outsiders, but hate evil, so it depends on what kind of outsiders they encounter. Of course, it's your world, you could have a kingdom of warrior elves, a kingdom of kind, peace-loving elves, or anything in between.

Warnings

Creating a detailed campaign world from the ground up, even a country let alone a continent, is quite an undertaking.

⧼thumbs_response⧽
Helpful 16 Not Helpful 1
It is important that you do the geography and their respective biomes first before embarking on the making of the country's people, their infrastructure, and their culture if you're up to making your country believable. History has proven many times over that it's not the man that makes the land, but it's the land that makes the man. Things like mountains, rivers, the local flora & fauna and other permanent features ultimately decide many factors like viable/strategic locations for settlement/skirmishes, the placement of merchant and travel routes, etc.

⧼thumbs_response⧽
Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0