Another Brick in the Wall: Crafting the Elevator Pitch For Your New D&D World

Greetings, 3WD-verse! DM Chris here. We’ve recently embarked on an experiment in creating a homebrew world live on our podcast. If you haven’t been listening, I encourage you to check it out and get in on the voting on social media. In staying with our theme of helping DMs, we’ve decided to collaborate with our listeners on this experiment. We like to think of you all as the fourth DM sitting at the table. And if there’s one thing DMs love more than running a game for friends, it’s creating worlds together.

When the three of us first discussed the idea, we had a rough outline of how we wanted to approach it. Our first worldbuilding episode began well, but quickly we – as DMs with problems like yourselves – found ourselves lost in a sea of many interesting ideas. The world we were creating was there, but obscured by things that weren’t important in the beginning. It was exciting, but it didn’t get us any closer to a usable setting.

That review of our first attempt – and the feedback we received – brought us back to a very central idea we had neglected: you can’t build a world all at once. You need to start one brick at a time. In the excitement of creation, it’s easy to get ahead of the basics. Those basics are what act as a foundation for all of the other crazy things we think up.

Just like backstories and adventures, your first step is to write a sentence (or two) about your world. What makes it different from other settings? Call it an “Elevator Pitch” – a quick description of your setting that grabs the attention of players. Not only is it a great recruiting tool, but that simple declaration creates a stable foundation for your world. Everything you add later – the factions, the magic system, the villains – will rest on that first sentence.

But what do you put into the Elevator Pitch? While focusing on the important details is essential, making your world fit into a sentence or two can feel difficult. Worldbuilding seeds sprout fast. A tiny idea like “there are no gods” or “the oceans are alive” can grow tendrils into every aspect of your campaign. When we returned for the second worldbuilding episode, here are some of the things we tried to focus on to begin the creation of the world and the aforementioned Pitch.

The Environment

First, decide on the physical environment. Is the world like Earth, with seasons and a temperate climate? Or is it something more extreme, like a desert world or a water world? Does the setting feel familiar (medieval Europe) or alien (floating islands, endless twilight)? The choice of environment affects not just description, but also tone, travel, and player expectations.

In our second attempt at worldbuilding on the podcast, we decided on an Earth-like world, but with the players living in a more extreme area – hardpan and sand like the Old West. Instantly, the imagery changed. Suddenly, dusty boots, cracked canyons, and scavenged gear felt appropriate. Encounters became more about survival and discovery than comfortable civilization.

What’s Missing?

There are always things you’ll add to your setting to make it different from others. But what you choose to leave out can be even more powerful. Species, classes, weapons, entire forms of magic – removing or altering these elements forces your world to stand apart.

For our Old West-style world, we chose to leave out the Wizard class entirely. An extreme choice, but one that leaned into the desperate, dusty flavor of the setting. Suddenly, a simple healing potion felt exotic and dangerous. The absence of traditional magic opened up space for something else: the “magic” of rediscovered technology.

Players immediately sense uniqueness when an expectation is subverted. “There are no gods here” or “metal is rarer than gold” are instantly memorable hooks.

Why Are They There?

Truthfully, this is probably the first question you should answer, although environment and what’s missing can influence it. Why would anyone want to live in your setting – and how do they survive? Economics, discovery, religion, conquest, exile? Players need to know not just what’s happening but why people are there at all.

In our Old West-style world where there are no wizards, we chose a combination of discovery and economics. The discovery of ancient technology (which seems like magic to the species of the world) in untraveled areas has spurred the construction of boomtowns – just like the Gold Rush. Would-be explorers, mercenaries, and fortune-seekers flood the wastes, hoping to find something valuable before someone else does.

This motivation affects everything: how settlements look, who the villains are (claim jumpers, corrupt barons), and even what types of adventures fit. When players know why the world matters to its inhabitants, they have a reason to invest in it too.

The Pitch

Once you have your basic ideas, layer them into a sentence or two. You may have been slowly doing it all along, like I have. This is where your Elevator Pitch emerges.

Here’s the sample Elevator Pitch for the setting we began to create last episode:

“In a world where magic is a memory, the recent discovery of ‘magic’ technology out in the undiscovered wastes has fueled a gold rush, as would-be explorers travel through hastily constructed boomtowns in search of fame and fortune in the wastes.”

A good pitch is like a movie trailer. It gives you the tone, the stakes, and a sense of possibility. Players will immediately start imagining characters who fit that world – treasure hunters, tech-salvagers, ex-lawmen, or relic smugglers.

Beyond the Pitch

With a strong pitch, everything else becomes easier. Need to design a starting town? Ask how it serves the core concept. Need a villain? Tie their motives to the pitch’s main tension. Even improvisation gets easier when you know your “world elevator pitch” by heart. It’s your compass.

On our podcast, once we had our pitch, ideas started flowing naturally. There were undiscovered areas out in the wastes that contained the ruins of a previous civilization. Artificers were the ones that made the ancient tech work, while sorcerers were ones who had ventured into dangerous areas and been mutated by radiation and other factors. 

Think of your pitch as a seed crystal. Once dropped into water, the world forms around it in recognizable patterns.

A final benefit of a clear elevator pitch: it’s a recruiting tool. You can drop it into a group chat, a player’s inbox, or your session zero document. Players know instantly what kind of characters might fit.

Even better, you can let them help expand it. Share the pitch before the first session and ask them about what type of character they would want to build for it. Their answers will give you dozens of hooks, all aligned to your setting’s core idea.

Final Thoughts

Creating a world is one of the great joys of DMing. It’s easy to get caught up in a thousand details – maps, pantheons, history timelines – but a world without a clear identity is hard to run and hard for players to grab onto. By starting with a simple, evocative Elevator Pitch, you give yourself and your players a foundation. You’ll know what belongs, what doesn’t, and why people should care.

So take some time at the beginning to craft your Elevator Pitch. Write it, refine it, and let it guide you as you continue to build out your setting. A single sentence can spark months or even years of adventures.

And remember: you don’t have to build the whole world today. Just one brick at a time.

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3 Wise DMs mission is to help DMs with problems that you can’t find answers to in the rulebooks. If you’ve got a question or a problem, visit the website and enter it in the “What’s Your Problem” field. Or reach out to us at 3wisedms@gmail.com.

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