How do you come up with a story plot for your world?

I have trouble too, because I basically create new lore every single session. Then I try to connect the lore to past precedents and themes. From there I work out key NPCs for each fragment of exposition I've given and just kinda hope that the story emerges from the interactions of the NPCs, the players, and the events that happen from session to session.

It's not easy to run a game like this at all, but one trick I've learned is to use the NPC(s) as a sort of ambassador for each piece of lore I've dropped. For example, if I have Shadowfell stuff going on, I'll have a group of shadar-kai elves that interact with the party. If I have Old God stuff going on, I make a couple of religious groups and have warlocks and maybe druids from those groups interact with the party. If I have a war going on, I'll have NPCs from each army eventually interact with the party. I pick out one detail that links the NPC with his little group, and I hammer it home. Shadar-kai elves all have music boxes that play lullabies. Later, I can figure out why that weird detail makes sense for Shadowfell/Raven Queen lore.

Once all the NPCs have had face time and all the lore is dropped, my next step is trying to figure out who hates who, who is allies with who, and what great evils might be behind the different groups.

I keep motivations on an individual level first. Lognoy the Goliath wants Sir Rederich the Darkseed to experience the eternal hunting moon of Lognoy's goddess. Why? Because Lognoy is a fanatic and Sir Rederich slept with Lonoth's mother.

Once all that lore comes to light, I get to create groups surrounding the eternal hunting moon, Lognoy's goddess and her circles of wild magic, and Sir Rederich's knightly order. By the time two sessions have passed, the Knightly Order of Yelbaza is born for Sir Rederich, which ties to sapphire dragons (because I've been waiting to drop some Fizban's content).

If a story doesn't surface in any of these elements, I abandon it for a few sessions. I bring the NPCs back later for continuity, and it makes it feel like the wheels of the world are turning and turning while the players are making moves. If you're really good at it (which I'm not), you can keep track of the factions and NPCs in your head, and the story will eventually make a whole lot of sense. You'll think of a way for Lognoy's goddess to make a move in the world and when the players see it they'll remember the lore you gave them a month or two ago.

There's no better feeling in the world than when a player says, "Wait, isn't this the guy that we met back in the forest who had the blue crystal sword?! Now I know why he carried that, he worships Thladmatigo, the Sapphire Wyrm!"

/r/worldbuilding Thread