User blog comment:Tessitore/Duchy of Lancaster (1983: Doomsday)/@comment-257949-20100819085624

Well, from what I found when I was making Essex:


 * The history is the most important bit. Nail this first.


 * Put all your ideas for the history down on something like Microsoft Word first. I found that when I did this and scanned it for plausibility, what is rubbish becomes obvious. Edit, paste or retype the better version up - this saves you and the community time when picking out the bad bits.


 * Once you have the history, start fleshing things out. Government, then culture, then military. Because you know how these things developed from your history it should be easy.


 * Add maps when you're ready, followed by photos.


 * In terms of general research, I'd advise you go to the Wikipedia page about Lancashire and then look at its category. Important things to check for are the locations of airbases and military bases, as these will certainly have been hit by low-yield nukes.


 * Wikipedia tends not to be very good at this, but there are other sites where you can find out political conditions in 1983. I can't name any; you'll just have to google 'Lancaster 1983' or something.