Creating My Own World

[Gold Digger]

Hello guys!
I 've started playing D&D for about 6 months now in my local gaming store and I am about to begin a campaign with my friends where I will be DMing!I am thinking about creating a setting of my own.I ve read the worldmaking section of the DM Guide which was really helpful.Do you have any good tip to add as more experienced players-DMs?

[MrStabby]

My experience is mainly from the early days of 3rd but I will share what I have found.

The best campaign is a mixture of structure and freedom. Structure, so there is a story and progress and a reason behind how the world changes. Freedom so no one feels railroaded.

Plan some specific locations/adventures/maps of areas to keep in reserve. Make these of different types - indoors, outdoors, underground etc.. This means when the PCs decide to branch out into something unexpected you have some good locations to use on the fly.

Re-use characters where you can. Give people names, mannerisms, describe how they stand if unusual. Just odd details like a piece of jewellery or similar can make a big difference. Use this as an opportunity for you to roll play ALL the NPCs.

I tend to create my own monsters, or more often creatures with class levels for encounters. These are things like Average City Guard or King's Bodyguard, Thieves Guild Member or Paladin of Torm. They tend to be used on a 4 level cycle - when higher level than the party they may lead an encounter against them or give directions/instructions to them. Then they may become the bulk of an encounter finally moving to easy encounters or being numbers in an encounter lead by someone else. For each of these I produce a card with the key stats, abilities and spells on (I keep the spell selection constant across all of them for ease - only true NPCs get custom spell lists). This means that with a pot of pre-built characters in different classes I can assemble encounters very quickly to adapt to whatever the players want to do.

Don't be afraid to build more complex locations for some characters - if an evil sorcerer is threatening the world then whichever path the party chooses to follow they are likely to meet at some point.

Finally have a good mix of encounters. Make the world "real" in than enemies don't just sit stationary in a room waiting for an adventurer to come in. They do things but also walk between places, either individually or in groups. They raise alarms, they run away and so on. These characters should be as real as the player's characters so should use cover, tactics and use scrolls/potions as appropriate.

Let the PCs be ambushed if they are not cautious. Let them ambush others. Let there be fights against elite enemies but also fights against hordes. Personally I always liked to give my players a bit of a tailored encounter after they levelled up as a chance for them to showcase their new powers - find enemies they are good against and give them a good number. On the other hand if the party does pick something too hard don't stop them getting hurt. Safety for the party can ruin the excitement.

[MrStabby]

Oh, a few more things when creating the setting, but probably obvious. Tell the players what they know or can assume. In most D&D settings zombies are an easy foe, quite common and most adventurers will have heard of them. There is no reason why rotting corpses powered by arcane magic should not be utterly terrifyingly powerful. If player's expectations about some creature types should carry over, let them know and so on.

Give people an introduction to places. There may be a good chance that people will know a bit about other cities - fill in their character's knowledge as they get there.

[Broken Twin]

Personally, if you're building a setting specifically for a small group of friends to play in... involve them in the creation. Ask each of them for one thing they'd like to see in the game, then blend the results together into a cohesive whole. This will help ensure that everybody will find something engaging about the world they're playing in. It can also take a lot of the work off your shoulders.

If the setting is important to immersion, provide the players with a pitch document that highlights the major forces and themes of your world. Try to keep it short and concise, you can always offer additional information if they ask for it, but it's better if your players can digest the basics of the world quickly.

[pwykersotz]

Remember not to get hung up on the small stuff. If you have a grand unifying theory of your kingdom/world/cosmos and one or two small things are disturbing it, ignore them, or remold them as you see fit. You'll be happier for it.

Start small. Begin with a Kingdom or two and let it grow from there. Don't try to develop from the top down unless you have a LOT of time on your hands.

Have a substantive reason for developing a new world, not just a gimmick. Let that reason power your imagination. Remember to write it all down at first as more of a stream of consciousness, then go back and edit. It's easier to change things than to create them, and it's easy to get hung up if you sweat the small stuff early on. That kills your writing buzz way too quickly.

Involve your players. Find out what kind of world they want. Don't let it completely dictate what you do, but let it inform your choices. If they like exploring ancient ruins more than talking to NPC's, your focus might be more on wilderness than cities.

Remember that your players live in this world. Unless they are very advanced gamers, the more you keep the basics of the world based in this reality, the easier time they'll have interacting with it. Don't make differences for the sake of being different, do it because it matters somehow.

Remember to have fun. If something has become arduous, shelve it and come back to it later with a fresh perspective. You might find that it wasn't necessary, it was overcomplicated, or that it just requires a simple tweak to work.

And last for now, take all advice with a grain of salt. You're creating a world for you and your players, not for the internet. Don't worry too much about what we say. A lot of your valuable learning will come from mistakes and triumphs along the way. :smallsmile:

[Person_Man]

I suggest that you pick your favorite historical period and add magic. This gives you a bunch of maps, locations, mythology, and NPCs that you and your players will be vaguely familiar with, dramatically cutting down on the prep work you need to do before a game and explanatory monologues you need to do during a game.

[Madfellow]

Personally, if you're building a setting specifically for a small group of friends to play in... involve them in the creation. Ask each of them for one thing they'd like to see in the game, then blend the results together into a cohesive whole. This will help ensure that everybody will find something engaging about the world they're playing in. It can also take a lot of the work off your shoulders.

A friend of mine in college once did something like this for one of his campaigns. He gave his players the map and let them name everything. It resulted in place names like The Fukincold Mountains and The Canadian Wasteland. :smallbiggrin:

If you want to REALLY dive into this idea though, there's a game called Dawn of Worlds. It's free and really simple to learn. Basically the idea is that players take on the role of gods and take turns creating aspects of a world, spending points from a pool of power that refreshes every turn. It starts with the landscape and climate, then moves on to the races, and then to those races' civilizations and history. I've only played it once, but it's fun. :smallsmile: And when you're done, bam! Instant world map.

Not saying you have to go this far; only that you can if you want.

[Gold Digger]

I suggest that you pick your favorite historical period and add magic. This gives you a bunch of maps, locations, mythology, and NPCs that you and your players will be vaguely familiar with, dramatically cutting down on the prep work you need to do before a game and explanatory monologues you need to do during a game.

That's a good idea.In fact, I was thinking of using TV Series settings altered (for example The Legend Of The Seeker world which I liked a lot) and combine elements from Ancient Greece and Scandinavia (because who doesnt like god-awesome Vikings? :P )



The best campaign is a mixture of structure and freedom. Structure, so there is a story and progress and a reason behind how the world changes. Freedom so no one feels railroaded.

Re-use characters where you can. Give people names, mannerisms, describe how they stand if unusual. Just odd details like a piece of jewellery or similar can make a big difference. Use this as an opportunity for you to roll play ALL the NPCs.

Don't be afraid to build more complex locations for some characters - if an evil sorcerer is threatening the world then whichever path the party chooses to follow they are likely to meet at some point.

Finally have a good mix of encounters. Make the world "real" in than enemies don't just sit stationary in a room waiting for an adventurer to come in. They do things but also walk between places, either individually or in groups. They raise alarms, they run away and so on. These characters should be as real as the player's characters so should use cover, tactics and use scrolls/potions as appropriate.


I was thinking very much about having pages in my DM notebook where I will have the stats and backgrounds of the main NPCs that we encounter in every city and hope that the PCs will revisit in order to see them again.Looks like a fun part of DMing, especially if these NPCs are getting classes and are leveling up making for a good companion in both the beer and sword contests! :D



Start small. Begin with a Kingdom or two and let it grow from there. Don't try to develop from the top down unless you have a LOT of time on your hands.

And last for now, take all advice with a grain of salt. You're creating a world for you and your players, not for the internet. Don't worry too much about what we say. A lot of your valuable learning will come from mistakes and triumphs along the way. :smallsmile:

I was thinking about starting even smaller, perhaps with a region of the kingdom, with the players in the first levels visiting 2-3 small villages, some forest and a bigger city.
You are right of course, every party is different so things that most people might enjoy my friends may dislike (and the opposite).


A friend of mine in college once did something like this for one of his campaigns. He gave his players the map and let them name everything. It resulted in place names like The Fukincold Mountains and The Canadian Wasteland. :smallbiggrin:

If you want to REALLY dive into this idea though, there's a game called Dawn of Worlds.

Sounds fun! :D

[Gold Digger]

I also like very much the use of the obsidian portal.We are using it in my current campaign and it's really usefull.

[SirKazum]

*Ahem* (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?57-World-Building) :smallbiggrin:

Join us at the world-building forum, it's fun!

[MrStabby]

Actually my approach is the opposite to "start small". I like to start high level - work out who the powers/forces are in your world, what shapes and so on. Then pick a theme for a campaign - a plot line (roughly), or a few plot lines. Then pick the specific places/locations that can support them. I suspect that either way works pretty well.

But yeah, have fun being a DM. Put as much richness as you can into the world and as much sophistication as possible into the behaviour of characters. If a smart character does something that seems dumb, the PCs should be able to be asking themselves why. Is it a character flaw? does that person not know something the characters know? Do they know something the characters don't?

For characters I like to use the polymorph test. By behaviour alone could you tell the difference between two identical looking/sounding NPCs if one were replaced by another creature polymorphed?

[Gold Digger]

*Ahem* (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?57-World-Building) :smallbiggrin:

Join us at the world-building forum, it's fun!

Ooopsie :smallbiggrin: When I begin I will use it for more tips, I didn't know about that section of the forum! Thx.

[Sullivan]

I like to start with a map. I map out what ever I have time to make cities, swamps, forests, mountain ranges, villages, valleys, and everything else I can think of. Then I start to write up the places in a general way. The map helps me think about the relations that places have to each other. I also like it for traveling too, because I know that when the players walk from x to y they will have to go through a swamp and decide whether to go through the mountain pass or pay the toll for the kings road.

[Laserlight]

Hello guys!
I 've started playing D&D for about 6 months now in my local gaming store and I am about to begin a campaign with my friends where I will be DMing! I am thinking about creating a setting of my own. I ve read the worldmaking section of the DM Guide which was really helpful.Do you have any good tip to add as more experienced players-DMs?

I'm going to be an outlier here: Don't.

Number one, your player probably--not certainly, but probably--will not really care whether you run a published background or your own home brew. Yeah, you can tailor homebrew to their interests, but the odds are that if you're running a published game and they're rolling the dice and smashing the orcs, they'll be content for a while. You can take your innkeeper and fill in a whole family tree and secret background and history and motivations, but next week the players are probably not going to remember his name, much less anything else about him.

Number two, because GMing is a fair amount of work. And worldbuilding, if you do any kind of decent job of it, is also a fair amount of work. If you wait until you're finished worldbuilding before you start to DM, well, that's likely to be a long wait. And if you tackle both jobs at once, you will be more likely to burn out than if you just use a published background and learn to DM with it.

Number three, because the first time you worldbuild is probably going to be like the first time playing piano, or playing football, or writing a novel, or filling in your taxes--which is to say, it'll probably be awful. That's okay--you've got to be bad at it before you become good at it--but that doesn't mean you necessarily want to put it in front of your players.

Now, I could be wrong. All of the above are based on "probably" and may not apply at all to you. If you've got a good handle on building encounters and your buddies are all clamouring for you to run something that you can't find a published background on, then sure, give it a whirl. If you've got an astoundingly brilliant idea and you love it, then you'll (rightly) ignore me and plow right ahead with it. Hopefully the time will come when you're knocking out amazing campaign settings at the drop of a greathelm. But for your first campaign, at least consider the idea of using a published background.

[Sullivan]

I'm going to be an outlier here: Don't.

Number one, ...

Number two,...

Number three, ...

Now, I could be wrong. All of the above are based on "probably" and may not apply at all to you. If you've got a good handle on building encounters and your buddies are all clamouring for you to run something that you can't find a published background on, then sure, give it a whirl. If you've got an astoundingly brilliant idea and you love it, then you'll (rightly) ignore me and plow right ahead with it. Hopefully the time will come when you're knocking out amazing campaign settings at the drop of a greathelm. But for your first campaign, at least consider the idea of using a published background.

This is true. I'm working under the assumption that you'll enjoy world building. I love it and I do it even when I'm not running any games. That said, starting small with a town or something might be good to get your feet wet until you figure out where you stand and what your players are looking for in a campaign.

[1of3]

My only tip: Engage your fellow players. You can easily build that thing together. It will certainly be more interesting.

[mephnick]

My main advice: Do it for your own enjoyment. Don't expect your players to care. Like, at all.

But if you enjoy doing it, God speed.