Ideas for world building

[PandaMaster619]

Sorry if this discussion has already been talked about but just couldn't find anything on it.

I'm a new DM and currently running the campaign from the starter set. I was wondering what I'm gonna do when we finish the lost mines of phandalin.

I realized I'm not very good with creating something from scratch, but I've got several ideas, though they're based on actual ideas, just modified or mixed together. So is it ok to borrow ideas (world or situations) from other places like books or movies, or even from other DM's campaigns? I kinda feel bad about taking other peoples ideas.

[Ralanr]

Sorry if this discussion has already been talked about but just couldn't find anything on it.

I'm a new DM and currently running the campaign from the starter set. I was wondering what I'm gonna do when we finish the lost mines of phandalin.

I realized I'm not very good with creating something from scratch, but I've got several ideas, though they're based on actual ideas, just modified or mixed together. So is it ok to borrow ideas (world or situations) from other places like books or movies, or even from other DM's campaigns? I kinda feel bad about taking other peoples ideas.

Yes. You're free to do what you want with them. If you're trying to make a profit I'd advise against 100% copying. There are no original ideas, it's just how we work with them.

Even if you don't plan on using them, think on them to help with the flow of your creative juices.

[Corran]

Good artists copy, great ones steal!!! Go on and draw inspiration from any source you can find to make your campaign world more colourful.

[Fighting_Ferret]

New DMs are like children and beginning artists, they have to imitate what is around them before creating on their own. I wouldn't worry too much about borrowing, heck the entire Fantasy genre is one big take on Tolkien's works. The key is to try to make something your own. This is why they create modules for sale... not everyone is gifted to create on their own, or has the time to do so.

The DMG does a good idea of helping with the process of creating and telling you how big the world is for a particular level of character. All the events in the starter module are within a few days travel on foot from the central location of Phandalen. Maybe the dwarves have sent for their kin, but messengers return and the dwarves are currently at war with [enter the enemy group of your choice]. Who/what is behind that attack, is it a larger part of the search for the mines?

Maybe a letter from a character's family calling for aid, or a "chance" meeting at a roadside inn promising something in return for their involvement. Does the cleric/paladin's deity have a quest, how about the warlock's patron? Maybe you joined a faction...and they have a quest for their rising stars?

There are many hooks that you could offer your players, tease them with several options that you have very briefly fleshed out, then fill out as they progress towards that goal. Remember the world isn't going to wait on the would-be heroes, if they go on one adventure, something might have happened to end some of the other hooks, but new ones could spawn along the way.

[gullveig]

So is it ok to borrow ideas (world or situations) from other places like books or movies, or even from other DM's campaigns? I kinda feel bad about taking other peoples ideas.

Man, it's not only ok but it's a must. Every story have a basic idea underneath called trope and it's hard to create a new one.

Here, grab this site: http://tvtropes.org/

There lots of tropes you can use to create your world like the "crapsack world" http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CrapsackWorld

[Madbox]

If you follow gullveig's suggestion and try tvtropes, a word of warning: that website will eat up your time like nothing else. You go to look up something, you see an interesting link and click it, and then you look at the time and realize it's been four hours.

[JackPhoenix]

If you follow gullveig's suggestion and try tvtropes, a word of warning: that website will eat up your time like nothing else. You go to look up something, you see an interesting link and click it, and then you look at the time and realize it's been four hours.

After all, TVTropes Will Ruin Your Life (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife)

Couldn't resist.

[JAL_1138]

I take modules and setting info from old editions, or from Adventurers' League, etc. and twist and alter them. I don't think I've ever run something built purely from scratch.

I'm usually running a tweaked module, or stealing bits of modules, kitbashing them together, and filing the metaphorical serial-numbers off, ploinking them in a setting similarly kitbashed or tweaked from existing material, and throwing in plenty of references for my own amusement. I especially like stealing premade encounter stats from modules, because I'm lazy and it saves me prep time.

I steal more than plenty of other people, who do more of their own gruntwork and build their settings and adventures from the ground up......but they're still borrowing from other sources in their own ways--other media, other adventures they've read about or played, or just myths and legends, tropes of the genre, etc.

Even when building a setting they intend to publish, absolutely everybody borrows and steals. Even Tolkien borrowed from old myths (and from Christianity) and tweaked and twisted them around and added his own stuff until it looked like something different.

Arneson and Gygax yoinked how wizards cast from Jack Vance's books, hence the term "Vancian" casting, and Orcs are taken straight from Tolkien and tweaked into something else. Half the critters in the Monster Manual are based on a bunch of cheap figurines Gygax bought somewhere, and the rest are based on myth and literature.

George Lucas borrowed from old adventure serials (sometimes even shot-for-shot!) for Indiana Jones, and from dozens of older properties (and from Joseph Campbell's "hero's journey") for Star Wars.

Shakespeare hardly ever came up with his own plots; many of his plays are remakes or stage adaptations of older works.

Discworld just plain *is* a mishmash and parody of genres, existing works, myths, legends, and the like; it's blatant about it.

So steal, steal away. Steal from books, steal from movies, steal from television, comics, myths, legends, take what you like and kitbash it into something new.

On a more pragmatic note, if you want to stick to modules, there's some out for 5e. Hoard of the Dragon Queen + Rise of Tiamat; Princes of the Apocalypse; and Out of the Abyss.

Obviously, if you intend to publish, what you steal and how you do it become rather important due to copyright laws, but in a home game, nobody gives a dang.

[Hudsonian]

I know that I'm writing a quest for the setting of the big lake in Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson

Please note: I feel every level1 D&D game should start with the rats in the cellar... just for kicks and giggles. (less than 10 minutes though...)

[BRC]

Sorry if this discussion has already been talked about but just couldn't find anything on it.

I'm a new DM and currently running the campaign from the starter set. I was wondering what I'm gonna do when we finish the lost mines of phandalin.

I realized I'm not very good with creating something from scratch, but I've got several ideas, though they're based on actual ideas, just modified or mixed together. So is it ok to borrow ideas (world or situations) from other places like books or movies, or even from other DM's campaigns? I kinda feel bad about taking other peoples ideas.
"Good artist create, great artists steal".
Remixing Ideas from other sources isn't just acceptable, it's a great idea, especially for newbie DMs with new groups. Drawing from a common background helps the players remember the setting details.

"The kingdom of Khazalam, which borders the Clanholds to the north, and the Broogan Marshes to the South", is a lot easier to remember if the players can think of it in terms of "Basically The Roman Empire is south of Warcraft-Style Dwarves, and north of the Zombie Swamps"

[LnGrrrR]

If you're making your own world, it's good to at least add one defining element that will stand out in players minds. Is magic rare? Abundant? Is the world doomed? Are there competing guilds at war with each other? Are adventurers looked upon kindly by the law, or as vigilantes? Is there a dragon famed throughout the land for his evil deeds? Etc etc.

[Soarel]

Don't try to be original. "Weird for the sake of weird" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0DwRAVJZ4A) never works out for tabletop RPGs and will only make your players confused and bogged down with exposition.

Instead, take familiar elements and put your own twist on them, as others have said here. Tropes are not bad. I prefer "generic" settings to "weird for the sake of weird" ones.

[Soarel]

If you're making your own world, it's good to at least add one defining element that will stand out in players minds. Is magic rare? Abundant? Is the world doomed? Are there competing guilds at war with each other? Are adventurers looked upon kindly by the law, or as vigilantes? Is there a dragon famed throughout the land for his evil deeds? Etc etc.

Alternatively you can have one defining theme or twist. My setting's defining twist is subverting the "humans-as-default" you see in a lot of settings. Humans are a rare species that's quickly being replaced by half-elves in my setting (because why get with a boring old human when you can reproduce with someone who looks like you, but perfect and ethereal?)

[JNAProductions]

Alternatively you can have one defining theme or twist. My setting's defining twist is subverting the "humans-as-default" you see in a lot of settings. Humans are a rare species that's quickly being replaced by half-elves in my setting (because why get with a boring old human when you can reproduce with someone who looks like you, but perfect and ethereal?)

Because why would an elf mate with an icky human when there are pretty elves around?

[Louro]

Steps to create your wonderful world

1.- Get an idea. Think about what do you want your players to play.
2.- Research who has done it already.
3.- Copy & Play.

--
My advice: don't do that.
Just pick any scenario you want by describing the world to your players. Set up the first adventures for the campaign and bring up stuff according to the campaign progression.

Usually you want to prepare 3 diferent plots/problems/adventures the players might face, so they don't get the feeling that they are in a straight line... they get to choose where they wanna die!!!
Reuse non played adventures in the future (just a few adjustments).

[JAL_1138]

Steps to create your wonderful world

1.- Get an idea. Think about what do you want your players to play.
2.- Research who has done it already.
3.- Copy & Play.

--
My advice: don't do that.
Just pick any scenario you want by describing the world to your players. Set up the first adventures for the campaign and bring up stuff according to the campaign progression.

Usually you want to prepare 3 diferent plots/problems/adventures the players might face, so they don't get the feeling that they are in a straight line... they get to choose where they wanna die!!!
Reuse non played adventures in the future (just a few adjustments).


This is good advice, whether you develop the world in some detail ahead of time or not. Developing the setting can help figure out what the logical responses to player actions would be, or give you ideas for what the possible adventures might be. Not likely to have orc warbands raiding the medieval village if your setting's orcs aren't the default chaotic evil kind and have a different culture and history; may not be trying to save the kingdom from a dragon if the area's a massive republic and dragons are extinct, etc., but don't be afraid to scrap some of it and/or bring in new stuff on the fly--it's practically unavoidable, anyway.

Developing the story too far ahead, as opposed to the setting, or thinking of it as your story for the players to follow, is nearly always a bad idea. Rather than a defined plot, develop a few scenarios the players can bite and follow in their own way, and develop the next bits as you go in response to what the players do rather than planning it from start to finish.

When I say I kitbash from modules, I don't do it all in advance. I do a little bit at a time. The pre-existing published stuff lets me have several options available without a lot of effort, and lets me adjust on the fly to player reactions; I'm not personally all that creative and I kind of hate building combat encounters from scratch (I'm very lazy as a DM) so the modules save me a lot of prep time and energy there when it comes to locations, maps, dungeons, fights, etc. Oftentimes the "plot" of the module is nowhere to be found in what I end up doing, or is mined for ideas that get reworked and fitted into something else instead of run as-is.

Not everybody's going to need or want to draw from published material to the extent I do, or even at all. The point of mentioning it is just to say that you don't have to be afraid of borrowing stuff from other sources out of some moral obligation to be wholly original somehow and never pull from other sources, not to say "copy & play." React to your players. Don't put it on rails in order to stick to the story or source you're inspired by. That's not to say every campaign needs to be a big wide-open sandbox, but let the players have agency. They're not limited to following one specific course of action to follow one predefined story. Drawing from other material is fine, adhering to it at the expense of player agency is not.

Currently my campaign has ended up going in a direction I had never even considered when we started. I threw together a sidequest when they went somewhere I hadn't prepped anything for, and they took the one-off events that happened there as a major plot-hook and ran with it.

So now I'm building off of that instead of anything I had originally considered doing, and mostly building by reacting to where they decide to go and what they do when they get there, one or two sessions at a time, stringing it together by figuring out how their choices would plausibly connect one part to another.

I don't have any idea where it's going long-term other than a vague idea and outline that gets changed and reworked as we go (and ideas about which stuff I want to yoink material from for it, which is an ever-changing list depending on what the players do). The great thing about it is that they're invested, and an added bonus is that what they decided to follow is much easier to wing stuff for and connect up different things and locations and events to than anything I'd originally intended the campaign to be about, so not only are they really motivated, they've made my job easier.