Campaign Starter Sheet Idea

[Else Fangorn]

I saw a post today about how DMs should provide their players with a general guide to the campaign world whenever you start a new campaign, along with a page reference to the DMG where a similar note could be found (DMG pg. 26, if your interested). Now, perhaps that is the most obvious thing in the world, but I had apparently missed that section. Anyway, I thought that was a great idea, so I put together a handout to use for my current campaign. I am posting it here both for feedback and to share it with anyone else who might want to have such a reference piece.


Starting Area

Races and Restrictions

Classes and Restrictions

World Background

Religion and the Gods

Special Rules



Starting Area
You will start in the Skarsgaard, a small fort on the western border of the Byeulavich Empire. After the Fallingstar created a pass through the mountains into the terrifying and uncivilized Skar some centuries ago, the locals constructed the fortification to protect the civilized lands to the north. The Skar, screened by mountains on the north and west and the ocean on the east, is full of monsters and largely unexplored by the civilized races; that is where most of the campaign will take place.

The Skarsgaard is populated by militiamen levied from the settlements in the west of the empire, commanded by the Tarkan (a low ranking noble, something like a knight) Idor Idoravich. There is also a priest of the god Aul, Svein Antler, who has lived there longer than anyone else. Merchants are scarce, although the most basic supplies and weapons can be purchased from the garrison. The residents live in caves cut into the sides of the mountains, and there are only three buildings in the Skarsgaard (a shrine to Aul, a guardhouse, and a watchtower).

Races and Restrictions
General note: although they vary in rarity, virtually all of the races are integrated in the Byeulavic Empire rather than in racial enclaves.
Dwarves, evles, halflings, humans, gnomes, and half-elves are standard.
Drow are not allowed.
Dragonborn are incredibly rare, although they are typically found in groups.
Goblins (from the Plane Shift: Zendikar supplement) are allowed.
Half-Orcs as a chassis do exist, but they are called Hobs and are actually a related species to orcs, not a half-breed race.
Tieflings also exist as is, but they are instead called Soul-Sold, and they are the offspring of those who have sold their souls and the souls of their children to devils. They can get their souls back, but they usually don’t know how.

Classes and Restrictions
Barbarians, Druids, and Rangers are frequently either tribesmen from the sparsely populated north or the footsoldiers from the human and hobbish tribes in the northeast of the empire. Druids can only take each individual Wild Shape once per long rest if that form is dropped to 0 hp (that is, if you take the form of a tiger and you drop to 0 hp as the tiger, reverting to normal form, you cannot take the form of a tiger again until you have completed a long rest).
Bards are usually bards in the historical sense: traveling storytellers and musicians, and there aren’t really any organized bard colleges.
Clerics and Paladins are virtually all Lawful, since all of the gods except for the Chaos are Lawful. All domains are available from all gods except Trickery, which is only available from the Chaos.
Fighters, Rogues, Warlocks, and Wizards are normal.
Monks are more often found in the Atajee-Kashmeeri Empire to the east, an enemy state.
Sorcerers occur rarely but with equal likelihood in all areas.

World Background
The world is at a late medieval/early renaissance technology with relatively rare magic among the common people. Two empires dominate the known world: the Byeulavich Empire in the west and the Atajee-Kashmeeri Empire in the east. There are nomadic tribesmen north of both empires and a scattering of small states between them. The Byeulavich Empire is divided into three general regions: the Aftlands in the west (primarily Nordic in style), the Oblysi in the middle (primarily Russian in style), and the Hoblands in the northeast (primarily Turkic in style). The empire as a whole is heavily decentralized, although there is a layer of hobbish and human nomadic aristocracy over the whole thing, since the empire was created when the horse riding tribes from the Hoblands conquered the city builders to the south and west.

Religion and the Gods
There are many gods, since the gods are evidently created by mortal belief. All gods are Lawful, although they vary from Good to Evil. The gods have all the domains except for Trickery and are organized into numerous houses, much like nobles. In fact, the relationship between a worshiper and a god is very similar to the relationship between a vassal and his lord. Indeed, the best afterlife to be hoped for is that of a Vassal to a god, an immortal servant permitted to live in that god’s demiplane. Those who do not serve a god well enough to be a Vassal or servant in their realm, along with those who never claim a god or follow only the Chaos, are subsumed into the Chaos. The Chaos offers all of the domains, including Trickery, although it does not have Clerics in the sense of normal priests. Rather, it grants powers to those who promote its goals of disorder in the world.

Special Rules
None.


If you have any thoughts on how it could be different or better, I'd love to hear them! I think this would be super helpful for players, especially newbies, so they can prepare for a campaign without have to ask a million questions. I wonder if anyone has some input on how it could be made even more informative without being overwhelming.

Thanks!

[Hudsonian]

I actually really like your set up.

[BurgerBeast]

Looks perfect to me. I anticipated having to tell you to dial it back a little but I think you've managed to communicate what needs to be communicated succinctly.

If I had to stretch myself to provide a constructive criticism, I would say that although you've provided the limitations on classes, what have you done to provide tips or hints about what classes might be most appropriate? Is the plan to run a sandbox exploration through wilderness, or should they expect to encounter civilizations, etc. Are there any reasons to prefer some classes over others. (I realize there might be no special exceptions here, in which case you're more or less fine.)

As a player, I look for these types of hints so that I don't make a character that suffers. Extreme examples would be an under dark specced ranger in an urban intrigue setting, or a strength-based fighter in a barbaric wasteland with access only to leather and hide armour, etc.

[Else Fangorn]

I actually really like your set up.

Thanks Hudsonian!


Looks perfect to me. I anticipated having to tell you to dial it back a little but I think you've managed to communicate what needs to be communicated succinctly.

If I had to stretch myself to provide a constructive criticism, I would say that although you've provided the limitations on classes, what have you done to provide tips or hints about what classes might be most appropriate? Is the plan to run a sandbox exploration through wilderness, or should they expect to encounter civilizations, etc. Are there any reasons to prefer some classes over others. (I realize there might be no special exceptions here, in which case you're more or less fine.)

As a player, I look for these types of hints so that I don't make a character that suffers. Extreme examples would be an under dark specced ranger in an urban intrigue setting, or a strength-based fighter in a barbaric wasteland with access only to leather and hide armour, etc.

What about something like a Campaign Themes section or something similar? Something to give a general outline of the expected types of areas that you might encounter and conflicts you might have to deal with, so you don't accidently build a street-savvy rogue in a wilderness campaign? I'm fine with players building something intentionally non-optimized, but I agree with you that I wouldn't want anyone ending up with that by mistake or ignorance. Obviously you can't fit every environment into a brief handout, but would that address your concerns?

[LaserFace]

I think you've got a pretty good outline here. Adding a Campaign Themes section is probably a good idea, although you might be able to set this up with an introduction and reinforce as you discuss religion, culture, history, etc.

I did a search and found this page (http://www.d20source.com/post/79263218246/world-building-101-effective-campaign-briefs) which has a few good tips. Although, I'd personally keep a campaign brief to fewer than 3 pages.

[TheProfessor85]

Great work

[Theodoxus]

I really like this, and will probably steal it ;)

But I do have a general question for anyone to answer: how do you prepare your players for a homebrew world/campaign. My group typically plays in FR or Golarion and know the settings pretty well. But when you're using a new setting, how do you inform your players - especially since their characters would know a lot about the world (major cities/kingdoms, perhaps even continents) as well as political interactions of said cities/kingdoms and monstrous activity...

Even if you have copious notes about your world, most players wouldn't want to read up on it - where as playing in established settings for decades, everyone has gleamed at least a little bit of how the Red Wizards operate or that you probably want to avoid getting into a naval battle with Cheliax.

Just wondering if I'm overthinking this, or if others have run into it and how they handled it.

[Else Fangorn]

I really like this, and will probably steal it ;)

But I do have a general question for anyone to answer: how do you prepare your players for a homebrew world/campaign. My group typically plays in FR or Golarion and know the settings pretty well. But when you're using a new setting, how do you inform your players - especially since their characters would know a lot about the world (major cities/kingdoms, perhaps even continents) as well as political interactions of said cities/kingdoms and monstrous activity...

Even if you have copious notes about your world, most players wouldn't want to read up on it - where as playing in established settings for decades, everyone has gleamed at least a little bit of how the Red Wizards operate or that you probably want to avoid getting into a naval battle with Cheliax.

Just wondering if I'm overthinking this, or if others have run into it and how they handled it.

That's actually exactly what this kind of thing is for. Something like FR probably doesn't need much introduction for experienced players beyond the starting area. The campaign I used as an example is a homebrew setting. Sure, the characters would certainly know more about the world then is included in a handout like this, but you can explain more of that as they actually develop their characters. You can also give out the information as it comes up: "Of course, your rogue, having grown up near the harbors of Vasiliport, has heard of the Red Rat, crimelord extraordinaire."

As long as they have a general idea, I find that it's best to just let them know as you go. If you end up revealing something later that they should have known before and would have changed how they build their characters, then you just apologize, maybe retcon something if necessary, and move on. I haven't had any players who were too upset about that kind of thing.

And honestly, in my experience, most players don't care a ton about all of the exact specifics of the world before getting started in a campaign. As long as they have enough to put together their character with a decent idea of how they fit into the world, they are usually happy. If they aren't happy, you can always give them more to work with.

Hope that helps! :smallbiggrin:

[LaserFace]

That's actually exactly what this kind of thing is for. Something like FR probably doesn't need much introduction for experienced players beyond the starting area. The campaign I used as an example is a homebrew setting. Sure, the characters would certainly know more about the world then is included in a handout like this, but you can explain more of that as they actually develop their characters. You can also give out the information as it comes up: "Of course, your rogue, having grown up near the harbors of Vasiliport, has heard of the Red Rat, crimelord extraordinaire."

As long as they have a general idea, I find that it's best to just let them know as you go. If you end up revealing something later that they should have known before and would have changed how they build their characters, then you just apologize, maybe retcon something if necessary, and move on. I haven't had any players who were too upset about that kind of thing.

And honestly, in my experience, most players don't care a ton about all of the exact specifics of the world before getting started in a campaign. As long as they have enough to put together their character with a decent idea of how they fit into the world, they are usually happy. If they aren't happy, you can always give them more to work with.

Hope that helps! :smallbiggrin:

My experience agrees that this approach works pretty well. A homebrew setting might take time to learn, but a Need To Know basis tends to be fine. I personally believe in a Show, Don't Tell approach to setting material, so unless I can have a piece of information influence the adventure somehow, I'm not going to worry too much about it.

There will probably be over-generalized grey-areas in the world lore, but you can just fill in things as player questions arise, or let them feel free to envision what's there. I actually enjoy this aspect, because sometimes players ask questions that never occurred to me to address beforehand. In finding a way to resolve it, I've been able to let the interests of players shape the world as it continues to grow and design more adventures and details to entertain them.