So, DMs who Homebrew their Worlds: What bit of extra detail have you gone out of your way to create and explain to your players to make the World feel real?
For example, I took a fair chunk of time out of my game last night so a Merchant they were travelling with could explain how the Postal Service worked. This was because of a potential plotline that didn't happen (there was a chance that the players would have committed an unlicensed Crime in the city they were leaving. There was going to be a letter in the post from the Thieves Guild of the City, to the Thieves Guild of the town they were going to, saying "Steal these guy's stuff, they did an unlicensed crime". Now as it turns out they didn't do the crime so the letter wasn't sent. But I kept in the stuff where the Merchant explained how the mail works (there's no formalised Postal Service, but a Network of Merchants do move letters and parcels on an ad hoc basis), because it made the World seem legitimate.
The entire party aside from the wizard kept looking for money fights (and the wizard went along with it, acting as their promotor). Everywhere they went, whenever they had some downtime. So I looked into match promotion, and how organizers and promotors make money. I set up underground tournaments, I set up a legal circuit, I came up with laws and regulations, I varied it all from one culture or nation to the next. They also wanted to bet on themselves. And then against themselves, hustling others. So I set up bookies and odds calculation, and of course crime bosses manipulating everything. It was elaborate.
And no other group since has been into prize fighting to any real extent.
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Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
A city with a lower, upper and exalted section, entry and residence allowed via a magic token that moves from Electrum -> Silver -> Platinum Renown points, renown points gained by doing deeds from the quest boards in each level of the city, general good works, arena fights etc., renown can also be gained/lost using a duelling system ;-)
NPC backstories. I make page-long backstories for NPCs the players only meet once, and exchange only a few sentences with. It sometimes pays off, though.
All stars fade. Some stars forever fall. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Homebrew (Mostly Outdated):Magic Items,Monsters,Spells,Subclasses ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
This one planet I made (running a space campaign) is hands down the coolest idea in the history of D&D. It is made of floating islands, if you peek over the edge of one you can see the other side. It was also Aztec themed with giant T-rexes that had sword arms, so yeah.
It's more of how I run my worlds rather than building a specific thing.
Given multiple options, I put effort into the options my PCs don't choose. If they go west, the stuff in the east happens. While they're pillaging ruins, clearin' dungeons, and saving nations in the west, the quest hook in the east progresses (or resolves). This can be great, so-so, or catastrophic for the PCs and/or the game as a whole. Nothing in the world stands still while the PCs figure things out or explore elsewhere. This goes for humanoid clans ruining the world for power. Leave them be for a year and those CR 1/2 orcs will have their ranks filled with CR 8 orcs.
I track the calendar exhaustingly. Each day/night/week/month/season/year matters. Roads and cities that the PCs are supposed to get to might be closed during an entire season. Some churches, and therefore, healing services are sealed until the end of the 'religious holiday'. Creatures of the night show up at night. On the night that the evil god supposedly walked the mortal realm, all monsters increase by 2 CR, etc.
My group learns to run early and often. Danger spreads out - exponentially - from safe havens (well policed cities, lawful good temples, holy nations, etc.). In safe spots, you're mostly good. Go a bit up the road and even if level 1, you'll run into marauding bands of level 3s. Go further still and you'll run into a legendary level 8 beast. Go into that dark cavern where rumors of otherwordly magic exists and you might find the portal with a CR 22 demon standing guard. If they wander into such places at level 1, oh well. Start over I guess.
My world has airships, but they aren't at all magical. They're just carried aloft by rocs. I have designed an elaborate system of takeoff and landing that involves the rocs swooping in and catching rings attached to chains. My reasoning is that the rocs could not get into the air with the ship without a running start. For an airship to take off, it needs a landing pad setup with tall poles used to mount the rings.
It hardly affects gameplay, although one time they tried to hijack a ship, and when they released the roc for its approach, it just decided it didn't like them and preferred to fly home where its nest and a fresh cow for dinner were waiting.
I have spent the last five years trying to build a full homebrew world that I hope to DM in someday. But I have one problem... I tend to get bogged down in excessively detailing little bits and pieces. For example, I make lists of names of things to have ready if the players go into certain areas - names of shops, names of temples, names of taverns, names of guilds, names of schools and ships and libraries and whorehouses and entertainment troupes etc etc. And then I'll add just a few notes to each one to give it some added dimension. Then, instead of moving on with the worldbuilding process like a normal person, I'll get super bogged down fleshing out every last little minute detail of one or two or twenty of those things.
For example: there's a nightclub called The Purple Unicorn. It's a fetish club. Membership only. I have completely staffed the club (with names too), created menus, different events for different nights in different rooms, created backstories and intertwined sub-plots for some of the employees, everything. I know that the boss (a tattooed gnome named Lonni Sass) is pissed at the Avalanche Ale company because this month's invoice showed a 30% price hike over last month, due to increased security needed on the shipments because of the increased humanoid migrations in the eastern hills.
I've gone into that level of detail for dozens of places - taverns, schools, temples, guilds, pirate ships. I created a fortress city that sits atop the most profitable gold mine in the known world. I've created dozens of people in that city - (potential contacts for the party supposedly). I've created the young adult red dragon (and its lair) in the mountains to the northeast that occasionally tries to raid the city for gold - and revenge. Its mother used to raid that city, and was killed during one attempt. I even designed the medals that were given to each of the guards and townsfolk who participated in defending the city and killing the dragon. None of this detail is designed to advance any potential in-game plot. I just make something up and then ask, "But what about...?" - "But why does....?" - "But why is this like that...?" - "Who did that thing...?"
I've created the entire calendar system, complete with holidays, moons' phases, astronomical events, etc. But that's just for the common human society. The high elves of the great forest have their own calendar. And the wood elves have their own, And the sun dwarves have theirs. And the borean dwarves have theirs. And the moon elves of the Duskviel have theirs - but theirs is more complicated because the moon elves use a base-12 number system. Each have their own holidays. Each start their year on different days. Each have different arrangements of seasons, months, etc. And then there's the Leap Year. The human calendar adds the 3 extra days every 17 years. But the elves add 9 days every 51 years, except for the moon elves, because base-12 is a b!tch to calculate.
It's like trying to describe a forest to someone by reading the DNA genome code of each individual tree in succession. I'm pretty sure I'll never be done.
I have spent the last five years trying to build a full homebrew world that I hope to DM in someday. But I have one problem... I tend to get bogged down in excessively detailing little bits and pieces. For example, I make lists of names of things to have ready if the players go into certain areas - names of shops, names of temples, names of taverns, names of guilds, names of schools and ships and libraries and whorehouses and entertainment troupes etc etc. And then I'll add just a few notes to each one to give it some added dimension. Then, instead of moving on with the worldbuilding process like a normal person, I'll get super bogged down fleshing out every last little minute detail of one or two or twenty of those things.
For example: there's a nightclub called The Purple Unicorn. It's a fetish club. Membership only. I have completely staffed the club (with names too), created menus, different events for different nights in different rooms, created backstories and intertwined sub-plots for some of the employees, everything. I know that the boss (a tattooed gnome named Lonni Sass) is pissed at the Avalanche Ale company because this month's invoice showed a 30% price hike over last month, due to increased security needed on the shipments because of the increased humanoid migrations in the eastern hills.
I've gone into that level of detail for dozens of places - taverns, schools, temples, guilds, pirate ships. I created a fortress city that sits atop the most profitable gold mine in the known world. I've created dozens of people in that city - (potential contacts for the party supposedly). I've created the young adult red dragon (and its lair) in the mountains to the northeast that occasionally tries to raid the city for gold - and revenge. Its mother used to raid that city, and was killed during one attempt. I even designed the medals that were given to each of the guards and townsfolk who participated in defending the city and killing the dragon. None of this detail is designed to advance any potential in-game plot. I just make something up and then ask, "But what about...?" - "But why does....?" - "But why is this like that...?" - "Who did that thing...?"
I've created the entire calendar system, complete with holidays, moons' phases, astronomical events, etc. But that's just for the common human society. The high elves of the great forest have their own calendar. And the wood elves have their own, And the sun dwarves have theirs. And the borean dwarves have theirs. And the moon elves of the Duskviel have theirs - but theirs is more complicated because the moon elves use a base-12 number system. Each have their own holidays. Each start their year on different days. Each have different arrangements of seasons, months, etc. And then there's the Leap Year. The human calendar adds the 3 extra days every 17 years. But the elves add 9 days every 51 years, except for the moon elves, because base-12 is a b!tch to calculate.
It's like trying to describe a forest to someone by reading the DNA genome code of each individual tree in succession. I'm pretty sure I'll never be done.
My world has airships, but they aren't at all magical. They're just carried aloft by rocs. I have designed an elaborate system of takeoff and landing that involves the rocs swooping in and catching rings attached to chains. My reasoning is that the rocs could not get into the air with the ship without a running start. For an airship to take off, it needs a landing pad setup with tall poles used to mount the rings.
It hardly affects gameplay, although one time they tried to hijack a ship, and when they released the roc for its approach, it just decided it didn't like them and preferred to fly home where its nest and a fresh cow for dinner were waiting.
That's like how planes land on aircraft carriers (swoop in and hook on to a line) except the plane is big enough to just pick up the aircraft carrier.
So, DMs who Homebrew their Worlds: What bit of extra detail have you gone out of your way to create and explain to your players to make the World feel real?
For example, I took a fair chunk of time out of my game last night so a Merchant they were travelling with could explain how the Postal Service worked. This was because of a potential plotline that didn't happen (there was a chance that the players would have committed an unlicensed Crime in the city they were leaving. There was going to be a letter in the post from the Thieves Guild of the City, to the Thieves Guild of the town they were going to, saying "Steal these guy's stuff, they did an unlicensed crime". Now as it turns out they didn't do the crime so the letter wasn't sent. But I kept in the stuff where the Merchant explained how the mail works (there's no formalised Postal Service, but a Network of Merchants do move letters and parcels on an ad hoc basis), because it made the World seem legitimate.
Anyone else done anything like that?
Bruh! I've done the postal service thing... which had 'recently' gotten better as there's a chariot based moon shine operation pretty much inventing Medieval Nascar...
Personally, I'm super into metal, so we have several different metal options, and ways to make counterfeit coins.
Coinage! Oh heck! My campaign world has ten different coinage systems with 4 to 9 denominations in each. Every city and medium or larger town has an exchange business somewhere, which takes a percentage of coins exchanged. So if a party adventures far up north and finds a bunch of Borean kroners and then flies off to Zaragoza, they'll have to pay to exchange them for the local currency, because local shops don't take foreign currency. And the exchange rates vary based on distance as well as cultural animosity between the two locations.
It's an unwieldy system that I'll probably end up streamlining, but I just like the immersive reality of different cultures having different coinage of different denominations.
So, DMs who Homebrew their Worlds: What bit of extra detail have you gone out of your way to create and explain to your players to make the World feel real?
For example, I took a fair chunk of time out of my game last night so a Merchant they were travelling with could explain how the Postal Service worked. This was because of a potential plotline that didn't happen (there was a chance that the players would have committed an unlicensed Crime in the city they were leaving. There was going to be a letter in the post from the Thieves Guild of the City, to the Thieves Guild of the town they were going to, saying "Steal these guy's stuff, they did an unlicensed crime". Now as it turns out they didn't do the crime so the letter wasn't sent. But I kept in the stuff where the Merchant explained how the mail works (there's no formalised Postal Service, but a Network of Merchants do move letters and parcels on an ad hoc basis), because it made the World seem legitimate.
Anyone else done anything like that?
Prize fighting.
The entire party aside from the wizard kept looking for money fights (and the wizard went along with it, acting as their promotor). Everywhere they went, whenever they had some downtime. So I looked into match promotion, and how organizers and promotors make money. I set up underground tournaments, I set up a legal circuit, I came up with laws and regulations, I varied it all from one culture or nation to the next. They also wanted to bet on themselves. And then against themselves, hustling others. So I set up bookies and odds calculation, and of course crime bosses manipulating everything. It was elaborate.
And no other group since has been into prize fighting to any real extent.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
A city with a lower, upper and exalted section, entry and residence allowed via a magic token that moves from Electrum -> Silver -> Platinum Renown points, renown points gained by doing deeds from the quest boards in each level of the city, general good works, arena fights etc., renown can also be gained/lost using a duelling system ;-)
I way overdo city details, names of NPCs in the city most of whom they probably will never meet, etc.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
NPC backstories. I make page-long backstories for NPCs the players only meet once, and exchange only a few sentences with. It sometimes pays off, though.
All stars fade. Some stars forever fall.
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Homebrew (Mostly Outdated): Magic Items, Monsters, Spells, Subclasses
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If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
This one planet I made (running a space campaign) is hands down the coolest idea in the history of D&D. It is made of floating islands, if you peek over the edge of one you can see the other side. It was also Aztec themed with giant T-rexes that had sword arms, so yeah.
Keep your friends close, and enemies closer.
It's more of how I run my worlds rather than building a specific thing.
All things Lich - DM tips, tricks, and other creative shenanigans
My world has airships, but they aren't at all magical. They're just carried aloft by rocs. I have designed an elaborate system of takeoff and landing that involves the rocs swooping in and catching rings attached to chains. My reasoning is that the rocs could not get into the air with the ship without a running start. For an airship to take off, it needs a landing pad setup with tall poles used to mount the rings.
It hardly affects gameplay, although one time they tried to hijack a ship, and when they released the roc for its approach, it just decided it didn't like them and preferred to fly home where its nest and a fresh cow for dinner were waiting.
I have spent the last five years trying to build a full homebrew world that I hope to DM in someday. But I have one problem... I tend to get bogged down in excessively detailing little bits and pieces. For example, I make lists of names of things to have ready if the players go into certain areas - names of shops, names of temples, names of taverns, names of guilds, names of schools and ships and libraries and whorehouses and entertainment troupes etc etc. And then I'll add just a few notes to each one to give it some added dimension. Then, instead of moving on with the worldbuilding process like a normal person, I'll get super bogged down fleshing out every last little minute detail of one or two or twenty of those things.
For example: there's a nightclub called The Purple Unicorn. It's a fetish club. Membership only. I have completely staffed the club (with names too), created menus, different events for different nights in different rooms, created backstories and intertwined sub-plots for some of the employees, everything. I know that the boss (a tattooed gnome named Lonni Sass) is pissed at the Avalanche Ale company because this month's invoice showed a 30% price hike over last month, due to increased security needed on the shipments because of the increased humanoid migrations in the eastern hills.
I've gone into that level of detail for dozens of places - taverns, schools, temples, guilds, pirate ships. I created a fortress city that sits atop the most profitable gold mine in the known world. I've created dozens of people in that city - (potential contacts for the party supposedly). I've created the young adult red dragon (and its lair) in the mountains to the northeast that occasionally tries to raid the city for gold - and revenge. Its mother used to raid that city, and was killed during one attempt. I even designed the medals that were given to each of the guards and townsfolk who participated in defending the city and killing the dragon. None of this detail is designed to advance any potential in-game plot. I just make something up and then ask, "But what about...?" - "But why does....?" - "But why is this like that...?" - "Who did that thing...?"
I've created the entire calendar system, complete with holidays, moons' phases, astronomical events, etc. But that's just for the common human society. The high elves of the great forest have their own calendar. And the wood elves have their own, And the sun dwarves have theirs. And the borean dwarves have theirs. And the moon elves of the Duskviel have theirs - but theirs is more complicated because the moon elves use a base-12 number system. Each have their own holidays. Each start their year on different days. Each have different arrangements of seasons, months, etc. And then there's the Leap Year. The human calendar adds the 3 extra days every 17 years. But the elves add 9 days every 51 years, except for the moon elves, because base-12 is a b!tch to calculate.
It's like trying to describe a forest to someone by reading the DNA genome code of each individual tree in succession. I'm pretty sure I'll never be done.
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.
Very well done. Sounds awesome
All things Lich - DM tips, tricks, and other creative shenanigans
That's like how planes land on aircraft carriers (swoop in and hook on to a line) except the plane is big enough to just pick up the aircraft carrier.
Bruh! I've done the postal service thing... which had 'recently' gotten better as there's a chariot based moon shine operation pretty much inventing Medieval Nascar...
Personally, I'm super into metal, so we have several different metal options, and ways to make counterfeit coins.
Coinage! Oh heck! My campaign world has ten different coinage systems with 4 to 9 denominations in each. Every city and medium or larger town has an exchange business somewhere, which takes a percentage of coins exchanged. So if a party adventures far up north and finds a bunch of Borean kroners and then flies off to Zaragoza, they'll have to pay to exchange them for the local currency, because local shops don't take foreign currency. And the exchange rates vary based on distance as well as cultural animosity between the two locations.
It's an unwieldy system that I'll probably end up streamlining, but I just like the immersive reality of different cultures having different coinage of different denominations.
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.