I'm making a campaign set a world I've been making, but I'm worried about the scale. There's decent room for adventures to happen, and I might expand it later in the campaign, the thing is I don't want the world to become too settled. If the adventurers get their bearings, I'm concerned the world might feel smaller, since they know where everything is. I want the world to feel big and dangerous, instead of too civilised and safe. I could keep on expanding the map, but that runs the risk of making feel even more cultivated, and I don't want players to get bored with loads of pointless journeys either. I'm not very experienced at this, so any ideas?
I have never tried building a world from scratch yet, but maybe put large swaths of terrain between towns. Having a 5-10 day journey to another town for a required quest, or 5-10 day journey to a mountain range for a dwarven hold. Add scale by adding distances? At the edge of the map, put large forests/mountains/sea?
The Easiest way to easily flesh out areas for adventure,whilst withholding the players info on where these adventures occur is as follows.Take an area (this is easy for wilderness areas or extraplanar locales) and add 3-4 structures or sublocations.Whilst keeping the map vogue going "here there by dragons" style.Adds a lot mystery and grandeur.
Coleville explains this in detail, in the video I linked above. He talks about his friend and first DM who had a map the size of a wall, that had all kinds of detail on it. But he points out that the map started out blank and the DM filled it in bit by bit. Yes, by the time Coleville saw it, there was tons of detail. But that's not how it started.
Coleville recommends a "local area" map of 300 miles across, as a good starting point. It can take the party a couple of weeks (with various activities along the way) to cross such a map. Then he suggests putting barriers along the edges. Maybe the west side is one long giant "Forbidden Forest" that no one goes into because the elven king has forbidden non-elf passage. Maybe the east side is an impassable mountain range dominated by frost giants who kill anyone who tries to pass. South is the coast, with the open sea beyond. North is some other geographical barrier - maybe a desert or something.
Many fantasy maps are like this. The Land in the Thomas Covenant series is not the whole world nor even a whole continent, but it is bounded along the sides by mountain ranges or coasts, for example. There's other stuff past these barriers (the characters even go there in the 2nd and 3rd series of books), but initially they only adventure within the borders. And the Land definitely does not feel "small."
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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.
My players are currently based in and around a single town, this town and the surrounding area will take them to level 5/6. However the town is a central hub for the rest of the continent so while the immediate adventure is in a small area they are being exposed to the culture, ideas and potential of both the wider nation the town is part of, and the other nations surrounding it.
Depends on what kind of world it is.Think about the fey wild & shadow fell. This will expand the world, but not too far. Set up different cultures/cities they can go to. Make it feel like there is more around then there is. Maybe the region feel small BECAUSE it is a bubble. If this is a ravenloft domain (or something like it), maybe include methods of transportation into other regions that require special effort (Cire 1313).
The parts of the land outside of settlements could be wild zones - dangerous for normal travellers. If there a lord/king/whatever ruling over the country then he doesn't have enough troops to maintain peace (maybe due to a war ending recently?)
The party have been raised in a particular settlement, and that is all they know; and they know that wandering too far from the settlement can get very dangerous.
Maybe well-guarded caravans visit the settlement from other settlements, but these are well-guarded and occasionally have wounded folks amongst the people arriving at your settlement.
Simply because a map shows a large area, doesn't mean that the area is now boring, or completely known. The hideout of the various baddies in the world don't have to be known to the players. Even having a map that says Town x is here, doesn't mean that the Town is a known quantity or that being a known quantity, it is boring.
When we go on vacation in our world, we usually know where we are going and what we're going to see, but, it we are usually excited about the journey.
I've been following the Coville mapping method for my latest campaign and let me tell you, it's a breath of fresh air. It's a great relief to not have to have the whole world planned out in advance, knowing that whatever things spiral into whatever directions you'll have room to maneuver without feeling constrained by what you've already written--or by what you haven't.
I've also had a great time only mapping areas out when I strongly suspect the players are about to go there, because it gives me time to give proper attention to each new area and making sure there's dynamic content to populate with it; fun areas, potential quest hooks, things broadly connected to the rough outline of the campaign I have in my head that I'm free to edit as I work.
It's not only putting less pressure on the DM to create a world in one fell swoop, it also encourages a more player-driven campaign. For example, o started them off in a small town where I introduced them to several key themes; 1) the baron of this land is harsh and cruel and his guards harass the townsfolk, 2) the road to the north is not safe and we don't know why, 3) they say a goblin army is causing trouble to the south and we've seen less travel from that way lately, and 4) something has driven dinosaurs that usually stay in the mountains down into our fields and they're killing our sheep. Each of those correspond to a different area on the map, so depending on which one they choose as their next objective, I can just focus on building out that area.
Eventually I'll need to figure out the shape of the country they're in and who its neighbors are, but right now the players are still too small-time for it to matter much.
I'm making a campaign set a world I've been making, but I'm worried about the scale. There's decent room for adventures to happen, and I might expand it later in the campaign, the thing is I don't want the world to become too settled. If the adventurers get their bearings, I'm concerned the world might feel smaller, since they know where everything is. I want the world to feel big and dangerous, instead of too civilised and safe. I could keep on expanding the map, but that runs the risk of making feel even more cultivated, and I don't want players to get bored with loads of pointless journeys either. I'm not very experienced at this, so any ideas?
I have never tried building a world from scratch yet, but maybe put large swaths of terrain between towns. Having a 5-10 day journey to another town for a required quest, or 5-10 day journey to a mountain range for a dwarven hold. Add scale by adding distances? At the edge of the map, put large forests/mountains/sea?
Advice about this from Matt Coleville:
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.
The Easiest way to easily flesh out areas for adventure,whilst withholding the players info on where these adventures occur is as follows.Take an area (this is easy for wilderness areas or extraplanar locales) and add 3-4 structures or sublocations.Whilst keeping the map vogue going "here there by dragons" style.Adds a lot mystery and grandeur.
Check out my homebrew subclasses spells magic items feats monsters races
i am a sauce priest
help create a world here
Coleville explains this in detail, in the video I linked above. He talks about his friend and first DM who had a map the size of a wall, that had all kinds of detail on it. But he points out that the map started out blank and the DM filled it in bit by bit. Yes, by the time Coleville saw it, there was tons of detail. But that's not how it started.
Coleville recommends a "local area" map of 300 miles across, as a good starting point. It can take the party a couple of weeks (with various activities along the way) to cross such a map. Then he suggests putting barriers along the edges. Maybe the west side is one long giant "Forbidden Forest" that no one goes into because the elven king has forbidden non-elf passage. Maybe the east side is an impassable mountain range dominated by frost giants who kill anyone who tries to pass. South is the coast, with the open sea beyond. North is some other geographical barrier - maybe a desert or something.
Many fantasy maps are like this. The Land in the Thomas Covenant series is not the whole world nor even a whole continent, but it is bounded along the sides by mountain ranges or coasts, for example. There's other stuff past these barriers (the characters even go there in the 2nd and 3rd series of books), but initially they only adventure within the borders. And the Land definitely does not feel "small."
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.
My players are currently based in and around a single town, this town and the surrounding area will take them to level 5/6. However the town is a central hub for the rest of the continent so while the immediate adventure is in a small area they are being exposed to the culture, ideas and potential of both the wider nation the town is part of, and the other nations surrounding it.
Depends on what kind of world it is.Think about the fey wild & shadow fell. This will expand the world, but not too far. Set up different cultures/cities they can go to. Make it feel like there is more around then there is. Maybe the region feel small BECAUSE it is a bubble. If this is a ravenloft domain (or something like it), maybe include methods of transportation into other regions that require special effort (Cire 1313).
My only good homebrews: Races, Subclasses.
An aspiring DM and Homebrewer. Ask me if you need anything.
The parts of the land outside of settlements could be wild zones - dangerous for normal travellers. If there a lord/king/whatever ruling over the country then he doesn't have enough troops to maintain peace (maybe due to a war ending recently?)
The party have been raised in a particular settlement, and that is all they know; and they know that wandering too far from the settlement can get very dangerous.
Maybe well-guarded caravans visit the settlement from other settlements, but these are well-guarded and occasionally have wounded folks amongst the people arriving at your settlement.
Simply because a map shows a large area, doesn't mean that the area is now boring, or completely known. The hideout of the various baddies in the world don't have to be known to the players. Even having a map that says Town x is here, doesn't mean that the Town is a known quantity or that being a known quantity, it is boring.
When we go on vacation in our world, we usually know where we are going and what we're going to see, but, it we are usually excited about the journey.
I've been following the Coville mapping method for my latest campaign and let me tell you, it's a breath of fresh air. It's a great relief to not have to have the whole world planned out in advance, knowing that whatever things spiral into whatever directions you'll have room to maneuver without feeling constrained by what you've already written--or by what you haven't.
I've also had a great time only mapping areas out when I strongly suspect the players are about to go there, because it gives me time to give proper attention to each new area and making sure there's dynamic content to populate with it; fun areas, potential quest hooks, things broadly connected to the rough outline of the campaign I have in my head that I'm free to edit as I work.
It's not only putting less pressure on the DM to create a world in one fell swoop, it also encourages a more player-driven campaign. For example, o started them off in a small town where I introduced them to several key themes; 1) the baron of this land is harsh and cruel and his guards harass the townsfolk, 2) the road to the north is not safe and we don't know why, 3) they say a goblin army is causing trouble to the south and we've seen less travel from that way lately, and 4) something has driven dinosaurs that usually stay in the mountains down into our fields and they're killing our sheep. Each of those correspond to a different area on the map, so depending on which one they choose as their next objective, I can just focus on building out that area.
Eventually I'll need to figure out the shape of the country they're in and who its neighbors are, but right now the players are still too small-time for it to matter much.
Thanks, I think I have a good idea of how to go about this now.