Bad title I know, but idk what to title this.

So, I've been struggling for a long time with having this super complex homebrew world but no one to talk to about it. I can't spoil all these mysteries to my friends since any friend who can help, wants to play.

I'm curious if anyone knows a community to just casually chat specifics about dm stuff. A discord, or something similar. Honestly, I just want someone to give me fresh ideas, cause I am only one man with a world larger than the ideas I can generate.

EDIT: I should specify, not just talk about my world. I'm not that conceited I hope. Bounce ideas, get help with writers block, and maybe talk with others about their world for inspiration

I think this is that community friend.

If I may offer any advice, when you share stuff about your game and want feedback, do so with a focus. Share what we need to know, ask a few questions to draw feedback, and resist the urge to share seven pages of history! I fail at that, but it's what I try to do. In a way, you nailed it with this post.

Welcome to the community :)

What ideas do you need to get out of your head? I know the pain of having no ears to fill with excitement and spoilers beyond the people in my games :D

Honestly, that 7 pages of history is the issue. In an effort to make a deep and complex world, I have made some very convoluted things.

Right now, I'm needing advice for the start of an upcoming campaign. Long story short, I have a god, Tharizdun. My campaign takes extremely heavy inspiration from Faerûn, and Tharizdun is basically copy pasted. My goal is a cult to him being the main bad to kick off the story, with a climax being a long term thing. I'm just trying to figure out if I should put the "location" of the cult far away from the big cities, or closer to the big cities. And how to bridge that gap between that epic confrontation with the cult summoning a god, and the "You all meet in a tavern"

PS, no, they aren't starting in a tavern.

Well hiya! This could seem fun, I love sharing my weird, whacky, crazy ideas! First off, what ideas did you have for starting the campaign? And what level?

Starting at 3, probably, though I could be persuaded for higher. Since I literally only have 1 confirmed player, I know just the framework about the start.

The group, in separated parties, all find a mansion in a derelict part of a city. The motivations and compositions of the group has to wait until players happen. But more than likely, it has to do with a strange congregation of undead. The area is known for having undead in sparce amounts, and they all seemed to just recently begin unanimously marching towards a single location. It could also be a strange magical signature coming from the mansion. A strange divine magic that feels entirely wrong, but not corrupt.

From here, after the source is investigated, another npc party after the thing in the mansion shows up, and they've got a different motivation that will hopefully tie the other member together. Like, we're here cause of the undead, we're here for the magic, OH, did you guys know those two things were connected? That sorta jist.

I'm really struggling with after that though. Every idea I come up with feels wrong for one reason or another.

Long story short, I have a god, Tharizdun... <words removed> ...My goal is a cult to him being the main bad to kick off the story, with a climax being a long term thing... <words removed> ...should (I) put the "location" of the cult far away from the big cities, or closer to the big cities. And how to bridge that gap between that epic confrontation with the cult summoning a god, and the "You all meet in a tavern"

 I'm using Tharizdun in my game too! Big fan :)

Given that you know that you want the climatic fight to be vs. a Tharizdun cult you have plenty of time to drip info to the players and slowly build on the importance of stopping the cult.

Meaning that the early adventures don't always need to be related to Tharizdun at all. Where they are, sometimes it should be a mini-reveal that someone or something is connected to Tharizdun. You just drip that info out, slowly opening up with more of it until it's a major plot of interest for the players.

A drip like this creates the feeling that "Tharizdun has been the problem all along!" in the later phase (where he is).

This can work with any opening you choose.

This cult could even be a newly established religion that has a small temple in one or several of the main cities. The priests of the established pantheon might eye them warily, but not see a need to do anything about it, until they start growing exponentially.

I like the idea of many seemingly unrelated quests dropping little clues that lead back to Tharizdun. You could even have one of the party members be a low level initiate into the cult that is unaware of how bad things really are. You could even have the whole group be part of it, that then realize it is evil and endeavor to take it down from the inside. That could lead to former enemies/nemeses ending up as allies!

My thought is that it'll be an outsider deal, and I intend the cult to be hidden at first, but not be long in finding out some of the specifics. Drip a bunch of info for a minor twist, oh this was actually a cult and not a disorganized thing. But yeah, I'm aiming for a clear direction, just a mystery hiding what they're after.

Tharizdun here in lore is one of the most recognizable of the evil gods, so chances are it'll have to be either a hidden cult, or a take over sorta thing. All of the people involved either were forced, or fully understand what they're doing. Maybe some string pulling, but you get the picture.

So late game, chances are, the cult will be a national issue. A stronghold of sorts. Problem is figuring out where that is. I want to have the party explore the world a decent amount, I'm just not sure how to go about that in the context of what I'm going for.

Having cool ideas is fun :) .. but .. my suggestion would be to start at the beginning.

You have a cool idea for "the end" or perhaps just for the first "end" since there may be no reason to end the campaign if there are still interesting things going on.

Consider what level you want the current climax/encounter to be scaled to ... is it around level 5? 10? 15 or 20? ... if you are thinking about a really high level where the characters defeat the avatar of the summoned god and defeat the cult once and for all then, unless you want to bump them up levels really quickly, there is a LOT of content between the first meeting and the climax of the story arc.

With D&D the road is often more important than the destination - this is especially true because the players usually have no idea what the destination might be. Something cool that keeps the DM interested and excited as they dribble bits of information can become meaningless to the players since they can't see the bigger picture so you want an adventure that engages the party through out while revealing bits and pieces of a bigger plot arc.

In addition, consider more than one plot arc happening simultaneously. The characters may find out about one or more of them and they need not be related. A sugglers and theives guild that makes money by charging the cult for the resources they want (like sacrifices perhaps). A local ruler who is increasing the taxes to crush the will of the people while also feeding skimmed money to someone who may or may not be part of the cult. The noble may be completely unaware of such connections ... this could be the contact they purchase illicit substances from which just happens to be manufactured by someone associated with the cult or perhaps with another organization that competes with the cult. There could be more than one cult with opposing interests since there are multiple gods out there and Tharizdun is but one of them.

Anyway, try to create a very rough idea of the world as a whole, then make your ideas more detailed the closer you get to where the characters are starting. The starting village or town may have NPCs, businesses, some local politics defined or perhaps made up as you go along. If you create it on the spot be sure to write some notes after the session so you remember what is going on.

The bottom line, for me, when building a campaign is to not focus on the end since that may well change over the course of the campaign - focus on the beginning and the adventures the characters are having now and might have within the next one to three months.

As an example, my current campaign has been running 4 1/2 years, the characters have reached level 17 and it is getting close to the end game. However, whatever original idea I had for the climax of the game evolved as a result of events and player actions through the campaign so I'm quite glad that I didn't put a huge amount of work into an end game scenario that wouldn't come along for 5 or more years and might not ever actually happen depending on the choices. It is good to have an idea of where it might go but remember it might not work out that way.

Honestly sir David, I fully agree. I fully believe that, to write the ending in entirety, would be to misunderstand the free will of a PC. My ending currently is very ambiguous, and free form. I have noticed in previous campaigns that I've been short sighted, and that's what I'm currently attempting to remedy.

I've got my world very well written through. Lots of gaps, but lots of unorganized ideas for those gaps. My issue really is just that road you mentioned. What would be good plot points for a shadow cult, and where would be the best places to put those plot points. Do I encourage travel in this bit, or wait? I have lofty ideas for what I want, but constantly get tripped up with the details.

My current idea, after the party getting together, is a goblin plot. Goblins are kidnapping, stop them. Turns out they're in kahoots. But what then? I have a specific location I really want to tie into the plot, but for all intents and purposes it's away from where the action would be best. If I take them there, will it drag out? Weeks of travel aren't my strong suit, especially with distinct locations dotted along.

I would not worry too much about the conclusion of the campaign. Think about at what level you want it to happen then play until the party gets there. It is not uncommon for campaigns to fall apart before they reach the end. 

Every encounter in the adventure does not have to be about the BBEG. In fact it is better if you just sprinkle it around a bit. 

Don't do weeks of travel at the beginning. Just focus on the starting town and ONE weeks travel from it. It helps the party to establish ties to the NPCs and the town.

Yeah, Travel is the issue I'm running into. To avoid giving a geography lesson on a made up world, the party will start in a secluded town on a coast. After that, they can either travel west up the coast towards a city I would like to have the party encounter, but after that it's either go into the woods to no where, or travel back the way you came. It's the end of a somewhat long road. So if I want that city involved, how do I go about that? They need to do some backtracking, or go through some mountains. They do that though, and there still might be a ton of space to cover. I either make the climax close, in some pretty Uninteresting areas, or lots of travel. I want the climax to be close to where the game starts, given there isn't much reason I can think of for a shadow cult of presumably small numbers- that I want to have an anchor point somehwere- to be travelling half way across the continent for something they could have easily done closer.

There is nothing wrong with having the cult be established in an abandoned temple. They are making sacrifices to re-awaken the god blahblah or something. Placing it in the wilderness would be fine. It is secret and abandoned afterall.

Then, if it is the conclusion, have one of the cultists have a letter, receipt, or product wrapper from some person in the city. This should prompt the party to go to the city.

Something that may help or may not, take it as you will.

For your Tharizdun worshippers you may find the idea of independant cells to be useful to your design. As in World War II France or in modern criminal or other cells it is useful to have many cells working towards similar goals but by different means. Additionally these cells may have little to no contact with the other cells. (so as to prevent the exposure of one cell from exposing all of the cells) Assuming that a possible end goal is to free Tharizdun from his eternal prison, some cells can work on that. Others can simply try and grow his power in your world. Others can use his worship to grow their own power. Now you have many goals that all support Tharizduns end goals while being diverse enough to allow you to build hooks for the players to encourage travel, or investigation, or any number of other things.

With this structure you can have isolated groups that strive for one thing, while having a town council that secretly supports the churches aims, to a tyrant who covets Tharizduns knowledge to further his own power. This would give your world a definite undercurrent of the dangers of Tharizduns worship without having to focus solely on a cult or church structure. The biggest benefit to designing in this way is that the players cannot subvert the overall goal or plot simply by eliminating one group and that you can maintain the diversity while supporting the plot overall.

Lastly if Tharizdun is more of a "dead god" in your world you can use the lack of overall knowledge to create opportunities for travel. 

• What is this strange symbol?  What was that ritual we witnessed?
• Where was Tharizdun previously worshipped? How was he trapped?  Where are the old temples located?
• Who helped defeat this threat?

Finding the information may require sages, or old libraries, or exploration of old tombs. You may have to consult with the leaders of the forces that helped defeat the threat in the past. Make sure however that you place enough other opportunities in the world for the characters to avoid being railroaded into just telling this story. I like to have several arcs so that they have choices and so that those choices matter. Each of the arcs has a timeline and I try and make sure I have enough decision points where I ask what would happen if the players do or do not interact with those points.