New DM here. (only a few one shots under my belt.) I have a question for experienced DMs: how do you populate items in your world? Both of the adventures I use have a mystery/intrigue component to it, so the players are usually investigating/looking through things. When a player says something like "what are the names of the books on the shelf?" I usually have a brain fart. This is one of my biggest (recurring) stumbles so far. I have a similar problems with items NPCs may be carrying...if a Rouge runs around going pickpocket crazy I usually end up fumbling around trying to come up with things on the spot. What strategies do you use to deal with situations like this? Or how do you factor things like this into your prep? I'm curious.
For books, use a lot of it is wordplay. Think about a book or movie and tweak the wording so it fits in a fantasy setting. So:
"The Art of War" becomes "A Tapestry of Violence", a book about combat that uses a lot of colorful metaphors.
"Pride and Prejudice" becomes "Elegance and Arrogance", a romance, same plot as the original
"Animal Farm" becomes "Mansion of Monstrosities", a political commentary using fantastical creatures as the anthropomorphized protagonists and antagonists.
"Gone with the Wind" becomes "Coming on the breeze", another romance in which the hero comes back to stay instead of riding off into the sunset.
"The Picture of Dorian Grey" becomes "The Journal of Nairod", the story of a man who journals his life experiences after discovering his immortality.
"Les Miserables" becomes "the Great Tragedy", the same story as the original, shifted into the current setting.
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" becomes "The Adventurer's Guide to the Astral Sea", A similar story, but featuring space clowns, vampirates, etc.
For item looted from pockets: the Trinkets lists are a great resource. Most adventure books have their own lists, and they can be anything from a bag of teeth to a magic muffin wrapper that regenerates a new muffin in it every morning, or a sock that generates a lump of coal every day.
Common equipment/tools are also good for putting in pockets, along with little snacks, be they travel rations, or sweets a noble might be saving for later.
You might also come up with a list of small items that will trigger side quests that you can put into pockets (an ornate key, a letter, a locket, etc).
Books: a typical collection of odds and ends, travelogues, Nolzur’s Mysterium, volumes 1 through 84, but missing volumes (roll dice four times), a dictionary of random language, nothing really notable.
pickpockets: lint, receipts, a shard of pottery, a bit of lace, a pair of beat up dice — very little money, and that almost all in the smallest denominations. Most people didn’t carry a lot of money then — enough for lunch or dinner, a drink. Roll the trinkets table. Depending on location and time of day, maybe a gambler. But they expect it, and get a perception roll.
strategy wise, I just handwave things if they aren’t of interest. I also have a lot of practice, lol. I named all of that off the top of my head without looking anything. Use random generators online.
if I know they are going to want book name, I will add a bunch in when writing the description of the room — and give it out only if they ask. a mad scientist lab will have beakers and glasses and I will usually Roygbiv the colors, then toss in color names that stick out in my mind like puce and burnt umber. The glassware is all beakers and tubes and roughly made.
for practice, walk into your living room and describe what is there.
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
First things first: you'll get better at improv as you gain more DMing experience. So while questions like this might throw you now, six months from now you'll find you're able to come up with stuff on the fly much more easily.
I will usually BS something in the moment that either sounds fun or makes sense for the environment. When that fails, I describe things generally, like "they're just a bunch of maps and records of tide patterns." And if my brain freezes on me entirely, I say, "I'll give that to you after session," whereupon I go to some random generator for ideas or I'll put effort into it and figure out the details.
Sometimes, I might let the players describe what they see, particularly if it's a location that's tied to one of them - i.e., the wizard's dorm room, the fighter's favorite tavern, a cave the ranger's NPC friend has led them to, etc.
Hey-o,
New DM here. (only a few one shots under my belt.) I have a question for experienced DMs: how do you populate items in your world? Both of the adventures I use have a mystery/intrigue component to it, so the players are usually investigating/looking through things. When a player says something like "what are the names of the books on the shelf?" I usually have a brain fart. This is one of my biggest (recurring) stumbles so far. I have a similar problems with items NPCs may be carrying...if a Rouge runs around going pickpocket crazy I usually end up fumbling around trying to come up with things on the spot. What strategies do you use to deal with situations like this? Or how do you factor things like this into your prep? I'm curious.
For books, use a lot of it is wordplay. Think about a book or movie and tweak the wording so it fits in a fantasy setting. So:
"The Art of War" becomes "A Tapestry of Violence", a book about combat that uses a lot of colorful metaphors.
"Pride and Prejudice" becomes "Elegance and Arrogance", a romance, same plot as the original
"Animal Farm" becomes "Mansion of Monstrosities", a political commentary using fantastical creatures as the anthropomorphized protagonists and antagonists.
"Gone with the Wind" becomes "Coming on the breeze", another romance in which the hero comes back to stay instead of riding off into the sunset.
"The Picture of Dorian Grey" becomes "The Journal of Nairod", the story of a man who journals his life experiences after discovering his immortality.
"Les Miserables" becomes "the Great Tragedy", the same story as the original, shifted into the current setting.
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" becomes "The Adventurer's Guide to the Astral Sea", A similar story, but featuring space clowns, vampirates, etc.
For item looted from pockets: the Trinkets lists are a great resource. Most adventure books have their own lists, and they can be anything from a bag of teeth to a magic muffin wrapper that regenerates a new muffin in it every morning, or a sock that generates a lump of coal every day.
Common equipment/tools are also good for putting in pockets, along with little snacks, be they travel rations, or sweets a noble might be saving for later.
You might also come up with a list of small items that will trigger side quests that you can put into pockets (an ornate key, a letter, a locket, etc).
Books: a typical collection of odds and ends, travelogues, Nolzur’s Mysterium, volumes 1 through 84, but missing volumes (roll dice four times), a dictionary of random language, nothing really notable.
pickpockets: lint, receipts, a shard of pottery, a bit of lace, a pair of beat up dice — very little money, and that almost all in the smallest denominations. Most people didn’t carry a lot of money then — enough for lunch or dinner, a drink. Roll the trinkets table. Depending on location and time of day, maybe a gambler. But they expect it, and get a perception roll.
strategy wise, I just handwave things if they aren’t of interest. I also have a lot of practice, lol. I named all of that off the top of my head without looking anything. Use random generators online.
if I know they are going to want book name, I will add a bunch in when writing the description of the room — and give it out only if they ask.
a mad scientist lab will have beakers and glasses and I will usually Roygbiv the colors, then toss in color names that stick out in my mind like puce and burnt umber. The glassware is all beakers and tubes and roughly made.
for practice, walk into your living room and describe what is there.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
I've had decent success with The Thieves' Guild's random generators.
Best book in the list: "The Legend of Tucker's Kobolds" - Dragon 127 PDF
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
First things first: you'll get better at improv as you gain more DMing experience. So while questions like this might throw you now, six months from now you'll find you're able to come up with stuff on the fly much more easily.
I will usually BS something in the moment that either sounds fun or makes sense for the environment. When that fails, I describe things generally, like "they're just a bunch of maps and records of tide patterns." And if my brain freezes on me entirely, I say, "I'll give that to you after session," whereupon I go to some random generator for ideas or I'll put effort into it and figure out the details.
Sometimes, I might let the players describe what they see, particularly if it's a location that's tied to one of them - i.e., the wizard's dorm room, the fighter's favorite tavern, a cave the ranger's NPC friend has led them to, etc.
Thanks everyone! Appreciate all of the replies, they've definitely been helpful.