The main problem is that the premade worlds are so big that I do not know what to do with them. They have somewhere around 100 named locations if not more, and it is hard to keep track of it all. Also, if I do decide to create my own world, how big should it be?
Hey, I know I am new to your post, but I have created my own world for my group. The best thing I could have done was to come up with one place. It could be a town, a city, a region, or even a continent. W/e you want to start with just build from there week to week and you will see how it expands very quickly. For me I started with one continent. I made a starting town for my players and one cave in which they were going to explore early on. Everything else was developed as I went along and what also helped to expand it was my players' backstories. I had them come up with backstories that had towns in them that they either visited or were born from and that helped me lay out the continent more. All I provided them was the shape of the continent (mountains, forests, etc) and they went to town. Before you know it your place now is full of places and things your players can encounter. Now every once in awhile you may have to make a place or town yourself to move the story along but by then you will have so much under your belt and the experience needed to pull it off. If you need any suggestions or just someone to throw ideas at just send me a message. No pressure. Remember this should be fun, not stressful!
The main problem is that the premade worlds are so big that I do not know what to do with them. They have somewhere around 100 named locations if not more, and it is hard to keep track of it all. Also, if I do decide to create my own world, how big should it be?
If you look at published adventures, most of 5e's run takes place in the Forgotten Realms, but many also give a paragraph or so for running them in other established D&D settings as well. If you pay attention to those adventures, however, most of them don't demand any sort of high degree of familiarity on the DM or player's part on the Forgotten Realms taking place in maybe six or seven distinct locations in a game running from level 1 to levels 10-13.
You want a world shrouded in darkness. Is a small city enough? One where you don't need to map it street by street, just a sense of the neighborhoods and a handful of significant personalities and locations. If your game eventually needs more, you can fill in and define more of the city, or you can start drawing a sense of what the world's like beyond the city.
So does this mean that, for example, if my campaign started in a bar fight, I would just make the city or town the bar is in, and make the rest of the world later on depending on what they do?
The main problem is that the premade worlds are so big that I do not know what to do with them. They have somewhere around 100 named locations if not more, and it is hard to keep track of it all. Also, if I do decide to create my own world, how big should it be?
I always recommend new DM's start small. You do not actually need a whole world to run a campaign. You need a starting area, several notable locations, some world details ("the nations of *this* world are overseen by the Gods' Council, a theocratic order who...), and a hook.
I always like to link this video ( https://youtu.be/2BqKCiJTWC0?si=zsou20_nANsN6AX4 ) because it describes really well how you can gradually "zoom out" the focus of your world as your players progress in it, giving you space to fill it in as you're living it, making it more organic.
Think of the standard jrpg formula: you may end up influencing complex geopolitics between nations and killing gods, but you start out in... just some town. You learn the ropes, help the locals, kill some bandits, explore a little, and gradually push those boundaries of 'the local area' outwards. Then you come to the next area, and it's a bigger town, more of a cultural hub, you get into bigger messes and meet some interesting folk. By now you're learning more about the kingdom you find yourself in, you hear rumors of shadowy doings, the players skirt the periphery of some wicked machinations, then by level 5 or 6 they find themselves maybe in the capital of Kingdom A. It's a big place where big things are done! Suddenly they're dealing with things with further-reaching consequences. They're little village journey to save their high school sweetheart from prison has escalated to them getting involved in Kingdom B's invasion of Kingdom A! And down the rabbit hole goes, the stakes continuously rising and the world developing further as the players discover more of it.
After years of running in this world, you might find out that it has dozens of locations and towns and complex interlocking pieces that seemed so intimidating to you now, but most worlds like that started out small and pushed out.
Thank you all for helping me. I think I am ready to start working on my world, but I will still look into this thread often in case there are more posts on it.
The main problem is that the premade worlds are so big that I do not know what to do with them. They have somewhere around 100 named locations if not more, and it is hard to keep track of it all. Also, if I do decide to create my own world, how big should it be?
If you look at published adventures, most of 5e's run takes place in the Forgotten Realms, but many also give a paragraph or so for running them in other established D&D settings as well. If you pay attention to those adventures, however, most of them don't demand any sort of high degree of familiarity on the DM or player's part on the Forgotten Realms taking place in maybe six or seven distinct locations in a game running from level 1 to levels 10-13.
You want a world shrouded in darkness. Is a small city enough? One where you don't need to map it street by street, just a sense of the neighborhoods and a handful of significant personalities and locations. If your game eventually needs more, you can fill in and define more of the city, or you can start drawing a sense of what the world's like beyond the city.
So does this mean that, for example, if my campaign started in a bar fight, I would just make the city or town the bar is in, and make the rest of the world later on depending on what they do?
Yeah that's it exactly. There's plenty of campaigns set in a single town of city that never go beyond there so no need to create a full world unless you intend to use it or you get particular joy out of the act of creation. Outside of TTRPGs think of some of your favourite films, TV shows or computer games and just how little some of them have, something like Resident Evil started in the very first with just a single building, it's set more or less in the real world but they didn't start to show you how the rest of their world differed from ours until much later in the series.
Also as Stephen said above don't be afraid to outsource stuff to your players. Having complete control of the world can be nice but it's a big job, if one of your players says their character comes from somewhere other than your starting location get them to create their home town with you. They'll have ideas that never occurred to you and it'll get more buy in from the players if they feel like they have a stake in the world
If you want to make the world explorable, i think i'd focus more on making it a 'new world' rather than one known. it allows you to make landmark points that don't exist on a map, allowing you to create areas of exploration without having to flesh out each and every thing.
What i mean is this. In a normal map, you might have 3-4 city-style locations, 3-4 points of interest, and 5-10 environments in the map given. If the players know of this and want to visit each of these locations, theres a reason to kinda flesh out at least the basics of each location. Yes, you can make some cities restrictive entry cities, but you still have to flesh the basic work. the environments might have known dangers, but again you have to describe them or have a setup ready for them. points of interest the same. If there is very little map agency, then you can create the direction via townsfolk of areas you want them to visit, and it gives them something to shoot for. thus you have a campaign that is somewhat on the rails, but allows 3 or 4 different directions for the players to go, and it limits the scope of what you have to pre-write to the same degree. I have never given my party the full world map, just fragments of it, because it saves me overworking
I'm a new DM, and I am trying to make my own campaign. I have heard some people online say that newer DM's shouldn't make entirely new things, because of it being to hard on them or something like that. Should I make my own DnD world, or just search the internet for a premade world to base my campaign in?
The very first thing I did in RPG's was play an archer. One evening. The next morning, I made a homebrew world.
Now, it was pretty simple stuff: In some ancient past, the powers of good shunted all the evil east, beyond a great river, and put up a magical barrier. Bam, problem solved. Of course, over the following millennia, the forces of evil eventually took down the barrier, and prepared a massive surprise attack. Queue adventure.
But it worked.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
I'm a new DM, and I am trying to make my own campaign. I have heard some people online say that newer DM's shouldn't make entirely new things, because of it being to hard on them or something like that. Should I make my own DnD world, or just search the internet for a premade world to base my campaign in?
Yes and no.
Yes - make your own world setting...BUT
No - don't make your own setting or campaign until you've run a published adventure.
Building your own world is a long and difficult road, but entirely achievable by anyone. However, I cannot overstate how easy it is to overlook details that your players are going to need to know. For example how do vampires work in your world? Is every race in 5e living in your world? If we don't include the legacy races, there are now 60 race variants in 5e. That's 60 lots of racial cultures to develop history for. That's working out how all these races came to be living side by side. That's working out how a tavern accomodates Large, Medium, and Small creatures at a table. Are gods real beings in your world? If they aren't...how does Divine Magic work?
In theory the Dungeon Master's Guide should be a nice walkthrough of how to build a world...and it can be if you are able to use it. However, I've known more than a few people who just don't feel the DMG is helpful.
Instead, what I tend to advise is to start small and break apart an adventure like Dragon of Icespire Peak from the Essentials Kit. This adventure can easily be modified and expanded by you. It can be the gateway into your own world...but really it provide the best model available of how to build a starter adventure for 5e. It gives you a single town, several satellite locations, a good number of NPCs, a good number of shops and taverns, as well as a quest-board style adventure. Running DoIP is a really good way of getting to grips with what you might need to build your own adventure. At the very least I'd advise reading through that adventure...and maybe one or two others to see how they are structured, how the work, why they work...and most importantly what doesn't work.
Once you've done that, then move onto your own world building. I mean there's no reason you can't start building your world now, but don't run it until you've gone over the ground of published adventures. It'll save so very much work and stop you having to retcon or provide inconsistent information down the line when your players find those areas you've paid least attention to.
Yes, you should create your own world. You should create your own world because doing so is the way you ensure that you haven't been interpolated into somebody else's theme. By creating your own world, you will be able to focus your stories towards those ideas which you are interested in exploring. Another person's world can be a crutch in the process, but it's only when you have your own world that you can be sure your choices are your own. For what it's worth, if it takes you fewer than 27 years to create a world, you've beaten me...
Not sure if anyone has mentioned time yet? Be bold and do your thing, but be realistic how much time you have on your hands.
I've run campaigns in lots of systems when I was younger and had more time on my hands. My own world. Other published stuff. Now I'm grown up, working and busy. Embellishing and stealing published stuff for our own ends makes my life easier with the time I have.
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RPGs from '83 - 03. A fair bit of LRP. A big gap. And now DMing again. Froth.
I’m currently immersed in a campaign called *"Isle of the Prince,"* set in medieval England, 1356, masterfully created by Terrance Davis. The campaign is so intricately designed that it becomes incredibly captivating. Every NPC has a rich, detailed backstory, and the world itself mirrors 14th-century England with authentic customs, beliefs, and social dynamics.
The realism of the campaign means it’s not for everyone—this world doesn’t welcome just any character. While magic exists, it's rarely seen in public and treated as a rare, mystical force. Specific classes like Fighters, Paladins, Clerics, Wizards, Elves, and perhaps a Halfling or Dwarf are encouraged, while fantasy races like "Pink Turtles," Orcs, or Dragonborn Knights don’t fit within the campaign’s strict adherence to historical realism.
"Isle of the Prince" strives to stay as close to real-world medieval England as possible. If you're looking for an experience grounded in authenticity, I highly recommend checking out the campaign in Chronica and speaking to the DM. It’s unlike any game you’ve played before.
Just wanted to say that I've never run an existing module. I always create my own world, and tell my own story. That's pretty much what D&D is to me.
You and your players should be making up your own world and lore as you all tell your story together.
I'll tell you a secret, though. I've never been able to come up with a name for my world. I got a name for each continent, city, NPC, etc., but the world itself has remained nameless. And somehow no player has ever asked for its name, so it's worked out so far. I really need to name it one of these days.
This is a very personal choice. If you've played (as a PC) for a while and have been thinking about DM-ing for a while, then I think creating your own world is a lot of fun. It's best if the scope of the world you develop is as narrow as possible for starting a campaign, and at least the first arc (5-ish sessions) of your campaign. Investing time and energy into a part of the world that doesn't have a material affect on your campaign is a waste of time.
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Started playing AD&D in the late 70s and stopped in the mid-80s. Started immersing myself into 5e in 2023
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Hey, I know I am new to your post, but I have created my own world for my group. The best thing I could have done was to come up with one place. It could be a town, a city, a region, or even a continent. W/e you want to start with just build from there week to week and you will see how it expands very quickly. For me I started with one continent. I made a starting town for my players and one cave in which they were going to explore early on. Everything else was developed as I went along and what also helped to expand it was my players' backstories. I had them come up with backstories that had towns in them that they either visited or were born from and that helped me lay out the continent more. All I provided them was the shape of the continent (mountains, forests, etc) and they went to town. Before you know it your place now is full of places and things your players can encounter. Now every once in awhile you may have to make a place or town yourself to move the story along but by then you will have so much under your belt and the experience needed to pull it off. If you need any suggestions or just someone to throw ideas at just send me a message. No pressure. Remember this should be fun, not stressful!
So does this mean that, for example, if my campaign started in a bar fight, I would just make the city or town the bar is in, and make the rest of the world later on depending on what they do?
I always recommend new DM's start small. You do not actually need a whole world to run a campaign. You need a starting area, several notable locations, some world details ("the nations of *this* world are overseen by the Gods' Council, a theocratic order who...), and a hook.
I always like to link this video ( https://youtu.be/2BqKCiJTWC0?si=zsou20_nANsN6AX4 ) because it describes really well how you can gradually "zoom out" the focus of your world as your players progress in it, giving you space to fill it in as you're living it, making it more organic.
Think of the standard jrpg formula: you may end up influencing complex geopolitics between nations and killing gods, but you start out in... just some town. You learn the ropes, help the locals, kill some bandits, explore a little, and gradually push those boundaries of 'the local area' outwards. Then you come to the next area, and it's a bigger town, more of a cultural hub, you get into bigger messes and meet some interesting folk. By now you're learning more about the kingdom you find yourself in, you hear rumors of shadowy doings, the players skirt the periphery of some wicked machinations, then by level 5 or 6 they find themselves maybe in the capital of Kingdom A. It's a big place where big things are done! Suddenly they're dealing with things with further-reaching consequences. They're little village journey to save their high school sweetheart from prison has escalated to them getting involved in Kingdom B's invasion of Kingdom A! And down the rabbit hole goes, the stakes continuously rising and the world developing further as the players discover more of it.
After years of running in this world, you might find out that it has dozens of locations and towns and complex interlocking pieces that seemed so intimidating to you now, but most worlds like that started out small and pushed out.
Thank you all for helping me. I think I am ready to start working on my world, but I will still look into this thread often in case there are more posts on it.
Yeah that's it exactly. There's plenty of campaigns set in a single town of city that never go beyond there so no need to create a full world unless you intend to use it or you get particular joy out of the act of creation. Outside of TTRPGs think of some of your favourite films, TV shows or computer games and just how little some of them have, something like Resident Evil started in the very first with just a single building, it's set more or less in the real world but they didn't start to show you how the rest of their world differed from ours until much later in the series.
Also as Stephen said above don't be afraid to outsource stuff to your players. Having complete control of the world can be nice but it's a big job, if one of your players says their character comes from somewhere other than your starting location get them to create their home town with you. They'll have ideas that never occurred to you and it'll get more buy in from the players if they feel like they have a stake in the world
If you want to make the world explorable, i think i'd focus more on making it a 'new world' rather than one known. it allows you to make landmark points that don't exist on a map, allowing you to create areas of exploration without having to flesh out each and every thing.
What i mean is this. In a normal map, you might have 3-4 city-style locations, 3-4 points of interest, and 5-10 environments in the map given. If the players know of this and want to visit each of these locations, theres a reason to kinda flesh out at least the basics of each location. Yes, you can make some cities restrictive entry cities, but you still have to flesh the basic work. the environments might have known dangers, but again you have to describe them or have a setup ready for them. points of interest the same. If there is very little map agency, then you can create the direction via townsfolk of areas you want them to visit, and it gives them something to shoot for. thus you have a campaign that is somewhat on the rails, but allows 3 or 4 different directions for the players to go, and it limits the scope of what you have to pre-write to the same degree. I have never given my party the full world map, just fragments of it, because it saves me overworking
The very first thing I did in RPG's was play an archer. One evening. The next morning, I made a homebrew world.
Now, it was pretty simple stuff: In some ancient past, the powers of good shunted all the evil east, beyond a great river, and put up a magical barrier. Bam, problem solved. Of course, over the following millennia, the forces of evil eventually took down the barrier, and prepared a massive surprise attack. Queue adventure.
But it worked.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Yes and no.
Yes - make your own world setting...BUT
No - don't make your own setting or campaign until you've run a published adventure.
Building your own world is a long and difficult road, but entirely achievable by anyone. However, I cannot overstate how easy it is to overlook details that your players are going to need to know. For example how do vampires work in your world? Is every race in 5e living in your world? If we don't include the legacy races, there are now 60 race variants in 5e. That's 60 lots of racial cultures to develop history for. That's working out how all these races came to be living side by side. That's working out how a tavern accomodates Large, Medium, and Small creatures at a table. Are gods real beings in your world? If they aren't...how does Divine Magic work?
In theory the Dungeon Master's Guide should be a nice walkthrough of how to build a world...and it can be if you are able to use it. However, I've known more than a few people who just don't feel the DMG is helpful.
Instead, what I tend to advise is to start small and break apart an adventure like Dragon of Icespire Peak from the Essentials Kit. This adventure can easily be modified and expanded by you. It can be the gateway into your own world...but really it provide the best model available of how to build a starter adventure for 5e. It gives you a single town, several satellite locations, a good number of NPCs, a good number of shops and taverns, as well as a quest-board style adventure. Running DoIP is a really good way of getting to grips with what you might need to build your own adventure. At the very least I'd advise reading through that adventure...and maybe one or two others to see how they are structured, how the work, why they work...and most importantly what doesn't work.
Once you've done that, then move onto your own world building. I mean there's no reason you can't start building your world now, but don't run it until you've gone over the ground of published adventures. It'll save so very much work and stop you having to retcon or provide inconsistent information down the line when your players find those areas you've paid least attention to.
That would be my suggestion anyhow.
DM session planning template - My version of maps for 'Lost Mine of Phandelver' - Send your party to The Circus - Other DM Resources - Maps, Tokens, Quests - 'Better' Player Character Injury Tables?
Actor, Writer, Director & Teacher by day - GM/DM in my off hours.
Yes, you should create your own world. You should create your own world because doing so is the way you ensure that you haven't been interpolated into somebody else's theme. By creating your own world, you will be able to focus your stories towards those ideas which you are interested in exploring. Another person's world can be a crutch in the process, but it's only when you have your own world that you can be sure your choices are your own. For what it's worth, if it takes you fewer than 27 years to create a world, you've beaten me...
Not sure if anyone has mentioned time yet? Be bold and do your thing, but be realistic how much time you have on your hands.
I've run campaigns in lots of systems when I was younger and had more time on my hands. My own world. Other published stuff. Now I'm grown up, working and busy. Embellishing and stealing published stuff for our own ends makes my life easier with the time I have.
RPGs from '83 - 03. A fair bit of LRP. A big gap. And now DMing again. Froth.
I’m currently immersed in a campaign called *"Isle of the Prince,"* set in medieval England, 1356, masterfully created by Terrance Davis. The campaign is so intricately designed that it becomes incredibly captivating. Every NPC has a rich, detailed backstory, and the world itself mirrors 14th-century England with authentic customs, beliefs, and social dynamics.
The realism of the campaign means it’s not for everyone—this world doesn’t welcome just any character. While magic exists, it's rarely seen in public and treated as a rare, mystical force. Specific classes like Fighters, Paladins, Clerics, Wizards, Elves, and perhaps a Halfling or Dwarf are encouraged, while fantasy races like "Pink Turtles," Orcs, or Dragonborn Knights don’t fit within the campaign’s strict adherence to historical realism.
"Isle of the Prince" strives to stay as close to real-world medieval England as possible. If you're looking for an experience grounded in authenticity, I highly recommend checking out the campaign in Chronica and speaking to the DM. It’s unlike any game you’ve played before.
Just wanted to say that I've never run an existing module. I always create my own world, and tell my own story. That's pretty much what D&D is to me.
You and your players should be making up your own world and lore as you all tell your story together.
I'll tell you a secret, though. I've never been able to come up with a name for my world. I got a name for each continent, city, NPC, etc., but the world itself has remained nameless. And somehow no player has ever asked for its name, so it's worked out so far. I really need to name it one of these days.
This is a very personal choice. If you've played (as a PC) for a while and have been thinking about DM-ing for a while, then I think creating your own world is a lot of fun. It's best if the scope of the world you develop is as narrow as possible for starting a campaign, and at least the first arc (5-ish sessions) of your campaign. Investing time and energy into a part of the world that doesn't have a material affect on your campaign is a waste of time.
Started playing AD&D in the late 70s and stopped in the mid-80s. Started immersing myself into 5e in 2023