I'm a newer GM/DM, but I have been interested in crafting my own world for years now with my joy of creative writing, and story telling. SO, recently, I took a crack at it and spent the better part for one to two months working on a world to start a DnD campaign with. I have a few friends currently playing within said world, but it feels as though they are progressing much too quickly, and it feels like there are way to many encounters of the hack and slash kind. I like to think that I'm a good story teller, and I often do voices for the NPC's they run across, but my players rarely seem very engaged. One reason I thought this may be was because the quests I'd been giving them were moving too fast, and I didn't spend enough time fleshing them out, and explaining details. After altering how I handled that, it still feels like they're rarely engaged with the elements I've given them in terms of player communication.
I suppose now, I have a list of questions that maybe a more experienced, and grizzled DM would be able to help me with. Any advice, tips, or information, would be more than appreciated from anyone available to offer it...
How can I add more depth to my world's cities, flora and fauna, organizations, religious figures and groups, and the like? How can I make my players more engaged with the world around them, and get into their character? How can I slow progress, and incorporate more encounters that involve checks? What can I do to overall improve my world as a whole, and make it seem more real?
And lastly, like I stated before, any tips in regards to general world building, DM'ing, and storytelling would be much appreciated. Any ideas on what my cities, or towns may need to contain more depth to itself, and crafting memorable NPC's that my characters become attached to.
Well, to start with, I'm up to 30 some years as DM and I really love to put a ton of energy into creating a lively world with a plethora of things for the players to meddle with. I enjoy intricate plots, twisting schemes, some good ol' dungeon crawls and making the players feel like they contribute to the world as a whole.
My first bit of advice is to stop trying so hard, it's great to draft out your ideas but don't paint yourself into a corner with details. As DMs we are all, to a one, believers that we can create epochs, sagas, and tales to last the ages. The troubles begin when we introduce that one thing that unravels our greatest accomplishments: the players.
After you draft your world, make your maps, flesh out your key NPCs, and set up the necessary plots and stories, stop. Those are the cogs, levers and buttons that you'll control, the rest is entirely up to the players.
---
If your players ask about the history, desires and motivations of the Captain of the Guard, give them that information. If the players only want to know what his name is and what the reward is for doing the mission he asked...give them that. Sprinkle in your flavor text, have him speak about his time with the local militia hunting down the bandits and losing his friends in the skirmish. Then have him ask the players to help and offer the reward. That may prompt them to ask more questions, or not.
When they enter the city, give them the glorious description of this place. Describe the sights, the sounds, how it smells. Explain that they can see the hawkers, the stray dogs wandering around, the smell of salt water in the air indicating a harbor nearby. Describe the local guards and their armor, the coat of arms emblazoned on their tabards, and the fact that the farmer that just about ran them over seems more upset about the interruption rather than their well being. It will paint a picture in their minds, and whether they want to explore the city or simply find the assassin pretending to be a fishmonger, it's up to them.
Have a survivor of the escapade into the Gnoll's den find them a few sessions later and thank them profusely. Have this same person call them by name, ask them about their well being, and other small talk. The players may brush it off, or it may prompt them to think deeper about their interactions with NPCs. In the end though, you're bringing the world to them and showing them that it exists beyond the dungeon.
---
However, some players simply want to dive deep into the dungeon and see how much gore and gold they can get before they die. You may have to put your creativity on idle mode for the group and stretch your combat tactics and strategy mind. Take the time to learn the group and what their collective desire is for a game, tune the game to that play style, and sprinkle in your DM flare as you can.
First of all, congratulations on taking up the DMs craft.
Your questions are the sort of thing that even experienced DMs struggle with. Its difficult to provide concrete answers because so much of the D&D experience changes group to group, play style to play style, but I'll try to provide some of my thoughts on this.
1. Maybe your players want to hack-n-slash. Immersive worlds and hack-n-slash aren't completely incompatible but its a difficult combo. It may be that your group just wants to hack and slash. Talk to your players, ask them what kind of game experience they're looking for. Having a friend you trust that you can talk to about how the session went is worth it's weight in gold.
2. Adding depth to the world. A world only has depth to the extent that the players can meaningfully engage with it's elements. Look to the player's chosen backgrounds for ways to tie the PCs to elements of the game world, and importantly tie elements of the game world to the PCs, Xanathar's has some great random tables for making characters with visceral ties to the game world. Also allow the players to share in the creative process, ask the cleric where he trained, what's his temple like, who are his mentors, that kind of thing, stuff like that, but don't leave it there, tie it into gameplay.
3. If you want to slow down the adventure try some optional rules from the DMG like Slow Natural Healing, make dungeons bigger, include more random encounters.
4. When your looking to overall make your world feel more real there's no better place to turn to than the real world. I recommend The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England to anyone looking to make their classic fantasy world seem more real. Sit down and really think out how magic changes your world, pick a handful of 1st level spells and ask yourself how does life change for people if every village or town had a group of people capable of casting these?
Another helpful post, thank you very much! I'll do my best to incorporate these notes into my world as well. I am also planning on sitting down, and fleshing the provinces and what not more so they have more about them.
Ah, fleshing that stuff out should also stop at a draft as well, key NPCS, shops, and a side quest or two.
When I created Algus, the continent where my players started the game, I ended up with around 23 different cities, kingdoms and settlements, not to mention the various landmarks and historical/lore based locations. If I had put the attention to detail into each of those places the same as I did Talmond, the starting city, I'd still be writing to this day. That's not to say I wouldn't enjoy it, but there's no way I'd be playing the game yet.
One of the biggest tricks I learned came from the idea: "Only detail what they see, the rest is just busy work".
If your group is in the vine covered temple of a lizardfolk tribe, why would you have to know every minute detail of the port city 12 days travel from there? Sure they may run into a mercenary in the temple who talks about his home in Port Halehill, but all that you need to have at that time is the location and name of the city.
Now, if they're 3 days away from Port Halehill, and you know that they'll be making their way to the city, then you better write down more of those details. Get those NPCs, write down the shops, make a side quest, and a description of the port.
One thing worth mentioning is it is also very possible that your players are simply interested in combat, but aren't interested as much in story / NPC's. This isn't the fault of you as a DM, that can simply be conflicting interests with the players.
As for engaging players in your world, for the most part, don't focus on adding depth to cities and different kinds of flowers and such, focus on figuring out how you can get your players immersed in that somehow and go from there. For example, if you want to cover a religious organization, don't tell them about that organization outright, instead have it so if they are walking in an area they run into missionaries from that organization or something. This gives your players something they can interact with, not just something you have told them.
I'd also advise trying to separate how you give players information about the world from you as a DM. What I mean by this is when you tell the players characters about some part of the world via an NPC, and what you are saying is in character, that is a very different dynamic than you as a DM telling the players directly, and it also allows you to make it something the players can have their own interpretation of. If you give players information via a character, to the players that information isn't necessarily 100% correct. But if you as the DM say it, they will take that as 'the' truth.
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I'm a newer GM/DM, but I have been interested in crafting my own world for years now with my joy of creative writing, and story telling. SO, recently, I took a crack at it and spent the better part for one to two months working on a world to start a DnD campaign with. I have a few friends currently playing within said world, but it feels as though they are progressing much too quickly, and it feels like there are way to many encounters of the hack and slash kind. I like to think that I'm a good story teller, and I often do voices for the NPC's they run across, but my players rarely seem very engaged. One reason I thought this may be was because the quests I'd been giving them were moving too fast, and I didn't spend enough time fleshing them out, and explaining details. After altering how I handled that, it still feels like they're rarely engaged with the elements I've given them in terms of player communication.
I suppose now, I have a list of questions that maybe a more experienced, and grizzled DM would be able to help me with. Any advice, tips, or information, would be more than appreciated from anyone available to offer it...
How can I add more depth to my world's cities, flora and fauna, organizations, religious figures and groups, and the like?
How can I make my players more engaged with the world around them, and get into their character?
How can I slow progress, and incorporate more encounters that involve checks?
What can I do to overall improve my world as a whole, and make it seem more real?
And lastly, like I stated before, any tips in regards to general world building, DM'ing, and storytelling would be much appreciated. Any ideas on what my cities, or towns may need to contain more depth to itself, and crafting memorable NPC's that my characters become attached to.
Well, to start with, I'm up to 30 some years as DM and I really love to put a ton of energy into creating a lively world with a plethora of things for the players to meddle with. I enjoy intricate plots, twisting schemes, some good ol' dungeon crawls and making the players feel like they contribute to the world as a whole.
My first bit of advice is to stop trying so hard, it's great to draft out your ideas but don't paint yourself into a corner with details. As DMs we are all, to a one, believers that we can create epochs, sagas, and tales to last the ages. The troubles begin when we introduce that one thing that unravels our greatest accomplishments: the players.
After you draft your world, make your maps, flesh out your key NPCs, and set up the necessary plots and stories, stop. Those are the cogs, levers and buttons that you'll control, the rest is entirely up to the players.
---
If your players ask about the history, desires and motivations of the Captain of the Guard, give them that information. If the players only want to know what his name is and what the reward is for doing the mission he asked...give them that. Sprinkle in your flavor text, have him speak about his time with the local militia hunting down the bandits and losing his friends in the skirmish. Then have him ask the players to help and offer the reward. That may prompt them to ask more questions, or not.
When they enter the city, give them the glorious description of this place. Describe the sights, the sounds, how it smells. Explain that they can see the hawkers, the stray dogs wandering around, the smell of salt water in the air indicating a harbor nearby. Describe the local guards and their armor, the coat of arms emblazoned on their tabards, and the fact that the farmer that just about ran them over seems more upset about the interruption rather than their well being. It will paint a picture in their minds, and whether they want to explore the city or simply find the assassin pretending to be a fishmonger, it's up to them.
Have a survivor of the escapade into the Gnoll's den find them a few sessions later and thank them profusely. Have this same person call them by name, ask them about their well being, and other small talk. The players may brush it off, or it may prompt them to think deeper about their interactions with NPCs. In the end though, you're bringing the world to them and showing them that it exists beyond the dungeon.
---
However, some players simply want to dive deep into the dungeon and see how much gore and gold they can get before they die. You may have to put your creativity on idle mode for the group and stretch your combat tactics and strategy mind. Take the time to learn the group and what their collective desire is for a game, tune the game to that play style, and sprinkle in your DM flare as you can.
Thank you! This advice is sure to help me in the future when it comes to making a more pleasurable experience for my players.
First of all, congratulations on taking up the DMs craft.
Your questions are the sort of thing that even experienced DMs struggle with. Its difficult to provide concrete answers because so much of the D&D experience changes group to group, play style to play style, but I'll try to provide some of my thoughts on this.
1. Maybe your players want to hack-n-slash. Immersive worlds and hack-n-slash aren't completely incompatible but its a difficult combo. It may be that your group just wants to hack and slash. Talk to your players, ask them what kind of game experience they're looking for. Having a friend you trust that you can talk to about how the session went is worth it's weight in gold.
2. Adding depth to the world. A world only has depth to the extent that the players can meaningfully engage with it's elements. Look to the player's chosen backgrounds for ways to tie the PCs to elements of the game world, and importantly tie elements of the game world to the PCs, Xanathar's has some great random tables for making characters with visceral ties to the game world. Also allow the players to share in the creative process, ask the cleric where he trained, what's his temple like, who are his mentors, that kind of thing, stuff like that, but don't leave it there, tie it into gameplay.
3. If you want to slow down the adventure try some optional rules from the DMG like Slow Natural Healing, make dungeons bigger, include more random encounters.
4. When your looking to overall make your world feel more real there's no better place to turn to than the real world. I recommend The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England to anyone looking to make their classic fantasy world seem more real. Sit down and really think out how magic changes your world, pick a handful of 1st level spells and ask yourself how does life change for people if every village or town had a group of people capable of casting these?
Another helpful post, thank you very much! I'll do my best to incorporate these notes into my world as well. I am also planning on sitting down, and fleshing the provinces and what not more so they have more about them.
Ah, fleshing that stuff out should also stop at a draft as well, key NPCS, shops, and a side quest or two.
When I created Algus, the continent where my players started the game, I ended up with around 23 different cities, kingdoms and settlements, not to mention the various landmarks and historical/lore based locations. If I had put the attention to detail into each of those places the same as I did Talmond, the starting city, I'd still be writing to this day. That's not to say I wouldn't enjoy it, but there's no way I'd be playing the game yet.
One of the biggest tricks I learned came from the idea: "Only detail what they see, the rest is just busy work".
If your group is in the vine covered temple of a lizardfolk tribe, why would you have to know every minute detail of the port city 12 days travel from there? Sure they may run into a mercenary in the temple who talks about his home in Port Halehill, but all that you need to have at that time is the location and name of the city.
Now, if they're 3 days away from Port Halehill, and you know that they'll be making their way to the city, then you better write down more of those details. Get those NPCs, write down the shops, make a side quest, and a description of the port.
One thing worth mentioning is it is also very possible that your players are simply interested in combat, but aren't interested as much in story / NPC's. This isn't the fault of you as a DM, that can simply be conflicting interests with the players.
As for engaging players in your world, for the most part, don't focus on adding depth to cities and different kinds of flowers and such, focus on figuring out how you can get your players immersed in that somehow and go from there. For example, if you want to cover a religious organization, don't tell them about that organization outright, instead have it so if they are walking in an area they run into missionaries from that organization or something. This gives your players something they can interact with, not just something you have told them.
I'd also advise trying to separate how you give players information about the world from you as a DM. What I mean by this is when you tell the players characters about some part of the world via an NPC, and what you are saying is in character, that is a very different dynamic than you as a DM telling the players directly, and it also allows you to make it something the players can have their own interpretation of. If you give players information via a character, to the players that information isn't necessarily 100% correct. But if you as the DM say it, they will take that as 'the' truth.