Have you played a module yet? Use that as a guide to the level of detail. Initially it is best to start with a county sized map and build out from there. But make a huge list of place and people names so you can make up backgrounds of NPCs on the fly. If you use a name of a person, check it off. If you use the name of a place, highlight it and place it on your "master" map for later. Don't try to do everything ahead of time; everything is big just like never is a long time.
I recommend you build you initial town or city with pretty fair detail. You will want to decide shops, shop keepers, taverns, tavern owners, bartenders, cooks, servers, guards, political leaders, Guild leaders, Temples, clerics, and a bunch of stuff. But after that, I would build a framework for another town including shops and stuff. Don't place the second settlement on your map until you players travel there. If they visit a tavern, place one of your "new taverns" in the settlement. If they meet a guard, use one of the names on your list. Then build enough of the town to be prepared for the next session later. In this way, you won't exhaust all your ideas on your first and second town. They may only pass through the second town on their way to a third.
I use a website called Donjon for a number of things, including random names and even town map concepts. You should check it out as a new DM. Also, when you can, check out Matt Colville's channel and watch his series on "Running the Game." He is very insightful. He has many other videos on D&D you will enjoy too.
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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
I start with a top down framework. I used a map of my world, split it into nations with rough notes on style of culture, population, type of government, but no real detail.
So for instance one of the nations that may have an impact in the campaign, but is not central the description is limited to:
“Once a mighty kingdom to rival Viridistan, Valoris has suffered greatly from the advancing glaciers to its north, losing more and more farmland and villages each year. As a consequence Valoris is starting to push into the Frielands northern border. And open skirmishing is a regular occurrence. Valoris is a Feudal/Norse culture, but with a centralised seat of Power. The population of Valoris is over 70,000 and is 80% human, 5% Elven, 5% halfling,3%orcs, 2% dwarves, 2% Dragonborn and 1% Gnomes.”
For the nation they come from I have more detail on the form of government, and any power bases (guilds, military, temples etc) in that nation. This reflects the things that the characters would know about, plus for myself any plot hooks, potential allies or opponents they will interact with/be impacted by. The level of detail is determined by what is needed to advance the plot. For instance I have a high level description of the organisation of the military, but the only unit which has been fleshed out is one that a character used to serve in. I get the players to tell me about their hometowns, families etc so they are involved with the design of the world.
i generate some information on any neighbouring nation which is important to the plot or their travels.
I then generate towns as they encounter them. I only generate a town map if it is important to their movements around the town. Otherwise I will just use word pictures of a generic style marketplace, inn etc, only putting effort into locations that are critical to the plot. This may involve me designing several locations eg a temple, a couple of inns and a house or two. They may not visit all of those locations, but locations they don’t visit can be recycled for later use.
Basically other than the framework and the broad plot line, I am only a couple of steps ahead of my players. I use World Anvil to keep a track of people and places as I create them.
I have drawn a world map and decided which country its going to take place in,as well as the starting town,its mayor and local Lord and a creation myth for my Way Of The Three religion,am working on the queen of the country,what should I work on next?
If you need a way to create an actual world map as I find it helps to see the world you are designing, and also for your player's reference when they play in it, I would suggest https://inkarnate.com. It is free and has amazing capabilities
If you need a way to create an actual world map as I find it helps to see the world you are designing, and also for your player's reference when they play in it, I would suggest https://inkarnate.com. It is free and has amazing capabilities
I use Inkarnate and chose to pay for a subscription. It is definitely worth it to me.
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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
Defiantly start small if this is your first time as a DM. There are several good resources around that will point you in the same direction. Not saying that you have to but it will help. If you have to much area fleshed out and your players decide that they want to go to a location that you have no content for, it can be an issue for the DM. There are ways to handle it though. You could just go ahead and draw up a world map. I did this with my last campaign but was able to keep the adventure the game isolated to smaller areas. I will be using the same world for my next game. Something else you can do is go ahead and create your world. Just dont let your players know that there is a larger area. Let them discover it on their own in one form or another. Keep your notes simple and try not to relate them to one area. Just add those details in as needed depending on where the players go. You can even guide them where you want them to go up to a point. As long as they are engaged in the plot/story, or whatnot they will often times go where you need. Just dont force it on them. In time you will learn to adapt to what your players are doing and act on that instead of making them go where you need or want them to go.
If you have a start, its a good time to talk to your players about their characters. Working out character backgrounds with them will help you flesh out your world and probably give you some clues regarding where things might go. Your players might hand you a nice set of NPCs and factions to work with.
Just remember you don't need to have a whole billion years of history written out. Heck, we as humans don't truly know our own history fully.
Who built the Stonehenge and why? We have lots of solid theories, but they're just that. Also as it has been said start small. Focus on your starting town, the area around it, and some neighboring towns. There's no harm in having ideas and names for distant places like near by kingdoms, but atm who all the major and minor nobles are in that distant kingdom isn't important. It's fine if they come across ruins of bygone eras no one knows anything about. What I do with those is the two rumors and a truth. I'll have 2 NPCs tell totally made up things about the place, and one who tells the truth. Then later I build off that truth.
When it comes to backgrounds its a great way to let players help you world build. Instead of showing them places they could be from. Ask there what their home town is, what it's like, whose in charge, is this town in the same kingdom they're in or a neighboring one, is it in a far off land, and so forth. Then boom. You have a town you didn't have to put thought into in your world and your players will feel a little more connected because its not a random place they plopped their character in. Its a town they made up and now holds a stronger connection to their character.
Also just have fun with it. There's no right or wrong ways to do this stuff. Just one persons opinion over other. If you find you're not enjoying an aspect of world building my advice would be to pull back and evaluate why and try to fix that issue.
I homebrewed a few worlds, and while it's a super fun hobby, I've stopped using them unless I have players that want a homebrewed world. It's honestly so much easier as a DM (especially first time!) to take an existing module/ campaign setting and heavily tweak it to fit your vision. That way you have all the details you need, plus inspiration to come up with more. But that's just my two cents
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Am world building my custom setting,and adventure any advise not to overwhelm myself?
The big key to not overwhelming yourself is "don't detail things you don't need to detail". For the PCs starting town, you might have a list of businesses and a dozen named NPCs for a population of a few hundred. A distant country with millions of people might be nothing more than a description of what trade there is and what visitors from that country look like, and maybe minimal information about government type. Another continent could easily just be terra incognita.
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Am world building my custom setting,and adventure any advise not to overwhelm myself?
Start small.
Also, this might help:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLlUk42GiU2guNzWBzxn7hs8MaV7ELLCP_&v=e-YZvLUXcR8
Lots of great world building stuff an a number of episode.
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Have you played a module yet? Use that as a guide to the level of detail. Initially it is best to start with a county sized map and build out from there. But make a huge list of place and people names so you can make up backgrounds of NPCs on the fly. If you use a name of a person, check it off. If you use the name of a place, highlight it and place it on your "master" map for later. Don't try to do everything ahead of time; everything is big just like never is a long time.
I recommend you build you initial town or city with pretty fair detail. You will want to decide shops, shop keepers, taverns, tavern owners, bartenders, cooks, servers, guards, political leaders, Guild leaders, Temples, clerics, and a bunch of stuff. But after that, I would build a framework for another town including shops and stuff. Don't place the second settlement on your map until you players travel there. If they visit a tavern, place one of your "new taverns" in the settlement. If they meet a guard, use one of the names on your list. Then build enough of the town to be prepared for the next session later. In this way, you won't exhaust all your ideas on your first and second town. They may only pass through the second town on their way to a third.
I use a website called Donjon for a number of things, including random names and even town map concepts. You should check it out as a new DM. Also, when you can, check out Matt Colville's channel and watch his series on "Running the Game." He is very insightful. He has many other videos on D&D you will enjoy too.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
I start with a top down framework. I used a map of my world, split it into nations with rough notes on style of culture, population, type of government, but no real detail.
So for instance one of the nations that may have an impact in the campaign, but is not central the description is limited to:
“Once a mighty kingdom to rival Viridistan, Valoris has suffered greatly from the advancing glaciers to its north, losing more and more farmland and villages each year. As a consequence Valoris is starting to push into the Frielands northern border. And open skirmishing is a regular occurrence. Valoris is a Feudal/Norse culture, but with a centralised seat of Power. The population of Valoris is over 70,000 and is 80% human, 5% Elven, 5% halfling,3%orcs, 2% dwarves, 2% Dragonborn and 1% Gnomes.”
For the nation they come from I have more detail on the form of government, and any power bases (guilds, military, temples etc) in that nation. This reflects the things that the characters would know about, plus for myself any plot hooks, potential allies or opponents they will interact with/be impacted by. The level of detail is determined by what is needed to advance the plot. For instance I have a high level description of the organisation of the military, but the only unit which has been fleshed out is one that a character used to serve in. I get the players to tell me about their hometowns, families etc so they are involved with the design of the world.
i generate some information on any neighbouring nation which is important to the plot or their travels.
I then generate towns as they encounter them. I only generate a town map if it is important to their movements around the town. Otherwise I will just use word pictures of a generic style marketplace, inn etc, only putting effort into locations that are critical to the plot. This may involve me designing several locations eg a temple, a couple of inns and a house or two. They may not visit all of those locations, but locations they don’t visit can be recycled for later use.
Basically other than the framework and the broad plot line, I am only a couple of steps ahead of my players.
I use World Anvil to keep a track of people and places as I create them.
I have drawn a world map and decided which country its going to take place in,as well as the starting town,its mayor and local Lord and a creation myth for my Way Of The Three religion,am working on the queen of the country,what should I work on next?
If you need a way to create an actual world map as I find it helps to see the world you are designing, and also for your player's reference when they play in it, I would suggest https://inkarnate.com. It is free and has amazing capabilities
I use Inkarnate and chose to pay for a subscription. It is definitely worth it to me.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
Defiantly start small if this is your first time as a DM. There are several good resources around that will point you in the same direction. Not saying that you have to but it will help. If you have to much area fleshed out and your players decide that they want to go to a location that you have no content for, it can be an issue for the DM. There are ways to handle it though. You could just go ahead and draw up a world map. I did this with my last campaign but was able to keep the adventure the game isolated to smaller areas. I will be using the same world for my next game. Something else you can do is go ahead and create your world. Just dont let your players know that there is a larger area. Let them discover it on their own in one form or another. Keep your notes simple and try not to relate them to one area. Just add those details in as needed depending on where the players go. You can even guide them where you want them to go up to a point. As long as they are engaged in the plot/story, or whatnot they will often times go where you need. Just dont force it on them. In time you will learn to adapt to what your players are doing and act on that instead of making them go where you need or want them to go.
If you have a start, its a good time to talk to your players about their characters. Working out character backgrounds with them will help you flesh out your world and probably give you some clues regarding where things might go. Your players might hand you a nice set of NPCs and factions to work with.
So talk to my player's about there background
Just remember you don't need to have a whole billion years of history written out. Heck, we as humans don't truly know our own history fully.
Who built the Stonehenge and why? We have lots of solid theories, but they're just that. Also as it has been said start small. Focus on your starting town, the area around it, and some neighboring towns. There's no harm in having ideas and names for distant places like near by kingdoms, but atm who all the major and minor nobles are in that distant kingdom isn't important. It's fine if they come across ruins of bygone eras no one knows anything about. What I do with those is the two rumors and a truth. I'll have 2 NPCs tell totally made up things about the place, and one who tells the truth. Then later I build off that truth.
When it comes to backgrounds its a great way to let players help you world build. Instead of showing them places they could be from. Ask there what their home town is, what it's like, whose in charge, is this town in the same kingdom they're in or a neighboring one, is it in a far off land, and so forth. Then boom. You have a town you didn't have to put thought into in your world and your players will feel a little more connected because its not a random place they plopped their character in. Its a town they made up and now holds a stronger connection to their character.
Also just have fun with it. There's no right or wrong ways to do this stuff. Just one persons opinion over other. If you find you're not enjoying an aspect of world building my advice would be to pull back and evaluate why and try to fix that issue.
I homebrewed a few worlds, and while it's a super fun hobby, I've stopped using them unless I have players that want a homebrewed world. It's honestly so much easier as a DM (especially first time!) to take an existing module/ campaign setting and heavily tweak it to fit your vision. That way you have all the details you need, plus inspiration to come up with more. But that's just my two cents
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
The big key to not overwhelming yourself is "don't detail things you don't need to detail". For the PCs starting town, you might have a list of businesses and a dozen named NPCs for a population of a few hundred. A distant country with millions of people might be nothing more than a description of what trade there is and what visitors from that country look like, and maybe minimal information about government type. Another continent could easily just be terra incognita.