First time poster, so apologies if this is better placed elsewhere - please let me know!
I started DnD for the first time last year. We play once every 6 weeks or so, and over time I have developed the region I invented for my character's backstory. This was so I could roleplay better, but it seems the party have decided I might be next in line to DM. And as I have (overly-)invested much time into this region, I wonder about building it up even more, to the extent that I might be able to set a campaign there! I have no experience with this and so am posting it for feedback, advice, next steps, or in case anyone else was interested in using it as a basis too!
I was going to base my character's homeland near the Sea of Moving Ice (we are doing the Ice Spire Peak campaign), but when I began researching there was a lot of canon info in that area, and so I chose to move it to the arm of Anchorome, which (I believe) has been less developed officially?
Anyway happy to hear any thoughts - even if suggesting I take this sort of discussion to a different site. Thanks!
Thanks, I was aware of that. Perhaps I didn't make it clear. Once our Ice Spire Peak campaign is completed (which someone else is DMing), our party is likely going to look at me to DM. Since I spent time (of my own accord) fleshing out my character's backstory and home region, I thought it would be cool to set the next campaign there. So, I'm sharing what I've built so far in the hopes people could have ideas how to take it further, tie it in to existing things, use it for their own, or what pre-existing campaigns might be able to be adapted to be held there, etc.
Ah I misunderstood. I thought you were going to DM Icespire Peak.
The main thing you need to make a campaign setting is tones of conflicts for the PCs to resolve. These should be different scales (from personal rivalries to world-ending war) and types (from unrequited love to betrayals to rampaging monsters) and ideally about 50% should link together into a broader overarching narrative. So e.g. for your sea elf city - you'll want at least 2 different factions that are opposed to each other, this could be a criminal organization and a plucky guard captain, or rival priests, or rival noble families.
For existing campaigns you could adapt, there's some good stuff for nautical exploration in Ghosts of Saltmarsh, and Icewinddale is a good one for a nordic adventure. You could even adapt parts of Waterdeep Dragon heist for the capital city of the region.
Ah amazing! Thanks for the existing campaign recommendations, I will have a look at them and see which is most suited. As for the conflicts I have a couple ideas, a big overarching one will be literal conflict with encroaching hostile humans. And then there's always gonna have been more relational/political conflict with the wood elves that have been trapped/protected by the Himmelsk Halo - depending on how you look at it! And i have some internal conflict (rich vs. poor stuff) already set up in the information on the individual Senkeby provinces. Perhaps some of the existing campaigns will help me see what could tie in 50% of the stuff. I'll be interested to learn how to DM underwater stuff, but thankfully a lot will still be land based, as I made the Senkebies a population that have adapted to land living as well!
Underwater isn't all that different from on land. The main issue is often that you can end up with "empty void of water" which isn't that interesting in terms of terrain & strategy. But underwater cities, ruins, tunnel, or defending a ship can be fun.
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First time poster, so apologies if this is better placed elsewhere - please let me know!
I started DnD for the first time last year. We play once every 6 weeks or so, and over time I have developed the region I invented for my character's backstory. This was so I could roleplay better, but it seems the party have decided I might be next in line to DM. And as I have (overly-)invested much time into this region, I wonder about building it up even more, to the extent that I might be able to set a campaign there! I have no experience with this and so am posting it for feedback, advice, next steps, or in case anyone else was interested in using it as a basis too!
I was going to base my character's homeland near the Sea of Moving Ice (we are doing the Ice Spire Peak campaign), but when I began researching there was a lot of canon info in that area, and so I chose to move it to the arm of Anchorome, which (I believe) has been less developed officially?
Anyway happy to hear any thoughts - even if suggesting I take this sort of discussion to a different site. Thanks!
Struggling to embed the picture, but here is the map: https://imgur.com/a/38hSIfR
Overview of the setting: https://docdro.id/KCD3Y3Q
Detailed look at the Senkebies (Sea Elf Colony) and their provinces (with Inkarnate maps): https://docdro.id/nQHRojN
Ice Spire Peak is a self-contained story, you don't need a whole region beyond it.
Thanks, I was aware of that. Perhaps I didn't make it clear.
Once our Ice Spire Peak campaign is completed (which someone else is DMing), our party is likely going to look at me to DM.
Since I spent time (of my own accord) fleshing out my character's backstory and home region, I thought it would be cool to set the next campaign there.
So, I'm sharing what I've built so far in the hopes people could have ideas how to take it further, tie it in to existing things, use it for their own, or what pre-existing campaigns might be able to be adapted to be held there, etc.
Ah I misunderstood. I thought you were going to DM Icespire Peak.
The main thing you need to make a campaign setting is tones of conflicts for the PCs to resolve. These should be different scales (from personal rivalries to world-ending war) and types (from unrequited love to betrayals to rampaging monsters) and ideally about 50% should link together into a broader overarching narrative. So e.g. for your sea elf city - you'll want at least 2 different factions that are opposed to each other, this could be a criminal organization and a plucky guard captain, or rival priests, or rival noble families.
For existing campaigns you could adapt, there's some good stuff for nautical exploration in Ghosts of Saltmarsh, and Icewinddale is a good one for a nordic adventure. You could even adapt parts of Waterdeep Dragon heist for the capital city of the region.
Ah amazing! Thanks for the existing campaign recommendations, I will have a look at them and see which is most suited.
As for the conflicts I have a couple ideas, a big overarching one will be literal conflict with encroaching hostile humans. And then there's always gonna have been more relational/political conflict with the wood elves that have been trapped/protected by the Himmelsk Halo - depending on how you look at it! And i have some internal conflict (rich vs. poor stuff) already set up in the information on the individual Senkeby provinces.
Perhaps some of the existing campaigns will help me see what could tie in 50% of the stuff.
I'll be interested to learn how to DM underwater stuff, but thankfully a lot will still be land based, as I made the Senkebies a population that have adapted to land living as well!
Underwater isn't all that different from on land. The main issue is often that you can end up with "empty void of water" which isn't that interesting in terms of terrain & strategy. But underwater cities, ruins, tunnel, or defending a ship can be fun.