A Simple Guide to World Building

[@nicholasarmstrong2377]

"Write everything down during the game" So in the first session of a campaign I created and have ran a few times, I on the spot had to pull a name out of the air. This name was Greg, but because of my accent, everyone thought I said "Treg". So now, Treg, the Guard, is a meme of my campaign. I've even gone as far as to give him a fairly extensive backstory.

[@CronyneWARE]

I made the mistake of naming a recurrent NPC 'Corey'. "Yes, Corey is in fact in the house."

[@Zerpderp0]

I mean, I've watched a playthrough where a random NPC guard, named Sweets, died and got his own statue as a hero of the main city

[@CamelEggStudios]

I have Frank with a wife and child. I play Warhammer 40k and he is a Single guard minny that my younger sister painted and informed me of the fact that he was Frank with a wife and child. Now whenever I play 40k with him, or i use his minny in one of my Dnd games the players are informed that this is Frank and he has a wife and child. Frank rarely survives. In my current game my players are all playing as Fey creatures and one of them has tempted Franks now Orphan daughter to follow her into the Fey wilds to dance with her forever.

[@stress4206]

CamelEggStudios poor, poor frank

[@prestonjones1653]

I have a few NPCs set up for random encounters. The Ocrish wizard Dudeon McRando is probably my favorite.

[@True_Canadian]

Historical DM Tip: Do as the romans do and copy and rename the greek gods for your pantheon

[@Lenny-ue8hk]

charlies x to come up with names I put words to do with the god’s domain into google translate and go back and forth between random languages like Greek and Latin.

[@TheEvilErmine]

They didn't just copy. Similar deities were mixed to the point you couldn't tell one from the other, and it was just many names for the same ideal. Still, copying from history would make a pantheon much more believable than most random fantasy settings

[@llewtree3013]

....what if you accidentally just created a pantheon of thirty gods ...

[@kickthecat75]

Well since the founders of rome followed the same generic Hellenic faith as the greeks they are actually be the same gods in a different language.

[@samsampier7147]

I copied the Lord of the Rings Valar instead. I decided since I love the Faith of the Seven in Game of Thrones I grabbed only seven. Then I renamed them and called them Angels. Then I decided only six were considered Angels. The seventh was a pretender capable of using augury.

[@Arthas30000]

Thank you Logan!! A personal tip/trick I like to use for Gods is the MTG rule of 5. You will have 5 Gods. Start with one which is related to the theme of your game the most. For example, I'll make up a pantheon. The 1st God is Fiavari, goddess of imagination. Next, you select an opposite of this concept. 2nd God is Sicarius, god of Facts. He is also the god of a related domain, let's say truth. The 3rd god is the opposite of this, let's say Lerunum, god of Lies. He also has a related domain, let's say change. The 4th god is the opposite of the change theme, let's say Alrosia is a goddess of stability. She's also the goddess of family. 5th god is the opposite of that, so let's say it's the God of War Kratos. He's also the god of passion. Then, you bring it back to the first God, Fiavari, and give her one additional domain which is opposite of passion, let's say revelry. Now you have 5 Gods, each of which has 2 allies, and 2 enemies. All 5 exist in a precariously balanced pantheon, where none of them can easily go for a power grab. Hope someone finds this useful! Edit 1: forgot to point out that this is the Angry DM method. Gotta cite my sources!

[@Menzobarrenza]

Clever. I like it. I might use this trick sometime in the distant future.

[@ethanedwards7834]

Angry Gm has an article on something like this.

[@Arthas30000]

@@ethanedwards7834 Yeah, I think that's where I read it from actually. Gonna cite my sources xD

[@kylestanley7843]

This... is so fucking genius.

[@mouse5779]

Arthas30000 oh boy I feel silly with 17 gods in my latest world, with two more being added

[@2MeterLP]

Id play in that bathball world. Sounds weird and awesome.

[@SecularMentat]

Exactly what I was thinking, leads into some crazy spelljammer combat outside of the bathyspheres!

[@bruhboss3141]

The real question is whether or not you would question what he did to world anvil, where did he hide the body?

[@oj3730]

@@SecularMentat yes! and you finally have a lot of *good* uses to all those waterbreathing and swimming speed stuff.

[@devilsstudent3713]

Guide to worldbuilding 101: 1. Sacrifice a child to our great lord Cthulhu. 2. Pray for cosmic knowledge of another universe. 3. Repeat until you get what you want. 4. Pretend you made up this world you now have great knowledge of. 5. Profit.

[@fozzybear3010]

No children were harmed in the making of this comment I hope 😂

[@chasepinter2008]

Especially given that this is referencing eldritch monstrosities, there is a severe lack of "???" Steps here

[@bredt2750]

Step 6. Die and rejoice as the universe you are role-playing in collides with your own on a natural 20 roll, causing the great Lord Cthulhu to awaken without having to wait for no puny stars.

[@devilsstudent3713]

@@bredt2750 shhhh, your not supposed to tell them. I'm trying to get more people to worship The Great Dreamer.

[@monst3rderek259]

Chtulhu is not good for this spell. Yog-sothoth is better.

[@imperfectimp]

One detail I often like to add is "How do different cultures believe the world was made" VS "How was it actually made". It happens in the real world too, so why not in fantasy worlds?

[@kana22693]

Normie GM: "I gotta make sure there's expository dialogue for literary everything in my world and I have to commission an artist to draw the map!" Chad GM: **draws continents based on the pizza stains on his shirt** "Ok, all four of you met at a tavern in Greaselandia..."

[@milkjug4237]

Food stains actually *are* an excellent way of shaping continens. Their natural splatter makes the edges seem very natural too

[@aaronp2542]

@@milkjug4237 Until you wonder if that mountain volcano is something the DM designed or just his nipple poking through...

[@taylorh1872]

*Meanwhile* Me: *Tosses a bunch of dice on a piece of paper* ...Yeah, that will do.

[@TheCinderfang]

I've named a nation Kountri and only one player realize it was just a different spelling of country.

[@woekittenvideos7534]

HEY! It wasn't a stain on a shirt, it was a stain on the floor of the shower. Get it right.

[@alextrollip7707]

This is AMAZING. Short but has everything you need. I literally want to watch this again and keep writing answers for each of the worlds I want.

[@loge7358]

That Bathosphere world is badass.

[@bradenvester4308]

"So you've taken the mantle of a DM." Heck no. I have a habit of generating random worlds and stories in my head every so often. Given the current situation I just decided to create a whole freaking world. I'm just here for tips and tricks.

[@hadiiskk]

I hate that this is also me.

[@arturnicaciodeandrade9861]

this literaly what i do, and only that.

[@jackreid2664]

That's me

[@mastereon895]

Yep, it's very annoying when people say 'build the world around the players', because there are no players

[@SerpentineSeiđr]

Same!

[@gamergurl3648]

There’s this one world my friend and I are working on. Lots of history, creatures, complex magic... and the purpose of its creation, in-universe? A playground for literal *child gods* because the older gods needed a break and didn’t want to deal with them anymore.

[@juliendacoolien3454]

I love that.

[@concinnityproductions]

sounds like an acid trip

[@bloodnivel70]

Would you believe me if I told you this is like a third of the whole lore of genshin impact?

[@tyleremery7088]

I start with a randomly generated map and outline some general ideas for each session, then world build through the players as we go along. A lot of stuff just becomes canon as it happens. Player: My character was involved in a war. Me: Cool, now that war is a thing that happened. Player: What's the name of this tavern? Me: What *is* the name of this tavern?

[@kingskelett6265]

Tyler Emery Player: Who is the BBE GM: I don’t know, who is? The King, the Church, a god, YOU? Player: Us? No, we are not evil........yet.

[@doctorlegs1234]

Just wanna say that you got a great channel here. I know it doesn't get as much love as the xp channel, but you've got really unique insight and are a great stepping stone for upstart dungeon masters everywhere.

[@Liam_The_Great]

>I know it doesn't get as much love as the xp channel Lmao runesmith has more subs now

[@corbinbarron8772]

Logan is in my egotistical opinion the only reason to watch XP, if there even is one

[@blakeslater2064]

@@corbinbarron8772 lol

[@ChikkinMcNuggetz]

I had no idea that an Earthberg (the word) was a thing... I was always calling it floating islands :X

[@BlueNEXUSGaming]

Both are technically correct. Earthbergs however are more specifically insinuating that they are akin to Icebergs, which means they're floating whilst mostly submerged.

[@SteveAkaDarktimes]

berg is just the german word for mountain. so its kinda utterly nonsensical. just call them floating islands.

[@MGDrzyzga]

"Earthmote" is the term I'm familiar with for islands floating in the sky. Related idea: I have a setting where one culture constructs floating pyramids that they set adrift to commemorate dead royals. The magic doesn't last forever, so the tombs are left to wander and "choose" their own final resting place. There's a city that's rebuilding around the wreckage after one floating pyramid touched down.

[@lavafangs2196]

if your talking islands in the sky, i call those skylands

[@GiantBugs]

Me and my friends just started up our first d&d campaign and your videos have been really helpful!

[@connorhennessey1316]

Alright here's my simple steps towards starting your world building: 1. Build a Place for your party to adventure in. 2. Build some necessary NPC's you KNOW you will need (ie a tavern owner, merchant, blacksmith, etc) 3. Build a plot important NPC with a quest hook. More if your feeling frisky. 4. Make up some kind of important, historical, or notable event to have happening/happened THAT TIES INTO YOUR PREVIOUS QUEST HOOK NPC'S PLOT LINE. 5. Make the necessary details for your important event to make sense. If your having a festival, which god is it a festival too; if there's an old battle site nearby, who was fighting; If two noble families are feuding, what started the blood feud in the first place. 6.Repeat. After a few iterations of this you'll have a decent chunk of your world built your players can interact with, a great jumping off point for you build more complicated worldbuilding, and you won't get bogged down with too much world building details that have no effect on your game.

[@thelittleredhairedgirlfrom6527]

I did something like that and now I’m just throwing in whatever weirdness my brain comes up with to fill in the gaps of my world. Like I don’t know how the fact that elves take 5 years to give birth is gonna be helpful to my PCs but I had nothing better to do so it’s part of the world now.

[@Alexaflohr]

I've tried that approach. It works, but I find that my groups tend to be very silly, yet paradoxically want to play in a more grounded world. So it turned out that letting the players add things like this makes the world move away from what they want to play in somehow. I would only recommend this strategy if you plan on playing an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink campaign where strange and often contradictory fantasy stuff happens.

[@BlueNEXUSGaming]

@@Alexaflohr AKA "a YOLO Campaign". Yeah, I tried to explain that to someone else in another comment on here, but I was more satirical about my phrasing. I asked them to let me know how their world survived Sailor Moon, Goku, & Fullmetal Alchemist (amongst other things) having their backstory build the world. I expect lots of Rocks, lots of Falling, and lots of Death.

[@themarinaraman9580]

born from a life of cheese, he now seeks to enact vengeance on the mafia for killing his wife and daughter.

[@sarahmellinger8125]

Were rats be like

[@Sasupoika2]

If you do not have specific campaign arc idea, you should come up with list detailing three groups: "Opportunities", "Danger" and "Threats". Basically, what players can do/be, what sort of dangers lurk in the world and if there are any things can go incredibly wrong (ex. end of the world). As for setting itself, consider starting from some root idea that would make it unique, a certain sort of atmosphere or feeling you want to invoke.

[@JoyAndAgony]

how cool would it be if when the chains are broken the world doesn’t end, it just floats up to the surface of an infinite ocean-horizon.

[@darienb1127]

If anyone has issues creating a world map, just use some sort of stain to determine the world. Monty Oum, the creator of RWBY, used a ketchup stain on a napkin for his world. It's a lot easier that trying to draw out the whole thing

[@BobCain2006]

How could anyone give this video a thumbs down? The information provided was fantastic and very much appreciated.

[@youtubeuniversity3638]

I'm not seeing any...

[@NewSirenSong]

I actually built my world from the ground up much like this. Made a full continent map with sub maps for all of the major cities and short notes for each town and country (minor and major and only visible to me to provide players with enough detail to intrigue them but not enough to tell them everything without going) I made copies of the maps and gave them to my players and let them navigate the world the way they want. I think it was worth it

[@hugejackedman7423]

Installing Campfire. Looks awesome. Thanks for showing us.

[@AroundTheCampfire]

We hope you enjoy! Let us know what you think :)

[@CharalamposKoundourakis]

Wow! That tool looks fantastic!

[@jgr7487]

"the person who creates the world for others to" to break. they break the world the DM created & remake it in the image of their lunacy! and that's the beauty of D&Ding!

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

If you give your players an inch, they'll turn it into a parakeet.

[@CelloMaster2000]

I have never played d&d, I just love watching videos about DM creations because it helps me build my own fantasy world

[@woopwoop2663]

Your voice makes this so much better.

[@foxcero3079]

I really like your world idea. It immediately had my brain firing off ideas about the creature population vs humanoids.

[@BlueNEXUSGaming]

Correction: the Dragon is Magic, but does *not* Breathe Magic. The Breath itself is not Magical. The Blood is fantastical.

[@alextrollip7707]

Not saying he meant this. But he might have meant it in the, "the dragon lives and breathes magic" As they are pretty totally magical creatures at their core.

[@BlueNEXUSGaming]

@@alextrollip7707 Perhaps, but it was gone over as recently as the 2017 Eratta v2.2 so I felt it should really be addressed to avoid confusion.

[@wileyisweird5842]

r/nobodyasked

[@ultimaxkom8728]

@@wileyisweird5842 It's a correction, so of course no one asked. Also, this is not Reddit; so just say it like a normal person does.

[@APerson-ws4cw]

I kinda made this mistake with my campaign, though I only had it post-poned for half a year, and had another campaign running while I did it.

[@Gnomester2]

Been looking forward to this one

[@SladePate]

Thank you Logan, very cool!

[@mollof7893]

Magic is a skill you learn like any other abillty. It is difficult to get started, to even do the simplest things. Magic users are common but most people’s abilities are simple and resteicted. Some practice all their life to get good. The most skilled mages are often very old but alos very wealthy since people will pay them for their rare abilities.

[@erikschaal4124]

That's good, but I'd take that a step further and consider how that affects races. (As many of these races live quite long lives.) Humans, orcs, and other short lived races may discourage mastery of magic, if it takes a long time to master. While elves and such could have several talented mages who still look reasonably able.

[@AroundTheCampfire]

Yet another fantastic video, great work! :)

[@cluelesswonder912]

Well thank goodness you did this video when you did! I JUST started up the journey of a DM recently

[@JessieShadowhold]

I love the idea of a bathosphere world stuff

[@cloud1973]

God, i've never even touched D&D besides filling out a character sheet randomly without joining a game. time to listen to a billion tips and tricks and write an entire world for absolutely no reason! Will be fun to write, hopefully. too nervous to RP or DM anything anyway.

[@thechosenone729]

When you are digging stuff about magic it's best to set rules and range of magic usage in your world. What are the types of magic ? -Elemental like fire,water,wind or earth ? -Are there any special elements like dark or light ? What kind of role magicians in society have ? -They serve only themselves ? -They serve maybe only the richest of all ? What kind of roles and how efficient is your magic ? -It have potential to change and shape landscapes due to it's destructive / creator potential ? -It have potential maybe just to serve as support role in fighting maybe a fireball or small healing but not much beyond ? -What kind of role magicians are having in combat they have special squads or people are mixing them with normal swordsman skill but they between maybe can cast magic ? -How fast is magic ? Can you cast it at instant or it takes time ? And there is a lot more like resources, replenishing magic, how it affects body and all sorts of stuff that you need to be aware because rules are created from those questions.

[@EveryThingGirl238]

As a world builder for fun and a love for making lore. Here's a tip. Everything has to be interconnected. For your party or for the people you are writing for, it has to make sense. Even if it's a jumbled mess of lines on a cork board, there has to be a reason. An example of this being is how the gods created the world, for what reasons, and how this affects many of the things that happen in the world. In one of mine, the races being made are a reaction to the god's involvement in the world being made. Each race is a creation of a certain god, and this, in turn, makes up their environment and vice versa. Ie the bird people favored by the Sky Goddess live in the mountain plains of snow and ice. This later connects to the greater world as these bird people might be the best at making bows and arrows, are known to be experts at wind magic, and are the go-to place on any adventure map. And with the favor of the Sky Goddess, perhaps it later connects to the quest when they have to gain her attention. Slowly as he pieces together with your world, you learn that everything has a reason for existing. The best explanation I can give is the Zelda lore, though messy and in many time lines, each race, religion, and place has a reason to connect to it all as a whole. These things don't happen over night, but keep this little tip in mind and you'll find your world gets bigger rather fast.

[@1943germany]

Magic as a shorthand for complex/computer based technology. An A.I. is instead a magical sentiance bound to a object or siries of objects in a manner of network systems. An example is a sword or other item with an a demon bound by magic.

[@Alexaflohr]

I used a very similar concept in my post-apocalyptic game. If your game has robots, and these are actual robots and not "living constructs" like warforged, and you want your robots to have something unique about their magic and culture, then this is a good way to do it.

[@meganhelton7598]

2019 Runesmith: Campfire Tech. Runesmith every year after: W O R L D A N V I L

[@merlintym1928]

"Actually insane google docs system" Same

[@TudBoatTed]

Any fantasy lovers should check out the stormlight archive and read it, it's really good and can give you a world to build based on it afterwards

[@birgaripadam7112]

please make videos about fantasy worlds like this one you mention it was awsome I love homebrew settings and stuf

[@matthewparker9276]

This is backwards for me. I know the campaign I want the world for, so I start with a randomly generated map, and apply all the locations necessary for that campaign, and finally I work backward in history to get a timeline that leads to those locations. Finally I can work forwards in history again to flash out some other locations, when I need them.

[@Goonwithatireiron823]

Holy fucking shit. I just recently spent a day or two putting together a map just so I can use it as reference for my new campaign and just now realized the paper texture I used to overlay it is the background of this video.

[@wafflingon813]

I make my gods by spelling names wrong. My creator god is Beronn (Bjorn) and my death god is Dai'v (Dave).

[@kylestanley7843]

I love this idea so much lmfao

[@ItsRenamed]

dave is menancing enough

[@vexjaeger4314]

Oh somthing I just thought up when adding gods to your world and the multiple civilizations in it. How primitive it advanced your cultures are could determine the number and types of gods you have. Very primitive cultures have Gods that more personifications of nature then ideals. Like a god of fire, water. A goddess of wind and earth stuff like that. And more advanced cultures could have those types of gods to but they would also have say a god of medicine of smiths, poets, music. Those types of gods would have developed from a culture that has lasted a bit to advance form just surviving

[@kylestanley7843]

Very astute, I like it.

[@nomad7317]

Great video Runesmith

[@theminisimmer]

I love the bubble world idea. You should write a book about it!

[@AlphaOmegaCreations]

Another surprisingly fun way to build worlds is by taking inspiration from History channel's Ancient Aliens; the theories of how aliens might have visited earth on that show are so insane that they sound like something out of sci-fi/fantasy novels.

[@altruren3215]

Loved the video man

[@ArtandArtifice]

Thank you so much for the Campfire Link! Will definitely give it a shot!

[@commandoslayer]

One of the best Dungeons & Dragons tutorials ever made.

[@frankdelgrosso8297]

You definitely take a more ground up approach than I did. I bought the Dark Sun boxed set (obviously a long time ago) and was like wow this is cool and different than what my players know, I’m gonna use this. Did I know where the world came from and who made it…nope. Did it matter also nope. What did matter is the world is awful because mages sucked the life out of the whole planet. All the knowable Gods are jerks who ruined it becoming powerful, psionics abound and oh yeah did I mention everything is terrible. Starvation, thirst, just getting weapons made from decent materials….and did I mention thirst were the focus. None of my players had any idea who the real Gods were or even if there were any. The environment was god. It was unknowable and uncaring. And they loved it. Dark sun was by far the setting they liked the most. My players love that I can spin a good yarn, but a crucial probably the most crucial part is the struggle. That takes the forefront. Sure where the world came from and lore and lady da is interesting. But way less interesting when you are dying of dehydration trying to figure out a way to not die while surrounded by ravaging sprinting elves stealing what you found and a mad king trying to become a living dragon god. At that moment you lose sight of the lore and are just in the moment and the story. I see the place for epic world building, lengthy and detailed stories of the history of blah blah and so on. And if you have the time that stuff is cannon players will eat up. But if you have players like mine who give you far less time to wright than you need. I think focus less on that and more on the world as it is right now regardless of why. If you are running Ravenloft do horror first even if you don’t have all the reasons why it is that way. They will be OK with that if they are too busy fighting for the survival of their species to even ask.

[@-_name_-]

Guide to worldbuilding in dnd: Your players backstory will give you much less to come up with, using that as part of the foundation can really help

[@BlueNEXUSGaming]

Um... What?

[@-_name_-]

Blue 64 let the players make stuff so you don’t have to, and then expand

[@BlueNEXUSGaming]

@@-_name_- The problem with that is that they will, half the time, not provide you with much to work with, because they are supposed to fit into your world, not the other way around.

[@kylestanley7843]

@@BlueNEXUSGaming oi, nothing is "supposed" to do anything. People can do it however they want, whatever works for them.

[@BlueNEXUSGaming]

@@kylestanley7843 Good for you, let me know how Sailor Moon, Solid Snake, Goku, and Fullmetal Alchemist fit into your world once you're done picking up the pieces of your Campaign and World.

[@isaacrice6302]

This was an incredible help. Thank you.

[@therealx1ras453]

Guide to world building: 1. Railroad 2. Repeat

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

Or omni-classing into something completely _Abserd._

[@True_Canadian]

Or just rip off skyrim

[@silvertheelf]

I rip of scientific history, mix it with at least all mythologies, then say “done”

[@MaddieThePancake]

Of rip off Tolkien

[@mthgbln6422]

@@MaddieThePancake so rip off what skyrim and just about everything else ripped off

[@XanderHarris1023]

There is a Talos in traditional DND lore but he is not the same.

[@VelociraptorsOfSkyrim]

Well, seeing as Tamriel was originally just a D&D Homebrew world, it is pretty easy to do.

[@drpretzel2086]

I know for my current campaign I took the concept from dragon age 2s Kirkwall as basic for the story’s main hub and built it from there. A old city rebuilt by colonist’s from another continent after a few hundred years and 4 more found and resettled something in nature goes crazy causing almost all druids to lash out in primal fury along with several natives beastfolk races also being driven by natures fury. Now one city remains and is doing everything it can to holdout, while a refugee crisis is going on, enemy’s at the gate and cult causing mischief in the shadows.

[@speedytomato5414]

I actually like simple worlds best. I think the most original thoughts and creations come from simplicity, and I feel like everyone is trying to make some sort of original world. Just focus on making a basic fantasy world, but flesh it out more.

[@sillwullivan83]

My games universe was made by a creator god, who was a black smith. He made the universe out the remains of the pervious universe that he sifted together. Life was formed after he quenched the universe in a cosmic fluid. After that, other weaker gods came around. They buffed out the tiny cracks and notches of the universe. They then made life through a form of kinda evolution.

[@phylippezimmermannpaquin2062]

The chain idea at the end is galaxy brain world building

[@ImmortalLemon]

A deity in my world is the sandwich, it was created as a divine knowledgeable life from Fluctuous the creator of my universe in the beginning

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

This is not a God it's a sandwich! What would make you think otherwise‽

[@jacobvanveit3437]

Instead of writing things down I’d recommend recording the session with your phone. The whole writing things down on the fly often gets in the way of keeping the players engaged. Starts and stops really hamper the games immersion, I’d avoid that like mommy rot.

[@All-shall-say-Jesus-is-Lord]

It works really well for me to just write a detailed aftermath of every session. Obviously I write down npc names if I have to make one up on the fly, but for the rest of it I can usually remember it right after the session. I wouldn't want to have to re watch a session...

[@BlueNEXUSGaming]

Yeah, my sessions are 6+ hours long already, I'd never remember my NPC names if I needed to re-watch my old session to find it.

[@jacobvanveit3437]

Do what you feel works for you. Write it, record it, eat it, tattoo it... point is, try to keep narrative going without delay. By the way, 6 hours solid is very impressive. I personally loose steam around the 4 hour mark. I’m jealous you have players that will play that long.

[@BlueNEXUSGaming]

@@jacobvanveit3437 The secret is to play on weekends, once per week. The rest of the week is spent on the optimizations I've been trying to throw together on Roll20, and setting up the Maps. The Monsters I actually found is easier to put together on the fly, unless they're custom made, which I prepare for in advance. For example; I plan to soon introduce a BBEG that is a modified Vampire Spellcaster. Essentially a Lv 17 Necromancy Wizard who is responsible for a local Noble kidnapping townspeople, a seemingly boring Quest fit for a group of low level Adventurers, shouldn't be dangerous, just a simple investigation, that points to a local Noble, which reveals that the majority of those missing wouldn't survive longer than a day or two before getting murdered. My Players kind of dragged their feet on this one, so they'll actually end up walking into an Ambush of Zombies whilst the BBEG escapes via Magic Circle (followed by a Gaseous Form off a Mountain Cliff if they managed to actually enter the Portal) If they *do* end up going through the Portal, they'll find themselves on a Mountain, near a Town, that will have them searching for Kwalish to solve the Enigmatic Machine which has been assaulting anyone who tries to leave the Mountains. Alternatively they can find out that the Noble is also looking for this Kwalish fellow by searching the Noble's mansion for clues. The notes will reference to rumors about some kind of Mobile Guardian Machine that Kwalish made, and the desire to acquire said machine, however their attempts to locate one has proved to be a fruitless endeavor, and hints that the local Adventuring Guild or perhaps the Town Library (run by a Church dedicated to the God of Knowledge and Lore) might know where to find Kwalish. There's also a few other Plot Hooks I can throw in should the need arise, such as the Vampire being the Spawn of a Spawn of a Master Vampire that a friendly Succubus Queen knows (another custom NPC; Lawful Good Succubus, hyper amplified Skills and abilities, Innate Caster that doesn't require Material Components, ungodly DC to resist Charm, but primary benefit is a form of Hive Mind Telepathy, however she doesn't understand Common because she was sealed & imprisoned in a Sarcophagus for a few thousand years before the party randomly found her crypt and rescued her). Specifically she's the one who made the Vampire's proverbial grandfather a Vampire in the first place; as she had actually fallen in love with them & kissed them without killing them, inadvertently changing them into a Vampire. 2 Vampire generations later; enter BBEG.

[@jacobvanveit3437]

Blue 64 thanks for sharing this. You and I, and probably many other DM’s get lost in the details of our fantasy. Ever eager to spring it on our players and watch them squirm and move to solve the dilemmas. I myself have weaved this wild fantasy around one of the players in the group, as they are attempting to resurrect Therizdun a great hell plague has befallen the land. Without therizdun the Devils have finally sprung into the material plane. The great star mountain surrounding the high forest has blown its top and the river stix flows from it. A massive plum of ash, up in the atmosphere has darkened much of Toril and is slowly consuming its resources. Unlikely groups of players have to work together to resurrect the god of chaos so that it can rekindle the war between the devils and the demons. Many many others still would rather still see the god of chaos continue to be locked away for ever. Finding allies among this world has proven difficult and the players are met with tough decisions that pin them against moral dilemmas often turning away from good so that they can achieve what must be done. In a nut shell hahaha!

[@Alex-by9kt]

Part one: create a world Part two: good work

[@mrminiyo4295]

1:12 literally the villain from Pocahontas

[@silvertheelf]

My worlds backstory: A massive eldritch deity (basically Azothoth from the Cthulhu mythos) was designing and destroying at random, nothing but immortal virus like bacteria could exist, it continued to destroy and create till it fell asleep, then the bacteria could evolve, after millions of years, after this time the first intelligent race evolved, they continued to evolve until they built spacecraft then they made another alien race which generated special bacteria and this race ended up rioting and taking over some planets before falling asleep, then a bacteria generated from them, the genetically modified aliens when sleeping generated bacteria, this bacteria evolved into everything on all planets and on one planet after another alien race messed with it the bacteria evolved into the aboleths which then made millions of slave races, which one evolved into the yuan-ti which accidentally made a reptile evolve into a rat which proceeded to evolve into all mammals and mammalian races, including the key elements of the rest of the races the dark elves which proceeded to make the ancestors of orcs and goblinoids on accident , the yuan-ti and dark elves fought over the world while other races either evolved from existing races, as with Australopithecus evolving then evolving into humans, Goliaths, dwarves (which proceeded to split into more dwarves, halflings, gnomes, leprechauns, and other short humanoid races), and pretty much every other humanoid that is mammalian, the yuan-ti proceeded to war with the dark elves, and the rest of reptilian and amphibian races evolved from an amphibious organism that already resembled a lizardfolk but was more of just a super intelligent salamander person, then the bird people evolved from an intelligent bird spices, by the way the way magic exists is because of intelligent races who then created a blood pact and used the equivalent of a Ouija board and candles to summon the ancestors (the ancestors are demigods of a kind who died and became basically gods) to ask them for magic powers, so magic is basically “hay spirits, can I have this magic” and spirits saying “we will see, hmm, yes” and then magic exited. Also I’m pretty sure there was something about mimicking every mythology in history and all of scientific history and the Cthulhu mythos so there are at least 1,000,000,000 origin gods or gods born from gods and always being gods from birth, something about a really angry worm snake that wants control of everything and is slowly destroying the god that’s basically azothoth without a name... but I don’t care much for all that.

[@gerritiglejansma5719]

ngl, its all over the place and the start with the bacteria sounded interesting and went down hill fast

[@silvertheelf]

@@gerritiglejansma5719 2 years of working on different lore has made me think “this is trash”

[@strixfiremind]

My biggest tip, know a lot about our world, and others. The more you know, the easier it is to create on the fly

[@NULLxFORxNONE]

Aw jeez now I kind of want to make a world based on your example!

[@barnowlgaming221]

Has anybody found where he got the pictures for the two goddesses, that is some killer artwork.

[@MGDrzyzga]

I like your world. Do you have more about it?

[@sonnensternfluss]

It all started with a random character I drew in school because I was bored and now I'm trying to create a language and at least 3 different writing systems.

[@liseegeskov8769]

youre so good at editing

[@Rankerquat]

And whatever world-building you don't want to do or don't have time to do, you can always outsource your DM responsibilities to your players. "What kinda gods do you guys want to be relevant?" "What kinda monsters do you guys want in this forest?" "What kinda stuff do you guys want to spend money on in your downtime?"

[@kylestanley7843]

"Cthulhu" "Tarrasques"

[@Rankerquat]

@@kylestanley7843 lol those answers would fit any of those questions!

[@kylestanley7843]

@@Rankerquat tbh: you aren't wrong lmfao

[@erikschaal4124]

Questions like this becomes relevant long before session zero. Because the answers to those questions will become your player options. (Because if I introduce a drunken monkey god, my players will almost certainly ask to play a cleric of said god.) Usually, I get flustered with trying to keep my player options as open as possible. Especially for the ones who own way more supplements than I do. ("The hell is a kenku? And how am I suppose to fit them in my setting.)

[@pokenerd3340]

Batman Dies in Endgame

[@blaink8064]

Nnnnnooooooooooooo!!!!!

[@bbv8848]

You could have said spoilers first, ya heathen

[@thelittleredhairedgirlfrom6527]

Jesus dies. He gets better though.

[@milesmanuse1569]

Stan Lee dies too.

[@bbv8848]

disgusting, the lot of u

[@mirthfulArtist]

I find players don't necessarily care about Creation, history, and Pantheons...even clerics and Paladins seem to know their gods by name only. 😅 I find worldbuilding is more fun when it's co-operative and in-the-moment.

[@mc171]

Belgarath the sorcerer by David Eddings helped me with world building.

[@Meese12]

My world? Pirate and dinosaur infested archipelago. How it came into existence? Hell, everyone else would like to know too.

[@VelociraptorsOfSkyrim]

In my D&D world, the universe was created in a mix between The Big Bang and Creationism. In the beginning, there was only the void, then suddenly, the Goddess of Light burst forth from the beyond, Time and Space erupting into existence.

[@takenomicon]

Hey Logan do you think you could do a basically villains and or their Lairs? Or like a two parter? I’m a little lost on making one myself

[@dreddbolt]

World building is quite a bit of fun. (Real quick though, Secret of Evermore is a homebrew inspiration goldmine, despite the videogame's flaws) ... ... ... At one point, realizing how crazy I was getting, I decided to stick with at least a temperate climate main continent with something of a magic-punk twist, an unnaturally stormy northern sea with a Japanesque island nation to the north of said sea populated by homebrewed youkai and kami, and an end-of-campaign mountain range at my material plane's equator. I've already done quite a bit of top-down homebrewery with gods, planes, fey, and warlock patrons, so a fair amount of the other creative bits spring from the bottom-up. Inspiration which tempts me back to top-down creation? Videogames (too many to name them all), with some cartoons like Mighty Max and anime like Vampire Hunter D get me in a homebrewing frenzy. A few videogames I can name though? I like to capture the spirit of Zelda games with some of my traps, and I hope to come up with a cool dungeon which can emulate some of the more entertaining bits from Majora's Swamp dungeon, Ocarina's Forest Temple, and Link to the Past's Dark World Forest Dungeon. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon inspired my world's magic-punk elements to an extent, and I got interesting encounter design ideas, including some devious traps. Towards the eastern end of my main continent, I got the inspiration for a cursed town of cultists originally inspired by the Silent Hill games, and further inspired by Curse of Strahd, a DnD adventure which bears quite a bit of similarities to the Silent Hill games, only it is the town itself and the surviving cultists who are trying to kill you, and not Count Strahd Von Zarovich and his dark minions. The Japanesque islands are a bit of a weeb thing, though I've recently been fascinated again by traditional Japanese youkai and kami. Also, Nioh and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice are a couple of games which have spurred some interest. On a more important note, I couldn't forget my players. A father and son team of rogues inspired me to make a city of big crime towards the mid-southern end of my material plane's main temperate climate continent. It worked out quite nice, but it is starting to lose steam, or so it feels. I'm probably being impatient, so spicing up the campaign might take some thinking.

[@dudiguy3405]

Good quality video, nice job 👍

[@ashina2146]

What if the Magic in the world or Continent is mostly a Defensive magic that's specialized in nullifying offensive magic?

[@SimonWolfie]

so long as it doesn't have a restrictive effect. having it so that you can't do something despite the rules saying otherwise because of a campaign rule would rub me the wrong way.

[@ashina2146]

@@SimonWolfie Well in the world if the Spell Nullifying magician is weaker than the offensive magic, the Nullify spell might not be able to stop the offensive magic. this will give some problem for the adventurer as sometimes they might meet someone who has weak nullifying magic but the adventurer think that any magic is useless. it's like are you gonna waste some mana on this dude?

[@CorbiniteVids]

I hear you, the science channel's How It's Made. I know it's really you.

[@hope_13]

Logan makes a great point here - if you want to play, you dont have the time to create a proper setting for your game. That's why you shouldnt do it. Pick one of DnD settings, Such as Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Eberron or maybe even Exandria and modify them. If you insist on making something completely on Your own... Well you should go watch Artifexian, not Runesmith. I myself started making my own setting according to many dnd - related videos but I had to scrap everything and start Over with some proper knowledge.

[@1984-XIXc.]

Continents of my world are smithereens of celestial cup and oceans are celestial black tea with milk.

[@mediocregamer6053]

Man umber and ignis are just kayle and morgana splash arts from league

[@Yabuturtle]

I was thinking of a story that would involve multiple kinds of cities and therefore a way to to kind of combine certain things in DND, where it doesn't strictly have to be a medieval or cyberpunk or modern setting, but it would involve many aspects of these genres. There is the Rift RPG game which kind of touches on it, but I was thinking of doing something different in my world. So that way if you want to have something like a Technomancer, you could still have it in this world without it being strange if you were strictly in a medieval setting I had an idea of a half elf artificer in a certain major DND city, let's say Luskan or something. Maybe in Ravnica Or Eberron. xD I had an idea of an artificer, who was helping several kingdoms with his inventions and after repeated attacks from Drow, Orcs, among many other things, Elosk Mason, the half elf Artificer, was coming up with ideas on how to get away from the threat, seeing how they only had enough power to repel invasions, but not actually stop them from trying to destroy the cities. The threat was never ending and the half orc was developing technology to open portals to another planet, (which is similar to the super continent Pangea) He basically wanted to go to a new world altogether, seeing how the invaders would always go after them, no matter where they relocated on the planet, and seeing how he wanted to teleport multiple people but also entire cities. That way, when they enter a new world, they won't be completely naked in terms of supplies, tech, ect. It wasn't perfected however, but he had made agreements with several kingdoms to relocate and get off the planet. But however, an insider, knew of this and warned the invaders that such tech was developing. In a last ditch effort, Elosk, having quite perfected the tech, was forced to use it to escape the largest land invasion they had seen. The portal machine he developed swallowed all the cities to teleport them to a new planet that Elosk had discovered. It had worked, but they had noticed something different. It was not inhabited before, but all of a sudden, they were discovering multiple groups of people, both primitive and highly advanced. Cities that were never there to begin with all of a sudden showed up. This was due to the tech he had developed, seeing how he had never quite perfected it. When he used it to teleport the cities, there was a side effect he had not counted on. The portal that tore open, managed to make other portals surrounding it. It had pulled other cities from other planets and other dimensions and transported them here. (This is where I was also combining homebrew with canon stuff as I had ideas to involve multiple cities from multiple franchises. like star wars, marvel, legend of zelda, ect.) Cloud City, Hyrule, Drakkenheim, New York City, Rohan, ect. where ripped from their respective planets and transported here. Even entire islands had showed up as well such as New Asgard. Unfortunately, it had also transported multiple evil creatures from other planets and dimensions here. The tech was perfected later, but now the problem was sending them home. Elosk had only knowledge of what planet he had wanted to go to, but he had no idea about where these cities came from. He couldn't just open a portal to their native dimension, as he had no idea which dimension they came from exactly and there were many alternate versions of these cities, which means they had one in a trillion change of relocating them to the planet they were actually ripped from, so they'd only be guessing at this point. Now that all parties are new to this planet and unaware of the evil that was brought with it, they try to work together in a strange and unusual planet and try to understand how to go back home, if they can. Just throwing ideas around really and messing around. xD Instead of transporting from one planet to another, I just decided to do a hodgepodge instead.

[@mizt_strider8003]

How would the sun, or day/night cycle, work in these spheres?

[@stanard_bearer]

kinda like a pulsing heartbeat. every day/night cycle is one heartbeat of these worlds. I'm currently running something eerily similar. I eventually revealed it is the heart of the God of Light. every beat is one day.

[@SharowbladyeGaymerPorate]

I'd be interested to see a more fleshed out work on this world

[@slimecatking5373]

I do the exact thing you used to do with world building, good thing the pandemic has happened because if i was running a campaign in the world i am creating i would really be struggling.

[@dynamicswami]

NAHHH BRO THE DRAGONBALL DURAG PART ME GO CRAZY

[@mushroomsoup2866]

0:57 the clock in that stock image is at 420

[@sianine2765]

I wish I had known about this video before I made an entire gosh dang darn Galaxy for a Starfinder campaign. I still have nightmares about the amount of work

[@erikschaal4124]

Not starfinder, but I once ran my own star fairing campaign in GURPS. And god did I make it complex. I didn't just create planets, but entire solar systems. And that solar system had a level of government in between the planetary governments, and the galactic power.

[@lthereddd4838]

So, you know that image you used for the cosmic horror creating a world? Yeah, well, I used the exact same image for the campaign I started the day this video went up '-' I called them and first gods, a bunch of massive featureless creatures who burned the empty until it became something, and them they left, opening space for the second gods to take reign

[@jesuskun3673]

I made the mistake of making my world too detailed. It's been 7 months, and I really need a way to make it playable.

[@idrisabdullah3492]

I would say that things might be easier if you take note of the things you already have, and then start from the beginning and only picking things that the players NEED to know. The rest of it could then be revised and added to the game as the players get to learn about them

[@jesuskun3673]

@@idrisabdullah3492 thanks, man.

[@Zenas521]

"A consistent world is a believable world"

[@ishaanb4507]

The world called Glory was controlled by 3 gods. Shaltor, the Radiant Warrior. Semkar, the Dark Witch. Marmora, a mysterious changeling who’s the only one living in the mortal plane. Shaltor and Semkar have had their civilizations fighting for centuries, literally Lightness vs Darkness. Until the Blade of Marmora, a group of changelings assassins destroyed the 2 races and the gods. Now the gods live in an otherworldly plane, battling for centuries. After a thousand years, their battle ends with Semkar victorious. She has the goblinoids, attack all the civilizations so she can safely reincarnate as the new Witch Queen and rebirth her race.

[@99onone50]

For an excellent example watch made in Abyss

[@kensvideos1]

Great Stuff.