DnD Campaign Building: Lessons Learned from Elden Ring

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#dnd #osr #ttrpg #dungeonsanddragons #eldenring
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[@turtlecheese8]

I never really understood the hexcrawl thing with just " a few spires and interesting tidbits" coming from a linear story like most D&D modules. But after a few hours of Elden Ring, I caught myself just going to places that looked cool that I could see or something that stands out. It really made sandboxes and hex crawls click to me.

[@Earthmote]

Yeah it does a good job of spotlighting far away things to explore!

[@easyasgoblinpie]

I started work on my hexcrawl a couple of years before Elden Ring, but after playing that game it gave me such an energy boost and lots of new inspiration for worldbuilding. One thing Elden RIng gave me is that slight repetition of core themes among the "random locations" scattered in the gameworld. Graveyards always having ghost gloveworts, catacombs always having a puzzle before opening the boss door, evergaol's always guaranteeing an optional boss fight, minor erdtrees always having crystal tears as loot, mines always having smithing stones etc. It gives the player a strong hint about what the location is gonna be about, and they can decide if they want to explore further or go somewhere else. If the player needs more ghost glovewort's they will be excited if they find a graveyard or catacomb, if not they just explore somewhere else. I love that kind of decision making in a hexcrawl. So I made a list of all the types of random "location categories" I want my game to have once I start generating content in my hexes. What I mean by "location categories" is a really zoomed out concept that I will create in further detail once I've generated it. And I also codified what type of general gameplay can be expected in each of these location categories. The gameplay of a five room dungeon is slightly different than a three room dungeon. Or a boss lair versus a faction encampent (one of the categories I stole straight from Elden Ring). It makes for a random generation method that is more consistent with my core themes, rather than having random tables that are too random and ultra specific.

[@Earthmote]

That's a good thought. You can definitely "template" some of your world a bit. Helps your players prepare those spells or tools that could be useful in specific situations if they know ahead of time what to expect!

[@alexanderwizardjar9540]

I hope more people find this channel, really good stuff here

[@Earthmote]

Thank you!

[@tannernevin8807]

thanks very much my friends wanted do do a campaign set in the lands between and i havent known how to do it

[@trevornoone5582]

I like how you don't go fully into changing the game's fundamental mechanics in order to evoke a game's feel. Like you could've talked about healing in elden ring vs healing in dnd (two very different things) but the fact that you stuck with how Elden Ring gives its players information and how that can be replicated in a tabletop setting was incredibly helpful. Definitely earned a sub and a reader for your newsletter from this vid.

[@Earthmote]

Thank you!

[@BRZ3RK3R]

That's pretty cool advice on how to combine two things I love. Thank you, sir - you just earned a sub.

[@Earthmote]

Thanks!

[@anderschristianboss8342]

Your Videos are hidden gems!

[@Earthmote]

Thank you!

[@petsdinner]

Thanks for the great video! The video game that inspires me most is Skyrim. Not necessarily because it's amazing at everything (it's pretty good) but because it actually makes me *want* to play the game! It doesn't bog me down in stats and class abilities and stuff, it just asks me my name then lets me loose to go chasing map markers for the next 1000 hours! Obviously, there is a certain minimum amount of mechanical complexity to a compelling fantasy tabletop game (you can't always just Press A To Interact) but I do try to bring that freewheeling, Skyrim kind of Start New Game vibe to the table!

[@fullmetalstate]

I've really enjoyed watching your videos! They are always very informative and have good ideas to pull from.

[@Earthmote]

Thank you!

[@arz3nal]

This is one of my favourite rpg channels, after seeing the billiards metaphor for RPGs I have been excited to see what comes next and as a die-hard fan of fromsoft I clicked immediately!!!

[@Earthmote]

Thanks!

[@aidendon4127]

I appreciate your videos. You have me aspiring to make a hexcrawl in future. Keep up the great work.

[@Earthmote]

Thank you! Best of luck with your games.

[@Stray_GM]

Good video. I've thought that since launch, Elden Ring felt like an Old School DnD game, ESPECIALLY when you get into Caelid. It's almost like it becomes Mork Borg.

[@Earthmote]

I agree!

[@yadel312]

Love it

[@colbydotcom]

Freaking LOVE Elden Ring. I've used it as the inspiration for the current campaign I am running. Campaign takes place 60 years after the conclusion of The Godwars, which saw 90% of all life completely wiped out. The gods have been sealed in the outer planes and the players are in a city that is something like a shantytown built atop the ruins of a once-great and highly technologically advanced civilization. The players are searching for fragments of gods who were shattered in the Godwars so they can unite them and stop a Blight that is slowly approaching the city. The campaign ends if they don't stop it on time. They have been given this task by the shattered remains of the patriarch of the pantheon. He has marked their souls so that he can bring them back when they die (if one of them dies, they all die within a few minutes). This isn't without cost, though, because it takes him more and more effort to bring them back each time they die, which translates to longer and longer in-game time passing between each death. The whole thing is a mashup of a West Marches-style hexcrawl with an epic Elden Ring story. There is one mega city that is generally safe for the players where they can rest and recover. As far as the characters and the citizens of the city know, they are the last of their kind in the world. There is no hope for outside help. The wilderness hexes get more dangerous the further you get form the city. We are using some homebrew rest and recovery mechanics to really make wilderness survival a challenge. I could go on and on. There is so much more to it. Lots of intrigue in the city with solo missions happening on a discord server. If you're interested in a more thorough breakdown, let me know and I'll try to post a Google drive link to some campaign documents or something.

[@Earthmote]

Sounds cool! Best of luck with your campaign

[@BRZ3RK3R]

Dude, that sounds absolutely amazing! I'd love to read that document if you were willing to share it. 💪

[@seanfsmith]

Of all the video games I've played, I keep coming back to Phantasy Star Online for my prep and worldbuilding

[@bigbiggoblin2873]

Noice

[@Heroic_Quests]

W content

[@davidbadillomirete8226]

Silverwing and Sheepstealer are to young to die of old age during Aegon's reigned and the masters did not have a way to kill them, my theory is that the Cannibal ate them and that we will learned about silverwing's fate in F&B vol 2 and about sheepsrealer in a song of ice and fire, the cannibal did not fight any important dragon this theory wluld make it happen, then if it gets injured he could die or go somewhere to sleep for 150 years

[@eldritchword6929]

Terrible advice. Video games are too limited in gameplay to ever compare to tabletop rpgs.

[@skyorrichegg]

I do not see how that means we can not or should not take lessons from video games to apply to ttrpgs...

[@MyrddintheBard]

Books are one of the major inspirations for Gygax and Arneson. As well as movies. Those mediums are incredibly limited in choice, the only choice a person has for those is to continue reading or not.

[@aidendon4127]

Your comment has little to no value as you merely state an opinion. However, if you backed up your opinion with some valid points that related to the thesis of the video and it's main points you could have added to a discussion.

[@user-cm4gc9to9o]

The truly terrible advice is telling an artist where they should and should not derive inspiration from.