Dragon Empire Campaign Building Part 1 - Lazy GM Prep

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[@fireboy312002]

Just an idea, you could have one the Ancient Dragons die, but either a young Dragon or another creator is ruling in their name. It's a secret and gives the players something to do eariler on.

[@jasonsansbury]

The way you talk about the party gives me the vibe of the crew from the show Firefly, which started 22 years ago this week. “A captain's goal was simple: find a crew, find a job, keep flying.” But, if you’ve seen the show and movie, there is much more to being a Browncoat

[@memeslich]

Always love the first campaign prep episodes.

[@TimBaker]

I really enjoyed your Dragon Empire prep episode. I look forward to hearing more about this campaign!

[@ggnorekthx]

This was wonderful. I wanted to add that as you were figuring out the truths of the world, I really wanted to know what secrets lie in the deaths or disappearances of the 3 lost dragon lords. I feel like that could be a great way to introduce tension between the lords.

[@paulbrandson6656]

I find the big setting books intimidating, it feels like you need to read all 500 pages before you can start the campaign. This is a great video on how to zero in on the parts that matter!

[@chewbacca7856]

High rollers have been doing a dragon empire campaign. I love watching them play this setting.

[@michaell.6100]

Perfect and ironic timing. Also working on Obsidian and Mharoti Empire stuff for my midgard campaign!

[@MrBrianofarrell]

Fascinating, I have recently (August) started a ToV homebrew post dragon apocalypse world. I will definitely go loot the Midgard worldbook for more inspiration, great shout. I am following the Lazy GM steps and spiral building out with the next session in mind only. But wanted to run a dragon centric campaign so the players and myself can use them a lot, as not a lot of dragons in our D&D over the last 5 years.

[@mikecarson7769]

very fun to follow your thought process !

[@andypolainepersonal7216]

Great to see you using Obsidian for this one 🥳

[@genkakoza]

So inspiring. Thank you!

[@michaell.6100]

I don't know if you have this source book, but Midgard Legends has a great npc & faction about an anti mharoti empire group in the south of the dragon Empire, "Kyrsa Heartwood and the Children of Green Shadows". That and Lady Fenyll Marack of Zobeck are great midgard lore options off the top of my head. Also plenty of options to thwart the empire by playing the Morza against each other in conquered Rumela (Illyria)

[@ryanroyce]

My current ongoing campaign has a very similar theme, but instead of just a single empire, the entire continent is ruled by dragon overlords (dovrah). No humanoid monarchs or realms beyond modest settlements. I will resist to urge to infodump about the campaign except to say that it has been wildly successful and is still going strong at level 13 with concrete plans to reach 20. :)

[@LukeBaumstark]

Neat video. There is a strong chance that I steal this idea to run something similar.

[@superjames22]

Loving to see you using Obsidian for prep!❤

[@Malkuth-Gaming]

Insightful as Im getting prepped to take over and start a new campaign once my group is done with the current one. Will soak everything up like a sponge! :D

[@garion046]

This was really useful. Out of interest, how long was the unedited version of this prep time? Just to get an idea of how quickly you could actually do this.

[@thosp]

Hi MIke! Always a pleasure to see your creative process when creating a campaign! Is there a template for your notion page for creating campaings too? I use notion a lot with your template and I think it could be a nice little addition.

[@woutthielemans5073]

A Dragon Empire book kickstarter is very very very long overdue.

[@reddanger95]

really loking forwards to this series

[@lonic123]

Thanks

[@unordinarytales]

This is an amazing episode. Will you/have you done an Obsidian video like the video for Notion?

[@AvengerYouT]

Great video! It's gonna be a nice series to watch. By the way, 50 miles (vertice to vertice, or around 90 miles edge to edge) is way too much for the hex given this map geography. I'm guessing they changed the hex size after writing that, since the compass tool to measure distance is giving around 20 miles edge to edge. I'd change it to 24 to have one hex per day of travel over non-difficult terrain.

[@AntonA37]

Hey great video! Nice to see an example of you building a campaign using the steps in the Return of the Lazy DM. I have a question: do you at this stage usually come up with loose ideas for "adventures" or "mini-arcs" or "episodes" and then try to create a web of sandbox-y connections and clues between them, similar to the 5x5 campaign structure or Justin Alexander's "node-based campaign"?

[@SlyFlourish]

At this stage I just worry about the first adventure

[@alexandrefruchaud1969]

That Neal Stephenson quote !

[@gvanbooven]

I agree that Midgard looks like a tremendous world for campaigns and I have the book. I assume you plan to run this in 5E? I'm considering converting away from D&D completely. From what I've read, Midgard sure seems that it could be converted to another system without tremendous effort since it is more about the big picture than the mechanics.

[@PerikleZ87]

Midgard was well before 5e and he is running it in Tales of the Valiant!

[@SlyFlourish]

Tales of the Valiant

[@GateKeeperPat]

Are the faction lists that you role on, play out similar to how icon roles work in 13th Age?

[@SlyFlourish]

Yes! I didn’t draw the connection until recently

[@ADN1974]

didn't the shadowdark campaign also start with a contaminated well ?