Common Worldbuilding Mistakes in Dungeons and Dragons 5e

[@bluepotato1371]

"don't make all your problems stem from one great evil" You just saved my campaign.

[@thehobbitlestat]

Lol that was the major pitfall of my first campaign. This time, I have someone playing the bad guy, but he's not the bad guy, and someone playing in the party who doesn't know I'm going to give him harder and harder choices and essentially turn him into drow bard Hitler, and the true big baddie, who is disguised as one of the player's wives, and their wife has a ring of disguise that is stuck on their finger so that the real wife just looks like the barkeep. It's complex and I left lots of room for false endings I'm case they're not satisfied with the ending they come to.

[@obradinn7491]

The true Galaxy Brain play is to disregard the dichotomy of good and evil entirely and make the world's problems larger, more systemic so that one gaggle of fucks with swords can't hope to fix everything. There will always be another problem. This essentially lets players pick someone to make their BBEG. Rather than selecting the lich who was minding his own god-damn business in his tower, they went after a man who was running an international slave ring. They collapsed the slave ring and freed hundreds of slaves, giving them jobs and becoming real-estate tycoons. It was hilarious.

[@privateuser3726]

@@obradinn7491 later the lich turned out to be ains ol gon and they regretted leaving him "alive"

[@dragonarchive7443]

Currently working on my first ever campaign, main baddies are a cult with seven head leaders.

[@cormorantcolors]

Mine too. Omg.

[@TheRhetoricGamer]

I let each player create a "legendary character" that acts as a background or historical character that impacted the world. It gives me free plot hooks and lets the players feel like they had a hand in creating the world, too.

[@ronaldbaker8533]

That's a brilliant idea thanks

[@CidGuerreiro1234]

I agree that it's a brilliant idea but I think you'd have to have a *very* open mind for some of the stuff players will try to add into the world.

[@TheRhetoricGamer]

@@CidGuerreiro1234 It helps when you know your players well. It is a challenge, but overcoming that challenge can really expand your world by making you think of it in different perspectives. For example, one of my players wanted his legendary to be a character from one of his stories that could talk to ghosts. This is an issue as undead are virtually nonexistent in the setting. Mystery of death is a major theme and a motivating factor of the setting Big Bad. However, animism spirits (like kami or dryads) *do* exist in the setting and made me think. If there are incorporeal creatures that inhabit stone, rivers, and trees, why can't there be one that inhabits corpses and learns whatever the dead creature knew in life? Thus I got the idea of "death spirits" and was able to integrate this player's legendary background character into the setting. Now I have an adventure hook where the party could seek out this character, who can commune with her network of death spirits to find long lost information from the dead.

[@CidGuerreiro1234]

@@TheRhetoricGamer Ah, I see. In that case I can see how it would work well. You seem to have a good group to work with. My group is good too (I'm the current DM, although we usually rotate on who gets the spot), though to be honest I'm not too sure how something like that would work out. I'm actually a bit curious to try it when I start a new campaing.

[@TheRhetoricGamer]

@@CidGuerreiro1234 If you do, good luck!

[@Zeboki]

‘’A lot of simplicity makes complexity. A lot of complexity makes stupidity.’’ My number one rule.

[@CrimsonFox36]

translation, "KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid."

[@chrismarshall7131]

Stolen. It's like KISS for the literate.

[@sergeigen1]

Harris, thats a great rule, im gonna remember that

[@packrat6196]

I prefer a lot of stupidity.

[@Zeboki]

Josh D Josh D I mean if you go on with making too way too many “simplifies” which end up having a lot of complexities, yeah that’s the recipe for stupidity. There’s a moment to halt.

[@KevinMack82]

Hellboy is one of my favorite comics, and when Mike Mignola was asked, how did you build a story that had prophecies that we saw carried out 10 years later. Mignola said "The key was make it really vague, and figure it out later."

[@1337-Nathaniel]

It's exactly how Nostradamus' 'prophecies' can be interpreted to make sense. They don't, but when reading into them, they could be made to fit any narrative.

[@kidtytus3014]

That's how all prophesies work.

[@jacobodom8401]

exactly what Bethesda did with Elder Scrolls. Keep it vague and flesh it out when they get to it

[@WinterPains]

@@1337-Nathaniel Same with Biblical Prophecies as well. Edit: Actually, not just biblical prophecies, prophecies from basically every religion.

[@IgnatTrifonov]

@@1337-Nathaniel,

[@windsgrace688]

“Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.” - Bruce Lee Surprisingly relevant to even this topic.

[@julyol119]

True. Probably works for any type of skill/creation. Even business or political practise lol. Gotta love that guy.

[@itsyagirlVofficial]

Bruce Lee is fucking awesome.

[@dragonarchive7443]

Little off topic, but one time the party monk rolled extremely well on every single attack one round, then the DM described "The monk starts doing every bruce lee movie at once. The enemies have been cleared."

[@waaurufu]

"Your players will add to your world in a beautiful way" My players: PvP each other in a tomb over who gets a shiny crown

[@TabooX1984]

Dang, that doesn't sound like fun.

[@VitalHonet98]

If you're cool with it rock on! If not, you can put limits on your items or bonuses that will obviously help certain PCs. Just be sure to spread the love around

[@waaurufu]

@@VitalHonet98 It wasn't a magic item. It was just a shiny crown that was part of the tomb's treasures.

[@uriel7395]

@@waaurufu That happened in my group once. I was playing a character that I used for a high level oneshot in a campaign set before that. So this was before the character became powerful. This pvp led to there now being two versions of that character. One is a paladin of good and the other is an insane god. Essentially, the insane version stole the first's identity and went to travel the multiverse. The insane god was the one I made first.

[@freeinformation9869]

:-D

[@fakjbf3129]

"Stealing from one source is plagiarism, stealing from multiple sources is research"

[@KertaDrake]

...and stealing from everything under the sun is chaotic neutral.

[@EpicImaginator]

Stealing from one or many is still plagiarism. Research is different from stealing.

[@screwinglogic4564]

AlphaBetaCharlie r/woooooooooosshhhhhh

[@Tennouseijin]

Also, stealing and plagiarism are two different things. Stealing is when you take another person's property, so that they no longer have it. You steal someone's car, they no longer have the car. Plagiarism is false attribution. You point at "Mona Lisa" and say "I painted this", that's plagiarism. Unless you are Leonardo da Vinci ;) If you copy another person's property, so that they still have their property, but you have a copy, and then you claim "I copied their property, I didn't make the original, but I made the copy", that is neither theft nor plagiarism. What you said is true, no misattribution. And they still have their property.

[@alfredwinchesterjr]

@@Tennouseijin So what you're saying is that my campaign should have a works cited page?

[@tarvox14]

People often forget that Tolkien didnt write many stories, because he spent 20 years on worldbuilding...

[@TheHarkonnenScum]

He spent his whole life on worldbuilding. He spent 20 years on writing Lord of the Rings.

[@ColonelSandersLite]

@@TheHarkonnenScum And if he had tried to make it into an RPG campaign instead of a book, it would have been completely derailed 15 minutes in when the player playing Frodo decides to stab Gandalf in the back a discrete distance from the shire, keep the ring for himself, and use it to steal everything that isn't nailed down.

[@NoActuallyGo-KCUF-Yourself]

"If I have all day to chop down a tree, I'll spend half the day sharpening my axe." - Abraham Lincoln (maybe, paraphrased, from memory..)

[@jacobstaten2366]

A lot of people forget how dry his books are, especially the battles.

[@monicabower5022]

Spend a lifetime creating a massive, epic-scale, multi-age fantasy universe peopled with monsters, demons, and horror. Then write a children's book set there. Tolkein: "Deal with it"

[@promugg]

i have suffered the over preperation of world building before and i was handed a surprising lesson in the first session. small background is i had never even played before but i was going to dm for my daughter who is 8. she picked a druid to play and she wanted a tiger for a best friend. after over prepping the game world we jumped into the first session, we were looking for tigress (formerly known as beatrice) and she said "let's look at tigers edge". she had made up a location that she thought her tiger friend lived. my knee jerk reaction was to say "no that doesn't exist" because i had spent so much time making the world, to which she replied "but you said anything can happen in this game". after feeling embarassed for a little while i asked her about tigers edge. its by a waterfall in the forest where all the tigers live and is ruled by a lion called sumabi who talks and lives at the top of the waterfall. to get there we have to go past talking trees that try to keep you out of water of the river that is fed by the waterfall. this is now a permanent fixture in the world and i am proud to say that my daughter is a better dm than i am. she taught me the importance of saying yes and creating the world with your players.

[@uncluckable6535]

That is so awesome and also inspiring because I need exactly such a place for my game. Stealing this stellar setting. Tell your daughter some random dude on the internet says thank you.

[@revelationmd]

Excellent stuff 😁 Thinking of getting my 7yo into d&d - had thought to leave it a few years but your post makes me think “maybe not”.

[@demikava6663]

awwwwwWWWWW thats so cute. shes going to remember that forever

[@zork9999]

She's a natural!

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

Damn, wish I'd been that good at world building when I was 8.

[@paulcoy9060]

13:00 This is exactly my philosophy. I refer to it as "Schrodinger's Monster". If my monster is in room 1, and everyone heads to room 2, well then that monster is now in room 2.

[@NathanTAK]

paul coy I think you mean it was *always* in room 2. _Exactly as you planned._

[@cheeseofglass]

It's called a quantum ogre

[@satansbarman]

Schrodinger's monster makes it sound more like you don't know if the monster is dead or alive until you enter the room.

@@cheeseofglass A quantum Lich.

[@KertaDrake]

@@satansbarman Well, it COULD be either a lich or a minotaur. The probabilities only collapse into one or the other once it has been perceived by intelligent eyes, just like that chest over there could be a mimic or not depending on whether the players have been irritating about loot today.

[@skyenyc3661]

Campaign Idea for DMs to play: The Realm of Under Appreciated Worlds it’s a wasteland of all of the detailed worlds that DMs created and never got to use, stuck within purgatory

[@mungeondaster1344]

Skye NYC fuck yes

[@SirDankleberry]

The Gods trash bin.

[@KertaDrake]

You must quest through the Swamps of Sorrow, flooded with the tears of sole survivors of each hundreds of thousands of villages players never saved; the Fortresses of Distress, a sprawling labyrinth of fortresses and dungeons where royalty, nobles, and other hostages and important people are all gathered together awaiting help that will never come; the Sapphire Towers of crystallized magic made by eccentric wizards with incredibly detailed backstories that carved ignored plot hook information in every known language onto every inch of the beautiful surfaces; and the Trail of Greed and Doom, a road paved with the bones of entire civilizations that have fallen because "that guy just HAD to start a fight over the loot and caused a TPK"... Only then will you see the beauty of all these worlds that you missed because you never rode the Golden Railroad to Plotsville.

[@natalyasparrow6748]

There's no rule against reusing content, especially content that is never used. That's why I don't feel the need to control my worldbuilder's disease. If I don't use it now, I can always repurpose it later. :)

[@warpboy101]

This would be what is filling the infinite abyss in the lowest levels of hell.

[@AndrewChumKaser]

"We teach you the rules so that you can break them properly" Excellent advice

[@gmlive5943]

Had the same claim from my art school instructors. Sometimes wonder if Kelly's background is in the arts.

[@dynamicworlds1]

@@gmlive5943 almost every art teacher worth their salt will teach this by the 101 level at the latest. Even just an elective here or there or a good writing teacher can be the source of that lesson. A correlary taught to me by one teacher I had was "there are no wrong ways of doing this, only techniques you haven't learned how to use yet" which was basically the same lesson in reverse.

[@snakeinabox7220]

Me making a whole contenent and planing on making a book ( mhhhhhhh and 25lv character options and what and how to become and grow as a God and battles between gods)

[@alexvanpelt1867]

I instantly thought of music theory

[@njwcagle]

I appreciate that you recognize that those complex realism aspects of worldbuilding are both fun and a waste of time. My players hardly ever notice so I don't really do it much, but sometimes I enjoy doing it for my own entertainment as a DM. I will say that as a geologist running a game for other geologists, attention to detail of the cave systems' limestone composition, specific gem and mineral types in loot, and proper plate tectonics for mountains and continents has actually come into play because my players have that common ground and find it interesting. Knowing your players' personal backgrounds can add those fun meta commentaries about the world during play. I did get a lot of good tips from this video.

[@DungeonDudes]

Thank you! You’re gaming group sounds awesome and I love that you can pull those details in! It’s so key to know your group and their interest level in all topics.

[@daviddawdy6274]

In talking about all the detail put in about castle building, and how much the players want to know, I am reminded of something I say from time to time when dealing with someone who seems compelled to over explain: "Hey, Copernicus, I just asked what time it is; not how to build a watch."

[@Zedrinbot]

One important aspect about maps that's also worth noting: You don't need a map for every single setting or location. I'd generally argue you only really want a map if you're gonna be doing combat in there, and even then mapless (or even gridless) combat is an option. Maps are just meant to help the players visual the setting, but they're not the only way to do that. If you can get by by just describing the setting, the inn, even the town or the city, do that instead, it saves sooo much time. I personally dedicate my maps to just the overworld if I want it (woo generators), active dungeons, and maybe the players' base of operations if they have one.

[@nicomyrick5393]

But what if I just like making maps?

[@TalesofTuram]

@@nicomyrick5393 then you are a cartographer. I have a drawer filled with maps of current and older campaigns I love them too

[@tinkerer3399]

I have given up on creating detailed maps specifically for cities. A super super basic outline and basics of the different regions is enough, I don't think I've drawn a road in the past 10 years. Another thing I have taken to doing is get a basic map of a real city and shrinking and repurposing them. NYC is a bit too well known now but pretty much any other city in the world is up for grabs. For towns old west maps are great.

[@TheD736]

Now if you're designing a tunnel or dungeon with traps, and where their legs are specially is important, maybe make a map on grip paper

[@user2C47]

I find that maps help a lot with consistency, and a lot of our homebrew movement rules without one. (Stock flying rules are complete nonsense for gliders)

[@RevPirateDan]

In the game I've been running the last three years, I've *never* regretted research or attempts at realism. I've only regretted not going *far enough*, when my players start asking each other "I wonder why...?" and I realize that I subconsciously "hand-waved" an explanation for some facet of the world. More often than not, when I've thrown in some aspect that was just an attempt to make the world a little more real for me and that "they'll never notice it", they definitely notice it and explore/research it. But I have a pretty great group of players.

[@davidmorgan6896]

I've often wondered if it would be better is two, or more, people worked on the world creation. The others would call foul on anything that didn't make sense or broke the simulation.

[@sk8rdman]

It's funny that you mention spending incredibly unnecessary amounts of time working out the finer details of a setting, because while as I'm listening to you I've been building an giant castle in minecraft, scaled for cloud giants, just so that I can show it to my players in 3D. This has been an incredible waste of time.

[@mortisCZ]

Did you enjoy it?😊

[@celestialtree8602]

You know, that's a great idea. Maybe I should try that. Wait no Worldbuilding Monster don't eat all my time please I regret my choices-

[@sk8rdman]

@@mortisCZ I don't regret it, because I now have something amazing that I built, but in terms of the number of hours I put into creating it verses the amount of use it actually got at the table it definitely wasn't worth it. I might still do it again some time, because I'm a mad man, but it's really not worth it.

[@TheOsamaBahama]

Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. Also, i would find incredible if my Game Master allowed me to visit a castle in Minecraft, that I visited in my campaign.

[@WinterPains]

@@TheOsamaBahama Damn ir, now I want to play DnD in minecraft. The classes would be done via different mods. I can already think of the Shape-shifting mod for Druids.

[@scottryker4888]

i like that you mentioned "stealing things as a dm and making them your own." I "stole" a map of Greece and Turkey, redesigned some of the coastlines, added a few different island chains and renamed things. Boom, campaign map completed.

[@blackhawk8920]

neat idea I may "steal" that from you using real world map especially from renaissance era.

[@arcticbanana66]

I did that once myself. I took a map of central Europe (France-Spain border to around central Austria), turned it upside down, and renamed things. Nobody noticed until I pointed it out after the campaign.

[@krispalermo8133]

Ravenloft is just that. Count Strahd home turf that is.

[@tomkerruish2982]

Gygax himself did that for Greyhawk.

[@arcticbanana66]

Dragon Quest 3 did that with its world map: it's Earth, with the North and South Poles moved so the map is warped, but all the continents are there (with the addition of the starting continent, which doesn't have a corresponding landmass on Real Earth). www.realmofdarkness.net/dq/img/snes/dq3/maps/overworld-2.png

[@sophialambert2616]

Great advice you guys gave! As a DM whose world is currently on its 6th generations of campaigns going through it, I have to agree 100% with the last point made- let the players change things! My players love coming back to the world a few centuries after a previous game setting and seeing the effects previous characters made: cities risen up from towns they saved, haunted ruins from places they tpk'd on, pantheon shifts when a high level game took out a few gods, a zombie outbreak they didn't get to led to a small city being quarantined and is utterly infested with undead because no one else could stop it, the retired pc who built a galley ship as a bed and breakfast in the middle of the landlocked mountains brought in a wave of new races to an area by doing so and how that's playing out, etc. Things look very different than the 1st gen campaign, and it's definitely for the better!

[@XCVIII]

This is what I want for my homebrew world, at least thats the plan

[@westcoastgeeks7294]

6th generation that is impressive. Your world sounds very interesting.

[@gromaxe]

Do 20-lvl players have chance to become gods?

[@zukolives]

Such a cool concept! Just getting into DM'ing and love the idea of an ever-changing and affected world.

[@sophialambert2616]

@@gromaxe just seeing this had comments. In answer- one PC, due to extraordinary circumstances that were initially unplanned but unfolded with uncanny synchronicity, that reached lvl25 has become a minor deity in that world. Which resulted in the character becoming an NPC, and the player consulted on occasion for how their character is handling certain new events. But the eldest gods in my world can go up to levels 80-100, and it's not as easy as standard d&d outlines to join them or shake things up because they have their own set of rules trying to maintain balances.

[@carinaelliott8388]

Counterpoint: I like making stupidly detailed worlds knowing the players won’t ever see some things.

[@Merlewhitefire]

That's fine if you enjoy doing it But if it's stopping you from running the game because you feel unfinished, that becomes the problem.

[@plantsbatsandcats]

Honestly, worlds like that you can use multiple times. Include parts that the players have changed after it’s after the last, or don’t include them, or have part of what they are doing gently leading them into what sets up the world for the last campaign.

[@Kename]

And this is definitely the “labor of love” part of world building. I do it for me as much as the players. The world for me, and this little place for the players tonight.

[@BackyardBonsaiAustralia]

Having them then start again new campaign and charecters hay that place over there in another campaign we made that guy king. Cool he still rules there man but this is like 20 years later this trade port was a fishing village back then

[@KertaDrake]

Countercounterpoint: You might enjoy writing books using those details on the side.

[@bassett_green]

The advice @12:30 is great. Players don’t only understand and accept that they ended up somewhere not prepped , but in my experience players actively *like* it. My players are always really proud of themselves when they get into a situation where they get me to stop and call for a 15 minute break because I didn’t even consider the possibility

[@davidmorgan6896]

You cannot prepare everything; that's axiomatic. A good GM should always give the impression that they prepared everything. If you can make stuff up in '15 minutes' you can do it in five or just on the fly.

[@averagejoe455]

"Big words 'bout castle make head hurt." -Party Barbarian

[@StevoM08]

Monte: I slammed a meteor into my world. Kelly: Yeah! Monte: And I'll do it again. Kelly(Channeling Sebastian): Wait, what?

[@MonkeyJedi99]

I'm doing something similar, but it is a comet that has fragmented, and is carrying a score or more castles of baddies that are aiming for the world. When the comet pieces strike, the castles will decelerate and float about like evil strato-carriers.

[@Erc112]

@@MonkeyJedi99 Awesome idea

[@Sorain1]

@@MonkeyJedi99 Now _that's_ a solid alien invasion fantasy idea!

[@GuardianTactician]

@@MonkeyJedi99 Ever play Chrono Trigger? Turns out the meteor that killed the dinosaurs was an eldritch horror world eating parasite.

[@MonkeyJedi99]

@@GuardianTactician Never played that game, sounds cool.

[@noahmehringer29]

"You're world will look better on fire." - Monty Martin. I feel like he and Little-finger from Game of Thrones could get along.

[@BigggusDikkkus]

What about Heath Ledgers joker?

[@noahmehringer29]

@@BigggusDikkkus Him too!

[@vinnyfalzarano4911]

Don't forget Slash!

[@kaylasings8122]

That part really made me crack up !😂

[@kerrytking]

*Your

[@WoollyLuke]

Every time I hear, “don’t over prepare,” I think, don’t prepare the wrong things. It’s not about how much time you spent preparing, it’s about learning what stuff is going to be useful and what isn’t. Just like any job or art, as you learn it you figure out which stuff is actually a priority to the objective that you’re going for.

[@Draeckon]

Another way to put it: Prepare the things you either can't or don't want to improvise.

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

Agree. The things you do prepare need to be elastic and adaptable, or else big and important enough to justify being inflexible, and even then inflexible only to a point. Prepare a quest line following a necromancer, but don't pin anything down to any particular place or person. The necromancer is possibly someone the party pissed off previously, or someone relevant to someone's backstory, or a lose end to an old quest, or just some new person, you find them following investigating some suspicious activity a while outside of whatever town the players happen to be in when they're level 6ish. If the players don't bite, then move on, maybe throw some skeletons at their favorite pet NPC later if that necromancer is a hook to something. The details can just come and grow out of whatever comes up in the spot. Like who the necromancer is, what and where their lair is, what their goals are, something will make sense based on what's already happened. Good maps have nice blank spots where the Great Marsh of the Lizardmen or Halfling Shogunate can be plopped down if you suddenly need those things. I don't remember where I heard it, but one of my favorite accounts of a DM worldbuilding and ending up overprepared and anxious was setting up the grand quest of The Lord of The Rings, only for the entire party to show up as Dwarves, and one late addition halfling, throw the "main" quest out the window, and embark on their own side quest to beat up the dragon squatting on one of the player's ancestral kingdom. One I do remember is an old webcomic, DM of the rings, which also showcases some pitfalls of overpreparing and overinvesting effort on an outcome that your players don't actually follow through on, such as when Legolas simply shot the thing rustling around the woods near camp, and the DM had to end the session then and there to rewrite hours of prepared material to a mournful cry of "gwah, precious!". And of course, paraphrased "All this discussion of rulership and responsibility causes you to think about your kingdom" "My kingdom? I thought I was a wanderer" "Well, yes, you're a wanderer, but you're the exiled king of-" "Holy shit, I'm a king? Since when?" "I gave you a packet with your backstory to read back before the game started" "I'll get to it, man, I'll get to it"

[@WoollyLuke]

@@aprinnyonbreak1290 the dm account you’re thinking of could be Matt Coleville’s, maybe: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e5y7fqufdqyIjck

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

@@WoollyLuke THAT WAS IT Thanks!

[@andrewjohnson6716]

7:30 I agree. One of the most memorable campaigns that I played in happened entirely in one valley on the coast surrounded by mountains with one port. We never left that region, did not know the first thing about anything outside of that region, and the campaign never suffered for it.

[@kiiper13]

Pretty convenient you put this out three days after I started making my first home brew campaign

[@MastaChafa]

12:56 I literally imagined the castle being pluck from the ground, being moved through the air and landing violently onto the woods.

[@MikaelJSandersson]

It would be so funny if the party arrives and the DM describes it like "The castle seems out of place in this forest, and it has broken trees sticking out from underneath". :D

[@jyrvehkormsson7833]

@@MikaelJSandersson Me as a DM reading this: **STEAL!**

[@VitalHonet98]

I'm taking this

[@PointySuperman]

This is a useful comment

[@Alresu]

@@MikaelJSandersson Yep, noting that down too.

[@edwardp4417]

I try to use the 3 sentence rule. Basically locations outside of the starting area get described by no more than 3 sentences. This leaves me tons of room to change and massage things as my players discover them. Even in my starting locations things like, NPCs, markets, black smiths, etc only get 3 sentences.

[@apjapki]

Bullet points are underrated.

[@GogiRegion]

When a DM heavily borrows something from another existing source, it both is cool because you get the reference as well as makes it easier to understand. When I was getting into D&D and was told that Halflings are basically Hobbits, it made it much easier to understand Halflings as well as it being cool that D&D had elements from a book I liked. If D&D itself is able to steal from existing sources, DMs can do it too.

[@BobWorldBuilder]

Being open to letting the players add to and flavor parts of your setting makes it easier in the long run, and it will give you original ideas to build upon!

[@Will_Forge]

Right. This is where you pull in their backstories. They say their home town was ravaged by a dragon? Make that dragon come back, or make the village secretly house a powerful artifact or person the dragon was after. And then make another organization want it too, because the dragon never found it. Maybe it was the player, or maybe their blood, or maybe they have the artifact hidden within themselves, or within the locket they keep with pictures of their parents inside. All of this will blow the party's minds, and draw them into the conflict. And all along the way you keep making the main conflict creep back up.

[@BobWorldBuilder]

William Bosley Yep, this is how I run D&D!

[@robertabarnhart6240]

I call it "filing off the serial numbers". Taking someone else's idea and changing it just enough that the source material is not immediately recognizable.

[@1337-Nathaniel]

My DM blatantly stole the Chaos gods from fantasy warhammer. Little did he know that I caught on as soon as some cult had painted the chaos wheel onto the floor. It's not bad, but it took me out of the story for a little bit.

[@devnull8029]

I just ran a one shot this past weekend for a group I'm usually a PC in. And used the tb of horrors map as the entrance to a shifting labarynthine temple filled with xenomorphs. They figured out what was going on right after they killed the predator in the entrance and examined it's corpse.

[@dynamicworlds1]

@@1337-Nathaniel there was still a bit of the serial number there if you could recognize the gods by their iconography. Ideally, you'd be pulling the chaos gods, adding a twist (origional and/or by pulling in elements from at least one other source), changing the cult structure to something inspired by another source, and then using iconography unrelated to any of those sources. Also, you'd be pulling in elements from at least one source that isn't medieval fantasy to help keep from creating from recognizable troupes too heavily.

[@clintonm2357]

@@1337-Nathaniel that could be fun.i had a player name his human character "Tanis," like I did not spend my youth in the library. At some point, I changed a big baddie into an elf named Darth and dropped a "half elven... I am your father" on him.

[@cattrucker8257]

"I slammed a meteor into my world, and I'll do it again!" Drakkenheim spoilers?

[@MonkeyJedi99]

My campaign is leading up to multiple strikes by a highly fragmented large comet. I already looked at the impact physics, the fallout process, the climate changes, and so on. And I added demons with a grudge tot he story line for the comet.

[@MonkeyJedi99]

The good thing, is I am too lazy to over-prepare.

[@CJOotjers]

@@MonkeyJedi99 I'd love to see a campaign that *starts* with a meteor impact, and fallout. How does everyone react when the sky has been filled with dark clouds for days or weeks...

[@StarlasAiko]

"You throw another moon at me, I'm gonna loose it."

[@Alphadog2064]

Kilravok There is nothing I can say except YES

[@gordonexperience4859]

Something that I have found useful for drawing maps is by throwing dice onto a piece of paper and drawing lines around them, with each number on each die corresponding to a certain detail, like a castle, fortress, forests, hills, etc. I also do this with predrawn maps, using the rolls to fill in settlements, ruins, and the like.

[@bonthebunnycat667]

I saw that on reddit xD I'd use it but my campaign will most likely via Internet 😔

[@HeavensOfMetal]

“I steal as much as I can”, Monty Martin, 2019. Open up! It’s the police!

[@jacobvanveit3437]

The Sea Of Thy Soul they are wise words.

[@matthiasthulman4058]

*FBI has joined the chat*

[@xthebumpx]

Pumat Sol as the RCMP.

[@squiremontressor3747]

"take what you can. give nothing back"

[@fpicotte]

"I'm a big fan of the morally gray and the in-between and people that disagree about what the world should be like." Yes, and the stand-off between the Silver Order, the Hooded Lanterns, the PC's (and, playing in the shadows, the Amethyst Academy) was beautifully built up and executed. A masterpiece!

[@DungeonDudes]

Thank you!

[@TriMarkC]

Francis Picotte My players are about to entire that gray moral space. Ultimately, they’re going up against a Vampire that has bargained with a demi-god/demi-demon & won his soul back. He’s still technically undead but also has a soul. A test for my undead-hunting clerics. And, this vampire’s sole goal is to win back the heart of his lost love, an elven sorceress who rejected him when he was turned. So he killed his vampire master, rid the region of all vampires, and has saved an entire city from ruin. The sorceress is the party’s Benefactor. He still must feed, so he kills murderers & other evil doers, mostly. In his long past, he decimated an entire village in a bloodbath to appease his vampire master. And, so we don’t feel too many feels for this vampire, his primary plan is to warp the planet’s magic (ley lines & even dragon magic) to turn back time, so he was never a vampire... and likely destroying or at least changing magic on this world in unknowable ways. Even Fate itself has stepped in, as it is not sure what will happen!

[@JordanBl]

One of the first points "Don't plan too much." Meanwhile I've started a tabletop game in a system of my own design, with a world of my own design, and regularly hit stages of "Oh shit I didn't prepare for this, time to wing it."

[@Merlewhitefire]

The sad thing is, no matter how detailed you get, you will never think of *every single thing* your players will poke at that you'll need an answer for. So even if you over-prepare you'll still wind up winging it eventually.

[@JordanBl]

That's true indeed. Very true indeed. Turns out some players just have too much curiosity to contain. Well, it's fun; if I could prepare for everything they would do it would be less fun.

[@humbertoncs8132]

Hello. I'm also creating a system of my own (D&D 5e, but for dummies kinda), with simple settings and such. I'd love to get to know more about your ideas!

[@JordanBl]

Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot of useful details I can offer. I've been trying to build a combat system which involves skill levels with gradual growth which then have an impact of combat more than dice rolls and large level-ups - though dice still play a large part. For example, skills are currently distributed with strength and dexterity as the main offensive skills; an extra level in strength will give a small but constant increase in damage, and dexterity allows for an increase to accuracy in a similar way. After each battle (Or sometimes extended training sessions) combatants receive an amount of experience for each these skills based on their equipment and actions, so a character's abilities will develop in comparison to their fighting style; somebody who uses large and slow weapons will build their strength significantly faster than their dexterity, and somebody with light and quick weapons builds more dexterity. I'm still working out the kinks, but it would be something like a fight giving out - and these are just random numbers - 5exp; A combatant who uses a warhammer and chooses to stand and fight may receive the full 5 points to their Strength skill, whereas somebody who uses daggers and tries to stay out of direct engagements might have all 5 go into their dexterity. Somebody who stands between the two, say a person with a light weapon but a more direct combat style, could have a mixture of the two. Unfortunately, the difficulty is in finding balance for these skills. If dexterity provides too much benefit, or the effect builds too quickly, then players who focus on it may seem like they have a much greater impact on battle because they deal much more consistent damage. Conversely, if it scales too slowly, or doesn't have enough effect, then it would feel useless, and characters whose actions have led to a focus on dexterity would feel ineffective and unenjoyable. Similar problems can crop up for every skill, and if you have a comparison like Strength and Dexterity being the offensive skills, if one is only slightly underpowered and the other slightly overpowered, the difference can still seem significant. Still, even with these difficulties in mind, I have a strong desire to develop a system where the player's preferences and actions will show steady improvement, rather than a level system which provides a large reward at sparse milestones. It provides a more natural feeling of growth, and it means you don't have sudden unnatural changes like "I stabbed a lot of things have a level of Wizard now, so I can use magic." Your character would have spent time studying and practicing to use that magic, as the lore behind wizard would indicate. It also allows for a more detailed development of the character if I use smaller leveling barriers; with D&D you get up to 20 levels and distribute those between classes as you see fit, and your classes (and Feats if you use them) determine your character's abilities. With skills that level individually, somebody could focus on training on skill for a while, then switch up, or they could try to vary things as they go. Of course, that's not to say using larger level milestones like D&D is a bad idea at all. Since you're aiming for a simplified system, I'd think having the more solid levels is actually preferable. There's less need to worry about details like what skills you're focusing on, what benefits you're gaining, and so on. So, sadly, that's the only detail I'd feel I have at a reasonable state to share, but it may not suit your design at all.

[@humbertoncs8132]

@@JordanBl That was some amazing piece of information. I loved the Dex and Strength idea and I hope you find a balanced way to make it work. It reminds me of Pokémon and Chrono Cross. In the latter, the strongest kind of attack is less accurate, which could be explained by brute force and mages target all enemies with their strongest "attack" (magic energy shot at enemies), sacrificing a lot of accuracy. In my system, the player is allowed to carry less weapons than in D&D, weapons used to cast magic require a minimum magic stat and weapons used for physical fights require a minimum strength stat. I'm also changing the spell slots mechanics a bit, so the spells won't vary that much (as opposed to "dealing more damage when cast in a higher level spell slot"). I really wanted to change it so the skills work based on Magic Points and that's why I've been changing the slots mechanics, but I'm leaving this feature for the future maybe.

[@drfoxcourt]

The first point, that of overplanning, is by far the most important. The best DMs (IMHO) have maybe a couple of stages (levels, depths...) of dungeon, a major (unavoidable) city, a province-wide map, a sketchy Continental scale map, and a short list of fleshed out NPCs and that's about it. There is maybe a paragraph theme. The rest is made up on a 2-3 session basis. Let past playing sessions drive future ones, and listen to your players and what they want to drive your DM invention. Bravo Dungeon-dudes.

[@ron.c.koster]

Around the 30 min mark u talked about the big bad, something that really helped me was i had a big bad and her 5 generals. the players first encountered 1 of the generals at the start of the campaign and got shit stamped, then focussed on him the later found out he was a general and working for the witch queen at round lvl 6. I personally focussed a bit on an living world, when the players didnt go somewere the world did change. What really helped me with this was; - i controlled the 5 generals and the world - my best friend was the person that became the witch queen (it was his wizard that died in a campaign we played). So i could build a world that was alive and i could get feedback after the sessions on what the witch queen would command the generals and her general motives. That way the big bad was making her moves and i didnt have to think about everything because he didnt have anything else to do then try to 'take over the world'. I hope my story made a bit of sense and maybe helped someone he reads it

[@ricborrow8590]

So glad I found this video. You really highlight the greatest downfalls of what could be great stories, if we as world builders dont let over exposition get in the way. I have a MAJOR issue with realism. I researched the formation of continents over time through volcanic activity. I really appreciate the time taken to really explain WHY these are pitfalls. Incredible work. Thank you.

[@wesleyfilms]

“It’s not stealing if the players don’t catch you.” ~Me

[@paulcoy9060]

I'm lucky in that respect because I'm the old man, 52. My players are in their 20's. So the thousands of hours of tv and movies and books that I have in my head can give me a hell of an advantage when trying to find a villain, or monster, or adventure hook.

[@williamtiller6458]

I really hate it when I catch a DM stealing from a source I know. It feels lame. It’s fine to use tropes, archetypes or even some stereotypes but just wholesale theft annoys me because I was looking for a new experience, not a bad retread of one I already had.

[@wesleyfilms]

William Tiller that’s why you got to be super sneaky

[@jyrvehkormsson7833]

It's not railroading, if the players don't realize they don't have a choice! oh wait... it is...

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

@@jyrvehkormsson7833 the players never really have a choice if you're DMing well, after all, the lich doesn't have to have his castle on that mountain...

[@Tennouseijin]

One thing that was common in real history, but is often missing or simply impossible in fantasy settings is... false maps. Historically, it was common for map makers to depict lands they've only heard about, but never been to. Lands like Atlantis, and other mythological lands were often put on the fringes of the "Known World". Even real locations were often misshapen, or put in the wrong place, because either the map maker was working based on hearsay, or based on memory (long after being there), or simply because measuring one's geographical location was imprecise at the time. Now imagine PCs in a D&D game buying a map from a traveling merchant. You give players a handout with the map, but ingeniously you put some false information, some errors etc. to make it more realistic. Players compare the map to what they find in official books for the setting and they immediately see the discrepancies. Now they'd have to be really good at not-metagaming, to play by PC knowledge. ... thus, if one wants to have false maps as a possible story element, having no public 'official' map of the world makes a lot of sense. Another option is to have an official map... but say it's only symbolic, not to scale, and could contain false information. Basically, it's just the most complete map that the people IN the world have, rather than presenting it as a map made by an outside observer. _______ As for realism, I have to say IT DEPENDS ON THE PLAYERS. Both as a player and as a GM I appreciate realism and historical accuracy, and for me if something in fantasy 'doesn't make sense' under scrutiny, it breaks immersion. And I love hearing and discussing things like medieval culture, demographics, architecture, even plate tectonics and climate physics. So, the lesson to learn here is - check with your players. If they enjoy realistic fantasy as much as you do, go ahead and make things realistic! Only if they don't, putting effort into realism will be a 'waste of time' from their POV, but do keep in mind, if lack of realism breaks the immersion FOR YOU as a GM... you're probably better off still putting some effort into realism, even if players don't care. For your own sanity. Also, players will notice if you're not having fun because you're forcing yourself to play a world you don't like. So, make realistic worlds if you want. Just don't dump the info on your players, if they don't care.

[@kieslodarkmoon9184]

Another way to do it, is to have the Map be magical in the since that it is a blank parchment that updates at "aol" speeds only after the party has reached said location. You can put know cities/villages/kingdoms on said map and just fill in the area between said areas as the party explores the area

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

False map work is also really common if you have the ability to copy maps, as a false island can act like a watermark.

[@kenji214245]

Hehe i have a bunch of NPC's spout things as if they are true. They might even believe they are true. But most of them just assume that is how it is or heard it from someone else. So my players often end up in deep trouble or lost because they think that was proper information and didn't double check it. XD

[@Vestlandsguten]

You my good sir, are my totem animal. I do this a lot for my own sanity, researching medieval smithing-techniques, architecture and even geography etc to get a certain verisimilitude in my campaign-setting. But little by little, the players started to notice these little details, and as a result got more invested as they knew I had put a lot of effort into the setting and not just making things up on the fly. Also agree with not dumping info on the players. I find it better to do the opposite, leave the players info-starved, so that their characters will have to do an effort for the necessary info. One time my players had their characters visit the dukal library just to get the opportunity to scavenge some lost lore about the place they were about to go. (Of course the Temple had erased any written text mentioning it, and it became a quest in on it's own to locate surviving documents)

[@miss_bec]

Related to the final point: The most memorable moment in Final Fantasy 14's history was the ending of 1.0, where everything got blown up by a dragon living in a moon. If you need to spice stuff up, burn it all down but make it cool at the same time. I make all my characters knowing they'll probably die at some point and looking forward to it, and I make all my worlds with the same mindset.

[@megan_alnico]

In respect to how magic affects a world, I remember my friend once calculated how many barrels of pickled fish a resurrection spell would cost. It was so expensive that a lone fisherman that lost his wife would have to work for like 100+ years before being able to afford a resurrection. (I think this was 2nd edition...) Yet it costs a player character almost nothing to cast the spell if they are of the right level. That's an incredible divide between the XP haves and the XP have nots.

[@eyebotsubject-x8270]

I’m actually flabbergasted at how useful this stuff was and how little I heard of these.

[@JimminyJim]

I love how y’all put time stamps in the description. I wish more videos like this would do it.

[@lyingcat9022]

“Show, don’t tell” I think is a good rule to port over from novel writing.

[@Strawzaw]

alternitavely: "Tell, don't show." I've seen way too many DM's use maps and things like roll20 instead of actually describing the things around the players

[@beardalaxy]

I've been developing a world and lore for over 4 years for a video game I'm working on and decided to use it for D&D since it was my first time being a dungeon master. Even after working on it for so long, there are still things being brought up by the players all the time that flesh out the world a LOT. It's pretty awesome. The best thing to do is have a loose idea of what you want things to be like and let the players fill in the rest.

[@lkriticos7619]

I started DMing my first campaign a few months ago and it's been really fun so far. I decided to set it on a group of magical islands and I think that was a good way of curbing over preparation. Each of the islands is only 20 miles across, if that. So I knew in advance there was a limited amount of stuff I could put on each one and a barrier to the players getting from place to place. I found it a neat and helpful way to stop myself from going over board. The players seem to be enjoying the challenge of getting around and the surprises of each new island. I didn't have a BBEG in mind when I began; just a few factions who all had different agendas. The players fixed on one NPC that they absolutely hated, a petty, elitist sorcerer. And now I can't wait to bring this throw-away character back as the punchable face of his faction.

[@MrSauce-tw6lm]

As a DM, my first made up world is going to be a small continent called Cadrifel. It is a land torn by warring factions, who give mystical powers a chance to rise. You guys have given me a lot of help on how I am going to run this. Fortunately, I had designed this entire fantasy world before I even got into D&D, so the general lore is all covered. This video is really going to help me with how I choose to prepare, and play this world.

[@QjoCabz]

That tip around 13:00 is great! When I DM’d my first session (one-shot), I gave my players a way to access a map of the town and had marked important areas of the town on it. I marked them, but did not label them, so I could alter the order of plot points spontaneously, depending on where they decided to explore first. That way the story could progress without restricting the players’ ability to explore how they wanted to.

[@CanUkeepTheBEAT]

As a player watching this video, it really opened up my eyes to the GM and their responsibilities. It's made my attitude way more forgiving and it made it easier for me as a player to help them. Thank you so much for taking the time to making all your videos. This one really helped me as a new player and hopefully my GM's will notice a change too. In an afterthought, I didn't realize how difficult I was making it for them, before we even started a session.

[@Kell_of_Kellers]

I just have to say, this is litterally the 3rd time I've been about to do or create something and you guys post a video regarding my current endeavor within a day or two of me starting it. I love you guys, thank you for all the amazing content and passion you bring with each and every video!

[@foolwise4703]

Monty, I have to tell you that your love for detail and thoroughness of research and realism is a big part of why I love your channel!

[@paulcoy9060]

13:00 This is a great example of Schrodinger's Tabaxi, a fantasy version of his Cat. The castle exists in both places at once, and only by traveling to a specific location does that castle become real in that place. That's when it's wave function collapses, and the players can see it.

[@slimecatking5373]

It could exist around the corner or under your bed!!!

[@bosnianbeggar]

A big problem DMs I've had is every problem has to be a big thing, each little story is "you have to stop the bad guy before he destroys everything", when honestly i would just love "hey, larry the salesman needs some help with his route", throw in a few encounters and problems along the way. It gives a chance at slower moments letting you breathe and talk, talk with players to help flesh out characters and give interaction between the group, talk with Larry to get info on the places you stop by on the way to give the world a feeling of life outside of the problems you face

[@NoActuallyGo-KCUF-Yourself]

"Good artists copy. Great artists steal." - -Pablo Picasso- - mdiem

[@gmlive5943]

Thank you for the proper attribution. So tired of seeing this quote paraphrased as someone else's original.

[@skoolier]

Good stuff guys! My first time DM-ing I had never actually played the game yet. All my friends wanted to play D&D and so did I, and I was the one with the drive to make it happen. So, naturally, I had no idea what was fun and what wasn't from a player perspective. I railroaded the game immediately, and squashed my players' every attempt to change the outcome of the game, all in the name of "muh precious story." They were all good sports about it but I remember the feeling of "wait, what the heck am I doing? I'm ruining everything!" and I have since changed. One big tip I have for new DM's is to point the players in a direction and let them run crazy. If you aren't prepared for what they are headed towards, stall them where they are with combat or something until you end the session, and then prepare for the next session afterwards. Also, let them steamroll the combat every few times. No one wants the feeling of "oh I'm more powerful but now all of the enemies are suddenly my level too so I haven't really gotten more powerful". (I'm looking at you, Skyrim.) Let them feel like heroes and like they are overleveled every now and then! Let em mop the floor with the rugged bandits they find between the cities and stuff. Things like that

[@powerhouse04330]

"Do Not over Prepare" - I Finally got this right (well so far) my most recent campaign - I was asked to start my game 6 months earlier than originally planned. it was perfect things have gone so well, building slowly as we go.

[@ironclad1609]

Currently planning and plotting my first D+D 5 campaign. Really enjoyed your videos for the last two hours, giving me some pretty good ideas. Can't wait to watch a few more!

[@adammalone2909]

Monty wearing the Canadian national shirt. Love the video!

[@_bats_]

Hah, I was going to comment on his great shirt!

[@hadizahedi5651]

Ooooh canadaaaaaaa.

[@dreddbolt]

Overpreparation ends up being my fun, to an extent. I have at least 123 pages of content so far, but a lot of it is meant to be used as legacy content so I can run my world over and over again for new players. I see a lot of interesting points, but at the same time, I'm tempted to figure out how to make grand designs. This is actually one of the best world building videos I've seen, because on a personal note, this video actually touches on ideas I like to utilize for inspiration. I had this one dungeon where I took the hospital from Silent Hill 0rigins and tweaked the layout, reusing the puzzles. I also stole the bogey-man-like specter from the Taiwanese horror game Detention, then, for the dungeon's end boss, I took the Sepulcher from Silent Hill Homecoming and heavily altered it to resemble a Bloodborne-esque monster. I tossed in some necrotic ooze and some zombie maggots, making for a pretty cool homebrewed dungeon crawl. For my current campaign, I'm using my same homebrewverse, but the campaign is currently taking place in a big crime city within my multiverse's material plane. The city takes heavy influence from Shadowrun and Cyberpunk 2020. My world is somewhat magic-punk, putting an arcane twist on steampunk and cyberpunk elements, involving airships and artificier implants replicating cyberware in an arcane fashion. Anyway, I subbed and rang the bell. Good video, dudes.

[@jonathan.curras]

I want to know more about the LoZ MM and Dark Souls mashup campaign

[@KertaDrake]

Everything is about to wreck you, including the moon. Roll for initiative.

[@talongreenlee7704]

I’d be surprised if it wasn’t Dungeons if Drakkenheim. They’ve got a playlist for the entire series up on KZbin to watch for free. Aside from the 100 hour time cost to watch it all, of course.

[@adambickford8720]

Great advice! Have a few canned 'moments' (encounters, locales, etc) as backup, but otherwise just wing it. Tailor your world as the things happen; I promise most players will appreciate that more than feeling railroaded into your original vision.

[@wizzolo]

as someone who played D&D for 25 years, you guys are great! I'm very happy I found your channel, keep up the great work! :D

[@ShawnBoikethemaharishi]

I have fallen into everyone of these traps and failed the dex check each time! Very accurate review

[@brettgilley]

"I slammed a meteor into my world.....and Ill do it again!" That was a great line.

[@The482075]

Oh Sephiroth. Slamming a meteor into Gaia. You do you.

[@AresEffic98]

You guys have been an amazing resource for me as i make tweaks to a world i have been designing since i was in second grade, i just want to thank you both for putting an immense amount of time and effort into these videos and for being willing to share your creative thoughts as well as your cautionary ones. sincerely, just a guy being a dude, and hopefully one day, my own version of a dungeon dude.

[@Cheddarcheesemonkey]

DM/Author: I ABSOLUTELY HAVR TO KNOW WHAT KIND OF WOOD AN 8TH CENTURY PEASANT'S DINNER TABLE WOULD BE MADE OF Player: I smash the table

[@throeawae2130]

Knowing the type of wood would change the break dc and hardness :))))

[@kokosan09]

"Your world will look better in fire" gave me shivers but also really resonated with me. great tips, I'll try my best to keep them in mind while creating my first campaign & world!

[@Amatsaru29]

Regarding magic schools, just switch around the subjects you typically find in high school/college schedules. To make things spicier, college antics from reddit stories are good inspiration. Some examples: Biology is healing spells and dissecting magical creatures; chemistry as alchemy; P.E turns into practically applying spells; even in some colleges advocating certain peoples cultural values could be inverted to "hey it's just a warlock's weird ritual for his patron". (Did a magical college were we had a warlock npc break into rooms weekly to maintain favor for his patron).

[@linkno1]

Me and a friend both started doing our first campaigns at around the same time and would swap DM'ing each week. We had about 4 months to prepare (we usually play weekly but we struggled in that time). Especially after watching this, that was a lot of time to prepare, more so when I don't know about him, but I was writing something, looking up rules or gathering neat homebrew content for at least an hour most days in that time period. He started about 2 months earlier than me (giving me about an extra 2 months prep time). He had written it meticulously with every detail planned out, and you could tell. There was so much high rolling dice from us yet hearing "you fail", "you can't do that because, erm, he's, immune?", "I'm gonna say don't roll, he just doesn't believe you". There was very little about it where we felt that we had any freedom, like we were basically observers of a novel. Only one of us could turn up and the session would have still ended the same way as a full group. The end of the sessions were a bit awkward, the only person really wanting to talk about the session afterwards was him, we kinda just changed the subject quickly since we still wanted to hang out, just not talk about the session. Rather than arranging the next session, somebody would just ask on the day it usually happens "is it happening tonight?" and if not it didn't seem like anybody was bothered replying with "okay" and leaving it at that. We don't really have any interesting stories from them that are our own, everything was kinda already written before we started playing. It wasn't so bad at first since we all knew it was his (and soon my) first time DM'ing, maybe he'll loosen up and let us derail a little after a few sessions...If that was going to happen, we lost all enthusiasm before then. I started mine. Most of my notes were just quest titles for my own reference with a vague start and end point so they could start basically anywhere at any time. Any homebrew enemies I've made are balanced for level 1 so that I can just pull them out at any time and buff them. I have a ton of country, city and town names just for if I'm ever asked about them, but I'm only actually placing them on a map as we go along. I have randomly generated town/city maps with nothing labeled, I just decide whether or not a place has a blacksmith when I'm asked before randomly assigning a building on the map as the blacksmith. I have a list of puzzles and riddles I printed from the internet that I'll just throw into a dungeon at random, yano, assuming they come across a dungeon since I'll only decide whether there is a dungeon the week before the session. I've essentially just got a big folder with a bunch of stuff that sounds like it will be cool and/or fun that I've yet to actually decide when will happen...Sure, I've got some stuff where I have some stuff decided. I have ongoing plots in mind, but only really know how they might start and what a goal could be, I'll write the rest when they've done that session since they might decide to have another goal for all I know. I've basically adopted the strategy of being asked "can I do this?" and replying "sure, why the hell not?". I have an endgame in mind but again, it's not set in stone, I don't have a roadmap of how they're going to get there. I have a basic plot, some Mcguffins and an idea of "this will happen...Maybe, if they decide to actually go here/do that", but only so they have something to work towards. I'm having enough fun watching the shit they get up to on the way there to care about the destination. Since day one (the session I was dreading the most) the group were talking about the session that just happened more than I was. They start asking about plans for the next week almost immediately. If we can't do a session on the day they'll start spitballing times and days for the closest available day. Most of the stuff they talk about is random shit I didn't write, I just sat back and let them doing things happen thinking "okay, this is basically a free quest I don't have to write" such as the 'pig quest' or 'midget incident'.

[@dcoffinh]

"Your world will look better on fire." So well said!

[@GinnyLuver2]

I’m currently working on making a Breath of the Wild campaign for our D&D group. I was so overwhelmed by the concept of getting the huge world map copied over to Roll20 that I procrastinated on it a lot. I then found an interactive version of the world map with details on everything that you can find on it as well. I decided to copy the link to everyone and help guide them through that. So much time saved.

[@BuzzYear10]

My first homebrew world I thought up the main city, the monarchy situation, revolutionary group, and mage guild also trying to stage a coup. There was an ancient civilisation with powerful hidden maguffin artefacts all the factions were after and that was it. The players did the rest XD

[@danthedesimator5593]

I'm still a brand new DM, and for my first campaign I did just about all these mistakes you mentioned. These videos really help me get a better idea and mindset towards D&D and how it should be; fun

[@cattrucker8257]

It's fun to compare your pointers here to HTBAGGM's Guy current "Creating the Campaign" series, because they're basically polar opposites in some ways (but not that much in others). I'm trying to follow it by tooling up a test setting based off an existing franchise, which is quite fun, but you bring up things that are never mentioned by Guy but which feel vital for actual TTRPG playability. To put what you say short, overpreparation and overdesigning is a bad idea for tabletop RPG, and the gamemasters must not forget they're running a live-play RPG session, not writing a novel. Remember that you're just giving lots of fluff and setups for a live RPG with people who may not even care that much, and design with that in mind. This is the one overriding principle of tabletop worldbuilding. It's not your manuscript, it's a live-produced collab between the DM and the players, with the DM supplying most materials but the crafting done all together. That said, I am, however, a fan of focusing on the world beyond and having it be affected by the player actions, not write around the protagonist party - its life going on outside of the party's line of sight as well as in it, and the party's actions affecting that as well as the villains' plans (e.g. the villains just giving up after the players cut them off too much). Still, I also have a soft spot for "truly fanciful" worlds, like ones that aren't even a planet or a set thereof, but instead happen on flying islands, hollow spheres, flat planes of earth etc; where "rules of realism" don't apply as much and a lot about the world is based on fantasy fiat and "because manifesting gods/forces willed it so", not obsessive calculation of thermodynamics. Classic flight-of-fantasy adventures are always in demand, not just "hardcore pseudorealism" stuff that's been touted the past decade or two. I particularly love your point about monolithic evil. It's actually a good one to keep in mind even for "aspiring published authors", because like you said, a monolithic evil is unrealistic and works poorly in novels trying for that. You can write an absolute evil somewhere, goodness knows most fantasy loves the stuff, but even if there is one, the players should be dealing with its less-absolute servants and followers most of the time. "Abstract concept with agency" is easy fantasy fuel, but having just them alone is dull; more human and unabsolute villains and heroes and NPCs are where it's at for me. Monolithic anything works poorly - thanks for bringing up the "evil system always suppresses magic 100% all the time while there're many magicians running around" bit as well, I've seen so many people trying to be "original" with this and failing terribly. Just... don't do that, make witch hunts if you like but make it feel right. And for goodness's sake, would-be setting writers, stop with the "oppressed spellcasters" cliche; these are people who wield WMD-level powers, if anything, they're going to at least fight overwhelming mundane forces to a standstill, but even more likely it's the muggles who'd be "oppressed" at the hands of a wizard. In a high-saturation magic world, "mage persecution" does not work, and even in many low-saturation ones it's an extremely hard sell. Better do something less trite. Also have to praise your mention of "original fantasy donut steel". I've seen this so much without ever approaching an RPG table, I could write a how-not-to guide about it. The funniest part about it is how many people seriously believe their settings are original all-new fantasy, sometimes even as they don't have to mention their inspirations and influences because of how plainly obvious they are. So many cases of "it's just LotR mixed with Naruto" or similar, it hurts. Face it, many of our most basic fantasy ideas are exactly that way - salads of stuff we like for one reason or another. Own up to it and don't try to be too serious, don't treat yourself like JRRRRR Tolkien-Martin jr.; just make a world that's fun to adventure in and has some hooks and setups that your players may personally like, and play that with them. It's all about the tabletop session, not the "novel plot" considerations of it all.

[@theapexsurvivor9538]

Wouldn't it be JRRRR? Or is there a source for that extra R? -sincerely, Agram Marna Zi

[@cyoung3216]

I love these guy's videos, but this video by far has been my favourite. I am a constant world builder in the games I play and find I make the mistakes they mentioned all the time. Thank you Dungeon Dudes for sharing your insights and experiences so eloquently!

[@troyhenry6111]

Thi is coming at a perfect time for me. I just started my first DM campaign(First time DMing.)

[@leodouskyron5671]

Troy Henry You will be great. Start small and stay mentally flexible. And keep lots of water next to you the first couple of sessions.

[@windsgrace688]

Hey, good luck! Just keep in mind that the players will probably completely destroy any plans you have and subvert all your expectations and that's okay! As long as you can keep things somewhat believable in terms of consequences, the players will probably be none the wiser.

[@troyhenry6111]

My plan is to tell a story. I have general prepared things, but if they dont want to go down that path. I have back up plans. As far as I'm concerned this whole world can burn. Im there to see what they'll do really

[@theeverydaythinker6310]

I've started a new campaign after 5 years of not dming, shaking off rust and as such i appreciate vids like this. I've so far only got story ideas, mostly some bite size stuff, but to encourage them to keep exploring i am doing a bit of an easter egg hunt for a key to a huge dungeon with legendary rewards, that will be completely optional and wont hurt the "plot" if they don't go for it.

[@iaifia3224]

*Cues me looking up lunar calendars for the werewolf*

[@sydneyf511]

I definitely haven’t started my campaign because I was fearful my world wasn’t ready. Definitely needed this. Love you guys!!!

[@sammanqueros8654]

I’m currently in a campaign that I’m running and I didn’t prepare the world in the tiniest bit😂I made it up as I went and the players are all having a blast

[@jakeholmes9296]

Seriously this is the best DM advice videos I have ever watched. Thanks so much for this. I am currently 5 sessions into a new campaign and still don’t really know where the campaign is going after about level 5. This was so helpful getting me off the idea of 1 big bad.

[@dracone4370]

I recommend checking out some of the stuff by Shadiversity, he's a historical KZbinr, he also has some videos that are right up your ally, like his Fantasy Re-Armed series.

[@B42UC4]

Great tips you guys, not only for Worldbuilding but also for Campaign running and preparation in general. I wish I had watched this video years ago. Cheers!

[@marsbitegaming]

the campaign I'm about to run, In order to not fall in love with the first town, I'm am just burning it to the ground in session 1

[@pepekovallin]

Thank you SO much, a lot of the time I've heard that I should not over prepare a campaign and everything but no one ever really elaborated on the subject with good examples

[@LuckySketches]

"One of the biggest pitfalls is over-preparation." *Looks at my setting supplement in progress* "...Dadgummit."

[@diggerthecornflake]

Great stuff. I actually used your current campaign as my start. Having it all be in one city helped me soooo much!

[@tygerstrike9129]

63k?! I remember when you had like 500!

[@Will_Forge]

Same. Lol

[@DungeonDudes]

So do we, we recently found our list of goals for 2018, top of the list was to have 1000 subs. WE DID IT!

[@tygerstrike9129]

You crushed it!

[@Heritage367]

Loving this stuff! Learning to let go and allowing the players to change the setting is huge.

[@Relfar2]

So where do we find the document for the Mask/Souls setting?

[@jeffersonrose9888]

This is my favorite video you guys have done! Almost every point you covered helped my worldbuilding immensely. Thanks for all your vids.

[@tynytian]

In my campaign, i limit town descriptions to one small page, and quests to one or two sentences. I flesh these things out on the fly as we play it.

[@andrepaquette4673]

Your content is amazing. I direct all my players to your videos to help them get a better grasp of the game. I hope you guys one day include a "welcome to D&D video" directed at people who have never played and have no idea what D&D is really all about. A summary of what it means to play D&D and what to expect as a new player.

[@MARKZ137]

Interesting how so many DMs are so overprepared. I, as a DM, quite like to improvise most things, because my players always tend say at the begining of the session: "I want to go in that direction, because I know nothing about what there is." But that means you have to have the 'core' of your world prepared, so you can think on the spot and generate a new storyline while waiting for players to get through the random ecounter. But underpreparation is also a problem. One of the players is still even after 4 years making fun of me for making up prizes of things. A the beginning, bread in village was like 1 cp per slice. Then later in city, it become 1 sp per whole bread. Later in dwarf city (no fields and transportation is very costly) I asked for whole bread 1 gp. He found it being inconsitent, found out that I am making up numbers because of it and often shows this as a reason why you have to completely prepare everything in world setting before playing... This guy also bought Silk Road last month. After reading, he changed his mind on the incident a little and found the price difference some-what reasonable.

[@loricho]

Gents, thank you for this. I really needed to hear your point on originality at 14:10. Fixation on complete originality is something I struggle with. "Nothing new under the sun" is right Monty, thanks for the intervention :D

[@ashenwuss1651]

The Night Watch series by Sergei Lukyanenko is a great matured Harry Potter

[@BurakkuInferuno]

Thank you for making this video. I'm starting my first campaign this Sunday with a few friends due to our current Dungeon Master getting overwhelmed at our table by the number of returning people we've had come back. Ever since I started D&D I've been crafting a story for my character but when the opportunity sprung up that I could DM I figured I'd let my creativity flow and take a good crack at it and this video helps a lot.