How to Start a Homebrew Campaign WITHOUT Overwhelming Yourself

Starting a campaign is overwhelming, but let me show you how!
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** ABOUT ME **
Hello! My name is Jay, and I am a long-time veteran of storytelling and a semi-seasoned DM! I began playing Dungeons and Dragons roughly 5 years ago and began my first ever game as the DM. I figured things out by watching online games and fumbling my way through the rules, and never looked back! I've fallen in love with TTRPG's in general and want to share my experience and thoughts with the world and community I love so much. I currently DM two separate games regularly, and continue to learn every day.
** ABOUT THE CHANNEL **
Play Your Role is a project with the intention of helping inspire and coach players and DM’s alike to add story beats and dramatic moments into their games through basic writing concepts, interesting player character inspirations, and discussions on how to effectively roleplay in a way that helps (not hinders) everyone else's roleplay at the table!
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[@Garrett236]

"I love it when my players tell me things about my world that I didn't know." - Jim Davis, Web DM

[@TheEncouragementKid]

big time

[@greyborg3846]

I've been designing my world one area at a time. Each of my games recently has been just a single adventure running roughly 5-8 sessions. I design a town or city and the surrounding area and that's where the adventure takes place. Afterwards, I take a break while I think up the next adventure which might take place in a new area or in one I've already built, I reach out to the people I want to run for, and I run a new adventure of 5-8ish sessions, and I just keep repeating this process. Also, after designing each area I assign it to a space on a Hex map so that all of my towns and regions are interconnected.

[@PlayYourRole]

Perfectly valid take: design what you need, and if it turns out you need more, make it! Just don't over extend yourself

[@smileitsgoodforyou10]

This is the unprepared casters method!

[@greyborg3846]

@@smileitsgoodforyou10 I do prefer spontaneous casters.

[@AvengerYouT]

This! I did the same process for my last campaign. A settlement, a main adventure location, and some small satellite adventure locations. I called it an "adventure hub". The first adventure hub was a small village with a corrupted temple nearby. The last was a planar fortress on the astral sea (settlement) near a colossal dead god corpse (adventure location).

[@EuclideanVision]

"Hey GM, are there any hot spring baths in this dwarven city built into a volcano? I'd like a soak." "Well there are now! And yknow what, the underground systems that feed lava-heated water upwards are also home to cave eels, which are now a local delicacy!" Just a small example, but it's one I remember well for how quickly it expanded the feel of the place :) I'll try to do this more, thank you!

[@MRJTD99]

I feel as though, as a GM, you always want to say "Yes" to the player's questions like that (within reason).

[@EuclideanVision]

@@MRJTD99 Oh yeah, "within reason" is meant to be part of my point there sorry, because my idea also fit the GM's sense of his own world :) I've also had GM's say no to elements they feel don't work, or had them give us a more fitting alternative that we'd inspired or seen hints for :) If it works, why say no? :D

[@SuperGoose42]

My entire campaign is centered around 1) my PC's backstories, and 2) the lore that my players contributed to our setting and the worldbuilding. Everyone came up with a piece of the world's history and nations and deities, and all the campaign's focus is towards what they contributed

[@PlayYourRole]

Absolutely love that!

[@azael9642]

I always give some glimpses of what could be a cool sub-story plot in my characters backstory for my DM to use and explore in future sessions, but he never uses them. Perhaps they are not as interesting as my DM would like but I think they offer cool moments, situations and characters that we really haven't tried before. He is kinda stubborn when it comes to decide what happens and what not and I don't know how to ask him about including more about our characters to the main plot without sounding like we don't like we don't like how he is DMing because he will probably take it that way. Anyway, any tips to make my sub-story plot more appealing to the DM?

[@MRJTD99]

@@azael9642 If your DM isn't incorporating parts of your character's backstory, then he's a bad DM. I'd find a new one.

[@SuperGoose42]

@@azael9642 personally I find myself asking player for MORE detail on their backstories, I have a player that gave me only a couple sentences of backstory to work off of and I had to press him for more so I could flesh it out into something bigger. I'm not implying that your campaign should be 100% exploring player backstories, but if it isn't present at ALL, there definitely needs to be a discussion. I'd talk to the other players and see what they think, then approach the DM kindly and honestly. Just tell him "We're really enjoying what you've been doing. We'd just appreciate if you included some things from our backstory in addition." While it is certainly important to make your backstory interesting to give the DM something to work with, it's also important for the DM to work with you and address elements of your character that you've given him to work with.

[@-undecided-1663]

@@MRJTD99 a bad DM for this person, who clearly wants that. A lot of tables run just fine without the DM incorporating backstory; after all the player is free to involve backstory in their actions. I think there can be an expectation for the DM to do all the work in that regard and maybe they don't want to run a whole separate side plot parallel to their main one, especially if the other players aren't giving them similar hooks and they don't want to keep involving the whole party in one character's business because it feels unbalanced. Maybe this player needs to find a different table, but that doesn't mean there aren't players who wouldn't appreciate this DM's style or a game with players who liked that style would be "bad D&D"-as long as everyone's having fun there is no "bad D&D"

[@blackmask4552]

Bro I’m literally planning on doing my first campaign right now. This couldn’t have come sooner!

[@PlayYourRole]

So glad I could help!!!!

[@TVAMPIRE476]

Same here, this is a godsend

[@danieljohnson9917]

Good luck! DMing is a lot of work but it's so much fun.

[@Lunam_D._Roger]

SAAAAME

[@Demi-Joker]

I've been wanting to get into D&D (including homebrew), so this video helped as well.

[@beowulfodinson9230]

I’m currently building an urban fantasy setting for my best friend (he’s playing an oni fighter who uses an axe that’s also an electric guitar because he’s in a rock band) his wife (who’s playing a selkie Druid who’s a wildlife rehabilitation specialist) and my fiancé who’s playing a witchy cleric who owns a metaphysical shop, and they’re all coming together to open a private investigators agency because the corporate owned adventurers guild only takes on contracts for the rich and famous, its gonna be lit.

[@PlayYourRole]

That sounds so fun and unique, I love it!

[@khaymanwilson1320]

Is the corprate guild gonna be threatened and try and stop them? This world sounds dope =)

[@beowulfodinson9230]

@@khaymanwilson1320 maybe, that really depends on them. They're primarily there to function as a foil, and rival to the party.

[@spyco6559]

Nothing Better than a KZbinr validating how I make my stories. Here are some things my players have added too my world before we even started: - A high assassin guild - A city filled with agriculture - Colour coded imperial guard - Villages that fear magic - An entire religious order that controls a continent and opposes the empire - How the fey and humans interact - a lack of dragons after they were hunted - the disappearance of the majority of dark elves And here are a few things I’ve built off of some backstory stuff: - An orcish blood cult that idealize the beastial parts of their race - a political assassination that connects to multiple backstories - A group of dragonslayers no longer in use - More stuff but I’m scared my players will find this lol This is hands down the best way to build a world

[@PlayYourRole]

Exactly! You don't have to think all the details out, just the important ones. The rest will follow along once you do!

[@schwarzerritter5724]

How did your players think the assassin guild came into existence?

[@esthermerriken4408]

@@schwarzerritter5724 Probably one wanted to play the Assassin subclass? And wanted to be officially "taught" the skills as he levels instead of "just knowing" his new class features?

[@Tiyev]

Pardon me, but is your group full by any chance? I kid. I mean, mostly. But like, it would be totally cool if there were an opening in your group, since I only hear about campaigns where the players get to work with the game master.

[@claudiolentini5067]

Bonus point: The assassin are also color-coded, and the imperial guard fears agriculture

[@dylanmcloughlin2187]

My forever DM is going to college, and I'm going to be DMing after that (he has time to play, but not to DM). This is so helpful. Thanks. BTW, I am having my players help me flesh out the world. I made a few things and while explaining it to them, they get to share their ideas. The main things I need are cities and factions, which I will create with them as they build backstories. Edit: I wrote this before the "having players come up with stuff" segment. :)

[@PlayYourRole]

Sounds so amazing! I hope it goes great for you!

[@legoduckie]

Good luck! It’s okay to be nervous and don’t be afraid to ask the experienced dm in your party for help. Good job delegating! I’ve found it’s one of the hardest but most important things a DM can do to ease the load on themselves

[@ancientdarkmagic1409]

One of my biggest recommendations when one is trying to create a homebrew campaign is decide what type of fantasy or type of campaign one as the DM is willing to run and the players are willing to play. Because onces you have does thing determined I think it will definitely help you in creating the three pillars that you mentioned in this videos.

[@DoeToKnowChannel]

Its funny you mention a slave trade and colloseum, because in my campaign where slavery is widely outlawed, two of my players, mind you unknowing of eachothers plans, came to me asking about slavery as a backstory option. I've now made a large scale slavery ring hidden from the eyes of the law where both these players were former slaves thay escaped and neither know that connection they share. A huge plot point has developed from this small coincidence

[@AzraelThanatos]

In one of my worlds, I kind of twisted the entire slavery thing around in one culture I set up. Slavery isn't a normal thing, it's either voluntary (with potential buyout and limitations/freedom dates) or as a punishment, with legal protections and it wasn't an inheritable condition...that was something the players did not see coming because they heard slaves and went their own way without thinking about the situation.

[@flyoutfate7462]

The timing on this is too perfect. I'm about to go into a session 0 on Friday!

[@PlayYourRole]

Yeah I've been watching you from the shadows and waiting for the exact right moment on this one

[@intelli-gent9863]

Right when you got to your first point, "You don't have to have all of the details figured out to start a campaign." that really spoke to me. I wish I knew this when I started my first Homebrew campaign with players I don't know. I had no idea that my campaign would only go 25 sessions and I planned for it to go for a year. That was my first mistake. I made it too complicated and didn't have much of a plan of how they would get to the ending that I wanted them to get to. I didn't need to flesh out multiple countries when they ended up ending the campaign in the same country they started in. one of the ways I found to simplify your campaign is to write it like a pre-written adventure, don't make it long or plan for a campaign that goes all the way up to level 20. try and aim for 20 sessions or less. Also, read and take inspiration from pre-written adventures. Do not shoot from the hip and create a campaign that heavily relies on having players that know what to do. Make their choices obvious and not vague. Unless you really want to challenge your players then make it a reachable avenue. They don't know what you are thinking. This is the best way to avoid situations like "x isn't doing what I want them to do" or "X isn't going where I want them to go" Learn from my mistakes. It will save you lots of stress and heartache.

[@cazadorcrazy9194]

One of the things I like to do with "Banned races" is the idea that races can be made as well as born. Say a human makes a deal with a powerful archdevil and as a result of this pact, they end up becoming a tiefling. Or an archfey that gives them the ability to change their appearance at will a la changeling. Or someone who, through numerous wounds or other mishaps, ended up with the majority of their body being replaced with prosthetics, making them a warforged. So your lizardfolk example could be some sort of druidic or magical mutation of a dragonborn.

[@Aaron-pj3ky]

I used this in my campaign. I had a basic idea for the central city it would take place in, but I let the players come up with their characters and I built everything around them. I was prepared for them to pick any race or class. Most of them played PHB races, but one of them played a Kalashtar and I got to build an entire extra secret society into the world that's added a lot of flavor. All of my player characters have a lot of interesting intertwining stories that I'm slowly getting to unravel with them. My entire worldbuilding has been really built around making their characters the center of everything, rather than just some random strangers who go murder things.

[@arekkusu0o]

This is so helpful, I've been wanting to create a campaign for SO long and this has made it much more manageable.

[@ZeroMultiplied]

Can't recommend this channel enough. If I could go back 3 years ago, I'd show my newbie self these videos. Awesome work

[@syvajarvi2289]

As a DM and player, I have a tendency to build certain aspects of the world such as major cities and religions as well as a few cults. My players build the rest. They come from a small town named blue water? Pull out the map and show me where they want it to be. Blue water happened to be an oasis in the middle of a desert. And You want to be half Djinn? Cool…… let’s figure out how to make it and keep it balanced. You want to have a home brewed character class that mixes fighter and assassin without multiclassing…. You becha….. let’s sit down and work it out. I’m also notorious for setting up a PC with a vestige of divergence to start the game. Something that unlocks as he/she levels up….. typically an heirloom, a gift from their guild upon exiting apprenticeship, or some reasonable means that starts off with the appearances of a common to rare magic item but becomes legendary over time and is unique to the PC and their back story.

[@Dino-vy8hn]

this literally came at such a perfect time and helped so much, ive just started planning my first ever campaign and i was struggling where to start, thank you so god damn much

[@alexdamm4066]

I really need to watch more of these videos! I love world building but I haven't had the time to do it or play any TTRPG recently. Every time I watch one of these it reignites my excitement and gives me new ideas on how to make my worlds better.

[@foggytuesday101]

I’ve DM’ed a few times but currently making my own homebrew world that’s very botw and DA inspired and my players backstories really helped me flesh out my own world. It’s a small group of three: one is an heir to a magical mining and tool company, one’s a historian that studies the empire that fell long ago and the other is an elite guard that deals with monsters and scouting out new found ruins in the kingdom. I didn’t know how I was gonna connect these characters at first but the more they told me about them the more I started getting ideas of how! So I thought of this: The historian has a close friend that runs a small shop of potions that he likes to help with but like many small businesses in the kingdom capitol, is in competition with the bigger businesses such as the heir player’s family and slowly making a monopoly. Meanwhile the historians job actually works with communicating with the elite guards on anything found during their searches and reports. However since many ruins are collapsed the Elite guards use gear from the heirs family during their exploration and excavations. Atm they’re loosely tied together but their higher position in society has given them front row seats to the kingdom princess’ coronation (and me the DM an excuse to get them to all together) for an “eventful” time I have planned. Case in point, my players backstories helped flesh out the kingdom more than I could by myself lol

[@notmyrealname4363]

That's such a cool way to introduce them to each other, and make their backstories stand alone, yet be relevant parts of each other's world!

[@OliveDiamonds]

This was some perfect timing with youtube recommending me this! I just started to work on my first campaign and I didn't even think about using my players backstories to shape the world!

[@ast8177]

I'm the greatest DM ever, you won't stop me from knowing everything inside the world i make!!! My world is a 30x30x30 feet room with walls you canot go outside

[@Alanegr92]

Great advice and great delivery! I'll be checking more vids!

[@TheRauzKindred]

This is super helpful, thanks! I'm currently building a sword and planet setting and ended up getting stuck and burnt out, this will help me clean up the foundation immensely.

[@MattyMakez]

This should be mandatory viewing for all DMs

[@user-to5gj5ww5q]

Thank you for making this video ❤

[@xX6Weiss6Xx]

Love this video, myself I have created a massive world with very general lore set as a near blank canvas so things can appear and be created as the party and myself ‘discover’ them and figure them out. Starting my second campaign in this world it’s made moving forward and doing anything super fun and easy!!

[@fliint4288]

This is so incredibly helpful

[@marcin9818]

Great video, love new filming places and cool transitions :)

[@Alpha00Fox]

I ended up doing two and three of the first rule and never considered number one. I very much appreciate this insight and will be returning to this quite a few times in the coming weeks to help me calm my mind when I feel a little overwhelmed. Thank you!

[@bookmasterharry4432]

This is so what I did. My Players where playing a Barbarian, a Paladin and a Fighter. The Fighter hated Slavery and joined a guild so as to become better able to oppose it. The Paladin used to be a member of a Cult before joining a specific group of Paladins because they have a magic item that helps deal with bad memories. And finally the Barbarian was guarding a very powerful magical material/item that he made up. It was glorious. I had so much to work with.

[@fightingcorsair7297]

It makes so much sense when you think about it. The world we live in wasn't created by one person, why should the world we play in be any different. Even if the DM created "everything" by themselves, the players are still going to toss monkey wrenches into the works. That's what players do.

[@user-me5fh3yu1j]

Thanks so much!

[@mrhatsy]

I haven't watched your content in a month or so and MAN your quality has improved. I gotta try DMing again sometime with everything i've picked up here

[@fullmetalstate]

Just came across your video and this is priceless advice. Thank you!

[@Hazel-xl8in]

i basically did this. after finishing lost mine of phandelver, one of the pc’s decided she was going to go back and rebuild her town that had been burned down by orcs and goblins. i then shifted the camera to the forest they lived in, and the story is now set in the Mourning Vale, a forest shared by elves, fey, and human barbarians. all of my notes about this place are a result of my player wanting to be from there.

[@generubi]

Just in time, thanks!

[@PlayYourRole]

My pleasure!

[@Taira-tz4ct]

It's crazy how much this mirrors the game I'm running right now, when I started I just came up with the 5 factions and told them this was gonna be a mafia themed campaign. In the beginning it was rough as I was and still am a new DM but letting my players build pieces of the world with me has been amazing and I highly recommend it. Funnily enough 2 of my players also had similar backstories to the ones you mentioned a minitour slave who lost a war against this city and were mostly wiped out leaving him one of the only ones left having to make do with being a slave.

[@Delicacycooking765]

im starting my campaign tomorrow! so thanks a lot for this!

[@PlayYourRole]

My absolute pleasure!

[@opal3789]

Me: (is writing a DnD campaign based in the world of harry potter set now in 2022 for me and my friends) basically all the regular classes and races in DnD have been thrown out, Race options are pretty much just human, however, their's options of the rare half giant, half veela, and Squib. Classes are the four houses with some options for the type of magic each character may specialize in. (ill have to figure something out for squibs) It'll be a much more homey nostalgic type of game. Mostly taking place between the grounds of Hogwarts and the forbidden forest.

[@bellib00p88]

Best tips i have gotten so far and I probably have watched around 40+ videos on being a GM and building a world.👌

[@nadaveh7598]

Love this new style of video! refreshing and nice! (I really hope it really is and I didn't just forget other vids)

[@PlayYourRole]

No you're absolutely correct, we're trying a new style! The editor worked super hard to come up with it, I'm so glad you enjoyed!

[@nadaveh7598]

@@PlayYourRole It works great!

[@dgargoyle]

Thanks Jay, this will be perfect in my DM workshop this week. I'll mention your channel obviously.

[@Scrittus]

There are different methods to DMing with advantages and disadvantages. I have a problem- though- with the advice of "Oh if your lore says lizardfolk aren't in the game but your player wants to play one then you should find a way to make it work, trust me it'll be fun!" But at the same time I believe it's bad manners to expect the DM to go back on the lore of their world to suit your version of a 'good game' rather than finding enjoyment in what is provided to you. A personal example I have is how I dislike guns, Warforged, and certain artificer subclasses in my campaign setting. I tried my best to make them work, but what ended up happening is that I had to spend so much time and effort justifying why those things existed in my medieval fantasy setting that it ruined the other fun aspects of the game. It was hard to build any sort of good campaign when I myself dislike the idea of robots and guns in a fuckin' medieval fantasy world. And telling aspiring DMs "Oh no you should bend over backwards" gives people the wrong expectations at the table. The DM is a player too, and if they have a setting in mind then they should be allowed to run that setting without a player trying to get them to cater towards their own personal needs. Players should respect the wants and expectations of the DM just as much as the DM should respect the player's wants and expectations. The player who sees the DM say "Alright we're going to run an all dwarvish campaign setting to find the allforge" And says "My character is a Tabaxi from another universe who seeks to one day become the leader of his village by slaying his cyborg uncle" is toxic. Plain and simple. If they can't fit a character to your setting, then just kick them out of the game and wish them good luck in finding a game that will better serve their expectations. Stop trying to cater to everyone. Stop trying to please everyone. Your game isn't for everyone, nor does it need to be. There's nothing wrong with those expectations not aligning. You do not need to play with every person you meet. You do not need to cater to everything your players want. You are allowed to say 'no' because you also have a voice at the table. You can find groups who will respect you and love the campaign you want to run. That's not to say you shouldn't be flexible with your campaign setting and make your setting as open and free for the players as possible. But it's your fuckin' world at the end of the day. The players should be a lens for which they view and flesh out the details of your world. They should have an effect on what happens in the world, and their choices should matter. However, your wants and needs as a DM should also matter. Don't ever run a campaign you're not interested in running. And don't ever feel like you need to please everyone to have a fun campaign. You are allowed to say no and you are allowed to have a vision of your perfect campaign. Just find the balance between having the players mold your world, and giving the world a life of its own.

[@thunderflare59]

Well I guess this means my homebrew is a lot closer to being ready than I thought.

[@bristowski]

I'm digging the new shooting spot. Having you set to the side is nice.

[@Vexclorion]

Absolutely love this vid and it's very relevant in my life rn.

[@The_Rising_Ape]

Jay: "It's impossible to create a whole world" Tolkien: "Hold my Miruvor!"

[@miketaylor3189]

Great video. This is exactly how I began my first campaign. I told the players that there were nine kingdoms and had them describe the kingdom they came from. I also decided that the gods of the whole world would fit the 12 Jungian archetypes but would present themselves differently to different cultures. The players got to create their own god (and then I chose which archetype best fit their creation). I then shipwrecked them on an ancient island where they are discovering how the world became the way it now is. I also build opportunities into the game play for them to expand upon their backgrounds by doing things like having an NPC ask them questions or making it part of a puzzle. I also check in with the players often to see if I need to give them events or hooks that better fit their interests. It has amazed me how many things begin to link up and create surprises for both the players and myself. It has been a huge success.

[@xSilentStrangerx]

I set up 7 main countries that are color-coded, and based one of them off of Japanese culture. One of my players asked if there's ninjas, and now I'm developing the main NPCs of two rival ninja clans. XD These tips were amazing! Thanks for your content! =)

[@Joshuazx]

I like a good checklist. This is a pretty good checklist. 1. Dominant Forces (political / sociological) 2. Food and Water. 3. Magic. Also "let the players create / develop the world" is a very interesting suggestion.

[@mrzeloswilder]

This... this is honestly the first video that actually really helps me out. I tried running a campaign at one point, and after 7 or so months I want to say, the entire thing eventually fell apart. I'm saving this for if I ever decide to make a new campaign.

[@Micsma]

Do it. You won't regret it.

[@owenparris7490]

I personally love sweating over the details of my world, I don't know why, but the advice about letting your players help you build the world is very awesome! Can't wait to do that with mine.

[@WanderersBallad]

One of the best thinks I've done in regards to my world building was letting one of my players develop a specific part of it. I call all the final shots and develop most aspects but I want my players to be as invested into the world as I am so I let one of my players develop the railway networks and design the trains of the world with the way he's now exited about the world I would highly recommend. My country is now over 200 locomotives strong and the way everything is set up it has massively helped me with writing about the political situations and the general lore of the world.

[@RuneKatashima]

I know all these things but these videos are therapeutic for me. Not just yours, but many content creators create such like videos. That said, I started my latest campaign with this SPECIFIC idea in mind. I even told them as much, that I want them to play in the world so they can challenge me to flesh it out with whatever their hijinks are. It sucks a bit because besides one person they made very blank slate characters who could be defined in a single sentence. But still~ One thing I'd like to add; your point about food and water is good but the way I think worldbuilding should be approached is "people first". Which is very nearly the same as what you said. But it starts with questions, specifically; "Why are people here?" and from there you can talk about food, water, and needs and wants. You look at the climate and you start to think about what they wear, who got there first so now you have a hierarchy. Throw in religion if you want to really mix the pot. And, how does your magic system fit in this world? (If you even have one). How does what they *don't* have affect their relationships with other groups of people? And then what they do have, such as a nearby vein of precious ore. It all depends on how far you want to take it of course. You may ask yourself, "Does my world have more than 1 moon or sun?" Because that can affect a lot of things, but beyond that. Build your general landscape and then ask, "Why people?" Because that will start to answer a lot of questions after that.

[@dormin6194]

man that some good advise !! I was strugling building so much details in my world for a campaign but I forgot i could just let my player do it for me

[@MatthewHenderson]

I find it nice that I’ve been putting together a homebrew campaign the last week or so and I’ve done most of what’s recommended here without even realizing it. Especially the aspect of letting the players influence the story and the world. I gave a rough idea of what the world is and what the themes are and ask my players “where did your character come from and what do you want to see them become?” And have weaved the campaign around those answers. I hope they enjoy how it turns out!

[@kingcaz1990]

I have a session 0 literally tomorrow. Thanks for this video.

[@PlayYourRole]

Hell yeah, so glad I could help!

[@lilxbobby1407]

Good video nice tipps!

[@Anzy.99]

This video came in a kinda good time. I've been giving another shot to DM'ing (I dm'ed like 5 house games and was very insecure about it, but wanted to give another shot). I'm planning to run some games, and possibly a campaign with my sister. She'll be my only player and I'll DM for her. About a year ago when I got into D&D I tried creating my own stuff, cuz d&d books are pretty expensive and reading on a computer/phone screen is not great for me, so not having books with me took all the joy of learning about a pre-set, so I thought would be great to create my own thing, but it was too much. I got overwhelmed and was thinking about too many things. Few weeks ago I started playing in a online campaign, and we play bi-weekly, and I got that thirst of playing more, and the desire of having my sister sharing this thing that brings me a lot of joy. It was then when I found a D&D Beyond video/vod about making a starting city, and that was SO HELPFUL!! I think the guy was named Joe Starr, and he talked about how you should start buy having a terrain, a general population, an Inn, some NPCs, a place to go/quest, some secret place and a few other advices, but not to write everything down immediately, just have a general idea and flesh things out as the game progresses. This was great advice for how to write cities in general, and now I have a western like city in a desert/canion like environment, with mostly lizard like/bird like people, and people that just ended up there, dinosaurs, a secret fight club and with a cult of people that kill people by letting their bodies dry somehow. And thats great, but I don't know how to make that interesting for my sister, so I decided to ask her what she wanted and what kind of character would she want to play with, and her answer could not be more different. She said she wanted to play as a elf or half elf thief boy, in a Port city with the prospects of having some pirate adventures, and that was SO MUCH HELPFUL!!! Cuz now I know what she wants, and by starting with something of her interest, will be so much easier for me to have her excited to play in a world that was built for her, and if she gets bored, she'll know she'll always have the option of telling me what she likes and build the world with me. I hope to be running the first game in a few weeks, and as a new DM and player, having things custom build makes me way more excited than everything pre-setted. I'm playing in the Eberron setting and can totally feel that difference

[@SeanHollandTV]

I start with my maps. After 3 campaigns I have my entire material plane mapped out and the names of markers is enough inspiration for when my players stumble there

[@Glandulf19]

I love this idea ! I recently started my first 5e campaign as a DM (I played in two 5e campaigns over the last three years, and have been a GM on other systems for almost 10 years) and I decided to do something along the lines of what you suggested : I prepared an initial situation (a group of local adventurers asked to hold a fortress by themselves) and just asked all the players during session zero to help me build the world around that situation. I only had to flush out some meaningful questions like : "Who sent you there ?", "Why do you stay ?", "Who or what are you fighting against ?" etc It's been a month and it works out well for now. Remember all you beautiful bastards, D&D is a group game, we as a group are far more powerful than an individual GM could ever be !

[@aled857]

Good content man, I like the detail at the end about the lizard people, like if your in a setting that normaly has lizard people /a setting where one could easily fit in but the DM/GM doesn't have/want them to be a p.c., it's good world building to come up with a reason why, nice video man

[@Holacalaca]

Man, i still remember my first campaign where my dm made this huge massive reactive world, where all the reactions where just "follow every law and custom of the land or the guards will hate you"

[@pffabio]

I do this in all of my games, its really good to here someone support my idea ❤️

[@Cheshire5174]

on the "its impossible to create a world" thing I been working on a D&D world since I first discovered D&D, almost a decade and a half ago, and I can say that you are 100% right. it is impossible to make a full world. I honestly have sort of given up on the world now cause it has some fundamental flaws that were made really early on and are so deep in the world that I can't fix them without just starting over. so right now I am a bit depressed about that. I will probably try to start over soon, but if I have to reset the world a second time I'm done.

[@notmyrealname4363]

It's understandable that it would be incredibly disheartening that the foundations of the world seem to make it impossible to fix. I find that rather than editing an already existing creation, its better to instead open up a new document and go through bit by bit all of the stuff you have, only taking with you the stuff that you can work with and that you think are good ideas. You don't have to make a place for them yet or use all or any of them really, but it cuts away all of the glue of the world- the things that can't hold it together properly, and allowing you to use these notes to remind you of concepts you can use for inspiration, of use the same concept in a completely different way. Perhaps you have big events in the world that don't really play out in a way that you like, and the stuff you would need to put in to make it make sense just isn't working, you can apply it in a different way. It's not specific advise, but I want you to know that you don't have to give up. Maybe do things in a different way. What do people want to do? What occupations are there? What are different things that people dedicate their lives to? What matters to the different factions of people? What do the organisation's do, and what would they oppose that could interfere with their goals? What would an individual join this faction for? Is it something they can't join, but are born into? What problem do they have that joining thsi group solves? Or is it someone that had to choose between their previous bad situation and going to join that group instead and face a different set of problems that they felt at the time was a better option. Making these factions and then thinking about what a random individual's goals could be from among that group based on their own circumstances, you can get a feel for the themes and stories and conflict that places a potential player character into a part of the world. What would a person with what amount of resources have as options of ways to go to meet a need or a goal or survive? What are the consequences for their actions, what sacrifices did they make? It's tough when you pour everything into a creation and you feel disappointed by it not working in the way you wanted it to, and all of those things you had tried to use to fill in the cracks ended up weighing it down. But taking those little thoughts and concepts for parts of the world be it factions, characters, themes, places, events; take them out of their original context and summarise them as an idea that doesn't specify what way it could be used, in what context, or how it is relates to the rest of the world. I've had this experience of wanting a fresh start and how much it can be disheartening. It doesn't mean that can't do it. Perhaps you don't need to make the world, but think about people and what world it is that they live in, and what does the world that in their dreams would be the world that *they* would want to live in. I'm probably repeating stuff. But basically you can create something vast first by starting small. The world isn't a map, it's all the different tiny people and what they do with their surroundings that make a map. Comb through your world and pocket away anything that inspires you simplified into a sentence or two for a concept as little shiny things to look at later when you want to. Make the new world. But it feels much better to pick through the odd scraps of stuff from the first one, and see if it can inspire you in the new one. It's a piece of a big stain glass window that you're going to break. Pick through and find the pieces that could be just the thing for a mosaic, the rest can be melted down and starting again.

[@W0K24]

Thx a lot! Really useful video ;-)

[@PlayYourRole]

I'm so glad I could help!

[@ReturnOfMonke]

This is the method that my DM is doing. We're doing the Waterdeep Dragon Heist... but in Eberron. Specifically, the City of Towers, Sharn. Thus, it has been aptly named Sharn Dragon Heist. He has said before that even though Eberron and Khorvaire are places that aren't homebrewed, his campaign is, and whatever we say the world is like, congratulations, that is now canon in his world. It allows for a lot of good roleplaying that doesn't require extensive knowledge of Khorvaire, since he lets us pick and choose how the world works.

[@merionn4391]

Right now I'm preparing to DM my next campaign (my first and only until now was Curse of Strahd), but to create my world, I'm making One Shots every once in a while. With everyone of them having 6 players, I already have NPCs, organizations and locations with maps, along with a lot of influential people and the general structure of everything. I'm essencially just filling the details of the world not only with my usual players, but also introducing TTRPGs to people who haven't played before. I love doing that, because usually the newest players have the craziest ideas

[@vodostar9134]

Excellent advice! And as a control freak, I really need to hear that now and then lol.

[@jimatulkerriganus4316]

Really good video there mate! Liked it a lot. And I also have some things to say: The topic is quite interesting and the content of your video was very good! I agree with all of it. But what I also like it to take an already fleshed out world/universe and create my own stories and character within that - for example: I'm a huge Warhammer 40K fan and I want to play (being the DM) a 40K PnP someday. And for that I'm creating new planets, stories, characters, villains, everything basically and I think that that can also be quite fun. Now to the video itself: I had some frame lags and one or two sound lags. I don't know it's me or the video file was "damaged?" during the export or upload process. I really like the new camera position and seeing you in an other angel!!! At 0:47 - 2:18 your cam was a little to much zoomed in and you didn't have enough headspace but you fixed it yourself after the next bullet point screen - thumbs up for that!!! Speaking of which - I like the bullet point screens!! Gladly more of it! Keep up the good work!! You're doing great!

[@MemphiStig]

Michael Moorcock's stories are full of people who have found themselves in "this" world, but are not from here. There were somehow drawn by fate to take a journey which brought them into the hero's path. Or the main character travels and mysteriously crosses into another place, where their destiny awaits. Your pc's could have any backstory and may not even know they "aren't in Kansas anymore." Or they may very definitely know. The how and the why, however, remain to be discovered.

[@fresh-ic4385]

I wish this came out before I started DMing for the first time in my life in a completely homebrew campaign!

[@mightyzeus1e]

I've def struggled with this when starting campaigns- too much work, and the players never really care about the world I create. So, with my latest campaign, I had my players create the bare bones of the world with me at s0. I brought a list of questions, and _they_ shaped the world and campaign. Obviously, these aren't cut-and-dry, purely binary choices, and were really just to get the conversation started: Simple mechanics or RaW? Low fantasy or high fantasy? What starting level? Low power or high power? Is magic common or rare? What kind of setting- empires, city-states, frontier, or wasteland? What time period- ancient, medieval, Tolkienesque, or post-apocalyptic? What kind of plot- megadungeon, world tour, city game, sandbox? What's the plot driver- villain, mcguffin, rescue, espionage, etc? I just left all the heavy lifting to them, and that left me with the creative freedom to just flesh out their world outline based on what they said they want to do. The world they created is definitely not one that _I'd_ create if left to my own devices, but my players are subsequently completely invested, and super-interested. And I have to admit, they created a _way_ more interesting world than I would've on my own. 🌩

[@SuperSGFreak49]

I had a problem in the worldbuilding of my most recent campaign that I couldn't figure out how to solve elegantly. The first player I pitched the world to fixed the problem with their character backstory without even knowing the problem was there

[@eith42]

When starting my biggest campaign yet, I just stared having like roughly one country in a continent, and I looked what the players did, looked at the characters and their behavior and built the entire world around them, and each time they'd travel to a new area, I'd do some lore building for that, made it fit into the story etc. . In the end, they travelled big parts of the world in an almost 1 year and probably like 250+ hours of actual playing and the end of it was beautiful and it was just great to see how the story of each character perfectly ended, fitting into the world as well, since it was built on their basis. It really paid out for me

[@Xubose]

This has been our process in an 5e Pathfinder HB mash. Players come up with their own backstory and it's my job as GM to figure out how to make it work to together. It's basically written itself and I have never had more fun, creatively speaking.

[@spiritthesnowyowl8948]

Dude you just made the hardest challenge I ever gave myself one of the easiest things ever

[@oi6119]

I've been making a homebrew campaign that's essentially just a connected series of oneshots. It's helped me a lot with not getting overwhelmed. Especially since i'm running in the setting of Golarion from pf2e, which i, myself, am pretty familiar with, but my players aren't. So my approach so far has been slowly introduce them to details to the world, and let them influence the parts i haven't introduced yet with their character's actions and backstories. But the most important thing to get them hooked for me, personally, has been making characters that they care about. Either it be a villain that they absolutely hate and want to see bleed, or a supportive NPC they like hanging out with. I ask them what they thought of everything after a session and note down what worked and what didn't, so i can more cater it to the kind of characters they like

[@althechicken9597]

Agreed, embracing the chaos makes things way more fun. Just did my first attempt at DMing this weekend, and one of my PCs went on a 15 minute search for a lost rat id made a throw away comment about on a message board. It was honesly so fun haha. I eventually had one of the masters of the university catch him crawiling through the alchemy garden and give him 5 gp to give up and stop crushing his plants.

[@jebron319]

i love world building and helping other world build. the first question i always as is "where does the poop go?" cuz waste removal is important to a society but rarely what anyone thinks about when crafting a story.

[@Alex-2.01]

You know, I just started on a homebrew campaign a bit ago, and one week after I started this popped up

[@elderliddle2733]

I’m making a seafaring campaign with an archipelago the size of the Caribbean Sea. Not sure about the name of the place yet. But the major backstory is that a war of succession happened 15 years ago which is why the sea is full of pirates. My favorite part was creating the end of the war. I called it the Rumor of the Flying Fleet. Basically, the major powers on one side were winning, but due to a connection of a barrier island and it’s accompanying island, the other faction has the ability to deliver supplies unharrassed. The major powers then talked about taking a fleet from the north, using magic to fly it over the land bridge, and winning with that. The other faction surrendered when the idea leaked to their shores.

[@kake6309]

I’m planning on running my first Homebrew campaign soon, I figured I’d just fill the island where the story would take place with as much organic world as I can give it, place whatever my players are searching somewhere and let them go look for it on themselves. I’m not wanting to plan much of whatever my players would, but fill the world with biomes, animals, possible encounters, enemy scout routes, clues, NPCs and everything that would get them curious about learning the lore and hear the visual storytelling I’m preparing for them. But in terms of actual arcs, character-driven stories and player progression is entirely up to them, wish me luck

[@tbi-ct5vn]

I tried to create multiple continents simultaneously. I ended up having ideas for certain lore pieces and cities, but nothing complete to start off a campaign. So I decided to split the campaign into smaller ones. Instead of exploring an entire world within one campaign, I am taking much more time and effort on a smaller scale to reduce my level of stress as well as improving on details and fleshed out content for my players. I really like your point of character backstories developing and influencing the world. If something affects the player characters or is taken from the backstory they wrote, players usually are much more involved and motivated to do something. For me, it is very important that my players‘ ideas are being treated with interest and respect, instead of casting them aside and keeping a narrow mind on creating a world in one‘s own image.

[@yostinator81]

I’m a first time DM and I’ve written some pretty baseline ideas or possible encounters. And the main struggle I’ve found is what lore do I need/want to create and what lore already exists within the books, atm it’s a lot of standard 5e stuff with some Wild West flare. Scheduling has also made getting it all into motion definitely more difficult as well.

[@Olav_Hansen]

I am running my first longgoing campaign surprisingly close to how you suggested, except I didn't let the players be that much input. In session 0, I said I wanted to make something with the party stranding on an island (limited area means I could focus more on depth rather than width). But as soon as I mentioned the word island, the party was hyped about that there had to be pirates in the campaign, so I altered the plan a bit. They were mostly beginning players, so I wanted a clear goal for them to work towards. The setting I am now running: There is a kraken 'guarding' the island. the kraken was summoned by sacrifistic rituals performed by the native yuan ti. The island had a pirate port where a combination of orcs, dark elves and vampires (a bit of total war warhammer stuff) resided, and had (perhaps half a century before) become populated as a 'new world' style trading port. The yuan ti had at some point taken up arms, but a group of high level adventurers had basically slaughtered that bunch, so they started worshipping demons. Those demons showed ways in which to summon them/a kraken, and they are continuously corrupting the yuan ti because they sorta want to go to the mortal realm. I have made it cannon that some parts of the island are like a nexus to other planes, the island closely borders with other realms. Most of these I had in place when I started the campaign, and everything I've added since had to be in compliance with my fundamentals and so I have had quite an easy time since, surprisingly.

[@bombus5385]

Thank you for all of this, you beautiful bastard. Water economy is something I had never considered, but just propelled me into about ten paragraphs after about a year of nothing but (pun intended) dry spells.

[@themanhimself5650]

Thanks for the tips you beautiful bastard 😂❤ this is gonna help me so much with my first world

[@Samukuai]

I created a very detailed map on a 22'×28' sheet of paper. Theres over 70 large towns and cities within 5 regions. Every cm is a day's travel. It's big and I spent so long on the map that I've decided this is my world for every homebrew campaign. One of my players harvested the wings off a Chimera to make something custom. They made it to a rather unimportant town (for this campaign anyways) but he found a leatherworker that was able to make the wing "leather" into a lute strap. I made an NPC capable of custom making ornate non-magical leather clothing and accessories in a random town. It's the little bits of flavor their decisions create that enhance my world much more than I can alone.

[@ForenzaAudio]

-sweats, looking at a mirror, who keeps homebrewing 'one-shots that keep going for small campains

[@pyrosteel5091]

I have made many campaigns, but I’m still new, so I am checking up to see if I’m doing things wrong.

[@philosopherdragon123]

My friend is planning on running an isekai game. I laughed when you brought that up.

[@Crause88fin]

100% this. This is the only reason why our campaign is still going after years. This, and that we change the DM responsibility; one player DMs an adventure, and everyone willing gets a turn. No one burns out and everyone gets to add to the world.

[@Mary_Studios]

This wasn't the tips I was expecting from this video for starting a campaign but I'm glad they're not because the whole thinking of where the town gets it water and other things like that is something that I didn't put too much thought into, it's there in the back of my mind. The note about letting the players help build the world a player of mine gave me a big suggestion that wasn't something I really thought too much about when I was creating the world as I just was thinking of that continent as that's where the campaign is taking place. But I liked his idea a lot and am using it for the world. That idea was to have diffrent continents worship diffrent gods of different mythologies.

[@Cagne123]

My campaign world was pretty under developed until after I drew a crude map using different dice and poster board. Once it was made, the visualization was much easier and after focusing on the politics of the region, what would be that continents capital location and surrounding kingdoms by using the map as a reference, I had my world built. To top it off I brought the map to the current campaign and had everyone in the group contribute to the world and lore by naming the cities, landmarks, and natural beauties. They really made the world whole by describing their towns in detail when it came time for their turn in the big introduction sequence with the Oracle.

[@ronwisegamgee]

Good stuff. As basic as it may seem, figuring out where people get their sustenance from is a very valid aspect of making a fictional setting more believable and is something even I took for granted, especially when running a D&D-ish type setting like Forgotten Realms. With other settings, the genre seems to dictate the answer to that question, so I don't delve into it too deeply (unless it's a pain point, like in post-apocalyptic or low-civilization wilderness settings).

[@dannymerfeld7711]

One thing that is really easy to do is pull from sources you know well to create a mish-mash of things that you can make fit well together. If you really have no idea where to start then my recommendation is to start there and let your creativity run wild.

[@rjoconnell5745]

I had my players make characters with in depth backstories, and then ran a one shot before the campaign where they all played ancestors of their campaign characters to flesh it out even more. I spent a good hour with all of them asking about different people/events/places in their stories until I had effectively made multiple areas and a huge amount of lore JUST from my characters and the work I had my party do.

[@nicolaezenoaga9756]

On the Lizard part: they could either be a time traveler or a druid who got messt upp over time because of how many times they've wilde shapped.

[@PlayYourRole]

Exactly! Or an experiment, or something more! The possibilities are endless.

[@PlaneswalkerTARDIS]

The last Lizardfolk egg, or a solitary tribe that has survived on parthenogenesis perhaps?