The Secret to Creating Your Own D&D Campaign

[@ThePanMan11]

Drawing a map is an amazing way to build a DnD campaign. It doesn't even matter how big you make it. You don't need to world build every single part of your map and you don't need to explore every bit of your map. It definitely does help to have a vague idea of what's out there in your world.

[@DungeonMasterAcademy]

It's also a lot of fun which is defenitely the most important part ;) As long as it doesn't take away from focusing on the actually important it's no problem of course - Knowing where other stuff is and how it might influence the locals is defenitely useful! I also think a world map is much more useful in a high fantasy setting where people might know teleport spells or having flying mounts. In a low fantasy setting I prefer just having a regional map with a travel distance of a few days to weeks. Also playing in low fantasy it can help for immersion, at least when you compare your world to medieval Europe where most people didn't have a map for travel either and might have never even seen one.

[@PRGidaro]

I am creating my own world so I am creating a world map so I know where races and different biomes are located. I won’t create every kingdoms and every location but I need an overview to get a start. I will then pick a location to start the game in and that is where I will create the lore and what’s around using a hex crawl system. I do want a world to see the overall possibility’s then focus on the game in small areas.

[@dane3038]

I have build some of the world that the players will likely never see so I can tease those aspects of the world. "there's a couple of strangely built ships moored to the docks. I heraldry check ( GURPS ) tells you that they are both from City States in a region across the see called Aquilonia. I think and hope this sort of effort helps my players buy into the world. But I run my game as an open world sandbox with plenty of trains the characters can board if they want to. The trick is not just fleshing those things out, but studying them like a final exam that you have to pass to keep your grant money and you weren't born rich. Don't make more than you can use.

[@DungeonMasterAcademy]

A world map can help if it fits the setting (like with the trains) and if you use it properly as you did: Having an idea what's going on in the world. And as you said: Don't draw more than you need ;) Really great comment, thank you! Is your setting fantasy with trains or more modern? :)

[@CitanulsPumpkin]

I started my campaign setting with a world map, but I didn't draw one. I used a webcomic from the XKCD comic series. Their first map of "Online Communities." I then went through the different nations and interesting geographic regions on the map and dropped in the different cultures and analogs from different media properties I wanted versions of in my world. The starting point of having the global geography already outlined let me focus on the cosmology and deep time of the world. I could look at a set of islands that look like they used to be the coast lines of a subcontinent that isn't there anymore and say, "Oh, that's the Shattered Isles left over from three major cataclysms ago when the Scholar diety gave mortals secret knowledge that lead to an entire continent veing vaporized. On the north end of the map is a massive continent jokingly labeled "The Icy North" with a smaller circle shaped nation in the middle along the southern coast. I looked at that and said that's where the civilized giants live. They built a massive city full of giant sized sky scrapers with raised promenades that come up to the shoulder or mid chest for most giants. These promenades are for the sizeable gnome population that lives and works alongside the giants. The inspiration for a city populated by giants and gnomes came from an old episode of Thundercats where they ran into a cliffside cavepeople society where the big caves were all populated by giants and the tiny caves were full of kobolds or something. Outside of Titan's Crown, the giant and gnome city, the rest of the Icy North is the monolith and giant monster filled wilderness shown in the Of Monsters and Men music video "Little Talks." Because nothing screams "world in need of adventurers" like what is shown in almost every Of Monsters and Men music video. For towns, I don't really draw maps. I tend to make flow charts of the factions in the city and how they interact. The players need to know what's in the town, but they rarely need the whole thing mapped out. Dungeons get mapped out more often since that's info the players will probably need in combat. Even if combat breaks out in a town, it rarely covers more than one section of one street, building, or alleyway. When mapping out the local area, it's more useful to make a simplified Hex map of the region. Town here, forest here, mountain range here, where's the coast line, then dot the hexes with points of interest that will draw the players in. This is more work in some cases, so it's really only worth it if you believe most of the campaign will be confined to that region. "We're going to spend ten levels going back and forth over this hundred square miles of coast and marshes protecting these half dozen or so cities from the ancient dragon that lives in that mountain, that death cult in that death swamp, that haunted forest that bleeds into the Feywilds, and the Aboleth worshiping fishfolk who are trying to sink the main port city into the ocean." That's the kind of campaign where you need to make a sizable hex map and come up with rules that make it so the ranger in the party doubles or triples the number of hexes the party can cover each day.

[@DungeonMasterAcademy]

There's an XKCD for literally everything it seems ;) That sounds like a really cool world and like a really good process - Players don't really care too much about town maps anyway, at least in my experience, so a flow chart should do the trick just fine! And great thing that you mention hex maps, because later today I'll upload a review of a module that uses... well, not a hex map, just 3 hexes. Thank you for this great comment!

[@VideoSpielplatz1]

klingt nach nem fellow german der englisch spricht. good luck mit dem channel

[@DungeonMasterAcademy]

You are 100% correct ;) I run the same channel in German as well, but shush, it's a secret to everyone! www.youtube.com/@AbenteurerAkademie

[@Maikaz]

I cannot wait to use this in my next campaign!

[@DungeonMasterAcademy]

Glad I could help! Getting another video out next weekend ;)

[@ACatwithNoHat]

I'm still a very newbie DM but what i prefer to do, honestly, is having a big nation, but proceeding small anyway. The campaigns sets in a a very specific area, and i leave to player the complete freedom to make up a background, and based on that background, i develop new areas. And so i did for 4 small campaigns i runned til now. I'm leaving the specific campaigns and player doing the worldbuild for me, like it's a sandbox. I know "the rules". I know the setting, the culture, who rules the world, what is supposed to go where. But the only thing i estabilished are vibes and a sprinkle of setting and history. Then im having fun leaving always the players to do come up with stuff. I didn't have a defined pantheon till we happened to need one, cause of a player wanted to do a cleric first time. I find it way more refreshing and easy for a DM with no experience to use this method My Continental map is a big orange nothing, with here and there very detaield areas. And fog of war everywhere else xD I treat it more like a videogame where you don't know details of areas you never explored

[@DungeonMasterAcademy]

Having a big nation is not a bad idea. But it's great to have your players start off at a smaller location, it even gives you the chance to incorporate their ideas in your world building (Like you do with the clerics and their gods). But your approach sounds really reasonable, wish I had started like that at the very beginning xD Also if I'm being honest: I'm not too interested in fantasy religion, I basically always leave this to my players. I only have some default answers if my players ask what the people around here blieve in ;)

[@Emkoser]

How do you accurately "plan" for the number of sessions a plot or adventure takes? I often find that my really small one-shot adventure ideas often turn into two- or even three-shot sessions, and it makes me wonder about better pacing techniques.

[@DungeonMasterAcademy]

That's a question that's not really easy to answer I'm afraid, it comes with experience I guess. I prepare locations and I'm usually like "This one will probably take a session if I include roleplay and all that stuff" and I'm usually correct, though not always. I also give time limits like "Apocalypse happening 5 days after player characters arrive" and then assume how much they get done in one day :) But oneshots are bit different and I made a video about them, you can check it out here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hKG4aKCBidONrJI