There's a quote that I think gets at the heart of tip 5: "plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." In other words, you can't make a plan that will successfully address every actual complication; what you can do is develop, through careful thought and exploration, a list of things that likely could happen and the ways and means you have at hand to address something unexpected happening, as it surely will.
Over the years I've found it's useful to parse this as planing and preparation. Planing is deciding what's going to happen, preparation is knowing your setting and what/who is in it. Don't plan. Prepare.
Yeah, I tend to plan what I call modules -- moments and key parts that need to happen/drive the story -- but I leave out the connecting bits. That way, my players can explore organically and I can plug the modules in as opportunities become available.
@@phatpat63 I think a combination of the two is necessary, for instance in Monster of The Week it is suggested that for each hunt the keeper prepared a list of things that will happen if the hunters do not thwart the plans of the monster, and that this list should be advanced when the story lulls or when certain premade triggers occur. It's a kind of plan that isn't set in stone but it's still a plan, keeping things that should happen barring intervention is just as important as preparing for intervention to occur, because otherwise nothing will ever happen without the players causing it
Correct My DM (and subsequently, me adopting it), have this trick up his sleeve. In every session he runs, he knows exactly how the session's gonna start (because it's, the start lol), and how it's gonna end. For the in-betweens, he plans several routes that the players might take, but ultimately, it is out of his hands. From that routes also, he develops on how to get to the end of the session. There are multiple pathways that he jots down, but ultimately, does not plan a whole lot of. Most of it are built in with the players as they traverse and do their current objectives. It's been working quite great, I can tell you that, I no longer have to bullcrap my way out of a session because the players derail it a little bit too much, because I have a fixed end to it.
Ginny your world building advice is pure gold. Start out small. Picture a movie or a book that you have read and start writing. Describe the setting, visuals etc. create a conflict that the player party is on either side of. Describe the economy. What is worth coin. Describe taboo subjects perhaps half breeds. Engage in thought regarding military; what are they protecting? What about the races? Are they common or not. Who is the big bad evil guy? Who are his minions? Is the crime scene huge or non-existent. Is it run by humans or is it gnome mafia. What is the caste system who’s on top? Wizards? Thieves? Assassins? Clerics? Who does the grunt work who are the aristocrats? Are dwarves the minority who do the dirty jobs for drow? Is it the humans who have tamed dragons? Is the an ogre tribunal counsel? Each question you decided will give you plenty of idea fodder then you can start making npcs. Those that are important to steer the campaign, those who are pivotal story characters but hollow in every other aspect? Describe the shops, services, guilds, and religion/temple buildings. What about the seedy nightlife? Is the local tavern/brothel the best place to find jobs? Who are famous peoples from the area? What did they do? What about legends and tall tales. Look for motivation in the backstories of your party? Let your players help mold the background. Don’t be afraid to drop some huge magical item into the hands of an idiot or a player, just to see what they do with it or how it juxtaposes itself into an errand or quest. Have a single campaign in mind when you start but not a direct path, or chapter work. Be prepared for it to go off rails or by the book, both can be frustrating and brilliant at the same time. And lastly have fun. It’s a game not a job. Have fun and play your own game.
having a good base understanding of your world also makes it MUCH EASIER to improvise, because youre prepared for it. You know how the world is going to react to the stuff your players decide to do, even when its not what you expected. Dont overprepare by coming up with every possibility, but prepare by really getting to know the part of your world that your planning. Kinda like how you shouldnt write out dialogue trees for your npcs, just to be prepared for what a pc might say. However you should prepare so you know them well enough to respond on the spot in a way that feels true to who that npc is
The players may skip some stuff, toss it in the recycling bin! No not in the trash, the bin where you grab it later when it would make sense and make a few adjustments to update it.
Me: "I'm an experienced DM with almost 10 years' experience who's built multiple homebrew worlds from scratch. I'm usually pretty confident, but there's definitely room for improvement so maybe this video will be useful to get some more advanced tips..." Ginny Di: "Tip 1: Read the DM Guide." Me: "...Oh yeah fuck I should probably do that at some point."
I discovered my love for world building is actually more than my love for playing when it comes to d&d, this addiction has however given me the ability to tell you any given npc's favourite dish at the drop of a hat
I've always loved the idea of having an entire campaign in a single city. Puts a fantasy world under a microscope, and to me that can be even more immersive and magical :)
I'm working on a mini-campaign like that right now - a single village, actually!! I'm enjoying it a LOT more than I enjoyed trying to create an entire continent. I feel like I can really dig into the specifics of how this village operates and who lives there, and give a lot more depth to everything that's happening there. It's nice to feel like I'm figuring out the type of worldbuilding that I really like doing!
I have a single town campaign where the party does a cop-comedy as the Town Watch. It's extremely amusing so far watching the Minotaur fighter smash into every building while the bard rips on the criminals' fashion senses.
This approach is a large part of what makes the game Disco Elysium so magical, I think. A 50-hour story with 1 million possible words of dialogue all set in a backwater district of the city of Revachol. You can tell the greater world is extremely well thought out through what you learn of it as you play, but the intimacy of the game's immediate setting keeps the narrative experience deeply personal and character-driven.
The Dungeon Dudes have an adventure and campaign setting book coming out soon that is exactly this (Dungeons of Drakkenheim). Also, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist takes place entirely within the city of Waterdeep. Personally, I wanted to do this with the city of Sharn from Eberron, but my players don't seem that interested so I've moved on from the idea.
About the under/over planning issue, I recall my big anime setting. I did a lot of planning, built several important NPCs to populate the school so players would have people to interact with. Naturally, not a single one got used. In fact, the biggest NPC ended up being a character who started as a foot note on a separate npc's sheet. When you plan stuff and develop people and places, even if the PCs don't interact with them, it still helps by fleshing out the background and makes it easier to populate where they DO go.
As an aspiring DM slowly building his world, I've noticed one crucial thing about all worldbuilding styles, and that's building "out" vs building "in", and where that boundary may lay. In simple terms, it's your starting point when approaching a worldbuilding scenario. For example, when building your pantheon, do you have a few or even one key God in mind and build out from there, or do you start with a scaffolding of the major domains of your pantheon and build inwards, fleshing each God out as you go? Or for physical map making, do you start in a town and build outwards to form a continent, or start with your landmasses and build inwards to form your towns? Identifying where you intend to start can help ground your building and make it so you're not lost in a sea of floating facts, features, and fun locations on a word document.
As a long time DM a common mistake I have seen and made is making the world too functional. I have seen so many new DMs make a world where conflicts are solved too easily by NPCs or by big organisations. For newer DMs, I would recommend placing the adventure in a remote place or in a country where organised help is rare. It is OK to make the world good at dealing with problems the players aren't going to fix, but if the story would logically solve itself without the players the adventure is going to feel hollow. Give the big pieces of your world a compelling reason not to help the party directly.
I think with Point 3, there is something that needs to be differentiated. When you talk about starting small - we're looking at the micro detail. What you need for the session. But when you come up with a world-building idea like "dragons eat magic" that informs the starting small. You don't have to go off and determine a complete dragon history and lore for session 0. You're still starting small - but its being informed by the big themes of your world.
My world building strat: Main mood - e.g Is it a dark/dingy dungeon crawl? Or sunny exploration island paradise? Main theme or question - e.g How controlling is too controlling? Create main plot or several major plots - Factions at war with each other, they are trying to get allies and resources from nearby nations that are in an archipelago. There is also a mysterious cult working in the background. Create world building things that fit the mood, and main theme. Flesh out the Faction's culture, location, technology etc... Hence I'm making a faction intrigue, pirate island hoping adventure campaign.
Agree on the planning point. The problem isn’t planning too much, it’s planning THE PLOT too much. Planning to improvise with lists of possible scenes, possible npcs, and secretes and clues (thanks slyfourish!) and then dropping them in where needed is one way to plan, that doesn’t require guessing at the PC’s actions or choices. Another is more sandboxy- build out a populated hex map with stuff for them to encounter, it’s a lot of rock up front but then you are good to go each week cuz the world is ready for them.
World building is the part of running the game I'm best at, my process is this: 1: General tone and concept of the setting. 2: Reference any setting history I've already shown to the players. 3: Begin npc design, make fleshed out characters in a vacuum, then think about that characters personality 4: Finish npc design by thinking about what a person who has the personality I've fleshed out would want in the setting I've created and how they go about working towards that goal. 5: Well thought out characters with defined goals working with or against each other in a setting I understand the basics of should naturally give rise to local plot hooks. 6: Add major plot extensions based on player interest and larger scale story events.
My approach is to go very deep on world building, but very light on actual campaign prepping. Since player agency can affect where the campaign is going, but not how the world that campaign inhabits fundamentally works. That way I can freely redirect the direction of the campaign based on the players, but the fact that wherever they go, chances are there's something there already I can weave into the story.
Number one tip for dms. Everything they side step can be put I front of them again later on with minor changes, there’s no such thing as wasted work, so let them sidestep it and reward them for doing so, and put it in front of them later with a way to stop them from sidestepping it the same way they did last time.
That “dragons eat spell casters” idea, that is a movie I’d watch or book I’d read in an instant. But would make life hell on spell caster PCs, LoL. Sounds fun.
Another thing about tip 5 - there are no wasted ideas. Write everything down, and whatever you don't use now, know you may use it later, or even in a completely other campaign. Hell, over time, these ideas can even become a 'signature' on your particular style of DMing.
As a DM who is often heavily utilizing improv, the biggest thing i would say for other DMs who struggle with spoons around that stuff sometimes is, the setting and location is important, if you know a city then you can create a fleshed out character on the spot easily, but if you dont know what the city is at its core then you will have a lot more that is needing to be developed at the same time.
One thing I do to avoid having specifically prepped items being skipped is to have multiple instances of the same npc around, but when the party engages with them have the others never exist. Such as: a military captain in the palace and a blacksmith/ex-captain could provide the same quest connection but it is a lot more likely that a party would go to one than the other. Another way is to have the story move with the characters. I've often given my players 3-4 different locations to go, but a similar plot point would be at each location.
For tip #2 If you use discord. Make personal servers that you do not invite anyone into but yourself and favorite music bot. You can have a near endless number of text channels because you can always make another server. This, without "nitro", restricts your text space, which is actually a good thing because then you can copy and paste things to your players and they will be no longer than 2000 characters. Some examples i already use are: Lantern Rings Homebrew Spells Homebrew items Classes Subclasses Songs I have parody'd Poems I have written. From Frenkle (which is a god in a game I actually get to play in) Etc. This is excellent for those who use their phones for data keeping but forget to transfer things over when you get a new phone (or device).
Skipping a whole city? My players have a new record, skipping a plane and with that a whole arc ment to last 2 months. I love them for their scemes and i did kinda have fun one by one throwing out all the paper i did my prep on after the session XD we just laughed and went on to the next arc
When I saw point no.1, I thought it was about actual recourses, i.e "what recourses does a civilization access to? How does it affect their culture? Their architecture?"; A dessert civilization isn't going to build their towns out of wood and cobblestone, and a drink at the tavern would be a lot more expensive than elsewhere...
While you were talking about organizing your setting, I kept thinking “oh shit, did she get a worldanvil sponsor?” And then you kept going, made a passing mention to digital options and I thought “shit if they aren’t sponsoring her, they should” Then the skit started and I was like “YES.”
what I like to do when building a world is pick something from the real world and turn it into a fantasy world - it helps to focus and saves you a lot of time, like a world being based on a dead body (see owl house). demons on there are all related to insects feeding on it, different locations are based on the body structure and magic items have a similar theme. If your players venture off-road you will never be lost cause you have a ready model at all times. like a cave that is structured like the nose - having all the tunnels and exits/entries and possible diseases. there was this one quest where they have to get crystal tears - went to the eye, stumbled down lacrimal ductus hunted by giant creatures inspired by mites that live in the eyelashes aka black forest and escaping through the nose. if you're sneaky it can also be a huge plot point later on.
My RPG isn't D&D, but everyone who plays it inevitably mentions D&D, which brings me here. I made my own worldbuilding tool, specifically for just "making things up as I go". With the push of a button I can roll up new worlds, maps, characters and plotlines. They take a few minutes to parse though, so as always, DM discretion is important. The cool thing is that I can drop my players into a world with no planning at all and just hit the ground running. Or alternatively, we can get together on session zero and build the world together as they build characters to fit into it, and I can have the world built right alongside with their characters. I live in a place where almost no one plays RPGs, so I'm definitely looking for people who want to try online games through Zoom, Discord, or other voice-chat servers.
The thought of creating an entire world is actually SUPER interesting to me. Daunting? Yes, absolutely. But I think I'd have a ton of fun building maps for continents, cities, and the layouts of specific places; it all just sounds like a game of sims running on a mega computer. Manifesting the inticacies of every place I make and the social, political, or even religious aspects that come with it sounds incredibly fun, if not extremely challenging. That being said, I love your takes on how to make DnD more enjoyable and your videos are great. Keep it up, yo!
When it comes to improv vs. plan, my approach is 'It's better to have a plan you don't need than to not have one you do'. If my players never encounter one of my plans, they've probably encountered another. If they somehow sidestep everything I plan, then they've surprised me, and I can make new plans based on that surprise between games. I know I have more time on my hands than your average person, though, so as with most ideas, this isn't for everyone.
With the whole "start with the big picture and narrow it down", that's something I've been doing for my own campaign setting and writings in general for a *long* while now; I have a vibe and I know certain key points, but it makes it much easy to break it down and get increasingly more specific than to build upwards, since I can see the point of everything right off the bat. TL; DR - Number 3 is a *good* tip.
As a world builder do not be afraid to say that your world mimics a standard fantasy world. The current world I am building copies a lot from Pathfinder's world. I am copying wholesale their new starter city (Otari). I am dropping that city into my world. I am keeping the Pathfinder deities. Just different countries and geography and history. But, there is enough similar to Pathfinder that the players feel more comfortable with my setting. When you mentioned you live in Colorado it made me reminisce about our vacation we took to Colorado earlier this year. We stayed in a small town in the mountains (Dillon) and it was magnificent. We loved every minute and cannot wait to take another trip there. :-)
Way before I played D&D, I used to do this with writing fiction, too! I'd try to write these sprawling epics like the ones I liked reading, even though I never actually enjoyed creating them. So I always try to remind people that they don't have to create in the same way that someone else creates!!
This is why I buy a world book and then start changing it rather then starting from scratch. Especially books with a lot of content, like Midgard, where I can run a level 1-15 level campaign and only see half the world , and use it again later
If World Anvil doesn't turn out to be the right fit for someone, I've been using Campfire as a world building tool for about a year now. I started by handwriting everything, and exactly as Ginny has said, i've lost journals and notes more times than I care to admit. Word and google docs just left me with blank pages not knowing where to start, so writing tools like World Anvil and Campfire are lifesavers. World building is incredibly daunting because it's so difficult to know where to start or even what it means to make a city or village. I never would have thought to consider major imports and exports but knowing those things has made shaping large cities more comprehensible.
For me the best way is creating the frame of the world first. I write about important stuff about the world, its regions, culture etc. I don't go too deep, but this way I can remember the idea of the world I want to build. THEN I focus on the areas around the first few sessions, going deep about whatever I can think. This helps me think in a large scale AND helps me give more characteristics to the specific area. When I write about its culture, politics and stuff, I can think of its relation to the rest of the world.
I am in 100% agreement with the tip of starting with big ideas and then narrowing your focus. Big ideas are super important to making a setting more interesting because they can change fundamental aspects of your world, and by starting with those ideas in mind, you can more easily create interesting places for your players to explore and interesting problems for them to solve.
Whatever system works for you is fine! I draw my maps on the pages of a “reverse colouring book” (it has pages with nondescript watercolour shapes but no lines) and keep track of everything else in keynote.
Worldbuilding was more difficult for me when I started Dming, but now it comes completely naturally, like its insane how much easier it is for me now that I have some practice and experience.
I would say for the over planning/ under planning problem the solution is in knowing the npcs. Don't script anything for them, know WHO they are and how they are going to REACT to the party. The party is likely going to start something, you have to know how the world reacts to them. Then it doesn't matter what they do, your npcs will just act like themselves to continue the story.
Honestly the funniest thing is you were talking about the organization part and I was like "Yeah I just use World Anvil and it's great. I don't need anything else." Then you got to the sponsor and I was like "Imma skip it. I have this and don't need anything el...oh the ad is for World Anvil. Huh" In all seriousness, try it. It's great. It's literally the only way I keep my own incredibly complex world straight.
I been DMing my own Homebrew world for the better part of 22 years and Ginny Di is right 100% here. The guy i learn to play D&D from been DMing sense the 70's the best advice he gave me was start small make note as the player progress from that starting point and build as you need to. And when feel the need to "produce" your own world info do the lay out in such a way that you are only swapping out the game mechanics part and updates from what the players have done from the last campaigns.
A sidestepped city is not wasted. It can be used at a later date with the bonus that it's already done so you don't have to work on it as much. Nothing should be lost in world building. The key is to use the same world over and over again adding to its history, geography and culture.
On that last point I also think people sometimes confuse "you don't have to overplan" with "you shouldn't underplan". Personally I really enjoy worldbuilding even if it's an aspect that won't have much or even any impact on actual gameplay, and I think so long as you anticipate that you won't get to use everything that can be just fine. Worst case scenario you have something to pull from for minor flavor with an npc or two
About No. 5: I ALMOST got caught out in my first ever DM oneshot by this, thankfully the info I had taken EXTREMELY basic notes on saved my arse in two scenarios. I didn't need a whole world built, I focused on a basic outline of one faction, the grography of the lands, the culture, religion etc, and those basic notes allowed me to flavour some NPC dialogs and made a useful cheeky element to investigating a bookshelf, which let me talk about the topography and climate owing to a "geography book" being one found on the shelf. You may be a god of improv, but I couldn't help but notice the amount of DEPTH given by those small tidbits that I thought were nonessential. My players (as it was part of my uni course to design a driven narrative) certainly reflected on this in their feedback! It matters people! Some notes on everything are better than no notes!
Funny enough, I use D&D for writing my novels. I treat my main characters as my "party" and create character sheets for them so I can reference important information for them quickly. Whenever my characters have to fight in a battle and I don't know what to do next, I will straight up roll dice for them. I've found watching D&D videos super useful when designing my book universe in a way that feels more real. To any fellow writers out there, I reccomend at least trying it out!
What I've been doing for the world I'm building now, is that I'm occasionally asking my future players "What's something you're interested in knowing about?" And I've answered questions about marriage, sports, economies, lifestyles, deities, and so on. It's been a great experience because I know exactly what my players are interested in expansion on. I've contradicted myself once (Spoke about slaves fighting in gladiatorial arena and then suggested the city abhors blood sports because they're in constant war and warriors should die on the battlefield. But upon being confronted with that contradiction, I was able to come up with a solution that respected both points.)
Also in terms of the overplanning problem of players skipping something important, if it's really that important to you, you'll figure out a way to bring them back to it! Wait until they get a natural twenty analyzing something irrelevant and say "with that Nat 20 you're absolutely sure that this random dude on the street corner knows nothing about the murder, but something he said suddenly sparks a memory that the baker claimed the blood-colored stains on his apron were just remnants of that day's red velvet cupcakes, but that day's batch had actually been blueberry!" Or whatever you need to do.
I built a new world for hosting a game from r/LFG, and I built the world based on a random map from Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator. It generates the map, kingdoms, provinces, cities, cultures, religions, rivers, roads, and even coats of arms.
If you can find a copy with a reasonable price, also pick up a 1e Dungeon Master's Guide. Even if you avoid the edition specific parts, there's large sections for world building, economics, etc.
I feel an important aspect of world building is to be able to differentiate the creation of lore and stories. Personally I m way better at creating lore, so I concentrate my preparation on that to have a good foundation and let my players characters decide what the story should look like by their interaction with the world. Most stories then are simply improvised out of the connections they find within the world. This method can easily be reversed, but i feel a good DM should always think ahead and determine what parts of his preparation are interchangeable with good and fun improvisation
As far as world building goes I love how One Piece in other words how Oda the creator of that series does it and the world I'm running my campaigns in was based on a similar model. It's fun building a huge history and hinting at it cultures and politics of things.
Ive done a few small sessions that I need to tie together. This is giving me a good idea of doing a small island/country and having all my events within in. Thank you for your help!
I'm a first time DM, and the biggest issue I've had with worldbuilding is that I create something I believe is original, and I'm really excited about it, only to come to the realization mid campaign that it's highkey similar to a piece of media I've seen before. My underground dwarven city is similar to one a friend created on his own campaign. Two of my NPCs highkey resemble NPCs from critical role. The Republic that has a raven as the national bird also happens to have blue and silver color scheme.. damnit. And the worst is that it's not on purpose! I genuinely believe I've come up with something, only to realize AFTER figuring out the details that it's 100% something I've seen before.
Gonna be hated for this one, but as a DM I improvise at least 80% of everything. Before session 0 I write a couple pages of common knowledge lore (All of my worlds are from scratch) and I come up with a basic plan for the plot as well as the BBEG. Afterwards I come up with how everybody will meet and then we begin the improvisation. Every once in a while I'll have a basic plan for the session but it's usually come up with an hour beforehand and never written down. I usually have to improvise beyond my basic plan for each session. I ask my players how each session was afterwards and for anything they disliked. I have yet to change my ways because everybody seems to love it. I take underplanning to a whole new level. lmao
I think a major mistake many DMs make is creating a world for no reason. If you want a generic fantasy world, playing Forgotten Realms is already an option. Never go through the effort of creating an entire world unless you know exactly what it's going to have that no other world does. That thing can be as simple as basing it off a certain real world culture's mythology, making the whole thing an arctic planet or even just setting it in a different technological period. If your world doesn't have themes, if it doesn't have unique mechanics and if it isn't trying to change anything about how the game is played, you're better off not making it at all. I think we've all played in listless worlds, things made by DMs out of a sense of vague obligation, rather than a core good idea. They're boring as hell, to the DM and the players.
I'm starting to build my world that me and my group are planning to use for the rest of our games for a while. I started with the like creation myth of the world which helped me build a map, but after I got the map I zoomed in to just my starting village and the environment all around that. My players are even starting as kids and expanding out that way. It's super fun so far haha
So uhhhhhh I needed to hear the: read the DMG guide. I followed everything else pretty well... But yeah, Ginni D you're right. I definitely needed to read that.
I think one of the biggest mistakes is starting from scratch; D&D has so many great settings already covering a pretty big range of possibilities. While you might want to create something entirely new, there's nothing wrong with using parts that already exist. The forgotten realms setting is such classic high fantasy that you can easily adapt parts of it to whatever you want; need a city, why build one when you can just rename an existing one and make some changes? Want something more steampunk? Give Eberron a look. Need a magic school? Why not use parts of Strixhaven? You can see this in Critical Role as Matt Mercer builds some original locations clearly inspired by others, but with a load of his own twists on the top. In season 2 of Critical Role the party visits the crashed ruins of a flying city of an ancient empire, which is pretty similar to the Netherese city crashed in the north of Icewind Dale. He has also integrated some names like the Dessarin valley. But always with his own twists and original additions on top or replacing parts. Plus most of your players won't have played in all of the official settings anyway; you won't necessarily impress your players any more with an original setting, when all they really want is something *new*, so you want anything original to be necessary and important to the story you want to tell.
I think what starting small means is that you should not over do it. You don't need an entire World with nations and Konflikts if your whole campain is set in a singel Kingdom and focuses on their internal strugles.
I may be a year late but that last point is pretty good because, say your players skip a really cool quest you had planned that had this really cool NPC you wanted to share… Well the players don’t actually know about that NPC yet so why can’t they come back later? Almost anything you make that’s unused can come back later if you’re creative enough. Also I’ve had players skip things on accident but by doing so they changed how certain NPC’s where supposed to interact. Making it fun for me too
I know I'm late to this but I've been world building for nearly two decades and figured I'd share some of my tips. Personally I love designing intricate and expansive lore. That's why I started with building the solar system lol. However, it can be easy to let your world baloon out of control. You want to add more, make more places, more people, more factions, or nations and none of that is a bad thing. However, it's important to keep perspective. Use the larger set pieces as the difusion of mystery. You don't have to have every contenent, ever group of people, every nation, and every set piece fully planned out, as long as you can fake about 15% percent of it you can let your players do the rest of the work. I fell for this runaway train quite a few times. It's one of the reasons I have been working on a singular world for close to twenty years, but it's also my hobby and what I do in my free time. That being said, as I am planning on releasing a campaign setting about this world sometime soonish, I focused on a very small area analogous to the mediteranian. It's the most detailed part of my world because it's where people play most of the time. The rest of it I can get too later, through improv, or have enough vauge worldbuilding done that my players can intuit. My world is massive, has tons of history and politics, and monsters of terrifying scale, because that's the scale I enjoy playing and writing in. I've got the Tolkien itch and there's only one way to scratch it, but do your best not to loose yourself to the scratching or you'll only wind up bloody, sore, and burnt out. Speaking of the legend himself. If you are insane enough to develop your own spoken language, look up linguistic resources over learning how to speak a language. You will get different tools that can make the process much simpler. Also you do not have to build the ENTIRE dictionary of a language. Just enough that players understand it's mechanics. 20-30 common words and phrases will often take you further than the 8,000 words needed to fluently speak an RL language.
On the point of underplanning, literally last session I had one of my PC’s long lost father was in the city that they had just arrived at, and had a memory spell on him. A 9th level spell (lvl 6 party) had the session pretty mapped out and I wanted them to have to work to break this spell. I thought it would take them at least two sessions.y player walks up to him, sees that it’s his father, notices he doesn’t remember him, casts dispel magic, I rolled a Nat 1 on the check. Spell was broken in the first 15 minutes of the session. And I was like “well good thing I have literally every hot spot of this entire city mapped out.”
FINALLY! An ORIGINAL video about worldbuilding tips! Worldbuilding advice is always just the same thing over and over: "start with a town first", "don't overprep", "don't write the campaign until you know the characters" ... These tips may be helpful for people really short on time. But for people who actually want to get started, I hate that all the advice for people wanting to start working is just tips for working as little as possible. Cheers Ginny!
one problem I've seen is too many predators, not enough prey. if every mountain peak has a dragon. those dragons gotta eat. it's not something that will be obvious to the regular player but something will be off..if the wandering monster table is 90% predators, eventually "you run into another pack of wolves" but you never run into any deer, and the wolves are always well fed and healthy,gets old. and weird.
great tips in this vid!. I have been doing a different approach as of late and its been really alot of fun and especially because i dont have alot of time to plan and build worlds anymore in my life. I kinda of just start with one scene, spend all the time i have available on the one scene or little area. I then just let the players build the world as it happens, by what they do and how the improv plays out they sort of build the world for me really. I just take little notes of key things as it moves along, and its almost like my world started in one area and the fog of war dissapears as they walk to a new spot and it gets procedurally generated in real time from our minds as a group!
In regards to the overplanning part: Just because your players ignore or skip over something that you planned out, doesn't mean that you can't use it again in the future. If not in a later session, then in another campaign. If you design this cool subplot with a dungeon and a cool twist at the end, don't tell your players what they missed out on no matter how tempting it is. You can still use it in the future.
I feel like the biggest worldbuilding mistake I've seen any DM make is.. MISTAKING worldbuilding for session preparation. Laying out a starting town or city is wonderful, but the easiest trap to fall into is forgetting that you're meant to have something for your players to do. We can imply all the faction conflict we want and have a detailed and fantastic culture, but unless your players specifically play to experience that, there's this looming risk of becoming more of a vehicle for exposition than a DM.
There's a quote that I think gets at the heart of tip 5: "plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." In other words, you can't make a plan that will successfully address every actual complication; what you can do is develop, through careful thought and exploration, a list of things that likely could happen and the ways and means you have at hand to address something unexpected happening, as it surely will.
Over the years I've found it's useful to parse this as planing and preparation. Planing is deciding what's going to happen, preparation is knowing your setting and what/who is in it. Don't plan. Prepare.
Yeah, I tend to plan what I call modules -- moments and key parts that need to happen/drive the story -- but I leave out the connecting bits. That way, my players can explore organically and I can plug the modules in as opportunities become available.
@@phatpat63 I think a combination of the two is necessary, for instance in Monster of The Week it is suggested that for each hunt the keeper prepared a list of things that will happen if the hunters do not thwart the plans of the monster, and that this list should be advanced when the story lulls or when certain premade triggers occur. It's a kind of plan that isn't set in stone but it's still a plan, keeping things that should happen barring intervention is just as important as preparing for intervention to occur, because otherwise nothing will ever happen without the players causing it
You can also re-use things that don't come up that session. They don't have to die forever.
Correct
My DM (and subsequently, me adopting it), have this trick up his sleeve. In every session he runs, he knows exactly how the session's gonna start (because it's, the start lol), and how it's gonna end. For the in-betweens, he plans several routes that the players might take, but ultimately, it is out of his hands. From that routes also, he develops on how to get to the end of the session. There are multiple pathways that he jots down, but ultimately, does not plan a whole lot of. Most of it are built in with the players as they traverse and do their current objectives. It's been working quite great, I can tell you that, I no longer have to bullcrap my way out of a session because the players derail it a little bit too much, because I have a fixed end to it.
Ginny your world building advice is pure gold. Start out small. Picture a movie or a book that you have read and start writing. Describe the setting, visuals etc. create a conflict that the player party is on either side of. Describe the economy. What is worth coin. Describe taboo subjects perhaps half breeds. Engage in thought regarding military; what are they protecting? What about the races? Are they common or not. Who is the big bad evil guy? Who are his minions? Is the crime scene huge or non-existent. Is it run by humans or is it gnome mafia. What is the caste system who’s on top? Wizards? Thieves? Assassins? Clerics? Who does the grunt work who are the aristocrats? Are dwarves the minority who do the dirty jobs for drow? Is it the humans who have tamed dragons? Is the an ogre tribunal counsel? Each question you decided will give you plenty of idea fodder then you can start making npcs. Those that are important to steer the campaign, those who are pivotal story characters but hollow in every other aspect? Describe the shops, services, guilds, and religion/temple buildings. What about the seedy nightlife? Is the local tavern/brothel the best place to find jobs? Who are famous peoples from the area? What did they do? What about legends and tall tales. Look for motivation in the backstories of your party? Let your players help mold the background. Don’t be afraid to drop some huge magical item into the hands of an idiot or a player, just to see what they do with it or how it juxtaposes itself into an errand or quest. Have a single campaign in mind when you start but not a direct path, or chapter work. Be prepared for it to go off rails or by the book, both can be frustrating and brilliant at the same time. And lastly have fun. It’s a game not a job. Have fun and play your own game.
having a good base understanding of your world also makes it MUCH EASIER to improvise, because youre prepared for it. You know how the world is going to react to the stuff your players decide to do, even when its not what you expected. Dont overprepare by coming up with every possibility, but prepare by really getting to know the part of your world that your planning.
Kinda like how you shouldnt write out dialogue trees for your npcs, just to be prepared for what a pc might say. However you should prepare so you know them well enough to respond on the spot in a way that feels true to who that npc is
The players may skip some stuff, toss it in the recycling bin!
No not in the trash, the bin where you grab it later when it would make sense and make a few adjustments to update it.
Me: "I'm an experienced DM with almost 10 years' experience who's built multiple homebrew worlds from scratch. I'm usually pretty confident, but there's definitely room for improvement so maybe this video will be useful to get some more advanced tips..."
Ginny Di: "Tip 1: Read the DM Guide."
Me: "...Oh yeah fuck I should probably do that at some point."
Wait, the DMG isn't just a catalogue for magic items?!
This made me laugh so much, thank you! XD
Like honestly, I was scared about not having books then I didn’t use them once
@@diamondbowgamer3812 i have probably 10-12 of the books and barely open them
Yep same here, though only 4 years of experience rather than 10.
Love the shirt!
The Tip "start small" got me laughing, as i am building my first campaign in a homebrew Waterdeep Setting with a to be very fleshed out metropolis xD
I discovered my love for world building is actually more than my love for playing when it comes to d&d, this addiction has however given me the ability to tell you any given npc's favourite dish at the drop of a hat
I've always loved the idea of having an entire campaign in a single city. Puts a fantasy world under a microscope, and to me that can be even more immersive and magical :)
I'm working on a mini-campaign like that right now - a single village, actually!! I'm enjoying it a LOT more than I enjoyed trying to create an entire continent. I feel like I can really dig into the specifics of how this village operates and who lives there, and give a lot more depth to everything that's happening there. It's nice to feel like I'm figuring out the type of worldbuilding that I really like doing!
I have a single town campaign where the party does a cop-comedy as the Town Watch. It's extremely amusing so far watching the Minotaur fighter smash into every building while the bard rips on the criminals' fashion senses.
This approach is a large part of what makes the game Disco Elysium so magical, I think. A 50-hour story with 1 million possible words of dialogue all set in a backwater district of the city of Revachol. You can tell the greater world is extremely well thought out through what you learn of it as you play, but the intimacy of the game's immediate setting keeps the narrative experience deeply personal and character-driven.
Or a single, small island! then they have some surrounding nature, but cant go too far (dont give them a boat!)
The Dungeon Dudes have an adventure and campaign setting book coming out soon that is exactly this (Dungeons of Drakkenheim). Also, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist takes place entirely within the city of Waterdeep.
Personally, I wanted to do this with the city of Sharn from Eberron, but my players don't seem that interested so I've moved on from the idea.
About the under/over planning issue, I recall my big anime setting. I did a lot of planning, built several important NPCs to populate the school so players would have people to interact with. Naturally, not a single one got used. In fact, the biggest NPC ended up being a character who started as a foot note on a separate npc's sheet.
When you plan stuff and develop people and places, even if the PCs don't interact with them, it still helps by fleshing out the background and makes it easier to populate where they DO go.
As an aspiring DM slowly building his world, I've noticed one crucial thing about all worldbuilding styles, and that's building "out" vs building "in", and where that boundary may lay. In simple terms, it's your starting point when approaching a worldbuilding scenario. For example, when building your pantheon, do you have a few or even one key God in mind and build out from there, or do you start with a scaffolding of the major domains of your pantheon and build inwards, fleshing each God out as you go? Or for physical map making, do you start in a town and build outwards to form a continent, or start with your landmasses and build inwards to form your towns? Identifying where you intend to start can help ground your building and make it so you're not lost in a sea of floating facts, features, and fun locations on a word document.
Wonderful, smart, funny video as always, and side note--who else is OBSESSED with her shirt in this??
Also the idea in this video about dragons and magic-users is so cool why can't I have cool worldbuilding ideas like that
Someone asked her what color she wanted her shirt to be and she replied "Yes" and it looks AMAZING. Glad you pointed it out, it's awesome.
🙋♀️ Then again, mint green and pale pink have always been my favorite colors put together so her aesthetic makes me happy every video uwu
The dragon's that can smell magic and feed off the spellcasters is such a great idea!
As a long time DM a common mistake I have seen and made is making the world too functional. I have seen so many new DMs make a world where conflicts are solved too easily by NPCs or by big organisations. For newer DMs, I would recommend placing the adventure in a remote place or in a country where organised help is rare. It is OK to make the world good at dealing with problems the players aren't going to fix, but if the story would logically solve itself without the players the adventure is going to feel hollow. Give the big pieces of your world a compelling reason not to help the party directly.
This is great advice!!
Rule of thumb, if the world is even half as dysfunctional as ours, they'll have their work cut out.
I love your very first key point is “FUCKING READ” a lot of people overlook the dmg
The advice about not waiting until you have a "perfect" system is really good. Don't allow it to slow down your creativity.
I think with Point 3, there is something that needs to be differentiated. When you talk about starting small - we're looking at the micro detail. What you need for the session. But when you come up with a world-building idea like "dragons eat magic" that informs the starting small. You don't have to go off and determine a complete dragon history and lore for session 0. You're still starting small - but its being informed by the big themes of your world.
My world building strat:
Main mood - e.g Is it a dark/dingy dungeon crawl? Or sunny exploration island paradise?
Main theme or question - e.g How controlling is too controlling?
Create main plot or several major plots - Factions at war with each other, they are trying to get allies and resources from nearby nations that are in an archipelago. There is also a mysterious cult working in the background.
Create world building things that fit the mood, and main theme. Flesh out the Faction's culture, location, technology etc...
Hence I'm making a faction intrigue, pirate island hoping adventure campaign.
Agree on the planning point. The problem isn’t planning too much, it’s planning THE PLOT too much. Planning to improvise with lists of possible scenes, possible npcs, and secretes and clues (thanks slyfourish!) and then dropping them in where needed is one way to plan, that doesn’t require guessing at the PC’s actions or choices. Another is more sandboxy- build out a populated hex map with stuff for them to encounter, it’s a lot of rock up front but then you are good to go each week cuz the world is ready for them.
I am the type who usually skips sponsor segments.
but yours are just far to wonderful to miss.
World building is the part of running the game I'm best at, my process is this:
1: General tone and concept of the setting.
2: Reference any setting history I've already shown to the players.
3: Begin npc design, make fleshed out characters in a vacuum, then think about that characters personality
4: Finish npc design by thinking about what a person who has the personality I've fleshed out would want in the setting I've created and how they go about working towards that goal.
5: Well thought out characters with defined goals working with or against each other in a setting I understand the basics of should naturally give rise to local plot hooks.
6: Add major plot extensions based on player interest and larger scale story events.
My approach is to go very deep on world building, but very light on actual campaign prepping. Since player agency can affect where the campaign is going, but not how the world that campaign inhabits fundamentally works.
That way I can freely redirect the direction of the campaign based on the players, but the fact that wherever they go, chances are there's something there already I can weave into the story.
Number one tip for dms. Everything they side step can be put I front of them again later on with minor changes, there’s no such thing as wasted work, so let them sidestep it and reward them for doing so, and put it in front of them later with a way to stop them from sidestepping it the same way they did last time.
That “dragons eat spell casters” idea, that is a movie I’d watch or book I’d read in an instant. But would make life hell on spell caster PCs, LoL. Sounds fun.
Another thing about tip 5 - there are no wasted ideas. Write everything down, and whatever you don't use now, know you may use it later, or even in a completely other campaign. Hell, over time, these ideas can even become a 'signature' on your particular style of DMing.
As a DM who is often heavily utilizing improv, the biggest thing i would say for other DMs who struggle with spoons around that stuff sometimes is, the setting and location is important, if you know a city then you can create a fleshed out character on the spot easily, but if you dont know what the city is at its core then you will have a lot more that is needing to be developed at the same time.
One thing I do to avoid having specifically prepped items being skipped is to have multiple instances of the same npc around, but when the party engages with them have the others never exist. Such as: a military captain in the palace and a blacksmith/ex-captain could provide the same quest connection but it is a lot more likely that a party would go to one than the other.
Another way is to have the story move with the characters. I've often given my players 3-4 different locations to go, but a similar plot point would be at each location.
For tip #2
If you use discord. Make personal servers that you do not invite anyone into but yourself and favorite music bot.
You can have a near endless number of text channels because you can always make another server.
This, without "nitro", restricts your text space, which is actually a good thing because then you can copy and paste things to your players and they will be no longer than 2000 characters.
Some examples i already use are:
Lantern Rings
Homebrew Spells
Homebrew items
Classes
Subclasses
Songs I have parody'd
Poems I have written.
From Frenkle (which is a god in a game I actually get to play in)
Etc.
This is excellent for those who use their phones for data keeping but forget to transfer things over when you get a new phone (or device).
The way I have never skipped an ad of yours is a credit on your end
I won't be happy until as much worldbuilding as they have in ESV. The lore you read about in books in that game make my head swim, in a good way.
Thanks
Skipping a whole city? My players have a new record, skipping a plane and with that a whole arc ment to last 2 months. I love them for their scemes and i did kinda have fun one by one throwing out all the paper i did my prep on after the session XD we just laughed and went on to the next arc
When I saw point no.1, I thought it was about actual recourses, i.e "what recourses does a civilization access to? How does it affect their culture? Their architecture?"; A dessert civilization isn't going to build their towns out of wood and cobblestone, and a drink at the tavern would be a lot more expensive than elsewhere...
While you were talking about organizing your setting, I kept thinking “oh shit, did she get a worldanvil sponsor?” And then you kept going, made a passing mention to digital options and I thought “shit if they aren’t sponsoring her, they should”
Then the skit started and I was like “YES.”
4:30 I cant remember her name but the detail of her speaking in rhyme like in her intro is great
Bonuspoints for writing the ad-section in verse. I often skip those sections, but the verses kept me interested :D
what I like to do when building a world is pick something from the real world and turn it into a fantasy world - it helps to focus and saves you a lot of time, like a world being based on a dead body (see owl house). demons on there are all related to insects feeding on it, different locations are based on the body structure and magic items have a similar theme. If your players venture off-road you will never be lost cause you have a ready model at all times. like a cave that is structured like the nose - having all the tunnels and exits/entries and possible diseases. there was this one quest where they have to get crystal tears - went to the eye, stumbled down lacrimal ductus hunted by giant creatures inspired by mites that live in the eyelashes aka black forest and escaping through the nose. if you're sneaky it can also be a huge plot point later on.
My RPG isn't D&D, but everyone who plays it inevitably mentions D&D, which brings me here. I made my own worldbuilding tool, specifically for just "making things up as I go". With the push of a button I can roll up new worlds, maps, characters and plotlines. They take a few minutes to parse though, so as always, DM discretion is important.
The cool thing is that I can drop my players into a world with no planning at all and just hit the ground running. Or alternatively, we can get together on session zero and build the world together as they build characters to fit into it, and I can have the world built right alongside with their characters.
I live in a place where almost no one plays RPGs, so I'm definitely looking for people who want to try online games through Zoom, Discord, or other voice-chat servers.
That last tip is so spot on! I'm glad someone is saying it.
I had Lisa Frank folders in my Trapper Keeper in high school in the 1980's. Way to nostalgia me, D&D lady!
The thought of creating an entire world is actually SUPER interesting to me. Daunting? Yes, absolutely. But I think I'd have a ton of fun building maps for continents, cities, and the layouts of specific places; it all just sounds like a game of sims running on a mega computer. Manifesting the inticacies of every place I make and the social, political, or even religious aspects that come with it sounds incredibly fun, if not extremely challenging. That being said, I love your takes on how to make DnD more enjoyable and your videos are great. Keep it up, yo!
My players tried to leave the city, but there was a snorlax in their way, so they gave up.
Inspiration is a good way to create your own ideas. A good example is using Dune to create a desert world or continent
When it comes to improv vs. plan, my approach is 'It's better to have a plan you don't need than to not have one you do'. If my players never encounter one of my plans, they've probably encountered another. If they somehow sidestep everything I plan, then they've surprised me, and I can make new plans based on that surprise between games. I know I have more time on my hands than your average person, though, so as with most ideas, this isn't for everyone.
With the whole "start with the big picture and narrow it down", that's something I've been doing for my own campaign setting and writings in general for a *long* while now; I have a vibe and I know certain key points, but it makes it much easy to break it down and get increasingly more specific than to build upwards, since I can see the point of everything right off the bat.
TL; DR - Number 3 is a *good* tip.
#4 is so important and I think one of the most common.
This is by far my favourite World Anvil ad, I knew it was coming, but it still kept me waiting if it actually was going to be.
As a world builder do not be afraid to say that your world mimics a standard fantasy world. The current world I am building copies a lot from Pathfinder's world. I am copying wholesale their new starter city (Otari). I am dropping that city into my world. I am keeping the Pathfinder deities. Just different countries and geography and history. But, there is enough similar to Pathfinder that the players feel more comfortable with my setting.
When you mentioned you live in Colorado it made me reminisce about our vacation we took to Colorado earlier this year. We stayed in a small town in the mountains (Dillon) and it was magnificent. We loved every minute and cannot wait to take another trip there. :-)
Everytime i would create a world it would be a literal world and i'd always get overwhelmed and quit. Great advives
Way before I played D&D, I used to do this with writing fiction, too! I'd try to write these sprawling epics like the ones I liked reading, even though I never actually enjoyed creating them. So I always try to remind people that they don't have to create in the same way that someone else creates!!
This is why I buy a world book and then start changing it rather then starting from scratch. Especially books with a lot of content, like Midgard, where I can run a level 1-15 level campaign and only see half the world , and use it again later
If World Anvil doesn't turn out to be the right fit for someone, I've been using Campfire as a world building tool for about a year now. I started by handwriting everything, and exactly as Ginny has said, i've lost journals and notes more times than I care to admit. Word and google docs just left me with blank pages not knowing where to start, so writing tools like World Anvil and Campfire are lifesavers. World building is incredibly daunting because it's so difficult to know where to start or even what it means to make a city or village. I never would have thought to consider major imports and exports but knowing those things has made shaping large cities more comprehensible.
For me the best way is creating the frame of the world first. I write about important stuff about the world, its regions, culture etc. I don't go too deep, but this way I can remember the idea of the world I want to build.
THEN I focus on the areas around the first few sessions, going deep about whatever I can think.
This helps me think in a large scale AND helps me give more characteristics to the specific area. When I write about its culture, politics and stuff, I can think of its relation to the rest of the world.
I am in 100% agreement with the tip of starting with big ideas and then narrowing your focus.
Big ideas are super important to making a setting more interesting because they can change fundamental aspects of your world, and by starting with those ideas in mind, you can more easily create interesting places for your players to explore and interesting problems for them to solve.
Whatever system works for you is fine! I draw my maps on the pages of a “reverse colouring book” (it has pages with nondescript watercolour shapes but no lines) and keep track of everything else in keynote.
Worldbuilding was more difficult for me when I started Dming, but now it comes completely naturally, like its insane how much easier it is for me now that I have some practice and experience.
I would say for the over planning/ under planning problem the solution is in knowing the npcs. Don't script anything for them, know WHO they are and how they are going to REACT to the party. The party is likely going to start something, you have to know how the world reacts to them. Then it doesn't matter what they do, your npcs will just act like themselves to continue the story.
Honestly the funniest thing is you were talking about the organization part and I was like "Yeah I just use World Anvil and it's great. I don't need anything else." Then you got to the sponsor and I was like "Imma skip it. I have this and don't need anything el...oh the ad is for World Anvil. Huh" In all seriousness, try it. It's great. It's literally the only way I keep my own incredibly complex world straight.
I'm 50... Started playing in 1985... Just got back into it and your videos are great.
45% unsubscribed is really good! That's steady growth and genuine interest and a high conversion rate.
I been DMing my own Homebrew world for the better part of 22 years and Ginny Di is right 100% here. The guy i learn to play D&D from been DMing sense the 70's the best advice he gave me was start small make note as the player progress from that starting point and build as you need to. And when feel the need to "produce" your own world info do the lay out in such a way that you are only swapping out the game mechanics part and updates from what the players have done from the last campaigns.
A sidestepped city is not wasted. It can be used at a later date with the bonus that it's already done so you don't have to work on it as much. Nothing should be lost in world building. The key is to use the same world over and over again adding to its history, geography and culture.
On that last point I also think people sometimes confuse "you don't have to overplan" with "you shouldn't underplan". Personally I really enjoy worldbuilding even if it's an aspect that won't have much or even any impact on actual gameplay, and I think so long as you anticipate that you won't get to use everything that can be just fine. Worst case scenario you have something to pull from for minor flavor with an npc or two
About No. 5: I ALMOST got caught out in my first ever DM oneshot by this, thankfully the info I had taken EXTREMELY basic notes on saved my arse in two scenarios. I didn't need a whole world built, I focused on a basic outline of one faction, the grography of the lands, the culture, religion etc, and those basic notes allowed me to flavour some NPC dialogs and made a useful cheeky element to investigating a bookshelf, which let me talk about the topography and climate owing to a "geography book" being one found on the shelf.
You may be a god of improv, but I couldn't help but notice the amount of DEPTH given by those small tidbits that I thought were nonessential. My players (as it was part of my uni course to design a driven narrative) certainly reflected on this in their feedback! It matters people! Some notes on everything are better than no notes!
Funny enough, I use D&D for writing my novels. I treat my main characters as my "party" and create character sheets for them so I can reference important information for them quickly. Whenever my characters have to fight in a battle and I don't know what to do next, I will straight up roll dice for them. I've found watching D&D videos super useful when designing my book universe in a way that feels more real. To any fellow writers out there, I reccomend at least trying it out!
Coolest thing about Ginny? She dyes her eyebrows
What I've been doing for the world I'm building now, is that I'm occasionally asking my future players "What's something you're interested in knowing about?" And I've answered questions about marriage, sports, economies, lifestyles, deities, and so on. It's been a great experience because I know exactly what my players are interested in expansion on. I've contradicted myself once (Spoke about slaves fighting in gladiatorial arena and then suggested the city abhors blood sports because they're in constant war and warriors should die on the battlefield. But upon being confronted with that contradiction, I was able to come up with a solution that respected both points.)
Also in terms of the overplanning problem of players skipping something important, if it's really that important to you, you'll figure out a way to bring them back to it!
Wait until they get a natural twenty analyzing something irrelevant and say "with that Nat 20 you're absolutely sure that this random dude on the street corner knows nothing about the murder, but something he said suddenly sparks a memory that the baker claimed the blood-colored stains on his apron were just remnants of that day's red velvet cupcakes, but that day's batch had actually been blueberry!" Or whatever you need to do.
I built a new world for hosting a game from r/LFG, and I built the world based on a random map from Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator. It generates the map, kingdoms, provinces, cities, cultures, religions, rivers, roads, and even coats of arms.
Lisa Frank is your Warlock Patron.
THAT SHIRT IS AMAZING
If you can find a copy with a reasonable price, also pick up a 1e Dungeon Master's Guide. Even if you avoid the edition specific parts, there's large sections for world building, economics, etc.
Yes, Ginny, we've been there quite a while.
I don’t write comments… ever… but that shirt is way too cute to not comment on. I love your videos Ginny!!!! Keep up the great work.
I feel an important aspect of world building is to be able to differentiate the creation of lore and stories.
Personally I m way better at creating lore, so I concentrate my preparation on that to have a good foundation and let my players characters decide what the story should look like by their interaction with the world. Most stories then are simply improvised out of the connections they find within the world.
This method can easily be reversed, but i feel a good DM should always think ahead and determine what parts of his preparation are interchangeable with good and fun improvisation
As far as world building goes I love how One Piece in other words how Oda the creator of that series does it and the world I'm running my campaigns in was based on a similar model. It's fun building a huge history and hinting at it cultures and politics of things.
Ive done a few small sessions that I need to tie together. This is giving me a good idea of doing a small island/country and having all my events within in. Thank you for your help!
dont know how you do it, but the rhymes for the world anvil ad were really good.
I'm a first time DM, and the biggest issue I've had with worldbuilding is that I create something I believe is original, and I'm really excited about it, only to come to the realization mid campaign that it's highkey similar to a piece of media I've seen before.
My underground dwarven city is similar to one a friend created on his own campaign. Two of my NPCs highkey resemble NPCs from critical role. The Republic that has a raven as the national bird also happens to have blue and silver color scheme.. damnit.
And the worst is that it's not on purpose! I genuinely believe I've come up with something, only to realize AFTER figuring out the details that it's 100% something I've seen before.
Gonna be hated for this one, but as a DM I improvise at least 80% of everything. Before session 0 I write a couple pages of common knowledge lore (All of my worlds are from scratch) and I come up with a basic plan for the plot as well as the BBEG. Afterwards I come up with how everybody will meet and then we begin the improvisation. Every once in a while I'll have a basic plan for the session but it's usually come up with an hour beforehand and never written down. I usually have to improvise beyond my basic plan for each session. I ask my players how each session was afterwards and for anything they disliked. I have yet to change my ways because everybody seems to love it. I take underplanning to a whole new level. lmao
Great stuff friend 👏 👍
I think a major mistake many DMs make is creating a world for no reason. If you want a generic fantasy world, playing Forgotten Realms is already an option. Never go through the effort of creating an entire world unless you know exactly what it's going to have that no other world does.
That thing can be as simple as basing it off a certain real world culture's mythology, making the whole thing an arctic planet or even just setting it in a different technological period.
If your world doesn't have themes, if it doesn't have unique mechanics and if it isn't trying to change anything about how the game is played, you're better off not making it at all.
I think we've all played in listless worlds, things made by DMs out of a sense of vague obligation, rather than a core good idea. They're boring as hell, to the DM and the players.
I love that idea of starting big!
Pretty killer add, can’t lie.
I'm starting to build my world that me and my group are planning to use for the rest of our games for a while. I started with the like creation myth of the world which helped me build a map, but after I got the map I zoomed in to just my starting village and the environment all around that. My players are even starting as kids and expanding out that way. It's super fun so far haha
So uhhhhhh I needed to hear the: read the DMG guide. I followed everything else pretty well... But yeah, Ginni D you're right. I definitely needed to read that.
I think one of the biggest mistakes is starting from scratch; D&D has so many great settings already covering a pretty big range of possibilities. While you might want to create something entirely new, there's nothing wrong with using parts that already exist. The forgotten realms setting is such classic high fantasy that you can easily adapt parts of it to whatever you want; need a city, why build one when you can just rename an existing one and make some changes? Want something more steampunk? Give Eberron a look. Need a magic school? Why not use parts of Strixhaven?
You can see this in Critical Role as Matt Mercer builds some original locations clearly inspired by others, but with a load of his own twists on the top. In season 2 of Critical Role the party visits the crashed ruins of a flying city of an ancient empire, which is pretty similar to the Netherese city crashed in the north of Icewind Dale. He has also integrated some names like the Dessarin valley. But always with his own twists and original additions on top or replacing parts.
Plus most of your players won't have played in all of the official settings anyway; you won't necessarily impress your players any more with an original setting, when all they really want is something *new*, so you want anything original to be necessary and important to the story you want to tell.
I think what starting small means is that you should not over do it. You don't need an entire World with nations and Konflikts if your whole campain is set in a singel Kingdom and focuses on their internal strugles.
I may be a year late but that last point is pretty good because, say your players skip a really cool quest you had planned that had this really cool NPC you wanted to share…
Well the players don’t actually know about that NPC yet so why can’t they come back later?
Almost anything you make that’s unused can come back later if you’re creative enough.
Also I’ve had players skip things on accident but by doing so they changed how certain NPC’s where supposed to interact. Making it fun for me too
I love your channel. Your presentation is awesome and you hit the topics that are really helpful.
I know I'm late to this but I've been world building for nearly two decades and figured I'd share some of my tips. Personally I love designing intricate and expansive lore. That's why I started with building the solar system lol. However, it can be easy to let your world baloon out of control. You want to add more, make more places, more people, more factions, or nations and none of that is a bad thing. However, it's important to keep perspective. Use the larger set pieces as the difusion of mystery. You don't have to have every contenent, ever group of people, every nation, and every set piece fully planned out, as long as you can fake about 15% percent of it you can let your players do the rest of the work.
I fell for this runaway train quite a few times. It's one of the reasons I have been working on a singular world for close to twenty years, but it's also my hobby and what I do in my free time. That being said, as I am planning on releasing a campaign setting about this world sometime soonish, I focused on a very small area analogous to the mediteranian. It's the most detailed part of my world because it's where people play most of the time. The rest of it I can get too later, through improv, or have enough vauge worldbuilding done that my players can intuit.
My world is massive, has tons of history and politics, and monsters of terrifying scale, because that's the scale I enjoy playing and writing in. I've got the Tolkien itch and there's only one way to scratch it, but do your best not to loose yourself to the scratching or you'll only wind up bloody, sore, and burnt out.
Speaking of the legend himself. If you are insane enough to develop your own spoken language, look up linguistic resources over learning how to speak a language. You will get different tools that can make the process much simpler. Also you do not have to build the ENTIRE dictionary of a language. Just enough that players understand it's mechanics. 20-30 common words and phrases will often take you further than the 8,000 words needed to fluently speak an RL language.
On the point of underplanning, literally last session I had one of my PC’s long lost father was in the city that they had just arrived at, and had a memory spell on him. A 9th level spell (lvl 6 party) had the session pretty mapped out and I wanted them to have to work to break this spell. I thought it would take them at least two sessions.y player walks up to him, sees that it’s his father, notices he doesn’t remember him, casts dispel magic, I rolled a Nat 1 on the check. Spell was broken in the first 15 minutes of the session. And I was like “well good thing I have literally every hot spot of this entire city mapped out.”
FINALLY! An ORIGINAL video about worldbuilding tips! Worldbuilding advice is always just the same thing over and over: "start with a town first", "don't overprep", "don't write the campaign until you know the characters" ... These tips may be helpful for people really short on time. But for people who actually want to get started, I hate that all the advice for people wanting to start working is just tips for working as little as possible.
Cheers Ginny!
Here's one for the algorithm, well done!
Thanks for the advice.
Shout out for Colorado! That's where I am.
one problem I've seen is too many predators, not enough prey. if every mountain peak has a dragon. those dragons gotta eat. it's not something that will be obvious to the regular player but something will be off..if the wandering monster table is 90% predators, eventually "you run into another pack of wolves" but you never run into any deer, and the wolves are always well fed and healthy,gets old. and weird.
This I am guilty of. I'm knew to it but dam it if I ant going to try and learn.
great tips in this vid!. I have been doing a different approach as of late and its been really alot of fun and especially because i dont have alot of time to plan and build worlds anymore in my life. I kinda of just start with one scene, spend all the time i have available on the one scene or little area. I then just let the players build the world as it happens, by what they do and how the improv plays out they sort of build the world for me really. I just take little notes of key things as it moves along, and its almost like my world started in one area and the fog of war dissapears as they walk to a new spot and it gets procedurally generated in real time from our minds as a group!
In regards to the overplanning part: Just because your players ignore or skip over something that you planned out, doesn't mean that you can't use it again in the future. If not in a later session, then in another campaign. If you design this cool subplot with a dungeon and a cool twist at the end, don't tell your players what they missed out on no matter how tempting it is. You can still use it in the future.
Thanks for the advice, and that was an awesome shirt :)
I feel like the biggest worldbuilding mistake I've seen any DM make is.. MISTAKING worldbuilding for session preparation. Laying out a starting town or city is wonderful, but the easiest trap to fall into is forgetting that you're meant to have something for your players to do. We can imply all the faction conflict we want and have a detailed and fantastic culture, but unless your players specifically play to experience that, there's this looming risk of becoming more of a vehicle for exposition than a DM.