My 6 year old is watching this video with wide wonder filled eyes. I asked him if he knew what Matt was talking about and he said "No, but he looks like he's having fun whatever he's talking about."
It took me about six months to design my world, and it isn't done yet because as my players move through the place I fill in the details, but I'd like to share the method I used. I based it a little bit off the DM Guide's instructions, but I've found this method very useful. Pick a word. That's your town/city. For instance, Widow's Point. To design this entire city, I used the word: gritty. I wanted a dirty city. Dirty and poor. Poor and corrupt. From one word, I now had a series of word-association decisions about the place that told me what the city was like. From that single word, I turned this city, which on my map was on the top of a cliff overlooking the ocean (hence the name) into a town that had fallen on its luck in the past 160 years due to the players' beginning backwater town taking merchants from Widow's Point's trade route by sea. The dockside area became the poor quarter, called the Must because of the smell of rotting wood and the city sewers dumping into the bay. The other half of the city, the commercial and land trade district became the Front, because of the criminal organisation terminology and also because it was geographically the front of the city. The rich area, a tiny walled area taking the East side, became the Gold quarter, where all the still-rich people lived, what few of them were left, as well as being the lair of the city's one remaining criminal gang, the Black Widows (see if you can figure out where that name came from). All that from a single word: gritty. It might seem daunting, but as long as you start with that one word and then think about the implications of what it'd mean for an entire city, you can build on top of every idea until you have a fully-formed settlement. I've done the same thing with 'culture' and 'industry' for two other cities. It's a trick I'm very fond of now.
I really like this “one word” method. I’ll be putting it to good use, and without knowing it, already have. “Prosperous”. At the confluence of two rivers on the border of two previously warring nations. Where there should only be two bridges, one crossing the river running N/Sish in one nation and one crossing the border river running E/W, there are actually three bridges with two crossing the border river. One up river and the other down river of the confluence. Hence, the name of the town, Three Bridges. A prosperous, rapidly growing town at the very epicenter of new trade between two previously warring nations. Fast forward 15 years and add to this an ambitious Baroness who wants to expand her territory East beyond the World’s End Mountains and what could possibly go wrong? Time to hire some brave/naive adventurers.
I've heard a lot about you over the last few months, but didn't watch much. Now 5 episodes deep in the series, I'm loving it! Thanks for sharing your insights.
I've been playing since 1977 and DMing since 1979, and I love these videos! My 12 year old is learning to DM, and since I've found these videos, we are watching them together and talking about them after we're done. Your videos help to springboard our conversations and help her tie in the things that I'm teaching her. Thank you!
My dragonborn are the sterile offspring of shapechanged dragons and the other races. So when you see a gold dragonborn, or red dragonborn, you know one of their parents was an actual dragon of at least adult age that could shapechange. Better find out if their dragon parent is still alive, or dead.
@@Horkslair Mine originated as like, Dark-Souls-like devouts who worshippped elder dragons as gods and got transformed into purer, more perfect draconic beings (Also Dragonborn live like 200 years because come on, dragons) through the power of their faith and determination. The ones alive now are the descendants of those worshippers , and live in a single, very organized citadel full to the brim with Paladins and Sorcerers
@@kaleidoslug7777 I have a lot of humanoid races just being humans who were touched by a powerful entity before they were born (like genasi), so half elves are elven souls reincarnated into human bodies or human souls touched by the elven god, dragonborn are the same and in my setting humanity was saved by an ancient dragon so dragonborn are ruling class by default (and very rare). This was my solution to explaining why all half elves, genasi, tiefling and asimar are always part human (and not part dwarf, gnome, halfling, elf ect), it also made human society more interesting and saved my world from having so many species with distinct cultures that those cultures had to become similar. This leads to humans being more susceptible to external powers which led me to conclude it was because they were one of the only races capable that was not created by a specific god for a specific purpose, humanity can create gods and use their divine magic. I am totally just doing this because im excited about my world, but also because it goes to show how a simple, usually inconvenient question like "what are dragonborn?" or "why are there no elf-gnome hybrids?" can become the basic for an entire setting.
You can tell he's an old school player. Hate to spoil it, but he didn't invent the idea of Dragonborn being created by wizards. Dragonborn themselves are a rip-off of something called draconian form dragonlance, an old AD&D world setting. They were literally made by evil wizards from the eggs of good dragons.
Someone just asked me this earlier today and I thought "If I can't BS my way through this with all the info i've learned + creativity how will I make it being a dm..." I sold it pretty well. Thank goodness theres an actual answer for this out there though.
Wow, great job with the letters! I really liked how they started off as normal and lighthearted and then slowly turned creepy. It sounds like a very fun campaign!
For me, it was immensively more difficult running "Princes of the Apocalypse" than improvising my way through. SO much stuff to think about because its been layed out before hand
I find it interesting how I followed the same method you said to use automatically. I started with a little town based off one of my favorite games to get a preset ( i find it is most difficult to start, but everything is easier once you have a theme). I then added more towns, some forests, rivers, and mountains, and eventually, a city. Soon enough, I had an empire, and then several more. Before my very eyes I watched my small town transform into an entire world. One thing I did, was ask my players what they would find interesting. I made sure to add these elements to my world somewhere.
+Iain Duncan That sounds awesome! Something I haven't talked much about is just communicating to your players. Not only stuff like. . .did you have fun? But what kind of game would you enjoy playing in. Oh you're from a swamp, what's the name of the swamp? Let the characters help build the world. Sometimes this doesn't work, some players don't like 'knowing' parts of the setting were made up by other players, but a lot of players love it. Makes them feel like authors rather than just players.
I agree with another comment: you're a great speaker! Even though most of these videos are just you talking they're still super engaging! Great job on that
And naturally I shell out ten bones for The Village of Hommlet and Against the Cult of the Reptile God... takes me back to some of my earliest RPG Adventure reading experiences in the early 90s... Wizards is going to owe you a commission...
I asked my friend what his advice for being a DM for the first time would be and he linked me this series. I recognised you from Critical Role and instantly loved your in-depth guides, the way you engage your players and go through these levels of immersion that I find myself wrapped up in. It’s an art. I purchased the Essentials Kit with Dragon of Icespire Peak and am writing my story based around my players really. It was interesting to know you don’t start in Phandalin! I’ve basically made up my own backstories to the inhabitants of Phandalin but I like the idea of having a base resource (the maps for example) to expand on. You’ve taught me a lot about world-building and being a DM, Matt. Thank you 🥰
Was thinking exactly this lol. Actually Tristram from D1 is a great starting town. You have the healer who provides potions, Griswald who sells weapons, plot hooks galore... an entrance to hell. A kid that works as a black market. It's great.
Great series! Thanks for doing it. Some excellent resources for a DM wanting to 'world build': Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures has great rules for creating a starting village collaboratively with your players. Its supplement Further Afield expands beyond the village to collaboratively creating a sandbox world. Beyond the Wall also has free Scenario Packs that help you design and run a full night's scenario on-the-fly at the table. Great stuff! Sine Nomine Publishing's Red Tide and An Echo, Resounding are excellent sandbox resources from the sandbox tools master, Kevin Crawford.
The original Greyhawk (1976) supliment for D&D (1974) was more a rules supliment than a setting book. The most setting material it contained was a pantheon of deities. It did contain the thief class, and rules for advancing demihumans beyond level 14, but those couldn't be considered setting speciffic. The Blackmoor supliment was the first time even a rudimentary adventure was published (The Temple of the Frog, which was later expanded into a fully formed module of the same name) but still not a world map or anything. In fact the Castles and Crusades society was using an upside down fill-in map of the United States as their world map, known as the Great Kingdom with castle Greyhawk in Wisconsin and Blackmoor in Minisota as those were the two long-running campaigns by the authors of D&D, and the intertwined settings in which it was playtested. It wasn't until the 1983 Greyhawk box set that an actual developed campaign setting was presented to the public.
Loving this series Matt. This is really helping me out with the adventures and world I am busy creating and I've also been sharing around with other DMs that might need help.
My cat woke up and went nuts when she heard your cat in the background XD Also, these videos are amazing and easing my nerves into excitement for my upcoming first DM experience!
UPDATE: It is now possible to get PDFs of the contents of the box-set module "NIght Below" from both DM's Guild and DriveThruRPG. I'm listening to this series again because I'm running games for a mix of old & new players again, & I wanted to switch up the features of the town I start with. I've never used the town of Milborne before. I figured it might be a welcome change for the old players. It prompted me to go looking for the module.
Making a campaign setting as I go. Trying to incorporate my player's background stuff in my world. I agree that making one it fun. I love the control over the world ^ - ^
+Adam L. I also find that allowing my player backgrounds to influence the campaign setting is really awesome. It let's the players feel like they're a part of creating the bigger picture and meanwhile establishes a more diverse creativity to the setting
i love this video, the whole reason i'm gonna DM for my friends is so i have an outlet for the world i've been building in my head and on random google docs for like 2 years now i'm so excited to show it off
I'm a fledgling DM, having only been a player (Pathfinder exclusively) before. But now I'm learning 5e as a DM with my kids and husband as the players. Your videos are super helpful! Thank you for making this series!
Nightbelow was the first major campaign I ever played back in the 90s. Even though we only reached level 6, it was an amazing adventure. I still remember it fondly and have an old text file of my paladin from that adventure.
I started running my mouth about how great D&D is and now am finding myself being asked to DM for quite a few people, I've done it in the past but these videos are fantastic for refreshing my memories, gifting fantastic ideas and quickly relaying useful ideas, information and resources for DM's new and old. Thanks Matt, this stuff is great.
Fist off thank you. This all slowly but surely making me feel like I can do this. Secondly thanks for leaving the cat in. Mine does that kind of stuff to me all the time
I totally agree about starting in a town vs a city. Unless you are looking towards an urban setting to start in, but it's hard to populate a city. Then again, describing some alleys and rooftops, might go over very well.
I almost lost it when you mentioned Night Below. That was my first campaign and ran with the party for 4 years in 2e. Eagerly starting my newest campaign and first time DMing. Milborne was the start of my Bard's journey. Thank you for making these incredibly simple and informative videos. Gems of advice!
"Super noodley" I love the way you play with words, Matt. :) As a baby DM who's running her first campaign for a group of players (ages: 6, 8, 9, 13 and 17), this has been so exciting and calming that I can do this and have fun. Thank you for taking the time to create this series.
I just started running my 1st campaign. We are in the elder scrolls universe 25 years post skyrim. One of the races of akavir is invading tamriel and the psijic order has teleported them to akavir to find out what's happening. This series is so much better than other places I've looked at on UA-cam. Thanks for the content.
Thank you for the video. I am a seasoned DM though not as peppery as you and I agree with everything you have suggested especially borrowing published content into your own campaign and setting!
Hommlet and Orlane! T1 and N1 baby!! Good to see some 1st ed AD&Ders out there! Huge props to you. Those two are my main starter towns for my campaigns.Oerth #1 *thumbs up*
I love your videos. I've never gotten into a serious D&D game before, but I feel like I'll be at least familiar with what's going on because of your clear, easy to follow explanations if I ever do. It's a rare talent to make people want to listen to you teach, and you've got it.
Absolutely one of my favorite videos in the series so far! While my Orlane and your Orlane certainly look quite different because of our campaigns' different aesthetics, the techniques you've talked about - annotated maps, skimming, limited prep, etc. - are definitely going to help me next time I run this adventure. Like you said, this video has helped me to think more about how I prep and figure out what the best way for me is. Though I'm TOTALLY nabbing that annotated map idea; that's just genius, and I can't believe official D&D adventures don't do that and instead make you flip back and forth from a page to the map.
As someone who can't get players to play D&D with me easily, Dwarf Fortress is a good way to scratch that itch. I make all sorts of scenarios to play out in that game, it's a lot of fun to play with how random and yet directed it can be.
Mentioning Dwarf Fortress as an example of insane history generation gets a huge thumbs up from me. In fact I would say it's a decent launching point for DMs looking to build a world without mentally creating every civilization from scratch. Fire up DF, let it run, and go from there.
Hey Matt! Just wanted to say how awesome these videos are. I'm learning a lot! I'm just diving into the D&D experience and this set of videos have been of ENORMOUS help. I've been taking my schooling about the game very seriously and no question that you and all your experience and knowledge have been of great importance in that process! Oh so many thanks to you for sharing your passion to the world, and specially to newbies like myself. Keep up the hard work Master! Much love from far, magic and distant (although entirely real) Chile!
D&D is basically a highly organized and complex “pass along story” like you’d play around the campfire back in Boy Scouts. It’s a fairytale collectively being created in real time. If you look at other fairytales from folklore, they are rarely specific on where exactly the action takes place. Usually generic places such as “The Woods” or “The Town” or “A Castle” in “A Magical Kingdom”. Authors came along and starred naming these fantasy lands such as Wonderland, Oz, Narnia, Middle Earth, Xanth, Westeros etc. D&D does the same thing by naming various worlds such as Krynn, Ravenloft, Greyhawk, Kara-Tur etc.
Thank you so much for this video!!! I ran a one-shot for some friends (module) and the loved it and asked to keep playing once a month. Consequently I have spent the last two weeks reading and reading and reading and trying to figure out how to make the Forgotten Realms work. I have been completely over-whelmed (because I am still learning rules, and listening to GM advice etc), I keep feeling like I am cramming for a test. I love the advice to just start with a town. That is all I need for this week... a town.
Im prepping my first campaign and this series is very soothing to me and very helpful. Thank you so much for making this series - its been a big help. I cant wait to start!!!
You are awesome! I recently got into D&D with my friends, we are all new and I decided to take the role of DM. Your videos have really saved me from major mistakes I was about to do and helped get me in the right direction. We had our first session last week and boy oh boy it was awesome! The game lasted 10 hours and everyone loved it.
I love these videos. I'm trying to DM after having played 6 sessions of a different game (palladium fantasy) 10 years ago, and my players are first timers. This is a huge help
I know this video is 5 Years old by now, but I just started my first ever real DnD Kampagn as a DM yesterday and I do appreciate your idea of the Dragonborn. I actually planned that, before i watched this video, but this gave me the assurance to just go with it. In my world magic is banned. Its not illegal to be a sorcerer, but you cant study sorcery like normally and using magic is not allowed and might get you into trouble if one of the townguards sees you using it. So far its actually very fun, because the wizard is really scared to use magic but doesnt want to obey the rules, because he is chaotic good and all of this fits really well :D
Awesome video, Matt! A random Reddit thread sent me here, and you do something that many DM vidoes lack: multiple examples! This is the best way for me to learn, besides practice of course :).
I started with modern and I feel like that really helped me understand the mechanics without the stress of having to know all the fantasy elements. Then I slowly started moving into the fantasy realm.
I LOVE world building, hell, I made an extensive world where in the first adventure in a 1v1 campaign literally ended the entire campaign. the character didn't even get to level up, the character's mind just kinda broke because of a realization of a feature of the social workings of the setting itself. and it was amazing.
Binge watched all of these, including the series on making a fighter in the different versions up to 2nd edition. Great job Matt, I love the anecdotal flash backs as they mirror many of the same memories myself, and I am sure, many others have growing up, staying at a friends house and pulling an all weekender high on Jolt cola and adrenaline.
Just bought the starter set you suggested. Thanks for the tips and for this channel! There's a lot of useful information here and you make it quite interesting.
I'd like to add the adventures Ruins of Adventure, which has immediate buy in about saving and reclaiming the city of Phlan. Great balance of RP, politics, puzzles, and combat. Also "Keep on the Borderlands" which you talk about in your sandbox episode. The keep itself is a fairly good starting town, in that old school way especially with the [ spoilers] Can You Spoil A 30 year Old Adventure? Priest being a worshiper of chaos!
Sean Nittner ran the moathouse adventure for some folks and myself once using Torchbearer. It went about as well as you'd expect. (Spoiler alert: It went terribly)
Thank you for all of your awesome content. I have guest GMed for several existing campaigns (making isolated stories and settings for said stories, so that I don't mess up what their current GM is doing) but I am currently building my own world that I will be running in a month. World building is hella fun. The world my campaign takes place in has a long history of several eras, and my hope is that I can reuse the world for different parties- I.E. one group plays during the war for territories, one plays during the calamity, and one plays in the precarious world just after the wars. I am loving it so far. But I also look to video games and books for inspiration while I am writing my histories and descriptions.
FYI I was able to find Night Below on pdf for free :) I also love your videos so far. I've finally gotten my wife to agree to play and it's been a hot minute or two since I've played. Your series, although a few years old, are really getting me ready to play again, thank you.
Love this so much!! Thank you for bringing attention to these issues. I'm looking to DM my first game this weekend, for a party of two girls, two boys, and your videos are helping a lot!!
When I decided to be a long term DM, I decided to use a modified RingWorld. 1600 miles wall to wall, and 25,000 miles in circumference and 50,000 feet thick. Instead of a sun, there was a light & heatsource in the center. The blocks had diffused holes in the shape of a "moon". The cool part was that there were a couple of these "light blockers" missing which caused the midsummer festival called "3-day sun". Designing my own world was quite the adventure in itself, and as more and more players adventured in the world, it got more and more detailed as I invented many locations and areas off the cuff whilst taking furious notes as I described the new areas to the players. It takes a large commitment to your own game to get things detailed enough to give the players a good start, but as time goes by and the maps become more and more detailed, things seem to take on a life of their own.
What you do, I call "Filing off the Serial Numbers" and it can be some work if you are running older Mod's. I had a 3.5 game where I eventually took them through G1,. It was work to update from 1st to 3.5, but I also got to add my own additions, like giving a Giantess levels in Sorc.
Another great video. I loved Night Below. It was one of the first campaigns I finished as a player. I also enjoyed running ToEE a few years back as a retro 2e game at the request of my players. Have to say the main temple had some fun moments but it is a hard one for the players to unpick.
I’ve been trying to flesh out the background for my messenger/courier monk character for a while then watching this video again and hearing ( 11:01 ) “That’s just how the mail works” suddenly made her entire driving motivation clear, a simple rejection of that idea there is nothing to be done. A throwaway line in an 8 year old video.
The one appeal a pre-made campaign setting offers a homebrew can't provide is that it allows others to relate, to connect, to what your group once experienced. You can ask someone you know to have played D&D for a long time, but never participated in a session you were present:" Have you ever been to the Tomb of Horrors?" And that person can tell you:" Yea, I died at this or that corner. I was killed by a certain trap, in a certain place." And we all understand that she or he actually is saying that her/his character died there and everyone who played that module can relate to the experience. "Last Saturday we were summoned by Lady Laeral Silverhand when we entered the City of Waterdeep." Everyone who knows the Forgotten Realms understands what that means and can relate to the event. "Our employer apparently was an agent of one of the Lords of Dust. Had you ever to face a Daelkyr?" If you happen to know Eberron a little you immediately have an impression what the adventure was like, someone else participated in, when she or he is telling you stuff like that. These imaginary places, allies, villains, draw quite some "tangability" from shared knowledge. And the funny part is everyone can imagine them differently and it's still a "shared" experience.
Rylan Joran I love faerun. I've mostly just experienced DND through the RPGs until recently. I like the history, I like the gods. I like messing around in other people's playgrounds. Players can understand the basic rules and you can make reveals that are meaningful, "oh shit it was helm the whole time!"
I also see the flip side. If someone experienced a story that they think is theirs, then they will be dissatisfied when they find other people experience the same story.
Thank you for your videos Matt. I'm also just switching back to DnD and I like to revisit the basics to get my feet under me again. These videos were exactly what I needed!
I've always featured a town called Skara Brae in all my campaign settings. It's the oldest known neolithic ruined settlement in Europe, plus (more importantly it's in the Ultima series and The Bard's Tale.
I haven’t started playing DnD yet, but I’m already creating a world for my friends to play in. I have several towns with a few islands. Some forest and mountains. Points of interest will be added to the map as players explore the world.
Hey, Matthew! As a first-time DM introducing D&D to first-time players, would it be a good idea to play out levels 1 and 2 as a kind of 'training' (for story purposes, but could also help introduce basics of D&D) before 'returning home' for the adventure proper at level 3?
One of my favorite DnD streams is the one done by the Yogscast crew, High Rollers. And the first High Rollers game (the "Lightfall" campaign) began with the party waking up in an ancient elf tomb, captured by an evil Dryad and her army of blights and vine-zombies. By the time they destroyed her and thwarted her evil plan, they leveled up to 2. So it's certainly possible - perhaps even preferable - to start a campaign in a closed environment, where the players aren't overwhelmed with choice, and where they can get used to the systems they'll be using throughout their "careers". So long as they are made to believe the completing of the starting adventure is important unto itself (that Dryad's plan was a danger to everyone), it should be fine.
I'm a new player to DND(about 3 months or so of every other week playing DND), and I'm taking up the mantle of DM at my high school as the one that we had left. These videos are helpful and allow me to focus on just one small thing instead of worrying about the big picture(which is daunting in itself). If you didn't post these I probably would still be stuck on what to name the entire continent or something along those lines xD Thanks very much and I hope to see more!
Just now getting into these videos, and loving them a lot! I've always held a personal belief about campaign settings, stemming from the fact that D&D is made by Wizards of the Coast and I was first and foremost a Magic: the Gathering player. An old book (old players may remember it as "the brown one", with the foreword by Mr. Garfield) about MtG very intricately describes all the worlds of the game, or Planes, as being grains of sand on a beach. Each one, an insular world with its own life, rules, environs, and many of them are very similar to one another. I like to think of D&D the same way. Every group's game takes place on a grain of sand on a beach's worth of them, and even the alternate planes your party might visit are just a single adjacent grain over. Meanwhile, my group is way down the beach. It is incredible to gain even a glimpse into someone else's grain and witness the differences.
@Matthew Colville: have you ever played Dark Sun? Do you like it? I've always wanted to play it. I like the idea of a Mad Max style desert apocalyptic wasteland survival type campaign. :)
Just about to start running Phandalin for 4 players super excited. We did Master Vault on roll20 first so last session I had them in Neverwinter. Having travelled their after their adventure in Skylark and it was just an rp heavy session giving them reasons to go to Phandalin and setting up plot for the future of we continue passed Phandalin. We ended with the party coming across the horses. Looking forward to seeing how they deal with it next week!
Man, lots of videos now, I click 'em, skip about the first minute, listen to the content and then click away before the last couple of minutes because you know it's full of begging for likes and subs and a gaudy outro made by someone's little brother on After Effects. Your videos are SO to the point, it's amazing. Quality content for the exact amount of seconds long that the video is. Love it.
Something cool I did with Dragonborn in my setting is that there blood can assist in creating magical items. Pure dragon's blood is needed for major ones, but something like a +2 sword can be made by quenching the metal in oil, treated with dragon's blood. One of my players routinely bleeds herself, collects it and has been trying to trade it for healing potions and scrolls for the party.
I loved Against the Cut of the Reptile God when I played it for the first time 30 years ago. That and Castle Amber are two of my favs. Absolutely right, ToEE is too much.
I started a game in Homlett, it was incredible, I loved it,we even cleared out the moat house. When I dm I don't use pre-generated towns, as I love creating the world.
The campaign i'm running is a sandbox world with a rail road running through it, literally, it's a desert setting with supplies lines being super important for the party to get their hands on any good and services.
When I run fantasy (on rare-ish occasion) I like to use the good ole' Micheal Moorcock's Tanelorn as a starting place - not exactly where players start the adventure of course, but as a common denominator to all of the different worlds - that way I can run different games in different settings, and have the feel of familiarity for the players, a calm point in the chaos so to speak.
I'm loving this series, I have 2 teen boys, 14 & 16, I never played but have friends that did. Love fantasy, so I have the background, but as The Eldest, I've been slatted to play DM. I have been lost trying to figure out what to say next, I'm learning what to say, thank you for this!
My 6 year old is watching this video with wide wonder filled eyes. I asked him if he knew what Matt was talking about and he said "No, but he looks like he's having fun whatever he's talking about."
AWESOME.
So cute ! That’s me 27!
😊
I spent half a minute wondering whether you meant he didn't understand DnD, or he couldn't understand language. I might be stupid.
This is what happens when the Bugbear has expertise in Preform
I like how you talk and present. Not a lot of jump cuts, and you don't ramble. You say what you need to say, and then you move on. I appreciate that.
Only after every sentence. But sometimes it seems that the cut wasn't even needed. En because it's consistent, it doesn't bother... clever.
Its very good jump cuts :p
I agree, but I do think he talks a little fast. I watch these video's at 80% speed.
They are long videos but full of continuous information. It never feels like you're wasting time.
And he talks so fast as well
It took me about six months to design my world, and it isn't done yet because as my players move through the place I fill in the details, but I'd like to share the method I used. I based it a little bit off the DM Guide's instructions, but I've found this method very useful.
Pick a word. That's your town/city.
For instance, Widow's Point. To design this entire city, I used the word: gritty. I wanted a dirty city. Dirty and poor. Poor and corrupt. From one word, I now had a series of word-association decisions about the place that told me what the city was like. From that single word, I turned this city, which on my map was on the top of a cliff overlooking the ocean (hence the name) into a town that had fallen on its luck in the past 160 years due to the players' beginning backwater town taking merchants from Widow's Point's trade route by sea. The dockside area became the poor quarter, called the Must because of the smell of rotting wood and the city sewers dumping into the bay. The other half of the city, the commercial and land trade district became the Front, because of the criminal organisation terminology and also because it was geographically the front of the city. The rich area, a tiny walled area taking the East side, became the Gold quarter, where all the still-rich people lived, what few of them were left, as well as being the lair of the city's one remaining criminal gang, the Black Widows (see if you can figure out where that name came from).
All that from a single word: gritty. It might seem daunting, but as long as you start with that one word and then think about the implications of what it'd mean for an entire city, you can build on top of every idea until you have a fully-formed settlement. I've done the same thing with 'culture' and 'industry' for two other cities. It's a trick I'm very fond of now.
This is a great tip :)
Your world is never going to be done. There is always more.
I really like this “one word” method. I’ll be putting it to good use, and without knowing it, already have.
“Prosperous”.
At the confluence of two rivers on the border of two previously warring nations. Where there should only be two bridges, one crossing the river running N/Sish in one nation and one crossing the border river running E/W, there are actually three bridges with two crossing the border river. One up river and the other down river of the confluence. Hence, the name of the town, Three Bridges. A prosperous, rapidly growing town at the very epicenter of new trade between two previously warring nations. Fast forward 15 years and add to this an ambitious Baroness who wants to expand her territory East beyond the World’s End Mountains and what could possibly go wrong? Time to hire some brave/naive adventurers.
This is a great tip! Thanks!
I've heard a lot about you over the last few months, but didn't watch much. Now 5 episodes deep in the series, I'm loving it! Thanks for sharing your insights.
It's incredible to me that your channel got me into D&D. And now i'm here seeing the same video that you saw 4 years ago
@@lucase.crusader1196 Pretty cool to see that.
@Zayn Dominick lol so random. Why did you do it? Just curious tbh.
That sister's letters idea is really cool. I have a campaign I'm working on where that would be an awesome plot hook!
I've been playing since 1977 and DMing since 1979, and I love these videos! My 12 year old is learning to DM, and since I've found these videos, we are watching them together and talking about them after we're done. Your videos help to springboard our conversations and help her tie in the things that I'm teaching her. Thank you!
Also really love your idea with the Dragonborn. I might steal it ^ - ^
My dragonborn are the sterile offspring of shapechanged dragons and the other races. So when you see a gold dragonborn, or red dragonborn, you know one of their parents was an actual dragon of at least adult age that could shapechange. Better find out if their dragon parent is still alive, or dead.
@@Horkslair Mine originated as like, Dark-Souls-like devouts who worshippped elder dragons as gods and got transformed into purer, more perfect draconic beings (Also Dragonborn live like 200 years because come on, dragons) through the power of their faith and determination. The ones alive now are the descendants of those worshippers , and live in a single, very organized citadel full to the brim with Paladins and Sorcerers
@@kaleidoslug7777 I have a lot of humanoid races just being humans who were touched by a powerful entity before they were born (like genasi), so half elves are elven souls reincarnated into human bodies or human souls touched by the elven god, dragonborn are the same and in my setting humanity was saved by an ancient dragon so dragonborn are ruling class by default (and very rare). This was my solution to explaining why all half elves, genasi, tiefling and asimar are always part human (and not part dwarf, gnome, halfling, elf ect), it also made human society more interesting and saved my world from having so many species with distinct cultures that those cultures had to become similar. This leads to humans being more susceptible to external powers which led me to conclude it was because they were one of the only races capable that was not created by a specific god for a specific purpose, humanity can create gods and use their divine magic.
I am totally just doing this because im excited about my world, but also because it goes to show how a simple, usually inconvenient question like "what are dragonborn?" or "why are there no elf-gnome hybrids?" can become the basic for an entire setting.
You can tell he's an old school player. Hate to spoil it, but he didn't invent the idea of Dragonborn being created by wizards. Dragonborn themselves are a rip-off of something called draconian form dragonlance, an old AD&D world setting. They were literally made by evil wizards from the eggs of good dragons.
Someone just asked me this earlier today and I thought "If I can't BS my way through this with all the info i've learned + creativity how will I make it being a dm..." I sold it pretty well. Thank goodness theres an actual answer for this out there though.
Wow, great job with the letters! I really liked how they started off as normal and lighthearted and then slowly turned creepy. It sounds like a very fun campaign!
I know this comment is late, but, I'm a AD&D 1st edition guy....when you mentioned Homlet....Must admit that was the thing. when I started.
We;ve all done Hommlett.
"what's this hamlet called?"
"...Hommlett."
@@moredetonation3755 A hamlet named Hommlett is almost as ridiculous as a town named Towne.
Getting board? have a cat intermission. 2:29
"Mewh.."
"Meooooow-"
"Shoo"
Bored*
No he meant board
Me and my kitten sprawled on my shoulders loved that part.
For me, it was immensively more difficult running "Princes of the Apocalypse" than improvising my way through. SO much stuff to think about because its been layed out before hand
I find it interesting how I followed the same method you said to use automatically. I started with a little town based off one of my favorite games to get a preset ( i find it is most difficult to start, but everything is easier once you have a theme). I then added more towns, some forests, rivers, and mountains, and eventually, a city. Soon enough, I had an empire, and then several more. Before my very eyes I watched my small town transform into an entire world. One thing I did, was ask my players what they would find interesting. I made sure to add these elements to my world somewhere.
+Iain Duncan That sounds awesome!
Something I haven't talked much about is just communicating to your players. Not only stuff like. . .did you have fun? But what kind of game would you enjoy playing in. Oh you're from a swamp, what's the name of the swamp? Let the characters help build the world.
Sometimes this doesn't work, some players don't like 'knowing' parts of the setting were made up by other players, but a lot of players love it. Makes them feel like authors rather than just players.
Thanks :). I find the best way to make your players happy is to make it clear their voice and wishes are heard
Iain Duncan I
I agree with another comment: you're a great speaker! Even though most of these videos are just you talking they're still super engaging! Great job on that
And naturally I shell out ten bones for The Village of Hommlet and Against the Cult of the Reptile God... takes me back to some of my earliest RPG Adventure reading experiences in the early 90s... Wizards is going to owe you a commission...
I asked my friend what his advice for being a DM for the first time would be and he linked me this series. I recognised you from Critical Role and instantly loved your in-depth guides, the way you engage your players and go through these levels of immersion that I find myself wrapped up in. It’s an art.
I purchased the Essentials Kit with Dragon of Icespire Peak and am writing my story based around my players really. It was interesting to know you don’t start in Phandalin! I’ve basically made up my own backstories to the inhabitants of Phandalin but I like the idea of having a base resource (the maps for example) to expand on.
You’ve taught me a lot about world-building and being a DM, Matt. Thank you 🥰
"Just powerful enough to identify items and make scrolls."
Deckard Cain, you mean?
Was thinking exactly this lol. Actually Tristram from D1 is a great starting town. You have the healer who provides potions, Griswald who sells weapons, plot hooks galore... an entrance to hell. A kid that works as a black market. It's great.
"Stay a while and listen."
@@leons.kennedy2747 and the town drunk to give some lore
Great series! Thanks for doing it. Some excellent resources for a DM wanting to 'world build':
Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures has great rules for creating a starting village collaboratively with your players. Its supplement Further Afield expands beyond the village to collaboratively creating a sandbox world. Beyond the Wall also has free Scenario Packs that help you design and run a full night's scenario on-the-fly at the table. Great stuff!
Sine Nomine Publishing's Red Tide and An Echo, Resounding are excellent sandbox resources from the sandbox tools master, Kevin Crawford.
The original Greyhawk (1976) supliment for D&D (1974) was more a rules supliment than a setting book. The most setting material it contained was a pantheon of deities. It did contain the thief class, and rules for advancing demihumans beyond level 14, but those couldn't be considered setting speciffic.
The Blackmoor supliment was the first time even a rudimentary adventure was published (The Temple of the Frog, which was later expanded into a fully formed module of the same name) but still not a world map or anything.
In fact the Castles and Crusades society was using an upside down fill-in map of the United States as their world map, known as the Great Kingdom with castle Greyhawk in Wisconsin and Blackmoor in Minisota as those were the two long-running campaigns by the authors of D&D, and the intertwined settings in which it was playtested.
It wasn't until the 1983 Greyhawk box set that an actual developed campaign setting was presented to the public.
Loving this series Matt. This is really helping me out with the adventures and world I am busy creating and I've also been sharing around with other DMs that might need help.
My cat woke up and went nuts when she heard your cat in the background XD
Also, these videos are amazing and easing my nerves into excitement for my upcoming first DM experience!
UPDATE: It is now possible to get PDFs of the contents of the box-set module "NIght Below" from both DM's Guild and DriveThruRPG. I'm listening to this series again because I'm running games for a mix of old & new players again, & I wanted to switch up the features of the town I start with. I've never used the town of Milborne before. I figured it might be a welcome change for the old players. It prompted me to go looking for the module.
Making a campaign setting as I go. Trying to incorporate my player's background stuff in my world.
I agree that making one it fun. I love the control over the world ^ - ^
+Adam L. I also find that allowing my player backgrounds to influence the campaign setting is really awesome. It let's the players feel like they're a part of creating the bigger picture and meanwhile establishes a more diverse creativity to the setting
i love this video, the whole reason i'm gonna DM for my friends is so i have an outlet for the world i've been building in my head and on random google docs for like 2 years now i'm so excited to show it off
I'm a fledgling DM, having only been a player (Pathfinder exclusively) before. But now I'm learning 5e as a DM with my kids and husband as the players. Your videos are super helpful! Thank you for making this series!
I have never played D&D let alone DM'd but these videos are shockingly entertaining to listen to as a podcast... you should podcast
Nightbelow was the first major campaign I ever played back in the 90s. Even though we only reached level 6, it was an amazing adventure. I still remember it fondly and have an old text file of my paladin from that adventure.
I started running my mouth about how great D&D is and now am finding myself being asked to DM for quite a few people, I've done it in the past but these videos are fantastic for refreshing my memories, gifting fantastic ideas and quickly relaying useful ideas, information and resources for DM's new and old.
Thanks Matt, this stuff is great.
Fist off thank you. This all slowly but surely making me feel like I can do this. Secondly thanks for leaving the cat in. Mine does that kind of stuff to me all the time
I totally agree about starting in a town vs a city. Unless you are looking towards an urban setting to start in, but it's hard to populate a city. Then again, describing some alleys and rooftops, might go over very well.
Take it and make is yours. One of the best advice for worldbuilding.
“I include everything in the players handbook” -except Gnomes, those are silly.
3.5 foot manlets btfo
I almost lost it when you mentioned Night Below. That was my first campaign and ran with the party for 4 years in 2e.
Eagerly starting my newest campaign and first time DMing. Milborne was the start of my Bard's journey. Thank you for making these incredibly simple and informative videos. Gems of advice!
"Super noodley" I love the way you play with words, Matt. :) As a baby DM who's running her first campaign for a group of players (ages: 6, 8, 9, 13 and 17), this has been so exciting and calming that I can do this and have fun. Thank you for taking the time to create this series.
I just started running my 1st campaign. We are in the elder scrolls universe 25 years post skyrim. One of the races of akavir is invading tamriel and the psijic order has teleported them to akavir to find out what's happening. This series is so much better than other places I've looked at on UA-cam. Thanks for the content.
This is set up so we’ll that it’s like I’m listening to a MasterClass. Collive truly has a strength in story telling
Thank you for the video. I am a seasoned DM though not as peppery as you and I agree with everything you have suggested especially borrowing published content into your own campaign and setting!
Hommlet and Orlane!
T1 and N1 baby!!
Good to see some 1st ed AD&Ders out there!
Huge props to you. Those two are my main starter towns for my campaigns.Oerth #1
*thumbs up*
+Pat Pad Saltmarsh U1 is my 3rd starter town.
I wonder how many times I've heard Matt bring up that fact about old premade adventures including the villages gold location/amounts
I love your videos. I've never gotten into a serious D&D game before, but I feel like I'll be at least familiar with what's going on because of your clear, easy to follow explanations if I ever do. It's a rare talent to make people want to listen to you teach, and you've got it.
Absolutely one of my favorite videos in the series so far! While my Orlane and your Orlane certainly look quite different because of our campaigns' different aesthetics, the techniques you've talked about - annotated maps, skimming, limited prep, etc. - are definitely going to help me next time I run this adventure. Like you said, this video has helped me to think more about how I prep and figure out what the best way for me is.
Though I'm TOTALLY nabbing that annotated map idea; that's just genius, and I can't believe official D&D adventures don't do that and instead make you flip back and forth from a page to the map.
I would love to see sessions with you as a dm
Living in the future, your dream is our reality! Matt runs a campaign called The Chain. Searching for "MCDM the chain" should find it.
@@nomukun1138 as someone living in your future, buy toilet paper.
I love that he calls the comments and description sections the DooblyDo
As someone who can't get players to play D&D with me easily, Dwarf Fortress is a good way to scratch that itch.
I make all sorts of scenarios to play out in that game, it's a lot of fun to play with how random and yet directed it can be.
Mentioning Dwarf Fortress as an example of insane history generation gets a huge thumbs up from me. In fact I would say it's a decent launching point for DMs looking to build a world without mentally creating every civilization from scratch. Fire up DF, let it run, and go from there.
Hey Matt! Just wanted to say how awesome these videos are. I'm learning a lot! I'm just diving into the D&D experience and this set of videos have been of ENORMOUS help. I've been taking my schooling about the game very seriously and no question that you and all your experience and knowledge have been of great importance in that process! Oh so many thanks to you for sharing your passion to the world, and specially to newbies like myself. Keep up the hard work Master!
Much love from far, magic and distant (although entirely real) Chile!
D&D is basically a highly organized and complex “pass along story” like you’d play around the campfire back in Boy Scouts. It’s a fairytale collectively being created in real time. If you look at other fairytales from folklore, they are rarely specific on where exactly the action takes place. Usually generic places such as “The Woods” or “The Town” or “A Castle” in “A Magical Kingdom”. Authors came along and starred naming these fantasy lands such as Wonderland, Oz, Narnia, Middle Earth, Xanth, Westeros etc. D&D does the same thing by naming various worlds such as Krynn, Ravenloft, Greyhawk, Kara-Tur etc.
I'm starting my first campaign as DM soon & haven't played for over 20 years, your videos have been very useful, thanks a bunch!
Thank you so much for this video!!! I ran a one-shot for some friends (module) and the loved it and asked to keep playing once a month. Consequently I have spent the last two weeks reading and reading and reading and trying to figure out how to make the Forgotten Realms work. I have been completely over-whelmed (because I am still learning rules, and listening to GM advice etc), I keep feeling like I am cramming for a test. I love the advice to just start with a town. That is all I need for this week... a town.
Im prepping my first campaign and this series is very soothing to me and very helpful. Thank you so much for making this series - its been a big help. I cant wait to start!!!
You are awesome! I recently got into D&D with my friends, we are all new and I decided to take the role of DM. Your videos have really saved me from major mistakes I was about to do and helped get me in the right direction.
We had our first session last week and boy oh boy it was awesome! The game lasted 10 hours and everyone loved it.
I love these videos. I'm trying to DM after having played 6 sessions of a different game (palladium fantasy) 10 years ago, and my players are first timers. This is a huge help
This video is a great and helpful watch/listen when played at half speed.
I know this video is 5 Years old by now, but I just started my first ever real DnD Kampagn as a DM yesterday and I do appreciate your idea of the Dragonborn.
I actually planned that, before i watched this video, but this gave me the assurance to just go with it. In my world magic is banned. Its not illegal to be a sorcerer, but you cant study sorcery like normally and using magic is not allowed and might get you into trouble if one of the townguards sees you using it.
So far its actually very fun, because the wizard is really scared to use magic but doesnt want to obey the rules, because he is chaotic good and all of this fits really well :D
This. I've fallen in love with your videos and took quite a bit of note (on Evernote, first video I saw from you
Awesome video, Matt! A random Reddit thread sent me here, and you do something that many DM vidoes lack: multiple examples! This is the best way for me to learn, besides practice of course :).
I started with modern and I feel like that really helped me understand the mechanics without the stress of having to know all the fantasy elements. Then I slowly started moving into the fantasy realm.
You are great!!! I wish I had people like you growing up and playing this. You do storytelling like no one else man.
I LOVE world building, hell, I made an extensive world where in the first adventure in a 1v1 campaign literally ended the entire campaign. the character didn't even get to level up, the character's mind just kinda broke because of a realization of a feature of the social workings of the setting itself. and it was amazing.
Binge watched all of these, including the series on making a fighter in the different versions up to 2nd edition. Great job Matt, I love the anecdotal flash backs as they mirror many of the same memories myself, and I am sure, many others have growing up, staying at a friends house and pulling an all weekender high on Jolt cola and adrenaline.
God Birthright is so sweet glad to see it getting some love! I am currently running a 5e converstion game of Birthright.
Just bought the starter set you suggested. Thanks for the tips and for this channel! There's a lot of useful information here and you make it quite interesting.
I'd like to add the adventures Ruins of Adventure, which has immediate buy in about saving and reclaiming the city of Phlan. Great balance of RP, politics, puzzles, and combat.
Also "Keep on the Borderlands" which you talk about in your sandbox episode. The keep itself is a fairly good starting town, in that old school way especially with the
[ spoilers]
Can
You
Spoil
A
30 year
Old
Adventure?
Priest being a worshiper of chaos!
Sean Nittner ran the moathouse adventure for some folks and myself once using Torchbearer. It went about as well as you'd expect. (Spoiler alert: It went terribly)
Thank you for all of your awesome content. I have guest GMed for several existing campaigns (making isolated stories and settings for said stories, so that I don't mess up what their current GM is doing) but I am currently building my own world that I will be running in a month. World building is hella fun. The world my campaign takes place in has a long history of several eras, and my hope is that I can reuse the world for different parties- I.E. one group plays during the war for territories, one plays during the calamity, and one plays in the precarious world just after the wars. I am loving it so far. But I also look to video games and books for inspiration while I am writing my histories and descriptions.
FYI I was able to find Night Below on pdf for free :) I also love your videos so far. I've finally gotten my wife to agree to play and it's been a hot minute or two since I've played. Your series, although a few years old, are really getting me ready to play again, thank you.
Love this so much!! Thank you for bringing attention to these issues. I'm looking to DM my first game this weekend, for a party of two girls, two boys, and your videos are helping a lot!!
Watching the series in 2020 , this is pure gold
When I decided to be a long term DM, I decided to use a modified RingWorld. 1600 miles wall to wall, and 25,000 miles in circumference and 50,000 feet thick.
Instead of a sun, there was a light & heatsource in the center. The blocks had diffused holes in the shape of a "moon". The cool part was that there were a couple of these "light blockers" missing which caused the midsummer festival called "3-day sun".
Designing my own world was quite the adventure in itself, and as more and more players adventured in the world, it got more and more detailed as I invented many locations and areas off the cuff whilst taking furious notes as I described the new areas to the players. It takes a large commitment to your own game to get things detailed enough to give the players a good start, but as time goes by and the maps become more and more detailed, things seem to take on a life of their own.
I love Against the Cult of the Reptile God. It's a fabulous adventure with all kinds of interesting things to do.
What you do, I call "Filing off the Serial Numbers" and it can be some work if you are running older Mod's. I had a 3.5 game where I eventually took them through G1,. It was work to update from 1st to 3.5, but I also got to add my own additions, like giving a Giantess levels in Sorc.
surprise cat intruder! worth a thumbs up!
Another great video. I loved Night Below. It was one of the first campaigns I finished as a player. I also enjoyed running ToEE a few years back as a retro 2e game at the request of my players. Have to say the main temple had some fun moments but it is a hard one for the players to unpick.
I’ve been trying to flesh out the background for my messenger/courier monk character for a while then watching this video again and hearing ( 11:01 ) “That’s just how the mail works” suddenly made her entire driving motivation clear, a simple rejection of that idea there is nothing to be done. A throwaway line in an 8 year old video.
The one appeal a pre-made campaign setting offers a homebrew can't provide is that it allows others to relate, to connect, to what your group once experienced. You can ask someone you know to have played D&D for a long time, but never participated in a session you were present:" Have you ever been to the Tomb of Horrors?" And that person can tell you:" Yea, I died at this or that corner. I was killed by a certain trap, in a certain place." And we all understand that she or he actually is saying that her/his character died there and everyone who played that module can relate to the experience. "Last Saturday we were summoned by Lady Laeral Silverhand when we entered the City of Waterdeep." Everyone who knows the Forgotten Realms understands what that means and can relate to the event. "Our employer apparently was an agent of one of the Lords of Dust. Had you ever to face a Daelkyr?" If you happen to know Eberron a little you immediately have an impression what the adventure was like, someone else participated in, when she or he is telling you stuff like that. These imaginary places, allies, villains, draw quite some "tangability" from shared knowledge. And the funny part is everyone can imagine them differently and it's still a "shared" experience.
Rylan Joran I love faerun. I've mostly just experienced DND through the RPGs until recently. I like the history, I like the gods. I like messing around in other people's playgrounds. Players can understand the basic rules and you can make reveals that are meaningful, "oh shit it was helm the whole time!"
I also see the flip side. If someone experienced a story that they think is theirs, then they will be dissatisfied when they find other people experience the same story.
Kinda happy for the reference to Birthright. Still have my campaign box somewhere and the game CD.
Thank you for your videos Matt. I'm also just switching back to DnD and I like to revisit the basics to get my feet under me again. These videos were exactly what I needed!
I've always featured a town called Skara Brae in all my campaign settings. It's the oldest known neolithic ruined settlement in Europe, plus (more importantly it's in the Ultima series and The Bard's Tale.
I haven’t started playing DnD yet, but I’m already creating a world for my friends to play in. I have several towns with a few islands. Some forest and mountains. Points of interest will be added to the map as players explore the world.
This series is awesome. Thanks from Canada bro
THIS is why I came to this video. This is why I want to learn to DM. I'm a world builder at heart.
Hey, Matthew!
As a first-time DM introducing D&D to first-time players, would it be a good idea to play out levels 1 and 2 as a kind of 'training' (for story purposes, but could also help introduce basics of D&D) before 'returning home' for the adventure proper at level 3?
One of my favorite DnD streams is the one done by the Yogscast crew, High Rollers. And the first High Rollers game (the "Lightfall" campaign) began with the party waking up in an ancient elf tomb, captured by an evil Dryad and her army of blights and vine-zombies. By the time they destroyed her and thwarted her evil plan, they leveled up to 2.
So it's certainly possible - perhaps even preferable - to start a campaign in a closed environment, where the players aren't overwhelmed with choice, and where they can get used to the systems they'll be using throughout their "careers". So long as they are made to believe the completing of the starting adventure is important unto itself (that Dryad's plan was a danger to everyone), it should be fine.
I'm a new player to DND(about 3 months or so of every other week playing DND), and I'm taking up the mantle of DM at my high school as the one that we had left. These videos are helpful and allow me to focus on just one small thing instead of worrying about the big picture(which is daunting in itself). If you didn't post these I probably would still be stuck on what to name the entire continent or something along those lines xD
Thanks very much and I hope to see more!
Just now getting into these videos, and loving them a lot! I've always held a personal belief about campaign settings, stemming from the fact that D&D is made by Wizards of the Coast and I was first and foremost a Magic: the Gathering player. An old book (old players may remember it as "the brown one", with the foreword by Mr. Garfield) about MtG very intricately describes all the worlds of the game, or Planes, as being grains of sand on a beach. Each one, an insular world with its own life, rules, environs, and many of them are very similar to one another. I like to think of D&D the same way. Every group's game takes place on a grain of sand on a beach's worth of them, and even the alternate planes your party might visit are just a single adjacent grain over. Meanwhile, my group is way down the beach. It is incredible to gain even a glimpse into someone else's grain and witness the differences.
I like going back and rewatching all these. Good to know Im just insane for making everything drom scratch...
the village of Hammlet, from the country of Reggion which also include the town of Villagge, the city of Towne and the metropolis of Citty
Still got my complete set of Night Below. Great game that gets no love. Thanks for mentioning it.
Dude yes! I got the essentials kit but I’m just using the map and other loose things to make it a home brew,beginner friendly version of Strahd.
@Matthew Colville: have you ever played Dark Sun? Do you like it? I've always wanted to play it. I like the idea of a Mad Max style desert apocalyptic wasteland survival type campaign. :)
Your storytelling is impeccable.
Just about to start running Phandalin for 4 players super excited. We did Master Vault on roll20 first so last session I had them in Neverwinter. Having travelled their after their adventure in Skylark and it was just an rp heavy session giving them reasons to go to Phandalin and setting up plot for the future of we continue passed Phandalin. We ended with the party coming across the horses. Looking forward to seeing how they deal with it next week!
Man, lots of videos now, I click 'em, skip about the first minute, listen to the content and then click away before the last couple of minutes because you know it's full of begging for likes and subs and a gaudy outro made by someone's little brother on After Effects.
Your videos are SO to the point, it's amazing. Quality content for the exact amount of seconds long that the video is. Love it.
Keep on the Bordelands (B1?) came with the very fist boxed set. A small town a good distance from a ridiculously packed dungeon area.
Something cool I did with Dragonborn in my setting is that there blood can assist in creating magical items. Pure dragon's blood is needed for major ones, but something like a +2 sword can be made by quenching the metal in oil, treated with dragon's blood. One of my players routinely bleeds herself, collects it and has been trying to trade it for healing potions and scrolls for the party.
I loved Against the Cut of the Reptile God when I played it for the first time 30 years ago. That and Castle Amber are two of my favs. Absolutely right, ToEE is too much.
I started a game in Homlett, it was incredible, I loved it,we even cleared out the moat house. When I dm I don't use pre-generated towns, as I love creating the world.
The campaign i'm running is a sandbox world with a rail road running through it, literally, it's a desert setting with supplies lines being super important for the party to get their hands on any good and services.
When I run fantasy (on rare-ish occasion) I like to use the good ole' Micheal Moorcock's Tanelorn as a starting place - not exactly where players start the adventure of course, but as a common denominator to all of the different worlds - that way I can run different games in different settings, and have the feel of familiarity for the players, a calm point in the chaos so to speak.
Ive been working on my own campaign setting since i was 16 and it has taken a nice shape
I'm loving this series, I have 2 teen boys, 14 & 16, I never played but have friends that did. Love fantasy, so I have the background, but as The Eldest, I've been slatted to play DM. I have been lost trying to figure out what to say next, I'm learning what to say, thank you for this!