World-Building is Hard
Or so everyone wants you to think. This is a summary of a years’ worth of experience world-building in D&D, and most of it was me winging it! It was always a fun experience and made every campaign unique from the last one. Remember, even if you use a preset world you can always make it your own, so go wild and have fun!
The First One
The first world-building experience I had was Fair Isle. It was a large continent that had multiple small kingdoms fighting on it, the idea behind it was very generic inspired by a multitude of fantasy worlds. The north was populated with monsters and ruled by Ajax, Dwarven clans in the eastern mountains, Elven glades in the west, Dragonborn tribes in the southwest, and humans controlled the rest. For world history a great war that happened 200 years ago, between the Elves and Humans where the humans drove the Elves out of the Praiwen Plains and claimed it as there own. This war was ancient to the humans but still fresh in the mind of the Elves. The campaign at first focused on this aspect and the players helped an Elven Necromancer named Kaleral the Vile regain control of the plains. Even though this campaign ended in a wreck it was still fun.
The Lack of Deeper World-building is OK
For starter Dungeon Master’s everything can be surface level. It was for this campaign, and it was amazing even with a lack of anything deep in it. It allows for the freedom to improvise and let the players have fun, without being bound by too many rules. But it can also lead to awkward experiences when things aren’t consistent. Looking back almost none of the world was written down. That helped make it more fun in the long run but kinda makes me annoyed now. I can’t remember every detail about the campaign and it’s sad. But that’s what makes it more special in the long run.
The Broken Lands and Deeper World-Building
Mapmaking skills improving switching to gimp, the second campaign, the Broken Lands was born. This time a 6,000+ word document was made with descriptions of every continent and a brief history. Probably too much world-building this time, but it was fun and challenged my skills. In summary, the sundering happened over 1,000 years ago breaking the land in three. Seeing a chance the gods locked away the Betrayer Gods, led by Baranax Father of Dragon’s. All of Baranax’s dragon’s where locked up with him as they aided him in the war against the gods. The prison was controlled by the church of Pelor and in the center of the map on The Remnant.
A Little To Much
This type of worldbuilding meant the players had less freedom to craft their backstory. While this may be a good thing to some, for me it felt like I limited them. True they didn’t hate the campaign, they enjoyed it a lot. But it was something I made not something WE made.
The Broken Lands Part 2
This map is one of my favorites, Inkarnate is an amazing system. With the players freeing the dragons and gods in the previous campaign they now ruled the world. This was set 200 years after the last campaign and required minimal world-building as everyone was already familiar with the world. And it felt more like we made it since the world had changed directly through their actions. The climax of the current campaign hasn’t happened yet but it will be soon.
Something New
With a new year comes new D&D campaigns. And this next one is gonna be the most fun to build so far. This time I sent out a 500-word document giving the players ideas and telling them to go wild. While the current campaign is still continuing for the next month or so I want them to think and make their backstories to prepare for the new one. They have the creative freedom to craft their backstories, which allows it to be a world we created and not a world I created.
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