Wednesday, January 14, 2009

New Series: World Building for Beginners

Creating a campaign world is one of the most daunting tasks for a new Dungeon Master. In the series that follows, I will endeavor to build a detailed campaign setting from scratch. Following are some of the ground rules for the project:
  • Rules set is core 2nd Edition D&D - I realize that 2E is the red-headed stepchild of D&D, but that's what I'm going with for a variety of reasons. I may consider including suggestions for adapting it to other rules sets in the future...
  • 'Sandbox World' - I'm not trying to create an epic Story Path. This will be no metaplot or major world-changing events planned, etc.
  • Generic with personality - I want the setting to appeal to a wide variety of tastes and play styles.
  • Useful stuff included! - I will be including detailed NPCs, fleshed out encounters and actual mapped dungeons. This is a project with an eye toward usability and not just theory.

As the project goes forward, I plan to include lots of notes and suggestions to help other DMs create their own worlds. If you have suggestions or input please comment! This is not a truly collaborative project, but all feedback is appreciated.

Stay tuned tomorrow for Part One: Begin from the Beginning.

1 comment:

Johnn Four said...

I've started building a new world too. looking forward to your upcoming posts!

a great thing about sandbox worlds is you can always layer on an epic story path in future campaigns. However, I've found it harder to repurpose settings designed to tell a specific story path.