Valley of the Bleeding Dragon [Archive] - Wizards Community

Valley of the Bleeding Dragon [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Darryl_Licke
11-21-07, 01:14 PM (Former title)My DM is letting me create half his world...

My DM has put years into creating the world we adventure in but now we are on an indefinite hiatus. During this time we are trying other rpg's but I also want to run a OA campaign within his world...but on the other side of it.

I've run into a lot of problems.

1) I've never DM'd before. Not an issue as I'm smart enough to figure it out and I've been reading the DMG and doing my best to figure out how things work on the other side of the screen. This isn't so much of a worry now.

2) The map of that half of the world. I have no idea how to create this. My DM drew his by hand...me...not much of a drawerer but if I took my time I could probably do it with some tracing. Since it's in his world I do have some parameters to work with but beyond that....??????

3) The culture. Yes it's OA but I already have a few things in place like clan names to work with. The culture I think will play a huge portion as it will help me set up the society and in part guide the adventures and plot hooks. My DM suggested a fuedal sort of system and i liked it since that could easily work in with the 2 clans I already have names for. But again how do they intereact? My DM suggested the possibility of rotating leadership/power but, and this is fleshed out more in the next item, the idea of each clan being it's own country I like a lot as well. But then again having the clans represented in each county would be nice as well. It's all very mind racking.

4) I want to have Naruto-like sub-culture in the background. I know there exists psionic naruto builds but all those guys are level 20+ and my campaign is starting at level 4 using a module. Might even do two modules but that's a sidenote. In any case flavoring some NPCs as naruto like ninjas/shinobi I think would be fun but working them into a correct CR seems impossible. This may get dropped all together.

5) Plot. How they heck my DM has this all mapped out I don't know. Each "chapter" of our adventure built in intesity (mere changing of the CR) and they are all connected. I have no idea how to do this but I thought about using Propp's Morphology to tell an over all story. What that story is I don't know. Since One of the clans is a key hook in my DM's campaign so I'm not sure if I can even work them into the plot at all but...again...what is the overall story I'm trying to do?

I plan to use this thread as point to continually come back to and ask questions. I look to do this campaing by RAW with all the WOTC books as addendums. Specific books will be listed at a later date but the complete series, book of vile/exalted deeds pretty much covers it. Oh and the DMG/PHB II as well. BUT....the players will only be allowed to make PCs from the OA book. My NPCs will also be constricted like this as well.

Any help is much appreciated.
Delfedd
11-21-07, 05:55 PM First of all, for the Naruto type class, you should definately look up the Lurk. It's an interesting class and can definately be modified to function as a naruto ninja.

As for the map... well, look at the map from the hobbit. It was very iconic. It could be that on the other Continent the maps are very simple. "Monkey rock here" type deals.

It could also be that there is very little solid land. Much of the other side is islands or something.

Anyway, don't worry to much about messing up your DMs campaign. It's your turn now.
Benghazi
11-24-07, 04:14 PM I posted on some other guy's naruto campaign question, check that one out, see what you think. I made it with flexibility and simplicity in mind, just off the top of my head, and before I knew it, I had created an awesome naruto campaign system.
Darryl_Licke
11-24-07, 11:48 PM google is my friend.

I found the shinobi class that was on the boards. I inboxed the creator, Nightscreamer20, to see if it's finished or if he's made enhancements.

City creation.....it will be daunting but figuring out the hierachy of the world faciliated it.

5 noble clans. 1 is the ruling clan and the 4 others are in control of various provinces. A random thought just now I may expand the provinces to contain even more detail.

The main city will be near a large river that has a man made river going through the town to the main noble house where the emperor is. I will enforce a caste system by separating the town into a sort of thirds.

Main roadways go in 4 directions out of town each to one of the ruling noble clans provinces.

Possible adventure ideas:
-find a module for OA
-insects are detroying the rice fields to the north
-trade ships are being attacked at a greater rate than usual (some accepted loss) and the southern lord is irate at the emperors ineffective procedure = done nothing because he didn't know as no message had been sent back by the usual messenger hawk (this will be pirates and ninjas)
-yakuza are becoming a bigger problem within the city limits and the guard needs help

others will probably come up as I build the world. Speaking of which I've found a lot of resources for building the town.
Darryl_Licke
12-04-07, 12:54 PM A bunch of new ideas having read MM 2 and 3. Also i've been reading OA front to back (only up to class descriptions now) and it's filling my world out with people.

I know I'm going to have clans but it will be unorthodox and will borrow *some* things Rokugan specifically how certain clans have specialties for their samurai ala the Crab clan. Different names of course.

Also I;m going to have a spirit folk/elf/half elf clan that are from a wooded area.

Another clan will be oceanic and mostly human but they have peaceful interactions with a nomadic race of polynesian (mgih be the whole clan) type people and sea gnomes. Maybe. I'm still figuring it out but in any case it will be a gnome/halfling society that is sea based.

No wizards. only wu jen.

And the mountains will have an oriental flavored dwarf clan who built a wall to keep out mongols in another continent.

The problem now is the big map. The idea is to have the mythology (a great dragon fought evil to protect the world it created or soemthing and in dying it fell to earth and created the landscape). Think Dragon Lake in Siberia only the outline of the dragon creates the mountain ranges with the head to mid back being the largest mountains and the tail being hilly areas that become more woodlands.

Drawing it and filling the lanscape is hard. I've got graph paper but I want some ideas on how to facilitate drawing the map.
Darryl_Licke
12-04-07, 05:08 PM potential shinobi/ninja class:

http://forums.gleemax.com/wotc_archive/index.php/t-188381

I haven't ruled out rolling my own swordsage manueve/stance set for a ninja.

I prefer wuxia.
taradusis
12-07-07, 11:06 PM Have you been consulting the OA forum? I beleive the latest debate is over sickle Vs. Kama. Try thread 941949
Darryl_Licke
12-08-07, 04:18 PM Figured out a way to make the map of the world: use a wireframe drawing of a dragon and spread it over the graph paper. This will provide the mountain ranges (dragon's spine), islands where needed (dragon's head is one big island with two volcanos and the dragons breath is a series of islands as well, some with volcanos) and various other landscapes.

I've read a lot of dragon magazines and I can have so many monk styles I can get fairly detailed with the various lands and their styles. I could even have smaller temples too and make them evil.

Monsters is an issue because the OA book doesn't have many but one thing I've learned about being a DM and making my campaign: it's my world and i can put it in there if I want too! :mad: ;) :D So I will probably make an excel sheet of all the monsters in my world so I can make an easy random encounter generator.

Oh and I found an old map of Tokyo. It won't be the main town but it will be another large town. I may even put it on an island.

Oh and I'm stealing a lot of ideas from movies I watch. i just watched Ninja Scroll and I got so many ideas...oh and authentic names too :p

more later.
Darryl_Licke
12-10-07, 04:05 PM I sketched the frame of the dragon last night....now to fill in the world details...
Darryl_Licke
12-12-07, 04:39 PM Meeting I was just in was god awful boring so I brainstormed a bit...wrote some stuff down. Key thing..got a name for the campaign:

Valley of the Bleeding Dragon

I may wuxia the name a bit but that's it.

Decided to make the BBGG a level 20 samurai/iajutsu master whose last name is the clan name (clan has been around for centuries) with various families inside this clan. Clan has a huge metropolis with different districts and the royal castle is on a hill. A river runs through it which leads to the coast and directly to another clan region.

I'm also taking an idea from my DM/PC and using a Emperor's court of sorts to facilitate relations between clans and families...moreso clans though.
Holy_Beholder
12-13-07, 11:22 PM A few major things. Reading the DMG and assuming your smart seems fine, but actually DMing also requires social skills and tons of creativity. Don't assume that you have it covered the first time. Second map drawing. Look in Redgars Repository, there is a good thread there on how to do it. And take your time. The third issue is that a lv 20 is probably a bit high for the BBEG. It doesn't need to be so high, and balance degrades as levels go up. 12 or 13 is probably enough. DM somewhere else first, so that you have some experience so that you don't screw up your DMs world that they put so much work into.
taradusis
12-14-07, 11:04 AM I wonder what the perfect villainous organization is for Oriental Adventures? Ninja,Evil monk,Yakuza/Tong,Yuan-ti? You could have a layered approach where the Yuan-ti control multiple organizations I suppose? Then you would need a crime list;white slavery,drugs,extortion,gambling,assassi nation? Quite a bit of work to create a good bad guy.
Darryl_Licke
12-14-07, 12:54 PM A few major things. Reading the DMG and assuming your smart seems fine, but actually DMing also requires social skills and tons of creativity. Don't assume that you have it covered the first time. Second map drawing. Look in Redgars Repository, there is a good thread there on how to do it. And take your time. The third issue is that a lv 20 is probably a bit high for the BBEG. It doesn't need to be so high, and balance degrades as levels go up. 12 or 13 is probably enough. DM somewhere else first, so that you have some experience so that you don't screw up your DMs world that they put so much work into.

I don't which is why the first 1 or 2 adventures may be strictly from modules. I just read a Dragon article last night about running a session off module.

I'll check out the repository on map drawing. Trust me I don't want to speed this along.

Why is 20 to high? Are you saying that because this is my first time DMing or is that just a general opinion? If so how do campaigns go from 1-20? Shouldn't an end villian be fairly high if you plan for your campaign to go to level 20?

And there is no way I can ruin my DM's world. He is consulting with ideas and during all our games he is a co-dm so to speak reminding us newbie DMs of rules and options as to how to rule in certain situations but we are still left freedom. Also I get a whole continent. So far the world we are on has 5 continents all loosely connected via a shared history but all still fairly isolated and insular. In the same vein when I asked to run a campaign in his world he echoed your sentiments that it is his world and he has put a lot of work into it and by me running a campaign in it I could add plot wrinkles that he'd then have to include or resolve when he may not want to.
Darryl_Licke
12-14-07, 12:56 PM I wonder what the perfect villainous organization is for Oriental Adventures? Ninja,Evil monk,Yakuza/Tong,Yuan-ti? You could have a layered approach where the Yuan-ti control multiple organizations I suppose? Then you would need a crime list;white slavery,drugs,extortion,gambling,assassi nation? Quite a bit of work to create a good bad guy.

Exactly.

PCs who will be in my campaign do not read the following...

I meant that....you're only hurting yourself. I'm looking at you Nick. ;)

I want a BBEG that is trying to retake over the world. The idea would be that 4 generations ago or so he was inline to be in charge of one of the key clans in my world. Well he lost out and was either banished or left. Well that becomes the impetus for him to seek out means of extending his life and increasing his power such that he can return "triumphantly" and reclaim his, in his opinion, entitled thrown.

Right now he would not be in the picture but here and there I would insert plot hooks to hint about him in the future. I wanted to use something from VBOD like dread word which would be his name and the characters associated to this plot would have that feat in common.

But as for ideas as to what I want to try: yakuza in the shanty town area are gaining too much power and must be stopped (turns out they are behind recent kidnappings in the city which is in fact the plot hook for a slavery tangent (which I will also throw a twist in for a well known theif that the law thinks is doing it but will tip off the PCs) which is in turn how the yuan-ti get connected in one way), modify a module about poisoned water for rice fields to the north and switch out the orcs for bird people, send the "team" south for better relations only to find out about pirates (dread pirate leader would be the first with the dread word feat), and finally the Fey Forest (ooh...nice name) would be just a general (i.e. I have no idea for a plot hook) the Fey clan is being constantly attacked by Naga and Yuan-ti (why are they aligned? OH that's right....my BBEG).

So I have plenty of ideas.....it's just weaving them together.
Holy_Beholder
12-15-07, 07:24 PM I don't which is why the first 1 or 2 adventures may be strictly from modules. I just read a Dragon article last night about running a session off module.
Go ahead. Personally I dislike modules but they have a use for a new DM.
I'll check out the repository on map drawing. Trust me I don't want to speed this along.
Do it. Also the writer forgot about deserts, so add them in. If you want to be more detailed add wind and current patterns. Also, a calender with fictional holidays, season marks, temperature changes, etc. is a good idea.
Why is 20 to high? Are you saying that because this is my first time DMing or is that just a general opinion? If so how do campaigns go from 1-20? Shouldn't an end villian be fairly high if you plan for your campaign to go to level 20?
For a first time DM balance can be harder to come by, and as you need to enforce it more and more as people level up it can be very difficult at higher levels. At lower levels the balance controls itself. Plus getting to level 20 takes forever, and campaigns can get boring after a while.
And there is no way I can ruin my DM's world. He is consulting with ideas and during all our games he is a co-dm so to speak reminding us newbie DMs of rules and options as to how to rule in certain situations but we are still left freedom. Also I get a whole continent. So far the world we are on has 5 continents all loosely connected via a shared history but all still fairly isolated and insular. In the same vein when I asked to run a campaign in his world he echoed your sentiments that it is his world and he has put a lot of work into it and by me running a campaign in it I could add plot wrinkles that he'd then have to include or resolve when he may not want to.
Well, with his guidance you will be a lot better off. Trust me on that. The most important thing to remember is that it is his world, and he put a lot of work into it, so if you want to do something really major consult him first. He sounds like an experienced DM too, so defer to him. While also experienced I am just a guy on the internet, I don't know a lot of important details, just that they are important. One of which is the social dynamic of the group, which is worth paying attention to.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Darryl_Licke 11-21-07, 01:14 PM	(Former title)My DM is letting me create half his world... My DM has put years into creating the world we adventure in but now we are on an indefinite hiatus. During this time we are trying other rpg's but I also want to run a OA campaign within his world...but on the other side of it. I've run into a lot of problems. 1) I've never DM'd before. Not an issue as I'm smart enough to figure it out and I've been reading the DMG and doing my best to figure out how things work on the other side of the screen. This isn't so much of a worry now. 2) The map of that half of the world. I have no idea how to create this. My DM drew his by hand...me...not much of a drawerer but if I took my time I could probably do it with some tracing. Since it's in his world I do have some parameters to work with but beyond that....?????? 3) The culture. Yes it's OA but I already have a few things in place like clan names to work with. The culture I think will play a huge portion as it will help me set up the society and in part guide the adventures and plot hooks. My DM suggested a fuedal sort of system and i liked it since that could easily work in with the 2 clans I already have names for. But again how do they intereact? My DM suggested the possibility of rotating leadership/power but, and this is fleshed out more in the next item, the idea of each clan being it's own country I like a lot as well. But then again having the clans represented in each county would be nice as well. It's all very mind racking. 4) I want to have Naruto-like sub-culture in the background. I know there exists psionic naruto builds but all those guys are level 20+ and my campaign is starting at level 4 using a module. Might even do two modules but that's a sidenote. In any case flavoring some NPCs as naruto like ninjas/shinobi I think would be fun but working them into a correct CR seems impossible. This may get dropped all together. 5) Plot. How they heck my DM has this all mapped out I don't know. Each "chapter" of our adventure built in intesity (mere changing of the CR) and they are all connected. I have no idea how to do this but I thought about using Propp's Morphology to tell an over all story. What that story is I don't know. Since One of the clans is a key hook in my DM's campaign so I'm not sure if I can even work them into the plot at all but...again...what is the overall story I'm trying to do? I plan to use this thread as point to continually come back to and ask questions. I look to do this campaing by RAW with all the WOTC books as addendums. Specific books will be listed at a later date but the complete series, book of vile/exalted deeds pretty much covers it. Oh and the DMG/PHB II as well. BUT....the players will only be allowed to make PCs from the OA book. My NPCs will also be constricted like this as well. Any help is much appreciated.
Delfedd 11-21-07, 05:55 PM	First of all, for the Naruto type class, you should definately look up the Lurk. It's an interesting class and can definately be modified to function as a naruto ninja. As for the map... well, look at the map from the hobbit. It was very iconic. It could be that on the other Continent the maps are very simple. "Monkey rock here" type deals. It could also be that there is very little solid land. Much of the other side is islands or something. Anyway, don't worry to much about messing up your DMs campaign. It's your turn now.
Benghazi 11-24-07, 04:14 PM	I posted on some other guy's naruto campaign question, check that one out, see what you think. I made it with flexibility and simplicity in mind, just off the top of my head, and before I knew it, I had created an awesome naruto campaign system.
Darryl_Licke 11-24-07, 11:48 PM	google is my friend. I found the shinobi class that was on the boards. I inboxed the creator, Nightscreamer20, to see if it's finished or if he's made enhancements. City creation.....it will be daunting but figuring out the hierachy of the world faciliated it. 5 noble clans. 1 is the ruling clan and the 4 others are in control of various provinces. A random thought just now I may expand the provinces to contain even more detail. The main city will be near a large river that has a man made river going through the town to the main noble house where the emperor is. I will enforce a caste system by separating the town into a sort of thirds. Main roadways go in 4 directions out of town each to one of the ruling noble clans provinces. Possible adventure ideas: -find a module for OA -insects are detroying the rice fields to the north -trade ships are being attacked at a greater rate than usual (some accepted loss) and the southern lord is irate at the emperors ineffective procedure = done nothing because he didn't know as no message had been sent back by the usual messenger hawk (this will be pirates and ninjas) -yakuza are becoming a bigger problem within the city limits and the guard needs help others will probably come up as I build the world. Speaking of which I've found a lot of resources for building the town.
Darryl_Licke 12-04-07, 12:54 PM	A bunch of new ideas having read MM 2 and 3. Also i've been reading OA front to back (only up to class descriptions now) and it's filling my world out with people. I know I'm going to have clans but it will be unorthodox and will borrow some things Rokugan specifically how certain clans have specialties for their samurai ala the Crab clan. Different names of course. Also I;m going to have a spirit folk/elf/half elf clan that are from a wooded area. Another clan will be oceanic and mostly human but they have peaceful interactions with a nomadic race of polynesian (mgih be the whole clan) type people and sea gnomes. Maybe. I'm still figuring it out but in any case it will be a gnome/halfling society that is sea based. No wizards. only wu jen. And the mountains will have an oriental flavored dwarf clan who built a wall to keep out mongols in another continent. The problem now is the big map. The idea is to have the mythology (a great dragon fought evil to protect the world it created or soemthing and in dying it fell to earth and created the landscape). Think Dragon Lake in Siberia only the outline of the dragon creates the mountain ranges with the head to mid back being the largest mountains and the tail being hilly areas that become more woodlands. Drawing it and filling the lanscape is hard. I've got graph paper but I want some ideas on how to facilitate drawing the map.
Darryl_Licke 12-04-07, 05:08 PM	potential shinobi/ninja class: http://forums.gleemax.com/wotc_archive/index.php/t-188381 I haven't ruled out rolling my own swordsage manueve/stance set for a ninja. I prefer wuxia.
taradusis 12-07-07, 11:06 PM	Have you been consulting the OA forum? I beleive the latest debate is over sickle Vs. Kama. Try thread 941949
Darryl_Licke 12-08-07, 04:18 PM	Figured out a way to make the map of the world: use a wireframe drawing of a dragon and spread it over the graph paper. This will provide the mountain ranges (dragon's spine), islands where needed (dragon's head is one big island with two volcanos and the dragons breath is a series of islands as well, some with volcanos) and various other landscapes. I've read a lot of dragon magazines and I can have so many monk styles I can get fairly detailed with the various lands and their styles. I could even have smaller temples too and make them evil. Monsters is an issue because the OA book doesn't have many but one thing I've learned about being a DM and making my campaign: it's my world and i can put it in there if I want too! :mad: ;) :D So I will probably make an excel sheet of all the monsters in my world so I can make an easy random encounter generator. Oh and I found an old map of Tokyo. It won't be the main town but it will be another large town. I may even put it on an island. Oh and I'm stealing a lot of ideas from movies I watch. i just watched Ninja Scroll and I got so many ideas...oh and authentic names too :p more later.
Darryl_Licke 12-10-07, 04:05 PM	I sketched the frame of the dragon last night....now to fill in the world details...
Darryl_Licke 12-12-07, 04:39 PM	Meeting I was just in was god awful boring so I brainstormed a bit...wrote some stuff down. Key thing..got a name for the campaign: Valley of the Bleeding Dragon I may wuxia the name a bit but that's it. Decided to make the BBGG a level 20 samurai/iajutsu master whose last name is the clan name (clan has been around for centuries) with various families inside this clan. Clan has a huge metropolis with different districts and the royal castle is on a hill. A river runs through it which leads to the coast and directly to another clan region. I'm also taking an idea from my DM/PC and using a Emperor's court of sorts to facilitate relations between clans and families...moreso clans though.
Holy_Beholder 12-13-07, 11:22 PM	A few major things. Reading the DMG and assuming your smart seems fine, but actually DMing also requires social skills and tons of creativity. Don't assume that you have it covered the first time. Second map drawing. Look in Redgars Repository, there is a good thread there on how to do it. And take your time. The third issue is that a lv 20 is probably a bit high for the BBEG. It doesn't need to be so high, and balance degrades as levels go up. 12 or 13 is probably enough. DM somewhere else first, so that you have some experience so that you don't screw up your DMs world that they put so much work into.
taradusis 12-14-07, 11:04 AM	I wonder what the perfect villainous organization is for Oriental Adventures? Ninja,Evil monk,Yakuza/Tong,Yuan-ti? You could have a layered approach where the Yuan-ti control multiple organizations I suppose? Then you would need a crime list;white slavery,drugs,extortion,gambling,assassi nation? Quite a bit of work to create a good bad guy.
Darryl_Licke 12-14-07, 12:54 PM	A few major things. Reading the DMG and assuming your smart seems fine, but actually DMing also requires social skills and tons of creativity. Don't assume that you have it covered the first time. Second map drawing. Look in Redgars Repository, there is a good thread there on how to do it. And take your time. The third issue is that a lv 20 is probably a bit high for the BBEG. It doesn't need to be so high, and balance degrades as levels go up. 12 or 13 is probably enough. DM somewhere else first, so that you have some experience so that you don't screw up your DMs world that they put so much work into. I don't which is why the first 1 or 2 adventures may be strictly from modules. I just read a Dragon article last night about running a session off module. I'll check out the repository on map drawing. Trust me I don't want to speed this along. Why is 20 to high? Are you saying that because this is my first time DMing or is that just a general opinion? If so how do campaigns go from 1-20? Shouldn't an end villian be fairly high if you plan for your campaign to go to level 20? And there is no way I can ruin my DM's world. He is consulting with ideas and during all our games he is a co-dm so to speak reminding us newbie DMs of rules and options as to how to rule in certain situations but we are still left freedom. Also I get a whole continent. So far the world we are on has 5 continents all loosely connected via a shared history but all still fairly isolated and insular. In the same vein when I asked to run a campaign in his world he echoed your sentiments that it is his world and he has put a lot of work into it and by me running a campaign in it I could add plot wrinkles that he'd then have to include or resolve when he may not want to.
Darryl_Licke 12-14-07, 12:56 PM	I wonder what the perfect villainous organization is for Oriental Adventures? Ninja,Evil monk,Yakuza/Tong,Yuan-ti? You could have a layered approach where the Yuan-ti control multiple organizations I suppose? Then you would need a crime list;white slavery,drugs,extortion,gambling,assassi nation? Quite a bit of work to create a good bad guy. Exactly. PCs who will be in my campaign do not read the following... I meant that....you're only hurting yourself. I'm looking at you Nick. ;) I want a BBEG that is trying to retake over the world. The idea would be that 4 generations ago or so he was inline to be in charge of one of the key clans in my world. Well he lost out and was either banished or left. Well that becomes the impetus for him to seek out means of extending his life and increasing his power such that he can return "triumphantly" and reclaim his, in his opinion, entitled thrown. Right now he would not be in the picture but here and there I would insert plot hooks to hint about him in the future. I wanted to use something from VBOD like dread word which would be his name and the characters associated to this plot would have that feat in common. But as for ideas as to what I want to try: yakuza in the shanty town area are gaining too much power and must be stopped (turns out they are behind recent kidnappings in the city which is in fact the plot hook for a slavery tangent (which I will also throw a twist in for a well known theif that the law thinks is doing it but will tip off the PCs) which is in turn how the yuan-ti get connected in one way), modify a module about poisoned water for rice fields to the north and switch out the orcs for bird people, send the "team" south for better relations only to find out about pirates (dread pirate leader would be the first with the dread word feat), and finally the Fey Forest (ooh...nice name) would be just a general (i.e. I have no idea for a plot hook) the Fey clan is being constantly attacked by Naga and Yuan-ti (why are they aligned? OH that's right....my BBEG). So I have plenty of ideas.....it's just weaving them together.
Holy_Beholder 12-15-07, 07:24 PM	I don't which is why the first 1 or 2 adventures may be strictly from modules. I just read a Dragon article last night about running a session off module. Go ahead. Personally I dislike modules but they have a use for a new DM. I'll check out the repository on map drawing. Trust me I don't want to speed this along. Do it. Also the writer forgot about deserts, so add them in. If you want to be more detailed add wind and current patterns. Also, a calender with fictional holidays, season marks, temperature changes, etc. is a good idea. Why is 20 to high? Are you saying that because this is my first time DMing or is that just a general opinion? If so how do campaigns go from 1-20? Shouldn't an end villian be fairly high if you plan for your campaign to go to level 20? For a first time DM balance can be harder to come by, and as you need to enforce it more and more as people level up it can be very difficult at higher levels. At lower levels the balance controls itself. Plus getting to level 20 takes forever, and campaigns can get boring after a while. And there is no way I can ruin my DM's world. He is consulting with ideas and during all our games he is a co-dm so to speak reminding us newbie DMs of rules and options as to how to rule in certain situations but we are still left freedom. Also I get a whole continent. So far the world we are on has 5 continents all loosely connected via a shared history but all still fairly isolated and insular. In the same vein when I asked to run a campaign in his world he echoed your sentiments that it is his world and he has put a lot of work into it and by me running a campaign in it I could add plot wrinkles that he'd then have to include or resolve when he may not want to. Well, with his guidance you will be a lot better off. Trust me on that. The most important thing to remember is that it is his world, and he put a lot of work into it, so if you want to do something really major consult him first. He sounds like an experienced DM too, so defer to him. While also experienced I am just a guy on the internet, I don't know a lot of important details, just that they are important. One of which is the social dynamic of the group, which is worth paying attention to.