Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Technetium Jul 03, 2014 11:04:43	I am going to start a campaign as DM using the new 5th Edition rules. I have not played since 2nd Edition. Back then, I used the FR boxed set, which was pretty neat because it had books detailing the world and a ready-made adventure to start with.   What I am unsure about is whether I should continue to use FR or make my own world. While I have not played in a while, I have gotten the impression that FR has been sort of used as a "living realm" where people expect changes to the world to carry through regardless of who is DMing or who they are playing with. I'm not really sure I want to deal with that. Of course I could play FR as it is and just ignore those living realm changes for my play group, but I think some players would not like that lack of consistency. The other thing is that I don't want the players to be able to get information about the world they are playing in outside of what I let them know about.   On the other hand, it's a ton of work to create your own world. For people who play in worlds of their own design, do you actually fill out the details on the entire thing from the start, before playing, or do you create what you need for the first adventure and then create new content as needed?   Part of the reason I want to design my own world is that I have come up with a few real-world locations that would translate really well into the game, such as: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Saint-Michel   Open to lots of suggestions. And I guess I have plenty of time if I do design my own world, as the DM Guide isn't being released until November. You can design at least 95% of a world without knowing the rules.
#2 quindia Jul 03, 2014 12:35:35	Welcome to the forum!   The great thing about the Forgotten Realms is there is a ton of information available. The bad thing about the Forgotten Realms is there is a ton of information available! It can be difficult to keep all of the details consistent with published material.   If you like the setting and want to use it don't feel beholden to the living aspect. Your players won't like it if you tell them they can't set out on a path of their choosing because they would wreck the future continuity of the living setting. You also have the option of picking a remote area of the Forgotten Realms to gain the benefit of some published material while avoiding the featured areas, thus lessening the pressure to follow the living campaign.   Finally, creating your own campaign need not be daunting. Start with a lonely village or border fort and a rough map of the area around it for several days travel. Place one fairly large dungeon that most locals know about (There are evil folk in the caves beneath the old ruined tower...) and three or four smaller encounters (the classic bandit camp, some sort of wild beast that haunts a remote area, etc) and sew rumors for players to discover them (Old Watts says he saw that creature again...). That's enough to start. You can add details as you go, expanding your map to include neighboring settlements, a road to the nearest town or city, etc. until you have a small Duchy or Kingdom. Add the Kingdom's rival neighbor and you have the beginning of political intrigue, border skirmishes, and trade... You are well on your way by then to building a world. There are lots of resources available online (search terms like 'building a D&D campaign'). The new starter set also seems like an excellent example of the scale to shoot for in the beginning.   I've been running games in the same world for more than 30 years and there are STILL areas on my map that no players have ever traveled to and have only the vaguest notion of what may be there...   Hope that helps! Let us know how it goes!
#3 Guest855761860 Jul 03, 2014 22:52:28	That's good info.  I've also been worried about how to deal with a 'living' world and whether I wanted to deal with it or not.  Still not decided, but this is good info to help.
#4 Shroom-Mage Jul 04, 2014 2:19:01	I'm running a game in my own setting right now. I pretty much make it up as I go.   To start, think up only the most relevant places the PCs might visit. Decide where these locations are in relation to one another. Don't get hung up on what's between them until what's between becomes relevant, and don't worry about large scale things like continents or the world map. Basically, detail things according to relevance. If a location isn't important, it's easy to make up details for it between sessions (or even on the spot) if the players happen across it. When you have time you can also fill in as much more information as you want about locations the players have yet to visit, expanding outward as far as you like, but remember to create things according to relevance.   Perhaps clues in town will lead the PCs to a ruin just outside the town, and clues at the ruin will lead them to a dungeon in the forest outside the next town a few days of travel away. You know you need details on the two towns, the ruin, and the dungeon, but the area between the two towns isn't so important until they're close to travelling there. Maybe there's an abandoned guard tower with kobolds hiding inside. Maybe there's a small village of rough and suspicious people. Later on they might uncover an assassination plot. If it's plausible for the PCs to alert the duke, you'll need to devise where the duke lives. The more likely it becomes that the PCs will head to the duke's palace, the more details you need to add to the road to the palace.   This technique becomes more useful the broader your campaign gets. I recently had the PCs travel from a dwarf city to an elven trading post, a journey which took weeks (in game and out). Almost none of the towns between them were devised until they were ready to begin the journey. This is especially useful in open-ended campaigns; you don't want to waste time detailing areas the PCs never visit... unless you do want to!
#5 Prom Jul 04, 2014 16:25:48	Might I suggest allowing the players to create your setting. Ask them to name the world and pick the name you like the most. Print out a blank world map and give each player a copy then get them to mark out countries and regions with names. You can pick and choose what you like or seems to appeal to most of the group. You don't have to build the complete world, but a basic world map and a starting location would be about all you need to start with. There is lots of world building advice on the forums.
#6 Swede1985 Jul 05, 2014 20:14:21	Prom wrote:
#7 Prom Jul 05, 2014 22:27:59	Swede1985 wrote:
#8 Swede1985 Jul 05, 2014 22:34:49	Prom wrote:
#9 Prom Jul 05, 2014 22:43:15	Swede1985 wrote:
#10 Swede1985 Jul 05, 2014 22:53:17	Prom wrote:
#11 Prom Jul 05, 2014 23:52:28	That's much more clear Swede1985, lol.
#12 GrrHero Jul 06, 2014 18:17:47	Howdy All and Welcome Technetium,   I ironically, unfortunately, and fiercely dislike most fantasy novels, so running a "living world" campaign in the Forgotten Realms would be a nightmare for me. But...   When I build a campaign world I start with the end. I want to know what/who my main villain is, what catastrophe/goal they want to accomplish, and where o' where does the prize fight happen. Something like there's a corrupt Arch-Mage of the kingdom's court who wants to open the gate to an ancient evil god's prison, and become it's vessal on the material plane(who knows maybe this surprises the villian as well). Knowing this I decide to give the players a slim, extremely slim, chance to stop the Arch-Mage's rutial, which would probably take place at the end of some forgotten dungeon of a bygone age. If they fail to stop the rising of the evil god, it will lay waste to the land above until the players race to meet it in the smoldering ruins of the kingdom's capital or palace.   Now that I have that, I figure out the beginning. The players start in a small village that has been under attack by a local bullywug clan lead by a sorcerer. While, the players won't know that there is a dungeon less than a day's ride from the village till many levels later, the Arch-Mage has learned of its location. The Arch-Mage has its henchmen(evil adventurers in the double digit levels) excavating and clearing the dungeon. This causes burrowing creatures to erupt from the ground beneath the players' feet; throwing them into combat early and unexpectedly. I've learned to get their motors going early with combat, because players love killing things and it makes them more active faster within the campaign's setting. After the fight, the villagers that survive will be bewildered as to why all of these different types of creatures would attack at the same time(some may think that it's the bullywugs' doing), but when the bullywugs are questioned, or the players check the sorcerer's spellbook(journal, or whatever), the players find that the bullywugs do not have that kind of power. And now we have intrigue for the cerebal players. When the players meet, and probably work for, the Arch-Mage around level five, start leading them down the road to answers.   Next I draw the world map; don't worry if your art skills are not up to par, all that matters is that the players can identify the landmarks. Looking over what I'm trying to accomplish with the villian, I decide that I only need a kingdom and some surrounding area, so I keep it small; a medium sized continent and an island chain. If there is one thing I've learned from my years as a DM, it's that players HATE traveling. No matter what system I've used for exploration and travel, the players, and consequently myself, have never had fun traveling. So, keeping travel to a minium as a new or returning DM that wants to run a long campaign will only help. Then, either have a rebel faction within the kingdom, or separate the continent and have two kingdoms; if only to create more depth to the world.   Another thing you should do is watch the Adventure Building videos Wizards of the Coast has on youtube. It is only for a single adventure, but will probably give you some more ideas about things you could do with your world. Heaven knows those guys are better DMs than me. And if you have it, read Dungeoncraft: The Campaign Arc by James Wyatt, which is in the 4e DMG II and Dungeon 153. These guys are pros, so anytime you can get your hands on, or watch, projects they've worked on, do it.   GrrHero
#13 Sands666 Jul 08, 2014 0:41:21	My advice for developing your own campaign is to start simple. Design the basics of the overall world, only what you need and nothing more (very general). Design the basics of the county, kingdom or region with a few inspirational areas that would be well known to the home town. Then, within the kingdom, design a home town village or city with broad and less detailed info, general info for the starting point of the campaign. Then, detail the adventure that beings in this town. As you create details for each adventure, you will beging answering questions about other world details. The general info is necessary to form a foundation for the details you'll come up with later. This will assist in creating a campaign world that has consistency. Stay organized and set a schedule to develop with a goal on how much you want done each week until the game is ready.    If you want to run the Forgotten Realms campaign, simply read up on the details. Start with something like the Boxed Starter Set. It's great and doesn't overwhelm you with the plethora of information about the FR world. The Starter Set focuses on the adventure locations and is actually a great example of a beginning adventure for any campaign. If you use this adventure you can then explore other ideas for the FR world to adventure in after the starter set adventure is complete.    I am actually going to be running a home brew campaign. But I will be picking up Tyranny of Dragons. The reason for this is because I expect that this adventure will contain characters with personalities that I can put into my own game. The Starter Set presented an adventure with well defined personalities for NPCs. I want to bring that into my campaign, so any more ideas I can find will be welcome!   good luck and happy gaming
#14 Keen_Man Jul 08, 2014 6:56:43	if you want to run FR and want to buy just one book to give you background in the area and the wall map of the area the starter set is in then pick up http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Product.aspx?x=dnd/products/dndacc/317290000