I'm currently running an original adventure set in Forgotten Realms. Since I like taking advantage of creative oppurtunities, I thought it would be fun to create my own town (called Dellerin) to be the "home base" for the group. However, I'm running in to some complications.
I don't have much knowledge of Forgotten Realms outside of the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure and the Neverwinter game, but I chose that setting because I at least know a few things about it and I'm not quite comfortable enough as a DM to create my own game world from scratch.
Will adding Dellerin to Forgotten Realms have a drastic impact on any official adventures/events/other cities? In short, how do I add my own town to Forgotten Realms?
Just add the town. Its' not a big deal really. I always like to google search maps for the region I am DMing within. If you do this, you can find more towns and places where you think a town can go. Or you can use an existing town and just make up it's content and use its name and location. I wouldn't over think it too heavily. The only issue is if one of your players knows FR really well. In that case you might ask them for help in finding a good location.
You can also ask for help here on forums. If you give me a location, I could give some suggestions of existing towns, or where to put your custom one if you have a general area in mind already (ie. Sword Coast, Silver Marches, Moonsea, Dalelands, Calimshan, etc.).
DM_HEEGZ wrote:
I believe it is canon that if you are playing in a published campaign setting, it is understood to be YOUR version of the setting. (I am pretty sure it talks about this in the DMG). You are welcome to add or remove whatever you want, destroy waterdeep in a dragon attack. You can use the city of Neverwinter and the town of Phandallin and nothing else if you want. All that is required is what the story requires to make sense in your world.
Gnollbane, it's your campaign. Do what you want with it.
I think making up your own town is a great idea. Let your players give some input. Work in stuff from their back stories to link them to the town and make stuff feel connected and real.
I'd be glad to help you brainstorm if you need help coming up with NPcs or locations for your town.
There are lots of Forgotten Realms resources online that you can use to inspire your creativity.
My home brew takes place around Phandalin, but there is a City and (outlying town) up north a ways off of a peninsula. It's about 10 days from Baldur's Gate (if I remember .. it might have been Neverwinter) and is bordered by a desert. Gnolls live in that desert, and it used to be the lair for a Copper dragon, but she's grown up and left now. On the other side of the desert is a small village that is now deserted but which used to be home to a large population of Gnomes. Due to circumstances taking place in my world, all the Gnomes are gone (except for a very few.. about 5 or 6 left in the world.)
I am not sure when the PCs in my game are going to get to this city. Right now, I am taking throught Lost Mines and am mashing in some Scepter Tower of Spellgarde. 
Think of it like writing a DC universe fan fiction. The DC universe has very well-established setting and lore, but it also has a history of canon alternate universes, which gives fans a lot of leeway with their original works. Your campaign is like a parallel version of the realms that is basically the same, except in the ways you decide to customize it.
Go for it. Ask the players what they would like in the town. I am using waterdeep as my next urban setting, the minute we start using it, it becomes our version. No one minds!
Gnollbane, you are so "proper!" Haha. Have fun, be boss!
For me, since I used the starter set and was lazy, we jumped right in with the Sword Coast. I knew the area well from 2nd and 3rd edition and still have a map from the late 80s that covers that region. I still included "Littlesaddle", a town we made up two editions ago (run by another friend of ours), one south of Longsaddle but filled with halflings. This is OUR Forgotten Realms, not TSRs, not Wizards, and not Hasbros. We make of it what we want of it, taking elements and storytelling that spanned what, two decades or more of gaming in our gamer group. =)
For Forgotten Realms, I may or may not have previously linked this to you, but I use the Forgotten Realms Wiki.
http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Sword_Coast_North
If you're looking for maps, I just Googled Fu a bit for you. I've been using my old 2nd Ed map, and just checked the Wiki for some updates and took notes on various cities etc. so when the players go to one I have something to flavor each locale. So it took a bit of work ahead of time to map out the region and take notes using the Wiki, but I think it worked, and the players have come across some interesting places and locale at the various cities they visited, each a bit different than the last.
Not the best, but here's a map of the Sword Coast North... http://frsavagefrontier.proboards.com/thread/47
This one may not look as good, but has a lot of the major locations down, not all though but who cares. http://www.raflar.com/waterdeep/maps-savagefrontier.php
There's another with a much more detail but the link was kinda nuts. Have fun!
TheNovaLord wrote:
You should be using an established campaign as a building block, not an obstacle. Let everyone know up front that while the campaign is roughly based on the Forgotten Realms, it is your own version and may vary significantly from any other version of the campaign.
About the only thing you have to worry about is what you're going to include or not include. So if you decide that all drow are irrevocably evil in your world and somebody mentions a particularly famous drow ranger just look at them and say "Drizzt who?" So you may want to keep some notes on where you've consciously deviated from FR lore (and there's way, way too much for any one normal human being to absorb).
I have a campaign setting called "The Remembered Realms". It has everything we can remember about Forgotten Realms in it (which is not a lot), but everything else is just made up. We don't worry if it's not the same as someone else's setting. It's our own plane of the multiverse and it's allowed to be inconsistent with lore we haven't read.
Saves a lot of agonising over details,
For example: suppose the party is travelling to Athkatla. Our PCs chat about it on the way and anything the players know about it is mentioned and will be taken as true. Then, when we get there, I make the rest up. Everybody is happy
Gnollbane: Before you thread grows too large, have some of us addressed your question?
Or do you have more concerns?
HobbitFan wrote:
Trust me, if we did an adventure set in Tolkien's Middle Earth, I would kill at it.
"Can't we go to Bree to rest?"
"Dammit man, you're all the way in Ithilien."
"How about Ro-"
"NOT UNLESS YOU FANCY WORKING YOUR WAY AROUND ISENGARD WITH MORGUL POISON IN YOUR SYSTEM IS THE PIPE-WEED GETTING TO YOUR HEAD AGAIN"
HobbitFan wrote:
Gnollbane wrote:
Gnollbane wrote:
Gnollbane wrote:
Don't worry about FR history! Rewrite it! This only really matters if your group wants a very strict FR experience of if you DM a public group sesssion perhaps.
I would go so far as to suggest that you might consider running your next campaign in Middle Earth! It's fantastic and you have a lot of knowledge there already. Keep in mind it is much less magic heavy compared to FR.
Here's what I have so far:
Dellerin is a decent-sized trading town about 55 miles north of Neverwinter, slightly east of the High Road. Given its roots in the trade business, residents and visitors of many different races can be found here.
It started out as a simple inn founded by the dwarf Dellerin Strongbrew, who created ale so great that people came from lands afar just to get a taste of it. Strongbrew's near-magical concoction became a phenomenon throughout this region of the Sword Coast, and a town sprouted around it. Dellerin soon expanded and became recognized not only as a great place for travelers to recuperate, but also as a trading hotspot.
When Dellerin passed away, his son Doryl became townmaster, and he was given the secret recipe for Strongbrew Ale.
When Mount Hotenow erupted, a mysterious, nameless magic user shielded the town from the massive volcanoe's destructive force. This magician was never seen again by the townspeople, although some claimed to have seen him lurking in the forest.
Of course, I'll add some more important NPCs and possible adventure hooks, but how does this sound for the time being? I was thinking an adventure could be based around the mysterious savior of the city. I'd be happy to hear some ideas or suggestions!
Sounds great. You've fitted it nicely into the Realms, now you can detail the town. Let some of your NPCs can have connections with Neverwinter or Luskan, perhaps. Maybe they come from there, or they have family there, or they are traders who have business there. It's the people who connect the town to the outside world, not just the roads.
Sounds totally awesome Gnoll!
You just do it. Don't worry about spoiling canon, its your campaign. Just make it fit in the existing setting in a way that works for you.
Gnollbane wrote:
JohnLynch wrote:
BoldItalic wrote:
Gnollbane...
You're doing exactly what I did when I started my own campaign world. I took pieces from other game worlds and used them to tell the story I wanted and as the campaign developed I had a pretty clear idea of all the major cities and towns and even a few small villages in the area. I would just add more towns and villages as the story grew and pretty soon I was able to draw out a map. Sometimes a city just had a few details of important locations and then years later I would find a map that I thought worked for that city and I would modify it and use it.
Here's my campaign map:
http://serpentdm.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/7/5/1375984/_4840518.jpg
Castel Ravenloft and Barovia came from the Ravenloft campaign setting.
http://serpentdm.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/7/5/1375984/_9631891.jpg
Avonleigh came from Ravenloft as well but when I needed more detail I took that from Fallcrest in the 4e DMG.
http://serpentdm.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/7/5/1375984/_2078674.jpg
Drebden was a city that I had made using a few small details but later I based it on Stormreach from Eberron.
http://serpentdm.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/7/5/1375984/_4904283.jpg
Talor was based off a city from an old Dungeon Magazine using the Deck of Many Things and then I found a map from Maps of Mystery from a later Dungeon Magazine and I changed it to that.
http://serpentdm.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/7/5/1375984/_3307575.jpg
Gorak is still to be detailed since it was only visited once, I picture it as a city built with many spires as main buildings and then regular homes and business buildings throughout.
So I wouldn't worry about what you do to make your Forgotten Realms different, it's going to be come your own and whatever you do now won't be set in stone. You're going to be able to change it and modify it as your group explores and your imagination fills in all the places with more details. In my view, you're doing everything right. If later you find some piece of material that contradicts something you've done, you can just ignore it and move on.