At some point in the somewhat(?) near future I am going to be DMing for some friends. First time attempting it for anybody besides my sister and husband that one time over a year ago.
I'm curious about how much detail I should put into it, how much I should prepare for.
I created a map, and have a very rough description of each city/town, but I'm not sure how in-depth I should go and how much I should just "wing" and make up.
I only really have a handful of NPC's in mind, but foremost is a crazy Warforged named Mirr that has hooks along its chin and forehead so it can wear the faces of its victims.
I have a basic history, where 150 years ago Torog, the King that Crawls, smote the southern area of Acadia, causing a giant Hole into the underdark to be created. After the Collapse, Bugbears and Hobgoblins worked with the other humanoid races of the world to create the forts to keep the creatures of the underdark at bay. So, I will allow those two monster races as PC races, but any other will have to have a good reason.
Depending on what backstories the players give me, I'll probably have them start out in Fallcrest (inside joke with the group. "All campaigns start in Fallcrest. It's the one link between all dimensions." Or something like that.
)Anybody have any good advice? Anything I should elaborate on? I would be eternally grateful for pretty much anything. I don't want to make preparing for this game too stressful, and I'm not even sure if I'll be able to succeed in the first session enough to make the group want to play more of it.
I hope I'm not being annoying about this.
The map of the single continent I've made is here:
Map of Acadia
I'll be asking a lot of questions. I don't intend for you to answer them here, just that you answer them for yourself.
Detail Fallcrest as much as possible in the free time you have. This will be, for at least the near future, the center of the PC's world (unless you're going to start the campaign by having them travel away from it, of course). Don't overlook the non-adventure-related stuff like Cedrik the Baker, who's shop is known far and wide as the best place to get rattail pie. This kind of detail helps your world feel more "real". Come up with names and personalities for local rulers and other prominent folk (like the captain of the guard). The PCs may not meet these people right away, but knowing their personalities will help you decide how they react "behind the scenes" to events (including if/when the PCs do something to draw attention to themselves). Have a layout of the city, as well as an understanding of what the general mood is in the town. Geographical consistency will also help your town feel "real".
Strongshadow Lake, Lorwyn, and Lightshore can be less detailed, but have a general knowledge of them in case they come up in conversation. Know who rules in each, and what kind of people they are.
Newhaven: It's the capital. It will become important sooner or later, so give it some thought. Obviously you need to know about the rulers here, as their decisions affect the whole region.
There are 7 towns along the eastern edge on The Hole. Give some thought to how proximity to such a place has altered the way they live. Are they city-sized fortresses? Do they trade with the Underdark races? Do they try very hard to ignore the threat in their backyard? You don't need tons of details here yet, but you should still give it some thought.
Who is Nero? Why is he so important that his cabin gets it's own mark on the map?
What's special about Hightower? It, apparently, isn't a normal town.
What do people know about The Redvale.
How were bugbears and hobgoblins viewed/treated before the Collapse? How much has that changed in only 150 years? Are they accepted wherever they go, or are they restricted to a few small areas? Can a bugbear ever hope to become Mayor of a town? Is there any possibility that a hobgoblin might someday marry into the Royal Family? Are they treated equally by the town guards, or are the guards likely to arrest a bugbear or hobgoblin for spitting on the sidewalk while letting a human off with a warning?
Hope this helps, and welcome to the wonderful world of DMing.
In the Immortal Words of Tom Lehrer:
Plagiarise, let nothing evade your eyes, plagiarise
Read, steal, re-skin etc anything you can to make your buck (time) go farther.
Get a DCI number and download the LFR modules. Use these for flavor and file
off the serial numbers to make the adventure work in you world. Use your DDI
account to get more ideas/flavor
Keep it simple and internally consistent.
Thank you for your responses, and I know I don't have to write all of this, but it's helping me to really think it out and come up with some of it now. Your questions really are helping, jetshield. Thank you.
I like your advice MWSAber. I'll try to use as much copyrighted stuff as I can make sense without my group knowing where it came from. I'll also go through the Dragon and Dungeon issues and see if I can't find anything.
The only thing I've really come up with for Newhaven is the name (Ashram) of the heir, his race (human), and his alignment (unaligned). Kind of going to be based off of Ashram of Lodoss War, but I highly doubt anybody from my group has seen that anime. And he will only be very loosely based on him.
If my group indeed isn't familiar with the series at all, I'm going to try to make it my biggest inspiration in regard to important NPC's.
The seven towns along the Hole probably wouldn't officially trade, but I can imagine black-market type people making deals with some from the Underdark. It would be a highly punishable offense, though, if caught. They're the remaining mountainous Dwarven cities, pretty well guarded embedded into the rock.
Nero is a person hiding in plain sight, not who they say they are, but with this guise have gotten quite a reputation for themselves as being a powerful and crazy sorcerer.
High Tower and The Red Vale will go hand in hand. Sort of like the forts are to keep the Underdark in place, High Tower is to keep the dragons and the like to the north. It'll be primarily magic oriented, so any character with an arcane origin can choose to have been recruited/trained there. All that is truly known about the Red Vale is that it would be death to enter. Truth is, it's pretty much a war zone between chromatic and metalics. Only low ranking skirmishers wander south, but the arcane user of High Tower think they're fighting a good fight. They have no idea what truly awaits them, depending on which side turns out to be victorious.
The town/city of Rosewall will be where most of the Hobgoblins/Bugbears live, along with a great deal of Dwarves, Dragonborn and Humans. This town is the primary source of recruits for the Forts.
Before the Collapse, Bugbears and Hobgoblins were treated like all the other monster races; killed on sight. However, I'm not sure on the details of it yet, but a tribe of one and the other both lived fairly close to the edge of the newly made Hole, and when the minions of the Underdark initially poured forth, these two tribes got caught up in the fighting. There were several waves that took at least a few weeks, and they went from finding themselves fighting alongside the other humanoid races to camping with them at night. Even being trusted enough to take guard duty while they slept.
Eventually, when the remaining government realized this was an issue that would not go away, they had the Forts built, named in remembrance of some of the towns/cities lost, including the capital of Haven. When the Forts were finally built, those manning it were those who had been fighting, and it was assumed that the Bugbears and Hobgoblins would be welcome. It was fought by officials at first, but in the end there was nothing they could do to stop them. The soldiers had already accepted them as comrades.
In short, they will be very accepted around the areas in the South, but the farther north you go, the more prejudice there will be. Though, depending on how magically powerful a bugbear or a hobgoblin is, High Tower might accept some of them into their ranks. But they would have to really prove their worth, and this view would only have started in the last decade or so.
I'm not sure though.
I enjoy world building in its own right, so I usually do more than the players would ever see, but different fun for different people.
In the Immortal Words of Tom Lehrer:
Plagiarise, let nothing evade your eyes, plagiarise
Read, steal, re-skin etc anything you can to make your buck (time) go farther.
Get a DCI number and download the LFR modules. Use these for flavor and file
off the serial numbers to make the adventure work in you world. Use your DDI
account to get more ideas/flavorKeep it simple and internally consistent.
This kinda tickles me.
My own campaign setting is mostly a re-skinning of world history, while the magic and religion, and general cosmogony, is taken almost verbatim from the books by Carlos Castaneda. The Eagle is virtually cut and pasted from the Toltec tradition, I've just reinvented it as a Catholic church-style establishment state religion. No one in my group reads Castaneda, I'm curious to see how many on this board are familiar with it, so I justify it that I'm expanding their horizons.For me, I just develop as much of the world as I possibly can. I think about it in my spare time constantly. I think about it at work, at home, when my wife is talking to me... constantly.
The thing is, I'm only going to present it to the group as it becomes relevent. They get the starting city, and enough history to explain the first story arch. But I keep everything on hand so that I can introduce more as it becomes relevent, and so the PCs have the freedom to go anywhere without having to make it up on the fly.
On a side note, how did you make that map? Is there a program available for download? It's perfect, and I could really use one like that.
I think you have a good thing going there. Let us know how it goes.
About neighboring continents. It's a great way to introduce things that don't quite fit in your homeland, like Shamanism/Mysticism exotic races, depending on how your homeworld is designed.
One way to deal with all of the "external" details is to let your players tell you waht they are. Wehre are the from? How did they get here? Does "A" know "B" and why or why not?
These are great opportunies for the ROLE part of Role-Playing. It also is a way to increase player buy-in
Maybe create some interesting long term campaign NPC's both allies and enemies.
You could even offer the creation of area's to any of your players who are interested in getting involved. Apparently the world of Greyhawk was created this way, with the players taking the creation of area's each.
Saves you doing all the work.
Sorry for the ramblings hope they help. Nice map by the way, let you players see, maps make players believe in the world.
Mathius
I would be curious how you intend to get the players involved initially. One issue I'm having is trying to subtley get them interested and involved with some minor bad guys at the outset. I may try and use the torture den suggested story arcs as laid out in Underdark - but still feeling around for something fresh.
Good luck and keep us posted on this interesting concept you have going here, I'm interested to see where it goes.
Rob
Along the same lines, you don't have to think about what NPCs will be important at that time. Introduce an NPC every game or so, and as your players interact with them, see who they like. See whats interesting at the table, and let that NPC grow with the party. Its much more rewarding that way.
Also make sure that if you suspect combat may come, be sure to have a room with lots of fun attributes to use. I learned that if players have the freedom and opportunity to do something they think you don't expect them to do makes the combat very exciting for them.
That hole idea is awesome. Arg didn't see the pun before I made it :p