This is something we kicked around for a while now, but I decided to take the first step to get it going. But shortly after starting, I realized that as much fun as I was having with letting my imagination run, there was a vast, untapped resource for good ideas out there: everyone else who plays D&D.
So, I created a blog site to start tracking the progress of this project at Help Build A D&D World and would like to open up the project to everyone interested.
Included there are maps, rough descriptions of continents and nations, a rough layout of the pantheon, a listing of the races in the world, and more. There are forums set up waiting for ideas to be tossed out and discussed.
If you have an idea about a place or setting you've always kicked around or something you've been using for years and think it should have a permanent place in a world, let us know. I want this to be a community effort to build out a world that we can all contribute to, play in, and watch grow.
Stop by for a minute and see if there is anything that catches your interest. Creative minds are more than welcome and encouraged.
With Eberron and Forgotten Realms (and other settings) much of this is already written and locked in stone.
Negative. Nothing is ever locked in stone.
But compared to a clean slate, other settings are much more entrenched in their lore and details.
Part 1: Geography and Building a Campaign Atlas
If you can map the world on a D20 with triangles of 4000 miles per side, you have a DM Only Map of the World that can scale down to Triangles of 125 miles per side. That gives you a Very large local campaign area that could be anywhere on the map. Given the nature of the 'Points of Light' rules, The PCs are unlikely to ever know where they are, or what is going on over the hill to any great degree Though there are factors that determine that Information transfer.
Part 2: The Event Mesh
Laying down a nice hexagon mesh across the map we see how those 'Points of Light' connect and interact. THis is important because events function as a group object and exist above the mesh into which they will impact. These events can be acted on right up to the moment they impact. Small object-events orbit larger object-events. Group-events orbit a common centre.
When the Event impacts on a 'Point of Light' (say Cultists establish a stronghold in the Keep of Black Mountain) the 'Point of Light' changes and it exerts an effect on surrounding 'Points of Light'.
Roads might be cut off, people who travel from the neaby village of Rowe are picked up by cultists and vanish. The People of Rowe dont need to know tha there are cultists, only that People have gone Missing in that region.
Use a wiki instead of a blog.
Great advice that I took.
And already starting to get traction with others contributing.
helpbuildtangia.wikia.com/wiki/Tangia_-_...
How'd you do that map btw?
Since this is very relavent to my interests, I'm going to bump and subscribe. I'm in the same predictament (of sorts) but it never occured to me to ask for player assistance.
How'd you do that map btw?
I used a fractal generator called Greenfish. I made a ton of different smaller maps, and then using an image app (Paint.NET), I lined them up, blurred up the edges, applied some effects, and presto - a map.
And if you're interested in the process (and feel like contributing), visit the wiki, blog, and forums.