DM in need of some help with world creating


Advice


i believe that this is the right place for this, sorry if its not.

i have been creating my fantasy world for some time already, but it just goes nowhere, for few months i have looked at my monitor, and only thing i have gotten is 5 encounters (no battle), 1 city and nothing else. i almost gave up today, almost. because today i realized how it all works, my friend made his character and its background already (the game SHOULD be ready in few weeks) and showed it to tome, he wanted me to include his town and short 70 word backstory to my world and campaign somehow. and then it sparked, and in just one day i made more out of his cliche small background than what i had done in months, i now have 3 full quests with multiple encounters and good story, 2 new towns and multiple quests in those towns. just like a flame cant start without the spark, i just cant make a quest or story without the little inspiration story.

now the flames have run out of burning material how ever, and i would really like if you guys would help me. i would really like you to just write some small things. here is my friends character background as example:

Djarcan is hard worker who has always aimed to top, he lived in small town called Garnania, until Silver dragon swoop over the town, burning everything down to last house. only the luckiest survived, including Djarcan and his uncle.
He swore that hi will find the Silver Dragon and end its life. after many years however, he has yet to carry out that quest to its end.

i have also started to read some of the books from nearby library, mostly poetry and similar stuff, hoping some of those snap at right place. there just isn't lots of fantasy stuff there so i hope some of you guys can help me, thanks.

also:
you might right away ask "why didn't you just find some help from internet earlier like those random encounter/town things". Well, its because iam super stubborn and don't want to use those. human mind is always better.


Tried perhaps to draw random doodles, then connect the lines and make it look like islands or such? In other words - a map. Not very detailed, just an ocerland one, that would give you an idea where cities and villages might grow and what areas might attrack different kinds of monsters.
Say a dwarven town locate around and above a huge underground lake, known for its atypical love for the sky in those higher parts of themountain, where they keep ledges and open caverns with nests of tame flying beasts and worshops of crazed contraptions to take to the sky. All kept safe and hidden in a permanent mass of clouds ever surrounding the mountaintop, probably due to the steam evaporating through pores in the rocks from said underground lake, constantly heated up from the many dwarven smithies and factories upon its shores


I'll give you a backstory from one of my characters. It's vague and can be molded to fit your purposes. Hopefully it inspires something.

Quote:

Lightning Born from Darkness. It’s not my name, though it feels like it should be. Nothing has ever gone the way I planned, each change in my life like a bolt from the heavens.

The Emperor’s army is the greatest this land has ever seen, creating prosperity for a thousand thousand people, but not all are lifted out of the shadows. I won’t bore you with the details of my early life, it doesn’t matter if my mother was a whore or a fuller. My father’s existence, whether he gambled our food money or abandoned us during the plague makes no difference. I made my choices from the limited options I had, but they were mine. What scraps the rich bothered to throw down to the street were enough to survive on, but I didn’t want to just survive. I didn’t just take what I needed, I took what I wanted and it cost me my life.

Sentenced to death in the Pits, no victory could ever erase my past. I didn’t fight for glory, or even survival, I fought because it was better than not fighting. I fought because I enjoyed it. I never won the praises of the crowd or the Pit Lords. I was often punished for my victories, but I didn’t care. They tortured me after the match to show me that they controlled me, but in the arena, I was the master.

Lightning Born from Darkness.

For a time, you could almost be forgiven for thinking that was my name. No one knew or cared who I was before I came to the Pits. No one knew or cared who I was while I was in the Pits. For a brief moment, everyone’s eyes were fixed on me, though they didn’t know who I was, but they all knew Alae-Thal-Othim.

Bloody from torture and three victories earlier that day, I faced my next opponent. Alae-Thal-Othim descended from the heavens and asked me if I wanted to leave the arena. He didn’t command me. He didn’t force me. He asked me to choose.

The boy who murdered and stole is dead.
The slave who fought in the arenas is dead.
I serve my friend Alae-Thal-Othim, Lightning Born from Darkness. He fights in the name of the Dragon Emperor, and I choose to follow him.

In our campaign, Alae-Thal-Othim is a silver dragon (why I thought of this story specifically), but you can of course change that (or not) to serve your purpose.

Grand Lodge

How does a silver burn down a town? They are Ice dragons... (well, according to the beastiary at least. They are also Lawful Good so I guess this was a very NON standard dragon)

To Backstory:

Eric Scale

Bastard Son of a King of the Dragon Lands. The people there all claim dragon blood in their veins. Set as a sanctuary of all dragons and their kin, one is not judged by their color. That said, the rulers of this land have always been Golden Blooded. That is, until the King meet an elven princess. Eric was born of their trist and both he and his mother were banished from the Elven Kingdom. The mother for her bringing shame to her family, Eric for his barbaric human blood.

Together they traveled to the Dragon Lands. However, the mother never made it. Eric survived only through a spirit of a silver dragon that claims to be his ancestor (Eidolon). He lead Eric to the promised land. Once there however, he finds his father married to a witch who schemes to steal control of the Dragon Lands. With the blood of a black dragon and the power of multiple lifetimes (see Flemeth from Dragon Age) she has set her "daughter" up as the next heir, despite her being unrelated to the current king at all.

The witch is now the Queen and banished Eric once more. Now he ventures to find the power he needs to confront his "sister" and become the true king that he is.

It is a little long, but hopefully it sparks an idea or 2.


Iron Truth and Dafyff, those are great backgrounds and i have lots of ideas already!

also, i didnt even realize that silver dragons breath frost until now, my friend might have over looked that, well this will make everything actually LOT more interesting, just need to talk to my friend first.

Stdrake: thats great idea, i hope i get something with that

thanks guys!


Not exactly the inspiration you asked for, but I hope it helps. (I write most of my characters inspired on the they're in, so I don't think that helps.) What always inspired me when i was writing the world, where pictures of places on earth. I made a whole adventure with inspiration from those pointy rocks in madagascar, a hell mouth that looks like one of those acid pits, a fairy lair based on the Marble Caves in Chile. If you google weirdest, most beautiful or spectacular places on earth you'll get images with the stories just leaping out of them. (A least for me.)
I hope this helps! Good luck building!


Silver dragons don't HAVE to be exactly like in the book. In another campaign world that I co-DM, we treat every dragon as unique. A different option is that there is something different/wrong with this silver dragon and why it is the way it is.

For example, the dragon could be insane, causing it to do destructive things, but the player doesn't find out until later. Then he has the choice to make, try to help the dragon (if possible) or exact his revenge. The goal here isn't to force the player down some sort of moral dilemma and make a bad choice, but rather just make it an interesting choice that helps create a cool story.

Sovereign Court

Something to consider...all the other new dragons introduced technically don't have an established lore and personality, compared to the others so you can twist them and make them more important in your setting or use them for different stories.

The primal dragons mostly are perfect to make new lore and interesting stories with them, if you have players who are obsessed with "respecting" history of the game.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Well I drew a lot of inspiration from Grimm's Fairy Tales. My homebrew world is home to A LOT of villages, only a handful of towns and everything is separated by immense, epic wilds.

I have things like a young girl tormented by her peers for being an odd loner growing up the daughter of a woodsman on the outskirts of the village. Since she was a little girl she's been sneaking into the verboten areas of the woods where she's lingered among the fey. After a particularly bad bullying she runs into the dark forest and disappears. Three days later an old crone is selling apples in the market. She gives several away to the teens for free; they begin turning into rats. The young girl is nothing more than an Adept 4 with lycanthropy making her a wererat, but the story is she sold her youth and beauty to a fey creature (that I hadn't made up yet) in return for her powers. Now she is turning all her bullies into rats so she can torment them herself. There's also some ratfolk she employs as henchmen. Unbeknownst to the girl though if she remains old and ugly until the full moon (only one night away) she will be stuck this way forever.

The village (or you can make it a Small Town by PF standards) was Hulenburgh. The settlement is just off a main road, along a sizeable stream and right on the edge of the woods. There are areas of the forest regularly plied for wood and resources, feeding Hulenburgh's economy but the local faith of Erastil and Pharasma is represented by a judgmental old priest who preaches fire and brimstone on anyone who breaks the natural laws. The church demands strict adherence to avoiding the Liverwort Cordons; darkened areas of the forest containing toadstool rings, stone circles and other signs of fey infestation.

The girl is Vanya (CN female human shapechanger (wererat) adept 4). Her father, Viktor is looking for his missing daughter. Several teens have also disappeared and graffiti stating "Great fibbling rats" has been seen here and there. The phrase is a favorite of Viktor to describe people he doesn't like. Father Crooknoose, the parish priest (LN male human expert 3) is a non-spellcasting minister whose only function in the town is as an extension of secular and religious law (he's a judge as well). The only magic in Hulenburgh comes from Bryndeline (NG female changeling witch 2), a free-spirited young woman who lives on the far banks of the Hulesrun. Bryndeline fought hard to resist her own call to the darker powers of the Liverwort Cordons that would've transformed her into a hag; now she grows herbs and plants to weave into hex-marked charms to protect herself and others from these powers. Father Crooknoose calls them blasphemous and wants the woman burned as a heretic but Bryndeline also brews potions for villagers and travelers and aids them as a midwife so to date her execution has been stayed.

Is this kind of what you're thinking? If you can use any of it, take it.


A red dragon disguised with an illusion of a silver breathing fire on the town could add to your story (knowledge check could reveal the deception). If you still want to use the silver, flame strike is a spell they have that can burn the town.


You could also go another route with the silver dragon. Make it not a silver dragon, but a unique dragon with mythril like scales. To a commoner, you would describe such a dragon as a silver dragon. This could be a unique, chaotic evil dragon, and could be a focal point for your story. The players could hunt out a silver dragon, attack it if they so want to, or make a scenario where the dragon welcomes them peacefully. Do not tell them about the mythril dragon. Let them learn it from the silver dragon, that no such act could ever come from himself or his brethren.

The quests could lead further to a larger city with a great source of knowledge, whether it be a powerful wizard or a great library with a lot of little known lore. Maybe the silver dragon points them to this direction to tell them if they want to know what is going on, this would be the best chance. This would allow you to create more quests along the way, adding in favors needing to be done to gain access to this knowledge, or general encounters from traveling far. There is much you can do outside the rules of the game. You are the DM, it is up to you to create a magnificent setting that your players will want to explore even more.

Also, you should lean more towards the small villages, with some towns, and the occasional city. This mostly reflects the type of setting that a fantasy world would encompass. With how many monsters and evils there are, there are usually more sparse settlements of humanoids, with some large bastions of defense such as forts and castles with cities surrounding them.

Sczarni

@pillowhugger

Fellow writer,

In order to create, you need ideas.

When people have ideas, they write and create their worlds faster then their pen can move. It's pretty enthusiastic experience to create something, to write something, even though nobody will ever see it.

Sometimes however, we reach a blockade in our mind. Every writer does. In these cases, it's best to search for new ideas from books, movies (what I personally do), magazines, games, real-life stories, histories, legends, mysteries, etc. Think big, but remain small. Does your setting have fantastical creatures? If so, write them down, some of their typical characteristics and behavior. What's the geographical shape of region? Is there war, conflict or something else shaking it? Write it down if few sentences. Use the headlines, they help out too. Don't get bogged down by statistics of creatures and NPCs. They consume most of our GMing time and add little to the entire setting. I warmly recommend using Beastiaries plus NPC Codex.

That's all I am gonna offer for now. Just some general advice from private experience in making things.

Adam


To add what Malag said, definitely work more on the world and less on the inhabitants! Obviously you want a general idea what will be roaming the lands where they travel, because this will either be quest related or CR related to your players. Try to jot down a list of creatures that you might want to throw at your players, but do not limit yourself to set in stone encounters.

One thing that is always true about DM'ing, the players will change your plot for you as much as possible. It is like Murphy's Law. Always be flexible, and just create a setting that will want them to continue. Obviously you will have your story related NPC's or monsters. These, if necessary for the NPC and definitely for the monsters, should be fully fleshed out stat wise. Give that NPC a personality, give him stats or skills that make you know how that character will respond to your players.


thanks guys, i have gotten lot more further with my world now, i made few towns so i have total of 1 city, 1 castle, 4 towns (one destroyed by the silver dragon). i have also at least 1-3 quest for every town, hardest part is trying to come up with different kind of approaches for the quests so that i have plans prepared if players do something differently :D

i also decided to go with Silver dragon being frost dragon, the town is now giant magical frost land in the middle of forests that never melts (with constant snow storm) and it feels more awesome than ordinary burned down village.

@Malag, i should really write more about the world and its creatures and i started to write down what kind of creatures inhabit the land and also came up with few great quests with that (i just hope that my players dont immediately just kill those spiders uh, but its probably bound to happen...)

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Creating a world from scratch can be very intimidating. You want to make everything fit and you're looking at this huge piece of blank paper you want to be the map of the world.

Here's a tip....

Take your approach and flip it upside down. Start small, start local, your first batch of PC's for this world will all be coming from the same locality, the same city, heck they may even know each other as childrend?

Why do this this way? You may ask? Why be this dictatorial?

Because every world that's been decently put together starts with a keystone city. That's why Gord's adventures start with Greyhawk, Why the Forgotten Realms has it's Waterdeep, and why Golarion has it's Absalom. That First City, sets the tone. Just like in our world there has always been one town that's been defined as "The" city. Constantinople, Rome, Paris, London, now New York, although Hong Kong seems to be the one who may be taking the crown next.

Concentrate on your First City... give it life, and you'll find that once you've done that, you'll find yourself working on the next step, Who trades with the City? Who's at war with it, or thinking of going to war? And then you'll find that your progress in creating a world map will jump exponentially.

Sczarni

It doesn't sound liked you are publishing the world you are building, so clicking around www.pathfinderwiki.com and reading a few pages there might spark some ideas


I find world building can be really easy once you have a map.
My method of world building is to take a blank hex map, similar to Kingmaker, and then roll on d20pfsrd's exploration section to generate random terrain until all the hexes are made. Then, you can either place settlements in whatever locations seem interesting, or do as I do w/ my friends and use Ultimate Campaign's kingdom system to generate Kingdoms from the ground up, and have them organically spread across the land.

It works really well for us, and it's also a fun game, where my players, and me all get to play as equals. We're all looking forward to our 'Next year of Kingdoms', (IE 12 turns each).

The Exchange

I had a fighter I wrote up for a game a long time ago. The idea was to make a character for a homebrew playtest of 5E when it was still called D&D Next.

Oleg Nektva - Wandering Strong Arm

Age: 42

Background: Oleg always wanted to be a performer. He loved making people smile in town as a boy. He would dance, perform (very badly) card tricks, sing, but he always did poorly. Oh, sure, a few people would smile and laugh. It wasn't until his 15th birthday that his real talent was shown. He was attempting some sleight of hand magic tricks being largely ignored except by a kindly old couple, and a stranger from out of town. He had ended up dropping his deck of cards in the mud and a local merchant's cart stopped it's wheels right on his beloved posession. In a fit of panic and frustration, Oleg lifted the entire cart up into the air. Everyone gasped and applauded and Oleg was confused. His card trick was ruined. He put the cart back down a few inches to the left so he could collect his cards and looked around in confusion. Then he looked at the cart. It was full of barrels of mead and ale. The thing had to weigh nearly 2,000 lbs. The well-dressed stranger twisted his curled mustache and walked up and offered his hand.

"I'm Ringmaster Malka. I own a traveling circus, son. I'd like to offer you a job."

And that is how it came to be that Oleg joined Malka's Magnificent Menagerie, a traveling circus, for the next 17 years of his life. He worked as both a caravan guard and resident strong man for the circus for years. Only recently has he decided he wants to see more of the world, as the Circus follows a set route in time with festivals and celebrations of many smaller towns and villages.

So there's an idea for you.

Sczarni

pillowhugger wrote:


i also decided to go with Silver dragon being frost dragon, the town is now giant magical frost land in the middle of forests that never melts (with constant snow storm) and it feels more awesome than ordinary burned down village.

@Malag, i should really write more about the world and its creatures and i started to write down what kind of creatures inhabit the land and also came up with few great quests with that (i just hope that my players dont immediately just kill those spiders uh, but its probably bound to happen...)

A magical frost land that never melts! That actually sounds awesome and brings you back into legendary movie-like scenarios where heroes need to battle not only bad guys, but weather also. I have a feeling also, that those spiders won't survive long enough. Always assume the worst scenarios.


There's also help available:

Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding
Ultimate Toolbox (or it's precursor d20 Toolbox)
Worldspinner Kickstarter

This old thread on a Sandbox campaign has lots of links

Sczarni

Also Fantasy author Sara Douglass Has an article on her site on worldbuidling


okay, i decided to listen the advice's and i made the world map first, i have taken smaller part of the whole world map then and now that is the area where i will limit my other players when they create their characters so all characters have been born on (about) the same area and should have similar knowledge about the world.

i have also decided to flesh out the main city of the starting area (main point of all quests and the starting place of the whole adventure) and give it more history, more people and name all important (and less important) shops and other places. its the main city of all the adventures after all and my players will most likely stay there a lot.

@Jerichos story also reminded me that there needs to be some travelling caravans (and circus, i already made sidequest involving one :D) and i have taken lots of time to also plan out all kinds of possible trading routes between the cities of the lands.

Sara Douglass article also helped a lot, thanks @Cpt_Kirstov for that.


For ideas look at the real world. Take real people, places and events and 'fantasise' them (Game of Thrones does this a lot). Google old city maps then roughly re-draw them.

Likewise 'reversal' is also a good creative idea, e.g. for some reason in a place the reverse of something normal happens.

Look at folk-lore also and apply it with a slight twist.

Steal rather than try and be original.


pillowhugger wrote:
he wanted me to include his town and short 70 word backstory to my world and campaign somehow. and then it sparked, and in just one day i made more out of his cliche small background than what i had done in months

Boom. That's it. You found out the secret.

Steal.

This is where creativity comes from. We take something—not necessarily something good, mind you—and combine it with other ideas we like to make something that suits us.

Consider this a prime example. Instead of looking at the blank piece of paper and thinking, "I need to get some ideas", look at a bunch of ideas and think, "I need to get these on that paper, and make them fit together."

Work at just looking at things that appeal to you and deciding how to put them in. Determine what you want this setting to be, what you want the tone to be. Eberron has a lot of pulp fiction, so it's got all this crazy cool stuff like warforged and airships and jungles and ancient giant empires. It's also post-WWI, so it's got a lot of intrigue and international grudges and horrible post-nuclear wastelands. Because that's what Keith Baker digs.

Settings represent a chance to just take all the things you dig and be purely creative with it. The challenge isn't in thinking of ideas, it's in making all the ideas mesh well.

One of my earlier settings had kobolds as basically Switzerland. It also had gnomes riding giant chickens, hobgoblin nazis, dragons waging wars against the Positive/Negative Energy Planes, and...I mean, it was all crazy goofy, but it was all stuff I thought was cool, so I didn't have any trouble making it.

Just think of a subgenre/vibe, or even no more than a bunch of things you like, and get to work. Make towns populated with undead run by mentally troubled White Necromancers. Make towns held by friendly good-aligned orcs, providing protection to mysterious orphanages founded to protect and guide young monstrous children. Make dystopian cities where the whole populace is serving a creepy eugenics gold dragon guy. Put it together and make it mesh.


Haha oh my god I just found my old Swiss kobold setting.

God I was such a little twerp.

<3

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Advice / DM in need of some help with world creating All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.