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So, I've DMed twice. Once with Wrait of the Righteous and hated it mainly due to constant changes I had to put in and the feel of "why even bother reading the book" and also the Emerald Spire.
Both were fairly combat heavy, and I wanted to create more for my players since one of DMS is in burn out and calling a temporary break to his campaign. I wanted to create more story and give the players side quest and personal things without just gutting an AP to get it done.
I was wondering if anyone had tips for starting a homebrew. I have a loose idea with setting and things, stealing a lot of maps from video games the other players haven't played.
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I created a major city for the campaign hub. Along with a wide story arch plot hook to get the PCs together.
I kind of have a loose timeline when events to the main arch happen. However for fluff, side quests and the like, I am just going to grab an AP. Maybe do a little NPC and location renaming, basic repackage so it fits my setting and call it good.
Saves me some time and effort. Since a player has nice maps for Brinewall Castle from the Jade Regent campaign, I'll use it for another castle. And most of my players haven't played any of the AP except part of the Jade Regent, they won't know they are in a town I pulled out of the Iron Gods...
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You need a hook.
What makes your campaign fun and interesting and unique?
Limitations are a way to do this. For example, in the Dark Sun campaign, metal is very rare, so they use lots of stone and chitin as building materials. In Dragonlance, a lot of the common races were not present, like half-orcs and halflings, and a lot were new, like kender and draconians, and some were altered, like tinker gnomes and minotaurs.
The Eberron campaign setting was a "Kitchen Sink" campaign like Golarian and the Forgotten Realms, but its uniqueness is its level of technology and noir sensibility.
Maybe poll your players, ask them for their 3 favorite monsters, and see if you can come up with something cool using a combo of some of those monsters. Maybe make countries up by combining two very different cultures, like Ancient Greece and Caribbean Pirates, or Hawaiian Islands and Feudal Germany, or Shogunate Japan and Ancient Egypt, or Steampunk Victorian London and the Aztecs.
Also, how are the PCs going to travel? Walk, ride, sail, portals? How PCs get around can add a lot of flavor to the campaign, including influencing how they go on side quests and deal with wandering monsters. Do they need a smattering of languages, or do most folk speak Common?
If you have lots of time, and really enjoy it, going outside in can be fun, but if you don't want to do a lot of creative work that the players never get to see, you can go from the inside out. Start with a hometown area or a base of operations with a few local adventuring sites, pepper it with a couple adventuring hooks, and then expand in the direction(s) the players plan on going.
Also, how the PCs get together can influence the campaign. Are they old army buddies, did they meet in a tavern, are they all orphans from the same orphanage, do they all owe money to the same loan shark, are they all from the same village and they have to defend the town, are they all traveling on the same ship or stagecoach, are they all members of the same crew of criminals that do capers and heists, or loyal retainers to a feudal lord or temple.
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Don't feel you need to make a huge world, you'll just get frustrated when your players don't explore most of it. instead, only create what your players require, and add more as needed. city oriented campaign? Create the city your players are in, in detail, as well as the nation and maybe a few vague political nations around you for flavour. No real need for detail because unless your players go there, thats a ton of work that will never pay off, and YOU will burn out.
It's totally ok to say 'guys, you're going off on a weird tangent, which is totally cool, but i havent prepped that. want to go a different way, or want to wait for next session and i'll have something ready?' remember, you're human first.
Also, feel free to move your adventure to wherever the players go. Lizardmen going to be your primary enemy? their lair is wherever the players think to look for it! Players often go in weird directions with your plot hooks. its okay to let that pay off for them if you think they're trying and being creative. Don't get stuck in your artistic vision, and let things be maleable.
that's my 2cp
Thanks for the suggestion 's everyone. I don't have to worry about players cheating, which is at least something nice.
Like I said, I've DMed twice before and more than willing to make a on the spot ruling and come back to t later or let a player look it up.
I think my main issue is trying to find a hook. I was thinking of doing something like Jak and Dater with the precursors trying to save the world. The main issue comes from the BBEG, metal heads or something smiling as the main enemy, but I'm drawing a blank as who would keep the camping moving.
What is Jak and Dater?
I like the weird stuff, like China Mieville's Perdido Street Station. In his novel, it's city based, but there is a sprinkling of details about the outside world. They're really evocative, but also pretty vague. If you do the same, then you can pique your players' interest, and then fill in the details later. For example, is Werewolf Island an island ruled by werewolves, shaped like a werewolf, a werewolf sanctuary, an isolated outpost where The Even More Dangerous Game is played, an isolated outpost where lycanthropes terrorize the populace, or a sacred druid site that just happens to export wolfsbane?
I'm running a weird city campaign right now, and I made a list of Weird Street Names, so I can sprinkle them in here and there. "The Sweet Tooth Thieves Guild is on the corner of Palimpsest Parkway and the Street of the Demonheads. The Pythoness's Lair is on Bone Grove Boulevard near Broken Mirror Road, if you pass the Wet Temple, you've gone too far."
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You know your players better than anyone here does, and that is a huge asset that can't be overstated. Think about who they are and what they're interested in. Don't be afraid to just come out and ask them what they want to do. As chaotic and unruly as some players can be, if you ask for some suggestions or genuinely want their opinion on something, they're usually more than happy to give feedback. They want to have fun too, after all. On anything else, my advice is to start small and work your way upward and outward. Adventurers saving their village from goblins don't need to know everything about everything immediately, and neither do you.
If you're looking for a BBEG with a 'metalhead' vibe to keep the campaign moving, try a meddling Archdevil (Mephistopheles comes to mind) with a horde of contract bound dupes doing his bidding. That could also include the smiling villain concept too, since devils love to have mortals think they have the upper hand or got the better end of the deal.
Jak and Dater is a PS2 trilogy from Naughty Dog. The Precursors are an advance civilization that turnout to be basically otters and Metal heads are enemies of the games, insectoid creatures covered partially in metal with a glowing gem in them. The picture is one of the smaller ones. They range from tiny to I think gargantuan on pathfinder terms.
Mark Hoover 330: That's a great way to structure a campaign!
Why not ask your players what they might like to see?
I agree with Mark Hoover 330. You need to have the players invest in the campaign. In my games I always had my characters write up a back story, including fears, goals, even wish lists of items. Create your campaign story to incorporate directly or on the side stuff from those backgrounds. Always start with a way to thrust the players together, forcing them to work together which them makes them quickly learn to rely on each other and work together.
Its also good to ask what your players would like to do (as said by Indagare), and use various terrains, areas, and races within the story as well. Play on any fears the players may have.
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First off a game needs to have a one sentence description that your friends like the sound of. 'Firefly with airships', or 'Hunting ghosts like in Supernatural', or 'Overthrow the evil Emperor', etc. If your friends look at each other and say that overthrowing the Emperor sounds too much like a Save the World game and they've had enough of those then you probably want to try again with another idea. Ask this question early.
Then you need a plan - Mark Hoover has an excellent example - and you need to gather together some material. It doesn't need to be a Forgotten Realms-like collection with the names and class levels of every innkeeper, but having one inn/innkeeper you can pull out at a moments notice when the PCs start an unexpected fight helps. You tend to accumulate useful maps and websites when you've been doing this for a bit.
The remaining ingredient is being able to improvise. You're not playing an AP which you happened to write, you're playing a hopefully more cooperative game where you might try to influence the players but they're not on a railroad where they have no choice about the journey. They may want to do something else, or do it in a way you haven't expected. Work with that and listen to their ideas. And when you have improvised write something about it down after the session or you'll never remember it when you need to.
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So, I've DMed twice. Once with Wrait of the Righteous and hated it mainly due to constant changes I had to put in and the feel of "why even bother reading the book" and also the Emerald Spire.
Both were fairly combat heavy, and I wanted to create more for my players since one of DMS is in burn out and calling a temporary break to his campaign. I wanted to create more story and give the players side quest and personal things without just gutting an AP to get it done.
I was wondering if anyone had tips for starting a homebrew. I have a loose idea with setting and things, stealing a lot of maps from video games the other players haven't played.
My first suggestion: pick a map / town you like from a published work. Study it. Learn it. The customize it and fill out it's people. This will become the hub of your campaign.
Second: Don't go over board trying to explore the whole world / multi-verse. Start small with local problems. Kobolds attack the local farm, skeletons rising from the grave yard, etc.
Even if you have been a player for a long time these types of small initial steps allow not only you to get used to DM'ing but allow your players to learn your style. In the first 5 - 10 sessions you will learn more about actually running the game than you will ever see as a player (because as a player you don't care about things like screwing up the DM plot line!)
NOTE: I'm 45 yr old. I'm played D&D since I was 12 yrs old, and took up the role of DM around 2000. I run a heavily modified Pathfinder campaign with enough house rules to (literally) publish as its own work. I say these things as a way of illustrating that we all want to dive into the deep end of the pool the very first day, rewrite 1/2 the game mechanics and develop our own worlds and stories. But all that will come in its own time. Pace yourself when first starting out or you may wind up with such a mess you cant keep the gaming group together.
Another tip? Establish a point to stop the first couple of campaigns. Perhaps at the end of an adventure path or module. This allows you the chance to ask the players, "So how have those last 4 game sessions gone?" And get real feel back from them on what did & didn't work.
If you (or someone else) screws up something during game play, simply make a ruling on it and press on. Don't allow a discrepancy in the rules (or your understanding of them) train wreck the entire session which you've spent the past week preparing for. Note the discrepancy and look it up after your game is over. Acknowledge it during the next session and let your party know what will be the standing rule on the matter going forward. This not only allows for a learning curve, but is how house rules evolve.
Above all, enjoy the game. And if you find something isn't working for you, have enough insight to know when to simply close the book and make it up as you go. This was advice which was included in the front of virtually every D&D manual from the earliest printings.
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A lot of great advice has been given here. I have recently begun creating my own worlds and campaigns, so I'm only a novice Worldbringer (so take my comments with a grain of salt).
The first thing I do is ask my players questions like these: what do you expect from this game? Why are you playing the character you chose, and what do you want them to Do? Do you want a high or low fantasy game? High or low magic? Do you want political intrigue, mystery, horror, war? Do you want more civilazation or more wilderness? Etc etc.. then I begin crafting a world that uses these ideas as anchor points. Often times, in being asked these questions, the players themselves will give you great ideas.
You mentioned plot hooks directly. The above information (and character background) Will help inform this too. But some more ideas to consider: do the characters know each other before or are they strangers? Do they come together through chance or through some greater power (a prophecy or divine calling perhaps)? Do they wake up in a dungeon somewhere, together, unsure of how they got there?
Finally, how clear is the "main story" from level one? Do you set them upon their ultimate path immediately, or do you let them explore this new world for a while through random adventuring, while sprinkling in some hints toward the bigger picture?
If you take the time to ask these questions and then consider the answers ( I would suggest writing them down) you might be surprised how quickly the world begins to build itself. Good luck and let us know how it goes!
P.s. one Last thought: consider interesting regions/biomes/cities you might want, and think about what makes that particular area unique or prominent. Then, you can use the character of that region to inform what creatures and people populate it. Conversely, you can choose an interesting people or creatures that you want, and then build the region around them. For a simple example, I really wanted large lizardfolk in one of my games. Big, up 15 foot tall, long-lived, tribal lizardfolk. So I built a swampland that they make home in. Then I realized they were far too strong to be accessed by peasants so I created their swampy home as a large island off the coast. Then I realized sailors fear the area because of the mysterious reptilian creatures that, supposedly, come out of the fog and ocean to board, slaughter, and even sink ships. You see how the creatures inform the region, the region informs the creatures, and the world sort of generates itself. Cheers!
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For homebrew games, there are a few rules of thumb I like to follow:
1) leave stuff open ended: do NOT try and codify your entire game world as it will be challenged by the limitations of your own ability to read every book out there and your players will always find something that you feel should be allowed but you didn't prepare for.
2) skip the fluff on feats and traits: if your players want to make character concepts work, and there are mechanics that allow it then go for it, and fluff it in your own way as DM. Crunch is for the players, fluff is for you.
3) mix up the challenges, and try and include different variety of gameplay for each 'chapter' of your narrative: I do this by separating each chunk of the game into level based narrative progression, but I also do not use XP. I gate progression by the narrative. Try and include multiple challenges for the players including combat challenges; social/political skill challenges; and environmental/exploration skill challenges. Ideally, if you mix it up enough any player can have their moment to shine in each 'chapter' of the narrative regardless of 'class tier' perception. You want the players to feel like they're being rewarded for having a fully rounded team. At any point in the game, there should be a in-game mechanical way forward, either through a skill check, or some other rule that exists. Always be prepared through the mechanics of the game and not through some predesignated expectation from a narrative standpoint.
4) rule of three: for every non-combat challenge (and perhaps even some of those) make sure that in a broad sense there are at least three different ways to solve any puzzle/problem solving challenge you throw at them. The three pillars are straight ability checks (such as breaking down a door); skill checks (like picking the lock to open the door); or defaulting to spell checks (like expecting someone to cast knock to open the door). The players should feel like they were prepared to succeed, even if you as the DM had other ways out for them. This sorta goes along with rule 1. Do not rely on perception checks, if there is something the players need to find, let them find it. If they aren't succeeding at finding something on their own, introduce it to them, but make it funny.
5) understand the power cap: as you progress through the game, you must understand that certain challenges become pointless at mid to high levels. In a broad view of the game, notice that every 3 spell levels (character levels 1-5; 6-13; 14-20) the narrative power has a huge dynamic shift in what actually poses a problem to the players, vs a minor inconvenience. It is not wrong to have expectations of spell capability at higher levels, so players should need things like detect/dispel magic, teleport, and other such powerful spells when the game already expects them to be capable of it. Don't feel bad about players being under prepared, but don't expect anything too specific. Allowing access to things like scrolls or other mcguffin items to enable progress is your job when the players are otherwise too dumb to figure out what you thought was a simple puzzle.
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