World Building

Bits and pieces of countries and campaigns

[canariesarchive-blog-deactivate]

HELLO I JUST FOUND THE BEST FUCKING WEBSITE FOR WORKING ON CHARACTERS AND WORLD BUILDING YEET FUCKERS SEE YOU IN 8 YEARS

[canariesarchive-blog-deactivate]

If you have been struggling with world building and finding a way to keep track of everything PLEASE GOD LOOK AT NOTEBOOK.AI

Notebook.ai has different categories for different things:

And then once you make something each category has different questions for you to answer about your world:

This website is literally a blessing

[rochasaurus-deactivated20211230]

Reference

[dnd-maps-n-stuff]

Very useful for world building

[r-n-w]

The Lands of Floren

I made a map for the wider world our party was about to explore. This is a black and white A3 print on recycled grey paper.

It’s actually easy to make your own, I used these cartography brushes that made map-making super fun! They’re super easy to use, and gorgeous to look at, made by @joelpigou

[dundunny]

Source

[crafts4geeks]

Feel like getting creative and making your own Coat of Arms? Here’s a beginners guide of understanding them to help you create your own.

-Crafts4Geeks

[dare-to-dm]

Any tips on making puzzles for your party?

Making puzzles is hard!  This is definitely a skill I am still working on myself, but here are a few things I’ve learned from experience:

1) Think more Challenge than Puzzle.  In my mind, the difference between a Challenge and a Puzzle is that a Puzzle has a single specified solution, whereas a Challenge can be solved in a myriad of ways.  As much as possible, I favor challenges over puzzles because A) they give the players more opportunity for choice and creativity and B) I’m not very good at puzzle design and few things are more frustrating for players than a poorly designed puzzle.  That being said, if you really want a puzzle…

2) If possible, give your players something to be able to physically manipulate and look at.  If your puzzle involves spatial reasoning in any capacity, it will be important to give your players something to observe rather than just verbally describing it.  Even if it’s a logic type puzzle, giving your players a blank framework to fill in will be very helpful.

Really, anything more complex than a verbal riddle should probably have a visual/physical component.

3) Don’t be afraid to re-skin puzzles from other sources.  

4) Build in opportunities for hints/second chances.  You’ll have no way of knowing how hard your players will find your puzzle until they attempt it.  Have a plan for what to do if they get stuck.  

5) If possible, do an Escape Room.  Escape Rooms are full of wonderful ideas for storytelling through puzzles and riddles.  You will probably learn a lot or at least get inspired, plus they are a lot of fun.  

Thanks for the question, and good luck!

[basalt-dnd]

You can never have too many trinket tables.

Trinket Table V1 is here.

[2minutetabletop]

Scott E Nash was kind enough to share his map printing method. Click here to learn how you can print crisp, durable maps such as these.

[basalt-dnd]

Attention, DMs! #2

There’s a user on r/DnD that created a wonderful script for weather in your D&D games. The post is here and the website is here. While weather in D&D games isn’t usually a huge factor- barring natural disaster- it’s a neat concept that I wanted to share.

[axebanegames]

Dunbrill Castle (map #26)

Good news everyone! From now on, each map will come in two flavors: a full-page GameMaster version, and a high-res PlayerMap version with all secrets and numbers removed! Also, I’m doing something special this month: All new and existing patrons will receive a free PDF copy of my GameMaster’s tool, the Deck of Many Dungeons.  —>  patreon.com/axebane

Enjoy, and have a great weekend!  :)

[xanth-the-wizard]

Dungeon Master Essentials

I decided to make a list of DM stuff that I personally use or think are important to know when it comes to being a DM. So here’s my list:

Medieval Fantasy City Generator: This generator is now my LIFE. It generates incredibly complex cities with good customization. (Thanks to plantkat for sharing this site in their post here)

Naming Your Towns/Cities: Now that you’ve made your city, time to name it and give it some character! This post contains lots of great information.

Index Cards Rule: Fuckyeahdnd shared a SUPER convenient way of keeping track of turns and HP in combat. I use this system now for every single session I run.

Tricks & Traps: I am AWFUL at coming up with good Dungeon traps and challenges, this PDF includes some incredible ideas. The original poster, Courtney C. Campbell also runs a blog where she shares tons of great stuff. (Thanks to we-are-rogue for sharing the PDF in their post here)

Playing Different Types of Characters: Writeinspiration has a masterpost on how to write/play lots of different types of characters.

Unique NPC Jobs: Lauraharrisbooks wrote a list of different Fantasy Jobs which can help populate your world with some unique characters! Another similar post by Thewritershandbook also covers Common Occupations in the Middle Ages. 

Developing Characters by Threes: Monticusrex’s method of creating characters help you really flesh out who they are. Useful for Players and DM’s.

Troublesome Players? Speak Up: Dicebound brings up an incredibly great point. If someone is being a jerk, speak up and call them out. This is especially important and relevant now to crush awful behavior before it even has a chance to show it’s ugly face.

List of D&D Resources: And finally, pretty much anything you might need for D&D.  (Character stuff, spells, online communities/ways to play, etc..) A lot of people contributed to this post but thank you Mushroomancy for posting the original list.

Donjon: And finally, this site is a great resource for looking up Spells and Monsters along with tons of other generators. Not every single Spell or Monster is on here, but most are listed.

(I tried to give credit to the original posters or the actual URL for websites, unless those sites or URLs were no longer active)

[rpgtoons]

Incredible list!

[worstdorkevermore-deactivated20]

@tiedinaslipknot

[crazyhermitdm]

Helpful references

[bathsabbath-deactivated20200309]

Fantasy Stock & Reference List

I wanted to do this before publishing the Fantasy Art Prompts, but better late than never. I’m hoping this will come in handy for those interested in making Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Historical centered work, or those who just want to work on poses & anatomy when life drawing isn’t readily available.

I left Deviantart quite some time ago, but I still go back every once in a while for the many talented artists. The Stock artists in particular, take on the selfless task of photographing themselves or other models to aid artists in pose, clothing or background references. Below the cut is a visual guide to 25 Fantasy Stock accounts on Deviantart. Please feel free to reblog with your own suggestions, as long as you provide links to their account page as well as their rules page. 

Please keep in mind, every artist has rules concerning their stock, which I’ve included below. The rules could be as simple as contacting them, so please be respectful of their rules.

Keep reading

[patientno7]

the suffering never ends

[sinksanksockie2]

This is the real process

[thewritingbeast-blog]

Resources for you!

Character Ideas:

Character creation masterpost

Character Alignment Chart

More character alignment descriptions

Muslim Character questions

Characters with magical powers

Building a new character advice

How to create a character for an online or tabletop RPG (also a good guide on creating characters in general)

Royalty/nobility TV Tropes page

Basic character profile

OC masterpost

Random character generators - (1), (2), (3), (4)

D&D Character Building Tool

Character Design Ideas:

How clothing affects a character’s personality

Character Design Inspiration blog

Concept art, fan art, cool art to be inspired by

Character design references and inspiration

Sources for POC character design ideas and models

Create your own character model using HeroForge

For horned characters

Body and hair types guide

Random outfit generator

Naming Help:

Amazing site with an endless amount of naming resources

General advice on avoiding naming appropriation

Hispanic Surnames

Gothic Victorian names

Huge master list for character things in general

Masterlist of names of all types - including but not limited to ancient/old world names, Celtic, African, Northern European, Southern and Central American Native names, Japanese, Chinese, Mongolian, Polynesian, and more

Another name masterlist

How to pick a character name guide

Yet another names masterlist

Creating Background/backstory:

Character Sheet/Development Sheet

Another character development list

In-depth character personality, motivations and traits sheet

320 talents and passions for characters

On writing likes and dislikes that aren’t frivolous

Why you should write non-human characters non-conforming to the gender binary

Stereotypes, tropes, and archetypes

Random backstory generator

Assassin and thief character tropes to avoid

Character Interactions and putting your character into your world/story:

Comparing character height/height references

Characters who are scientists and writing about them doing science

Describing what different voices sound like

Describing skin tones

Writing friendship interactions that are platonic

Why having one character knock their friend unconscious to prevent them from doing something is a bad idea

Advice on shipping OCs with canon characters and what to avoid doing

Sweet Polly Oliver and Sweet on Polly Oliver situations (think of Disney’s Mulan for an example)

How to write multiple viewpoints/juggling a main cast of more than 4 to 6 characters

How to make readers care about your morally gray hero/anti-hero

On platonic OC and canon character relationships

How to avoid Godmodding in RPs

When it’s cheap to kill off a character

Writing dialogue

Things you shouldn’t do to canon characters

Avoiding purple prose in writing and RPs

Slang resources

Dialogue tips

Websites to chart your story/plot/character relationships

Bonus art masterlist!

[brucewayneright]

BLESS EVERYONE IN THIS POST.

[characterdesigninspiration]

Resource: World Map Templates

Hey everyone! Here’s something a little different than what I normally post, but I think could be really helpful to a lot of followers of this blog. The story here is that I recently got picked to be the GM of a Dungeons and Dragons game with some friends, so I’ve been doing a lot of worldbuilding, and I thought that I’d share some of my techniques and files with anyone who wants some help creating their own worlds.

What this download contains:

The layered Photoshop file of the top image above, complete with customizable layer styles, editable text, etc.

An additional Photoshop file with ten other continent/island shapes that can stand alone or be mixed and matched to create more elaborate worlds.

Instructions on how to create your own unique continents and islands from scratch in Photoshop. The tutorial is step-by-step so even if you’re not a Photoshop pro, you can achieve the above look with your own custom land masses.

Everything you need is included in the files— it only uses Photoshop defaults, so no outside texture or brush downloads are needed to make it work.

The full resource pack is available for download here. 

As with all my content, this is a free resource, but if you find it helpful and have a couple spare bucks lying around, please consider making a small donation to help keep this blog running and creating original content!

[octoswan]

I made these as a way to compile all the geographical vocabulary that I thought was useful and interesting for writers. Some descriptors share categories, and some are simplified, but for the most part everything is in its proper place. Not all the words are as useable as others, and some might take tricky wording to pull off, but I hope these prove useful to all you writers out there!

(save the images to zoom in on the pics)

[tea-feathers]

Another great reference for writing and world building!

[adungeonaday]

Local Dish

“Oh… thank you. That looks… delicious.”

Main ingredients (1 or 2 d20)

Potatoes

Rice

Corn

Red meat (1d4)

Beef

Pork

Venison

Sheep

Fish (1d4)

Carp

Trout

Fry

Eel

Poultry (1d4)

Chicken

Duck

Pheasant

Turkey

Barley

Legumes (1d4)

Kidney beans

Peanut

Lentils

Split peas

Flour

Meal (1d4)

Cornmeal

Bonemeal

Oatmeal

Mealworms

Turnips

Cheese

Cabbage

Cauliflower

Chickpeas

Onion (1d4)

Green

White

Red

Shallot

Tomato

Eggplant

Eggs

Seaweed

Flavouring (roll 1d20)

Garlic

Sugar

Salt

Saffron

Cinnamon

Hot peppers

Sap

Savory herbs

Citrus

Chocolate

Lard

Wine

Berries

Cilantro

Blood

Vanilla

Olive oil

Figs

Cumin

Sumac

Preparation (roll 1d10)

Baked into biscuits

Baked into a loaf

Mashed into a paste

Served as a thin soup

Smoked and cut into strips

Boiled into a stew

Rolled into nuggets

Baked into thin crackers

Sandwiched between slices of bread

Buried and left to age or ferment

[adungeonaday]

D&D Character Questionnaire Generator!

Don’t pick a class or race yet. Save that for the end! Trust me on this one!

Q1. You’ve inherited something (2d6) 2. An article of clothing 3-4. An estate 5-9. A nickname 10-11. An article of jewellery 12. An enchantment What is it, and why is it important?

Q2. You grew up (2d6 - doubles means the opposite) 2-3. Moving from place to place 4-5. Around lots of different people 6-8. Around animals 9-10. Without much sun exposure 11-12. Largely unsupervised Elaborate! 

Q3. Your family is (2d6 - doubles means you haven’t seen them for a long time) 2-3. Extremely impoverished 4-5. Lower class 6-8. Middle class 9-10. Upper class 11-12. Extraordinarily wealthy How did they get that way?

Q4. Your parent (or parental figure) has a quirk that bugs the hell out of you, and you are committed to NOT adopting it (1d6) 1. The way they treat certain people 2. A fashion choice 3. The way they eat or what they eat 4. Their housekeeping 5. Their philosophical beliefs 6. The way they talk Elaborate!

Q5. Those who know you would describe your greatest asset as (2d6 - a 1 on either die means it’s your greatest flaw; a six means you wish it were your greatest asset) 1-3. Intuition 4-5. Adaptability 6-7. Strength 8-9. Charisma 10-12. Wealth Elaborate! How has this affected how you live your life?

Q6. One more vague “tidbit!” (roll 3d6 - if the dice land in a sort of a line shape, you are ashamed of this tidbit; if they are in a triangle shape, you feel like you should be proud of it, but don’t really care either way) 3. You remind me of the babe 4-6. Strange heritage 7-8. Servitude 9. They want you 10. You should have known better 11. Someone like you 12. Child 13-14. Resurrection 15-17. Go West 18. Losing my religion

Don’t like these character traits? No problem! In that case, this is actually who your character WISHES they were! They exhibit the exact opposite of all of these traits, except for Q (1d6), which is TOTALLY true, even though they HATE to admit it.

Now. Based on all of this, I think you’re ready to pick a class and race. 

Did you choose your own class? Or was it chosen for you by a parent, or the government? Did you ever consider a different path? Did you try to follow in the footsteps of those who raised you? Or did you strike out, hoping to experience the things you never saw as a child?

How has your race affected you? Are your people loved and respected? Feared and mistrusted? Scorned? Ignored? Idolized? Fetishized? Do you live where you do now because of the way your people are treated here? Or do you hope to leave someday and find someplace you feel you might fit in better?

You’ve got it from here, champ ;D

[plirofories]