#xanth rambles

[xanth-the-wizard]

You're strange and delight me. Any tips on DMing? I actually have a fair amount of experience now, but I'm making a homebrew setting soon and it's. Daunting.

I’m full of DM'ing tips! I want to eventually make a series about how to create your own campaign (which I believe I’ll be holding off until I can make some videos) but I understand completely feeling like the task of crafting everything yourself as being pretty difficult. I’ve got some tips for you on how to tackle this.

1. Establish the Main Idea2. Draw a Map3. Populate Your World4. Conflict & History5. How Does Magic Work?6. You Don’t Need to Know Everything

1. Establish the Main Idea

I believe that in order to create a new and exciting world you need to have a strong central idea to go off of. Some random examples:“The Gods are dead and now the power they wielded is up for grabs in the objects they left behind.” “The world is a desolate wasteland after an apocalyptic catastrophe. Nobody remembers how or why but what we do know is that the only way we’ve been able to stay alive is with the help of travelers from beyond the stars.” An example from The Adventure Zone being: An organization that defends the planet below from powerful artifacts in a world full of powerful magic.

Starting with an idea of how you want the world to be is a great start, and it doesn’t need to be incredibly complex. Try figuring out your Main Idea by creating a hook that is only a couple of sentences. This is also a great way to get your players excited about the world they are going to be exploring.

2. Draw a Map

Honestly, I’ve found that creating your own setting is a lot easier when you are drawing up your own map of the world. Sometimes you don’t even think, you act. Ideas flow much easier that way for me. Why did I make a huge volcano in the desert? I don’t know but damn that could be cool. Maybe a dragon lives there or is home to a society of goblins who worship and craft armor built from the magma itself. Just draft something up and don’t be afraid of making something dumb or poorly drawn. You can always create a more finalized version later.

3. Populate Your World

Now that you’ve got a map it’s time to decide who lives in this world of yours. Start big with Kingdoms/Empires and other big cities. Who are they and how do they feel about one another? Is there a Queen who rules over a rich gold mine and controls all trade in the north?  How does the RedLion Kingdom feel about the GreenEagle Kingdom attempting to colonize close into their territory? Once you know who runs the world shrink down your scope a little bit and build smaller villages your players could reasonably live in.

And let’s not forget, you need to create specific NPCs that live in these places. Create characters you want to run and help guide or hinder the players. What are their goals? Are they Chaotic Neutral or Lawful Good? You can also create NPCs that sort of represent where they are from. A Bard from the RedLion Kingdom may act as a someone who thinks they own everything or perhaps they are the exact opposite. They think the rich steals from the poor and their goal is to take back from the elites.

4. Conflict & History

Of course, introducing factions, kingdoms, and varied characters is bound to create conflict. After all, what is a campaign without conflict? I got into this a little bit above, but figure out what are the BIG conflicts in your world. These can tie into your Main Idea and in fact I would say they should, at least in some capacity. Is there imminent war? Does a malicious Wizard think they need to right a wrong in the world? Are monsters running rampant through the world and need to be destroyed before the problem worsens? There are so many ideas and potential hooks you can insert into your setting.

Any world is not complete without history. You don’t need to develop this so much that it takes weeks to concoct. Instead I’d say come up with some really general ideas that you can use to strengthen your understanding of the world. Even something as simple as, a hundred years before a great war was fought and with it society has changed forever. And make sure you have some idea of what earlier history would have been. Who are these forgotten civilizations and why are these dungeons here? Who used to own this treasure? Again, you only need a general idea before you develop this more (or not) as your continue through your campaign.

5. How Does Magic Work?

Magic is important to tabletop fantasy games. Maybe your world is without magic or magic is rare and unexpected. Perhaps everyone has magic within them. There are so many possibilities. And while magic is a big one, there are other questions you should tackle. How important is religion? Are science and medicine still early in their practices? These questions can always be answered later. Brainstorm and come up with as much as you can before the campaign begins. However…

6. You Don’t Need to Know Everything

This is the most important thing to keep in mind if you are feeling stuck when try to develop your world. There’s so much to developing a setting that it can feel impossible or too scary to attempt. Don’t let this type of thinking stop you! Honestly you just need to lay out the foundation of your world before starting your first session. Your players aren’t going to need to know EVERYTHING about the world and neither do you. As you run you will develop ideas, characters, locations, villages, conflict, etc. This will make things more flexible and fun as you DM for your players. So relax, draw a map, write some ideas down and set a goal for when you will start session 0.

Thanks for the question, I hope you find this helpful as you begin prepping your world! Good luck and let me know if you need any other ideas or feedback!

Edit: Also! Here’s a link to another ask I answered with some DM’ing tips I forgot to add earlier.

[xanth-the-wizard]

i need a little help with campaign scale, please? i have a bunch of good ideas, but im worried that the campaign will be waaay longer than planned. do you have any advice on planning a campaigns length, aka what at levels the characters start and end? how many levels do you think one could get done in a standard school year?

This is a very tricky question since every person who runs a campaign is going to have an entirely different pace when it comes to story/campaign progress and leveling. My campaign lasted two years (roughly) and I started players off at 1st Level and ended somewhere around 14th Level I think? I boosted my players up a few levels toward the end so we could unlock some pretty cool abilities and prepare for our final battle. So let's look at what you can do to help keep your campaign on track!

1. Campaign Arcs

I started doing this after listening to The Adventure Zone because I thought it felt kinda cool, but I realized it's actually a super useful tool for running a campaign! Each arc should have a roughly sketched out beginning and end. The villain attacks the city and bumps into the party before taking one of their friends captive! The villain escapes and hides away in a flying castle that hovers over the mountains to the north. Your players will spend this arc fighting toward their goal and eventually overcome the villain or perhaps fail? As your players begin this arc and make their way through you can determine how quickly they go through the story itself, which will be helpful for later arcs.In addition to that, while they are going through the current arc you can foreshadow the plot for next one! However players can do unexpected things, perhaps the next arc will change entirely when they take control of the flying castle themselves and suddenly have greater access to the rest of the world? Don't be afraid to be flexible and have the ending change entirely! As long as they reach some sort of ending the next one will be waiting.And since you are running in a specific time frame, the arc system is very helpful to know how long you have before the end. You're only 3 out of 6 arcs done? Cut some ideas, combine them! Rework your ending. Speaking of which...

2. Have a Rough Idea of Your Ending

This kind of goes hand in hand with the arcs idea, but this covers the ENTIRE campaign. Each arc should be quietly leading up to an overarching plot that ends with the finale! The final confrontation with the evil Queen who has been building her army to counter the party after they betrayed her because she was not a virtuous Monarch, but a ruthless Tyrant. Giving yourself a rough idea for how you want the campaign to end is important. I didn't know how long my campaign would last when I started it, but I knew where I wanted the story to go eventually. And after running for three semesters of school I realized I had roughly 4-5 months left before the campaign needed to be wrapped up. At this point I began gearing toward a finale and managed to achieve a really successful and satisfying ending. After running for a few months you should get an idea of how often you play and how quickly the party goes through the story.

3. What If I Don't Care about Narrative?

Now, I'm going to assume your question is gearing for a narrative campaign but that may not be exactly what you are looking for! If you're looking to do a more sandbox world and just letting your players explore the world and discover their own arcs and adventures I'd say you probably won't run into any problems with trying to end it in a year. Still in line with what I've said above, as long as you let everything build up to a definitive ending and give you and your players time to play til it's over just do your thing and everything will work out.

4. How Often You Meet Makes a Big Difference

Your group is supposed to meet once a week but suddenly Person A and Person B have missed a session or two and you've had to cancel for twice in a row. This can be a big problem if it happens too often. Keep this in mind when planning out your campaign as people miss decently often. But don’t be too worried if you miss a session or two or don't meet a specific in game deadline because the players are progressing slower than you'd like.

5. Leveling

To focus in on specifically leveling up and how to pace that out I don't have an exact science. In a year I’d guess maybe 8-10 levels? Again, not too sure but here are some ideas on how to do your leveling:

You can keep track of experience points and level them up mechanically and to the book! It's a bit of math but it's straightforward and simple.

You could set a goal for what level you want them to be at when the campaign ends. If your goal is 10th Level, you could probably start your players at 1st Level and have them gain a level up roughly every 2-3 sessions (except early on, I'd recommend leveling them up a little more quickly of course!)

Now if you want your players to end on Level 20, that's a whole other deal. I personally wouldn't recommend starting at Level 1. Perhaps start them off at higher levels. 6 or perhaps even 10? Depends on how much you want them to advance.

My personal method is just to sort of... Level up when it seems right? There's nothing to it besides gut feeling and rewards for big accomplishments/fights. I also generally don't like to level up my players too fast so they can get accustomed to their current skills before upgrading to new ones. Too many too fast can be overwhelming for new players leading them to not really understanding their characters mechanically. It also helps me understand how tough they are and what I can throw at them.

I hope these ideas are helpful! Not everything here needs to be adhered to exactly, just as long as you find your method and rhythm I'm sure things will work out great! Take your time and don't be afraid to slow down or you may make silly mistakes like me. And make sure to focus your campaign on fun before all else and I'm sure you'll be amazing!

[xanth-the-wizard]

What Should Players Spend Gold On?

With my campaigns I’ve found a pretty solid balance of letting players have Gold/Currency so it wasn’t too easy to get it become totally irrelevant and not too difficult where it was a pain to collect and spend. But now I’m running a campaign where obtaining Gold is the main purpose and I’m not sure how to make that worth it?

Any ideas on what I should let my players spend their ridiculous earnings on? I’m looking for things that are fun, practical or worth hoarding all that Gold for.

Magic Items/Potions, Scrolls, and Mounts are all I can really come up with.

[xanth-the-wizard]

do u think it would be a good idea to have my players have a center of operation or group they work for? kind of like the bureau of balance in taz. i want my players to work under the assistance of an organization, and then at the end have it be that the organization they assisted was actually using them for evil deeds.

I think that would be a really cool idea! However, in my experience having a party join a group can be a little tricky. Sometimes it just doesn't work out.

In my first campaign my players were part of a guild since it was the only way I understood how to run the game at the time. Unfortunately my players didn't really connect to the guild, it was less of a decision and more of a requirement. And the guild existed without much of a purpose beyond giving out basic quests. But in my second campaign (took place in the same world) they joined the guild and it was a LOT better because I had changed some things. So here's what I recommend for your group.

1. Your Players Should WANT to Join

If your players aren't interested in joining the group/guild. It just doesn't work. Give them a reason to join. Perhaps there's a great reward in it or something that can help one of the PC's achieve their goal. Or maybe there's a secret the party must uncover but they need help to uncover it like they did in The Adventure Zone. But there are other ways to do it.

2. Your Players Owe a Debt

The party is on death's door being obliterated by a tremendous foe who is much too powerful. Things aren't looking good when suddenly- Three heroes arrive and fend off the villain! As the party loses consciousness they feel themselves being dragged away.. This would be a great way to have them join the guild! Now they don't necessarily need to be dying for this to be an important debt. There could be other ways, financially, politically, etc.. This feels more natural than, "You walk into the guild hall and you are greeted with a smile and a badge. Congrats, you're part of the guild! Take a seat while the other party members arrive." Good drama can really make them joining a group a success.

3. Talk to Your Players

Another option is to talk to your players beforehand. Tell them you've got a great idea for a campaign but in order to do that, they must join a guild. Ask them to have a reason for wanting to join and eventually give them a chance to achieve their goals! But even if you do it this way, you should make the joining of the guild interesting or worthwhile. Great NPCs can help drive this forward and make the experience really enjoyable.

I'm sure there are other ways to get players to join a group, but this is how I approach my games when I have guilds.

Now, to talk a little bit about the twist you have in mind for your secretly evil organization! I think this is a fantastic idea, but you run the risk of players discovering the truth sooner than you might want them to. Be prepared for this as it could happen at any time since players can be pretty suspicious of their employers when they seem too friendly or too secretive. In addition to that, it takes a really good DM to pull this off without it feeling like it came out of nowhere and feels cheap OR having all of your players say, "And then he kills us, right? No???? We know he's evil! It's so obvious!!!" However the latter could also lead to players feeling clever. It's tricky to balance this out but I'm sure you can do it! Keep your players guessing and remember even evil people can do good things.

Thanks for the ask and good luck with your game! I hope everything works out according to plan. >:)

[xanth-the-wizard]

Hiatus

So, I’ve been really busy.

I moved into my new apartment a few weeks back, school started up, my new campaign has begun, I’m planning for another campaign, and the biggest component of all: No Wi-Fi.

My laptop’s screen is incredibly busted and makes using it near impossible, especially for writing so I’ve been using my iPad to do my writing... But again, no internet. So I haven’t had the time or ability to post new stuff. I do have my phone so I can still check on things but I need to take some time to focus on school and finding a job. I'm slowing down my queue so reblogs will also be less frequent.

I plan on coming back once I have internet and have my schedule all figured out so I will return sometime in September! You can still send in asks and I’ll answer them when I get the chance, so I’ll be keeping an eye out for that.

In terms of general blog content, I still plan on making more Random Encounters and I want to do so much more but I’ve also been considering doing D&D videos so I can talk about different tabletop topics in a (hopefully) much more entertaining way. I don’t have the best equipment and I’m a bit nervous trying to start filming myself talking but I’m still heavily considering it. So more updates on that in the future! Thanks for following and see you guys soon!

[xanth-the-wizard]

Would you guys be interested if I started doing videos for D&D? I've been considering it lately

[xanth-the-wizard]

I just wanted to reach out and say THANK YOU for putting out so much amazing, easy access content for new DMs. I am just starting out and have struggled getting on, and staying on, a directioned track. But with your help, awesome ideas, and brilliant tips, I have been able to not only put together campaigns, but be proud of what I make. Thank you thank you thank you!! You have a new, permanent supporter on your hands! <3 best wishes -Luci

Gahhhh I don’t even know what to say! Inspiring and helping others is what I live for and the main reason I run this blog! This message has made my entire week, sorry for replying so late!

Keep kicking ass and having fun my friend!

[xanth-the-wizard]

Update:

I know it’s been a while and things have been slow around here but life has been HECTIC. Still have a busy week ahead of me, but I’ll be hopefully returning soon with Random Encounters and possibly other content as well.

One of my goals was to tackle topics of interest in a video format (since videos are more fun) but I’m not sure if I’ll have the time for it. Still need to figure that out, but perhaps in the future? We’ll see.

In terms of personal D&D updates I’ve been actually able to be a player in a campaign! I’m playing an Arcane Archer Fairy who loves all things TOUGH. We just started that and I’m excited to explore that character further!

I’ve also started running two new campaigns! One is a sequel to the campaign I’ve talked about many times before and it’s been amazing. The other one is online and we’ve only had one session so far but I’m excited to see how the one develops as well. Overall, I’ve been pretty busy. Hope you guys have a great week!