How Much World Building Will I Do?

The answer to that is way less than you might think. With world building the question is always, how much do you need for that first session. And in this case there are a few more things to consider as well. It is how much world building do you need for that first session but also how much world building do I need to do for character creation?

Reminders

This is the hook that we are going with.

No one would mistake you for the heroes of old. They are now something of legend as were the monsters they faced. The demons of old were locked away. How do you know, because you live right outside one of those dungeons. Something strong is starting to happen around the dungeon though. The terrain is changing and you don’t know why. Some thing it is a sign that the seals are weakening. But if that’s the case, who is supposed to stop them. You are tasked to find those heroes from one of the larger towns and are sent out with provisions, a map, a well wishes.

And our first arc is going to be what I dubbed The Realization Arc which is going to be focused on understanding that things breaking down. That is it, and for the first session it is all about the inciting incident. What is going to draw the players to even investigate or understand that something might be happening?

What The Players Need To Know

Let’s start out with this to understand what the players are going to need to know. A lot of it is going to be pretty general, and some of it is going to overlap with what I need to know, as the Dungeon Master for my first session.

Let’s start with the big picture items, the starting location in general terms. And any particular details about the world, magic level for example, that players might need to know.

The Starting Location – Tennoch

Tennoch is a small agrarian town. It hasn’t grown that much because it’s not on any major trade routes but it is one of the larger towns in the area, maybe a thousand people. You are in this town or from this town because of connections to it.

General World Knowledge

This is a world where magic is a thing but not common place. Most people know of magic as something that happens in large cities or something that the gods bestow upon the people. For a small town, a wizard, sorcerer, or warlock would be unique. But a druid, cleric, or paladin might be more common.

It’s also a world where technology is fairly limited. Things like explosives might exist but are known in whispers and are rare and considered extremely dangerous.

Finally, while Tennoch is technically part of the kingdom of Meldros, Tennoch doesn’t have much to do with Meldros. Maybe every couple of years an official accompanied by a knight will show up and ask for some taxes, but there is no set schedule it just seems to be whenever the Queen needs more funds. At least you assume it’s still the Queen.

Why These Details for the Players?

So first it is a little bit about the starting location. It let’s the players know what type of setting there are in and what sort of background they could be picking. It’s a small but larger town for there area. But at only a thousand people at most, it isn’t going to be that much. The outlying villages near them probably come there for trading when a merchant shows up twice a year to restock some goods.

As for the more general knowledge. By naming the land, it lets the players know a little bit more in case they wanted to have moved in. It also sets what sort of rule it is and sets how little characters might know about the lands.

The other two give the players an idea of the sort of world it is in general. Low technology and medium magic. Magic is something that exists and people know about in a town. In fact, they probably have a temple to some god or gods in this town. So there is a cleric, possibly, but it would be a low level cleric at best with probably works more off of knowledge of medicine to heal than magic.

Session One World Building

So as I create for myself I am going to go with a more standardized way of doing it. That is going to be using name, defining feature, brief description which I lay out in my Dungeon Master Tools World Building article.

The Town – Tennoch

Defining Feature: Agrarian town, largest in probably 100-150 miles
Brief Description: While the town seems bustling compared to others in the area, it is very small. Most of the trade in the town comes from neighboring villages and farmers who dot across the land. They hold a market once a week. And twice a year a traveling merchant comes through whom they know by name.

The Mayor – Wilfred Brumble

Defining Feature: Stout man with a large belly who came from out of town
Brief Description: He’s from out of town but he has been in Tennoch for years at this point. But his house stands out as being a slightly different style. But he fits into the town now and has married someone from the town, Madeline.

Shopkeeper – Denny and Olive Ansen

Defining Feature: Gnomes who love to gossip
Brief Description: They are very busy folks running their shop. While most people do their shopping at the market, Denny and Olive are the ones who have a shop that is always open. So when you need something you come to them. And the shop, Thimble Trades and Goods, is always open because they live in the back, so a loud knock will get them scurrying up front to help you no matter the hour.

The Shop – Thimble Trades and Goods

Defining Feature: Jam packed with odds and ends.
Brief Description: How Denny and Olive know where everything is is a great question. There are boxes and shelves crammed full of everything. Often times their shoppers will wait outside and the gnomes will scurry around finding things. That’s because it’s hard to get through spots for the dwarves and humans who live in the area. Thimble Trades and Goods is the only spot to get merchant goods when the merchant isn’t around because the owners send orders with the merchant every time to keep necessities stocked. And they prefer to trade than get coin at the shop.

Notable Farmer – Maggie Fern

Defining Feature: Strong halfling who loves to cook and drink
Brief Description: She’s short, strong, and won’t let anything stop her. But while she is bullheaded when it comes to getting work done and dealing with problems she is also caring. When someone is sick and they need help on their farm, she is the first to bring food and help. She also always will tell you to stop and have a drink if you happen to come by her farm. While you won’t gossip with her, it’ll be a good relaxing time.

Why Only These Things?

Firstly, I could fill out the town more. But if we go back to that first arc article I talked about how one of the things I want is for my players to help with the world building. In particular with this first town, I want them to have connections. So while I could certainly talk more about maybe who has an inn which would be small with a couple of sleeping rooms, a stable, and a larger room for eating, for example, I think that might be something that is defined by the players.

So I want to keep it simple at this point. And I have plans in particular for the mayor and farmer in the first session or two so I want them defined. And a shop and shopkeepers are also good to have defined. You may not need them defined for your first session. I suspect that my players might want to shop because I know my players.

Final Thoughts on My World Building

You can see how simple I kept it. There is only a little bit of detail for the players and only a little bit for me. But now I know what I want my players to know going into character creation. And I know where I’m going to start my story and who I can work with as characters. Is there going to be more that I flesh out, yes. But some of that is going to be as I flesh out my session one. And I plan on doing that some next week so you can see how I lay out that session for the players.

Do you think that I need more world building done before I start the campaign? Or is this going to be enough to keep me going?

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Dungeons and Dragons Campaign Hook and Big Bad

What Was the Hook?

So let’s quickly refresh, what was the hook for my Dungeons and Dragons campaign. The players went with (and I helped decide on) plot hook #4. You can see all of them here.

No one would mistake you for the heroes of old. They are now something of legend as were the monsters they faced. The demons of old were locked away. How do you know, because you live right outside one of those dungeons. Something strong is starting to happen around the dungeon though. The terrain is changing and you don’t know why. Some thing it is a sign that the seals are weakening. But if that’s the case, who is supposed to stop them. You are tasked to find those heroes from one of the larger towns and are sent out with provisions, a map, a well wishes.

The Big Bad

Demons, this is going to be one where there are demons in it. Though, since it is something of legends, and with how long elves live, this happened ages ago. That means that what is known as demons doesn’t have to be demons, that is just what the legends call them.

The First Story Arc

I think the first arc is pretty simple, it is really the hook of the story. But I want to set it up in an interesting way. And you can read up on how I want to use story arcs and recommend people use them in their campaigns here.

The first big arc is going to be what I call The Realization Arc. This arc is going to be about figuring out what is happening. I’m not actually going to tell the players which story they are playing. I am just going to set-up some for the world, I’ve gotten my buy-in, but when we do character creation I’m going to give them a few parameters and that’ll be it. So what is this arc going to look like?

The Realization Arc

The first session is going to be a jump straight into action. But let’s break it down a little bit more.

• The inciting incident
• Town in panic
• Investigation
• The Annals
• We Need To Find Heroes

So what is the inciting incident going to be? Well, it’s going to be an attack of some sort, not on the town but around the town. An example of what I mean is think of the start of the Wheel of Time series. There is an attack on the town but it starts with attacks on the farms and the town and strange things happening near the farms. So the characters are going to learn about it and have to help with it.

Now, I want to dive into this further right now and talk about it, but let’s then talk about that second arc that we’ll be setting up as well. Because the next article is going to be working on world building first and the following one on that session one.

Dungeons and Dragons Full Campaign Arcs

So, I said I wanted to talk about the next one. But there is more than that, I want to deal with arcs that are going to show up in the campaign. Now as I write out all of these, this is not the whole campaign. I expect more arcs to occur, but these are some of the pillar arcs that I think need to happen for the story.

• The Realization Arc
• A Fond Farewell
• Traveling to the City
• We’re Here, Now What?
• Gaining Trust
• ??? I expect more arcs in here
• How Do You Seal a Demon?
• ??? More arcs
• It’s Now Or Never

The Groundwork For A Fond Farewell

So, when I look at this, I want to start laying the groundwork for that next arc. And that next arc is going to be a short arc. A Fond Farewell should be a session or maybe two. It is a chance for the characters to build up more relationships and define who they are as characters. So I want to start creating NPC’s that the characters will interact with. One thing, though, that I want to do is give the players each a note card or two with my NPC template on it. And during session zero, each player is going to make an NPC that they are closely connected to.

What does that look like? You can see that here in my Dungeon Master Tools – World Building Article. But simply put name, defining feature, brief description. And I think I want to add in one in this case. What is the connection to the players. For a small village, everyone is going to be connected. So I want to see the players create meaningful NPC’s who are connected deeply with their character. It is not going to be a lot of work, I just want one or two per player.

How I’ll Use Them

So, when I get those NPC’s how do I want to use them? Firstly, those are going to be the main points of contact for the characters in the town. At least one of them is going to be part of the inciting incident. An important rule of Dungeons and Dragons is put every meaningful character in harms way at some point in time. And if I start with it, that is great. Not all of them will be, but if some make sense, that I want to put them in harms way.

I want to create tension too for the upcoming farewell. The town mayor or village elders, whomever is in charge, is going to send out the player characters. Why, because they are the saviors of the village and the ones who maybe can survive the journey to a town or city. I hope that someone creates a NPC who is a single parent, or maybe even a child who is going to be left behind. I want it to feel. And if they don’t, I might create one for them.

Final Thoughts on A Story Arc in Dungeons and Dragons

I like where this Dungeons and Dragons campaign is going. When I world build coming up here soon in a new article, I want to create the frameworks that this first arc will work in. That means I want to create that the land is like. Is it going to be a hunter gatherer type of setting or more agrarian in nature? That is the fun of world building. And I think my arc works well in any of those.

But as I do that, I want to keep it focused on this first arc. If I plan out too much, such as the nations and city they are going to go to, that is a lot. It is important to only know the large rules for the world. For example, is it high or low magic. And that is not going to affect this first arc too much, just character creation. For this first arc, I want to give the players a description of the town, surrounding area, and not much more. As always, I want to remember, keep it simple, stupid. And in this case, I am stupid.

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The Basis of a Character Arc

Let’s start out with the first one you already have built into your character. If you followed what I suggested for character creation, you have an overall character arc already planned out. Read up on that here. But this is just a starting point.

Example – Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki

So, I want to give an example from an anime/light novel series that I love. Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki features a protagonist who doesn’t think that he can “win” at the game of life. In fact, he believes that because of his stats (the body he was born into) there’s no way to get ahead and therefore life is a garbage game. But then he meets the #2 player of a video game in real life, he’s number one, and it turns out that it’s someone he knows. She convinces him to try playing the game of life.

So, how does she do that? Every day is a new small goal to lead towards the big end goal. In the case of Tomozaki, it is get a girlfriend for the big goal. But the smaller goals are improve his looks, get better at talking and engaging with people. And even those often get broken into smaller tasks. And I think that is how you create a character arc for your character.

The Big Arc

The first thing is the big arc. This one is already part of your character creation, like I said. But let’s recap it here because it is important. When you create your character you create two things. The first thing is pretty simple, why am I an adventurer. That is your starting point.

The second one is the thing that gives you a big character arc to go through. What is my end goal. Aka, what keeps me adventuring and when I complete it, I’ll likely be done. It makes sense, this is about the largest thing that your character can do. And that is likely going to tie in with complete the campaign as well, but it might not for all characters.

Breaking It Down

So now you know what you big character arc is going to be. But you want to get there, and you can’t just work towards a single massive goal. Your character is going to stagnate along the way if that happens because you don’t have a goal to get to in between

Your goals should affect your character as you plan them out. There are two types of character arcs that you can create for these smaller goals. The first are ones that you can do. Does your character have a specific goal, like in the example of the monk from character creation, they want to make their monastery financially stable, so they want to fund raise when they go to town, so it might be make connections with people. Or it might be something where you need the Dungeon Masters help. So you talk with them to help make it happen.

So let’s break it down even further here.

• Keep it actionable
• Work on it during downtime or in alignment with moving the story forward
• Know your end condition
• Know the end result or change

Example – The Monk

So quick recap. Our monk is adventuring because he needs to help raise money for the monastery that brought him in and raised him. Once he feels like the monastery is in a viable spot financially, he is likely going to retire and go back to train and mentor urchins like he was and give them the opportunity he had.

So let’s create a small goal with that in mind.

Find a potential benefactor and talk with them.

This is actionable as you can go around town and ask people. And it is something that is easy to do in the downtime. The end condition is also set, it is done when you talk to a potential benefactor. Not when you convince them or anything.

So the big question is what is the end result or change for the monk? Well, in this case, I suspect our urchin who lived on the streets and then went into a monastery isn’t that great at talking to people and has a low charisma stat. So the end goal is to get better at talking to people.

This is something that can even play out in your characters stats. This could be a goal until you hit level four, or level eight, or whenever you get your stat bumps. And when you do, if you’ve successfully worked at this, you increase your charisma stat so that it’s less of a negative. But that is optional to tie it in so much.

Final Thoughts on a Good Character Arc

I think that these are important for your character. I talked about it some with bonds, flaws, ideals, and personality traits last week. But it is about the character growth. And using your bonds, flaws, ideals and personality traits, it can be a great way to create more interesting story arcs for your character. You find a flaw and you want to over come it, that is a character arc. Or maybe you have a personality trait that you want to add or a bond you want to add, that is a character arc as well.

But with that said, we’re down to our last topic. And that is going to be role playing your character. Everything that we’ve done thus far leads up to that moment. Whether it be the character creation, backstory creation, or figuring out a character arc, it is all going to show up at the table and how you interact with the other players and the Dungeon Master. So join me for that next time.

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Dungeon Master Tools – Social Interations

The NPC

Let’s start out with the NPC. How do you create a good NPC as the Dungeon Master? We already talked about this in world building. You can read about that here. But let’s recap it for the basics. You want to create an NPC, add in these things: Name, Defining Feature(s), Brief Description. That’s what you want to start with for it. Maybe add in an occupation as well so you can keep track of who is a shopkeeper, a quest giver, or any other role.

Again, the mantra is keep it simple as you plan out the NPC. If you want to add more to the NPC, add it in the moment. Give the NPC an accent, jot it down where you created your NPC at. That way you remember for next time, though odds are your players won’t remember either. But the big thing is keep your NPC creation simple so that you aren’t over planning and over engineering them.

Social Interactions

This one is tough to give a ton of advice on. The biggest thing to create good and memorable social interactions is to have social interactions in your game. Why, because it just requires practice. There are things like “Yes and” that we’ll talk about with social interactions, but it really is true across the board for your RPG as well.

But let’s face it, as the Dungeon Master the hardest element is coming up with things on the fly. And while you can plan out some combats, and you might know the direction of a conversation with an NPC, you can’t know how the PCs are going to interact with the NPCs.

The player character is being aggressive with the king, what do you do? They are asking about the shopkeepers family, what do you do? They want hire a street urchin as an informant, what do you do?

You need to be able to react in the moment. And you get better at that the more you do it. It’s a skill for players to, what happens if the king becomes hostile to them? But as the dungeon master, you can plan for that, you can’t plan for the players interacting.

“Yes and”

So let’s talk about “Yes and”, it’s probably something you expected sooner. But this is an improv idea of going with the flow. If the players say, “I want to hire the street urchin as an informant” and that isn’t your plan, how do you go with the flow. “Yes and” is the answer. So let’s look at this example I’ve created.

Example – “Yes and”

Street Urchin: I saw the robber run down that alleyway.
Player: Thanks for the information. (pause) We think there is a group of thieves who just came into town, if you keep your eyes and ears open for anything suspicious we’ll pay you a silver a week for information.

As the Dungeon Master, this isn’t our plan, this is a one off NPC that we didn’t even plan ahead of time, now the players want to hire them. So we “yes and” it.

Street Urchin: Sure, I’ll help for a silver a week, but I’m not going to do anything dangerous, and I want a meal every time.

What We Did

So it threw us off our game, kind of. But we created some rules around it. The players now have an informant, it costs them a silver per week, it costs them a meal per week. And the Street Urchin has said that they won’t do anything dangerous. We created some guard rails around the character. And this being an unplanned NPC that matters now, it creates some of our world planning for the character.

Name: Street Urchin (until they ask for a name then have them name it)
Defining Feature(s): Always after a good meal and eager to chat, but is cautious if anything looks hard to do or dangerous since they can’t afford to get hurt.
Brief Description: They are a small, undersized human who is living on their own on the streets. They ran away from home after their village was attacked by goblins. As far as they know their family is dead. And they don’t have enough food or money to go back and find out. But they have been making it on the street by being careful and cautious around anyone who looks dangerous.

Other Social Tips

So what other things are worth noting about social interactions. Firstly, keep an eye on two things that the players do. Players will tend to find NPC’s that they like and NPC’s that they don’t like. Those are your key NPC’s for your game. When you need someone to give out a new quest, go with one of those, on either side. Because it is going to make it more interesting and gives you a framework for good interactions.

What do you do with them, let’s look at the different types.

NPC’s Players Like

So these are going to be the ones that you do a few different things with. The simplest is that the majority of them are just going to continue to be friends with the players. Let’s take the street urchin for example. They just want a friend, they are going to be nice to the players because the players feed them and give them money, they won’t turn on the players.

The next option is that you put them in harms ways. The players are going to want to protect them, so let’s again look at our informant street urchin. They try and be careful but these new thieves are good and realize that the street urchin is informing on them. So the group of thieves go and kidnap the street urchin to lure the players into a trap.

The final option is that you make them betray or always be evil. This is harder for the street urchin, in some ways, but the secret backstory could be that the street urchin is actually the head of the group of thieves and used them to get rid of a bad apple at the first meeting. And now they are feeding them just enough good information that the players trust them while they really are planning and executing a bigger and grander heist.

NPC’s Players Dislike

Now the flip can generally be true, in some ways. The NPC could just stay unlikeable and be a rival to the players. In fact, build them up as an adventurer who gets their own party and is beating the players to completing some things to really drive home that rival feeling. But that’s a rare case, mainly you just keep them antagonistic to the PCs.

It’s also fun, once in a while, to give them an interesting and truly heartfelt backstory. They are abrasive because they don’t trust adventurers. An adventuring party kidnapped their brother and made him work for them carrying around their packs and things like that. And they don’t know where their brother is, the adventuring party left and didn’t come back from an adventure so they fear the worst. But it comes across, until you get to know the NPC as just being mean to adventurers, which the players are.

Now, the final one is putting them in harms way. But why would the players care. Well, you need to tie that to more of the plot. They hire the adventurers to keep them safe, but the adventurers don’t like them, that’s some fun interactions. Or they get kidnapped, but they are important so there is a good reward for getting them back, can that tempt the players?

Final Thoughts on Social Interactions

The best advice that I can give is just do it. You are going to stumble, you are going to need a pause. I’ve ran a game where because of a social interaction we took a ten minute pause to use the bathroom, grab food, things like that. You don’t need to always figure it out on the fly, if you need to take the time to make it work, do that. And the more you have these social interactions the easier it will get. It might never be easy, but it will become easier.

Down to our final Dungeon Master Tools topics:

• Meta Game and Players at the Table

And let me know if there are other things to cover as well that you want to know more about, or help with. I think that there are a ton of different things that new Dungeon Masters are curious about or that feel intimidating. So I hope that I can help make them clearer and simpler for you.

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Dungeon Master Tools – Combat

We all know what combat is, so we’ll kind of skip over that detail, right? Well I think we generally know what it is there is a mindset that it means “beat the bad guys”. Combat certainly has that in it, but I think it is better defined as taking actions in conflict with an aggressively hostile party to end the hostile situation.

Now that is a bit of a mouthful. But the reason for that is that often “beat the bad guys” but it might be, escape through a group of hostile enemies, or run away from the combat. Or it might be protect an NPC who is trying to get to an objective or needs time to complete an objective, so you need to defend them. And it is even the situations where you beat someone down enough that they beg for mercy or a truce when they k now they are defeated.

How To Do Combat

So let’s start out with some basics again here. We now know what combat is, so how do you do combat. And I want to talk about two ways and suggest you do the second one.

The first way is to have a battle map. This is going to require minis, things on the map to denote enemies or terrain and things like that. It’s going to be a bit more complex because as the Dungeon Master you need to plan this out ahead of time to have everything ready.

The second way is theater of the mind. This is where you know what the battle is like in your head. Everyone imagines what it looks like and you work through it that way. Now there is a drawback of this is that it is a skill to be learned. It’s not always the easiest to do right off the bat, but it is simpler than always creating a combat.

Theater of the Mind

So we know what theater of the mind is. So you want to do that, how do you keep track of everything?

The first way is to simply add it into your notes as you go. When players and enemies roll for initiative I write that down and as combat goes, I might draw a line between player characters and enemies who are adjacent to each other. That way I can keep track of who is who. The more you run theater of the mind, the easier that is going to be to keep track of who is where just in your head.

That is going to be the simplest way of keeping track by drawing lines. Another way, if you want to help with that theater of the mind element is to create your own battle map. If you are fairly confident a battle will happen in a session, or you do this on the fly, you draw up where the player characters and enemies are. Then you just erase and move them as they move and attack and die. This is more work, but might be a decent first step.

When To Use Battle Maps

Now the answer for you might be never. I rarely use battle maps because I plan my combats on the fly. But if I know there is a big set piece, I am more apt to use a battle map. And I understand the desire to use a battle map. A big map and set-up is fun for players as the Dungeon Master alike.

So I believe in using them sparingly. I use them for a bit boss combat. If you return to the story arc article, each arc maybe has a final fight. Let’s look at this example again.

Example Arcs

• Find treasure
• Fight Mid-level boss
• Learn about Big Bad
• Search for way to stop Big Bad
• Get information from wizard
• Find artifact
• Confront big bad

Find a treasure doesn’t seem like it has a combat. Well, it can. And this is a great time to talk about another element of combat that I already talked about some.

Vary Combat Objectives

What do I mean by vary combat? I mean create the escort or protect someone combats. Create a combat where the players are overwhelmed and they need to get something and get out. Now, I lean towards combat where you beat the enemy more often than not. Whether that ends in knocking out the enemy or killing them or getting the fight to end through violence or spells, whatever that might be. But throw in other combats as well where players need to think through what they are doing.

So let’s talk about that “find treasure” scenario as an example.

Example – Find Treasure

This might seem like it doesn’t have that combat element to it. Or it might not be a set piece. But I think that it can be a very good set piece scenario. So let’s talk about building out that scenario and it might not all be known to the players at the start all of this, but I want to make it simple if I can for a new Dungeon Master, that’s the whole point.

The Objective: Get in and out as fast as you can with the treasure.
The Set-up/Description: You open the door to a hidden room in the crypt, unfortunately it’s guarded by undead. As you watch for a second, you see there are hallways and other crypts off to the side with more undead.
The Complication: There is no limit to the undead. Every round 1D4 undead are added into the mix. So even if they take them all out more will keep coming.

Now this is great because it can work well either as theater of the mid or in a set piece with a battle map. If you do a battle map create some terrain and bottle necks in there. The bottle necks can be where the undead come from off to the side. So players, theoretically could block one of them up by placing a tanky player character in front of it. But to win it is really get in and get out.

Enemy Actions

This is the second to last thing that I want to talk about before I wrap up combat. And this is where you really can develop, I think as a Dungeon Master. It is an area that I want to develop in more as a Dungeon Master as well. But give your enemies different flavors as you work.

Let’s use our undead as an example. And you might want to add this to your notes as the Dungeon Master as you think about the combat. But how does an undead fight? And are these undead mainly just reanimated corpses or zombies with an objective, or intelligent undead?

In my example, I see them as unintelligent undead. They are the corpses from the crypts who are awakened via magic. So I want them to attack whomever is closest to them. If players aren’t careful that means that one player might get surrounded which is bad at low levels. And I expect this to be an encounter for low level characters that they can’t win, again because there are always more undead. But that does mean that they aren’t going to target a healer or caster off the bat since they likely won’t be the closest.

Adding In Theme

Once we get past the differences between theater of the mind versus a battle map, the big thing that I’m trying to do by varying combat objectives and enemy actions or behaviors is to create fun thematic combat experiences. And I know I want to get better at this as well.

Why, I think that it makes combat more fun for both the players and the Dungeon Master. If I know something about how the enemies are going to act that the players need to figure out, that is fun for me. And for the players, it’s fun to have enemies that do varied things, to varied characters but are doing it for a reason. It isn’t fun when the enemies always ignore the tank and rush past to get to the healer and caster.

So, to wrap it up, come up with one element to add in theme to your combat. Whether that be hordes of undead who keep coming no matter what or an intelligent rogue who is always trying to drop into hiding and move their position around a crowded warehouse, give the players something to remember the combat by. And if you just happen to have group of street toughs who are just straight forward basic combat, that might standout too.

Final Thoughts on Combat

Combat is going to be a part of your game. I didn’t mention it yet, but I’ll say it here quickly and then again in the last topic, the meta game, but how much combat you have might vary a lot. I know in the Dungeon Master Guide and other D&D books they say 4-6 small combats a day. The idea is to use up player resources. That might work, or it might not, for your group. You need to figure that out, and we’ll talk about how in that meta game article coming out soon.

What I didn’t cover was encounter creation in terms of enemy power. The easiest way, I find is to use a tool like: https://kastark.co.uk/rpgs/encounter-calculator-5th/. It let’s you punch in details and see how hard your combat is going to be. Especially for combats where players need to beat the enemies by force.

So what is coming next for Dungeon Master Tools?

• Exploration
• NPCs/Social Interactions
• Meta Game and Players at the Table

Let me know if there are other things to cover as well that you want to know more about, or help with. I think that there are a ton of different things that new Dungeon Masters are curious about or that feel intimidating. So I hope that I can help make them clearer and simpler for you.

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Dungeon Master Tools – Story Arcs

What’s A Story Arc in Television?

Let’s start out with what is a story arc. I think for a lot of us, we know what it is. It’s going to be a series of episodes in television that all go together to tell a particular story. In television sometimes this is a whole season that is one story arc, but most of the time, you end up with smaller and shorter story arcs spread throughout the season. There is a whole through line of the main story, but the story arcs are all supporting that or supporting character development.

Why Use It in an RPG?

So why might you want to use it as a Dungeon Master in your game of Dungeons and Dragons? Well, because it makes your life simpler. Let’s say I have an idea for an epic campaign. I sit down to start jotting out notes.

Example

I come up with some big events that I want to happen, firstly, they need to find a treasure that is going to reveal this big plot. Then they need to fight a boss once they find him who will tell them about the larger scope of it and the world ending big bad. After that, they go and search for a way to defeat the big bad and meet a wizard who tells them about an artifact. Then they find the artifact. Finally, they face off against the big bad.

Too Much Work

That’s a lot in there. And you can see each sentence that I wrote is an arc. Now, the temptation is to start filling out everything. I write up where the treasure is in a dungeon and what’s in that dungeon. Next I create hints for this mid-level boss that I sprinkle in and create what the boss is going to be like. I start dropping in hints about the wizard and this other treasure and create their plot lines and what the party has to do to get the wizard to tell them about the artifact. And I make it so they run into the big bad early on but they don’t know it.

Eventually I script out the whole thing that is going on and I’ve spent tons of time creating my campaign. All of this is done before we even start playing the game and I’m feeling burned out on the story, possibly. Or the players catch who the big bad is right away or try and skip over elements that I put time into already.

The Story Arc Way

So, is there a better way? Yes, the story arc way. One of the main things about tips is that I want to make it easy. I want it easier for the Dungeon Master to get a game going. Because, too much work keeps campaigns on hold forever.

Let’s talk about the better way. Firstly, it’s not bad to know where you want to go with the story. In fact, knowing some arcs, loosely isn’t bad. So what I wrote for example, that is going to be solid, but you want them to be bullet points.

Example Arcs

• Find treasure
• Fight Mid-level boss
• Learn about Big Bad
• Search for way to stop Big Bad
• Get information from wizard
• Find artifact
• Confront big bad

There are what I would call seven arcs. What you do then is look at three things this list. Firstly, what do I need to know for the first arc. You want to plan out that arc only at this point. Keep it simple, give yourself something you can work with. Also ask yourself, are there arcs within this arc. If so, break it out more. You might break it out to sessions (episodes) like this.

Break it Down

• Find Treasure
  • Get party together and get quest
  • Find where the dungeon is and travel there
  • Explore dungeon

Now as you look at that it’s easier to work with. That is what you want to get planned out. In fact, you just want to get the party together and get them the quest. We went through this in the Session 1 article. You want to simply focus on that element of your game and plan out that session. But as I said, keep on eye on a few things. So besides your current arc, also look for your next arc and session. For the next arc, maybe not right away, but drop in a hint. For the next session, as you plan your session, make it lead to the right point to kick off the next session.

The final thing is, does it make sense for the overall plot. This isn’t about the final big bad fight. But thematically, is the story leading where you want it to go. Or is the arc and what you are planning going against it. Now that might be on purpose, or it might not, so think about that.

Let’s Recap

So let’s just do a quick recap for using story arcs as a Dungeon Master.

• Bullet point out your story arcs
• Focus only on the first arc
• Break that first arc into sessions if it makes sense
• Fill out details a session at a time
• Make sure the session leads to the next session
• Hint at next arc, if it makes sense
• Verify that the arc and session serve the overall story

That is a pretty long list. Longer than I want it to be. But to sum it up in a sentence or two, let’s try that.

Worry about only the arc and session you are on as you plan. You know the other arcs will come, but don’t plan them all at once.

There, that’s much simpler. So start using arcs and planning in bullet points. See if it can take the pressure off planning everything. And going back to the campaign article and kicking that off, this planning starts after you have a group together and people excited for a campaign, not before. You plan your arc and session only when you are ready to start playing.

Final Thoughts

This is a technique that I use a little bit. I generally hold a lot of this information in my head. But I want to start using it more as a thirty minute pre-session planning activity, or maybe more than that. Because it is going to help me keep track of everything and what happens. But even for myself who loves playing and running games of Dungeons and Dragons as the Dungeon Master, I don’t want to spend all my time prepping. I want to play the game.

Do you think this is something you can incorporate as a Dungeon Master?

What’s next:

• World Building
• Combat
• Exploration
• NPCs/Social Interactions
• Meta Game and Players at the Table

And let me know if there are other things to cover as well that you want to know more about, or help with. I think that there are a ton of different things that new Dungeon Masters are curious about or that feel intimidating. So I hope that I can help make them clearer and simpler for you.

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Message me on X at @TheScando
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Dungeon Master Tools – Character Creation

Know What Books You Are Going to Use

Firstly, know what books you are going to use. If you are a new Dungeon Master, I think I would go with the Players Handbook and the Revised Ranger which you can find online. I wouldn’t add in anything else, because that is going to mean a few things. Firstly that you or someone owns those other books. And if you don’t own them, you need to know what’s in them pretty well. The other reason is that it keeps what you need to know focused and the character races and classes easier to keep track of.

As you play more and feel more comfortable, I think it’s totally valid to add in more books. In fact, I expect that most Dungeon Masters are going to add in more books over time. Though, if you are playing the revised 5E with the new books, you get to keep it limited, for now.

Is Anything Banned?

Next, know if you don’t want anything in your campaign. Is your setting one where all magic comes from the divine or demonic sources, maybe you don’t go with all the casting classes. Or if magic is banned or doesn’t exist for some reason, that’s good to know. Another example would be creatures with flying speeds that the PC’s (player characters) can play. Do you want to deal with a 3D battle scenario or not?

I think that banning is a last resort. In fact, I recommend that Dungeon Masters don’t do it. But there are thematic reasons why you may ban some class or class feature so be aware of that. Especially if this is your first campaign, and you want to run something that is maybe easier to understand, don’t ban anything, go with a setting that more closely resembles Faerun as it’s going to make your life easier as you and your players don’t need to remember anything.

How Do You Get Stats?

One of the final things here is how you get the stats. And I want to talk about a number of ways that you can get them. Because there are a lot of fun ways. But know how you want to do it. Why, because a player might like one better than another, so they can min/max or manipulate things more. So know which way you want to go so there isn’t a discussion. You run this game as the Dungeon Master, listen to reasons, but at the end, everyone does it the same way, however you land.

Point Buy

Firstly there is point buy system. In this players get a certain number of points, and all stats start at 8. Then you spend points to increase those stats. Before the bonus you get from being an elf or half-orc, whatever it might be, you can go as high as fifteen. Each number increase costs a point and you start with 27 total points. This is going to give the players complete control over how they handout their stats.

Rolling

Rolling For Stats is another way that you can go, and this can be done in a few different ways. The most common way is roll 4D6 (four six sided dice) and drop the lowest of the dice. For example, if you roll a six, two, five, and two, you drop one of the twos, and get a 13. Now, you complete that six times, one for each stat, and players assign them in the direction that they want. That is going to let some numbers possible be higher, but there isn’t a floor like you get with the point buy system.

You can also just go with rolling 3D6 and keeping that, it’s going to create a wider range of what you can roll, though. So it is possible that a player is going to roll very low. A three in a stat is too low to really even play with, and while it’s possible in the previous version, it’s less possible.

Finally, you can use either method and do a down the line approach to the stats. What I mean by that is you start with strength and go down. So if I decide I’m a wizard, I hope I roll well on roll four for intelligence. This is going to create a greater level of variance in characters and how good they are and it can be fun. Just let your players know ahead of time.

Standard Array

The final way is the simplest. This is the standard array. The standard array is 15, 14, 13, 12, 10 and 8 for your stats. Every player is going to start out basically the same. Now that order is going to change, but no one is going to have a very high stat by magically rolling three sixes. And no player is going to have a low stat. This is good, I think for a starting campaign. The more new people you have, the easier this is to use. Mainly, because, you don’t want someone to be in a position to dominate everything because of good rolls.

Is Anything Custom Allowed?

This is the final thing and generally my answer is going to be no for this. Again, if you feel comfortable with it, sure. But know that what is custom might not be balanced. And this could be from a custom class that a player found on the internet that they want to try. Or it might be customizing a spell so it does a different type of damage. Generally I saw go with rules as written. Unless you want that extra challenge in something, keep it simple. And if this is your first game or early on in your dungeon mastering career, definitely don’t do it.

Final Thoughts

This, I think, is a good bonus topic to add into the mix. I don’t think it’s as much of a tool that I would recommend specifically to make your life easier. It is just some good things to think of before you session zero. Especially when it comes to how you want to get your stats and anything custom. That way you know what you are comfortable with.

For me, personally, I like the roll 4D6 and drop the lowest. Though, with that, it is not too hard for a player to get some really good stats. So even with my preferred system, I generally look through and make sure everyone is balanced. If someone rolls everything over 12, for example, I change one. I want you always to have a bad stat, and some good stats, no Batmans (someone who is good at everything) on the team. Use your discretion with that and keep it fair.

So what is coming up next?

• Session 1
• Story Arcs
• World Building
• Combat
• Exploration
• NPCs/Social Interactions
• Meta Game and Players at the Table

And let me know if there are other things to cover as well that you want to know more about, or help with. I think that there are a ton of different things that new Dungeon Masters are curious about or that feel intimidating. So I hope that I can help make them clearer and simpler for you. And this one is really that first step that you can take before you even start to think about the other elements.

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Message me on X at @TheScando
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Dungeon Master Tools – Session 0

What Is A Session 0?

A session 0 is your first session of your RPG campaign, kind of. Everyone gets together, like you would normally to play the game. But instead of just playing the game, you instead are getting ready to play the game. Players don’t come with rolled up characters or anything like that. This session is for chatting, talking through your character ideas and rolling up those characters.

Why Do A Session 0?

We know what a session 0 is now. The better question might be, why do a session 0? Is there a very good reason for doing it, or is this just extra work for everyone and you should just jump right in? I’ll give you a spoiler, it’s a good thing to do.

Players Handbook

One of the reasons it’s a good thing to do is because not everyone has a players handbook. And that is a bit of an investment for a players handbook that in all fairness the fighter might not really need 99% of the time. So it makes sense to share the players handbook around the table so everyone can create their own character. If even one player doesn’t come to that first playing session without a built character, you’re going to spend most of the time making the character, so might as well have everyone do it at once.

Player Conversation

Beyond that practical reason, it’s great to have players talk and bounce character ideas off one each other. You can do that via an e-mail, but if someone is waffling between what stats to make strongest, a couple of different character backstories, things like that, the Session 0 is amazing for players to work together and create their party that can work cohesively. The example would be the rogue and the paladin. How do they work together, well, if they are created together to be in the same party, the players can talk through that.

Dungeon Master Benefits

And for the Dungeon Master it is great as well. You see what the players want to play. And as part of the conversation, you know what elements are the most important to the players. Is the background an urchin, but the backstory is really focused on the fact that they were a noble who got lost and lived as a urchin? Well, now I know all of that if I am part of the character creation process.

What Else Can Be Done in Session 0?

So, I talk a lot about character creation. And I think that is going to be the bulk of the time that is spent in a session 0. But it is also a chance for players who maybe don’t know each other to get to know each other. Because I find that I often pull in from different groups of friends to play in a campaign. So they might not know each other at the start of the campaign. A session 0 is a great way for people to get to know each other.

And as the Dungeon Master it is a great time to workshop other ideas. If you want a list of NPC names, have the players right down five each. If you want locations, let the players create some of the locations. This is a chance to flesh out some of that stuff that I think Dungeon Masters often try and do themselves for the campaign. Take off some of the load and share the fun and frustration of some of that creation on the fly with the players.

Finally, it is a chance as the Dungeon Master to pitch more of the tone of the game. This might be in giving the elevator pitch again. Or it might be adding to that pitch as you’ve planned a bit more, or integrating things from what the players are talking about. But this somewhat goes back to character creation. If someone is creating a character that doesn’t fit the tone, you know ahead of time.

Final Thoughts

This is a really useful tool. I think, and I don’t want to over emphasize it, but also don’t want to under emphasize it, it’s a great chance to socialize. Even if it’s a friend group, it is going to let you set the tone for the time and keep that focus on the fun of the game. Though every session is going to have tangents and things like that.

But for a new Dungeon Master or even someone who knows the game really well and has run many campaigns, this is very nice to use. Especially because you get to know the characters and see that work done collaboratively. It immediately cuts down on potential party friction if someone believes that there character should work in one hyper specific way that goes against what the rest of the party wants. And yes, this is something that happens.

So what is coming up next?

• Session 1
• Story Arcs
• World Building
• Combat
• Exploration
• NPCs/Social Interactions
• Meta Game and Players at the Table

And let me know if there are other things to cover as well that you want to know more about, or help with. I think that there are a ton of different things that new Dungeon Masters are curious about or that feel intimidating. So I hope that I can help make them clearer and simpler for you. And this one is really that first step that you can take before you even start to think about the other elements.

Send an Email
Message me on X at @TheScando
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Dungeon Master Tools – The Campaign

Let’s start out with the big thing, the campaign. This is what you’re going to be playing for weeks, months, or even years of time. My current campaign started in 2020, I believe, and it’ll probably be wrapping up late spring/early summer. That is a long time so the question is how do you create a campaign that goes that long?

The Scary Part

That is the scary part. And the intimidating part that I want to help people get past when being a Dungeon Master. There is this idea that you need to know your campaign before going into it. You pick what you want to run, you spend time studying up, if it’s homebrew, you create the setting, you create towns, and you come up with NPC’s and once you do all of that, you are ready to start your campaign. But I think it’s way simpler than that. So let’s talk about how it is easier to implement.

How To Break It Down

There are two things that you need to start your campaign. One is going to be for you as the Dungeon Master, and one is going to be for your group or prospective players.

• An Elevator Pitch
• An Idea of the End

Let’s start with the Elevator Pitch. This is going to be that get the players interested in your idea pitch. It is going to give them a little bit of an idea of how the campaign is going to start. And some elements of the setting, mainly, is this high fantasy or low fantasy, a lot of magic, or a little magic. It’s not going to explain the whole setting to them or anything like that. It’s just going to be that one paragraph of three or four sentences and that’s it. It could even be as simple as a movie tagline to get them interested.

The other thing that you want to know is loosely how the story is going to end. Why, because you want to keep that in you mind as you plan out the sessions. And we will cover planning out your first game play session in an article soon. But I do want to emphasize to hold onto it loosely. Players might get creative and take the plot in a different way. Or you might come up with a better idea. So don’t hold onto it too tightly.

Examples

So, let’s look at what this can look like, and I’ll give you a couple of examples for it.

Example 1

Elevator Pitch

The party is facing off against the final boss, a terrible Lich who has caused destruction and been a scourge on the lands. You are unprepared for the bosses power and then you wake up. You find yourself back in your home town but you remember the Lich and all the destruction that he caused upon the land. Can you stop it this time around?

Ending

Defeat the Lich.

Example 2

Elevator Pitch

Mysterious towers appeared across the lands. They brought forth monsters into the world but also gave the average person powers to defeat those monsters. Now they are just a part of life, but something seems to be stirring. And there are rumors that if you make it to the top, you find out why these towers appeared. But is that true or is it just a legend?

Ending

Find out what is at the top of the tower.

Dungeon Master Tools Final Thoughts

So let’s wrap up this creating a campaign. Why not put more effort into it? You could, but always first get that buy-in from the players. And we’ll be talking about working with the players in a future article. When you come up with an idea, it’s as simple as starting out with those two things, and they will get built upon as you go.

So what are going to be the next Dungeon Master Tools?

• Session 0
• Session 1
• Story Arcs
• World Building
• Combat
• Exploration
• NPCs/Social Interactions
• Meta Game and Players at the Table

And let me know if there are other things to cover as well that you want to know more about, or help with. I think that there are a ton of different things that new Dungeon Masters are curious about or that feel intimidating. So I hope that I can help make them clearer and simpler for you. And this one is really that first step that you can take before you even start to think about the other elements.

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Message me on X at @TheScando
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The Gamefound Feast

Gothic: A Shadow’s Quest by THQ Nordic

This one is based off of a video game. And THQ Nordic is actually the company who is the creator of the video game, so they are doing their own game. It’s interesting to see them doing it themselves. The only other thing I know like this is when Riot Games made Mechs vs Minions. So I find it cool. I don’t know a ton about Gothic or really anything. But this looks like my type of games, a lot of minis, standees, monsters, and it looks fun. I like a dark gothic setting for a game.

The video game is an adventure RPG, so the board game is going to be like that as well. And that sounds like a lot of fun to me. I like that you play on three different levels in this game, explore the world, get missions and level up in camp, and then if it’s a combat quest, you are going to be doing more tactical combat. It’s extremely interesting to me because this is really my type of game.

Follow the Gothic: A Shadow’s Quest here.

Sword & Sorcery on Teburu

This isn’t a new game, it’s Sword & Sorcery a campaign game that I like. However, Teburu is a digital board for your game. That means that with the app and Teburu you are going to be play it without all the book keeping that was part of Sword & Sorcery. However, I will say, this one isn’t that much for me. I thought that Sword & Sorcery was fine, but I didn’t love it. Maybe it would make it easier, but you’d still have so much stuff to pull out and set-up. But if you’re up for it, it’s going to be good for a lot of people.

And while I’m not going to get it because there is the cost of the Teburu system. But the enemy AI definitely was a bit annoying. So maybe it would make it smoother and make it simpler to get to the table. But like I said, it’s rebuying a game that I sold and it’s buying technology which I’m interested in, for the Vampire the Masquerade game, but less so for this.

Follow the Sword & Sorcery Teburu Campaign here.

The Megan 2.0 Gaming Table from Geeknson

Not a board game, but Geeknson is one of the big board game table company out there. I don’t need a board game table, I have a Jasper from AllPlay/BoardGameTables, and it’s great. So I will just say this, I like board game tables. And I think as long as you get one from a good company, Geeknson, AllPlay, Wyrmwood and others, you are going to get something that’s great and that’ll help.

Follow the Geeknson The Megan 2.0 campaign here.

Empress Deck and Companion Book for 5th Edition D&D by Weird Works

This is going to be an addition for D&D. It’s just going to be a way to mess with things like initiative, and more as well. This sounds like an interesting addition but not something that I feel like I need. It’s basically a custom tarot deck that is going to be able to help with “problems” but it’s something that could be a bit of fun to do. Like I said, though, not going to be for me. The companion book sounds slightly more interesting, but not that much more interesting. It’s going to be some more content with probably how to use the deck.

Follow The Empress Deck & Companion Book here.

Ascendency: Underworld from OneMoreTurnGames

This is an expansion to Ascendancy. This game looks like it has a lot going on with it. Ascendancy is an area control 4x style of game. And it is a game that can play solo. For me, it’s one that I looked at when the first campaign came out. I’m not super sold that it’s going to be a game for me, but there are elements that are really interesting about it. But do I need a huge game like this, maybe? It’s so tough because I want to play games like this, but there is so much.

Follow Ascendancy Underworld here.

Nanty Narking: Rise of Cthulhu from Phalanx

This is bringing back the game Nanty Narking. I know really nothing about this game. It was originally Discworld, then it became Nanty Narking. I don’t know much of anything about the game which is interesting. Mainly because I feel like I know about so many different games. From what it looks like, this is still a competitive game, now the players can lose together with Cthulhu driving madness. I’m not feeling this game too much though.

Follow Nanty Narking: Rise of Cthulhu here.

Dark Rituals Malleus Maleficarum from Maki Games

I am not familiar with Dark Ritual. This is a reprint of the game. It’s a one versus all game and it’s not super interesting to me. Yes, the game is cool and dark looking, but if you like one versus all games then it might be for you. But it’s an easy pass for me.

Follow Dark Rituals Malleus Malefacarum here.

Grimdark Future: Broken Truth by One Page Rules

This is going to be a miniatures game. I know nothing about this setting or system of the Grimdark Future universe. This is the first time that they are doing minis. It’s a miniatures war game which is not my cup of tea. So sure, it’s probably interesting and the minis look very solid. But it’s not for me. If you want a one page rules to get into the game, it’s going to be an easy one to get into as the rules are free online.

Follow Grimdark Future: Broken Truth here.

Starside: Promethean Crusade from Archon Studio

This is another miniatures sure. If I wanted to jump into a miniatures game, there are a lot of options. This is going to be a fleet command game, so that’s different. I do like the idea of a space game I think more as a miniatures game. That said, I’m not diving into playing miniatures game. But with Starside and Grimdark Future there are two solid options for people who want to jump in.

Follow Starside: Promethean Crusade here.

Dare the Unknown: A NASA Board Game from Space Delirium

This one is interesting, this is one that is based on reality. The crazy part is that is truly NASA licensed. You want to bring back your rockets to earth, be the first one to get them back. It is their first board game, though they have done other crowdfunding campaigns. I like that it’s licensed by NASA but it’s not going to be game that I’m super excited for. I do think it’s going to be a nice family weight game potentially or at least that is going to be the target, which is great for a theme like NASA.

Follow Dare the Unknown: A NASA Board Game here.

Fear Itself – Shattered Veil Edition from Pelgrane Press

This is another table top RPG game. I think this is going to be a chance for people to play in their favorite horror films. They say that it’s great for a one shot game. I know it’s not going to be one that I want to back. I like my D&D and I want to keep it at that. And really, I don’t have much time to dive into more when it comes to RPG, D&D keeps me plenty busy. But if you want to play a horror film as an RPG, Fear Itself is going to be great, from the sounds of it, for that.

Follow Fear Itself – Shattered Veil Edition here.

Lying Pirate – Cities of Greed Expansion from Nordic Pirate Games

Okay, first off, isn’t that company name mainly Vikings? I am not familiar with the original game, though it had about 5,000 backers. This is going to add more to the game. The aesthetic looks great to me. The game is going to be party weight game with some deduction to it, which I’m guessing is going to be like a Liar’s Dice elements to the game. The one thing that concerns a little bit about the game, which does have a good BGG ranking, is that the game, as a lighter/party/Liar’s Dice style game is that it’s an hour in length.

Follow Lying Pirates – Cities of Greed here.

Star Realms Conquest from Wise Wizard Game

This is going to be one that you know if you want or not. This is a deck building game. It’s going to be a core set. This is going to be a game that you can jump into at this point if you want. Or you can mix it in if you are already familiar with the game. That’s fun that they keep on giving new launch in points. I need to play more Star Realms before I’d consider backing this one. The nice thing is that this is a pretty small box and that means that it’s easy to get and keep adding to the game that I already have.

Follow Star Realms Conquest here.

Which Excites Me Most?

I think it’s the first one. Gothic looks like my type of game a lot. There are some other fun ones, but with more of a mix of RPG, the table, and then miniatures games, this is one where there were fewer that I was interested in. Ascendancy is probably the next highest for me, or even Sword & Sorcery Teburu, though, like I said, I thought that Sword & Sorcery was just fine. It’s more, I want to get a Teburu game sometime. The Vampire the Masquerade one is probably the spot that I’d jump in at though.

Let me know which one interests you the most.

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