This week,
I managed to get my nose to the grindstone working on a big project I started
back in June. This is a campaign setting for Dungeons and Dragons.
Back when I
was in the planning stages for the D&D marathon for Cystic Fibrosis, I was
talking with the Dungeon Master of the weekly game I play in and the idea was
floated that I could eventually start running a second game at the board game
cafe. I liked the idea, but at the same time I prefer to be a player rather
than a DM. At the same time, I knew that there was a waiting list and it would
be great for the gaming community.
So,
naturally, I began thinking about the possibilities for games I could run. What
did I want to see in a game? What would be fun for me to run, and fun for
players to play? And that’s when a seed took root in my mind.
One of the
things that makes D&D such a great game is its versatility. You can do
absolutely anything with it. Even in the most complex video game, there is a
limit to the decisions a player can make – they can be given a great amount of
freedom, and still be chained down by the limited options. In D&D, there
are no limitations – yet the games frequently take on the same shape of “Here
is your quest”, go to the dungeon, get the reward. There’s often plotlines and
political situations woven in, but it doesn’t take advantage of D&D’s true
ability to do anything. I feel that
this is largely due to the players, having been trained by video games and
society’s expectations, don’t necessarily understand how much freedom they have
– and they don’t necessarily understand the depth of the world they’ve been
thrown into.
And so, I
came up with an idea for a world that will (hopefully) open the players’ minds
to all they can do: a world where the players are colonizing a “new world”. So,
rather than being thrown into a world where there are kingdoms and empires and
complex political structures that they know nothing about, the players will be
put into a world that is as strange to the non-player-characters around them as
it is to them. This puts the players at the centre of everything as a new
society is established, and it gives them the freedom to do absolutely whatever
they want. Do they want to help establish a settlement? Do they want to go off
and explore the new world? The world is entirely open for them to choose what
to do.
Now,
obviously, from a DM’s perspective, a world like that is a bit challenging to
run. There needs to be plots to keep the players engaged, and in a world so
free and open, it is hard to know what to prepare for the game. So, I started
writing up the campaign setting – which is, essentially, a description of the
world, everything in it, and guidelines for making the world easier for the DM
to run. It is an immense task, but hey – I’m part of the Alliance of
Worldbuilders; building worlds is what we do.
So far, it
is coming along well. I’ve outlined the world, its history, and the basics for
how the game functions. The functions need a lot of work, but I’ll get them
done eventually.
This week,
however, I was focusing on a very fun task: monsters. Even though this world
lacks civilization (and, largely, because of that), this world is crawling with
monsters. So, I combed through D&D’s monster manual and cherry picked
monsters to have established societies in this world. Then I created those
societies and figured out what politics they had, both within themselves and
with all the others.
It was so
much fun and, let me tell you, I can’t wait until I’ve completed this setting
and I get to see it in action. Who knows? I may even decide it’s good enough to
publish through the Dungeon Masters’ Guild.
Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.
If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.
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