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KyleG
2019-03-03, 01:16 AM
So i have an idea, a theme, a location (australia sized piece of land surrounded by mountains), some races, an antagonist/agenda (not to be mistaken for the BBEGs whom i also have), some points (6-8) that the PCs will have to complete on their way to said objective, and the start of an adventure, level 1-3 (antagonist and probably final BBEG confrontation round level 12-15?).

I also have all of this in my head, its driving me crazy and Im going to start forgetting stuff. I dont know how to get it down. Ive been down this road many years ago when i tried to write a book and it comes down to two things:
1. Im a facts person! Numbers, information ideas i love it. Crafting a story that isnt a list of bullet points is not in my current wheelhouse, i want to change that so Im working on it, and hopefully some sound advice will steer me true.
2. How do i store this info. I have this map in my head, and when you click on races, it takes me to a list and when you click on one of those items it takes me to some information. And that info may connect to yet another race or a totally different bit of info where there are other lists. Where can i store stuff like that? Where A connects to B and B to C and C to F and F to P and P also back directly to B.

My last question is when you are crafting your campaigns do you build it as a series of adventures so they could be picked up or played separately or build it as if it will get completed as one?

Side note: Worldbuilding is both frustrating and exciting. A small thought creeps into something larger and then you realize that there are consequences beyond that starting point and the next thing you know you are 1000km away and working on another race or location.

John Out West
2019-03-03, 02:17 AM
1. Im a facts person! Numbers, information ideas i love it. Crafting a story that isnt a list of bullet points is not in my current wheelhouse, i want to change that so Im working on it, and hopefully some sound advice will steer me true.

All my campaigns are bullet points, and I dont think there's anything wrong with that. I always use a "Node" system, where there are special events that the players will come across wherever they go. If they are supposed to rescue a princess, it doesn't matter if they are in a theives Den, or a forest, or at sea, it only changes the flavor of quest, but the meat is the same.

The Key is to know your world, and similar to procedurally generated games, based on the rules you've already set up you can know everything about your world easily and essentially make it up on the fly. This is how I DM. I don't know where the players will go, but I know I can quickly tell them what they will find when they get there, because i know the rules that populate the world.

2. How do i store this info. I have this map in my head, and when you click on races, it takes me to a list and when you click on one of those items it takes me to some information. And that info may connect to yet another race or a totally different bit of info where there are other lists. Where can i store stuff like that? Where A connects to B and B to C and C to F and F to P and P also back directly to B.

I only write down bullet points of where i want the adventure to go, a couple of sentences of what i'd like to happen in the next game based on where they are and what their goal is, and the names of important places or people that I've established in the past. I keep this in a google doc so i can access it anywhere.

My last question is when you are crafting your campaigns do you build it as a series of adventures so they could be picked up or played separately or build it as if it will get completed as one?

As i've mentioned, I just build a world and rules to govern that world. Travel tends to be time consuming so you don't have to plan too much ahead, so I try to know things about the world in general, the nations, the nation they are in, the geography - features - and politics of that nation, the city the players are in, the neighboring cities and towns, the districts int he city and what make them different, the people who live in those districts, the sights to see in those districts, etc.


So, if the players are searching for information on the location of a princess, i can rely on my information of the world to make information on the spot. If I know the players are in Dragons Port, which is off of the nation of Tsuan, within the Orca Isles, which is ruled by the Emperor in Cathay, I know exactly the kind of people that can help, I can give them a name quickly, write that name down, and it becomes cannon instantly.

As I mentioned, I write down the Nodes that the players will find.
-The players will find the princess and rescue her.
-The princess will be stolen away from them by the Demon King.
-The players will arrive in a city and gear up to rescue the princess.
-The players will find the Demon King, and depending on their luck and preparation, they may rescue the princess.

So with those nodes, it doesn't matter where the players are, if they're on ships in the ocean, in a city, or in a forest, if i know the rules for generating the world I can easily tell them what they'll find.

I hope this helps!

KyleG
2019-03-11, 10:34 PM
1. Im a facts person! Numbers, information ideas i love it. Crafting a story that isnt a list of bullet points is not in my current wheelhouse, i want to change that so Im working on it, and hopefully some sound advice will steer me true.

All my campaigns are bullet points, and I dont think there's anything wrong with that. I always use a "Node" system, where there are special events that the players will come across wherever they go. If they are supposed to rescue a princess, it doesn't matter if they are in a theives Den, or a forest, or at sea, it only changes the flavor of quest, but the meat is the same.

The Key is to know your world, and similar to procedurally generated games, based on the rules you've already set up you can know everything about your world easily and essentially make it up on the fly. This is how I DM. I don't know where the players will go, but I know I can quickly tell them what they will find when they get there, because i know the rules that populate the world.

2. How do i store this info. I have this map in my head, and when you click on races, it takes me to a list and when you click on one of those items it takes me to some information. And that info may connect to yet another race or a totally different bit of info where there are other lists. Where can i store stuff like that? Where A connects to B and B to C and C to F and F to P and P also back directly to B.

I only write down bullet points of where i want the adventure to go, a couple of sentences of what i'd like to happen in the next game based on where they are and what their goal is, and the names of important places or people that I've established in the past. I keep this in a google doc so i can access it anywhere.

My last question is when you are crafting your campaigns do you build it as a series of adventures so they could be picked up or played separately or build it as if it will get completed as one?

As i've mentioned, I just build a world and rules to govern that world. Travel tends to be time consuming so you don't have to plan too much ahead, so I try to know things about the world in general, the nations, the nation they are in, the geography - features - and politics of that nation, the city the players are in, the neighboring cities and towns, the districts int he city and what make them different, the people who live in those districts, the sights to see in those districts, etc.


So, if the players are searching for information on the location of a princess, i can rely on my information of the world to make information on the spot. If I know the players are in Dragons Port, which is off of the nation of Tsuan, within the Orca Isles, which is ruled by the Emperor in Cathay, I know exactly the kind of people that can help, I can give them a name quickly, write that name down, and it becomes cannon instantly.

As I mentioned, I write down the Nodes that the players will find.
-The players will find the princess and rescue her.
-The princess will be stolen away from them by the Demon King.
-The players will arrive in a city and gear up to rescue the princess.
-The players will find the Demon King, and depending on their luck and preparation, they may rescue the princess.

So with those nodes, it doesn't matter where the players are, if they're on ships in the ocean, in a city, or in a forest, if i know the rules for generating the world I can easily tell them what they'll find.

I hope this helps!


Sure does it certainly gives me some more ideas to play with about how to handle things. I still think ill post here some of what ive got in terms of information to see if people can help me get it game worthy...part of me just wants to jump in as one idea I was trying to mash in I decided was so different I now have a second campaign idea and maybe some of these ideas will decrease and more roleplaying ideas will creep in as we play.

brian 333
2019-03-12, 12:06 AM
If you begin with a story, everything else will fall into place.

Let's assume your characters will venture across the Kobold Hills seeking the famed Copper Mines of the Karaz Dwarf Clan.

You could draw a map with randomly located dungeons and lairs, start the players on one side, and put the copper mine on the other. Voila, adventure.

But why are the characters seeking the mine? What is so important about it? Who are the Karaz Dwarves and why are they in a mine in the middle of a place called the Kobold Hills?

Story time:

Two dwarven generations ago, (five human generations or a century,) the Karaz Dwarves had settled and were prosperous in the region then known as the Karaz Hills. They built trade roads across the lands to distant city-states and created items and toys of copper, bronze, and tin which formed a basis of many trade networks which grew out of the Karaz trade. (Indeed, Karaz is the name for copper coins in several regions, based on their coinage which became the standard currency. True as Karaz Copper is a phrase used by some as well.)

But there came a schizm between members of the House of Karaz, some supporting the eldest daughter, while others supported the younger son for succession after the untimely death of their monarch. The eldest daughter had been the right hand of the monarch for many years, serving as his scribe, secretary, adviser, and eventually his proxy as he declined into illness. The son was still, by dwarven standards, a minor, born of a young wife in a late marriage. The wife and daughter were of an age, and both hated the other, which was the origin, many say, of the schizm.

The wife was, however, a member of a powerful faction which required appeasement in the politics of the clan, and thus her marriage to the monarch after the death of the daughter's mother. This faction, upon the death of the monarch, sought to wrest control of the clan from the eldest daughter by citing the supremacy of the male heir's claim. Civil war ensued.

For a time it appeared as if the politically weaker daughter would lose, but she turned out to be the superior general and she began to defeat in detail the foes arrayed against her. As one-by-one the rebellious forces collapsed, the wife and her advisers grew desperate. They sought aid from an unlikely source: the dragon Nantokite.

When the daughter's forces surrounded the last bastion of the rebels and was on the verge of a final victory, Nantokite flew in with his army of kobold slaves, and drove her from the field. The surviving band retreated, their monarch badly wounded in a battle with the dragon as she held him off to allow her troops to withdraw in order.

Rejoicing, the rebels threw open their gates and went out to cheer and reward the dragon, but the dragon slew them and sacked their fortress. With the juvenile would-be king in chains the dragon made its way to the mines of Karaz at the head of an army of kobolds, who were equipped from the armories of the rebels in dwarven gear.

Knowing her cause was lost, and that the pitiful survivors of her command were insufficient to win the day, the daughter commanded her faithful to take the non-combatants of the realm and escort them to places of safety. With her core of faithful who refused to leave her, even at her direct order, she made a last stand at the Brass Gates of the mine. No accounting of that day is recorded, but the dragon was never seen afterward and the kobold tribes became wandering raiders with no true purpose other than the satisfaction of their immediate needs and desires.

Since then the so-called Hill Dwarves have eked out an existence at the foothills of several dwarven kingdoms, scorned by their kin for their poverty and homelessness. Over the years several clan elders have proposed reunification with the purpose of returning to the mines, but bitterness and recriminations are the result of such proposals.

The daughter's infant son was lost in the confusion, and some say he was killed along with his mother and her loyal henchmen. The truth is that he was carried away by the daughter's best friend and her husband and raised as their son, never knowing his true heritage until his adopted mother confessed on her deathbed. He had no proof, but when his son came of age he passed along the story. Thus the grandson, of the daughter is heir to the throne of the Mines of Karaz, and he could at least attempt to reunite his people if he can convince them to follow an apparently low-born adventurer who consorts with humans, elves, and other lesser creatures.

But there is a way to prove his heritage, and his right to rule the clan. It lies forgotten in the depths of the Mines of Karaz: the Auricupride. It is a necklace of copper alloyed with gold. It is pinkish-gold in color, and of elaborate and intricate dwarven work. It's legendary property is to identify the true monarch of Karaz due to a curse which causes it to burn and scar any who try to wear it unless they are the rightful monarch of the Karaz Clan.

Now, several story hooks here allow for the adventure to begin, two obvious ones being that the dwarf in the party is the heir, and that he is not but thinks he is. (Grandma may have been delusional in her advanced years, after all.) Another possibility is that the actual heir has no adventuring class levels and asks a friend to help him.

From the story we extract the facts:

that there are several lesser clan halls which are now occupied by kobolds, and there are armories of dwaven made equipment in them.

that there are roving bands of kobolds out ravishing the countryside.

that there are competing subclans who might prefer the true heir never be found and seek to prevent his success in attaining the Auricupride.

that there are roads, albeit they have not been maintained in a century.

Also, one may extrapolate that in the halls of the subclans there are artifacts which they might value, which, if retrieved, would give the heir bargaining power and 'gifts' with which to reward those subclan elders who join him.

Now your random map of the Kobold Hills has definition and purpose. Even if you don't yet know how the Well of Myre that you marked on your map fits in your story, you have a basis upon which to extrapolate. And you have an excuse for the green dragon which guards the Mines being young enough that your adventurers have a chance to defeat it: it's not the original Nantokite, but his offspring Eriochalcite. Heck, you even have an explanation for the scars around the dragon's neck: it tried on the necklace! (But don't tell the players, just mention the scar and let them figure it out.)

KyleG
2019-03-12, 12:50 AM
Well this is what im starting with.
The Cradle is The birth place of this round of life the energy of a magical apparartus giving rise to this worlds version of a number of sentient races at the behest of the old ones.
My initial plan was to focus on the race of individuals (changlings) who were once the old ones. These 12? Remaining individuals have for the most part settled back into life within the cradle some corrupted a littlec by time? One of them is trying to use the life device to create new bodies as there current form cannot procreate.

So shades of asgards from stargate with most of their race having "moved on" to another existance.

Time, space and the energies of the life device are connected and some locations experience time differently, have their entire locations overwritten with past or future version or see individuals disappear or reappear from different times (timelines?) All because of what the individual is doing with the device. And one such occurrence is the appearance of our heroes.

I dont see these guys as villians as such certainly not the one doing the manipulating so I dont have a villian persay (im leaning toward opposite versions of our adventurers).

That's where we are at.