Frustrated...

[Hotketchup]

I’ve been working on an epic adventure for 5e that will end up taking adventurers from level 1 - 30 and they will have an opportunity to become the new pantheon. And it won’t stop there..

The game is designed to have 29 races, 9 major plot events, that the players may or may not influence of even know about, 23 minor quests, 17 optional..

I know the locactions of the main cities and eventually will get a world map but I digress..

The problem is that with my OCD influenced ADHD, I can seem to get everything out of my head in a fashion that works for me. This is not a linear adventure. I am planning on running 3 or groups through on consecutive nights and their actions very likely will affect the other groups. (Like inciting a rebellion)..

But to just get the basic stuff down I haven’t found anything that seems to let me export it all from my brain and build the adventure outside of it so I can finally relax. Lol.

I’m a 49yr old guy in Texas, been a Senior IT Systems Engineer for 25+ years and having playing D&D off and on since 1e.. so I’m not green or dumb. Just need to find a system.. or framework.. form or something.

Any help?

[Fire Tarrasque]

Firstly:

You sir, are insane, and I have nothing but respect for you.

Second of all: You could try putting up a Google Doc, linking to it here, and putting people with the link on suggesting. In any case, it would be helpful if we knew what those events WERE.

But yeah, if you just want somewhere to write it all down start a Google Doc.

Also 29 RACES! WOW! What are they? What are you doing for epic levels?

Ultimately, you just have to shove it out of your head violently.
As someone else who isn't NT, while it may be frustrating to have all these ideas and concepts flying around in your head and no way to shove them out, try to just expel them onto a page and organize them later. Or use something like

Hopefully I could have been of help.

[brian 333]

Is this an online game or P&P?

For P&P I write on loose leaf and keep a binder so I can write the idea in my head and file it where the campaign needs it.

It might help to begin with an outline. Think of it as a project proposal: these are the goals set in the order they need to be achieved, with the preferred outcome defined.

Something I do when I have a project is to write something every day. It doesn't matter what or how much, but add something to the pile every day.

[Bobbyjackcorn]

I would recommend "chunking" your story.
What I mean by that, is that if getting the story out of you is the problem, try organizing pieces of it into "chunks" and split those chunks into further smaller sub-categories until you feel it's fleshed out.
For example, if you want to plan out a particular city, you might decide to split it up into "Important People," "Important Places," and "Interesting Sights." From there you might decide that "Important People" should split into "Factions" "Authorities" and "Mavericks," while "Important Places" may split into "Goods and Services" "Potential Bases" "Quest Locations" and "Jails."
That way, you can split your ideas into abstractions until you feel confortable and simply fill in the categories. Is that helpful?

[jqavins]

Firstly:

You sir, are insane, and I have nothing but respect for you.

Hear hear!

So far you've received some fairly standard advice for writing large works (especially of fiction) and it's all good advice for campaign building as well. But I have a different idea.

You're an IT Systems engineer, you say? And have been at it a long time, you say? Well, then, you've undoubtedly used network diagraming tools, and surely have access to same. And what you've got in your head for this campaign is a complex network of places, plot seeds, and so on. So use the tools available to you to diagram this network and then use the diagram as a framework to flesh out each node.

Fire Tarrasque's suggestion to just shove everything out is highly compatible with this. Shove each piece out onto its own piece of paper (or equivalent) and hang it on the appropriate node of the diagram. You can:

• Complete the diagram first and hang each idea on the right node as you shove it out,
• Shove all the ideas into a heap first then hang on nodes after making the diagram, or
• Do both in the same time frame, hanging immediately those ideas that go on nodes you've already defined and throwing the rest on the heap for later.

I recommend that last option, since the less the process is constrained by a rigid process the easier the ideas will flow. I realize that's really hard with OCD influenced ADHD, but I think it'll be worth the effort. And another advantage to using a diagramming tool is that your need for order can (maybe) be focused on the diagram, helping you to give yourself a freer reign for getting the other ideas out (maybe).

Good luck.

[Hotketchup]

Firstly:

You sir, are insane, and I have nothing but respect for you.

Second of all: You could try putting up a Google Doc, linking to it here, and putting people with the link on suggesting. In any case, it would be helpful if we knew what those events WERE.

But yeah, if you just want somewhere to write it all down start a Google Doc.

Also 29 RACES! WOW! What are they? What are you doing for epic levels?

Ultimately, you just have to shove it out of your head violently.
As someone else who isn't NT, while it may be frustrating to have all these ideas and concepts flying around in your head and no way to shove them out, try to just expel them onto a page and organize them later. Or use something like

Hopefully I could have been of help.

Insane?? You know it! LOL I don't want to show it publicy on Google Docs as I am concerned someone else will take the concept as their own and run with it. LOL You have have been a great help.. I just gotta get it out of my head LOL.. 29 races, and I am working on a difference voice for all of them.. from the Gith to Kobolds... LOL

[Hotketchup]

Is this an online game or P&P?

For P&P I write on loose leaf and keep a binder so I can write the idea in my head and file it where the campaign needs it.

It might help to begin with an outline. Think of it as a project proposal: these are the goals set in the order they need to be achieved, with the preferred outcome defined.

Something I do when I have a project is to write something every day. It doesn't matter what or how much, but add something to the pile every day.

Prefer in person, but that's even harder.. I tried the outline but because this is not a railroad campaign and the PCs are allowed to go anywhere.. that's the hard part.. )

[Hotketchup]

Hear hear!

So far you've received some fairly standard advice for writing large works (especially of fiction) and it's all good advice for campaign building as well. But I have a different idea.

You're an IT Systems engineer, you say? And have been at it a long time, you say? Well, then, you've undoubtedly used network diagraming tools, and surely have access to same. And what you've got in your head for this campaign is a complex network of places, plot seeds, and so on. So use the tools available to you to diagram this network and then use the diagram as a framework to flesh out each node.

Fire Tarrasque's suggestion to just shove everything out is highly compatible with this. Shove each piece out onto its own piece of paper (or equivalent) and hang it on the appropriate node of the diagram. You can:

• Complete the diagram first and hang each idea on the right node as you shove it out,
• Shove all the ideas into a heap first then hang on nodes after making the diagram, or
• Do both in the same time frame, hanging immediately those ideas that go on nodes you've already defined and throwing the rest on the heap for later.

I recommend that last option, since the less the process is constrained by a rigid process the easier the ideas will flow. I realize that's really hard with OCD influenced ADHD, but I think it'll be worth the effort. And another advantage to using a diagramming tool is that your need for order can (maybe) be focused on the diagram, helping you to give yourself a freer reign for getting the other ideas out (maybe).

Good luck.

Yeah, I have tried using Vizio and even other programs, but what I need is something that can kind of .. interview me or somesuch… I do have a friend and she is going to try and distill out the 78 pages of random notes for me.. now I need to figure out a world map... I've got the x/y coordinates for each city and was hoping to find a world builder program that would build around the city locations... but haven't found much yet..

[noob]

29 races is probably going to make a kitchen sink like setting.
Also avoid thinking in term of quests too much: also think in terms of characters or environment.
And if you are afraid of having people steal your ideas I can tell you that even if you were planning to sell your campaign having people stealing your campaign and playing it means it will be more know and so you will have more chance of selling it (due to how people will probably like to have more details and more infos on how to play the campaign and so on (and more people will like to have a paper thing if more people hear about it))
And if you are not planning to sell it then having people playing your campaign is not a bad thing: it will have literally 0 impact on your life.
So I can not see how it could have any effect on your life unless you decide that copying is in itself a bad thing. (in which case you should be trying to stop being an human since an human is a building made of cells embedded with copies of a mix of the copy of two genetic codes and an human will probably spend his whole life doing things which already have been done)
Life is all about copying.

[MoiMagnus]

Technicall suggestion:
Have a private repository on Gitlab to put all your stuff. So that you will not loose everything if your computer die, and if you ever have a friend wanting to contribute he will be able to without problems. (and Gitlab has free private repository. There is a size limit, but if you mostly use it for text or simple figures, you will have not problems)

Organisation suggestion:
Write the great lines of your setup, using sections and bullet lists. Example:

Chapter: Geography
5 Continents (Names: ...) and 2 mains Oceans (Names: ...)
Section: Continent Frtrtrklkj
At the north of the globe. The smallest continent.
Subsection: Nation Elish
Position: South coast and islands.
Main race: Elve (argos's sons)
Other races: Flific (repressed), Humans (aristocracy), and other minorities
Main problems: Religious divisions (Rlack vs Fhn vs Rgfo) and revolutions (monarchy vs republic)
...

The first rule is NO SENTENCES. And put the minimal (Don't hesitate to let some sections almost empty)
The second rule is DO NOT PROCEED LINEARLY. Let some section empty (with "TO DO").
The goal is to as quickly as possible get all the things about your setups mentioned in it.
Sure, it will be only one word per stuff, even if you could have put a full book about it, but that's not the point.
The point is to not forget any part of your work, and I think most of the time, even if you completely forgot about the stuff you put, this only word will be enough for you to remind or rebuild the whole stuff.

Then, once you've almost complete this "giant bullet list" (it will never be completed, because you will always expand it), you can start filling the blanks and adding the important details about everything, but not in the list. Create new documents with all the details about one particular thing, and reference it in the "giant bullet list" which will become progressively the sum-up table of your encyclopedia.

Finally, to be honest, it is unlikely that you will manage to ever finish this work alone. So you may want to treat first what will be used for the main part of your campaign. And do some "standard games" before starting to make "complex games with 3 teams that influence each others actions and can completely change the universe", unless you are used to that kind of games, it seems complex to handle as a DM and you already have a complex setup to handle, so avoid you some burden and add the complexities one by one instead of all at once.

[aimlessPolymath]

More than anything, what you need in order to get everything out on paper is momentum- it sounds like you have some level of writer's block in finding where to start organizing.

I might start with writing down lists of names. Names of continents, names of questlines, continents, races, etc.

Once you have your list, go through each item and copy down your notes relating to that item. What matters here is getting momentum.

For world maps: You probably want some kind of general mapmaking software-like a hex grid of some kind. I don't think there's anything that autogenerates a specified region in the way that you want.

[Amblehook]

I've found two amazing online tools to help worldbuilders craft and hone their worlds.

Obsidian Portal

This website allows you to create a wiki for your world. With a basic understanding of writing in Textile, and with a few preprogrammed buttons to link different articles together, you can create page after page of content for your players to peruse. Obsidian Portal is very open in its format, though, providing you with space for maps, for characters, for items, for an adventure log, and a general wiki for the rest of your world's details. It's up to you to sort things into relevant sections and create links to those sections from articles already accessible (You can create a new article called "Dietary Restrictions of the 29 Races," but unless you link to it from the Front Page of your world on Obsidian Portal, no one will know it exists). The incredibly open format of the website allows ease of creating new content, though, as you can [[double bracket]] anything as you edit and it'll automatically create a link to a new article whose title is that bracketed word.

World Anvil

Similar to Obsidian Portal, World Anvil is a website that allows you to create a wiki-style platform for your world. The advantage (or disadvantage if you prefer less structure) of World Anvil, however, is that the website provides 25+ templates for different types of articles, from individual characters to ethnicities to myths to settlements, with each of these templates providing a place for freeform prose and then providing many multiple fields to input tiny details related to the type of article. For instance, in creating an article about an item, you have the option to add details about its weight and dimensions, its significance, how it was made and with what materials, who currently owns it, and a dozen other little questions. I've found the timeline tool on World Anvil to be top rate, also, as it doesn't restrict you to any kind of calendar (other than a restriction of years ranging from negative to positive, as opposed to cyclical calendars that cycle back to one after reaching their zenith).

Both of these websites allow your players to view your created content and create profiles that you can manage (I think on both sites, you can pass along information to individual players). Both sites also provide sections on each article to be viewable only to you as the creator of the world.

[Hotketchup]

29 races is probably going to make a kitchen sink like setting.
Also avoid thinking in term of quests too much: also think in terms of characters or environment.
And if you are afraid of having people steal your ideas I can tell you that even if you were planning to sell your campaign having people stealing your campaign and playing it means it will be more know and so you will have more chance of selling it (due to how people will probably like to have more details and more infos on how to play the campaign and so on (and more people will like to have a paper thing if more people hear about it))
And if you are not planning to sell it then having people playing your campaign is not a bad thing: it will have literally 0 impact on your life.
So I can not see how it could have any effect on your life unless you decide that copying is in itself a bad thing. (in which case you should be trying to stop being an human since an human is a building made of cells embedded with copies of a mix of the copy of two genetic codes and an human will probably spend his whole life doing things which already have been done)
Life is all about copying.

It’s not really anything like that. I’m more concerned with someone else grabbing the concept and producing something ahead of mine that reallly isn’t my vision, just some crap thrown together.

[Hotketchup]

Wow I had to stop quoting! You guys are great! :). As for the size of it, I was planning on flushing it out as they players went through it. I did, however, get the first part of the first campaign done. I did play test it with some online gamers and they really enjoyed it. I didn’t write much as most of it I pulled outta my rear at the time. Lol!

I’ve logged into obsidian portal and just stared at it. Heh. I have been using GMForge and I did find a seeet gem called NetxGM.co. It has a really good relationship view. Almost like a mind map or one of the yarn things you see on TV.

Also, I did get a freind if mine involved. She’s never played D&D but she is going to take my 70+ pages of brain dumps and notes and distill them down.

My head hurts... LOL

[noob]

Wow I had to stop quoting! You guys are great! :). As for the size of it, I was planning on flushing it out as they players went through it. I did, however, get the first part of the first campaign done. I did play test it with some online gamers and they really enjoyed it. I didn’t write much as most of it I pulled outta my rear at the time. Lol!

I’ve logged into obsidian portal and just stared at it. Heh. I have been using GMForge and I did find a seeet gem called NetxGM.co. It has a really good relationship view. Almost like a mind map or one of the yarn things you see on TV.

Also, I did get a freind if mine involved. She’s never played D&D but she is going to take my 70+ pages of brain dumps and notes and distill them down.

My head hurts... LOL

I hope you have fun doing that.
I wish you good luck with your project.

[jqavins]

It’s not really anything like that. I’m more concerned with someone else grabbing the concept and producing something ahead of mine that reallly isn’t my vision, just some crap thrown together.

It's still not clear to me why you care if they do.

I did play test it with some online gamers and they really enjoyed it. I didn’t write much as most of it I pulled outta my rear at the time. Lol!

Write everything down. Even if it came out of a nether orifice, anything that works an be useful. And if it's not useful, you can always flush it later.

[brian 333]

Every program is composed of lines of code which are themselves composed of smaller and smaller bits which themselves must be created one at a time.

This is the main problem: the simultaneous draw of big picture writing versus the desire to create detail and depth. You can't do both at once, but either individually seems incomplete. Because it is. It is a work in progress. To achieve a complete work you have lots of tiny things to fill in.

This is why I advocate writing something every day. The more details you fill in, the more your story grows.