The essence of play in the folkstyle of D&D is to push into
unknown places, to explore, to meet new people, to acquire resources such as
gold, magic items, allies and land, and to eventually build your very own
domain where you can be the Lord andmold the world in your image.
To begin a campaign, some folks will want to start with the whole
continent and kingdom. That’s fine. It’s fun. There are a lot of tools to help
keep track of a whole world. But you don’t have to do nearly so much. In fact,
if your goal is to get started in a reasonable amount of time and with a
manageable amount of prep, then coloring in the whole world map is quite
inefficient. We do not need a world; we need a neighborhood.
1.
Devise the premise of
the world. That is, explain the nature of your specific game in a few
sentences. What makes your campaign world special? Make it so you can tell
someone what’s special about it in under one minute or print the information on
one side of a business card. Consider your tone, what races and classes will be available,
and what is special about your particular world.
2.
Think about one six-mile hex and then its surrounding hexes. That’s seven hexes and a total of
224 square miles. Place your starting town in the middle of the map. Realistic
medieval cities and towns take up no more than a single one-mile hex. Consider
water and food sources. Consider defense.
Then
place the entrance to a dungeon somewhere nearby. Other points of interest can
be generated procedurally as you go along. A village every 2-3 miles and a
castle or fort every 12-15, a witch’s coven, an accursed fairytale forest, a
goblin redoubt, a magical stone circle, a guard golem who dispenses quests and
rewards. All of these can come later. The really important things are the haven
of town and the entrance to the adventure site.
3.
Map out at least three levels
of the starting dungeon. Each level should have a theme of some kind to
distinguish it from the other levels. A good guideline is that the first level
should have about 7-13 rooms, the second 13-25, and the third 25-30. Not every
level has to be bigger than the one above it; these are only suggestions. We
will talk more about just how to do that later on.
4.
Go back and draw the layout of
the starting town. Think up some inhabitants. The party will need some shops to
buy and sell, a place to sleep, a place to hire henchmen, a reason adventurous
men may be available for hire, a place to hear rumors, and two or more power
centers.
Power
centers could include a chaotic temple, a thieves’ guild, a septarch’s tower, a
league of fighters’ hall, NPCs of various backgrounds, roles and secrets.
5.
If the starting town does not
have a castle or fort, place at least one within a day’s travel – about 12
miles. Consider placing a couple of towns 5-10 miles away from one another too.
Use several kinds of terrain surrounding the starting town, for terrain
provides the players with meaningful choices. Place roads and other pathways in
logical places and at a logical technological levels.
Going through the steps above, this is what I have devised.
6.
Premise: The starting realm will resemble medieval
northwest europe c. 1100. There will be three races (phenotypes) of Men, but
the vast majority of NPCs will be Aluvian, the White European analogue. Starting classes are limited to fighter, wizard and cleric; and
demi-men are limited to dwarf, elf and hobbit with race-as-class rules. Level
cap is 14 and there are not many people in the world who have reached level 9.
All classes
other than fighting-man will be rare and exotic. At any one time, only 40% of
the PCs can be demi-men; the balance must be human. This is to enforce the
human-centric nature of adventuring. The several players shall decide among
themselves who gets to play the demi-men, should there be excess demand. Most
D&D monsters will be present. Some monsters will be new. Some monstrous
races will be presented as unique individuals rather than myriad.
7.
Starting location: The town is named for
Thorsten Cragstone, a legendary Aluvian general. Lore has it that he founded
the town and he is buried somehwhere nearby. There is an impressive patinaed
bronze statue to him in the middle of town, even though no one really knows
what he looked like. Whosoever is in town when the church bells ring noon
gathers before the statue and pledges their allegiance to it, as it is the
embodiment of Cragstone’s fighting spirit. The townspeople believe they are all
descendants of his or of his friend Zenopus the Septarch, or of both. When a
man from Cragstone swears an oath, he will say, “by Cragstone’s beard,” or “by
the crook’d staff of Zenopus,” or perhaps simply, “by the Founders.”
It is
located at an elbow in the Rith, which is a broad, slow river with ample
littoral marshlands. It has average quality farmland. The locals are known for
their honey and their candle wax, since beekeeping is a point of pride.
Because
of its location on the river and halfway between the towns of Rithwic and
Glenden Wood, it is also known as a decent market town. In addition to the
permanent shops, there is a paddock down by the river where merchants will sell
wares from their wagons. There’s a small chance that you can find just about anything
down there, and a slightly smaller chance you can sell just about anything.
Demographically,
Cragstone is a town of 100 families. At least one is Dwarven; at least two are Hobbit;
none are Elven (PCs aside.) There is one G’harundim woman in town who is the
jeweler. (G’harundim are a North African type of people.) The rest of the town
of course is made up of Aluvian Men and their kin.
Since
this is the starting town, I can be certain that we will spend at least several
sessions there. Therefore it makes sense to stock it with lots of NPCs. I have
created about 50 NPCs to be “the people in the neighborhood.” Name, race, job,
most common locations. This includes the town guard and a number of
ne’er-do-wells from which henchmen can be hired. I have also established
several craftsmen who will be useful to the players for specific equipment, information,
and to buy unusual items they may find. I don’t know how much the players will
decide to utilize any of these resources, but they’re available.
The power centers in
town are threefold: There are two churches (one Catholic and one Protestant)
and there is a sheriff named Lieutenant
Kenneth who leads the town guard and acts as the chief civil authority in town.
He is a neutral Hero, or fourth-level
fighting-man. The town has one true
cleric, a first level Lawful named Edrick the Coward and one second-level fighter who acts as
Kenneth’s sergeant.
I have
not assigned traits to any NPCs in advance since I prefer to assign them
procedurally as I go along. That way, I can be surprised and
delighted right along with the several other players.
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Order of the Ebon
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Knights of Stromgald Leader: Matron Stromgald Ftr 6
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Order of the Sacred
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Stromgald Cabal.jpg)
Knights
of Thorn
