For Dungeon Masters Looking to Start Their Own Homebrew Campaign World
A player’s character wanted Heraldry information a few years ago, and made a high History skill roll.
“What are some of the flags of the world?” she asked. “Here they are,” the DM replied.
“How did you have that already?” the astonished player said.
“Someone asked before.”
Heraldry - Flags of the City-States of Aarde, by Dave Pierik
From day one, it’s a good idea to avoid spending too much time creating overly specific locations and situations that the characters could end up avoiding, or feeling forced into. Think in structure when possible and build a campaign world with flexibility in mind, knowing that improvisation is what tends to work best at the gaming table. As the Dungeon Master (DM), one must always be prepared to run a fun adventure.
Want to be prepared for anything the players might choose to do? Having an outline or structure of ideas prepared in advance helps provide a starting place of clues and hints that help with improvisation.
How to Prepare
Where might they go? What skills might they want to try out? Dungeons & Dragons is a magical world full of incredibly endless possibilities. Read, write, take a lot of notes and organize them. Story ideas are everywhere and they are not rules-dependent. Enrich and evolve a campaign world over time; there is no need to rush. One example, the long-running homebrew campaign world of Aarde, has been updated with each edition change from first edition to now, including Advanced (1st), 2nd Edition, 3rd, 3.5, some time in Pathfinder, 4th Edition, and now 5th Edition. Each of these versions of the same world have improved over their predecessors in one or more ways, with 5th Edition being the best the game (and campaign) has been so far. Largely it’s the same game. Get inspired, create, and have fun. Grow as you go.
Inspiration
TV show scenes and situations can feed NPC, character, and encounter ideas. Movies are full of iconic moments that are ripe for inspiration. Books, especially fantasy and science fiction, are full of ideas. Video games also provide potential inspiration. Even during game sessions, as ideas and situations are improvised, many DMs will scribble down notes to use later. Writer’s block for adventure ideas can be averted by cracking open the Monster Manual for an encounter, the Dungeon Master’s Guide for a situation or villain, or the Player’s Handbook for a Non-Player Character (NPC), found item, trinket or spell. Beyond that, third-party game supplements including things from the Internet offer endless amounts of potential fun. Have a set of ideas and an outline ready, while being prepared to jump off from there and improvise as needed.Change ideas around to make them your own. Be sure to keep track of your campaign world's names and places – the characters may pass through again later. At first, all that is needed is what is now, and what is next. By keeping track of people, places and things the example campaign of Aarde benefited over the years, especially since each new group of players added another opportunity to improve on and add to what went before. Use a map. Chart out the big picture. Have an idea of how big or small your villages, towns, cities, city-states and nations are.
The Details
Ask: Who is in charge? What are the politics? What would it be like to live in a world where multiple powerful wizards are each able to cast the Wish spell on a regular basis? What will that have led to? Plenty of impossible things, that's what. Create some villains and NPCs and build locations around them, and you've got endless exciting stories and challenges for your players.
Read and use all of the latest Core books: Player's Handbook (PH), Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG), and Monster Manual (MM). Then, add homebrew ideas of your own. Use a DM's screen (including the charts – which you should use) to keep the game moving and your improvisation seamless and flowing.
Map of the Captains, Aarde Homebrew campaign, by Dave Pierik
The Help you Need is Probably at the Table With You
Listen for clues and get help when needed. Eventually, one or more of them should be able to run a session - maybe even in your campaign world if you decide to have it be a shared world. Encourage that. Work with your players as you go and come up with house rules of your own as a group. Here are some examples:
Examples of Homebrew Campaign House Rules
1. Contacting the Gods: Player Character (PC) Clerics have a 1% chance per level to contact their character's God. Limit one attempt per character level (i.e. one attempt when first level and no new attempts until 2nd level, then just one attempt at 2nd level, etc.). Let the player roll and if they roll a 1 on percentile dice, maybe have something special happen. A 00 (100) might mean the opposite. Non-clerics (especially paladins) can attempt this too but let the player be the instigator on this, and non-clerics and NPCs should have a lower chance and also a less exciting possible result.
2. Resurrections: This is also cleric territory in most cases. In the Aarde campaign, a resurrected character is subject to Wisdom saves, with possible outcomes of alignment drift, switching deities to that of the cleric who performed the resurrection, possible insanity, or insights from the “other side.”
Side note: A D&D character’s resurrection should be given in-game story importance to go along with considerable expense in material components. Even in D&D, coming back from the dead should not feel routine. To make things extra interesting, consider adding a spell failure possibility and/or use the reincarnation chart instead as needed.
3. Alignment Drift: Each character has a moral alignment. Over time, their behavior may “drift” from this, typically just one “step” on the chart at a time. Keep an eye on this, it's an opportunity for role-playing and fun. A wisdom or possibly charisma save for major behaviors that are out of character will result in a new alignment, along with a roll on the insanity chart in the DMG.
4. A Funny Thing Happened: Occasionally a player will make a passing remark that gets a laugh or sets up a situation for the characters. If the DM chooses to use the idea (whether it be for an encounter, an item, an NPC etc.), that player should be awarded one Inspiration point (a d20 re-roll for later).
5. Speaking of Inspiration Points: At character start, hand out index cards to hang on the DM’s screen. Each player designs their own initiative order marker, with their character's name &/or art. For doing this in black and white, award one inspiration point; for full color, award two points. Also, for players who include some actual role-playing or great ideas, carefully award a point or two along the way for encouragement. Certain story goals, milestones and going up a level are also typical times for each character to pick up a point of inspiration.
6. Shared Campaign Homebrew Guidelines. Share the Dungeon Mastering duties with a shared campaign. One way to achieve this is to have the DM play a PC-NPC (who is never party leader when running the game). This same character is a regular PC on weeks when someone else serves as the DM - in the same campaign world. Beyond that, agree on some world consistency between DMs and you can create cool things together as a group. The Aarde setting has at times served well as a shared campaign because it is built around the characters' freedom to roam around and explore. It's easy and fun to ask who is most in the mood to be the DM, or to roll dice for it if and as needed. It keeps a singular campaign storyline going and adds fresh variety while maintaining continuity.
7. Ability Score Generation Thoughts. Low or high ability scores and totals are not too big of a deal, so long as they are fairly balanced among the PCs. Whatever all the players can agree on is great. To the existing methods, consider the Aarde campaign’s homebrew method of point-buy plus, which is regular point buy, except you spend no points on your main ability – which gets a “free 18” to start from prior to any racial bonuses.
Good luck and have fun creating!
Meet the Blogger
Dave P
@dmdayv
Dave Pierik has been playing Dungeons & Dragons since 1979. While he never gamed at the table with Gary Gygax, there is only one “degree of separation.” His work has been published and he has playtested various games over the years. He has served as Game Master for his own fantasy and science-fiction campaigns as well as at game stores and conventions in the Pacific Northwest.