Let’s Do Some World Building

Dear Readers, I apologize for a lack of post this last Friday. Both yourdorkmaterials and I were swamped. Thanks for your understanding!

So we’ve talked a lot about building adventures, and encounters, and campaigns, etc…But what if we want to build a world? Well, that’s what we are going to look at doing today, and I’m going to walk with you through this, giving you a sample world for you to use yourself or make your own.

First off, I am no cartographer, by any stretch. So what is a Daily DM to do? Well, you find a tool that helps. And one I like using is Azgaar’s Fantasy Map Generator. You can literally generate an entire globe with town names, populations, demographics, religions, nation names, etc… Although this can be handy in a pinch, I don’t like building my entire world this way. I’ve tried it once, and it required too much modification to make things function the way I wanted to. Granted, that’s part of what is great about this online tool is the level of customization you can have, but I like doing the majority of the work myself. Besides, we are not going from the macro to the micro.

We are going to start with one little town and work our way out.

So what I did was generate a random small town. I played with the settings long up until I got a little berg that appealed to me. And thus, this town was born:

What does a town need that any basic adventuring party may want?

An inn/tavern – a place to pick up adventures or to recuperate after an adventure
A town selectman/mayor/elder – someone that is in charge of the town to be a potential solicitor of adventurer services
A general store – somewhere to purchase gear/equipment between adventures

So let’s flesh out the Inn and Tavern today:

Inn/Tavern

There are many online resources to be able to help with Inn/Tavern names. My favorite is Fantasy Name Generator (this link is specifically for inns/taverns). After hitting “Generate” a few times, I found a great one that I can use: The Grey Lamp Inn and Tavern.

What is the theme of this place? The grey lantern with a continual light spell cast in the interior that hangs out front. And to make it better, we’ll say that it’s a rather warm and inviting place, with plenty of rooms, and that it’s along a trade route to give it plenty of traffic to enable plenty of adventure hooks.

I used Tavern Sign Crafter to make the sign. It’s pretty customizable with lots of options.

Now for the proprietor. Male or female (rolls 1d2)…a female! What’s her schtick? Well, I want the party to like her and be invested in her…she’s friendly, if a little gruff at times with rowdy patrons. Let’s see…her husband died in a recent war, and she’s raising their young teen…daughter…alone, ever since.

For her name? I’ll just think up one off the cuff…how about…Angelina Surestout? And the daughter’s name is Sabrina Surestout. And Angelina is 38 and Sabrina is 14. Just old enough to want some independence, but young enough to need an adult. A future adventure hook, maybe?

World Building and Quest Hooks

As we built the basics of the town and worked on the Inn and Tavern, notice how the creation of each step included the possibility of future adventure/quest hooks.

Possible hooks for what we have so far:

Sabrina falls “in love” and wants to run away from home with random boy/traveler/nomad/etc…
Sabrina is out picking flowers and is kidnapped by goblins/kobolds/bandits looking for ransom
The tavern is visited by a rowdy group of travelers making trouble for Angelina
Someone has stolen the lantern after which the inn was named, either as a prank or for other more nefarious reasons.
Trade caravans with supplies for the inn aren’t coming in. Why not? Maybe goblins/bandits/etc…?

As you can see, with a little bit of forethought, even basic beginnings of world building can help with beginning a campaign and create further adventures.

Next week, we’ll focus on the town selectman/mayor and if we have time, the general store!

Until Next time, Dear Readers…

P.S. – don’t forget, our giveaway is still ongoing! The t-shirt is amazing and if we hit that 100 subscriber mark, one of you lucky Readers will win it! So subscribe via email, WordPress, or even better, become a premium subscriber!

P.P.S. – I was unable to play my normal Sunday game due to being out of town and on the road. Therefore there will not be a normal Sunday game summary this week. I will have something else for you guys.