Starting a Campaign

fedorapirate — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:57:58 +0000

So when I decided I wanted to be a DM I foolishly tried to start building a world, like I did with my Divine PUG. While I still think I could have managed it, it would have taken a lot out of me. My advice to anyone starting a D&D Campaign (and keep in mind, I still am yet to DM an actual game session) is just to start small, the world should build itself as your game goes on; or better yet if you have the time use a pre built setting, that’s what I did.

I went with Eberron.

Eberron is an amazing setting and I am in love with it. It breaks away from traditional fantasy to instead use a strong DungeonPunk / SteamPunk theme. With a very strong Pulpy, Noir feel; all things I love. It’s elves are badarse war mongers with middle eastern inspiration, it has flying ships powered by captured fire elementals, hovering trains powered by lightning (which exist purely to battle atop of), dinosaur riding halflings, and well Dwarves which are just dwarves. Oh and because of a hundred year war which just ended, nobody trusts anyone else! And the place is filled with Chessmasters, which is always fun.

The other thing about Eberron is it’s rather simple once you get your head around the concepts, but with heaps of detail. And despite this you can still put pretty much anything in there with a few sentences of explanation, not to mention you can do pretty much anything there. From what I can see Eberron is like my ideal setting. I may build my own one day but I would be content to play with Eberron for the rest of my life.

The biggest two issues I face now are:

Actually building the campaign
Getting the players to understand a world as unique as Eberron, without spoiling any of its surprises.

I’ll tackle 1 some other time, I have many ideas and I’m starting an idea log but it’s still got a lot to go. However as for 2, as of today I finished a 16 page document which describes most of Eberron fairly succinctly without giving too much away, I also have a modified map with important fun stuff removed. This way I’ve got something to give my players without spoiling a thing and hopefully given the production values I put in it should build up some excitement to play.

Oh! I almost forgot, Eberron has magical powered robots!

The story so far…

fedorapirate — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:08:49 +0000

It is a late night and the glow of the computer screen reflects off your face as you sit in bed, unable to sleep you deciede to make a blog about your new obsession; DMing Dungeons & Dragons

So I started playing D&D in March this year, over half a year ago. Since then we’ve only played 5 games but yet I have only become more and more obsessesed with the game. Having read most of the books, bought a stack of minis that resembles a small army, even subscribed to D&Di. I like this game; alot!

But the more I’ve played and read and been involved the more I’ve want to be a DM. World creation, maps, story telling, acting, encouraging fun, architecture, sociology, philosophy; it’s all there. All the things I love, and those that aren’t well I can put them there. It’s fun to be god sometimes.

So my flatmate, Kevin, is the guy who got me into this. Starting at the same time I did. He’s also been key in my obsession, giving me someone to talk to and bounce ideas off. Thanks to him I have developed a detailed Pick Up Game for a set of 8th level divine characters.

So that’s my D&D story so far, I haven’t DMed yet but I can’t wait to try.

Dungeon Trainer

Starting a Campaign

The story so far…