starting my groups 2nd campaign ever. ive decided to take the dungeon masters guide's advice and start the mapping of my setting at a small scale, problem is i cant come up with fun, challenging, and interesting monsters and encounters for a party of 4 1st lvl characters without resorting to goblins and kobolds even though theirs nothing wrong with them.i need you guys help me fill in the area with some of your ideas for dungeons and encounters maybe even some history for the settlements or reoccurring villains.
Here's what you do about the tired cliche encounters: play them.
You have not worn them out. They are not tired tropes. You have never explored them at all, and neither you nor your group is sick of running those encounters.
They are mainstays for a reason. Use them.
Connor Wilson
Listen to they speak truth.
Give me more details though. Is this european fantasy? Is this region more french, german, english, pict, serbian, etc? What ideas have YOU had?
Give me that and I'll play ball. But more info is needed.
Gabriel Ortiz
OP, you do know that there's a Monster Manual, right? Try making some encounters out of that, maybe add in a random encounter table.
Henry Wilson
thats a good point, i was rolling on tables for dungeons just now, got a lich's lair that was taken over by invaders, i decided the invader was a hobgoblin army and the tower lair is now crumbling. im gonna have goblins that are decedents from the original army goblins infest the tower.you got any ideas for traps or strategies? or maybe you wanna build on the idea to make it more interesting.
Benjamin Green
Nice map fag
I mean seriously, that's a nicely drawn map :3
Colton Roberts
Here it is again
Elijah Hall
Maybe the hobgoblin army has cleared out a few layers of the lair but the innards are too protected by magic to enter. Like a stone door with a shimmering shield of prismatic colors.
Maybe there was a religious ritual to open the doors and the chars have to figure it out and then complete the ritual to get past it. And Im not talking about rolling. Maybe there is a different gem for each color in the prismatic wall that needs to be brought and plaeced in the hands of statues near the door to open it, after reading from the scriptures of Vecna or something or other. Each gem is currently part of a series of traps featuring elements that match the color.
Maybe some of these gems are already looted and worn as jewelry by hobgoblin captains and lieutenants. Or maybe there is a magical circuitry system carved into the stones of the lair and the hobgoblins damaged it while looting. You need to repair the stonework to enter the inner halls.
Charles Barnes
i honestly haven't thought that far ahead. as far as being based on real cultures, one player is a human noble samurai and another is a wood elf monk planning on going way of shadow at lvl 3. so i do want to have a region heavily influenced on Asian culture, but ide like to keep it at that and make the majority feel like traditional European fantasy. the other players include a 55 year old war veteran tiefling wizard suffering from mild PTSD, and a human guild cook cleric who's place of business was destroyed by evil forces. haven't even thought of a good way to tie the party together like a starting goal or quest. thats pretty much all i got.
the players are open to me making their backstorys and reasons for adventuring so you guys can also help me piece that together if you'd like. i guess the good news is there is a lot of room to grow. hope this helps
Jeremiah Cox
That's a nifty map user, but where's the dragon mountain? You need a dragon mountain somewhere!
Aiden Butler
Going to be honest. I'm a different user and I am jealous of your map.
Maybe try throwing an ogre or two à la The Hobbit (I know those were trolls, but I think they were closer to ogres than dnd trolls). Having them distracted with a meal makes them easier for the party to sneak around or try to think of a plan other than rush in and attack.
Or you can do what I had an old DM do and make a troll under the bridge. We weren't strong enough to fight it so we had to pay the toll. But we knew we were going to come back and kick it's ass.
Map needs more woodlands, so much stuff can happen in woodlands (keep them small woodlands with things like talking birds and the occasional wisps tricking them off the trail. Leave the REAL bad stuff for your current Woods with a capital 'w').
Oh and what are the lines around Sudbri?
Justin Anderson
oh man, dragon mountain's gotta be in op
Ayden Peterson
that sounds amazing man, defiantly gonna incorporate that as a longer side quest at least. i just looked at the prismatic wall spell and im using that as inspiration so that makes 7 colors and 7 gems. should i at least leave one of the gems in its proper place or somewhere accessible to them in the tower so they get the idea that more need to be collected and returned, im already thinking of hobgoblin bosses like the green gem holder can be a stealthy assassin hobgoblin who uses poison and archer goblins to maximize his advantage in combat and cares little for Honorable fighting, possibly making the other hobgoblins dislike him
Joseph Richardson
Dragon mountain is on, I tried making it look like a dragon head, think I wanna make it so there's a dragon deep in the mountain and players must jack their way through kobolds, half dragons and dragon born to eventually get to the dragon sleeping underground
Hudson Watson
Sorry about the the pictures, I'm taking them on my phone and it keeps rotating them.
Leo Edwards
I'm really jealous of your map making skills user. Can you share some tips?
Levi Anderson
big thanks for the compliments, im working on doing patches of woodland like you said, and the lines are supposed to be farm land
Isaiah Roberts
I like your drawing style op, since your party is low level, I suggest finding evidence of the dargon, or you could make him a neutral esque one that recruits the party. Give him some staying power past Red one they kill.
As for maybe fun "dungeony" landmarks, an abandoned Cathedral is a favorite of mine, lots of opportunity for cults or thief guilds, though I prefer the risen dead! Have them be led by something low power but neat, like a smart revenant or wight.
When you make fun villians, try to keep in mind three questions. Why do they do what they do, how do they do what they do and what makes them likely to be in command. Also the dungeon master's concept of having a Flaw, a Bond and a Desire is also really good.
I'll think on more dungeon stuff.
Nathan Parker
You got some real purty handwriting there user.
N-no homo.
Colton Wood
>and the lines are supposed to be farm land That was my initial thought. But then I wondered if that was too simple and it was in a bog or maybe an indication that it was a fae realm or something. I guess I should go with my gut instinct.
I like your dragon mountain. You could go full Glorantha and have that mountain range actually be the dragon.
Brayden Bailey
thanks man, ive been drawing as a hobby for some time now. i couldn't do mountains so looked up videos. this ones simple but i did like the 2nd example the guy drew. hope it helps.
There is a list of humanoid NPC bad guys to give a variety of abilities and capability level for low levels. Add some racial bonuses to the blocks and you have "unique" encounters just by using a gang of creatures.
Want to be more interesting? Crack open a UA and make them junior revenants or minotaurs.
Juan Miller
i looked up glorantha and i dont really understand what i was looking at, is it a book someone wrote or a published setting of some kind? also that gigantic dragon fight sounds like a great end game fight but i would have no idea how to run it considering how big it is.
Caleb Parker
Dropping by to say that that map is very enjoyable to look at. Very precise lines and your shading, images, and handwriting capture that fantasy feel effortlessly.
Otherwise, try looking less at straight up monsters and perhaps more at environment/puzzles. Come up with some novel dungeons and it adds an aura of mystery and interest that goes well with mythic fantasy.
Also, fully integrate any monsters into their environment. For example, there's a forest and there's ogres in it, right? (Example for just the thought exercise) Don't just have a pack of ogres wandering about in the woods all willy nilly. Have the tree's bark be marked by passing ogres, and hillsides where they've torn down trees for clubs are eroding into the stream nearby because there's no plants left to anchor. Birds fly from their perches wherever the foul beasts march, and you can hear their calls as they soar up en masse from trees. Deer change their travel habits to avoid ogre ambush sites. Integrating your monsters fully into the ecosystem makes them vibrant in a manner standard goblin encounter doesn't hold a candle too, and it's an essential part of worldbuilding.
As for recurring characters/villains, I have a list I'm working on for a sci fi game I'm running. Some of them might be transferable.
David Perry
good stuff, cathedral is making it in for sure. zombies and skeletons are relitivly weak so ill be able to throw a few at them no problem i think, what do you think about a optional fight involving a ghoul locked securely into the basement but theres extra loot in the bodies hes been eating and regurgitated like rings and other jewelry?
Tyler Wood
Just be careful with them Ghouls, that paralyzing touch shit is no joke levels 1-3. Fun Idea, but just don't put too many in one location.
Evan Hernandez
Do you typically show these maps to players to tell them where they are? Or are these used personally for your own sake?
Robert Brooks
Wanted to give everyone my thanks for all the suggestions and support, this is how it looks so far but you guys have been giving great ideas and you got my ball rolling so it'll definitely be more filled up later . Gonna keep drawing so please keep the ideas coming . Also need lake name and river name
Luke Sanchez
Glorantha is a setting by a guy named Greg Stafford who thought making a fantasy world in college would help him pick up chicks (it didn't). It was the original setting for a game called RuneQuest that came out only a few years after the first edition of DnD. A lot of shit has been written about it in the past 35 years both official and not. Even the setting creator himself has made changes to it and has coined the term "Gregging" among fans of the setting. Enter at your own risk.
Throwing aside just about everything else about the setting. Dragons are more cosmic beings than just big fire breathing lizards. In the past there was an entire country focused on the things and eventually the country may or may not have turned into a dragon (all the people and land masses and such).
See that mountain range over there? That's a dragon just sleeping. It will probably never wake up in your life time. It will likely never wake up while your family survives. But when it does, you're in trouble. Dragons are the realm of gods to slay, or at the very least BIG DAMN HEROES.
In terms of DnD I might run it as an actual dungeon rather than a dragon encounter. Part of their cosmic nature is that their dreams can interact with reality. Remember that large fire breathing monster we fought in that volcano? Yeah, that was just Signord's dream. I would put more dream enemies in the dragon "dungeon" and maybe even realms that don't make any sense (because they are reality).
Actually now that I'm thinking about it I think the idea of exploring this dragon dungeon throughout multiple adventures to be pretty rad. Especially if they don't even know it's a dragon until it starts waking up.
Connor Diaz
na i show them. i think of it like a world map in a rpg so they pick where they wanna explore
Austin Rodriguez
this is super helpful, im gonna try to add alot more flavor and foreshadowing in my descriptions of the areas. also cool gif
Christopher Fisher
gotcha, maybe one while the party is worn out from clearing the cathedral
Ayden Wood
>Also need lake name and river name Are you going FULL LORE or are you going more LotR where most people have forgotten a lot of the lore?
Jack Thompson
not sure yet honestly
Ethan Miller
Since this is your setting it's ultimately up to you, but one reason I would suggest going with the latter. It helps players enter into the world and discover things without feeling like they know a lot less than their characters should. It's one reason games like I see so many people say to play Tekumel as humans transported there, there is just too much information to devour all at once before playing the game. Glorantha was mentioned above, it has the same problem. It's solution is usually "You're from area X, you only need to know about area X and some rumors about area Y."
Is that a conjunction of two rivers or a split of one river? Which was is the water flowing?
Jaxon Anderson
Make sure you put tension in the layout. The elven stronghold in the north and the goblin tribe in the west quarrel occasionally over hunting grounds. The loggers and the hunters have conflicts over forest paths. The traders and the shipbuilders argue over wood prices. But keep it small scale.
Cover some implications. Give the locations a function that is obvious to the players. A mountain could have shepherds and dark unexplored caves. A lake could have a fishing village and an island nobody dares sail to. Forests can have new features and character every few trees, but explain them to the players.
Try to remember actual places you have been to and use details to flavor your locations. The way old stone walls are covered in lichens, the way sunlight is filtered by different canopies, the way humid cellars smell, use it.
Don't strive for realism. What you need is immersion. Make it compelling. Give places meaning with old legends or simply lighting and mood. Whenever the players experience something, use that to refer to the place from then on, maybe even weave it into the lore of the world (rumors, tales, songs, and legends). That way the players shape the world which makes it much more vivid.
Leave things as vague as possible. It is much more helpful to know all the people from one village are named a certain way than it is to make a list of NPCs and name them. Have a list of names and assign them as the players encounter NPCs. Don't carve things in stone, keep everything only as reliable as the source. Use that to tell your story. Information about the inn down the road is probably only a few days old and colored by opinions the villagers have about the innkeper. While rumors about a castle hundreds of miles away will be misleading and colored by fears and hopes, maybe even schemes of the story teller. Only write the castle when the players decide to go looking for it.
John Ramirez
/wbg/ bringin' the advice
Aiden Martinez
Sweet map, user.
Worldbuilding General?
Andrew Flores
>It is much more helpful to know all the people from one village are named a certain way than it is to make a list of NPCs and name them. Have a list of names and assign them as the players encounter NPCs. But for the love of all things good do not name characters too similar. Sigmund, Siggier, and Signey don't all need to interact, that only helps with oral traditions.
Dominic Gonzalez
I'd start with scared simpletons and let the players explore if their fears are justified. Play some slice of live to make the quest givers matter to the players. At the same time the players can gather a few clues from the NPCs.
Then disrupt with an opposition, an overzealous guard and bully, a gang of thieves, a horde of roving goblins, it doesn't matter. Just something that the players can deal with without too much trouble, and that keeps them from their main task, maybe even competes with them over it.
Raise the tension when they finally get close to the place, but only let them find more clues, like the remains of an animal, or footprints in the mud. It should be ominous. If your baddy has minions they can attack here.
Then allow the players to take stock and prepare for a showdown. This may be just a quick talk, a camp for the night, or a quick trip back to town for supplies. Try and enable them as much as is reasonable. Let them easily find henchmen if they want to hire some, let supplies that aren't totally out of place be easily available. Let them make a plan and try to make that plan look good as much as possible by adjusting your showdown.
>The neighbor's dog stole the roast, again!, and the neighbor is refusing to do anything about it. Some kids pester the PCs on the way over to the neighbor. The neighbor is grumpy because he can't make it to the bakery for sweets any more. Convince the baker to make deliveries. Make less grumpy neighbor promise to watch his mutt. Quest solved.
or:
>Something is attacking the sheep at night, taking some and wounding others. The hunters don't go to the forest behind the sheep meadows because it's bad luck. A priest takes it as crime and superstition and sets out to educate the hillbilly shepherds, arguing ethics on the way. An old evil has awoken in the forest that fears naught but fire as the PCs discover in combat. Organize patrols and beacons, have the sheep stabled after dark. Grind levels.
James Diaz
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Lincoln Thompson
Nice!
Jaxon Diaz
Relatives came over, had to entertain for a boy sorry about that. Here's what I got so far. Also that looks really cool
Tyler White
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Chase Butler
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Daniel Hill
Best general advice I can give is:
Think about where you want things to go as early as you can and start dropping seeds. You don't need everything mapped out from Session 1, but a vague idea, and try to fit in some seeds early on, so they can look back and say "Oh, fuck, you remember...".
Second, don't make every encounter about the main plot or story. It feels more like a living world that way and also gets you a sense of what different things different players are into.
Colton Edwards
Not the same guy but one thing I'm struggling with is fleshing out "civilized areas" with landmarks that make it feel like players are still in civilization. Some thoughts I have so far:
-encamped merchant caravan, pilgrims, mercenaries, patrols, etc. -monasteries, academies -villages -shrines and sacred sites -shepherds and large flocks -forts and toll booths (potentially abandoned) -milestones and signs -mines, quarries, lumber yards -mills and water wheels -waste pits/dumps
Adam Hall
>encounters for level 1 parties This advice probably works better in OSR games where HP is lower, but one thought is "lopsided" encounters where a tough monster is found at a disadvantage. Examples:
-Sleeping/eating monster -chained/imprisoned beast -Lair with monster away on hunt -tough monster near cliff, water, or other fatal drop -creature with a specific (hopefully researchable) weakness - classic example of this is the trolls that turn to stone in sunlight. -slow moving monsters that the party can evade or outpace (ex. slimes) -creatures with poor morale or are driven off by fire/noise (most animals) -solo monsters (usually lose out due to action economy) -creatures that are willing to negotiate/parley (bandits are the classic example here) -dull witted monsters that can be engaged with advantage or distracted somehow
Other classic level 1 adventurer fodder include skeletons (easier with a cleric), fire beetles, giant vermin - rats, bats, cockroaches, etc.
Lucas Ross
OP that map is beautiful And whoever is digitally re-creating it is a legend
Jordan Smith
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Isaac Young
Just dropped by to say that your map is cool as hell. Good work.
Elijah Barnes
Thanks man, sorry to anyone that's still here from the beginning I hot sleepy but here's how it looks as of now,I'm super happy with the way it came together thanks to everyone that contributed. There's still more space to fill with adventure locations or anything else before I move on to the next part of the map , also ide like some names for the country/continent. Once again thanks for all the advice, I'm sure the players are gonna have a great time playing through this.
Connor Ross
Hey I'm still a newish DM here is the xp cal. What you is with this is the number of players times the xp on the table per level
1st lvl 25*4=100xp to use for encounters Hope this helps
Owen King
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James Carter
I'm curious, does the grid represent distance in miles?
Oliver Myers
neat
Ian Parker
This is great shit, OP.
Noah Jackson
>Mountians Cool >Hills Great you remembered that >Farmland What? You missed where the shepherds watch their flocks on the hills that aren't good for farming. Oh well, not a big loss.
Henry Foster
>not criticizing the watershed 0/10
Colton Watson
I know that the river makes no sense and that there is no apparent source for the lakes. But its named the Glorantha River so I give it a pass.
Nathan Bell
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Isaiah Lee
The style you're using for your maps reminds me of the maps in LotR.
James Harris
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David Powell
I wish I had the artistic skill and paitence to do make that amazing map. Good job OP.
