Today, I’m focusing on the town’s immediate environs and how I can turn a loose sense of place—northern frontier with fortified outpost—into a concrete, usable hexcrawl.
Building a New Campaign, Part 4: The Drowned Lands
Building a New Campaign, Part 2: the Starting Town
Part One Every West Marches campaign needs its own Keep on the Borderlands: a place where sessions begin and end, where plans are made, and where rumours circulate. Above all, it needs to be a safe location with useful, player-facing options. It is not an adventure site in itself; adventures always happen elsewhere. In this … Continue reading Building a New Campaign, Part 2: the Starting Town
Building a new campaign, Part 1: the one-page overview
In a vast and perilous land, ambitious treasure-hunters chart the wilderness, descend into dark places, and claim whatever riches they can carry.
Update: The Campaign Handbook
I have now completed the second part of Tier 2, 8th to 10th level. I hope you like it! Constructive feedback is always welcome. You can download it over on my Patreon (link). I see Tier 2 as the 'fun and games' section of your campaign—'the promise of the premise' where all the 'trailer moments' … Continue reading Update: The Campaign Handbook
A new handbook to help you run a complete campaign?!
I have only ever run one homebrew campaign from 1st to 20th level, and it followed a very loose structure, one session at a time. I would love to write something that helps other DMs achieve the same thing.
How many liches does your world have?
Should the world level up with the players? The question gets me thinking about the ecology of my game world. How rare is an ancient red dragon? A storm giant? A bulette? That’s really what this article is about: trying to find a framework for monster rarity.
Awesome climate and terrain: Part 2!
Last week we explored arctic, coastal, desert, forest, and grassland environments. This week, we've got a few more: hill, mountain, swamp, Underdark, underwater, and urban.
How to build an awesome fantasy world with climate and terrain
I’ve been reading a lot about worldbuilding and map-making for a while now, so I thought I would put some of my notes in one place.
Seven twists to make your D&D world unique
D&D diverges from our own world in seven major ways. How would our games be different if we moved away from these core assumptions?
The Great 2023 RPG Gift Guide
Here we go again! WELCOME to the 2023 Scroll for Initiative Holiday Gift Guide. A few things first. This is an independent blog. There are no affiliate links here, nor am I being paid in any way to endorse these products. (Believe me, I wish I were!) As always, please support your Friendly Local Game … Continue reading The Great 2023 RPG Gift Guide