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 3: The Drowned Labyrinth
Ten miles west of Greyhold, a maze of sea caves leads into a sprawling network of flooded halls and corridors. Few who dwell there or plunder its treasures know the truth: that it is an ancient prison of a dreaming god.
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.
Gold! And a new project for 2026
The Campaign Handbook has hit GOLD on DriveThruRPG! It’s probably time to think about what comes next.
Loot by environment
This is probably going to end up as an appendix of The Campaign Handbook, and if you think I've missed anything, I could do with your help!
How to make legendary items feel special
Magic items should feel special. Right? So… why don’t they?
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.