The name of something isn't really that important, it's just a handle on which you can hang their details in your imagination. "Arynn the Innkeep" doesn't really tell you anything, but it's a start! And I think when you come up with their name, you instantly begin imagining them in your mind. You may never write down everything you know about them, but seeing their name written down will jog your memory. And, of course, you can write out all the details in your epic, 500-page campaign document! This is only meant to be the beginning!
I m thinking of dropping a bunch of these with a pf2book on my secundary ( a sort of prep of 5 years between primary and college). My question...will you make some for bigger things like nations? Or continents? Or maybe only video of thoes
An excellent video for digging into this category: Web DM's video on Deep Time. Fascinating imagination-jogger for thinking about what happened long before the collected cultural memories of your entire world.
There are mysteries about my world that even I don't know. I have a forest called the Azurewood. All the plants have a blue tinge on them. Plants taken out of it lose the tinge though and any taken in gain it, but they have no magical aura around them. No idea why it happens.
There are plenty of resources. If you'd like, I can share a list of resources from a site called The Cartographer's Guild that I still use to walk myself through making a map , and I can recommend Artifexian here on youtube for worldbuilding if you don't mind a resource who gets into some of the noodley bits.
As someone who has several "wall sized maps" of places... It's a process. It starts with the questions. You fill in some place-holder names for things like towns, mountains/ranges, valleys and hollows, deserts or swamps as necessary/useful/applicable... add some village or town, and work out just enough to run a one-shot or so... As you explore the "spacial sense" of the place, you can do your visual layouts, what is exactly east and west or north or south of whatever else... Whether exactly in-game, with Players running their PC's around to ask questions you hadn't thought of answering yet, or "pre-game" in your planning, you'll flesh out the inner intricate details of each place, from the town wherever you start the game(s) to the surrounding regions, kingdoms and fiefdoms, whole empires if that's your thing. As you build your visual maps, you just need to keep track of the key, all that iconography that makes the forest symbols for woods and forests or jungles, and how you differentiate (quick is preferable usually) between them, and what exactly constitutes a certain mountain being named, rather than a whole range of them... AND as you sketch out little bits and pieces to your smaller "one-shot" adventure maps and places... When and as applicable, you can make the notes on the wall-sized hanger... where exactly in the world your group is adventuring "this time"... Between adventures tends to be (in my experience anyway) the best timing for repeated sessions of scratching out cities and guides into the "grand scheme" or wall sized map. It's worth pointing out that starting out, it's going to seem really really empty, should you just build and hang this wall-sized monstrosity right out of the gate... It's okay to do it that way (obviously) as there's really no particular "right" or "wrong" way to approach it. You may also decide to just figure out about where and how big you think you want the thing, first... and while you're deciding on precise materials and media to use for it, you can scratch out some of the smaller scaled references, compiling together the "to-do" or "to be added" list of stuff for when you DO have a wall-hanger actually together... just so it looks like an ongoing thing, instead of "kinda sparse" or "pretty empty"... BUT if you do start with it sparse or empty, try to relax. It's okay to have all that space, the potential. It gets trying sometimes to fill it in, knowing you're closing figurative doors on some things, and turning potential into "what simply is" as it is. It's a process... cyclic, scaled... repeated. AND one day, not as distant as you might think right now, you, too, will have that wall-sized map of a competent interesting world... YOUR world. ;o)
I had a "map on the wall" sized campaign a couple of decades ago that started as a single sheet of ten-to-an-inch graph paper with a town on the coast, some mountains, some woods and a river. My recent campaign is on a world build in Fractal Terrain and ported over to Profantasy's Campaign Cartographer. And I started filling in that one with a city on a the coast with a river, some mountains, and some forests.
A short video, but a video should only be as long as it needs to be and keeping this short and punchy and useful will help make it popular and widely watched.
I've watched your videos for two years and I just want to express my deepest gratitude to you. Your videos have been more than helpful to pull me out of my comfort zone and to actually run DnD. I couldn't find your email so I believe this is my best shot. Take this from an amateur and humble guy who tries his hardest to be a dm. From the bottom of my heart, "THANK YOU". Now I enjoy DnD with a few people who love the experience. Like you said.... Nobody would know that it would be your first time DMing... And everyone on the table would enjoy the experience if you just be open. Again... my deepest gratitude.
The ones I've picked up on: 1. Why do humans have so many gods while elves and dwarves have just one? 2. Why can humans sense the presence of magical items and undead?
I literally teared up when you said "In 3 years, someone might see a map of your world and get stars in their eyes". That was such a powerful quote man, straight up bardic inspiration at the very least
While pressure washing my driveway today I listened this video and thought, "ya know, I should retrieve some of that ancient(43 yr old) knowledge and create the world I started when I was 15. Matt, I believe you inspired me today. I may just "gate" my players clean out of Forgotten Realms and drop em smack dab into "Khor". I can still remember the continent I drew with the long mtn range dividing it. The rivers that flowed from those mtns down to the western & eastern seas. The forests that dotted both sides of the divided continent. And the ancient ruined shrines to long-forgotten gods. Yes, there will be a reawakening of those gods.. Khor will become a world .... again..
I was just chatting with a coworker who mentioned an interest in starting to DM, told him to get the straight dope from Uncle Matt. The timing on this specific video could not have been more perfect.
You got me started as a DM when you were still trying to get to 5000 subs. It has been one hell of a ride. So from my group and me. Thank you. You are truly a river to your people.
The donjon site sent me here. My Random Campaign tells me very few people know that cats can teleport over short distances. This is solid knowledge and more people should know.
I love that Matt made a reference to The Chain stream by saying "Why do humans have so many gods?". In the stream Nails asks that question of his fellow chain members and poses the possibility "Do you think Ajax knows?". Love it.
most likely in Matt's world it is different but in vanilla D&D there are multiple theories: There is a theory that humans were created by the spirit of the planet as a natural occurrence or from a dead god energy, similarly to elves that were created by accident from Corellon blood. Some speculate that humans were created by prime gods as the first angels in their image. Because the angels of the new gods in their pure form look very similar to humans and Aasimar are almost exclusively born to human parents, although there are rare exceptions. Humanity, unlike most other races, did not emerge as a whole but rather in several places at once, thereby resulting in its diversity.
@@justininexile3445 What if the dwarves and elves worship their gods because they were created by them. Then the humans have so many gods because their belief creates new gods.
A group of kids? Oldest 18 youngest 12? would this perhaps be the group of kids that appear in Ratcatchers and the stories about Irdizavonax, Corovaxinar, and the Inexorable of Time?
This is likely the most useful advice I think Matt has given. As a DM of 6yrs, this is so helpful since I'm retiring my old world and creating a new one. 11/10 would recommend.
@@keeneyedcommander That sounds so cool! I still haven't been able to find a group that is as passionate and into d&d as I am. Every game I've either ran or been in has been an unexpected and unfortunate one shot lol
This is great "Ur-Colville" content, aimed at new DMs but still very useful for old ones. And adding a little bit of homework to get our creative juices flowing was inspired. You've still got it, Matt!
Well it's been 3 years since this video and I thank you. I was overwhelmed trying to start making a world. Your pdf is exactly what I needed to kick my world into gear.
I had the opposite problem, I already had a lot written down but didn't know where to start the players. PDF is massively useful. Three cheers for the MCDM!!
I'm just starting my first world building and found this to be true. I came up with an idea for a setting, a general history and idea for gods, and an idea for the central conflict.... then hit 4 weeks of writers block. But then I got inspired to flesh out the two main antagonist NPCs, and just in writing their backstory / motivations led to fleshing out 2 areas, more NPCs, and one of the Gods.
Ive been running DnD for three years now, starting with homebrew and very strong opinions on how things should work, then realising ive never played or ran the tropes and went to modules in forgotten realms, as standard as it gets. Its tims to start that homebrew journey again and itll start with this video's message. Thank you for everything Matt and know that not only beginners use your help. We all appreciate it! :D
You know I gotta say, as an experienced GM, most of the advice in these videos is stuff I've thought of or heard before. But I always watch to the end with rapt attention because the way Matt scripts and orates he can make anything sound like a sage story with a beginning middle and end.
It all starts with a village. Pretty soon you'll be spending your afternoon establishing the complex lore of the bardic colleges being literal colleges that have intricate relationships with the kingdoms they reside in. Then you'll take a short break because Matt uploaded a new video.
I good way to give the basics of a town/city is to remember: *S*ocial: Taverns, theaters, and the like. Allows your players to interact and experience your world. *P*olitical; Who's the local baron, or lawmaster? They are an important NPC for the players, especially new heroes. *E*conomic: Why does this town exist? There has to be an economic touchstone, towns do not exist without them. It also allows you tomake reasonable decisions about professions and shops within the town. *R*eligious: A chapel, or possibly even a local superstition. Atheism is just as reasonable, not necessarily as exciting however. *M*ilitary: Is there town guards? Perhaps it's occupied by an army. This helps you understand how to react through NPCs to threats to the town(Maybe even the Players!). Funny, and useful. Doesn't get much better than that. 🙂
I’m not new to world building but a buddy is planning an adventure, a world, for the first time ever. This PDF is perfect for filling him in without spoiling any surprises for myself while playing. Thanks a million
Hey Matt! I got my hard copy of S&F today and I have to say it looks amazing! I love the feel of it in my hands when I slowly flip through the soft, colorful pages, as my eyes pause time and again at all the stunning artwork. It brought back memories of when I saved up my allowance for weeks to buy the AD&D Player's Handbook circa 1979. Well done everyone at MCDM. Bravo!
I recently began a one-PC game with my nine year old daughter, who is becoming a real encyclopedia of D&D lore, and ran into a block about "what next." This video and resource is awesome! Makes me sad that I ran into this channel now and not years ago! Thanks for the resource. Thanks for the tales!
I've looked at this and without even thinking hard I realized that it is one of the best ways to make a town in the middle of the game that I have ever seen. Thank you once again Matt!!
This is brilliant. It breaks the Herculean task of world building down to something simple and manageable by giving a meaningful place to start that will yield immediately actionable results, and prompts creativity with clear questions that address some of the most fundamental aspects of fleshing out your world to be playable. Brilliant. Thank you, Matt, I hope people use this beautiful Campaign sheet for years to come.
The handout is beautiful and looks fantastically useful. Looks to be handy for prepping a "here's what your character probably knows about this world and local area" handout for you players, too. Thank you!
Just wanted to let you know that that sheet you hoped people use years from now just got shared with all of my students that I'm helping write their own campaigns. Your content is always an inspiration. Cheers
I have been watching your videos for about a year and a half now, just making my way though Running the Game. When I started I was overwhelmed and full of lore... no stories. This video and its content is implied in most of the videos and it is what I have synthesized from them. As you went through your questions I found myself having flashbacks to other videos of yours and smiling as I realized... I have these answers now. I have a local area with NPCs and intrigue and set-up that means I can incorporate tidbits of the lore I had in the beginning in order to enrich the stories I have now. Thank you Matt for everything.
Currently about to start a new campaign with a new group, decided to start from scratch on the world so I’m rewatching the videos like these. I made my spreadsheet of the town and am filling out the pdf now! Thank you, Matt, you’ve been an inspiration to me for years!
This could be the most useful video I've seen in a long time. Your early Running the Game videos gave me the courage to run the game in a world I've had in my head for close to 20 years, but when I started prepping I realized I knew a LOT of high-level stuff (who's in charge of the kingdom, what's weird, what makes this place unique, etc) and I knew a couple things about the starting town but I wasn't comfortable putting players in it. I couldn't figure out how to organize everything I needed to know in a reasonable manner, nor how much I needed to know. This is SO helpful. This is the video that, I think, is going to be *the* reason my world is going to get players in it and I can't thank you enough.
Looking forward to using the sheet. I have lots of idea, and jotted some down, but this will help me organize them in one spot. AND I love the idea that the characters get this information, so they are not "dumb" to the world around them, and the DM has to explain everything to them during a session. They should already know the basic, who, what and where.
This is my first video being there when it was new, I just recently finished binge-watching the "Running the Game" playlist. "Doobly-doo" is burned into my mind. I hear it randomly throughout the day.
My GM brought me here, I have trouble asking myself these kinds of questions and having a sheet of them I can also edit with things relevant to the area in the world is most helpful, thank you Mr. Colville for this amazing video and sheet.
Matt, you are a saint. I've been playing D&D a long time, and over the last few years, this series has helped me improve more as a DM than my entire decade long career combined, this video especially included. Thanks for all you do.
MATT! Love the shirt, and I enjoy you giving into the community the way you do. You can be my DM dad. I always enjoyed your videos, your ideas, and your personal experiences. Thank you for the resources, and thank you for your time.
I downloaded the handout and started working on it. I'm not an artist or cartographer either, but I drew my local area so I could actually see it. It took me a couple weeks to fill it out, but I'm ready to run d&d and have a few plot hooks introducing the local bad guy. Thanks Matt for making this easier that I thought it could be.
Matt, I don't know if you fully grasp how brilliant and engaging your content is. You change the scope of what happens on a small scale, which in turn affects a small world, which in turn affects some DMs, which in turn affects a group of people, which in turn affects entire gaming sessions for hundreds, if not thousands of people. You sir have made a night at my own game table something memorable and magical. I applaud you and yours, sir, and would love to see more Running the Game content, it is the influence on a Gygaxian scale that we all need in our lives. Rock on, sir, rock on.
Wish this video was a day sooner since I'm running a game for a couple of new players later today set in a pirate town and (whilst I think it's quite fleshed out) this has got me coming up with a bunch if new ideas. Guess I can always add more before the next session that just wasn't explored in the first.
I'm a new "full time" DM, I started running Dungeon of the Mad Mage because I was terrified of what I thought would be a monumental task of creating a new homebrew world of my own. I am so glad to see something like this. This is exactly the kind of thing I needed to see, a bite sized chunk that I can actually wrap my head around and get off the ground. You're too good for us man. Thank you!!!
This was such a great tool to focus my creativity with. I had just finished making a big map last week hexographer and started annotating it and this was perfect. Within an hour I had so much information written down and the start of a very promising campaign document.
Something that can’t be understated is the fun of filling out a sheet like this with your players on the first session. Letting your players contribute to the world you’re going to play in is super fun and really cements their interest in your world. Maybe its less “your world” and more “our world” now but that’s a great thing too. If you’re looking for similar world building sheets I highly recommend the ones from Ryuutama! You can get world and town creator sheets online for free. Very universally applicable.
I've been developing my the local area of my campaign over the past year on and off and it's good to know that I've been going in the right direction for the most part. I've been answering my questions slowly and also giving a theme to my starting town and continent has been helping me create it to suit the stories that may play out there. The NPCs and villains work with the theme and it makes the setting more meaningful to the plot, like it could only happen because of all of these things have been brought together. I've also taken a page out of the worldbuilding streams on Twitch by bouncing around from topic to topic, following where my inspiration takes me, but this video's handout is great timing for me to keep this focused on what the players will encounter and what secrets can be used in the near future to keep the momentum of sessions going smoothly. THANKS MCDM!
I love the sheet, I downloaded it for reference because my D&D world is slowly being explored by my players and they ask many questions about the various towns and areas. It's a great way to keep track of all the details.
This is fantastic advice. Lots of people (myself included) write millennia of lore and history and the planets... without naming a single town. Forest for the trees type stuff. And the truth is most players won't see most of the world before Level 10, they'll be bebopping from small town to small town.
Excellent advice, practical advice and compellingly presented, and a reminder of the basics that is useful for even those who have their big map on the wall or in their head. Thanks Matt.
Matthew, you're such an inspiring DM that, while not even thinking about my newest campaign I've been running, my mind started flowing just by listening to you, and I had to write all sorts of things down immediately! I know exactly how I wanna handle my next session, and I'm so excited for it already!
You put my babys in frot of a carrion crawler BEFORE they met the topaz dragon?! Jesus Christ!!! My heart skipped a beat, when I recognized that the anecdote you were telling was about Dale and the others. I was about to cry again. "I will always remember you."
I've got my book, and while I've already read the pdf it's so nice to have the physical copy. Can't wait to show my players and see what kind of stronghold they will make.
Hey Matt! Love the sheet! I may use it for local areas in the future, however believe it or not, my world started in exactly the opposite way! I love how D&D worlds can start anywhere. I saw some abstract shapes and was struck by inspiration! Those became my continents. I carefully drew the shapes out on ledger paper. Then I imagined where a few mountain ranges would be and drew those. where the mountains met the sea, an archipelago. From the mountains across the empty areas and into the oceans, some rivers.In areas blocked off by mountain ranges, a desert. In my river basins, forests. In the areas where rivers met the ocean, I made cities. in less optimal areas, towns. I imagined which cities might control/influence each town. Then I figured out who each country's leaders were. Why they were or weren't at war. What cultures they were to be inspired by. What empires came before them. Who the Gods are. Now I have a great baseline. anytime I start a new campaign in a new area, I have a baseline to start from, from which I can expand.Like I said, the opposite approach from you, but I love that about this process. Neither of us is wrong. You just need to follow what inspires you.
Matt this video is one week too late... last week I started making making my very first home brewed game and you are totally right about how fun it is to make!!! thanks for the awesome content you put up. you and all those that work at MCDM are amazing keep it up!
One thing to add is the possibility of letting the players help creating your scenario, some of the questions you pointed could be answered by the players, stuff like the name of the town, or who rules it, and so on. There are many advantages to this collaborative approach: > Less work for the DM: if the DM has less stuff to do, I'm pretty sure they will do it better. > The DM will waste less time explaining stuff to the players: since they helped him create the local area, they already know stuff right from the get-go > Players are automatically invested: it happens to all DMs: they create worlds that are interesting and cool, but the players are not very interested in them. By using the collaborative approach, the DM makes sure that players begin the campaign invested on the setting, since they helped building it.
Can I just say thank you to both Matt Mercer, and you, for inspiring me to get out of the player's chair and get into the DM's sweet rolly chair with a running start and impressed friends
Thanks for this video Matt! I've been DMing for just about a year now, and thanks you your PDF I'm already starting my next campaign. Every video you make is an inspiration. On my way to buying your shirt, book, and becoming a patron! Thanks for all you guys do.
Matt I was just tasked yesterday with building my first world, and needed to have enough content for session 1 by Saturday...this is a godsend, what incredible timing, thank you so much!
The best part about that sheet is the fact that you can use it as a player handout. I probably won't use it to world build, I've built a system in OneNote that I like for my giant world that has sprung up over the years. But each campaign is in a new part of the world (or has been so far) and that will be super useful to hand to them to keep with their character sheets.
This video right here is literally the best advice on creating any world i have seen so far. Great Job! Especially the question about things noone knows so far, this is really cool and useful concept!
You cant imagine how much your videos help me with my campaign. Sometimes I get to a halt, because I dont know how to tackle a certain problem. But rest assured Matti C comes up with a video explaining exactly what I didnt understand. Thank you for that.
This pdf I'd going to be super useful for giving my players a lot of local information that they should know but I always forget to bring it out of my head for them. Thanks Matt!
"It would be just huge for me to like years from now people are still using this sheet to start building their own world" - Mission accomplished! Finally getting around to homebrewing a world, been running pre-made modules for long enough, time for me to branch out.
Thank you so much! This is exactly what I’ve needed for the last 6 months but didn’t know how to start. I’ve been looking over everything I could get my hands on for most of that time but everything seemed to overwhelming. Finding this playlist (specifically this video) has helped me more than anything. I just had my first session and it went great so far. I can’t wait to build out the world more. You rock Matt, keep up the great work!
I love this sheet. I just used it to work on my starting town, and I'm really happy with it! I think it would've taken me way longer to start working on that without the sheet, so I'm very grateful.
I absolutely LOVE your videos. I've been a player for years (decades now, I guess...), and only recently took up DMing for more than a one-shot or two. Your videos, free helpful handouts, and other tips have been life-savers. I'm eagerly awaiting my physical copy of Strongholds & Followers, and looking forward to your next project!
I am SO using this to build my next campaign! The plan is to let my players build each of their character's worlds (naming home towns, naming gods/npcs, creating themes for the setting, creating ideas for the cultures they come from), and I build the larger world around what they created. This makes my process WAY more streamlined.
Got my book this morning, looks even better in person than I ever could have imagined when I first pledged. I'm glad your campaign was the first I ever pledged to.
I've been wanting to do a game like that, where everyone starts out young and every time they level up it's been a year, so by the end of the campaign they're all 20 years older than when they began. Ya know what, I'm going to make that a rule for all of my games from now on. Thanks for the inspiration yet again, Mat!
I haven’t started Dming yet but building a world took me a loong time because I decided to draw a map as soon as I got the idea for the campaign. But it’s really fun and now i cant stop thinking about new stuff which is why i didnt start dming yet
Not just following a formula and actively thinking about what will help people DM is one of the reasons I love this channel. Also the audio and visual is looking/sounding great :)
The name of something isn't really that important, it's just a handle on which you can hang their details in your imagination. "Arynn the Innkeep" doesn't really tell you anything, but it's a start! And I think when you come up with their name, you instantly begin imagining them in your mind. You may never write down everything you know about them, but seeing their name written down will jog your memory. And, of course, you can write out all the details in your epic, 500-page campaign document! This is only meant to be the beginning!
I found this channel a day or two ago and have the biggest mancrush on you. i wanna play d&d so bad now.
I m thinking of dropping a bunch of these with a pf2book on my secundary ( a sort of prep of 5 years between primary and college).
My question...will you make some for bigger things like nations? Or continents? Or maybe only video of thoes
Why doesn't this pdf have a section on how common magic is?
You sounded so enthusiastic today! So happy to see you enjoying what you do, it is worth a lot to your fans to see you happy :)
Even after 14 years of GMing I find some tip or new angle in your beginer's videos. Thanks
Don't forget to add hot singles when designing your local area.
I unironically pinched the bridge of my nose at that one. Stop it. But also nice 😂
Lol. I laughed.
You’re joking, but for some player groups this is actually necessary.
Sittin' here outside me home, middle of the night, no person around, three years after that comment and i wheezed for solid 3 minutes. Thx :D
Oh God, the list of NPC prospects I made for the PC who was seeking title and marriage in my game, I titled "Unbetrothed Maidens in Your Fief."
"What does *no one* know?" *devilish grin*
Sounds like the Secrets of the King of Ithaca.
An excellent video for digging into this category: Web DM's video on Deep Time. Fascinating imagination-jogger for thinking about what happened long before the collected cultural memories of your entire world.
There are mysteries about my world that even I don't know. I have a forest called the Azurewood. All the plants have a blue tinge on them. Plants taken out of it lose the tinge though and any taken in gain it, but they have no magical aura around them. No idea why it happens.
...I don't know.... I kind of want that big map on the wall.... that sounds pretty rad.
Search for birthright s map on google ;)
There are plenty of resources. If you'd like, I can share a list of resources from a site called The Cartographer's Guild that I still use to walk myself through making a map , and I can recommend Artifexian here on youtube for worldbuilding if you don't mind a resource who gets into some of the noodley bits.
As someone who has several "wall sized maps" of places... It's a process.
It starts with the questions. You fill in some place-holder names for things like towns, mountains/ranges, valleys and hollows, deserts or swamps as necessary/useful/applicable... add some village or town, and work out just enough to run a one-shot or so...
As you explore the "spacial sense" of the place, you can do your visual layouts, what is exactly east and west or north or south of whatever else... Whether exactly in-game, with Players running their PC's around to ask questions you hadn't thought of answering yet, or "pre-game" in your planning, you'll flesh out the inner intricate details of each place, from the town wherever you start the game(s) to the surrounding regions, kingdoms and fiefdoms, whole empires if that's your thing.
As you build your visual maps, you just need to keep track of the key, all that iconography that makes the forest symbols for woods and forests or jungles, and how you differentiate (quick is preferable usually) between them, and what exactly constitutes a certain mountain being named, rather than a whole range of them...
AND as you sketch out little bits and pieces to your smaller "one-shot" adventure maps and places... When and as applicable, you can make the notes on the wall-sized hanger... where exactly in the world your group is adventuring "this time"... Between adventures tends to be (in my experience anyway) the best timing for repeated sessions of scratching out cities and guides into the "grand scheme" or wall sized map.
It's worth pointing out that starting out, it's going to seem really really empty, should you just build and hang this wall-sized monstrosity right out of the gate... It's okay to do it that way (obviously) as there's really no particular "right" or "wrong" way to approach it. You may also decide to just figure out about where and how big you think you want the thing, first... and while you're deciding on precise materials and media to use for it, you can scratch out some of the smaller scaled references, compiling together the "to-do" or "to be added" list of stuff for when you DO have a wall-hanger actually together... just so it looks like an ongoing thing, instead of "kinda sparse" or "pretty empty"...
BUT if you do start with it sparse or empty, try to relax. It's okay to have all that space, the potential. It gets trying sometimes to fill it in, knowing you're closing figurative doors on some things, and turning potential into "what simply is" as it is.
It's a process... cyclic, scaled... repeated. AND one day, not as distant as you might think right now, you, too, will have that wall-sized map of a competent interesting world... YOUR world. ;o)
It actually is. I had a 6 foot by 4 foot map on my wall. It made teenage inspiration easier.
I had a "map on the wall" sized campaign a couple of decades ago that started as a single sheet of ten-to-an-inch graph paper with a town on the coast, some mountains, some woods and a river. My recent campaign is on a world build in Fractal Terrain and ported over to Profantasy's Campaign Cartographer. And I started filling in that one with a city on a the coast with a river, some mountains, and some forests.
"This is my local area. There is many like it but this one is mine."
"It's name is Mary Jane Rottencrotch."
Without my local area, I am useless. Without me, my local area is useless.
This is my local area. There are many like it, but this one has a mine.
A short video, but a video should only be as long as it needs to be and keeping this short and punchy and useful will help make it popular and widely watched.
Any chance of getting tshirt in a v-neck?
A Matt Colville video is never long nor is it short it is exactly as long as it needs to be
Short but inspiring. Like a travelling halfling bard. What's his name?
I've watched your videos for two years and I just want to express my deepest gratitude to you.
Your videos have been more than helpful to pull me out of my comfort zone and to actually run DnD. I couldn't find your email so I believe this is my best shot.
Take this from an amateur and humble guy who tries his hardest to be a dm.
From the bottom of my heart, "THANK YOU". Now I enjoy DnD with a few people who love the experience.
Like you said.... Nobody would know that it would be your first time DMing... And everyone on the table would enjoy the experience if you just be open.
Again... my deepest gratitude.
Holy hell, now I want to know about the mysteries of Matt's world that nobody has ever wondered about.
The ones I've picked up on:
1. Why do humans have so many gods while elves and dwarves have just one?
2. Why can humans sense the presence of magical items and undead?
I literally teared up when you said "In 3 years, someone might see a map of your world and get stars in their eyes".
That was such a powerful quote man, straight up bardic inspiration at the very least
@Savage Tales here here
While pressure washing my driveway today I listened this video and thought, "ya know, I should retrieve some of that ancient(43 yr old) knowledge and create the world I started when I was 15.
Matt, I believe you inspired me today. I may just "gate" my players clean out of Forgotten Realms and drop em smack dab into "Khor".
I can still remember the continent I drew with the long mtn range dividing it. The rivers that flowed from those mtns down to the western & eastern seas. The forests that dotted both sides of the divided continent. And the ancient ruined shrines to long-forgotten gods.
Yes, there will be a reawakening of those gods..
Khor will become a world .... again..
I was just chatting with a coworker who mentioned an interest in starting to DM, told him to get the straight dope from Uncle Matt. The timing on this specific video could not have been more perfect.
Throw him this link as well:
theangrygm.com/series/gm-basics/
I have also sent a co-worker to this channel previously, now he is running a game for his friends :)
ohhhhh THATS WHY THE MESSAGE BOARD IS CALLED THAT
You got me started as a DM when you were still trying to get to 5000 subs.
It has been one hell of a ride.
So from my group and me.
Thank you.
You are truly a river to your people.
Same
"Maybe it's the reason humans have so many gods..." Don't think i don't see you sneaking that in there, Colville, you sly fox you
I want to know the answer to this question so bad.
@@midas1108 The answer is . . . no, not forty-two, that's ludicrous and not very helpful.
No. The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.
The donjon site sent me here.
My Random Campaign tells me very few people know that cats can teleport over short distances.
This is solid knowledge and more people should know.
Can confirm, got my book today. Tripped on it as I left the house. Almost died.
10/10 would trip again?
Low passive perception.
I love that Matt made a reference to The Chain stream by saying "Why do humans have so many gods?". In the stream Nails asks that question of his fellow chain members and poses the possibility "Do you think Ajax knows?". Love it.
Alternatively, why do elves and the dwarves only have one each?
Noah Davis those are the gods who made them, that’s why humans having so many Gods is strange, they don’t worship the gods who made them.
most likely in Matt's world it is different but in vanilla D&D there are multiple theories: There is a theory that humans were created by the spirit of the planet as a natural occurrence or from a dead god energy, similarly to elves that were created by accident from Corellon blood. Some speculate that humans were created by prime gods as the first angels in their image. Because the angels of the new gods in their pure form look very similar to humans and Aasimar are almost exclusively born to human parents, although there are rare exceptions. Humanity, unlike most other races, did not emerge as a whole but rather in several places at once, thereby resulting in its diversity.
@@justininexile3445 What if the dwarves and elves worship their gods because they were created by them. Then the humans have so many gods because their belief creates new gods.
Of course in my campaign, the elves, dwarves, etc. have their own entire-pantheons so... heh heh
A group of kids? Oldest 18 youngest 12? would this perhaps be the group of kids that appear in Ratcatchers and the stories about Irdizavonax, Corovaxinar, and the Inexorable of Time?
😱🤯
That was my thought as well!
Here I am, in the midst of creating the town and area that my players are about to visit and BOOM! you release this, you delicious devil.
This is likely the most useful advice I think Matt has given. As a DM of 6yrs, this is so helpful since I'm retiring my old world and creating a new one. 11/10 would recommend.
I'm sorry to hear about the passing of your world. But all will be made well with the exciting birth of another. My condolences friend
@@prestonbrower762 Wasn't sad, rather epic. Players died in the last fight against a Atropus. Who is a world ender from Elder Evils 3.5
@@keeneyedcommander That sounds so cool! I still haven't been able to find a group that is as passionate and into d&d as I am. Every game I've either ran or been in has been an unexpected and unfortunate one shot lol
This is great "Ur-Colville" content, aimed at new DMs but still very useful for old ones. And adding a little bit of homework to get our creative juices flowing was inspired. You've still got it, Matt!
Well it's been 3 years since this video and I thank you. I was overwhelmed trying to start making a world. Your pdf is exactly what I needed to kick my world into gear.
I had the opposite problem, I already had a lot written down but didn't know where to start the players. PDF is massively useful. Three cheers for the MCDM!!
NOTIFICATION GANG
Hint: starting with NPCs is a great way to flesh out a world
Gang gang
Gang squad.
Starting zone may also be a literal noob island.
I'm just starting my first world building and found this to be true. I came up with an idea for a setting, a general history and idea for gods, and an idea for the central conflict.... then hit 4 weeks of writers block. But then I got inspired to flesh out the two main antagonist NPCs, and just in writing their backstory / motivations led to fleshing out 2 areas, more NPCs, and one of the Gods.
Ive been running DnD for three years now, starting with homebrew and very strong opinions on how things should work, then realising ive never played or ran the tropes and went to modules in forgotten realms, as standard as it gets. Its tims to start that homebrew journey again and itll start with this video's message. Thank you for everything Matt and know that not only beginners use your help. We all appreciate it! :D
Watching this video 3 years later and I'd like to come and say, I am using this sheet to start building a world
Years later, I am going to use this sheet to help me build my first fantasy world. Thanks for making it freely available Matt!
I'm watching this video 3yrs later as a brand new DM and going to use your PDF to start designing my world. Definitely a successful and helpful video
That shirt! Can't wait to get one
You know I gotta say, as an experienced GM, most of the advice in these videos is stuff I've thought of or heard before. But I always watch to the end with rapt attention because the way Matt scripts and orates he can make anything sound like a sage story with a beginning middle and end.
This came up in autoplay before I opened it and I can't explain how much it hypes me to hear Matt's voice startin at full speed full impact.
Having 20 years of experience in GMing and yet I still love your content. 3 years later you still give me star eyes.
It all starts with a village. Pretty soon you'll be spending your afternoon establishing the complex lore of the bardic colleges being literal colleges that have intricate relationships with the kingdoms they reside in. Then you'll take a short break because Matt uploaded a new video.
Incase. I see you are a person with culture as well.
"The Barbed Lion Forest"
"The Barbedlion Forest"
"The Ballion Forest"
"Ballion Forest"
Bingo.
The German Schwarzwald ist just black forest. ^^
the Ballin' Forest
Hodor
"The Barbed Town Inn"
"The Bar Bed Inn"
"The old Bed and Bar Inn"
"The old Bedebar Inn"
@Tom Downer The Balgruf Forest
I good way to give the basics of a town/city is to remember:
*S*ocial: Taverns, theaters, and the like. Allows your players to interact and experience your world.
*P*olitical; Who's the local baron, or lawmaster? They are an important NPC for the players, especially new heroes.
*E*conomic: Why does this town exist? There has to be an economic touchstone, towns do not exist without them. It also allows you tomake reasonable decisions about professions and shops within the town.
*R*eligious: A chapel, or possibly even a local superstition. Atheism is just as reasonable, not necessarily as exciting however.
*M*ilitary: Is there town guards? Perhaps it's occupied by an army. This helps you understand how to react through NPCs to threats to the town(Maybe even the Players!).
Funny, and useful. Doesn't get much better than that. 🙂
Good ole Dael Kingsmill teaching. 👍
@@Adrian_Lee6113, damn straight. I'm glad their audiences have crossed a few times.
I’m not new to world building but a buddy is planning an adventure, a world, for the first time ever. This PDF is perfect for filling him in without spoiling any surprises for myself while playing. Thanks a million
Hey Matt! I got my hard copy of S&F today and I have to say it looks amazing! I love the feel of it in my hands when I slowly flip through the soft, colorful pages, as my eyes pause time and again at all the stunning artwork. It brought back memories of when I saved up my allowance for weeks to buy the AD&D Player's Handbook circa 1979. Well done everyone at MCDM. Bravo!
Love your enthusiasm Matt and genuine approach to giving value. Also, comment for the algorithm...
Replying to the comment for the algorithm
I recently began a one-PC game with my nine year old daughter, who is becoming a real encyclopedia of D&D lore, and ran into a block about "what next." This video and resource is awesome! Makes me sad that I ran into this channel now and not years ago! Thanks for the resource. Thanks for the tales!
I've looked at this and without even thinking hard I realized that it is one of the best ways to make a town in the middle of the game that I have ever seen. Thank you once again Matt!!
This is brilliant. It breaks the Herculean task of world building down to something simple and manageable by giving a meaningful place to start that will yield immediately actionable results, and prompts creativity with clear questions that address some of the most fundamental aspects of fleshing out your world to be playable.
Brilliant. Thank you, Matt, I hope people use this beautiful Campaign sheet for years to come.
The handout is beautiful and looks fantastically useful. Looks to be handy for prepping a "here's what your character probably knows about this world and local area" handout for you players, too. Thank you!
Just wanted to let you know that that sheet you hoped people use years from now just got shared with all of my students that I'm helping write their own campaigns. Your content is always an inspiration. Cheers
I have been watching your videos for about a year and a half now, just making my way though Running the Game. When I started I was overwhelmed and full of lore... no stories. This video and its content is implied in most of the videos and it is what I have synthesized from them. As you went through your questions I found myself having flashbacks to other videos of yours and smiling as I realized... I have these answers now. I have a local area with NPCs and intrigue and set-up that means I can incorporate tidbits of the lore I had in the beginning in order to enrich the stories I have now. Thank you Matt for everything.
Currently about to start a new campaign with a new group, decided to start from scratch on the world so I’m rewatching the videos like these. I made my spreadsheet of the town and am filling out the pdf now! Thank you, Matt, you’ve been an inspiration to me for years!
Matt Colville: the Dungeon Master Master.
The DMM
I feel like my watch later playlist is literally full of your videos because I always love learning and watching these
MCDM is full of sweethearts! You guys are amazing, thank you so much for the PDF! Love you guys!
First video I've ever watched with more than 100 views and not a single dislike...couldn't think of one more deserving than this
This could be the most useful video I've seen in a long time. Your early Running the Game videos gave me the courage to run the game in a world I've had in my head for close to 20 years, but when I started prepping I realized I knew a LOT of high-level stuff (who's in charge of the kingdom, what's weird, what makes this place unique, etc) and I knew a couple things about the starting town but I wasn't comfortable putting players in it. I couldn't figure out how to organize everything I needed to know in a reasonable manner, nor how much I needed to know. This is SO helpful. This is the video that, I think, is going to be *the* reason my world is going to get players in it and I can't thank you enough.
Looking forward to using the sheet. I have lots of idea, and jotted some down, but this will help me organize them in one spot. AND I love the idea that the characters get this information, so they are not "dumb" to the world around them, and the DM has to explain everything to them during a session. They should already know the basic, who, what and where.
This is my first video being there when it was new, I just recently finished binge-watching the "Running the Game" playlist. "Doobly-doo" is burned into my mind. I hear it randomly throughout the day.
My GM brought me here, I have trouble asking myself these kinds of questions and having a sheet of them I can also edit with things relevant to the area in the world is most helpful, thank you Mr. Colville for this amazing video and sheet.
Matt, you are a saint. I've been playing D&D a long time, and over the last few years, this series has helped me improve more as a DM than my entire decade long career combined, this video especially included. Thanks for all you do.
MATT! Love the shirt, and I enjoy you giving into the community the way you do. You can be my DM dad. I always enjoyed your videos, your ideas, and your personal experiences. Thank you for the resources, and thank you for your time.
I downloaded the handout and started working on it. I'm not an artist or cartographer either, but I drew my local area so I could actually see it. It took me a couple weeks to fill it out, but I'm ready to run d&d and have a few plot hooks introducing the local bad guy. Thanks Matt for making this easier that I thought it could be.
dude I dont even need a map just watching these videos inspires me a lot and gives me stars in my eyes.
Matt, I don't know if you fully grasp how brilliant and engaging your content is. You change the scope of what happens on a small scale, which in turn affects a small world, which in turn affects some DMs, which in turn affects a group of people, which in turn affects entire gaming sessions for hundreds, if not thousands of people. You sir have made a night at my own game table something memorable and magical. I applaud you and yours, sir, and would love to see more Running the Game content, it is the influence on a Gygaxian scale that we all need in our lives. Rock on, sir, rock on.
Wish this video was a day sooner since I'm running a game for a couple of new players later today set in a pirate town and (whilst I think it's quite fleshed out) this has got me coming up with a bunch if new ideas. Guess I can always add more before the next session that just wasn't explored in the first.
I'm a veteran DM, and that sheet is *still* super useful. Thanks!
I'm a new "full time" DM, I started running Dungeon of the Mad Mage because I was terrified of what I thought would be a monumental task of creating a new homebrew world of my own.
I am so glad to see something like this. This is exactly the kind of thing I needed to see, a bite sized chunk that I can actually wrap my head around and get off the ground.
You're too good for us man. Thank you!!!
This was such a great tool to focus my creativity with. I had just finished making a big map last week hexographer and started annotating it and this was perfect. Within an hour I had so much information written down and the start of a very promising campaign document.
Thanks, Matt Colville. Your videos make me more confident that I can actually do this DM thing.
Something that can’t be understated is the fun of filling out a sheet like this with your players on the first session. Letting your players contribute to the world you’re going to play in is super fun and really cements their interest in your world. Maybe its less “your world” and more “our world” now but that’s a great thing too.
If you’re looking for similar world building sheets I highly recommend the ones from Ryuutama! You can get world and town creator sheets online for free. Very universally applicable.
I've been developing my the local area of my campaign over the past year on and off and it's good to know that I've been going in the right direction for the most part. I've been answering my questions slowly and also giving a theme to my starting town and continent has been helping me create it to suit the stories that may play out there. The NPCs and villains work with the theme and it makes the setting more meaningful to the plot, like it could only happen because of all of these things have been brought together.
I've also taken a page out of the worldbuilding streams on Twitch by bouncing around from topic to topic, following where my inspiration takes me, but this video's handout is great timing for me to keep this focused on what the players will encounter and what secrets can be used in the near future to keep the momentum of sessions going smoothly. THANKS MCDM!
I love the sheet, I downloaded it for reference because my D&D world is slowly being explored by my players and they ask many questions about the various towns and areas. It's a great way to keep track of all the details.
This is fantastic advice. Lots of people (myself included) write millennia of lore and history and the planets... without naming a single town. Forest for the trees type stuff. And the truth is most players won't see most of the world before Level 10, they'll be bebopping from small town to small town.
Excellent advice, practical advice and compellingly presented, and a reminder of the basics that is useful for even those who have their big map on the wall or in their head. Thanks Matt.
Matthew, you're such an inspiring DM that, while not even thinking about my newest campaign I've been running, my mind started flowing just by listening to you, and I had to write all sorts of things down immediately! I know exactly how I wanna handle my next session, and I'm so excited for it already!
You put my babys in frot of a carrion crawler BEFORE they met the topaz dragon?! Jesus Christ!!! My heart skipped a beat, when I recognized that the anecdote you were telling was about Dale and the others. I was about to cry again.
"I will always remember you."
I've got my book, and while I've already read the pdf it's so nice to have the physical copy. Can't wait to show my players and see what kind of stronghold they will make.
Hey Matt! Love the sheet! I may use it for local areas in the future, however believe it or not, my world started in exactly the opposite way! I love how D&D worlds can start anywhere.
I saw some abstract shapes and was struck by inspiration! Those became my continents. I carefully drew the shapes out on ledger paper. Then I imagined where a few mountain ranges would be and drew those. where the mountains met the sea, an archipelago. From the mountains across the empty areas and into the oceans, some rivers.In areas blocked off by mountain ranges, a desert. In my river basins, forests.
In the areas where rivers met the ocean, I made cities. in less optimal areas, towns. I imagined which cities might control/influence each town. Then I figured out who each country's leaders were. Why they were or weren't at war. What cultures they were to be inspired by. What empires came before them. Who the Gods are.
Now I have a great baseline. anytime I start a new campaign in a new area, I have a baseline to start from, from which I can expand.Like I said, the opposite approach from you, but I love that about this process. Neither of us is wrong. You just need to follow what inspires you.
Lol, what a perfect timing! I'm about to start an oneshot (my first time as a DM)and this helped a lot!!
break your PCs legs!
Ah. Babies first one shot. Good luck man
Matt this video is one week too late... last week I started making making my very first home brewed game and you are totally right about how fun it is to make!!! thanks for the awesome content you put up. you and all those that work at MCDM are amazing keep it up!
One thing to add is the possibility of letting the players help creating your scenario, some of the questions you pointed could be answered by the players, stuff like the name of the town, or who rules it, and so on.
There are many advantages to this collaborative approach:
> Less work for the DM: if the DM has less stuff to do, I'm pretty sure they will do it better.
> The DM will waste less time explaining stuff to the players: since they helped him create the local area, they already know stuff right from the get-go
> Players are automatically invested: it happens to all DMs: they create worlds that are interesting and cool, but the players are not very interested in them. By using the collaborative approach, the DM makes sure that players begin the campaign invested on the setting, since they helped building it.
Just filling out the PDF, I feel like I understand my world so much better! Thanks for this awesome resource!
Can I just say thank you to both Matt Mercer, and you, for inspiring me to get out of the player's chair and get into the DM's sweet rolly chair with a running start and impressed friends
Thanks for this video Matt! I've been DMing for just about a year now, and thanks you your PDF I'm already starting my next campaign. Every video you make is an inspiration. On my way to buying your shirt, book, and becoming a patron! Thanks for all you guys do.
Matt I was just tasked yesterday with building my first world, and needed to have enough content for session 1 by Saturday...this is a godsend, what incredible timing, thank you so much!
The best part about that sheet is the fact that you can use it as a player handout. I probably won't use it to world build, I've built a system in OneNote that I like for my giant world that has sprung up over the years. But each campaign is in a new part of the world (or has been so far) and that will be super useful to hand to them to keep with their character sheets.
This video right here is literally the best advice on creating any world i have seen so far. Great Job! Especially the question about things noone knows so far, this is really cool and useful concept!
You cant imagine how much your videos help me with my campaign. Sometimes I get to a halt, because I dont know how to tackle a certain problem. But rest assured Matti C comes up with a video explaining exactly what I didnt understand. Thank you for that.
This pdf I'd going to be super useful for giving my players a lot of local information that they should know but I always forget to bring it out of my head for them. Thanks Matt!
Thank you for all you do for us and the hobby we share and love
"It would be just huge for me to like years from now people are still using this sheet to start building their own world" - Mission accomplished! Finally getting around to homebrewing a world, been running pre-made modules for long enough, time for me to branch out.
Thank you so much! This is exactly what I’ve needed for the last 6 months but didn’t know how to start. I’ve been looking over everything I could get my hands on for most of that time but everything seemed to overwhelming. Finding this playlist (specifically this video) has helped me more than anything. I just had my first session and it went great so far. I can’t wait to build out the world more. You rock Matt, keep up the great work!
I've also used this as an answer sheet to prep to run a pre-made campaign setting. It's quite helpful.
hey 5 years later, I USED THIS SHEET!!!! Thank you 🤣😊😍😍
I love this sheet. I just used it to work on my starting town, and I'm really happy with it! I think it would've taken me way longer to start working on that without the sheet, so I'm very grateful.
"In three years, someone might see a map of your world and get stars in their eyes."
I can't begin to explain how much this motivates me.
I absolutely LOVE your videos. I've been a player for years (decades now, I guess...), and only recently took up DMing for more than a one-shot or two. Your videos, free helpful handouts, and other tips have been life-savers. I'm eagerly awaiting my physical copy of Strongholds & Followers, and looking forward to your next project!
I am SO using this to build my next campaign! The plan is to let my players build each of their character's worlds (naming home towns, naming gods/npcs, creating themes for the setting, creating ideas for the cultures they come from), and I build the larger world around what they created. This makes my process WAY more streamlined.
12:10 how could you do a post-Mortum video now? The Chain probably won't be killing him until they get out of Ringwell.
Can't describe how much you've inspired me. What a joy to share time and space with you
Thanks for the handout, and the discussion. Once again, you demonstrate that you are truly a river to your people.
Mr.Coville I love you, thank you I have been in a rut trying to think of the surrounding areas for my game and this really helped me.
Got my book this morning, looks even better in person than I ever could have imagined when I first pledged. I'm glad your campaign was the first I ever pledged to.
I've been wanting to do a game like that, where everyone starts out young and every time they level up it's been a year, so by the end of the campaign they're all 20 years older than when they began.
Ya know what, I'm going to make that a rule for all of my games from now on. Thanks for the inspiration yet again, Mat!
This is the MOST USEFUL Dnd video I have ever watched. Thank you Matt for inspiring new and existing dungeon masters. I look forward to using the PDF
I haven’t started Dming yet but building a world took me a loong time because I decided to draw a map as soon as I got the idea for the campaign. But it’s really fun and now i cant stop thinking about new stuff which is why i didnt start dming yet
Not just following a formula and actively thinking about what will help people DM is one of the reasons I love this channel. Also the audio and visual is looking/sounding great :)
See, this is why you’re the best, Matt. A great video with a fantastic handout, all for free. Truly you are a river to your people.
I wish I'd had this years ago! It's still very useful now though. Thanks Matt!