*Thanks for watching!* How do you make your world come alive? Give us your ideas in the comments below! Have you ordered your copy of The Practical Guide to Becoming a Great GM? Pre-order now and save! Check it out here: bit.ly/3EDNbmK Find each chapter of the video easily by clicking on the timestamps in the description.
A simple trick I use for making the world feel real is actually having the players encounter other adventuring parties, or the consequences of another party's actions. Before our first real dungeon, the PCs met one of the members of a party that had ventured into the same dungeon just a few days prior and been forced to flee... then had one of their own turn into a werewolf on them. I threw in this other party as a warning device so that they could be prepared to encounter werewolves in the dungeon, and they loved it! It really changed how they approached the situation and made them agonize over things that they would otherwise gloss over or charge headlong through. It was amazing! There's so much I want to do along these lines. Things like having them return to a town where I had thrown a bunch of adventure hooks at them previously, and find out that some of those problems have been resolved by someone else ("Oh, so-an-so found the shipwreck and retrieved some of its cargo. Turns out, the vessel was carrying ___"). I've got a rival team from an opposing faction that I'd like to bring in at some point to up the stakes of an adventure or to throw in a complication if I feel they're not taking an important adventure seriously enough (like leaving a dungeon partway through to rest to confront the final boss at full strength, only to discover the next day that someone else took advantage of their progress to finish the job for them and make off with the treasure they were after). I'd also like to use it to spark side quests to help other adventurers ("Oh, we had made plans to infiltrate the monastery to retrieve an important item, but when the appointed time came I was the only one that showed up. Would you be willing to help me instead?" or "I was delayed in town getting reagents and my companions left without me, but I dare not venture through the mountains alone! If you're headed that way, might I accompany you as well?")
So, I made a series of tables based on the last video Guy talked about events in campaigns. Thought maybe someone is interested in it. Basically I roll a d10 for severity (1-5: minor, 6-9: medium, 10: major), a d12 for type (law, founding, magical effect....), a d10 for motivation (greed, revenge, natural....) and a d10 for alignment. So a medium law change, based on nature and with true neutral alignment might be, that the local town forbids the use of a well, as the water in there is now contaminated due to a fungus infection in the caverns below the city. I actually like random tables, because they force you to adapt and can break a potential rail road, but I also think, that you should be able to mold the events to the current situation, hence I made my tables generic and interpretive, rather than specific.
Riccardo Sirigu Okay, so you‘re gonna need two d10 (I like to use one double, one single digit one to know which rolled for which), a d12 and a d8. Roll them all at once, or on their own, doesn‘t matter. I like at once tho. First d10: 1-5 small/mundane event, 6-9 medium/local shaking event, 10 large/world shaking event. As of this video I am debating increasing the chance of the large event by 1 every two/three sessions. D12 (in order): Founding, Attack, Thievery, New Item, Revolution, Law Change, Natural Disaster, Murder, Magical Disaster, (religious) event/festival, Omen/Religious Sign, Sickness. Roll for a general Idea of what is happening. Feel free to change, add or remove as you would see fit, this is just what I csme up with when I wrote this. D8, Motivation: Power, Wealth, Status, Love, Revenge, Justification, Nature, Roll twice and combine. People who support Guy and bought his book might notice that I was *cough* inspired by his bad guy chapter in there. Second d10, alignment: Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic Good, Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic Neutral, Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic Evil, or reroll. Those are also in order from 1 Lawful Good, to 9 Chaotic Evil. Note, that this is a) subjective to the party or area it affects and b) might be useless as a natural disaster with nature as motivation for examlpe might just be natural (suprise) and has no alignment. Or maybe it has, due to gods or capitalism or whatever you can come up with. Hope this helps.
@@embersmirage3896 Thank you, that's a very interesting way to categorise it, I'll expand on it with possible campaign related outcomes. Shall Umberlee's wave never cross your journey, dear traveler.
my takeaway as a 100% random no prep lazy dm who exclusively uses random charts, “dont just use random charts to tell you what to do, use them to inspire you to do something that fits your game” (paraphrase) is great advice. i also suggest making your OWN random tables with stuff that IS appropriate to your game. if you do that, the inspiration comes easier. thats what i do, i have a huge generator, and i look at the output as a suggestion, and then i tell a story about that suggestion but i edit it on the fly so i take some stuff out or connect some dots manually. i also do this in advance, i dont always do it live, and this helps a TON. doing the generation before the game gives you a huge lead to read your own work and get in the right head space. its as easy as knowing the answer to any obvious questions, especially if something seems odd. how do you get from point a to point b in the story? why does x npc appear and what do they say and do? lots of smaller bits of detail combines to make one big scene, and the best part is its all contextual, and metaphorical so it doesnt HAVE to make sense. the parts that seem like they make no sense are great jumping off points for further adventure and mystery!
I like to introduce an NPC from a place that is upcoming in the campaign. They can give some info and even clue in on plot before they ever get there. I also love to have civil discourse. Fights and petitions and increased guards, many people simultaneously living a hardship is an easy picture to paint and easily gets players invested. More money has gone to nameless NPC mothers trying to feed her children than have gone to bar tabs and magic items. Security for negotiations and ambassadors gives a close proximity to power and knowledge while also peeling back the corrupt curtain enough to get the players to want to take action, which can lead to some pretty crazy scenes.
In my randomized campaign, I've even found ways to show an evolving world. One of the players tried magically timing some large beasts. They managed to get them to migrate to a village, where theyhad friendly interaction. A later random event, just so happened to involve the same race. They became messengers, thanking the group for the new food source, and provide some other banter.
Hey, just wanted to let you know that you've inspired me to create my own TTRPG. It has been one of the most fulfilling hobbies I've ever had and I've looked to your videos for a lot of guidance. I just wanted to voice my appreciation since I heard you try to respond to people. Thank you for creating such consistently top tier content.
i tend to use rolling tables as "semi-random" tables, simply because it's easier to "pick randomly and reject if i don't like it" than it is to choose a specific entry.
Dear grave GM I wanted to apologize for not being around for an extended period of time. Not because I have fallen out of the hobby or lost interest. Yet more because over the years of listening to your advice I have become quite confident in my role. So overall I would like to thank you for your years of dedication and input you definitely shaped the games around my tables for the better.
The less informations the people of a world have, the easier life is for the GM. Things get complicated when individuals rich and poor can get news from far far away. I find it more interesting when people are kind of in the dark what is happening in other parts in the world. So when players find out it’s a big thing ☺️
Also, spread misinformation e.g about tribes, cities, kingdoms! And the closer they get to these things the more accurate those stories become. Suddenly these elder killing orcs become these people that are troubled by a plague that slowly kills their oldest generation and they instead spare them from a painful death. Not only feels the world alive, you can also improvise plot hooks in one session, that you can flesh out in the time they travel there. Just think about something cruel or weird and build around it
eh, even irl people with access to information instantly raaaarely have any idea about current events, in any way that could be considered truthful or helpful. even if they do, most people do not care about current events, at least 50% of all people are complacent and just self absorbed. think of a fantasy example of a high magic world, lets take the obvious lord of the rings, you have gods, magic, flying intelligent beings… and yet, gondor has to light several signal fires to signal for help because for some reason they dont just rely on someone powerful to spread the information. why? because simply telling people about events doesnt actually engage them personally. a giant line of signal fires that are burning on the horizon is a lot more attention grabbing than just some god telling you all about the news. impact is more important than access of information, imo. sometimes, even with magic, someones best efforts simply arent enough, or simply get ignored. thats just how people are. now, consider the signal fires, it seems very obvious now why gondor uses them, instead of just having a better system to send information to rohan. why doesnt gandalf just fly between these towns and talk to the leaders? the leaders are corrupt. its easy to give a reason why something wont work, so even if you have an epic magical world, any attempts for normalcy can easily be gimped by simple logical excuses as to why it wont work
In mediaeval Europe, it was common not for travellers to stay in an inn but at somebody's house. They would "pay" by telling their hosts about news they had gathered during their travels.
Thanks for the great video, lots of solid advice for a newer GM with no storytelling experience. Perhaps in a later video or something, but what would be an example of a table you would make for events? I'm having trouble thinking of how that would work
Could you disguise a foreground event as a background event at first like: a high ranking noble (say a duke) along the kingdom's border has developed friendships among some of the neighbors in his region. He gets an offer from them to aid them in an upcoming war, and agrees to it because as far as he's concerned he has more common interests with his neighbors in that part of the land. He visits his king's court, and has arranged himself to get assassinated. His strange death begins to erode trust between the nobility and the royal house. Meanwhile a younger version of the duke awakens many miles away safely in the lands of his new friends and now it's just a matter of time to reclaim his old holdings and more. So in the beginning, it's just the assassination of a noble. While tragic, it's not something that's entirely unheard of. But really it was all a pretext to a coming war the whole time. But if the players pick up on that thread and follow it to the end, they might learn that the person they thought was a tragic figure was really a scheming bastard that was in part behind the whole thing.
Epic vid, very helpful ... but a note on "useful" I plan on letting my players find thing like standing stones or stone tools, maybe even fossils with literally no explanation or plot function besides the RP they make around it to show them the world is "ancient" fallowed by some recent small event that they can interact with in that location (footprints, a clue map, bandits/ goblins ect) I have found as a player little things like that tend to leave strong memories as a forever unsolved mystery that is fun to speculate on. Players: Who made that monument? DM: No creature knows, it is to old for even an ancient dragon or lich to know ;) maybe ask a god? Player: I DO THAT = God: I wasn't watching that spot at that time, sorry. Players: ahhhhhhhh nooooo DM: a branch snaps and gets your attention ..... roll initiative
Great info! I found the background/foreground wording a little confusing though. In mind mind anything that happens is like a ripple in a pond. You players might do something that does not ripple past the tavern wall or the town line, or it may resonate across the region and even beyond. In the same way, things or reactions the DM might imagine in or from the world might not ripple all the way to the PCs right away or ever. As an example, the party may thwart a low level member of an organization, but the NPC may want to keep a lid on that. If, when and how far one or more defeats ripple can vary, and so can the organization’s reaction. As you said, these events may not have been caused by the PCs to begin with and reaction to them can come from directions they never expected.
Okay so after the mud slide your crops and stuff are ruined and wildlife (mostly regarding game) is largely scattered, died in the mud slide and is already rotting away or emigrated to "safer" habitats. What do you eat now?
My current campaign revolves primarily around two warring nations. Every 4 levels or so I have a plot twist and the further they get the more consequential they become. There had been an uneasy ceasefire between the Ostians and the Mordavians for decades. The party were recently conscripted Ostian soldiers and around level 4 I had the rival nation surprise attack seizing half their country, the capitol, and killing the royal family in a day. A puppet regent has been put in place by the enemy and the players were declared deserters and outlaws. This has lead them into soft piracy and treasure hunting. Now at level 8 Im about to throw the next change at them. Their airship pilot has been kidnapped and taken into Mordavia past the Dragonback mountains that are yes, home to very hostile red dragons. They will discover that their pilot is the last if distant scion of the royal family but still more legitimate than the puppet regent. Now its up to the team to cross a dragon infested mountain and strike deep into enemy territory to rescue the "princess", who until recently was a mostly overlooked NPC that drove them around.
In the early levels I kept evolving the world in the background. They were mostly a peacekeeping and trouble shooting band tasked with fixing or investigating whatever was vexing the kingdom in that area, kobold dens, unquiet graveyards, etc. Things kept getting stranger leading up to a sort of preamble of the invasion that ultimately sidelined them from being wiped out in the initial invasion itself amd lead to their acquiring an airship during their daring escape.
This creator’s main focuses on how various events can alter the geopolitical/political landscape. As I have been sketching out my campaign space I have been feeding off the both of you for different reasons. ruclips.net/user/DungeonMasterpiece
I have to immidietaly disagree on the part of the events not directly affecting the pc's. If it's supposed to be a living breathing world, there needs to be things that happen and don't revolve around the players, it might affect them indirectly or way later down the line, because the world doesn't give two fucks about some crazy hobos.
*Thanks for watching!* How do you make your world come alive? Give us your ideas in the comments below!
Have you ordered your copy of The Practical Guide to Becoming a Great GM? Pre-order now and save! Check it out here: bit.ly/3EDNbmK
Find each chapter of the video easily by clicking on the timestamps in the description.
Who doesn't hate banana milk shortages ... definitely a major disaster in waiting.
A simple trick I use for making the world feel real is actually having the players encounter other adventuring parties, or the consequences of another party's actions. Before our first real dungeon, the PCs met one of the members of a party that had ventured into the same dungeon just a few days prior and been forced to flee... then had one of their own turn into a werewolf on them. I threw in this other party as a warning device so that they could be prepared to encounter werewolves in the dungeon, and they loved it! It really changed how they approached the situation and made them agonize over things that they would otherwise gloss over or charge headlong through. It was amazing!
There's so much I want to do along these lines. Things like having them return to a town where I had thrown a bunch of adventure hooks at them previously, and find out that some of those problems have been resolved by someone else ("Oh, so-an-so found the shipwreck and retrieved some of its cargo. Turns out, the vessel was carrying ___"). I've got a rival team from an opposing faction that I'd like to bring in at some point to up the stakes of an adventure or to throw in a complication if I feel they're not taking an important adventure seriously enough (like leaving a dungeon partway through to rest to confront the final boss at full strength, only to discover the next day that someone else took advantage of their progress to finish the job for them and make off with the treasure they were after). I'd also like to use it to spark side quests to help other adventurers ("Oh, we had made plans to infiltrate the monastery to retrieve an important item, but when the appointed time came I was the only one that showed up. Would you be willing to help me instead?" or "I was delayed in town getting reagents and my companions left without me, but I dare not venture through the mountains alone! If you're headed that way, might I accompany you as well?")
So, I made a series of tables based on the last video Guy talked about events in campaigns. Thought maybe someone is interested in it.
Basically I roll a d10 for severity (1-5: minor, 6-9: medium, 10: major), a d12 for type (law, founding, magical effect....), a d10 for motivation (greed, revenge, natural....) and a d10 for alignment.
So a medium law change, based on nature and with true neutral alignment might be, that the local town forbids the use of a well, as the water in there is now contaminated due to a fungus infection in the caverns below the city.
I actually like random tables, because they force you to adapt and can break a potential rail road, but I also think, that you should be able to mold the events to the current situation, hence I made my tables generic and interpretive, rather than specific.
I'm interested, I really like the idea or randomizing them in a conceptual way, can you send them over?
Riccardo Sirigu Okay, so you‘re gonna need two d10 (I like to use one double, one single digit one to know which rolled for which), a d12 and a d8.
Roll them all at once, or on their own, doesn‘t matter. I like at once tho.
First d10: 1-5 small/mundane event, 6-9 medium/local shaking event, 10 large/world shaking event.
As of this video I am debating increasing the chance of the large event by 1 every two/three sessions.
D12 (in order): Founding, Attack, Thievery, New Item, Revolution, Law Change, Natural Disaster, Murder, Magical Disaster, (religious) event/festival, Omen/Religious Sign, Sickness.
Roll for a general Idea of what is happening. Feel free to change, add or remove as you would see fit, this is just what I csme up with when I wrote this.
D8, Motivation: Power, Wealth, Status, Love, Revenge, Justification, Nature, Roll twice and combine.
People who support Guy and bought his book might notice that I was *cough* inspired by his bad guy chapter in there.
Second d10, alignment: Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic Good, Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic Neutral, Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic Evil, or reroll.
Those are also in order from 1 Lawful Good, to 9 Chaotic Evil.
Note, that this is a) subjective to the party or area it affects and b) might be useless as a natural disaster with nature as motivation for examlpe might just be natural (suprise) and has no alignment.
Or maybe it has, due to gods or capitalism or whatever you can come up with.
Hope this helps.
@@embersmirage3896 Thank you, that's a very interesting way to categorise it, I'll expand on it with possible campaign related outcomes. Shall Umberlee's wave never cross your journey, dear traveler.
my takeaway as a 100% random no prep lazy dm who exclusively uses random charts, “dont just use random charts to tell you what to do, use them to inspire you to do something that fits your game” (paraphrase) is great advice. i also suggest making your OWN random tables with stuff that IS appropriate to your game. if you do that, the inspiration comes easier. thats what i do, i have a huge generator, and i look at the output as a suggestion, and then i tell a story about that suggestion but i edit it on the fly so i take some stuff out or connect some dots manually. i also do this in advance, i dont always do it live, and this helps a TON. doing the generation before the game gives you a huge lead to read your own work and get in the right head space. its as easy as knowing the answer to any obvious questions, especially if something seems odd. how do you get from point a to point b in the story? why does x npc appear and what do they say and do? lots of smaller bits of detail combines to make one big scene, and the best part is its all contextual, and metaphorical so it doesnt HAVE to make sense. the parts that seem like they make no sense are great jumping off points for further adventure and mystery!
I like to introduce an NPC from a place that is upcoming in the campaign. They can give some info and even clue in on plot before they ever get there.
I also love to have civil discourse. Fights and petitions and increased guards, many people simultaneously living a hardship is an easy picture to paint and easily gets players invested. More money has gone to nameless NPC mothers trying to feed her children than have gone to bar tabs and magic items.
Security for negotiations and ambassadors gives a close proximity to power and knowledge while also peeling back the corrupt curtain enough to get the players to want to take action, which can lead to some pretty crazy scenes.
In my randomized campaign, I've even found ways to show an evolving world. One of the players tried magically timing some large beasts. They managed to get them to migrate to a village, where theyhad friendly interaction. A later random event, just so happened to involve the same race. They became messengers, thanking the group for the new food source, and provide some other banter.
Hey, just wanted to let you know that you've inspired me to create my own TTRPG. It has been one of the most fulfilling hobbies I've ever had and I've looked to your videos for a lot of guidance. I just wanted to voice my appreciation since I heard you try to respond to people. Thank you for creating such consistently top tier content.
This is really good advice! I need to make my homebrew world seem more immersive and this really helps me as a DM. Thanks a lot!
i tend to use rolling tables as "semi-random" tables, simply because it's easier to "pick randomly and reject if i don't like it" than it is to choose a specific entry.
Dear grave GM I wanted to apologize for not being around for an extended period of time. Not because I have fallen out of the hobby or lost interest. Yet more because over the years of listening to your advice I have become quite confident in my role.
So overall I would like to thank you for your years of dedication and input you definitely shaped the games around my tables for the better.
The less informations the people of a world have, the easier life is for the GM. Things get complicated when individuals rich and poor can get news from far far away. I find it more interesting when people are kind of in the dark what is happening in other parts in the world. So when players find out it’s a big thing ☺️
Also, spread misinformation e.g about tribes, cities, kingdoms! And the closer they get to these things the more accurate those stories become. Suddenly these elder killing orcs become these people that are troubled by a plague that slowly kills their oldest generation and they instead spare them from a painful death.
Not only feels the world alive, you can also improvise plot hooks in one session, that you can flesh out in the time they travel there. Just think about something cruel or weird and build around it
eh, even irl people with access to information instantly raaaarely have any idea about current events, in any way that could be considered truthful or helpful. even if they do, most people do not care about current events, at least 50% of all people are complacent and just self absorbed. think of a fantasy example of a high magic world, lets take the obvious lord of the rings, you have gods, magic, flying intelligent beings… and yet, gondor has to light several signal fires to signal for help because for some reason they dont just rely on someone powerful to spread the information. why? because simply telling people about events doesnt actually engage them personally. a giant line of signal fires that are burning on the horizon is a lot more attention grabbing than just some god telling you all about the news. impact is more important than access of information, imo. sometimes, even with magic, someones best efforts simply arent enough, or simply get ignored. thats just how people are. now, consider the signal fires, it seems very obvious now why gondor uses them, instead of just having a better system to send information to rohan. why doesnt gandalf just fly between these towns and talk to the leaders? the leaders are corrupt. its easy to give a reason why something wont work, so even if you have an epic magical world, any attempts for normalcy can easily be gimped by simple logical excuses as to why it wont work
In mediaeval Europe, it was common not for travellers to stay in an inn but at somebody's house. They would "pay" by telling their hosts about news they had gathered during their travels.
Actually caught a video as it was released, nice.
This gave me sooooooooo many ideas! Thanks, Guy!
Thanks for the great video, lots of solid advice for a newer GM with no storytelling experience. Perhaps in a later video or something, but what would be an example of a table you would make for events? I'm having trouble thinking of how that would work
Could you disguise a foreground event as a background event at first like: a high ranking noble (say a duke) along the kingdom's border has developed friendships among some of the neighbors in his region. He gets an offer from them to aid them in an upcoming war, and agrees to it because as far as he's concerned he has more common interests with his neighbors in that part of the land. He visits his king's court, and has arranged himself to get assassinated. His strange death begins to erode trust between the nobility and the royal house. Meanwhile a younger version of the duke awakens many miles away safely in the lands of his new friends and now it's just a matter of time to reclaim his old holdings and more.
So in the beginning, it's just the assassination of a noble. While tragic, it's not something that's entirely unheard of. But really it was all a pretext to a coming war the whole time. But if the players pick up on that thread and follow it to the end, they might learn that the person they thought was a tragic figure was really a scheming bastard that was in part behind the whole thing.
Very cool idea
Epic vid, very helpful ... but a note on "useful" I plan on letting my players find thing like standing stones or stone tools, maybe even fossils with literally no explanation or plot function besides the RP they make around it to show them the world is "ancient" fallowed by some recent small event that they can interact with in that location (footprints, a clue map, bandits/ goblins ect) I have found as a player little things like that tend to leave strong memories as a forever unsolved mystery that is fun to speculate on.
Players: Who made that monument? DM: No creature knows, it is to old for even an ancient dragon or lich to know ;) maybe ask a god? Player: I DO THAT = God: I wasn't watching that spot at that time, sorry. Players: ahhhhhhhh nooooo DM: a branch snaps and gets your attention ..... roll initiative
Perfect, I'm in need for some GMspiration for my campaign!
Such valuable advice, thanks!
Great info! I found the background/foreground wording a little confusing though. In mind mind anything that happens is like a ripple in a pond. You players might do something that does not ripple past the tavern wall or the town line, or it may resonate across the region and even beyond. In the same way, things or reactions the DM might imagine in or from the world might not ripple all the way to the PCs right away or ever.
As an example, the party may thwart a low level member of an organization, but the NPC may want to keep a lid on that. If, when and how far one or more defeats ripple can vary, and so can the organization’s reaction.
As you said, these events may not have been caused by the PCs to begin with and reaction to them can come from directions they never expected.
Thank you. This is very helpful
Wow I'm never here this early!
How did you go from "mud slide" to "cannibalism"? You don't mess around, do you? ;-)
Okay so after the mud slide your crops and stuff are ruined and wildlife (mostly regarding game) is largely scattered, died in the mud slide and is already rotting away or emigrated to "safer" habitats. What do you eat now?
@@Max3110 The horses? The dog? Jumping straight to Uncle Charlie wouldn't be my first choice! 🤣
@@DougCoughler you’re right but some village might be "quirky like that"
@@Max3110 Well, to be honest, Uncle Charlie was a bit of a jerk ...
@@DougCoughler now he's jerky!
My current campaign revolves primarily around two warring nations. Every 4 levels or so I have a plot twist and the further they get the more consequential they become. There had been an uneasy ceasefire between the Ostians and the Mordavians for decades. The party were recently conscripted Ostian soldiers and around level 4 I had the rival nation surprise attack seizing half their country, the capitol, and killing the royal family in a day. A puppet regent has been put in place by the enemy and the players were declared deserters and outlaws. This has lead them into soft piracy and treasure hunting. Now at level 8 Im about to throw the next change at them. Their airship pilot has been kidnapped and taken into Mordavia past the Dragonback mountains that are yes, home to very hostile red dragons. They will discover that their pilot is the last if distant scion of the royal family but still more legitimate than the puppet regent. Now its up to the team to cross a dragon infested mountain and strike deep into enemy territory to rescue the "princess", who until recently was a mostly overlooked NPC that drove them around.
In the early levels I kept evolving the world in the background. They were mostly a peacekeeping and trouble shooting band tasked with fixing or investigating whatever was vexing the kingdom in that area, kobold dens, unquiet graveyards, etc. Things kept getting stranger leading up to a sort of preamble of the invasion that ultimately sidelined them from being wiped out in the initial invasion itself amd lead to their acquiring an airship during their daring escape.
Not going to lie, I would have liked a little more time and examples of background events.
👍👍
I may or may not find it funny to include horror in my games every now and then
...what were the two hacks?
This creator’s main focuses on how various events can alter the geopolitical/political landscape. As I have been sketching out my campaign space I have been feeding off the both of you for different reasons. ruclips.net/user/DungeonMasterpiece
Does anyone NOT use tables like this?!
Yay! No one ever gives XP to GMs.
I have to immidietaly disagree on the part of the events not directly affecting the pc's. If it's supposed to be a living breathing world, there needs to be things that happen and don't revolve around the players, it might affect them indirectly or way later down the line, because the world doesn't give two fucks about some crazy hobos.
This brilliant method created Dungeons of Drakenheim by @DungeonDudes, Kelly and Monte, my DND campaign heroin.