There are hundreds of guides spread along the internet to help game masters build their campaigns; this is mine. It also just so happens to be built for the all-too-common scenario of the world builder that gets lost in all their ideas. Like many of you, I suffer from the curse of having more ideas than time. I’ll start building something only to abandon it when the next big idea comes around. This guide is designed to help you put together a completely custom campaign and world before that can happen.
First, Some Creative Caveats
-
This method is for building a sandbox-style game with primarily emergent storytelling.
-
You won’t be building everything; this method helps you create the 50,000-foot view, and you will fill in the details as you go.
-
You will be using modules to construct your world, and sanding off the edges to connect them and make the world feel cohesive.
-
When it comes to session prep, I try to stick closely to the ideas set forth by Mike Shea in his excellent book Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. If for some reason you haven’t read it, you really should.
There are other ways to do this, many of them more in-depth and involved. But the benefit of this method is that it is easy and quick. Two things that ensure that you finish your world-building and get to the gaming.
Trendalor, my example campaign.
For this article, I will be using my current Shadowdark game as the example. Feel free to steal and modify for your uses if you like. Everything here is free to be used/modified/hacked.
The Sleeping Coast
Key
C1 Sybarate Island — Rahasia
D2 Saltmarsh — The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh
F2 Time Temple — Shadows of Our Past
G2 War Mage’s Lair — Inside the Everflowing Curtain
B4 Wavestone Monolith — Shadowdark Notecard Dungeon
D4 Farmer’s House — (NPC)
F4 Mistlebrow — In the Dead of Knight (Starting Village)
G4 The Ruined Keep — Portal Under the Stars
E5 Ravine — The Sunless Citadel
B6 Châuteau D’Amberville — Castle Amber
G6 Falcon’s Peak — Dungeon #3
D7 Temple of Amun-Re — Pharaoh
E7 Tyr — Dark Sun Boxed Set
G8 Castle Mistamere Ruins — Kill Bargle, Dungeon #150
D9 Mitra’s Fist — The Dark Tower
My Process — 3 Simple Tools
Why three? Because it’s the magic number. Any more and it’s complicated, any less and it wouldn’t be enough. Remember, we are using the Lazy Dungeon Master method; the rest we will be able to plan and build as the sessions play out and the characters drive the story. So what are they:
-
A short background document. Short is the keyword here.
-
A hexmap, filled with adventure modules and random overland encounters.
-
A rumor table, full of hooks to help drive the characters deeper into your world.
What about NPCs and factions? Well, the short answer is you don’t make them yet. I push all of that off onto the session prep. They start to naturally emerge from the modules I pick and the cities I choose to run. Then it becomes a matter of drawing tensions and connections between them as the characters explore the world.
1. The short background document.
Here is an example of mine. It is two sheets of legal-sized paper folded in half and stapled together to form a booklet. The entire explanation of the world is one page of this little booklet. That is it. Keep it short, or your players definitely won’t read it. Most of mine did on their way to the first session. In addition to that, I included house rules, mostly because we are playing Shadowdark and a lot of these rules are spread amongst zines they don’t have, if they did, it wouldn’t be in this document.
Download the Trendalor Player Guide
The key with this document is that it should be as short and humanly possible. I filled mine with a little bit of art and kept the type size large, making it a little more inviting. But the goal is to keep this document from feeling like homework, and give the players something to turn to when they want to understand your world.
The final, and arguably most important piece of information conveyed in this document is the hexmap. When you look at the one in this document, you will notice some differences from the GM-facing map I included above. I have purposely only included the key focal point settlements that the characters would know about before their adventure began—the rest they will need to learn about through rumors and their interactions with the world. Periodically throughout the campaign, as the characters learn about new locations, I like to reveal more of the map and supply the players with an updated version.
2. The hexmap.
The first step to developing your hexmap is determining how long of a campaign you would like to run. If travel isn’t going to be a big part of your campaign, the standard 19 hex flower can support months’ worth of sessions. If you want something to wrap up quickly, seven hexes can be more than enough.
For Trendalor, I wanted to have a couple of different terrain types, so I spread it out amongst a bigger map, but have limited the encounters to about 1/3 of the hexes. One benefit of a slightly larger map has been the ability to slot in some additional encounters as the story has evolved and place them in the “empty” hexes, to make them feel more permanent, or encourage the players to consider returning to those places in the future.
The second step is where the real work happens, and the most fun. I go over to my bookshelf and pull all the cool adventures I have been hoarding that I haven’t played yet, and grab them. Anything goes, even those massive tomes that could be a campaign by themselves. Usually, almost anything can be adapted to fit your world’s theme, or maybe you take a single floor from a dungeon and use it by itself for a shorter encounter. The idea is that you have enough modules to fill at least 35% of the hexes on the map.
I then start to plot out a rough sense of the order in which the characters might discover the adventures. This involves establishing the starting point, or town, and envisioning the last session as a pivotal moment, where I'll select a module with a notable villain or looming threat that serves as a fitting capstone for the campaign.
From there, I pick and choose the modules to fill in between, ordering them by what I assume the player's level will be as they navigate the world. However, while that can be a guide for selecting modules, I think it’s important to realize that the adventure difficulty can always be edited in session prep. You don’t want to plan a railroad. If the characters stumble upon a dungeon that is a bit too challenging for their current level, that’s okay. They might just need to return later when they are more capable. And if the dungeon is underpowered, you can always add a couple of extra monsters into the encounters.
Once you have the modules you are going to use, consider how they can be connected. I like to grab some scrap paper and sketch out where each module would be on the map. You can begin by identifying which modules require a nearby city and then placing them. After placing all the necessary locations on the map, I consider what gaps there might be. A port for travel, trade routes, roads, rivers, and a major city where rarer items can be bought are all common things you might like to add. I decided to make my region a coast, so I even added an island that the characters could charter a ride to—every GM has an adventure on an island they want to run.
The Initial Player-Facing Map
After sketching out the full map, I then scale it back to the initial player-facing version. I do this by thinking about what a character with their background would reasonably know about the world around the starting location. This usually includes any major settlements or legendary locations, and major terrain features. However, that isn’t a rule. For example, I have chosen to remove the City of Tyr from the desert, as the travel to the city is perilous and trade hasn’t taken place between it and the starting town in a couple of decades. It’s small decisions like this that make the world unique and reward discovery.
If you are going to be making a larger hexmap where travel encounters are possible, it makes sense to plan those at this stage. In the sleeping coast, I developed three different ones that scale to make the higher-level adventures a little more challenging to reach. The areas around the starting town are the easiest, then there are mid-level encounters near the forest, and even more difficult desert-themed encounters in that region.
Finally, you are left with taking your sketches and bringing them to life. I hand-drew this example, but there are plenty of tools out there to help the less artistically inclined. For most tables, your hand sketches or even simple icon-based art are perfectly functional.
3. The rumor table.
The last missing piece is the rumor table. You create this by scanning each of the modules you intend to run, looking for unique features, treasure, or characters, and then writing compelling hooks that draw the characters toward them. I like to grab two or three per module to make sure there is a varied collection of hooks that appeal to different types of player/character motivations.
My starting rumor table.
These are just a starting list that I will roll on in general locations and that I return to as the characters complete modules. During session prep, I may choose to focus on the local rumors by creating a smaller table by pulling the ones from the closest modules and adding in new ones for local NPCs or establishments.
Conclusion
And that’s it. Just three short documents to create an entire world and campaign. Yes, it’s still a ton of work, but it is a process I have completed in a single weekend. How many GMs manage to pull that off?
In the near future, I plan to follow up with part 2, which will show my GM binder and how I prepare for each session, continuing to develop the world as the characters interact with it.
Update: Read part two “The Overachiever’s Lazy GM Binder” where I demonstrate how I use a GM binder to organize everything I have created and expand upon it as the campaign plays out.
Update: I have created a spiritual successor to this series called “How to Run a Sandbox Adventure” where I outline my no-nonsense methods for running sandbox campaigns.
