5 Worldbuilding Mistakes DMs Make // D&D Advice

Me: "I'm an experienced DM with almost 10 years' experience who's built multiple homebrew worlds from scratch. I'm usually pretty confident, but there's definitely room for improvement so maybe this video will be useful to get some more advanced tips..." Ginny Di: "Tip 1: Read the DM Guide." Me: "...Oh yeah fuck I should probably do that at some point."

I've always loved the idea of having an entire campaign in a single city. Puts a fantasy world under a microscope, and to me that can be even more immersive and magical :)

There's a quote that I think gets at the heart of tip 5: "plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." In other words, you can't make a plan that will successfully address every actual complication; what you can do is develop, through careful thought and exploration, a list of things that likely could happen and the ways and means you have at hand to address something unexpected happening, as it surely will.

I'm just blown away that you just dropped "Dragons eat magic" as an off-the-cuff idea that more or less instantly unfolded into an entire multi-book/film/campaign world.. :O .. Just awesome! :)

To go off of the planning thing, someone took a Churchill quote and rephased it to this: "DMs that don't plan before a session have no brain. DMs that don't improvise during the game have no hearts."

omg, a world where dragons are attracted to the scent of magic, that sounds so cool. Also would create interesting dynamics if someone on your party decides to play a Dragonborn wizard. Or a dragonborn in general.

The players may skip some stuff, toss it in the recycling bin! No not in the trash, the bin where you grab it later when it would make sense and make a few adjustments to update it.

As a long time DM a common mistake I have seen and made is making the world too functional. I have seen so many new DMs make a world where conflicts are solved too easily by NPCs or by big organisations. For newer DMs, I would recommend placing the adventure in a remote place or in a country where organised help is rare. It is OK to make the world good at dealing with problems the players aren't going to fix, but if the story would logically solve itself without the players the adventure is going to feel hollow. Give the big pieces of your world a compelling reason not to help the party directly.

One of the funnest most memorable moments in our d&d campaign in the 90's was when the party tried to teleport somewhere and the teleport failed. Instead of putting us in a generic swamp or standard dark forest (as usual) we ended up in the 1300's China helping the ancient Asians rescue a dragon of luck. The wizards there used magical paints and wands, blew our minds. Yes. World building can be magical!

A good resource that I enjoy is Sly Flourish's Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. Really places an emphasis on start small. Especially the concept of a spiral campaign. Don't go planning out your entire world when you won't leave the first town for 5 sessions. Overthinking can drive even the most skilled DM mad.

"I would marry Google drive if it were legal" MOOD

Wonderful, smart, funny video as always, and side note--who else is OBSESSED with her shirt in this??

Me, "OK I have a rough sketch of what's happening I should start world-building." Me next session,

Everytime i would create a world it would be a literal world and i'd always get overwhelmed and quit. Great advives

Is it me or does "world anvil" sound like the coolest macguffin ever?

Thanks for the advice, Ginni! As a 40+ year gamer (and having spent 20+ years building my world), here's my two silver- handle the big themes- religion, climate, topography, major history- first. Then choose the area in which the campaign will start- flesh that area out with local topography and history, but get your players involved. Give them the overall themes, and let them build out their backstories in advance of the game- use those backstories to create a richer local history and culture. If you stick with a single world long enough, you and your players will help create a deep, rich, gaming environment.

I feel like this is the one that makes me actually join WorldAnvil, tbh.

For Number 5, I've learned that sometimes learning how to motivate your characters to go the way you want (and therefore, the way you have planned) is a huge help. But the information here definitely checks out: There are no substitutes for planning ahead and being prepared to improvise.

I agree, start big. Fill in just as much as you need to actually easily 'run' the world and have better easy ideas. Find the way that works as well for the feel and theme of the campaign you are about to run in that world. Make sure the theme of the world suits the style of game/campaign the players actually want to play. Communicate with the players. You can also make many worlds. Give yourself at the very LEAST a month to worldbuild before the campaign starts. Prepare what happens to help you AND that you enjoy as well as what will actually help the players. I agree. Continue to build as you play as well!

What I find with players skipping stuff I carefully planned is, I can generally rework those plans into the next segment of the campaign somehow. It's never wasted! Like, the map for the dungeon they bypassed is now the interior of the manor house they'll be visiting at the start of next adventure (with a few more tapestries and four-poster beds, and fewer rusty chains and skeletons).