Game design, lore and setup, Dungeon and Dragons (TTRPG)

My hobby Dungeon and Dragons

My biggest hobby is DnD for the past 5 years and in total I created a custom world and lore with three campaigns in it. Each one bigger than the other one, from having a 5 session campaign to a 31 session campaign. Where I created lore, npc’s, maps, battle maps and items that fit the players.

Approach for the lore and players storylines

I want to make the game as much fun for them and give them the space to do so. I first started with the world lore, the campaign theme and lore. Leaving a lot of gaps so that they can be easily filled in for the player’s storylines they wish to make, so they have more freedom to create their ideal character. Giving each player at least a couple of sessions to spend on their storyline and what they want to do with it, binding it together with the campaign goal and lore. Making sure to drop enough hints, lore and npc’s to direct them to their background and goals. Also connecting some side quests to their background.

The goals and themes of the campaigns

My approach for this, is to challenge myself and try to add a new flavor to the campaign for me and the players. Knowing what the players prefer in campaigns this helps shape the goals and themes of the campaign. For the second campaign, it was to see how to the players would uncover the mysteries of the ancient temples and the hag monster who inhabited the place. This was the first trial how a campaign mostly in the wilderness would look like and to find out if it works well for the players and me as the dungeon master.

With that knowledge, I made the third campaign around gnolls and demonic corruption in the mountains as the theme, which made the looming threat so much more scary. Rather than seeing them as low level enemies, they would see them as a corrupting force changing the environment and its inhabitants. Each goal of each campaign is connected to the players characters in some way, so that they feel more connected to the story and driven to the intended goal.

World building

Due to my knowledge about the normal Dungeon and Dragons lore, I used it as a base and carved my world into it. Leaving a lot of things be, unless it was prevalent and need of change it for the campaign or for the player storylines.

Conveying the story and the theme

The third campaign revolved around the theme of corruption and I did not want to just convey that in their main enemy alone, but rather in a lot of other things. I focused on explaining scenery, what they saw, smell and what oddness some may feel, rather have an npc explain it to them. Also letting them interact and find out themselves. Making sure that the theme also involved other side quests and story lines that did not connect to the main story.

Making a theme is a very good base to create storylines and flavor the world more with that detail.

For the survival and wilderness part, giving the players a feeling of loneliness and looming danger helped a lot, giving sights of big creatures far away or sounds they hear from the nearby forests.

It is also important to give the players time to breath between the dark themes of the story by adding a beautiful scenery, humor and show that their actions do really make a positive difference.

Conveying game mechanics and player freedom

Some game mechanics are not much used in a DnD campaign, and some are neglected by dms or players. It is important to know why and to make sure the theme and the fun of the game is still there, I never enforce a game mechanic on the players if they don’t want to. It is just important to show them the value and rewards for doing so.

If they for example want to keep their armor on during a heat wave, that is all fine. It is a trade they take and it is important to show them that, they will burn and get a temporary de-buff while walking in the sun, but they are more protected against future enemies. I will make sure the players who put effort into not getting burned, feel that it is worth it by rewarding them. This way of playing is vital in my opinion and motivates the players to make more unique decisions. Rather than just punishing the players for making a decision in the game.