Early Campaigns: Early World Building

It is no coincidence that so many people working in Hollywood today are coming out as long time players of Dungeons and Dragons: The game embodies acting, story telling, and the creation of fabulous characters and worlds.

For me, gaming and writing have always gone hand in hand. Elements of gaming have always gone into my writing and vice versa.

In Dungeons and Dragons, the person most responsible for the creation of the campaign world is the Dungeon Master. For those who may not know, players of the game create characters with a specific class, like fighter or magic-user, and race, like human or dwarf, but that is only the beginning. Player characters can be as simple or detailed as the player wants. Most people who play the game go for detailed, with elaborate backgrounds and personalities. But it is the Dungeon Master who creates the worlds and adventures the characters engage with, and is the arbiter of all interactions with that world.

Creating worlds takes time and tons of work. Therefore, my first effort was to take The World of Greyhawk Campaign Setting created by the game's creator, E. Gary Gygax and to make it my own. This sort of hybrid is a great option for new DMs. One can easily take an existing framework and make it their own. I played a long running campaign in such a setting.

Once you've gotten comfortable with this it is time to create your own world from the ground up. Next time we'll look at a few strategies on getting your game world started.