If you want to download the player's guide to the Jelwe Cities, as well as get the best-selling digital magazine, SIDEQUEST, every month, sign up to the $10 tier on www.patreon.com/icarus_games
I am so excited to see what you have to offer. I just joined your top tier on Patreon. I got money on you bud. And I think it’s a sure bet for my players.
@@TonyHulk They both achieve very similar results but get there using a different path. WA provides a LOT of prompts for every element of your world, which is great if you want that, whereas LK just gets out of the way and lets you create. I personally find for my style of worldbuilding I can work way faster in LK.
I really like how 'Rimworld' goes about naming the months. They're basically two month blocks. 'Aprimay', 'Decembary', 'Jugust' 'Septober' they're like instantly recognizable, but also ...not quite normal.
In my homebrew world, I went with easily recognisable day names but the months are based on the seasons to have a bit more of an idea of what the weather is like. So one is almost intuitive, the other one just takes a tiny bit of thought but it's pretty doable.
I like week day names in Slavic languages. They're literally "the day after the whole week", "the second day", "the middle day", "the forth day", "the fifth day".
I really love the player's guide you created to get the players into the mindset of the world before starting the campaign! How much info would you put into a player's guide for a campaign where the characters are outsiders in a new world? So a campaign where the characters themselves get dropped into a time and world/land that that know absolutely nothing about.
The way ancient chinese named their month can be insanely inspiring too. They have 10 earthly branches to describe the development and eventually death of life. 12 heavenly branches for the passing of seasons/flow of yinyang. Each of the branch had their own "element" according to chinese astronomical phenomenon. Combining both branches can get you the "elements" of the day, month and year. e.g. the first sign of earth's sign - wood and first heaven's sign - water, both elements are considered benefiting each other, hence signifying the harmony. Combining both you have water+wood day, which is also the first day of the spring.
Our DM, who spent a month, doing a campaign setting in a city that we were stopping through on our way to a quest. It was a series of murders in the commoners/poor part of town. As we got off the boat, typically a pickpocket tried to pick my dragon warriors purse only to get hit in the back of the head killing him, not intentional. Then we found out about the crime wave in the city as a series of murders against non-humans. The party was like five seconds thinking it over, and said nope we’re out of here. Always trust the party members to mess with your best laid plans!
Your DM obviously hasn't read Feng Shui, 2nd edition. On page 23, under the heading "Buying In" the book states, "At the beginning of your first adventure, and perhaps at other intervals as the series progresses, the GM expects you to buy in - to find a reason why your character decides to engage with the dangerous situation at hand...". Most of the rest of the page goes on to expand on this concept. Long story short, it's not railroading, it's giving players the opportunity to expand on their characters' backgrounds and histories by allowing them to create a reson why they have a personal stake in the situation, whatever impact on the game world that may have. I don't expect anyone who's unfamiliar with Feng Shui to believe me (about it not being raliroading) though. It's more a certain mindset you get into when you understand that game, which only takes about 2 to 5 minutes of gameplay for most.
That's sort of a breach of the social contract on a fundamental level I'd say, there's a meta argument that players are obliged to take the DM's hooks - I think most DMs would struggle to deal with that psychologically... 🤔
@@ChapterGrim I kinda agree. I don't think it would be a big issue for an experienced DM/GM but it might really knock the confidence of a new GM. One approach GMs can use is to make it clear that there are consequences to ignoring bad things going on in the world. For example, in one of my campaigns a powerful magic user had been cursed by an enemy and was unable to remove the curse herself, so asked the PCs for help. They declined. Later in the campaign they faced an extremely dangerous situation in which the magic user's help would have been hugely advantageous, but of course even if she had still been willing to help them at that point, she wasn't able to because she was dealing with the consequences of the curse.
@@marktaylor7162 I tend to see it as something, though I have a few players that take all the hooks, that if I were faced with I'd deal with away from the table - it's a meta issue and a matter of respecting the DM. Though I will say that the DM should set up the meta premise prior to play, and be clear about what is a hook - TTRPGs don't really lend themselves to the sort of subtleties you'd see in drama or literature... 🤔
I've been non-stop revising and expanding my own D&D world since the beginning of my DM journey 3 1/2 years ago now. Watching this video has inspired me to really crack on with making some form of properly organized documentation. I have a lot of notes, lore and information but it's all over the place. I had only recently started to pad out the history of the world and created a small document on the history/creation. That is one piece of the jigsaw in creating a book-style document for my players and for myself. Incredible detail, a very interesting world on the surface and a chilled out video from minute 1 that has very much inspired me. I will certainly be subscribing for more.
This level of organization is absolutely bonkers. I can't imagine getting all of this worked out before the game even starts. Kudos though, definitely impressive. I like feeling the similarities between our DMing styles, even if I'm flying quite a bit more by the seat of my pants.
Yeah, definitely not something I would recommend across the board. It's not even what I would do for every game, but it works for the specific situation I'm in with this group really well.
I have always been partial to Matt Colville's kind of starting small and branching out from where the players start. If a DM really loves world building that's awesome, but for many it can become overwhelming and keeping the world building character focused can help.
The material in the video is fairly high level, so even Matt Colville would make some notes on some of that before the game progressed too far. Personally, I would aim somewhere inbetween where you have a vague idea of what's where, but then you would fill in the blanks and change things around as you go. I usually have a large region map, a few notes on locations, but then adventure number 1 is in a fixed location which includes a settlement. Then I use questions the players ask and answers given to start filling things out. I do this because some of my best ideas happen while I'm actually running the game rather than planning it out.
I must say I'm a fan of the little side quests flags you've planted. That will greatly help the group I play with as we're starting small and building up the area around the town first
woahhhhh I had no idea Legendkeeper was a thing. This is a game changer! Thanks so much for this video. That's going to help me organize my world sooooooo much!
I want to really thank you for sharing your tools, your thoughts and everything! I won't be able to make a professional looking campaign booklet like you did. Not right now, at least. But knowing your tools and thought process really, really helps me make leaps I wouldn't have made by myself! Thanks a lot for sharing, Anto / Icarus Games!!
Stumbled upon this video while laying the groundwork for my next campaign, I was looking for a "Campaign Primer" and I must say this video is one of the best I've seen. I'll be checking all of your other content for sure!
This is the method we're taking to develop our product for release, which also includes minis. Fun stuff. Let me know if you're ever wanting to collaborate on projects for Kickstarter in the future
Some of your systems like your currency and spellcasting focus for example are so intriguing to me. It's inspired me to make something like that when I start my next campaign!
This is the second player guide I have seen from you. Now we need to see a video on how you built and published that document. What template did you use?, where did you find your artwork?, How did you make your calendar?, etc., and all of the details that will allow us to make a similar document.
It's on my list to do a tutorial for the desktop publishing software I use. I'll likely do it in the new year once I've finished laying out the SIDEQUEST annual.
I've wanted to do a calendar based on seasons more than months. So you'd have like Sprun, Grown, Shorn, Challd. And for each Season you'd have a new, high, and waning.
I got really interested on the Legend Keeper, but for the time being I'll have to make due without it. But it looks like the perfect solution to what I needed.
For my "homebrew" setting I decided on using a modified Carolingian system of currency: 1 gold is 30 silver which is 360 copper - 1 silver is 12 copper. It's a fantastic system for using actual coinage because 360 is a superior highly composite number as is 12... 😅
In another RPG's setting, Calabria in Ironclaw, the currency divides 12 coppers into 1 silver, and 24 silver into 1 gold. Also highly divisible coinage! I do think 30 and 12 = 360 makes for an easier decimal number; Calabria's coinage is basically dozenal, which I like but could be hard for most people to still get used to
@@theramendutchman I suspect that the scaling for a dozenal system of currency would get messy in some situations, though 12 is a great number to work with for actual coinage...
@@ChapterGrim Well, numbers like 144, 288, 1728 etc. make little to no sense for decimal people, and look like very difficult numbers. But 360 looks like a very easy to understand number to most decimal-minded people, while it's still a lovely dozenal number, as well! So yeah, I'm stealing the 12 -> 30 idea!
@@theramendutchman the great thing about it is the DM/GM can set the value of gold & silver in an economy, no need to worry about it beyond the coinage, and you can still have decimalised values built within the system by having coins that are set at decimal values 20 or 50 or 100 copper... 🤔
Yaaay! My Legate Character i redeemed made into the Video! Also great Video! Gave me a lots of points and hints to work around for my P&P Stuff thanks!
Thanks for explaining your LegendKeeper pins. Sadly there's no one-time-purchase software for that sort of thing, but I've found that you can use the tool Obsidian and a plugin called Leaflet that does an okish job at letting you pin things on a map. But I've replicated your system from LK onto it and seeing how it goes. I'm feeling so much more organized now..
I would love to see your templates that you have made, they seem so organized and structured compared to mine, I always found them impossible to make myself.
Best part is it's pretty accurate to the real world. In Britain for a good chunk of time coins were minted with a cross on them and we intended to be cut into 4ths. I just took the ideal and extrapolated out to a base 10 system so it would fit the existing copper>silver>gold economy.
Great video. I'm old schools myself, using paper and graph paper, but I recently started using online documents and Dungeondraft. I'm going to have to watch more of your videos because you appear well organized. I liked the part about making the calendar simpler. I also found that too many unfamiliar words just throw players off. I did the whole create my own language thing but when I named everything in that language it was just going too far. Although it's something of a fantasy trope, there's a lot of benefit in giving things names that the players can easily associate with them. The pirates may hang out in Brth'nk Thr'ml, but everyone's going to call it Pirate Town so why resist.
Wow!! I'd very much like to play in a game which went more than a handful of sessions because the DM got bored/gave-up/ran off to the next shiny thing. I came back to RPG games after a massive break and fell into the Forever DM role pretty much straight away.
My question would be: How do you balance the level of each encounter? If it's a fairly open world where they can go anywhere then they could be any level when they reach one of these points. This would make it difficult to plan ahead as the level you pick might be too low if they find it later or too hard if they reach it sooner.
A lot of the pins are flexible in their location, so can be moved around if needed, but some threats are just going to be too hard at certain levels, and require them to return at a later date. This is communicated to the players in session 0, and there's always some kind of in world indication that a threat is beyond them when they reach the area.
“The first moon of autumn” & “the third moon of winter” is a good way to refer to months. There's normally just one full moon per month, & the four or so second moons are call “blue moons” & don’t count toward the months.
@@IcarusGames Heard from a lot of my friends that Steven Erikson's Malazan series is really good if you liked the BC series. Author is heavily inspired by BC.
Ok so you sir are a hidden gem. I have yet to make it through this entire video and I’m already blown away by how amazing your games sound. To that point. You said that “Due to player mistakes” this area has been blown apart and is now thousands of islands. I paused the video AGAIN right there to say. PLEASE TELL US WHAT HAPPENED. WOTC seemingly absolutely refuses to acknowledge the DM/GM’s and instead focuses on power creep for players to sell books. I’m begging you to please make a video about how you set up your game, to where the player’s actions eventually lead to the destruction of part of a continent. I spend upwards of 6-8 hours a day, at work with a ear bud Listening to countless videos on how to make this game better. And yet I still only ever hear about lore and encounters. Your on a Matt Covile level here with your game mechanics. And I would pay top level Patreon tiers to get information on how to make your player’s actions effect the world around them both positively and negatively.
That's incredible kind. I actually do have a storytime video talking about the circumstances that led to the players accidentally blowing up the country they were fighting to save, which you can find here: th-cam.com/video/YuNebpSrp74/w-d-xo.html The TLDR is; be careful when you cash in your magical wish from the god of tricks!
You've done a lot of the work to turn this into a hex crawl to sell. You could easily make it system agnostic by letting DMs determine their own stat blocks. Maybe just provide reference book/page numbers for the stat blocks since it's from so many sources
You've done most of the prep work like you said. Most DMs I think struggle with inspiration and you've provided that. I'd probably purchase it. I'm already gonna steal that pirate plot hook. Sounds fun
Just track time 1:1 out of session You can go as far into the future during the session as you want but then you have to wait for irl time to catch up with them (which is a great chance to play other characters!)
It's Legendkeeper, a browser based worldbuilding tool. I've got a bunch of videos where I use it, and an overview of it here: th-cam.com/video/dQLNil0wn2I/w-d-xo.html
Hey, is this in any part based on the Black Company book series by Glen Cook? I noticed a couple of similarities and thought that would've been kinda cool if it was.
🤣 it is an intriguing premise! One of my favourite way to think of plot hooks is by fusing two different movies. In this case, it would be a string of murders being carried out by a person being used as a puppet by another creature.
Would it be alright if I used your month names in my own worldbuilding on worldanvil? My articles are public, but I doubt I'll ever "publish" anything officially.
I am indeed! Every week for my regular game, and then for all my other worldbuilding stuff too. My most recent overview video on it is live here: th-cam.com/video/zmN-KwiTx3Y/w-d-xo.html And I recently asked LK to set me up with an affiliate scheme too, so if you do decide to pick it up, go to www.legendkeeper.com/?via=anto and use code "ICARUS24" at checkout to get 20% off your first payment.
It's Legendkeeper, a browser based worldbuilding tool. I've got a bunch of videos where I use it, and an overview of it here: th-cam.com/video/dQLNil0wn2I/w-d-xo.html
What is the software you are using for the map? I can't seem to find the link, I'm currently using Onenote but the text boxes for my pins really gets in my way where this seems a lot cleaner. Fantastic video! Found I've been doing some similar things already but I'm going to try implementing a number of things you've talked about
@Amira Bautista Thanks for the info! I'll take a look at both legend keeper and masterscreen. Haven't minded using onenote but they took away an ease of use option that makes accessing pins on a map really hard when there's a bunch in one location
The level of detail in this is insane, I'm 99% sure in a good way, but maybe 1% not 😅. I do think though that things like renaming days, months etc is not only pointless, it's actively harming to immersion because it feels like homework. I always remember an author intro to the book nightfall by isaac asimov quoted below because - as in most things - asimov says it better than I ever could. "Kalgash is an alien world and it is not our intention to have you think that it is identical to Earth, even though we depict its people as speaking a language that you can understand, and using terms that are familiar to you. Those words should be understood as mere equivalents of alien terms-that is, a conventional set of equivalents of the same sort that a writer of novels uses when he has foreign characters speaking with each other in their own language but nevertheless transcribes their words in the language of the reader. So when the people of Kalgash speak of "miles," or "hands," or "cars," or "computers," they mean their own units of distance, their own grasping-organs, their own ground-transportation devices, their own information-processing machines, etc. The computers used on Kalgash are not necessarily compatible with the ones used in New York or London or Stockholm, and the "mile" that we use in this book is not necessarily the American unit of 5,280 feet. But it seemed simpler and more desirable to use these familiar terms in describing events on this wholly alien world than it would have been to invent a long series of wholly Kalgashian terms. > In other words, we could have told you that one of our characters paused to strap on his quonglishes before setting out on a walk of seven vorks along the main gleebish of his native znoob, and everything might have seemed ever so much more thoroughly alien. But it would also have been ever so much more difficult to make sense out of what we were saying, and that did not seem useful. The essence of this story doesn't lie in the quantity of bizarre terms we might have invented; it lies, rather, in the reaction of a group of people somewhat like ourselves, living on a world that is somewhat like ours in all but one highly significant detail, as they react to a challenging situation that is completely different from anything the people of Earth have ever had to deal with. Under the circumstances, it seemed to us better to tell you that someone put on his hiking boots before setting out on a seven-mile walk than to clutter the book with quonglishes, vorks, and gleebishes. > If you prefer, you can imagine that the text reads "vorks" wherever it says "miles," "gliizbiiz" wherever it says "hours," and "sleshtraps" where it says "eyes." Or you can make up your own terms. Vorks or miles, it will make no difference when the Stars come out."
I'll take 1% insane lol As for Asimov and immersion, I agree pretty much. Most of us don't invent completely new languages or colloquialisms for our worlds. I've mentioned it a little before, but my big ambition is to play multiple campaigns in this world and have it be where I set my games for many years to come, so the hope is that players come to be familiar with some of the specifics of the world like different day and month names over the course of years.
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Great information! I have not played D&D for an age, but I am a writer who is working on a science fantasy world, and I find D&D worldbuilding is not all that different than story worldbuilding. Not that I am snaking ideas just the concepts. like I LOVE your calendar and date system as well as the ages fantastic idea!! Love the map work too. Are you still an Incarnate fan over wondercraft. I have been looking at the two and I am a fan of one time buy but I can see what you mean about a monthly fee giving the ability for more updates and 25 for a year is really not bad at all. I would also love to get back into D&D someday, it's just been a long time since my party split up and went off into their own lives scattered around the US and indeed the world for that matter.
I am still using Inkarnate as my main map tool. The $25/year is manageable for me and I'd prefer to get the regular updates and new content vs Wonderdraft which hasn't had an update in years now.
When you are going through the map and all of the pins, and discussing the players knowledge of things in blue with the secrets off to the side, is that world anvil or is that another program you are using to maintain all of those notes?
Hi, i wanted to make something like that, but i´m not an artist, im just a designer, where can i get images of monsters and stuff (with no copyright of course)
My favorite way to make language relevant is writing. NPC notes and random books should all be written in relevant languages. The dwarvish necromancer wouldn't have a post-it note in common, he should use dwarvish
hey. I think the video is great, but I don't get why you split your coin in two and then into five? surely it would be hard splitting anything in 5 evenly? wasn't the real life equivelent to split it in 2, then 4, then 8?
You are 100% correct. If I was writing my own system I'd use a base 8 currency so coins could be split exactly like that. This is a concession to accommodate the fact the system we are playing in (PF2) uses a base 10 for its currency, so I can still list the prices of things in CP, sp, and GP and my players and understand the values. In the modern western world we are super used to decimal currency, and often find older systems confusing. But when you think of them from the POV of a base coin and splitting it down (in the case of a penny) or going up in weight value, it makes a lot more sense.
@@IcarusGames aha, yea. I mean I'm not used to the base 8 system at all. I just think it would be fun to try out in tabletop. I guess it's the monetary version of "the dwarves speak with a scottish accent". to make it sound fantasiful. but instead, make the coinage old timey british and it's a fantasy world ^^
@@IcarusGames ohhh eres grande! Muchas gracias, de verdad que se ve una guía MUY brutal para los jugadores o incluso para la construcción de un libro o una novela (que sería para lo que usare) mil gracias.
Awesome! Been using LegendKeeper since their beta, it's an amazing tool. By the way, how did you make the PDF for the Player's Guide itself? I've tried a couple of online editors but none of them have pleased me :(
You can't lead with "In the biginning, there was time." Even if it's an important rule, you need to hook the reader in on page 1 of any book. You neeed to answer the questions "Why am I reading this? Why do I want to continue?" IMMEDIATELY.
@@corley-ai if this was for mass publication, I'd totally agree with you. But the setting guide in this video was made specifically for my players; so has a target audience of 5 people, and they are already hooked because they chose this campaign from multiple options presented to them. The setting guide is a reference document for them, not a piece of mass market entertainment designed to entice a perspective reader to keep them reading.
@@IcarusGames Heroes wanted: Are you ready to carve your name into the annals of a world reeling from apocalyptic change? The Dual Cities of Talava call for brave souls to navigate their jeweled streets and perilous wilds. Within these pages, you'll discover a world of ancient magics, political intrigue, and perilous quests. To survive the a world where where time itself is a precious resource, where lizardfolk guard a single golden road, and where your next game of Gorgon could leave you petrified, you might want to peruse this handy travel guide. Alwas hook the readers first.
Ok…. I’m just absolutely blown away. I have managed to make it through this entire video now, and this is my 3rd comment. I want to play in this world, I want to run this world, this is the evolution of DnD. I’m totally in. Please, break this video down into individual sections, teach us sensei.
Fortunately, I have livestreamed most of the creation of this setting, and you can find 36+ hours of the process in this playlist: th-cam.com/play/PL3cwve_r0qbFW-vk2IHZUMu4bq-hurOlG.html
The players aren't expected to read everything that they *can* read. The PDF setting guide gives them their introduction to the world, and they are free to explore the public pages of the legenedkeeper as much or as little as they wish.
If you want to download the player's guide to the Jelwe Cities, as well as get the best-selling digital magazine, SIDEQUEST, every month, sign up to the $10 tier on www.patreon.com/icarus_games
I am so excited to see what you have to offer. I just joined your top tier on Patreon. I got money on you bud. And I think it’s a sure bet for my players.
Never heard of Legend keeper , how does it compare to World Anvil?
@@TonyHulk They both achieve very similar results but get there using a different path. WA provides a LOT of prompts for every element of your world, which is great if you want that, whereas LK just gets out of the way and lets you create. I personally find for my style of worldbuilding I can work way faster in LK.
I really like how 'Rimworld' goes about naming the months. They're basically two month blocks. 'Aprimay', 'Decembary', 'Jugust' 'Septober' they're like instantly recognizable, but also ...not quite normal.
In my homebrew world, I went with easily recognisable day names but the months are based on the seasons to have a bit more of an idea of what the weather is like.
So one is almost intuitive, the other one just takes a tiny bit of thought but it's pretty doable.
I like week day names in Slavic languages. They're literally "the day after the whole week", "the second day", "the middle day", "the forth day", "the fifth day".
I really love the player's guide you created to get the players into the mindset of the world before starting the campaign!
How much info would you put into a player's guide for a campaign where the characters are outsiders in a new world? So a campaign where the characters themselves get dropped into a time and world/land that that know absolutely nothing about.
I'd probably put about as much info, so that they can find out the high level information of a region that anyone would know.
The way ancient chinese named their month can be insanely inspiring too.
They have 10 earthly branches to describe the development and eventually death of life. 12 heavenly branches for the passing of seasons/flow of yinyang. Each of the branch had their own "element" according to chinese astronomical phenomenon.
Combining both branches can get you the "elements" of the day, month and year.
e.g. the first sign of earth's sign - wood and first heaven's sign - water, both elements are considered benefiting each other, hence
signifying the harmony. Combining both you have water+wood day, which is also the first day of the spring.
Our DM, who spent a month, doing a campaign setting in a city that we were stopping through on our way to a quest. It was a series of murders in the commoners/poor part of town. As we got off the boat, typically a pickpocket tried to pick my dragon warriors purse only to get hit in the back of the head killing him, not intentional. Then we found out about the crime wave in the city as a series of murders against non-humans. The party was like five seconds thinking it over, and said nope we’re out of here. Always trust the party members to mess with your best laid plans!
That's why the vast majority of the 500+ pins only have a nugget of inspiration or a vague but evocative hook, and not reams of information 😂
Your DM obviously hasn't read Feng Shui, 2nd edition. On page 23, under the heading "Buying In" the book states, "At the beginning of your first adventure, and perhaps at other intervals as the series progresses, the GM expects you to buy in - to find a reason why your character decides to engage with the dangerous situation at hand...". Most of the rest of the page goes on to expand on this concept. Long story short, it's not railroading, it's giving players the opportunity to expand on their characters' backgrounds and histories by allowing them to create a reson why they have a personal stake in the situation, whatever impact on the game world that may have. I don't expect anyone who's unfamiliar with Feng Shui to believe me (about it not being raliroading) though. It's more a certain mindset you get into when you understand that game, which only takes about 2 to 5 minutes of gameplay for most.
That's sort of a breach of the social contract on a fundamental level I'd say, there's a meta argument that players are obliged to take the DM's hooks - I think most DMs would struggle to deal with that psychologically... 🤔
@@ChapterGrim I kinda agree. I don't think it would be a big issue for an experienced DM/GM but it might really knock the confidence of a new GM. One approach GMs can use is to make it clear that there are consequences to ignoring bad things going on in the world. For example, in one of my campaigns a powerful magic user had been cursed by an enemy and was unable to remove the curse herself, so asked the PCs for help. They declined. Later in the campaign they faced an extremely dangerous situation in which the magic user's help would have been hugely advantageous, but of course even if she had still been willing to help them at that point, she wasn't able to because she was dealing with the consequences of the curse.
@@marktaylor7162 I tend to see it as something, though I have a few players that take all the hooks, that if I were faced with I'd deal with away from the table - it's a meta issue and a matter of respecting the DM. Though I will say that the DM should set up the meta premise prior to play, and be clear about what is a hook - TTRPGs don't really lend themselves to the sort of subtleties you'd see in drama or literature... 🤔
THIS IS BRILLIANT!! EXCELLENT WORK IN PREPARING YOUR CAMPAIGN SETTING!!!
I've been non-stop revising and expanding my own D&D world since the beginning of my DM journey 3 1/2 years ago now. Watching this video has inspired me to really crack on with making some form of properly organized documentation. I have a lot of notes, lore and information but it's all over the place.
I had only recently started to pad out the history of the world and created a small document on the history/creation. That is one piece of the jigsaw in creating a book-style document for my players and for myself.
Incredible detail, a very interesting world on the surface and a chilled out video from minute 1 that has very much inspired me. I will certainly be subscribing for more.
This level of organization is absolutely bonkers. I can't imagine getting all of this worked out before the game even starts. Kudos though, definitely impressive. I like feeling the similarities between our DMing styles, even if I'm flying quite a bit more by the seat of my pants.
Yeah, definitely not something I would recommend across the board. It's not even what I would do for every game, but it works for the specific situation I'm in with this group really well.
I have always been partial to Matt Colville's kind of starting small and branching out from where the players start. If a DM really loves world building that's awesome, but for many it can become overwhelming and keeping the world building character focused can help.
As I say in the video, I very much recognize my approach is not for everyone, and not even I would use this approach for every game.
The material in the video is fairly high level, so even Matt Colville would make some notes on some of that before the game progressed too far. Personally, I would aim somewhere inbetween where you have a vague idea of what's where, but then you would fill in the blanks and change things around as you go. I usually have a large region map, a few notes on locations, but then adventure number 1 is in a fixed location which includes a settlement. Then I use questions the players ask and answers given to start filling things out. I do this because some of my best ideas happen while I'm actually running the game rather than planning it out.
I must say I'm a fan of the little side quests flags you've planted. That will greatly help the group I play with as we're starting small and building up the area around the town first
woahhhhh I had no idea Legendkeeper was a thing. This is a game changer! Thanks so much for this video. That's going to help me organize my world sooooooo much!
Your content is incredible and your channel is such a cozy place to consume D&D content. Thanks for your efforts!
Thank you! I'm so glad you think so :D
I want to really thank you for sharing your tools, your thoughts and everything!
I won't be able to make a professional looking campaign booklet like you did. Not right now, at least. But knowing your tools and thought process really, really helps me make leaps I wouldn't have made by myself!
Thanks a lot for sharing, Anto / Icarus Games!!
Stumbled upon this video while laying the groundwork for my next campaign, I was looking for a "Campaign Primer" and I must say this video is one of the best I've seen. I'll be checking all of your other content for sure!
Glad you enjoyed it!
This is the method we're taking to develop our product for release, which also includes minis. Fun stuff. Let me know if you're ever wanting to collaborate on projects for Kickstarter in the future
Some of your systems like your currency and spellcasting focus for example are so intriguing to me. It's inspired me to make something like that when I start my next campaign!
This is the second player guide I have seen from you. Now we need to see a video on how you built and published that document. What template did you use?, where did you find your artwork?, How did you make your calendar?, etc., and all of the details that will allow us to make a similar document.
Yes! Would love to see that video.
It's on my list to do a tutorial for the desktop publishing software I use. I'll likely do it in the new year once I've finished laying out the SIDEQUEST annual.
@@IcarusGames Fantastic! Thank you.
@@IcarusGames I'm especially curious about the calender!
I've wanted to do a calendar based on seasons more than months. So you'd have like Sprun, Grown, Shorn, Challd. And for each Season you'd have a new, high, and waning.
Awesome idea by the way
stealing this thank you
Clicked on because I saw LegendKeeper in the thumbnail. LK RISE!!!!
Your currency system is very creative.
Thanks :D
Absolutely amazing man! keep up the good work.
Ok dude you won a subscriber... Incredible quality content. Bravo
Love the gallant goblin kobold plush you have there!
I got really interested on the Legend Keeper, but for the time being I'll have to make due without it. But it looks like the perfect solution to what I needed.
For my "homebrew" setting I decided on using a modified Carolingian system of currency: 1 gold is 30 silver which is 360 copper - 1 silver is 12 copper. It's a fantastic system for using actual coinage because 360 is a superior highly composite number as is 12... 😅
In another RPG's setting, Calabria in Ironclaw, the currency divides 12 coppers into 1 silver, and 24 silver into 1 gold. Also highly divisible coinage!
I do think 30 and 12 = 360 makes for an easier decimal number; Calabria's coinage is basically dozenal, which I like but could be hard for most people to still get used to
@@theramendutchman I suspect that the scaling for a dozenal system of currency would get messy in some situations, though 12 is a great number to work with for actual coinage...
@@ChapterGrim Well, numbers like 144, 288, 1728 etc. make little to no sense for decimal people, and look like very difficult numbers.
But 360 looks like a very easy to understand number to most decimal-minded people, while it's still a lovely dozenal number, as well!
So yeah, I'm stealing the 12 -> 30 idea!
@@theramendutchman the great thing about it is the DM/GM can set the value of gold & silver in an economy, no need to worry about it beyond the coinage, and you can still have decimalised values built within the system by having coins that are set at decimal values 20 or 50 or 100 copper... 🤔
@@theramendutchman I appreciate the appreciation... 😅
Yaaay! My Legate Character i redeemed made into the Video! Also great Video! Gave me a lots of points and hints to work around for my P&P Stuff thanks!
Thanks for explaining your LegendKeeper pins. Sadly there's no one-time-purchase software for that sort of thing, but I've found that you can use the tool Obsidian and a plugin called Leaflet that does an okish job at letting you pin things on a map. But I've replicated your system from LK onto it and seeing how it goes. I'm feeling so much more organized now..
This was insanely helpful and inspired me quite a lot
Glad you found it useful!
4 minutes in and I'm already stealing that calendar. Cheers!
I would love to see your templates that you have made, they seem so organized and structured compared to mine, I always found them impossible to make myself.
As soon as public sharing in Legendkeeper becomes available, I'll be making them available!
I'm totally stealing that coin idea for my own homebrew world. Such a great concept.
Best part is it's pretty accurate to the real world. In Britain for a good chunk of time coins were minted with a cross on them and we intended to be cut into 4ths.
I just took the ideal and extrapolated out to a base 10 system so it would fit the existing copper>silver>gold economy.
Amazing work! Love detailed lore and world building and yours is a work of art
Thanks 😊
Adding competing historiographies has done more for my games than anything else for worldbuilding. One Dark Age is another's Golden Age.
Thanks!
Great video. I'm old schools myself, using paper and graph paper, but I recently started using online documents and Dungeondraft. I'm going to have to watch more of your videos because you appear well organized. I liked the part about making the calendar simpler. I also found that too many unfamiliar words just throw players off. I did the whole create my own language thing but when I named everything in that language it was just going too far. Although it's something of a fantasy trope, there's a lot of benefit in giving things names that the players can easily associate with them. The pirates may hang out in Brth'nk Thr'ml, but everyone's going to call it Pirate Town so why resist.
Love seeing your thought process. Gives me plenty of ideas for my new campaign I've just started.
Wow!! I'd very much like to play in a game which went more than a handful of sessions because the DM got bored/gave-up/ran off to the next shiny thing. I came back to RPG games after a massive break and fell into the Forever DM role pretty much straight away.
If someone made a pdf like that for a campaign setting in my dnd group, no one would read it, wich is really sad, because is something so cool
My question would be: How do you balance the level of each encounter? If it's a fairly open world where they can go anywhere then they could be any level when they reach one of these points. This would make it difficult to plan ahead as the level you pick might be too low if they find it later or too hard if they reach it sooner.
A lot of the pins are flexible in their location, so can be moved around if needed, but some threats are just going to be too hard at certain levels, and require them to return at a later date. This is communicated to the players in session 0, and there's always some kind of in world indication that a threat is beyond them when they reach the area.
“The first moon of autumn” & “the third moon of winter” is a good way to refer to months. There's normally just one full moon per month, & the four or so second moons are call “blue moons” & don’t count toward the months.
damn, love the black company influences you have on the world. Always wanted to run a campaign in a similar setting
I was deep into listening to the BC audiobooks while doing a lot of the work on the region!
@@IcarusGames Heard from a lot of my friends that Steven Erikson's Malazan series is really good if you liked the BC series. Author is heavily inspired by BC.
I really enjoyed this video. Always fun to see how folks worldbuild!
I love your currency part. And that everything is based on silver.
Amazing world!! Nice job Anto ♥️
Thank you!! 😊
Ok so you sir are a hidden gem. I have yet to make it through this entire video and I’m already blown away by how amazing your games sound.
To that point. You said that “Due to player mistakes” this area has been blown apart and is now thousands of islands. I paused the video AGAIN right there to say. PLEASE TELL US WHAT HAPPENED. WOTC seemingly absolutely refuses to acknowledge the DM/GM’s and instead focuses on power creep for players to sell books. I’m begging you to please make a video about how you set up your game, to where the player’s actions eventually lead to the destruction of part of a continent.
I spend upwards of 6-8 hours a day, at work with a ear bud Listening to countless videos on how to make this game better. And yet I still only ever hear about lore and encounters. Your on a Matt Covile level here with your game mechanics. And I would pay top level Patreon tiers to get information on how to make your player’s actions effect the world around them both positively and negatively.
That's incredible kind.
I actually do have a storytime video talking about the circumstances that led to the players accidentally blowing up the country they were fighting to save, which you can find here: th-cam.com/video/YuNebpSrp74/w-d-xo.html
The TLDR is; be careful when you cash in your magical wish from the god of tricks!
Amazing!
What is the software at 19:12 to pin points of interest?
Also mentioned "it's hidden for the players" where is the video to learn that?
That is Legendkeeper, I have a whole playlist of videos about it here: th-cam.com/play/PL3cwve_r0qbFs1__kgRe6sZysIrfoOhQS.html&si=gVXjbrDVEaS8MAPV
You've done a lot of the work to turn this into a hex crawl to sell. You could easily make it system agnostic by letting DMs determine their own stat blocks. Maybe just provide reference book/page numbers for the stat blocks since it's from so many sources
You've done most of the prep work like you said. Most DMs I think struggle with inspiration and you've provided that. I'd probably purchase it. I'm already gonna steal that pirate plot hook. Sounds fun
I do think at some point there's potential here for it to become a product like a sourcebook. Maybe once we hit 1 pin per hex!
I would love to be able to download this document to use as a guide for my own that I am creating :)
It's available to all folks on my Patreon from the $10 tier ☺️
Awesome process. Thanks!
Impressive work, congratulations 👏🏻👏🏻
Thanks a lot!
Just track time 1:1 out of session
You can go as far into the future during the session as you want but then you have to wait for irl time to catch up with them (which is a great chance to play other characters!)
Maybe the expanse is home to an ancient kingdom, that is why it is resource poor, however it is full of ruins, and monsters...
That's a great twist on the lack of resources there, that they've already been strip mined by a previous kingdom! Adding that to the list for sure.
what is the app being used at 19:12 is that still inkarnate? if so I really need to get into it because that looks amazing
That is legendkeeper. I have a video talking about it here: th-cam.com/video/dQLNil0wn2I/w-d-xo.html
@@IcarusGames thank you so much for letting me know, I'll definitely check it out your content is really good man
@@blitzknights7984 Thanks! Glad you're enjoying :D
A Black Company fan I see!
Over the course of making the region I was listening to the entire series on audiobook :D
Here after the OGL 1.1 draft got leaked. And goddamn, if I was WotC this is what I would steal through the new OGL, stay safe out there man #opendnd
Very inspiring!
Just wanted to ask, what program are you using from 19:00 onwards?
I think its called Legend Keeper. iirc he made a Review of it some weeks ago.
It's Legendkeeper, a browser based worldbuilding tool.
I've got a bunch of videos where I use it, and an overview of it here: th-cam.com/video/dQLNil0wn2I/w-d-xo.html
Can you make a video on how you made the book on Publisher? I have the system but lack the know-how.
Hey, is this in any part based on the Black Company book series by Glen Cook? I noticed a couple of similarities and thought that would've been kinda cool if it was.
I did pull a lot of inspiration from the Black Company for sure as I was working my way through the series at the time.
This is an amazing video.
hey so ik this is an old video but is there maybe a video on where and how you keep your setting info stored?
I use the app Legendkeeper, and have several videos on the channel about it 🙂
My guy..you keep rasing the bar.
You're too kind!
Meanwhile I’m planning to use Dwarf Fortress to generate a world and history for a DND campaign
This is awesome man
Thanks! Glad you liked it!
I wonder if it is possible to do this in foundry itself
Any chance we can look at the lorekeeper made for this campaign?
LK is supposed to be making public worlds a thing pretty soon, so once that goes live I'll be sharing mine.
How did you decide what to put where? Like where to put a monster, and what level monster, as opposed to a quest hook, or a magic item?
A lot of it starts out random, then things get moved around as I have more context from other nearby pins.
I just want to know more about the "Se7ven vs Ratatouille" quest hook...
🤣 it is an intriguing premise! One of my favourite way to think of plot hooks is by fusing two different movies.
In this case, it would be a string of murders being carried out by a person being used as a puppet by another creature.
@@IcarusGames Outstanding!
Could you link your video of the creation of this document? Would be amazing
I didn't record a video of the process, but I will be making a tutorial for the software I used in the New Year :D
@@IcarusGames love that
which tools you use for the map generate
How did you make the calendar?
Would it be alright if I used your month names in my own worldbuilding on worldanvil? My articles are public, but I doubt I'll ever "publish" anything officially.
Go for it! :D
Are you still using Legend Keeper? I may have to start using this for my world building.
I am indeed! Every week for my regular game, and then for all my other worldbuilding stuff too.
My most recent overview video on it is live here: th-cam.com/video/zmN-KwiTx3Y/w-d-xo.html
And I recently asked LK to set me up with an affiliate scheme too, so if you do decide to pick it up, go to www.legendkeeper.com/?via=anto and use code "ICARUS24" at checkout to get 20% off your first payment.
There is a power in a name, this is know.
What software are you using for the points of interest of the map and the color coded guide of players know and don't know etc?
It's Legendkeeper, a browser based worldbuilding tool.
I've got a bunch of videos where I use it, and an overview of it here: th-cam.com/video/dQLNil0wn2I/w-d-xo.html
What is the software you are using for the map? I can't seem to find the link, I'm currently using Onenote but the text boxes for my pins really gets in my way where this seems a lot cleaner. Fantastic video! Found I've been doing some similar things already but I'm going to try implementing a number of things you've talked about
@Amira Bautista Thanks for the info! I'll take a look at both legend keeper and masterscreen. Haven't minded using onenote but they took away an ease of use option that makes accessing pins on a map really hard when there's a bunch in one location
How big is the map we see? It seems like the island is cramped with so many cultures? How big is the island?
The island of ore is about 5-600 miles across.
Very cool. What software did you use to write the history, etc?
I used Legendkeeper, which I have a whole playlist of videos covering here: th-cam.com/play/PL3cwve_r0qbFs1__kgRe6sZysIrfoOhQS.html
The level of detail in this is insane, I'm 99% sure in a good way, but maybe 1% not 😅.
I do think though that things like renaming days, months etc is not only pointless, it's actively harming to immersion because it feels like homework.
I always remember an author intro to the book nightfall by isaac asimov quoted below because - as in most things - asimov says it better than I ever could.
"Kalgash is an alien world and it is not our intention to have you think that it is identical to Earth, even though we depict its people as speaking a language that you can understand, and using terms that are familiar to you. Those words should be understood as mere equivalents of alien terms-that is, a conventional set of equivalents of the same sort that a writer of novels uses when he has foreign characters speaking with each other in their own language but nevertheless transcribes their words in the language of the reader. So when the people of Kalgash speak of "miles," or "hands," or "cars," or "computers," they mean their own units of distance, their own grasping-organs, their own ground-transportation devices, their own information-processing machines, etc. The computers used on Kalgash are not necessarily compatible with the ones used in New York or London or Stockholm, and the "mile" that we use in this book is not necessarily the American unit of 5,280 feet. But it seemed simpler and more desirable to use these familiar terms in describing events on this wholly alien world than it would have been to invent a long series of wholly Kalgashian terms.
> In other words, we could have told you that one of our characters paused to strap on his quonglishes before setting out on a walk of seven vorks along the main gleebish of his native znoob, and everything might have seemed ever so much more thoroughly alien. But it would also have been ever so much more difficult to make sense out of what we were saying, and that did not seem useful. The essence of this story doesn't lie in the quantity of bizarre terms we might have invented; it lies, rather, in the reaction of a group of people somewhat like ourselves, living on a world that is somewhat like ours in all but one highly significant detail, as they react to a challenging situation that is completely different from anything the people of Earth have ever had to deal with. Under the circumstances, it seemed to us better to tell you that someone put on his hiking boots before setting out on a seven-mile walk than to clutter the book with quonglishes, vorks, and gleebishes.
> If you prefer, you can imagine that the text reads "vorks" wherever it says "miles," "gliizbiiz" wherever it says "hours," and "sleshtraps" where it says "eyes." Or you can make up your own terms. Vorks or miles, it will make no difference when the Stars come out."
I'll take 1% insane lol
As for Asimov and immersion, I agree pretty much. Most of us don't invent completely new languages or colloquialisms for our worlds.
I've mentioned it a little before, but my big ambition is to play multiple campaigns in this world and have it be where I set my games for many years to come, so the hope is that players come to be familiar with some of the specifics of the world like different day and month names over the course of years.
Great information! I have not played D&D for an age, but I am a writer who is working on a science fantasy world, and I find D&D worldbuilding is not all that different than story worldbuilding. Not that I am snaking ideas just the concepts. like I LOVE your calendar and date system as well as the ages fantastic idea!! Love the map work too. Are you still an Incarnate fan over wondercraft. I have been looking at the two and I am a fan of one time buy but I can see what you mean about a monthly fee giving the ability for more updates and 25 for a year is really not bad at all. I would also love to get back into D&D someday, it's just been a long time since my party split up and went off into their own lives scattered around the US and indeed the world for that matter.
I am still using Inkarnate as my main map tool. The $25/year is manageable for me and I'd prefer to get the regular updates and new content vs Wonderdraft which hasn't had an update in years now.
When you are going through the map and all of the pins, and discussing the players knowledge of things in blue with the secrets off to the side, is that world anvil or is that another program you are using to maintain all of those notes?
That is legendkeeper. It's a browser-based campaign manager.
Hi, i wanted to make something like that, but i´m not an artist, im just a designer, where can i get images of monsters and stuff (with no copyright of course)
You can search drivethrurpg for stock art. There's a whole bunch on there ☺️
@@IcarusGames thank youu, i couldnt find stock sites that had photos rpg-ish like art
My favorite way to make language relevant is writing. NPC notes and random books should all be written in relevant languages. The dwarvish necromancer wouldn't have a post-it note in common, he should use dwarvish
I love this 🙂
hey. I think the video is great, but I don't get why you split your coin in two and then into five? surely it would be hard splitting anything in 5 evenly? wasn't the real life equivelent to split it in 2, then 4, then 8?
You are 100% correct. If I was writing my own system I'd use a base 8 currency so coins could be split exactly like that.
This is a concession to accommodate the fact the system we are playing in (PF2) uses a base 10 for its currency, so I can still list the prices of things in CP, sp, and GP and my players and understand the values.
In the modern western world we are super used to decimal currency, and often find older systems confusing. But when you think of them from the POV of a base coin and splitting it down (in the case of a penny) or going up in weight value, it makes a lot more sense.
@@IcarusGames aha, yea. I mean I'm not used to the base 8 system at all. I just think it would be fun to try out in tabletop. I guess it's the monetary version of "the dwarves speak with a scottish accent". to make it sound fantasiful. but instead, make the coinage old timey british and it's a fantasy world ^^
I can’t seem to find ledger keeper! Is is a app????
It's brower based and you can find it here: www.legendkeeper.com
Wait are the tabs and points of interest stuff in inkarnate now?
No, they are in legenedkeeper. The map itself was made with inkarnate then loaded into legenedkeeper for all the locations and pins.
@@IcarusGames thank you! I must have missed this if you said this during the video my bad.
Is there a guide or template or something to making a fancy book like this? To make it look that cool not just a plain googledoc :P
I'll have a tutorial coming in the New Year.
@@IcarusGames Fantastic! Cant wait :)
Is it possible to share this as a reference for DM’s?
You can get the Jewel Cities Setting Guide at the $10 tier on www.patreon.com/icarus_games
Que programa se usa para eso??
The map was made with inkarnate. The player's guide was made in affinity publisher. And the program with all the pins is legendkeeper.
@@IcarusGames ohhh eres grande! Muchas gracias, de verdad que se ve una guía MUY brutal para los jugadores o incluso para la construcción de un libro o una novela (que sería para lo que usare) mil gracias.
@@IcarusGames ahora toca aprender a usarlo jaja
Does it ever come up that your Autumn season has an extra month than the others? Is there a canonical reason as to why?
It's just the way the division of the year worked out :) the year is 13 equal months and the seasons are the year divided by 4.
That is epic!
Thanks, glad you like it :D
Awesome! Been using LegendKeeper since their beta, it's an amazing tool.
By the way, how did you make the PDF for the Player's Guide itself? I've tried a couple of online editors but none of them have pleased me :(
I used Affinity Publisher. I'll have a tutorial for it in the New Year :D
@@IcarusGames Awesome, can't wait!
Is this software that you’re using to write and build the world World Anvil?
If not, what’s the name of it?
Great things here in this video, congrats
It's LedgendKeeper, a browser-based worldbuilding tool. You can find it here: bit.ly/3wl6PkH
You can't lead with "In the biginning, there was time." Even if it's an important rule, you need to hook the reader in on page 1 of any book. You neeed to answer the questions "Why am I reading this? Why do I want to continue?" IMMEDIATELY.
@@corley-ai if this was for mass publication, I'd totally agree with you. But the setting guide in this video was made specifically for my players; so has a target audience of 5 people, and they are already hooked because they chose this campaign from multiple options presented to them. The setting guide is a reference document for them, not a piece of mass market entertainment designed to entice a perspective reader to keep them reading.
@@IcarusGames
Heroes wanted: Are you ready to carve your name into the annals of a world reeling from apocalyptic change? The Dual Cities of Talava call for brave souls to navigate their jeweled streets and perilous wilds. Within these pages, you'll discover a world of ancient magics, political intrigue, and perilous quests. To survive the a world where where time itself is a precious resource, where lizardfolk guard a single golden road, and where your next game of Gorgon could leave you petrified, you might want to peruse this handy travel guide.
Alwas hook the readers first.
You really need to drop "The" from the names on the map. Makes it 10,000x better. (It's also not something you'll ever see on a real map)
Ok…. I’m just absolutely blown away. I have managed to make it through this entire video now, and this is my 3rd comment.
I want to play in this world, I want to run this world, this is the evolution of DnD. I’m totally in. Please, break this video down into individual sections, teach us sensei.
Fortunately, I have livestreamed most of the creation of this setting, and you can find 36+ hours of the process in this playlist: th-cam.com/play/PL3cwve_r0qbFW-vk2IHZUMu4bq-hurOlG.html
Talaawar or Talwar means Sword in some languages.
It does! I took those and changed the word to Talavaar ☺️
the automatic CC says it's " The Dual cities of Taliban" :D thought that was funny
I'd never do this for any group because I have never met players that wouldn't drop out on a whim.
This is awesome campaign creation skills! A truly amazing setup! But I don't think players will generally read all that...
The players aren't expected to read everything that they *can* read. The PDF setting guide gives them their introduction to the world, and they are free to explore the public pages of the legenedkeeper as much or as little as they wish.
@@IcarusGames ok, I think that makes sense
Absolutely loving these tips, but damn is it making me feel like my own world pales in comparison to this lol.