Create Memorable Locations | DM Basics | D&D | TTRPG | WebDM
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ค. 2024
- Locations are a universal element in any campaign, but too often they're difficult for the players to navigate, lack adventure hooks, or are just forgettable. In this installment of DM Basics, we teach you how we make incredible locations that matter in D&D and TTRPG.
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Thank you so much for watching! How do you create your locations?
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After being with a group for a while there's 1 tip that never gers old.
Just ask the players what they want in an adventure then work off that.
"Just pick a mall layout." Mind blown.
Historical maps like the John Speed City maps and floor plans of famous palaces like Blenheim or Versailles make great maps for D&D and are widely available online. They have the added bonus that you can view photos of the real places and use them to help you visualize the fanatasy equivalents. The DK guidebook series is also great for this.
@@JaredHayter Thanks for the specific recommendations! Adding these to my collection of resources :)
Kinda not out of the box, but WOW also has usable maps. A lot of games do really, depending on how much your players know the maps/games or how much they care or if you don't show your players the maps and have them draw them themselves.
@@Nildread maps from Doom!
Same here, this a happening soon... My next city game is using the mall of america.
"Same with a Dragon Slayer. You know, a Dragon Slayer is really an extension of that dragon."
Wow. That's deep, ma - Oh! _Lair!_ Dragon's Lair! Yeah, that makes sense.
puuuunnnssssss
A dragons layer is just an extension of the dragons it lays
Here is a trick, when someone points to something and you don't know what it is, tell your players, "You don't know what that is," or, "Your character doesn't know what that is." Because if they're curious enough to go find out what it is, you can send them on a little fact finding mission figure it out and use the time that the activity takes you think up whats going to be over there.
Created a neat tavern / hotel called "The Last Resort" with the gimmick that its the place villain's plane shift too when on 2 HP trying to flee an adventuring party.
There's always a river that starts between two mountains, it always branches in three places, and at the mouth of that river you can always find a tavern. From that tavern there's always a door that leads where you want to go, you just need to know how to find it.
A little thing I add to all my settings so that planar adventures are always an option.
@@AGrumpyPanda Rivers don't really branch, they converge. But I really like the evocative language you put into it, so you a pass.
@British Ninja I'm stealing that.
Badass
@@gattzflappa6306 They do when you hit a delta, but yeah you're right :P
Skyrim has like the exact problem Jim is describing. A lack of empty space makes the whole map implausible to the point where you feel like you are in an amusement park built just for you instead of a living world.
Amazing episode!... only a minute in, but the intro, impeccable. 😁
Thanks a bunch Perry!
Totally agree 👍
I was so happy that they came into an agreement in the intro.
Hello. I was just about to brew some of my own memorable locations myself, so this video is right on time!
Tell us what you think!
I'd like to know what you come up with!
It's time to count the comments of "wow, that intro!" and "this is perfectly timed for me!"
Aethon056 the intros are always the best and the most funny
@@victordevillers3899 and it's always perfectly timed content for my game!
I appreciate the wonderful advice. I find that I can't even *begin* until I understand the purpose of a dungeon. Spot on! Adding framework (outlining, basically) helps me work a lot faster to achieve a good dungeon.
Thanks for the kind words!
Never thought about teasing gelatinous cubes. Thanks Guys. Another great video.
Don't do it!!
@@WebDM Too late! Crispin tried to grapple it. I blame myself.
Perfect timing on this one- I’m designing my first West Marches-style game and need to populate my map with some good stuff
One word of advice is to not over populate the map and leave room for things that you might not have though of at the time .
That way if the players do something like get an npc mage angry with them for what ever reason you can always place the mages tower or whatever someplace the characters don't know about but find clues to its location for example .
When I create a world setting I map the entire world out but only the geographical locations and leave towns , villages and cities out .
I map out a 100 mile radius area around the campaign starting area leaving enough room to add things at a later point but with just enough things like aincent ruins , keeps , monster lairs and things like that .
Most parties don't travel more then 100 miles from where they start but you can guide them to unknown areas with things you come up with at a later point .
Another thing to do is make up a few dungeon maps some large , some medium and some small but leave them empty and fill them in when needed or you can even fill them out ahead of time and drop them in what ever location you choose .
Hexcrawling is something not many Dm's do but can be fun for both DM and players alike especially when you have a good set of random wilderness tables filled with things such as rivers that the players have to cross to ruins of aincent temples , villages or cities and even to random weather such as tornados , brush fires and other non combat encounters .
Not all encounters have to be with enemies some can be weather related , some could become potential allies or employers .
One last word if advice is find out what style of play your players like and expect and go with that it helps to know what they like and don't like so your game doesn't become boring to them
It’s dangerous to go alone. Here take this 🗡
Along the line if using a mall layout-snagging a golf course layout can give you some connected organic wilderness-y goodness.
Good one!!!
These episodes still aren't the same as pre 2020 but getting better. Glad the long format is back.
Well I’m finally signing up to your patreon. I need more hours of content each week.
Thank you for joining us Emmett!!!!
Oh yeah, my dose of Web DM. I swear, Jim is so evocative he indirectly stimulates my own creativity... Like dnd brain pron...
Edit: pron for "sanctity of the family show"
Family show dude 🤣
I've always gone back to touching on the 5 senses the players experience when describing a place
You guys should do an episode about both of your fondest memories playing dnd
We just did that as a Christmas special podcast on Patreon.com/webdm!
The Guild of Dungeon Inspectors Local 401 would like to have a word with you.
Your Intros really ARE gold. And not just your Intros.
[13:37] The Villain Hans Grub'Thulu holding workers hostage in an office building and trying to get into that vault to steal the necronomicon. - WoW! Such a gold nugget.
Always needing some D&D, what a great idea for a video!
I love the word Abattoir. It is a word we use in English, of French Origin... but it is rarely used. It is synonymous with a Slaughterhouse. So I use it in my worlds as a Slayer's Guild called 'The Abattoir.' Feel it sounds fancy and like something a successful slayer's guild would be named. I Think it would also make for a good name for a gladiatorial arena. :)
Great episode!!
This was amazing advice; word list, using mall layouts, your descriptions should match how you expect the PCs to interact with the environment.
Honestly, it has been a few videos since I have gotten this caliber of information. This was a good one!! Thank you!
My friend is a mega-nerd so this might not be universally applicable, but my current DM’s world has a few different city states. One’s style is modernized baroque/art deco, one is victorian, an elizabethan, and the rest all have very distinct architecture and fashion styles
You think in the TH-cam comments of a dnd video that being a mega nerd is not universally applicable
@@lukesalter9600 you know what? That’s a fair criticism.
Empty rooms are especially important. Many home-game dungeons seem too dense, and it's something that WotC usually gets right; a moment to fight, and a moment to breathe and explore.
Empty rooms! Yes, exactly! I've been preaching that for years!
An hour long, amazing!
You guys come up with some of the most inspiring throw away titles and names for things LOL
exactly what i needed this week!
Glad to help!!!
You're the best! I hope Pruitt is doing well!
And right after I check twitter and see WebDM talking about videos, here is one laid before me lol.
Well, guess I'm listening while I write
Woot! Yes, we've got some exciting stuff in store soon!
@@WebDM it's all good stuff, and helps work the brain when writing up content for the game lol
Very cool!
This is a huge serve
I dont even play d and d and I watch these guys all the time
In a pinch just pull an image or map offline and give it your own descriptive flare. I have had entire sessions happen just from a player wanting to investigate some random thing in a corner I hadn't even noticed yet. Improve an interesting description of it and see what they do with that random well, end table with a curious trinket, or NPC you have no name or background for yet. They don't know you're pulling it from your A.
that intro earns a like
Hans Grubthulu, I'm certainly not stealing that... >.>
Great Video! I think you guys need to make a Part 2 of your video on post-apocalyptic DnD!
You will be very happy in about 3 months
@@WebDM yay!
similar to taking hospital or mall maps for towns I like to take subway and bus route maps and overlay them on cities for sewers and tunnels
Nice intro guys. :)
Thanks.
I would honestly watch an hour of that intro, it's like HG tv but fantasy.
Mansion on the hill and return to Mansion is great because the players remember how they damaged stuff the first time through. As players add in stuff I forget as they revisit it. I decided that the hill holds more than what they found first time.
I just gave the 800th like. LETS GO!
Goofus and Gallant
Excellent intro guys! And a lovely episode. Well done!
Thank you so much Loki!
I'm working on a fairly short 3rd level murder mystery/conspiracy plot idea. My thought was that it's set in a mansion where the owner, a very wealthy man who was once an adventurer himself, has invited the most renowned local adventurers for a banquet. Just as the festivities are starting, the host is found murdered and the mansion grounds become cut off from the outside world by a shell of dark magic. Honestly, the first setting that came to mind was the Spencer Mansion from Resident Evil.
Bespoke traps sound kinda based. I'll make that a security company in one of my world's Towns :D
Is it an infiltration mission, frontal assault, social encounter? It's funny that you think I'd know that ahead of time. No DM plan survives first contact with the players... especially mine. Lol.
Not every place has to be supernatural or super special. Or else you have a gonzo world
very true!
Feel free to take this: for my thieves’ guild they operate out of a phony art dealership / museum (as a front for legitimacy.) They keep their treasure golem in the open as part of the exhibit. In combat the treasure golem steals the players weapons, and only takes full damage from Thieve’s Tools / Lockpicking.
OmG. Finally clicked.
The 'interview' technique has less going on than the "DM / (senior) Player" interaction.
Sure they're both simply a pair of personas.
But one of them shows a warmth viewers can invest in... just a thought. 🤓
Nuggets.
*Chef's Kiss*
I've been using empty rooms since I started DMing AD&D 2nd edition
Being overstuffed just doesn't seem real, even in public buildings.
I use the 1st edition Dm's guide on dungeon dressing to fill out rooms in my dungeons in appendix I .
I also try to follow how ad&d modules used to describe rooms in a dungeon so it's not just an empty room with nothing in it but a room that seems to be in use but no one is in it at that moment in time .
It was one of the best features of the dmg along side the random dungeon generation tables
Lol, best intro
When constructing a location sometimes, it feels as if the process starts up somewhat strange, then I embrace the strange and flow with it...
...
I'll conjure up a sort of an almost tunnel-vision railroaded concept, then I purposefully derail it myself by adding details. If not railroaded, I come up with a confined, but open-ended area, like a walled-off city, and I start focusing on the interconnectedness of the city's different parts. One of my setting's cities is somewhat similar to Planescape's Sigil, if it resembled and somewhat operated like Batman's Gotham City, and there's portals to other dimensions in my homebrewed cosmology which offer shortcuts to other parts of the city...
...
If I have to get inspiration in some cases, a few videogames come to mind...
...
Gauntlet: Dark Legacy, Silent Hill 0rigins, Silent Hill Downpour, and Secret of Evermore (...which is a DM's goldmine, I might add... but even if it feels empty and railroaded sometimes, it'll persuade the DM to branch off and add more content to fit the themes and environments provided...). This even includes games which have qualities I don't like, such as Grandia 2 and Secret of Mana. I'll be like.""Oh, I want to avoid running an encounter or dumb NPC like this" or "This was just the kind of glue and duct tape I needed to tie up some pesky loose ends."
...
The branching path idea feels like the roots of a big ol' tree...
...
...which can enrich the existing qualities. A city of crime? Every crime syndicate and gang you create, pick some core goals, common daily objectives, long game conspiracies, a base of operations, their 'turf,' and common defining characteristics of the shady group's typical members. With this, you can start with the NPC's first, then start constructing where they live and operate, where the bullied and oppressed citizens live in relation to the group in question, and guard houses for law enforcement. If you build a place, start asking yourself questions about how the area operates, and who most often uses it.
...
Maybe you want to reverse engineer some kind of Phandelver-esque adventure...
...
...and just having only goblins isn't going to do. Maybe you want a more deeply rooted area, and you want to build into an Avernus or Barovia style adventure, so you can build up a series of legends and weird-but-relevant stuff which opens up to those terrifying places of adventure. Perhaps a shady wizard ordered someone to give some weird potions to a nearby clan of ogres, in an effort to loosen up the leylines keeping portals to Avernus or the Shadowfell popping up unexpectedly. Where does the wizard live? Who's going to be affected by the chaos created by the ogre clan's shenanigans?
...
All in all, I like to build scenarios, locations, and NPC's...
...
...almost simultaneously, with the intent of answering the questions a circumstance, place, and individual would beckon me to ask. I want to thrive on the audacity of it all, and let the crazy flow like Dionysius intended. A cartoon called 'Adventure Time' was written with the help of Dungeons & Dragons style creative pathways, likely including the game itself to serve as inspiration. I don't mind being wild and free, because the players can help rein things back in with their interactions in the world as the game is played. This can even lead into the players uncovering the obscure bits for me, as if to be quickly enabled to think "Oh, yeah! That's what I wanted to do!" I can go in without the full picture, and the players unwittingly help my mental palace's toolbox appear right where it needs to be. I can embrace the fact a certain dungeon is 'under construction' as far as the game's concerned, because inspirational bits can come along and help fill in the blanks.
Just a couple of kings👑 hanging out...
A truly under rated comment.
I loved the episode, but very sad there was no “stinger” at the end.
I love empty rooms, nothing better than making the PC’s panic and use a detect magic spell slot on a couch.
Exactly
anyone remember the house from there will come soft rains
Fuck. That would be a great adventure location.
This is Simon’s dungeon. There are many like if but this one is mine
*Five or six room dungeons ?*
My smallest dungeon I've ever made is 3× that .
5 or 6 room places for me are houses and other buildings .
lol nice intro
Mix soap in with your dungeon ooze for low wage "janitors"
Cha'alt!
My traps are so bespoke
Has jim got a mullet?
It's called hockey hair
@@WebDM my apologies, as you were.
But does the list of lists list itself?
I'm running an adventure with my daughter and twin granddaughters, all first timers. I genuinely stress that they will die and be shattered. I need help lol
Sorry, that was a bit random. Great channel!
Sounds like a great family game!!
@@WebDM Hysterically good fun! Fortunately son in law plays too and has deep lore memorized to help me. Home brew =)
Look up “incredible locations” or “fantasy landscape” and use those images or get inspiration from them. Or look up “greatest buildings”. If your world doesn’t have a lighthouse in the form of a statue as big as the Statue of Liberty, why not? Taj Mahal? Sultan's palace. Neuschwanstein? King's castle. Niagara Falls, Angel Falls, the leaning tower of Pisa, the pyramids of Giza, canals of Venice, the Roman Colosseum, the Paris Catacombs… your budget is infinite.
The game destiny is full of complicated encounters and raid secrets just waiting
Enjoy 2nd ed
Furst comment!
Please don't tease the gelatinous cube
Please don't tease it...
The skits at the start are pure cringe
lol ok
Why are you here than?
@@trajanfidelis1532 for tips on dming, but its impossible to sit through the cringe to get to them.