*Thanks for watching!* What world spaces and maps have you created? How do you test your map and your world space? Let us know in the comments below! Sign up to be one of our patrons and you'll receive rewards including 12 NPC and 4 adventure cards every month! Take a look here: bit.ly/3tACM7i Find each chapter of the video easily by clicking on the timestamps in the description.
I tend to send world building queries to Discord servers (e.g. what would a city that was built on/in a glacier look like?) That specific question actually got a reply from a geologist and became the capital of one of my nations.
Don't let your self-critique turn into self-deprecation though. That's an easy trap to fall into and if you start second guessing everything you've done, you're never going to finish. Then this campaign will be one of the millions that never get past the idea stage.
as someone who absolutely can't stand having a plothole and equivalent, i feel that. people, you can't make a world that has recursive reasoning down to the birth of the universe... don't make it perfect, make it good.
Honestly needed to hear this I feel like I've edited my map alone 20 times and always find myself second guessing or seeing someone else's map and feel like mine is shit compared to there's even when my players say it looks good
Here's a comment to read, your videos and books have massively helped me GM and brought many epic moment to my table. Thanks for all your work and have a great day :D
The world I built is called Gether, because it is every roleplayer's goal to get to Gether (together).The premise is that the out-of-book world from the RPG we play wasn't sufficient, so the homebrew gods made their entrance by blowing it up and starting over (with certain people finding ways to survive the apocalypse and arrive in the new world). There are still easter eggs from the old game world since the gods just mashed all the leftover bits together to make the current world. This was incredibly freeing as a worldbuilder because the players and DM were able to see how the starts of civilizations would take off in their infancy. I think it makes everything feel like an exploration and keeps a lot of interest up. This series of videos is amazing, and has given me gobs of ideas to touch up my universe, and I wish I would have had something like this when I started my GM journey 20 years ago.
I have started to GM the Brancalonia setting a few months ago. Your videos have been a great help in improving the casual feel of the setting for me and the players. Thank you very much.
My daughter and I have been following along as she creates her first world on WorldAnvil. She looks forward to you every week and is making a really interesting world. Thank you so much!
I've recommended your Practical Guide playlist as a great moderator/storyteller resource for GMs on our forum writing RP site -- thanks so much for the consistently inspiring advice!
I didn't watch all the videos yet but this last video in the series is great!! Guy hits the nail on the head when he saying go back and fix it. The map itself will help with stories and world building can't be more true. I also left world space for my players to add. Players come up with great ideas and I got no problem with adding it. I got a hidden behind magic wood elf city from one player. They enjoy being part of the creation of the world and gives you a break from coming up with it all lol
If you see this Guy You are literally the only TH-camr that’s been able to help me progress as a Gm and currently am working through a 15 year project so far, I’d actually like to talk about paying you for help finishing it, mainly organizing it and finding holes, if you are interested respond and we can figure a way to talk about this.
Iaunotaur, a supercontinent created when two large continents collided with each other some unknown millennia ago, creating a massive and nearly inhospitable mountain range between them. The northern half of the continent is ruled almost entirely by the elves, a reclusive race that lives among the massive, wild old growth forests of the north. Past the Elven Wilds is the Green Coast, the home of the militant and war-like halflings. The small plain south of the Green Coast are the Orcish Lands, a burgeoning series of settlements for the peaceable but powerful orcs, constantly defending their lands against encroaching forces from all sides. The mountain range, called Belfarthen, is home to the dwarves, descendants of travelers that settled the rough terrain and now protect the world from some unknowable horror. Off the coast is the gnome's island nation of Drongo, home to bands of lawless pirates. The southern half is dominated by two human nations, warring states at an uneasy truce. Diplomatic Landolien is largely agrarian while monarchical Darmassa is gearing up for war, but against whom? Are they preparing to flatten the mountains and invade the Elven Wilds? Perhaps their neighbors in the south, Landolien, are their target. Or, would they risk another costly war against the Dwarven Cities?
Have always found adventure inspiration in maps. Often this comes from an unplanned feature, such as a small cove that suddenly said "pirate hideout" to me.
Im running a star Trek game, and i have set up a few nebula and star clusters in the region that tell the story of an ancient empire that got into stellar formation and messed it up. There are a clusters of young stars that were yeeted from a planetary nebula where they normally form. They are now in deep space, but far too young to have naturally dissovled their nebula. So they were moved there by a catastrophic explosion 200,000 years ago that traced to thr formation of this stellar nebula 20 light years away
I must admit, I bounce between your new stuff and your older stuff. There is a definite tonal difference between them as you became more comfortable with yourself on TH-cam. I have enjoyed everything. The new series makes me itch to do more. My goal is to convert a short story series I sketched out back in college into a playable campaign. It is high magic, very high magic, which is the major hangup. My son says, just use a prewritten system. But, I haven't found one that works. Unfortunately, the way magic works is integral to how this world behaves and it's history. And it's future. How did it work in the stories? Terrifyingly. And if you messed up, you were toast. It tore the fabric of existence and rearranged reality. And then, undid everything as the spell ended. This world is the result of millennia of magical warfare. And some of the ancient weapons are sentient and are not yet done with their agenda. So, not just any system will do. It's gotta be epic.
I love this channel and the work you do, Learned a lot from your insights and methods ! And yes, i rarely stop to comment about it, and yes... you deserve better.
The video actually starts at 1:30. You're welcome. Aha! I lied. It's an ad. There are no shortcuts in GMing! Well... there are, but that doesn't fit my narrative.
As someone who played AD&D but has not played in over 20 years your videos have helped me create a world, and many adventures. I now have a group to play with and we are having a great time. Thank you for getting me back into a hobby that I used to love and now love once again.
I think you should have someone review what you do. Like every author has an editor who looks over what they've done. Doesn't have to be the same person everytime, doesn’t even have to be someone involved in your role-playing group, just someone who is into the genre you aim for.
I love the channel, Guy. Good work! I also understand the really deep deep worldbuilding is often unecessary for the average group of players. I go off the deep end with worldbuilding because that's what I love to do and I've been blessed with a party that's just as hungry for lore as I am for making it. Your videos have really helped me fine tune the world of Chebeth, a strange high-fantasy-clockwork-technology world centered around a college-city run by benign undead professors (called Lichdeans), a maritime city run by three different trade unions of Orcs, Goliaths, and Dwarves, and a mountain city built into the corpse of a dead god administered by five orders of Loxodon monks. The players love it. It's weird, and it's been super easy to find things for them to do.
Im in the kind of odd position of needing to create a world, but this is for Starfinder, so this is one of literally infinite worlds. I expect a few sessions to take place there, so im spending a bit of time on it, as its also important to the story, but i cant spend tons of time on it. Im used to needing to make a huge city that we only need a tiny bit of detail for one quick session or something. but a whole planet? With its own biomes and species and history and culture? Yikes. Im working on it, and its coming along but its a struggle to balance how much is too much and how much is too little.
Still a few steps behind but finally sat down and tried to draft out my 1st map. Just a single country, but it fits the kind of campaign I'm trying to eventually make. Thanks for the info and encouragement!
I do love all your videos, and you have made me a better dm for my friends and I hope to pick up your book when I can. I test my self but playing my encounters myself and think how my players would deal with it.
I've spent about 5 years DMing by now. And I must admit that I have never created my own world. However, what I usually do is take an existing worldspace as a foundation, and then add interesting bits of 3 or 4 other worlds to make a good mix. Works like a charm, and less work in my opinion.
You are jazzed by the feedback because you love what you do (I am jealous of your professional nerd status :-) and because you love what you do, your content is helpful in many ways. What has improved over time is you are more organized and concise.
Am about to start my first homebrew campaign in a few weeks (yikes) and have used your videos to help fine tune my world. I know I will make a lot of mistakes and what not but am feeling more prepared than ever because of this top notch channel! Also, the battlemap book is awesome and well worth the money!
Haha how bout The PentaStep:) Thank you so much Guy for all you do; love the positive energy! It has been a privilege and blessing to learn so much from you over the years and to even have had a chance to roll dice with you as well! I will be rewatching this series every time I start a new campaign! Thank you so much! -Dan
I'm actually working on my own RPG project. Im creating a TTRPG with it's own rules, monsters, races EVERYTHING. I've only had 1 test game (some friends came round with PCs that were in early sketch drafts) & havent had the chance to test the new dice system I have (the last was kinda crap & had bad feedback so this new one I'm hoping works better). I'm writing both the setting rules/Guides & I'm doing a campaign setting for people to play in if they dont feel like home brewing. You're channel has really helped with the process & always gives me new inspiration when I reach a deadend/creative block.
My DCC campaign’s now years-long success owes a lot to the deliberate imprecision of my campaign map. It’s more of a landscape drawing than a map-like something a tourist might buy on a visit to someplace like Rhineland. Nothing is to scale; even directions to other places are merely approximate; geographical features like impassible mountains have few details. Even the names of places, though they may sound dumb, are designed with continual player amnesia in mind (Kingslund, Churchlund, Dark Canyon, High Pass, the Eastern Lands Beyond). When I need detail, I add detail, self-made, or purchased. Only elements pertinent to the game and the PCs’ own view of the world ever show on the map.
Hey Guy and team, just a heads up. Unless TH-cam changed it, they can/will still run adds even if you remove the monetization option. They just get all of the revenue. As far as I know, the only way to completely remove adds is for viewers to sign up for the monthly TH-cam subscription thing. This should NOT stop anyone supporting through Patreon though! Still a great channel to support
Your tips, tools, and examples have been greatly helpful and inspirational for me. Your enthusiasm shows in your good work. When I want to test my own work, then first I exercise as if I were an academic editor of a pre-existing published adventure book or module, and then I return my attention in this context back into a self-critique of my own work. My latest world-building project has been based on Thundarr the Barbarian 1980s TV show, still in progress.
I have created the mythical world of Rophira. This world is watched over by The Great 12, the original 12 dragons. The Black Dragon is the keeper of the Underside (the afterlife). Each province is ruled by the Dragon God that corresponds with it. The adventure begins in the province of Dyndonis The Selfish (Green Dragon). It is a wilderness campaign that begins in the Eclinia Peninsula. The party arrives by ship and then travels 3 days to the Sarsinghurst Fortress. This fortress is the only stronghold in these wild lands and it protects a single village. The adventures have an open world in which to play!
One thing I've been working on is "player-facing" maps. Give the players a map of the kind their heroes might get. It won't have everything on it, or be accurate or to scale, perhaps... but the players can keep it, update it, maybe even learn from an NPC what that odd little scribble in the corner means. Luka Rejec suggested the basic idea in Ultraviolet Grasslands, and I have been coming up with a lot of riffs on that. Specifically for UVG, it turns out that the ornate square "whole world" map in the middle is pretty useless, but the crude handmade notes and doodles around the margin are actually a lightly-detailed but fairly accurate map of one route far, far into the mythic west. In my homebrew world, surveying isn't anyone's priority, and so land maps are usually very streamlined and differently focused than what you expect IRL, more like medieval maps. Adventurers also have a mapping shorthand that allows crude but easily-read maps to be left behind or disseminated when it's necessary to inform other adventurers of what a cave system or fortress interior is like, and VIPs who employ adventurers learn that shorthand, to communicate with them.
Really, truly investing in the map inspired what could be a year's worth of games in Monster of the Week - and that's just from crucial points across the game map. What Guy said about borders is a great point too because it's already factoring into my game with how groups are exchanging culturally. I also didn't expect to spend several days researching the exodus of the LDS Church and their territorial relations with The Shoshone descendants sharing the same region. All of that points back to how our yeoman's work for a functional map highlights background politics while beckoning my players to hear out every side of the argument during random monster attacks. Hence why great maps make better stories.
I am working on a world currently, as I began buildinging the map I made a "beginner area" in a way its symbolic in my growth of becoming a GM. As I get more comfortable I start to branch out and build more complex monsters in a mountain range. When I ran a successful Dungeon Delve, I built a desert that is 100km wide that is a perfect circle with undead bones in the sand. The only Oasis is in the center and below the oasis I placed a temple to a diety that absorbs water to a central location. The water grants Eternal life but you must drink from the Oasis and only the Oasis. When I began to branch out into politics in my game I began to create kingdoms on my map. I call it the Land of Phatal. My goal for the game is to create an Isekia type where the players are the only Humans in the entire world. It's a kind of experience that I enjoy sharing. As I "level up" outside of Phatal I add to the map and the game.
I’ve been watching your videos for years and I wish I could see how many hours of videos I’ve watched from you because it’s probably days worth. I’ve spent the last few years slowly building a world and getting a lot of inspiration from you and I finally started my first custom campaign in my world last week.
I watched all the videos and loved them so much!! It gave me some motivation to carefully think about doing a campaign with my friends and my 1st as a GM. I'm not fantastic at memorizing rules and I do take my time adding rolls, so I have been hesitant. I'm thinking about this world that it's made of islands and every island is like a different environment - maybe like One Piece. So we can just change the setting and have my little stories on each island and later unfold into a big one. Thank you so much for these videos! Please keep up the good work!
I’ve been watching your videos for over a year and find your videos entertaining and relaxing, I play twice a week one as DM and one as player. Your work is awesome and appreciated especially with all the horrible stuff going on pretty much daily all over the world. Thank you for the work you do and you make a difference in lots of people days, stay safe and I look forward to your next video. New Hampshire USA
I always bounce my weird stuff off my sister. She plays with her friend group, and I with mine. If she gives it the go ahead I usually try it. Since getting more attached to my players, I usually just straight up ask.
Well now I regret having ever mentioned the desert in the first place. Ought to have taken the hint after I e-mail, I suppose. Sorry to have been a bother, Guy (and fellow viewers).
I have trouble creating a map as I never liked maps or even geography in general. The process of creating one feels more like a painful weight to me at the moment. It's my first campaign and I want it to be interesting, complex and fun. Pre creating a map feels like it would block me and make improptuous ideas more difficult, like it would make me less free to create m'y world little by little as the campaign evolute. Does anyone have any advices for me ?
Am I and my player tell me in post how fun it was. Are they talking about what happened or what might happen next. Do they come back early??....with better snacks.
I have been an avid gamer for many, many years. I appreciate the fantastic information you provide. I feel that my players and I have benefitted with your materials. Thank you for your efforts. Best regards from Seattle.
Amazing video! I have completed the first part of my second world map. Your videos keep my goals and priorities in line, my map is shaping up to be a great because of it. I can see so many exploration adventures in it already. This series is the best!
I've been following along and watching this latest series all the way through. It's been very helpful as I create my first world. I wanted to create a world with a different tone to most fantasy RPG worlds I've played in. There are four Lands the characters will know about. Three of them have been isolated from anyone else inside lands surrounded by impassable mountains on one side, and a turbulent ocean on the others. They have been like this for thousands of years, and are unaware that there are any other people or lands in the world. It wasn't until 60 years ago when the dwarves first emerged from the mountains in each Land that they found out about others. It's a mixture of high fantasy but with the social/historical implications of aliens arriving and letting us know that there is a larger universe out there. The isolation of each land has reduced the amount of warfare and each land had achieved a level of stability by the time they encountered each other. In other words, it's kind of like the three lands are sort of Hobbiton-like. There is no need for Heroes (with a capital "H"), and no tradition of adventurers. There are also no Gods to get in the way of people just living their lives. But behind the scenes, the dwarves, who live in and beyond the mountains that surround each land, know the truth, and the truth is that they are all survivors of a terrible apocalypse that almost destroyed this continent. The cause of this was the race of beings who actually created the dwarves and others to be their slaves. These beings became so corrupted the rest of the world banded together, isolated the different creatures on the continent with the high mountains, and then attempted to destroy them all. They then placed wards around the continent to prevent anything from ever leaving it. The dwarves, elves, tieflings, halflings and humans (all of them created to serve) survived, but in so low numbers that they went back to the beginning and forgot the "before times." Each has now created a new society and civilization highly impacted by their environment and their isolation, with some unconscious influence from their original purpose for which they were created. All except the dwarves who remember. They survived better in their underground cities, though still lost most of their population. They live in the mountains that bisect the continent and protect the peaceful Lands on the eastern side, from the remaining beasts and monsters, all that remained from the fallen corrupt beings on the western side. And now, the corruption is beginning to rise again, and leak into the peaceful Lands. For the first time in millennia, heroes are needed. The players will get to define what a hero is, and the people of the Lands will get to figure out how to treat the First Heroes. Thus starts the campaign. Oh, and the players know almost nothing of this. They are starting out truly as informed as their characters would be. I have told them that should they choose a dwarf, they will have many secrets that the others do not have. I just sent out the short Player's Guide I created to help them create their characters and understand a bit about the world. We'll see how it goes.
thsi worldbuilding part especially has been phenomenal. as someone who is balls deep into worldbuilding sometimes little thing you go over (such as roads) turn out to be things i simply overlooked when i was working on my maps. i had roads obviously, but i never put too much thought into the actual purpose of why the roads were built. rock on, Guy
Some GMs try to improvise as much as possible Me, I like to prepare everything that I can in advance This a great channel for the latter, keep up the great work friend
A good idea to review your work is to first step away for a week. When you're working on one thing a lot, your eyes get 'soapy' (thats what we called it in my language anyway) and you can't see even obvoius mistakes. When you forget the work a little bit, then you start seeing everything as fresh.
To critique my worlds I just compare them to what I know is bad and try making my world not them unfortunately I’m not that good at creating more serious worlds which I would like to actually run a campaign in good news however I’m normally just the fill in dm when our normal dm can’t make it so I do one shots a lot and those are the more joke type and I know the players love those
Really love your content and use it a lot in my sessions, I've gotten so much positive feedback about how awesome it is that the BBEG always has a great motive ("The villain wants something badly, and is having difficulty getting it"). I don't know if you've ever talked about it, but one tip that has helped me immeasurably too is "The heroes always see 'something'", my heroes get into all sorts of trouble because they roll poor notice rolls, but instead of saying "you see/hear nothing", I might go "You hear someone screaming in terror off in the distance" and in reality it's just a pig getting slaughtered, but my heroes will assume it's someone in need and rush onwards, and that gives me a chance to think up some amazing encounters, maybe they stumble upon a merchant's caravan and get to do some trading, or they find a burnt down farmstead that has been overrun by ogres :)
I love this serie of videos. Honestly it was life changing for me, especially the part where: the DM is also a player. Now I feel so much more confident and I focus on having fun together instead of entertaining my friends. I used every video, after watching an episode I try to apply it on my campaign and so far, it was a blast. Recently I drew a map of an underground city and I feel that I improved my map making skills. I would have love to share a pic with you but it's not possible on youtube.
I have been working on a Sci-Fi/Fantasy epic I am tentatively calling "The Sublight Universe". Your videos have been a great sanity check. It all began with the thought of "what would it take to actually build a ship that could reach a distant star system." Not Alpha Centauri, something sun-like where humans would have a half decent chance of establishing a new civilization on. This project has evolved over the years. It started as an AI storyteller. Then a series of Epic novels. As I developed the novels, I started with a setting that was 20 years in on a 40 year journey. It was a great premise for a Sitcom. I put together a cast of teenagers who all are placed in the same housing block after graduating high school, and were about to start college. My test audiences kept asking, "well sure, but what are they going to find at the end? Are there going to be ALIENS!?!?" I kind of realized that I had a little more work to do on crafting something... well... more interesting. I still wanted to create something character driven. So I thought about who actually built the ship. What was the Solar system like before it launched? What sort of political realities led to a lot of people sinking a lot of money into its construction? I also realized that it needed a touch of the Paranormal. And, steampunk. Just for good measure. Rather than be content with Clarke's third law (any advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic) I went ahead and just splashed Magic in. So I basically have space wizards solving science fiction problems with spells like fireball, and spider climb. Why have replicators when you can Conjure Food and Drink? Introduce magical robots, their limitations, and why the generation ship in a few decades has very few of them. Super intelligent computers are basically explained as channeling a celestial being. So I am finishing up the first draft of the player's guide for my world. It's coming in at about 180 pages. It includes sample characters, a map of the Solar system, a rich timeline of the alternate history of this world. And plenty of fun little crossovers and references from other science fiction universes. I have a chapter for stories set in the Solar System around the present time, and a chapter for stories set on these Generation ships in the next century or so. Instead of schools of Magic there are 12 archetypes. Because magic is a personal experience. Everyone is capable of some magic, but what magic you develop depends on your own interests and temperaments. (It's a bit like a musical instrument. Anyone can play, but only those that practice, practice, practice can learn to play well and under adverse conditions.) Rebels transmute things. Hedonist launch energy from their hands. Custodians make miracles happen and conjure helpful paranormals. And so on. As I watched your videos, it really helped my figure out exactly which questions I should be asking and answering in this player guide. Your style also really reinforced to me the importance of characters. Thank you --Sean
One quick trick my group and I do to keep the game going after we all go home is a group text. Since we only get together once a month we get some exploration and some RP done via text so we can get to the nitty gritty during table time.
I did make an entyre fantasyworld, complete with a bunch of races (12+), with subcultures and everything. A lot of history, political conflict, wars, alliances, bigbadevil. Currently I'm working on some beatfolks to fill a few gabs and populate the lesser visited areas.
How I test myself: After an important session, I check to see if I'm still enthusiastic about what I've created so far. If, I am, I keep going. If not, I find ways to abandon the boring bits and bring new life to the story. Typically, if I'm passionate about the game, so are the players, but I do poll them from time to time to see what they like and what they remember! If they don't remember something that you had planned on being of central importance, you better revisit that point. PS to Guy: Seriously, I just took up GMing the past year, in my late 40s, and haven't played any RPG since I was 15. This channel and your sage advice has been invaluable to my success. Whenever I have a question about some point of a campaign, you've made a video on the subject. You are my first go-to for advice and ideas. Thank you, Guy!
Watching this channel and Just In Time Worlds with Marie Mullaney has been such a tremendous help with building and fleshing out my fantasy world. I intend to write a book series based on 3 of my D&D characters, but I'd also like to GM this world I'm building via TTRP. The information provided by you and Marie has been invaluable! Thank you!
Guy, straight off… I want you to feel great. You were a notable start to my gaming journey, and massively influential on my GM/DM journey (inc. map book thingy BUY IT!!) You are FANTASTIC, and very very Helpful and good. This video was both hugely motivational and the cause of much avolition… Don’t point me at your patrion (I know it exists)… don’t point me at your shop or kickstarters (I know it/they exist, and have spent substantial amounts of money there)… just, be you, do your videos, maybe put more ad breaks in (TH-cam will pay you, not me, some how, stuff happens, because reasons) Don’t sell out… I know money is important but… so are we We care. The more you put money and views before your viewers, the less we will view… I will continue to view, because I believe in you… I believe that you want to make us better. You want us to make a world you would like to play a game in… but right now… outside of the world we game in, the world you create is so ensconced in Capitalism, that it’s not escapism… just more of the same… painted with a fancy brush
*Thanks for watching!* What world spaces and maps have you created? How do you test your map and your world space? Let us know in the comments below!
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Find each chapter of the video easily by clicking on the timestamps in the description.
how do i challenge my world? i run a solo PC in it and see what crawls out
Same, but I run a party through it in my head. Lately my kids and GF are my playtesters.
I hand draw my maps. Testing is usually just running through scenarios in my head and building a backstory for specific locations/NPCs.
I tend to send world building queries to Discord servers (e.g. what would a city that was built on/in a glacier look like?) That specific question actually got a reply from a geologist and became the capital of one of my nations.
Don't let your self-critique turn into self-deprecation though. That's an easy trap to fall into and if you start second guessing everything you've done, you're never going to finish. Then this campaign will be one of the millions that never get past the idea stage.
as someone who absolutely can't stand having a plothole and equivalent, i feel that.
people, you can't make a world that has recursive reasoning down to the birth of the universe... don't make it perfect, make it good.
@@wontcreep exactly. I'm not saying you shouldn't do your best, you absolutely should, but don't beat yourself up over every little detail.
Honestly needed to hear this I feel like I've edited my map alone 20 times and always find myself second guessing or seeing someone else's map and feel like mine is shit compared to there's even when my players say it looks good
Here's a comment to read, your videos and books have massively helped me GM and brought many epic moment to my table. Thanks for all your work and have a great day :D
Same here ! Thanks Guy!
The world I built is called Gether, because it is every roleplayer's goal to get to Gether (together).The premise is that the out-of-book world from the RPG we play wasn't sufficient, so the homebrew gods made their entrance by blowing it up and starting over (with certain people finding ways to survive the apocalypse and arrive in the new world). There are still easter eggs from the old game world since the gods just mashed all the leftover bits together to make the current world. This was incredibly freeing as a worldbuilder because the players and DM were able to see how the starts of civilizations would take off in their infancy. I think it makes everything feel like an exploration and keeps a lot of interest up.
This series of videos is amazing, and has given me gobs of ideas to touch up my universe, and I wish I would have had something like this when I started my GM journey 20 years ago.
I love that name and the wordplay. Bravo!
Then there's me, who as a player loves, LOVES, seeing how the world is laid out so I know where things are respective to each other
I have started to GM the Brancalonia setting a few months ago. Your videos have been a great help in improving the casual feel of the setting for me and the players. Thank you very much.
My daughter and I have been following along as she creates her first world on WorldAnvil. She looks forward to you every week and is making a really interesting world. Thank you so much!
I've recommended your Practical Guide playlist as a great moderator/storyteller resource for GMs on our forum writing RP site -- thanks so much for the consistently inspiring advice!
I didn't watch all the videos yet but this last video in the series is great!! Guy hits the nail on the head when he saying go back and fix it. The map itself will help with stories and world building can't be more true. I also left world space for my players to add. Players come up with great ideas and I got no problem with adding it. I got a hidden behind magic wood elf city from one player. They enjoy being part of the creation of the world and gives you a break from coming up with it all lol
This is quite helpful as usual! Building a homebrew world as we speak, so very pertinent!!
If you see this Guy
You are literally the only TH-camr that’s been able to help me progress as a Gm and currently am working through a 15 year project so far, I’d actually like to talk about paying you for help finishing it, mainly organizing it and finding holes, if you are interested respond and we can figure a way to talk about this.
Iaunotaur, a supercontinent created when two large continents collided with each other some unknown millennia ago, creating a massive and nearly inhospitable mountain range between them. The northern half of the continent is ruled almost entirely by the elves, a reclusive race that lives among the massive, wild old growth forests of the north. Past the Elven Wilds is the Green Coast, the home of the militant and war-like halflings. The small plain south of the Green Coast are the Orcish Lands, a burgeoning series of settlements for the peaceable but powerful orcs, constantly defending their lands against encroaching forces from all sides. The mountain range, called Belfarthen, is home to the dwarves, descendants of travelers that settled the rough terrain and now protect the world from some unknowable horror. Off the coast is the gnome's island nation of Drongo, home to bands of lawless pirates. The southern half is dominated by two human nations, warring states at an uneasy truce. Diplomatic Landolien is largely agrarian while monarchical Darmassa is gearing up for war, but against whom? Are they preparing to flatten the mountains and invade the Elven Wilds? Perhaps their neighbors in the south, Landolien, are their target. Or, would they risk another costly war against the Dwarven Cities?
Have always found adventure inspiration in maps. Often this comes from an unplanned feature, such as a small cove that suddenly said "pirate hideout" to me.
Will def. be up for the hardcover of "How to be a Great DM". Yes :)
Totally unrelated: Why didn't you name your book "The Practical *Guyde* to becoming a Great GM"?
I appreciate these videos, Guy. You have improved my GM style and my games.
Im running a star Trek game, and i have set up a few nebula and star clusters in the region that tell the story of an ancient empire that got into stellar formation and messed it up. There are a clusters of young stars that were yeeted from a planetary nebula where they normally form. They are now in deep space, but far too young to have naturally dissovled their nebula. So they were moved there by a catastrophic explosion 200,000 years ago that traced to thr formation of this stellar nebula 20 light years away
I must admit, I bounce between your new stuff and your older stuff. There is a definite tonal difference between them as you became more comfortable with yourself on TH-cam.
I have enjoyed everything. The new series makes me itch to do more.
My goal is to convert a short story series I sketched out back in college into a playable campaign. It is high magic, very high magic, which is the major hangup. My son says, just use a prewritten system. But, I haven't found one that works. Unfortunately, the way magic works is integral to how this world behaves and it's history. And it's future. How did it work in the stories? Terrifyingly. And if you messed up, you were toast. It tore the fabric of existence and rearranged reality. And then, undid everything as the spell ended. This world is the result of millennia of magical warfare. And some of the ancient weapons are sentient and are not yet done with their agenda.
So, not just any system will do. It's gotta be epic.
I love this channel and the work you do, Learned a lot from your insights and methods !
And yes, i rarely stop to comment about it, and yes... you deserve better.
The video actually starts at 1:30. You're welcome.
Aha! I lied. It's an ad. There are no shortcuts in GMing! Well... there are, but that doesn't fit my narrative.
You make Monday's better with your videos!
As someone who played AD&D but has not played in over 20 years your videos have helped me create a world, and many adventures. I now have a group to play with and we are having a great time.
Thank you for getting me back into a hobby that I used to love and now love once again.
I think you should have someone review what you do. Like every author has an editor who looks over what they've done. Doesn't have to be the same person everytime, doesn’t even have to be someone involved in your role-playing group, just someone who is into the genre you aim for.
I love the channel, Guy. Good work! I also understand the really deep deep worldbuilding is often unecessary for the average group of players. I go off the deep end with worldbuilding because that's what I love to do and I've been blessed with a party that's just as hungry for lore as I am for making it. Your videos have really helped me fine tune the world of Chebeth, a strange high-fantasy-clockwork-technology world centered around a college-city run by benign undead professors (called Lichdeans), a maritime city run by three different trade unions of Orcs, Goliaths, and Dwarves, and a mountain city built into the corpse of a dead god administered by five orders of Loxodon monks. The players love it. It's weird, and it's been super easy to find things for them to do.
Test self world: player enjoyment, DM enjoyment, consistency, creativity. (comment from start of vid)
Im in the kind of odd position of needing to create a world, but this is for Starfinder, so this is one of literally infinite worlds. I expect a few sessions to take place there, so im spending a bit of time on it, as its also important to the story, but i cant spend tons of time on it. Im used to needing to make a huge city that we only need a tiny bit of detail for one quick session or something. but a whole planet? With its own biomes and species and history and culture? Yikes. Im working on it, and its coming along but its a struggle to balance how much is too much and how much is too little.
Still a few steps behind but finally sat down and tried to draft out my 1st map. Just a single country, but it fits the kind of campaign I'm trying to eventually make.
Thanks for the info and encouragement!
You got this!
I do love all your videos, and you have made me a better dm for my friends and I hope to pick up your book when I can. I test my self but playing my encounters myself and think how my players would deal with it.
Thanks again Guy! More great advice! You’re one of my favorite TH-camrs ever. Keep on doing what you’re doing!
I just ask my wife...probably never really helpful but it gives me confidence :)
I wish I could do this, but she plays in the games so that wouldn't work 😟
I love the series. Thank you so much Guy!
I've spent about 5 years DMing by now. And I must admit that I have never created my own world. However, what I usually do is take an existing worldspace as a foundation, and then add interesting bits of 3 or 4 other worlds to make a good mix. Works like a charm, and less work in my opinion.
You are jazzed by the feedback because you love what you do (I am jealous of your professional nerd status :-) and because you love what you do, your content is helpful in many ways. What has improved over time is you are more organized and concise.
Am about to start my first homebrew campaign in a few weeks (yikes) and have used your videos to help fine tune my world. I know I will make a lot of mistakes and what not but am feeling more prepared than ever because of this top notch channel! Also, the battlemap book is awesome and well worth the money!
Haha how bout The PentaStep:) Thank you so much Guy for all you do; love the positive energy! It has been a privilege and blessing to learn so much from you over the years and to even have had a chance to roll dice with you as well! I will be rewatching this series every time I start a new campaign! Thank you so much!
-Dan
I'm actually working on my own RPG project. Im creating a TTRPG with it's own rules, monsters, races EVERYTHING. I've only had 1 test game (some friends came round with PCs that were in early sketch drafts) & havent had the chance to test the new dice system I have (the last was kinda crap & had bad feedback so this new one I'm hoping works better). I'm writing both the setting rules/Guides & I'm doing a campaign setting for people to play in if they dont feel like home brewing. You're channel has really helped with the process & always gives me new inspiration when I reach a deadend/creative block.
My DCC campaign’s now years-long success owes a lot to the deliberate imprecision of my campaign map. It’s more of a landscape drawing than a map-like something a tourist might buy on a visit to someplace like Rhineland. Nothing is to scale; even directions to other places are merely approximate; geographical features like impassible mountains have few details. Even the names of places, though they may sound dumb, are designed with continual player amnesia in mind (Kingslund, Churchlund, Dark Canyon, High Pass, the Eastern Lands Beyond). When I need detail, I add detail, self-made, or purchased. Only elements pertinent to the game and the PCs’ own view of the world ever show on the map.
Hey Guy and team, just a heads up. Unless TH-cam changed it, they can/will still run adds even if you remove the monetization option. They just get all of the revenue. As far as I know, the only way to completely remove adds is for viewers to sign up for the monthly TH-cam subscription thing.
This should NOT stop anyone supporting through Patreon though! Still a great channel to support
Your tips, tools, and examples have been greatly helpful and inspirational for me. Your enthusiasm shows in your good work. When I want to test my own work, then first I exercise as if I were an academic editor of a pre-existing published adventure book or module, and then I return my attention in this context back into a self-critique of my own work. My latest world-building project has been based on Thundarr the Barbarian 1980s TV show, still in progress.
I have created the mythical world of Rophira. This world is watched over by The Great 12, the original 12 dragons. The Black Dragon is the keeper of the Underside (the afterlife). Each province is ruled by the Dragon God that corresponds with it. The adventure begins in the province of Dyndonis The Selfish (Green Dragon). It is a wilderness campaign that begins in the Eclinia Peninsula. The party arrives by ship and then travels 3 days to the Sarsinghurst Fortress. This fortress is the only stronghold in these wild lands and it protects a single village. The adventures have an open world in which to play!
One thing I've been working on is "player-facing" maps. Give the players a map of the kind their heroes might get. It won't have everything on it, or be accurate or to scale, perhaps... but the players can keep it, update it, maybe even learn from an NPC what that odd little scribble in the corner means. Luka Rejec suggested the basic idea in Ultraviolet Grasslands, and I have been coming up with a lot of riffs on that. Specifically for UVG, it turns out that the ornate square "whole world" map in the middle is pretty useless, but the crude handmade notes and doodles around the margin are actually a lightly-detailed but fairly accurate map of one route far, far into the mythic west. In my homebrew world, surveying isn't anyone's priority, and so land maps are usually very streamlined and differently focused than what you expect IRL, more like medieval maps. Adventurers also have a mapping shorthand that allows crude but easily-read maps to be left behind or disseminated when it's necessary to inform other adventurers of what a cave system or fortress interior is like, and VIPs who employ adventurers learn that shorthand, to communicate with them.
Really, truly investing in the map inspired what could be a year's worth of games in Monster of the Week - and that's just from crucial points across the game map. What Guy said about borders is a great point too because it's already factoring into my game with how groups are exchanging culturally. I also didn't expect to spend several days researching the exodus of the LDS Church and their territorial relations with The Shoshone descendants sharing the same region. All of that points back to how our yeoman's work for a functional map highlights background politics while beckoning my players to hear out every side of the argument during random monster attacks. Hence why great maps make better stories.
I am working on a world currently, as I began buildinging the map I made a "beginner area" in a way its symbolic in my growth of becoming a GM. As I get more comfortable I start to branch out and build more complex monsters in a mountain range. When I ran a successful Dungeon Delve, I built a desert that is 100km wide that is a perfect circle with undead bones in the sand. The only Oasis is in the center and below the oasis I placed a temple to a diety that absorbs water to a central location. The water grants Eternal life but you must drink from the Oasis and only the Oasis.
When I began to branch out into politics in my game I began to create kingdoms on my map.
I call it the Land of Phatal. My goal for the game is to create an Isekia type where the players are the only Humans in the entire world. It's a kind of experience that I enjoy sharing. As I "level up" outside of Phatal I add to the map and the game.
I’ve been watching your videos for years and I wish I could see how many hours of videos I’ve watched from you because it’s probably days worth. I’ve spent the last few years slowly building a world and getting a lot of inspiration from you and I finally started my first custom campaign in my world last week.
I watched all the videos and loved them so much!! It gave me some motivation to carefully think about doing a campaign with my friends and my 1st as a GM. I'm not fantastic at memorizing rules and I do take my time adding rolls, so I have been hesitant. I'm thinking about this world that it's made of islands and every island is like a different environment - maybe like One Piece. So we can just change the setting and have my little stories on each island and later unfold into a big one. Thank you so much for these videos! Please keep up the good work!
I’ve been watching your videos for over a year and find your videos entertaining and relaxing, I play twice a week one as DM and one as player. Your work is awesome and appreciated especially with all the horrible stuff going on pretty much daily all over the world. Thank you for the work you do and you make a difference in lots of people days, stay safe and I look forward to your next video. New Hampshire USA
I always bounce my weird stuff off my sister. She plays with her friend group, and I with mine. If she gives it the go ahead I usually try it.
Since getting more attached to my players, I usually just straight up ask.
Well now I regret having ever mentioned the desert in the first place. Ought to have taken the hint after I e-mail, I suppose. Sorry to have been a bother, Guy (and fellow viewers).
I have trouble creating a map as I never liked maps or even geography in general. The process of creating one feels more like a painful weight to me at the moment. It's my first campaign and I want it to be interesting, complex and fun. Pre creating a map feels like it would block me and make improptuous ideas more difficult, like it would make me less free to create m'y world little by little as the campaign evolute. Does anyone have any advices for me ?
Am I and my player tell me in post how fun it was. Are they talking about what happened or what might happen next. Do they come back early??....with better snacks.
I have been an avid gamer for many, many years. I appreciate the fantastic information you provide. I feel that my players and I have benefitted with your materials. Thank you for your efforts. Best regards from Seattle.
Amazing video! I have completed the first part of my second world map. Your videos keep my goals and priorities in line, my map is shaping up to be a great because of it. I can see so many exploration adventures in it already. This series is the best!
Amazing video! Totally loved it! Currently building my world slowly and trying to learn from different DMs. :)
I've been following along and watching this latest series all the way through. It's been very helpful as I create my first world. I wanted to create a world with a different tone to most fantasy RPG worlds I've played in. There are four Lands the characters will know about. Three of them have been isolated from anyone else inside lands surrounded by impassable mountains on one side, and a turbulent ocean on the others. They have been like this for thousands of years, and are unaware that there are any other people or lands in the world. It wasn't until 60 years ago when the dwarves first emerged from the mountains in each Land that they found out about others. It's a mixture of high fantasy but with the social/historical implications of aliens arriving and letting us know that there is a larger universe out there.
The isolation of each land has reduced the amount of warfare and each land had achieved a level of stability by the time they encountered each other. In other words, it's kind of like the three lands are sort of Hobbiton-like. There is no need for Heroes (with a capital "H"), and no tradition of adventurers. There are also no Gods to get in the way of people just living their lives.
But behind the scenes, the dwarves, who live in and beyond the mountains that surround each land, know the truth, and the truth is that they are all survivors of a terrible apocalypse that almost destroyed this continent. The cause of this was the race of beings who actually created the dwarves and others to be their slaves. These beings became so corrupted the rest of the world banded together, isolated the different creatures on the continent with the high mountains, and then attempted to destroy them all. They then placed wards around the continent to prevent anything from ever leaving it. The dwarves, elves, tieflings, halflings and humans (all of them created to serve) survived, but in so low numbers that they went back to the beginning and forgot the "before times." Each has now created a new society and civilization highly impacted by their environment and their isolation, with some unconscious influence from their original purpose for which they were created. All except the dwarves who remember. They survived better in their underground cities, though still lost most of their population. They live in the mountains that bisect the continent and protect the peaceful Lands on the eastern side, from the remaining beasts and monsters, all that remained from the fallen corrupt beings on the western side.
And now, the corruption is beginning to rise again, and leak into the peaceful Lands. For the first time in millennia, heroes are needed. The players will get to define what a hero is, and the people of the Lands will get to figure out how to treat the First Heroes. Thus starts the campaign.
Oh, and the players know almost nothing of this. They are starting out truly as informed as their characters would be. I have told them that should they choose a dwarf, they will have many secrets that the others do not have. I just sent out the short Player's Guide I created to help them create their characters and understand a bit about the world. We'll see how it goes.
thsi worldbuilding part especially has been phenomenal. as someone who is balls deep into worldbuilding sometimes little thing you go over (such as roads) turn out to be things i simply overlooked when i was working on my maps. i had roads obviously, but i never put too much thought into the actual purpose of why the roads were built. rock on, Guy
Some GMs try to improvise as much as possible
Me, I like to prepare everything that I can in advance
This a great channel for the latter, keep up the great work friend
Ohoho, trust me, Guy. I don't need any tips on figuring out why my homebrew world is garbage, thank you very much!
A good idea to review your work is to first step away for a week. When you're working on one thing a lot, your eyes get 'soapy' (thats what we called it in my language anyway) and you can't see even obvoius mistakes. When you forget the work a little bit, then you start seeing everything as fresh.
I pass my ideas by anyone who will listen, mostly my granny who worked in play production :)
To critique my worlds I just compare them to what I know is bad and try making my world not them unfortunately I’m not that good at creating more serious worlds which I would like to actually run a campaign in good news however I’m normally just the fill in dm when our normal dm can’t make it so I do one shots a lot and those are the more joke type and I know the players love those
I don't test myself.
That's why I've been building a world for a year, and haven't played a single game in it. I'm afraid.
Really love your content and use it a lot in my sessions, I've gotten so much positive feedback about how awesome it is that the BBEG always has a great motive ("The villain wants something badly, and is having difficulty getting it").
I don't know if you've ever talked about it, but one tip that has helped me immeasurably too is "The heroes always see 'something'", my heroes get into all sorts of trouble because they roll poor notice rolls, but instead of saying "you see/hear nothing", I might go "You hear someone screaming in terror off in the distance" and in reality it's just a pig getting slaughtered, but my heroes will assume it's someone in need and rush onwards, and that gives me a chance to think up some amazing encounters, maybe they stumble upon a merchant's caravan and get to do some trading, or they find a burnt down farmstead that has been overrun by ogres :)
I love this serie of videos. Honestly it was life changing for me, especially the part where: the DM is also a player. Now I feel so much more confident and I focus on having fun together instead of entertaining my friends. I used every video, after watching an episode I try to apply it on my campaign and so far, it was a blast. Recently I drew a map of an underground city and I feel that I improved my map making skills. I would have love to share a pic with you but it's not possible on youtube.
I have been working on a Sci-Fi/Fantasy epic I am tentatively calling "The Sublight Universe". Your videos have been a great sanity check.
It all began with the thought of "what would it take to actually build a ship that could reach a distant star system." Not Alpha Centauri, something sun-like where humans would have a half decent chance of establishing a new civilization on.
This project has evolved over the years. It started as an AI storyteller. Then a series of Epic novels. As I developed the novels, I started with a setting that was 20 years in on a 40 year journey. It was a great premise for a Sitcom. I put together a cast of teenagers who all are placed in the same housing block after graduating high school, and were about to start college.
My test audiences kept asking, "well sure, but what are they going to find at the end? Are there going to be ALIENS!?!?" I kind of realized that I had a little more work to do on crafting something... well... more interesting.
I still wanted to create something character driven. So I thought about who actually built the ship. What was the Solar system like before it launched? What sort of political realities led to a lot of people sinking a lot of money into its construction?
I also realized that it needed a touch of the Paranormal. And, steampunk. Just for good measure. Rather than be content with Clarke's third law (any advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic) I went ahead and just splashed Magic in.
So I basically have space wizards solving science fiction problems with spells like fireball, and spider climb. Why have replicators when you can Conjure Food and Drink? Introduce magical robots, their limitations, and why the generation ship in a few decades has very few of them. Super intelligent computers are basically explained as channeling a celestial being.
So I am finishing up the first draft of the player's guide for my world. It's coming in at about 180 pages. It includes sample characters, a map of the Solar system, a rich timeline of the alternate history of this world. And plenty of fun little crossovers and references from other science fiction universes. I have a chapter for stories set in the Solar System around the present time, and a chapter for stories set on these Generation ships in the next century or so.
Instead of schools of Magic there are 12 archetypes. Because magic is a personal experience. Everyone is capable of some magic, but what magic you develop depends on your own interests and temperaments. (It's a bit like a musical instrument. Anyone can play, but only those that practice, practice, practice can learn to play well and under adverse conditions.)
Rebels transmute things. Hedonist launch energy from their hands. Custodians make miracles happen and conjure helpful paranormals. And so on.
As I watched your videos, it really helped my figure out exactly which questions I should be asking and answering in this player guide. Your style also really reinforced to me the importance of characters.
Thank you
--Sean
One quick trick my group and I do to keep the game going after we all go home is a group text. Since we only get together once a month we get some exploration and some RP done via text so we can get to the nitty gritty during table time.
Thanks for the help! Just starting my first world now that I've been planning for a while
Your OGAS has improved my games for I Know how the NPC might react.
I’ve gotta say, Manic Happy Guy is a pretty delightful thing to witness.
Don’t even joking when I say that these videos have SAVED my campaign
I did make an entyre fantasyworld, complete with a bunch of races (12+), with subcultures and everything. A lot of history, political conflict, wars, alliances, bigbadevil. Currently I'm working on some beatfolks to fill a few gabs and populate the lesser visited areas.
I test my self by reviewing and reading these videos, website and others like the Lazy DM
I found you from JonJonthewise, I run cyberpunk red and thank you.
Is just trying to improve your GM skills an ok goal?
I just found this channel and it is a pure gift. Thanks, Guy!
I made a worldspace! Congrats man, and thanks for your help
Love your videos! Such great ideas and storytelling!
I watch your video's on my PC only since i have ad block.
I really need to stop taking breaks from these, time gets away so fast!
Random comment which is helpful to the algorithm.
Thanks for helping me keep my imagination :)
Love this series. Helped me design my own world for DnD
this is my actual map, until deios includes cities, ( i will remake it there when that is available) ( BTW there is a typo it is 30 miles not 300 :P )
i.ibb.co/G383Txy/Map-2.jpg
4 minutes of ads before getting into the video seems excessive imo
👍👍
truly one of the best TTRPG content creators on this site
"It stinks!"
-Jay Sherman
Uh, four minutes in - that was a long wait :-D
How I test myself:
After an important session, I check to see if I'm still enthusiastic about what I've created so far. If, I am, I keep going. If not, I find ways to abandon the boring bits and bring new life to the story.
Typically, if I'm passionate about the game, so are the players, but I do poll them from time to time to see what they like and what they remember! If they don't remember something that you had planned on being of central importance, you better revisit that point.
PS to Guy: Seriously, I just took up GMing the past year, in my late 40s, and haven't played any RPG since I was 15. This channel and your sage advice has been invaluable to my success. Whenever I have a question about some point of a campaign, you've made a video on the subject. You are my first go-to for advice and ideas. Thank you, Guy!
Short answer. Probably not
Watching this channel and Just In Time Worlds with Marie Mullaney has been such a tremendous help with building and fleshing out my fantasy world. I intend to write a book series based on 3 of my D&D characters, but I'd also like to GM this world I'm building via TTRP. The information provided by you and Marie has been invaluable! Thank you!
Just finished my campaign a success I’m looking to my map for idea’s for a future campaign and I can see the adventures that can arise from the map
Use the players.
I just love your energy in this video! Great to see you as excited about your content as we are :3
☮
Guy, straight off… I want you to feel great.
You were a notable start to my gaming journey, and massively influential on my GM/DM journey (inc. map book thingy BUY IT!!)
You are FANTASTIC, and very very Helpful and good.
This video was both hugely motivational and the cause of much avolition…
Don’t point me at your patrion (I know it exists)… don’t point me at your shop or kickstarters (I know it/they exist, and have spent substantial amounts of money there)… just, be you, do your videos, maybe put more ad breaks in (TH-cam will pay you, not me, some how, stuff happens, because reasons)
Don’t sell out… I know money is important but… so are we
We care.
The more you put money and views before your viewers, the less we will view…
I will continue to view, because I believe in you… I believe that you want to make us better. You want us to make a world you would like to play a game in… but right now… outside of the world we game in, the world you create is so ensconced in Capitalism, that it’s not escapism… just more of the same… painted with a fancy brush
BRO. you're 4 minutes into this video and you STILL haven't started. You are such a shill.
my world sucks bro
A critique: it took more than 4 minutes to get to your subject matter - you nearly lost me. I suggest shortening up your introductions.