Behind the Dungeon Master’s Screen - Where to Start.

     Before you begin to DM the player characters your players rolled up need a place to exist.  They need a world, a country, region, village, city or ward.  This can be overwhelming, the sheer thought of creating a whole world, where to begin?  The good news is there are a number of D&D settings already on the market.  There is the World of Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms; Dragon Lance, Thieves World, or a setting from a fantasy novel or a “home brewed” world of your own creation are all possibilities.  If you choose to use a setting that’s already in existence, just do some research and pick a spot to begin the adventure.  Over the years, I’ve found that they all work.

     If a home brew is what you’d like, two processes come to mind.  Starting with a small area and expanding it over time or creating the larger world, with broader strokes and working a specific area to start the adventure.  Regardless of which method you choose, it’s not necessary to have the entire world developed before you start.  Put enough stuff together to give the players some background.  If you’ve sat at my gaming table, you’ve likely had a character walk the legendary streets and alleys of The City of Sanctuary, possibly entered the Vulgar Unicorn Tavern and met “One Thumb” the bar keeper from the Thieves World setting.  In my current campaign, that city rests on the shores of the Dragonmere between Proskur and Suzail in the Forgotten Realms setting.  It’s sort of a combination or two settings.  But it’s worked for decades of good role playing.

     The current adventuring party has had several memorable sessions.  Their adventure began as their backgrounds brought them all together on a ship destined for the City of Sanctuary from an Island Kingdom in the inner sea.  They are currently home based in the City of Sanctuary where a notable non-player character resided and primarily works.  From there they ventured southwest of the city, exploring the basement of an old wizard’s tower just outside the city, that an enterprising young gnome turned into a successful brewing company.  After the party eradicated a number of pesky vermin from the basement the owner was able to expand his business and open a distillery.  Then they worked as caravan guards transporting his spirits across the region.  After weathering a storm at the Mabbet Farm, rescuing the families daughter from several Gnolls who kidnapped the child for an evil ritual, and discovering ruins abandoned by a group of Knights.  They’ve also been thru the villages of Aramoor and Broken Shield and the City of Proskur.  Most of their adventures have been within a 100 miles of the main city.

     Once you have a generalized area, modules can be adapted and dropped where appropriate.  In between sessions, you can update your world, and keep the players on their toes, while their reputations spread so can their horizons.  Create major personalities in the communities in which they adventure.   Pull things from books, stories, or shows.  Many of my spur of the moment sessions were actually adapted from shows or movies that had been recently watched.  The names were changed, and the era may have been different, but the plot and general story line was the same.

     Last option, perhaps my favorite is simply doing everything in a session randomly.  The main advantage to this method, is it requires very little preparation on the part of the DM and it provides great latitude to let the players do and go where ever they wish.