It's gonna be my turn to DM my group here pretty soon, and I decided to run a 5e game with a homebrew setting, set in my Literary setting for my books. It will have new races and classes to make it fit better, some new items and spells, new creatures... I was wondering if you guys could give me some advice on what to avoid and perhaps some pointers?
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D&D 5E Homebrewing a Setting, advice?
- Thread starter Lazzamore
- Start date
Gilladian
Adventurer
For your first time DMing, you may be biting off more than you can chew with new races, classes, AND a campaign setting to create. Also if you're using a setting you've imagined in detail, be sure you're leaving plenty of room for player agency. Give them freedom to follow their own choices, even when it wrecks your notions.
Start small. Create a village and a few small adventures. Feed hooks to the Pcs and let them develop on their own. Listen to what your Pcs imagine, and let that influence your future choices. If you have to introduce new rules material, do it slowly. Don't dump 10 new races and classes on them first thing, unless you all sit down and spend a good bit of time discussing what the world is like, and why these races exist. And you may find that your players are just as happy with the basics in the book. I ran campaigns for years in 3e and never had a player go outside the PH for a single class, and only a couple times for race.
Start small. Create a village and a few small adventures. Feed hooks to the Pcs and let them develop on their own. Listen to what your Pcs imagine, and let that influence your future choices. If you have to introduce new rules material, do it slowly. Don't dump 10 new races and classes on them first thing, unless you all sit down and spend a good bit of time discussing what the world is like, and why these races exist. And you may find that your players are just as happy with the basics in the book. I ran campaigns for years in 3e and never had a player go outside the PH for a single class, and only a couple times for race.
Waterbizkit
Explorer
I'll quickly echo part of what was said above: start small. Don't expect your players to suddenly share your level of interest and passion about the setting and don't try to overload them with grand histories and other overwhelming levels of detail. You also need need to realize they might want to carve out their own little part of the world for their characters backstory and you need to be prepared to work with them on that instead of just saying no.
Anyway, good luck with it. Just try not to overwhelm them and yourself on your first time out.
Anyway, good luck with it. Just try not to overwhelm them and yourself on your first time out.
Jester David
Hero
The big thing to remember is that the rules for good novel/fiction writing do not apply to DMing. The players are the stars, and should always have a choice. They're not characters in a book doing what you want them to. You don't get to tell them how to think or feel, and the harder you try to push the "plot" in a certain direction the more they will likely rebel.
But other than that you're pretty free.
Okay, I love worldbuilding. So I'm not going to advice going overboard on that. Because I always go overboard on that. Just be aware and conscious of the time you're spending on worldbuilding aspects that might have zero impact on your game.
It's handy to be able to communicate the major details of the world to the players. They should know what is common knowledge in the world. But don't go too overboard.
They also need to know this before character creation. Creating a 1-5 page player's guide of the "must-know" information is handy. I recommend a physical copy.
Making new races and classes is advanced design. Races can be a little easier, and a good start. But I'd hold off on classes until you have a really good handle on the game and its balance. It's always preferable to just find some existing 3rd party races/classes and use those. Reflavour options and change the fluff/story behind options to fit the world. Keeping them as NPCs rather than player options works as well.
But other than that you're pretty free.
Okay, I love worldbuilding. So I'm not going to advice going overboard on that. Because I always go overboard on that. Just be aware and conscious of the time you're spending on worldbuilding aspects that might have zero impact on your game.
It's handy to be able to communicate the major details of the world to the players. They should know what is common knowledge in the world. But don't go too overboard.
They also need to know this before character creation. Creating a 1-5 page player's guide of the "must-know" information is handy. I recommend a physical copy.
Making new races and classes is advanced design. Races can be a little easier, and a good start. But I'd hold off on classes until you have a really good handle on the game and its balance. It's always preferable to just find some existing 3rd party races/classes and use those. Reflavour options and change the fluff/story behind options to fit the world. Keeping them as NPCs rather than player options works as well.
As someone who wasin basically the same boat, allow me to offer some points of advice.
1. You are already doing a good move by making your own setting. Once I got the ground rules down for my setting, and what made it mine, rather than another generic setting, I found it much easier to do the rest through simple Q&A here on the boards. Maybe you don't need it but other people's questions helped a lot in figuring out where I was going with my world.
2. This is not a fragile game. Once you have your own world, and can understand the internal consistency, you can do a lot of stuff on the fly. One of my players wanted a new bard subclass, and I had the basics done in about a minute, because I was immediately able to know where it fit in my world. To sum it up, do not worry too much about if your races get over powered or not, it tends to bend quite well before it will ever break.
3. There is no such thing as too much to do, only too little time. Maybe see which of your races/classes/spells your players are interested in playing for session 1, and make sure those are fleshed out enough, mechanics wise, that you players can play them. You can work on the other things in the background, and in between sessions.
That is all for now, good luck.
EDIT: 4. Also, be prepared to be flexible. I threw 30 wolves at my party, fully prepared for them to either run or rally nearby guards to help in the fight. They instead started burning down trees, while the wizard played fire man to keep it from turning into a full blown forest fire. Players come up with some crazy ideas, and it might help ahead of time to decide what will or will not work to an extent.
For example, with the wolves, they tried scaring the wolves away with fire, which makes complete sense. Then the rogue jumped onto a burning branch to chop it down, so it would fall on the wolves, so getting a bit trickier. Then the Wizard used Jump to try and crush a wolf, by jumping thirty feet and landing on it. Now in the realm of complete improvisation, at least as far as I was concerned. I just wound up ruling they both took the falling damage he would have taken from 15 feet up.
1. You are already doing a good move by making your own setting. Once I got the ground rules down for my setting, and what made it mine, rather than another generic setting, I found it much easier to do the rest through simple Q&A here on the boards. Maybe you don't need it but other people's questions helped a lot in figuring out where I was going with my world.
2. This is not a fragile game. Once you have your own world, and can understand the internal consistency, you can do a lot of stuff on the fly. One of my players wanted a new bard subclass, and I had the basics done in about a minute, because I was immediately able to know where it fit in my world. To sum it up, do not worry too much about if your races get over powered or not, it tends to bend quite well before it will ever break.
3. There is no such thing as too much to do, only too little time. Maybe see which of your races/classes/spells your players are interested in playing for session 1, and make sure those are fleshed out enough, mechanics wise, that you players can play them. You can work on the other things in the background, and in between sessions.
That is all for now, good luck.
EDIT: 4. Also, be prepared to be flexible. I threw 30 wolves at my party, fully prepared for them to either run or rally nearby guards to help in the fight. They instead started burning down trees, while the wizard played fire man to keep it from turning into a full blown forest fire. Players come up with some crazy ideas, and it might help ahead of time to decide what will or will not work to an extent.
For example, with the wolves, they tried scaring the wolves away with fire, which makes complete sense. Then the rogue jumped onto a burning branch to chop it down, so it would fall on the wolves, so getting a bit trickier. Then the Wizard used Jump to try and crush a wolf, by jumping thirty feet and landing on it. Now in the realm of complete improvisation, at least as far as I was concerned. I just wound up ruling they both took the falling damage he would have taken from 15 feet up.
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aco175
Legend
I had a good campaign start with a handout as well. There was some general knowledge and rumors everyone would know, but I also placed several character specific rumors as well. Some of there rumors turned into adventures and other fizzled out but the players got to choose a few to explore. There was a kingdom map as well where I placed a few extra notes and marking on several of the players map. It took them a while to realize that they each received a slightly different handout and everyone said that was a cool moment.
Oofta
Legend
I'll echo the start small. Start with a village, have a vague idea of what kind of area and kingdom it lies in and general understanding of what is in the general area.
I'd also add that you don't want to plan too many details of your world ahead of time. Storytelling has a tendency to take on a life of it's own and some of my campaigns have gone far, far off what I had originally anticipated.
Don't rewrite classes, races or monsters more than you need to. Instead give them a different flavor and feel so that they fit your world. Designing new races is not easy, and part of the reason D&D works for so many people is that it plays to people's preconceived notions.
Instead of creating new races, I'd suggest that you take a different spin on existing races. For example, for the most part dwarves worship the standard dwarven deities (Moradin, etc) but there's another region where the dwarves worship the elemental forces of nature. Magic is done with runes carved in stone and they believe that all life is connected in kind of an amalgam of The Force and shamanistic magic. Druidic dwarves from the region tweak the description of their spells to be more elemental than nature so Barkskin is Rockskin instead. The spell is the same but the visual effect and feel is different.
But other things that I thought would be awesome never really caught anyone's imagination. For example in my world halflings worship countless gods. As far as other people are concerned, halflings just make up gods as they go along. I thought this was a fun idea that would allow the player to make up dozens of deities, making up new ones as he went along. Instead the guy made up one deity and stuck with it. But that's ok. I gave him an option, it didn't spark his imagination so I moved on.
I give my players options to shape the world, but I don't try to force them to play according to what is fun for me. We play a style of game that is fun for us as a group.
I'd also add that you don't want to plan too many details of your world ahead of time. Storytelling has a tendency to take on a life of it's own and some of my campaigns have gone far, far off what I had originally anticipated.
Don't rewrite classes, races or monsters more than you need to. Instead give them a different flavor and feel so that they fit your world. Designing new races is not easy, and part of the reason D&D works for so many people is that it plays to people's preconceived notions.
Instead of creating new races, I'd suggest that you take a different spin on existing races. For example, for the most part dwarves worship the standard dwarven deities (Moradin, etc) but there's another region where the dwarves worship the elemental forces of nature. Magic is done with runes carved in stone and they believe that all life is connected in kind of an amalgam of The Force and shamanistic magic. Druidic dwarves from the region tweak the description of their spells to be more elemental than nature so Barkskin is Rockskin instead. The spell is the same but the visual effect and feel is different.
But other things that I thought would be awesome never really caught anyone's imagination. For example in my world halflings worship countless gods. As far as other people are concerned, halflings just make up gods as they go along. I thought this was a fun idea that would allow the player to make up dozens of deities, making up new ones as he went along. Instead the guy made up one deity and stuck with it. But that's ok. I gave him an option, it didn't spark his imagination so I moved on.
I give my players options to shape the world, but I don't try to force them to play according to what is fun for me. We play a style of game that is fun for us as a group.
the_redbeard
Explorer
I'm a world builder as well and I modified what races/cultures and classes are available too. It's easier to remove stuff than to add it at first (for me: no dragonborn, no gnomes, no drow, no bards, etc.)
I don't have the link handy, but someone has engineered a system for making new races; you should check that out.
As far as background goes: make what is necessary and what their PCs would know fit onto 1 legible page.
Players care more about background when it affects the game. As the game continues, you can share more.
Ways to make your background part of the game :
1. Incorporate it into the treasure: that magical item, even that mundane piece of jewelry, has a history and a story. That story could make the item (even the mundane item) more useful or valuable. Who will pay more for it? Who will give you favors for wielding that item, or try to take it from you?
2. Incorporate it into adventure hooks: whose ruins are they, what language are those inscriptions in, what servant monsters might still be there?
3. Villains can have dialog, even while fighting. Think of how much villains in comic books say then they're fighting. Exposition in round (6 seconds) chunks.
And so on.
I don't have the link handy, but someone has engineered a system for making new races; you should check that out.
As far as background goes: make what is necessary and what their PCs would know fit onto 1 legible page.
Players care more about background when it affects the game. As the game continues, you can share more.
Ways to make your background part of the game :
1. Incorporate it into the treasure: that magical item, even that mundane piece of jewelry, has a history and a story. That story could make the item (even the mundane item) more useful or valuable. Who will pay more for it? Who will give you favors for wielding that item, or try to take it from you?
2. Incorporate it into adventure hooks: whose ruins are they, what language are those inscriptions in, what servant monsters might still be there?
3. Villains can have dialog, even while fighting. Think of how much villains in comic books say then they're fighting. Exposition in round (6 seconds) chunks.
And so on.
doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
In my experience, the "start with a village" idea is strongly dependent on the world builder, in terms of how good advice it is. For me, I can't do it that way. Even at my least experienced, trying to do it that way was impossible for me. I was 100% stuck* until I gave up on that and started building the world that village inhabited.
Then, the world came alive, and within a few weeks I had a setting two detailed continents, with a dozen fleshed out "cultures ", twice as many nations, three defined religions and basic ideas of other faiths, heresies, etc, a couple example knightly orders, and a couple detailed cities, and at least 1 important NPCs for each faction.
I figure from your OP that the setting is already at least partly built, since you refer to it as the literary setting you've developed?
[MENTION=6801219]Lanliss[/MENTION] is right about the q&a thing. It helps. Also, player input. Give the players an idea of what the world is, and ask them what sort of characters sound interesting in such a setting, and figure out if you need to add a nation, faction, conflict, or other element to the setting to allow for such a character.
Those two things go a long way to bridging the gap between literary and gaming setting.
Then, the world came alive, and within a few weeks I had a setting two detailed continents, with a dozen fleshed out "cultures ", twice as many nations, three defined religions and basic ideas of other faiths, heresies, etc, a couple example knightly orders, and a couple detailed cities, and at least 1 important NPCs for each faction.
I figure from your OP that the setting is already at least partly built, since you refer to it as the literary setting you've developed?
[MENTION=6801219]Lanliss[/MENTION] is right about the q&a thing. It helps. Also, player input. Give the players an idea of what the world is, and ask them what sort of characters sound interesting in such a setting, and figure out if you need to add a nation, faction, conflict, or other element to the setting to allow for such a character.
Those two things go a long way to bridging the gap between literary and gaming setting.
doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
Also, let me be the oppositional voice on some of the other advice ITT.
While a give race shoudl have multiple cultures, and some cultures should have developed with multiple races, etc, if an idea feels like a new race is the right fit, do that. Don't ever limit the number of races because internet ppl told you "less is more", or "reflavoring is better than new options".
Some people think those are axiomatic. They aren't. Often, purpose built options are just better at accomplishing a goal than relfavored or jury rigged options. IMO/IME, purpose built is better most of the time.
Get feedback on new options, but let yourself be final arbiter, and take the feedback of your group over anyone here.
Also, by new races and classes etc, did you mean making new homebrew options, or adding new things to your setting to make the setting work better in 5e dnd, or both?
While a give race shoudl have multiple cultures, and some cultures should have developed with multiple races, etc, if an idea feels like a new race is the right fit, do that. Don't ever limit the number of races because internet ppl told you "less is more", or "reflavoring is better than new options".
Some people think those are axiomatic. They aren't. Often, purpose built options are just better at accomplishing a goal than relfavored or jury rigged options. IMO/IME, purpose built is better most of the time.
Get feedback on new options, but let yourself be final arbiter, and take the feedback of your group over anyone here.
Also, by new races and classes etc, did you mean making new homebrew options, or adding new things to your setting to make the setting work better in 5e dnd, or both?
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