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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gary N. Mengle" data-source="post: 483350" data-attributes="member: 8765">About 1200-1500 pages, to start with.  You'll want to expand it as time goes on.  Buy filing cabinets.Well, you'll need detail on each city, town, village and hamlet in the game world, in case the party goes there.  You'll need roleplaying notes for each inhabitant, in case the PCs meet them.  And wardrobe notes, so you can describe their garb.  And what if the PCs kill them or pick their pockets?  You'll need a complete breakdown of possessions and finances, including land and nonportable goods.  You'll also need to describe each inhabitant's relationships with other inhabitants (I find that flowcharts work great for this.)Geographical, ethnological and cultural information is paramount.  Detail all potential adventure sites, with maps and location keys.  Also, be sure to detail resources, economics and trade routes.  Be sure to describe in detail the kind of amusements, games and sports that are popular in the world.  Styles of architecture and works of engineering are very important, as well - I like to build 1/4 scale models of any important monuments.I like to write up a 20-30 page background history/current events synopsis for each NPC.  Minor NPCs usually only warrant about 5-7 pages.  To keep this data secret from my players, I generally write this information in one of the world's langauges.  (See below.)You'll want to develop your world's timeline at least 1,000 years into the future and as far back as you need to into the past.  I have detailed histories stretching back about 60,000 years, along with somewhat more intricately detailed histories of military units, campaigns and conquest.  Of course, you've have to continually adjust your timeline to account for the PC's actions, especially if you allow time-travel.Remember to draw up astrological maps of the night sky, tectonic plate maps of the entire world, and heraldry for all your noble families.  Map all road systems.  You'll also need to illustrate your gazetteer.  You ought to do this yourself - other people just can't see your own mental image of your world.I also like to do a lexicon of about 3,000-10,000 words for each of the languages in the campaign world, along with a comprehensive grammar.  If I'm feeling particularly obsessive, I'll write up a couple of book-length epic poems in those langauges.Lastly, If you play with miniatures, you'll need to sculpt a couple thousand of them.  I don't like to use those mass-produced figures that look like eveybody else's.Hope this helps,M. A. R. Barker<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></blockquote>

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