A set of supplements focusing on terrains, transportation, and traveling of any fantasy world all wrapped up in 500 stunning pages.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Halfway Through
over 3 years ago
– Tue, Dec 15, 2020 at 10:30:10 PM
First off, I would like to tell you all THANK YOU! The backers are everything for this community and without all of you, I would not be able to work and create all this awesome content for you all! With your support, we have unlocked our second stretch goal!
I mean this from the bottom of my heart! THANK YOU!!!!
You are not supporting some huge companies by backing this project! You are supporting small-time artists, writers, editors, and well, of course, myself also known as Deep Dungeon Games!I really care about your thoughts, opinions, and wants! I want to know your stories about my creations and how you use them! If all goes well in the final half, we should unlock a ton of stretch goals and content for you amazing backers.
We now need your help in getting the word out! Every Kickstarter has a dip after the first week and begins to pick up during the final week!
This is your campaign as much as it is ours, so consider sharing the sample page PDF to help get people excited about it, share our social media posts, or just come follow us!
In case you were wondering, we are also doing a few mechanical mounts as well!
We do little stretch goals that promote sharing and new backers coming into the project. This gives backers more content for the books and every single share can make that much of a difference that we want to give back to you all. So if we hit $80,000 in 72 hours from the time of this update all backers will gain 5 pages of additional content in the form of quests and adventure seeds for the individual terrain types, to the digital and physical versions of Terrific Terrains & Terrible Travels. From the posting of this update, the timer begins, and this content will go away forever is we do not hit this goal by December 15th. So, share all the content that you can and never forget the power of the word of mouth.
Project Sharing - We are always trying to find ways to promote this project. One of those ways is through co-sharing another project. I was definitely surprised when the creator reached out to me about sharing each other projects. This project is not game-related, but hey we all like to be clean, if this is something that interests you then check them out.
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Backer appreciation update! YOU ARE ALL AMAZING AND INCREDIBLE!!
over 3 years ago
– Mon, Dec 14, 2020 at 08:22:05 PM
Hey everyone thanks for your support! This update is all about you backers that come to support projects and believe in our projects. I have had the pleasure to meet a few backers through the years and every time I do, I cannot help but get super excited. I know a lot of you are backers behind a screen but to us, you are so much more than that. You are all wonderful, and we have been able to bring projects to life and stay afloat during 2020. This community is amazing, and we are seriously trying to ramp up our free content and give back to you all like you are allowing us to create for you. We have added a ton of stuff that is completely free to download on our website, and you do not even have to sign up via email! You might think that is strange, but for us, it is about the community! Honestly, if it was not for the cost of production, paying for the art and content inside, and for keeping the bills paid! I would not charge a cent for anything! I really do mean it when I say that I personally appreciate every single one of you and will work until complete exhaustion for you all! Everyone have a fantastic day today, a merry Christmas, and a happy new year; I am forever humbled to be able to create for you all! I will send a content-filled update in the next couple of days!
We do little stretch goals that promote sharing and new backers coming into the project. This gives backers more content for the books and every single share can make that much of a difference that we want to give back to you all.
So if we hit 75,000 DOLLARS in 48 hours from the time of this update all backers will gain 3 pages of additional content in the form of mechanics for beggars and rules for earning a few extra copper pieces to the digital and physical versions of Terrific Terrains & Terrible Travels. From the posting of this update, the timer begins, and this content will go away forever is we do not hit this goal by December 15th. So, share all the content that you can and never forget the power of the word of mouth.
Knowing your character from the inside out - Some GMs draw up entire backgrounds on their characters before they even start to build campaigns or build their worlds. They know where they were born, whom they first kissed, and how many fillings they have in their teeth. I do not work like that, but I do believe you need to know more about an important character than what appears in your world and you are planning to have interaction with your players. If you do not know who your character is and how he or she might react in a certain situation you will never be able to create believable NPC’s. Like all ‘real’ people, your character will have had a past that took place before the players meet them. The experiences of the past will affect how he or she reacts now.
Take one of the characters that already have interacted with your players, or for a freeform approach, one that has not. Ask yourself what their best and worst memories are. How do these memories affect them now? What would trigger these memories? A song? A smell? A phrase? An object? Now write a short scene in which a memory is triggered that your players might induce.
Ask your character to empty their pockets or their bag onto a table. What comes out? Why does your character have those things with them? Now let your character choose an object and ask them to tell you why it is important to them. It would be useful to let them speak in the first person, that way you can hear their voice.
This might seem a bit strange at first, but if you can put yourself into the mind of your created characters. Yet, also in the same instance be able to interact with them in your mind's eye, then your characters will come alive.
No Place to Call Their Own
over 3 years ago
– Mon, Dec 14, 2020 at 07:25:44 AM
Thank you all so much for supporting and below you will see the outline of the update:
We like to provide little outlines to every update to help you see what is in the update. Your time is important, and we do not want to waste it, if not needed!
Bring hundreds of randomized possibilities to your game table with Decks of Arbitrary Athenaeum!
Each deck is filled with 50 amazing fantasy books that exist in your fantasy world. Are your players pulling books from shelves at random than just shuffle the deck and presto instant random book selections!
Content included in these decks are details like the book name, author, personality traits, book contents, rarity, cost, page count, book quote, and cover illustration.
Wanderers of the wastes between civilizations, this clan of goliaths pride themselves in their self-subsistent lives. They greatly value family and clan bonds, as surviving in such harsh climates necessitates plenty of work. Outsiders matter not except for trade. Should a traveler be in trouble, they may assist if there is no great threat to themselves. They will not give up their lives for a stranger though. The natural world is the giver of life, even in the cold wastelands they live in. While they take what they can, they try to replenish the land when they can. Their druids are tasked with revitalizing an area before they leave it. This is for their future good as much as it is for the land itself.
Origin - Those of the Stone Ash Clan are the descendants of giants, or so they believe. Exiled from the mountain-depth caverns of their ancestors, the goliaths are charged with finding meaning in the world. The wastelands they call home were picked because of the challenge of living there. Elders in the clan impart the lesson that life can be sustained anywhere if the spirit is strong enough. Legend states that when the goliaths finally learn the meaning of life, they will be transformed into their true form of giants. Few in the clan honestly believe this part, however, but it makes for a grand campfire tale.
Important events - 15 years ago, an artifact was traded to the tribe. It held a curse that was not disclosed upon purchase. Since that point, no clan members have been able to develop any magical ability. The druids of the tribe have struggled with their life-giving magic for reasons they do not know. This curse is known to the clan members as the mage blight. The artifact, an amulet of stone giant origin, was given to the late chieftain’s wife as a harvested gift. When the pair perished in a clash with a hag coven, the amulet was passed on to the new chieftain. While some have sensed a dark aura around the wearers of the amulet, it has been largely chalked up to the misfortune surrounding the family.
Leader - Current chieftain of the clan is Fotina Fomov. She is a hulking figure, standing at just under eight feet. The second chieftain to rule during this mage blight, she worries for the clan’s future if they cannot revitalize the lands they feed from. The diminishing returns of their usual roaming grounds have led her to start exploring new territories in the wastes. Elders in the clan worry for her because of the seven-dark double-ring designs around her fingers and toes. Each foretells a great tragedy or misfortune in Fotina’s life. So far, two tragedies have struck. The loss of her parents, and the mage blight.
I hope you enjoyed this quick look into the nomad clan known as The Stone Ash Clan.
As you all may or may not be aware, art is expensive but there are two types of people. Those who retain lots of information by reading it and those who are more visually inspired. So, we decide to include both a large amount of art and an extensive amount of information to be used for world-building and your homebrew games.
All content for the books of the Voyages of the Vagabond has been drafted and the illustrations are started and ongoing. From the get-go, we pledged that this book must be visually stunning. We want the images to be amazing, but we still need your help with sharing, talking about, and getting people to help support!
Good characters are not created overnight. Character building takes time and attention to detail. Luckily, there are a few exercises and writing prompts that you can use to get the ball rolling and overcome any writer’s block that is getting in the way of creating dynamic, fully formed characters.
Think about your character’s favorite type of entertainment - A good way to think about your character outside of the context of the campaign you are writing is to ask yourself what their favorite way to relax or enjoy their free time are. The answers will be informative and help you understand what makes your character tick.
Write a short story about your character at a different age - Take your character out of the context of your campaign and write a short story or scene about them at a different age. It can be instructive to take an adult character and write a standalone scene about them in times of their youth when they were molded by elders, patrons, and those they looked up to. Think about how they react to different pieces of information. How would they react to bad news? How would their behavior change as they age?
Draw your character - A fun exercise to generate a more dynamic physical description of your character is to try drawing them. Drawing a character can help elucidate more nuanced details about everything from eye color to body language and help you generate a fuller physical description of your character. Crafting a good character description can be hard but creating a visual reference point to refer to can make your descriptions come alive.
Create a character profile - Fleshing out a character profile is one of the most common and useful ways to propel your character into the future. A character profile can help you understand what your character wants. It is a way to list out the personality traits and behaviors of a character as well as smaller secondary characters.
Write from a character’s perspective - Writing a standalone scene from the first-person point of view of a character is a great way to get inside the character’s head and understand what your character feels. This is an especially useful exercise if your main story is written in third-person, or from the point of view of a different character. Writing in first person can unlock parts of a character’s voice that might otherwise elude you.
Create a character using real people as templates - Referencing real life close friends or family members can help you create interesting characters with idiosyncratic personalities and traits. Spend some time thinking about the qualities that make the people in your life unique and interesting. Think about each one of these traits and how you might incorporate them into your stories and create more interesting characters.
Keep a biography - Keeping a one-page biography of a character’s life can help you reference backstory and keep your facts straight. We should feel like each of your characters has a full life and history outside of your story. Working on a separate biography is a great way of generating material and keeping a record for you to refer to as you write.
Safety in Numbers
over 3 years ago
– Mon, Dec 14, 2020 at 05:38:38 AM
Thank you all so much for supporting and below you will see the outline of the update:
We like to provide little outlines to every update to help you see what is in the update. Your time is important, and we do not want to waste it, if not needed!
The Decks of Casual Characters will add some excitement to your tabletop RPG games with endless categories of NPC'.
When your players start interacting with the people of your realms be prepared with the NPC decks, with each deck containing 50 categorized NPCs, filled with their story, personalities, and more!
Content included in these decks are details like the character’s name, description, personality traits, motivation, occupation, skills/feats, and of course a professional illustration.
A train of camels, carrying a thousand vials of gem dust and the wealth of nations - strides slowly across the desert, its lookouts alert for the shadow of a dragon, passing high overhead. On a king’s road crossing the old-growth forests of the North, just ten miles from a sanctuary city. Bandits waylay a twenty-horse team carrying casks of fine Halfling cheese and Dwarven brandy. Fleeing a loveless marriage, a young Half-Elven princess signs on to work a traveling circus as an acrobat, hiding her identity behind a velvet mask. Caravans are more than just a part of the mundane economy of the world. They are a springboard to future adventures. The following new rules build upon the innovative caravan simulation rules. These new rules offer new possibilities to players and game masters alike engaged in nomadic adventures.
Why travel with a caravan - Caravan routes form a vibrant lifeline of trade, interconnecting the small towns, hamlets, and farmsteads that spread across The Vale. The caravans bring processed trade goods from the towns to the smaller communities. And, in return, they transport raw materials and foodstuffs back from the rural communities – a cyclical pattern of prosperity. There is a great reward, and great risk, to be had playing the trade routes. Shrewd caravan masters seek out skilled warriors to protect their interests. They offer high wages, but they demand loyalty and responsibility from their employees for the welfare of the caravan.
Who Travels with a Caravan - A caravan scenario presents characters and NPC’s with the opportunity to join a caravan as it prepares to depart across the realms. The adventure often begins with a plethora of different individuals mustering together under one caravan master. This can take the form of caravan workers, adventurers, passengers, refugees, merchants and so much more. As days pass, it becomes clear that there is trouble brewing in the wilderness they travel through. It will take sharp steel, and a sharp eye, to overcome the dangers those who travel in a caravan will face.
Why are caravans needed - In the ancient and medieval world, people made do with what was available locally, within about 20 miles. Trade developed as a means of acquiring something that is needed, useful, or desired from distant lands. Most foods were local. Most building materials were local. Only large or special construction projects were not local. Any list of professions will suggest products. If you create a town or city, the occupations of the inhabitants will indicate what they must trade and suggest items they import. Only exceedingly small towns or cities can be self-sufficient. After a certain size, neighboring towns, villages, farms, and herds are needed to support it. Many kingdoms are large cities import grain from across the lands to support the population.
All cargo takes up a certain amount of space and this includes food and water, so sometimes it is nice to have the ability to increase the amount a wagon or caravan can carry. This can take the form of unique transformations for wagons, custom crafting, and even extra-dimensional spaces. The below cargo is just a few examples of types of cargo a wagon might have within:
Contraband: Things illegal and immoral in the wider kingdom are allowed in the caravan. A caravan bearing a royal or clerical indulgence may operate a wagon, sell forbidden items like drugs, magic or even poisons without interference from local magistrates…. if they are moderately discrete and do not disrupt public order.
Treasure: This unusual form of cargo cannot be purchased. The treasure consists of all manner of loot, gear, treasure, and clutter that you collect during your adventures, but that no one in your party wants to use or even carry on their own. Things like looted armor, weapons, coins, gems, and other valuable objects can be combined into one big pool of treasure. You will need to track the total value yourself. Whenever the caravan reaches civilization, you can assume that the unwanted treasure is sold off so that the profit can be split among the PCs.
Stores: Of course, there have to be rather mundane items included in many caravans as well. This often takes the form of personal food and water for the long journey. Besides if you do not make it to the end of the road, was taking the caravan worth it?
Every person associated with a caravan who accompanies it on its journey is known as a traveler, and every traveler on a caravan fills a different job during the caravan’s journey and even if that job is simply being a passenger. Individual characters can only perform one job at a time. The below jobs and backgrounds are just a few examples of types of workers and jobs that NPC’s and PC’s might have during a caravan:
Passenger - Many passengers provide payments to the caravan upon being delivered safely to the caravan’s destination. You never know who might be traveling as well.
Guide - A guide is someone who truly knows the road, a specific area, or the world in general. Not everyone can fit the role nor can any guide be a perfect fit for every caravan.
Trader - A merchant enables a caravan to conduct business transactions whenever the caravan is stationed at a settlement.
Wainwright - A wainwright is required for field repairs to a caravan.
Of course, this is just a small portion of the content included, but we hope you found it interesting!
Each wagon in a caravan serves a specific purpose that helps to bolster the caravan’s statistics and thus its chances of success at reaching its eventual destination. While most probably picture the class westbound covered wagon of the Oregon trail, we truly got creative with the unique and creative wagons that are included as part of the caravan section and generator. An armored wagon functions like a covered wagon and it gives travelers a place to shelter. Unlike covered wagons, however, an armored wagon has heavily armored sides that provide much more protection to the caravan than do those of a simple covered wagon.
Each wagon in a caravan serves a specific purpose that helps to bolster the caravan’s statistics and thus its chances of success at reaching its eventual destination. Yet a caravan can be a unique grouping of individuals, contents, and even the chosen vehicles to drift across the roads. The below wagons are just 3 examples of the 20+ wagons that will be included for the caravan section and generator:
Chuck Wagon - Sturdy, often overloaded chuck wagons rumble slowly along at the back of a wagon train, filled with provisions. Delicious smells waft from within even as the caravan is traveling.
Fortune Teller Wagon - A cross between a covered wagon and a supply wagon, a fortune-teller’s wagon is a specialized wagon tailored to house the caravan’s spiritual guide—its fortune-teller. A traveler capable of filling a fortune-teller role cannot provide any benefits to the caravan without this wagon’s supplies.
Dead Wagon - A team of blacken-clad horses is typically seen in the front of this tavern and typically the wagon is painted with black. The symbol of the God of death is typically found painted in white upon the wagon as well. A grim wagon pusher that rarely speaks to the others within the caravan.
We have 20 interesting and different wagons for your enjoyment on top of the above listed!
The massive step of world design that affects the entire world is the creation of a world climate. For purposes of a world that you and your players can understand, a region's climate falls into one of five different categories, unless you have a reason to have a different category:
Arctic, Sub-arctic, Temperate, Sub-tropical, and Tropical
You may have noticed that these climatic zones sound familiar and do not seem that crazy of a concept. This is because any believable world (even a fantasy one) should have enough realism to make it believable.
Also, note that high mountains remain snow-capped year-round, and highland regions may enjoy a much cooler climate than the lower altitudes surrounding them. Even though these particular areas might exist within a tropical area.
Magical or fantastic variations to these climates could be induced by unusual weather patterns, how magic can affect those who dwell within a region, natural movements of the earth like geothermal energies or volcanic activity, or even something as simple as warm water currents. These probably do not sound that fantastic, but an origin story of magic and divine creation can easily take a boring topic and make it writable.
Remember, you do not have to justify everything with a scientific explanation. There might be things like multiple suns or moons, magical ley lines, or your world might be permanently locked with one pole facing its sun. The sunward pole would be super-tropical, the middle latitudes tropical, the equator temperate. As one moved into the dark side of the planet conditions would rapidly grow too cold for common humanoids to thrive, but not for cold-based monsters, undead, or ice elementals.
In short, the information about world climates assumes that your campaign setting is a planet that orbits a sun in much the same fashion as Earth. I think most of us understand the world in which we live, but do not be scared to think outside the box.
The Circle of Life
over 3 years ago
– Wed, Dec 09, 2020 at 10:36:14 PM
Thank you all so much for supporting and below you will see the outline of the update:
We like to provide little outlines to every update to help you see what is in the update. Your time is important, and we do not want to waste it, if not needed!
Animal ecology concerns the relationships of creatures to their environments, including physical factors and other creatures, and the consequences of these relationships for evolution, population growth and regulation, interactions between species, the composition of the different populations of the wilds. In a fantasy world, this does not change! It is very important in the scope of world-building to make note of this and keep it in the back of your mind when doing the creation process. Two general principles guide the study of animal ecology. One is the balance of nature, which states that ecology always stays at a relatively steady state. When a population becomes large of a certain creature or animal, then the resources that that creature depends on dwindle. This puts overall pressure on population, food, predation, and disease which eventually causes the decrease and stability of the type of creature to a steady-state. The second is that populations exist in a constantly moving relationship with the environment in which they dwell. These relationships may cause the situation in the environment to vary dramatically over time. One of the challenges of animal ecology is to control these different situations when one is conceptionally world building or even dungeon building.
Of all the terrains that spread their wings across the planet’s surface, none are as commonly found and utilized as the forest. A place called home to people, creatures, and a plethora of vegetation, it is a wonderland of flora and fauna with the touch of civilization upon its edges. Forests cover the realms from the frozen tips to the tropical centers. They are found, in wild variations, across nearly every biome, with even the remote and desolate oceans and desserts holding their own unique plantations of kelp forests or palm oases. While forests are, for all intents and purposes, a place of wooded growth, of trees, shrubs, and vegetation, the exact definition and terminology are highly contextual to the local races and cultures. When looking at forests we will focus on the main types found across the realms, and how travelers can best approach them for a safe and enjoyable journey.
Common Methods of Travel - The most common methods of traveling a forest are those that one uses to travel most places across the world, on foot, on the back of a creature, or upon a vehicle. Most forests, especially of the temperate and boreal, will contain paths, roads, or tracks to follow. With those that do not easily traversable with maps or a sturdy navigator. The denser jungles of the tropics are often slightly more difficult than others, with heavy undergrowth and impenetrable layers of vegetation hindering travelers in all directions.
Walking: The original, and for many, the only, way of travel through the world is upon their own feet. Worn soles placing one foot in front of the other to pass across lands and travel the realm. Of all the terrains the forest is one of the safer and more simply to walk through with many containing manageable ground or even pathways. A sturdy pair of boots and a keen eye always in need when traveling on foot with the ramifications of getting lost a lot higher than when upon a creature or vehicle. In the thick jungles of the tropics, walking is often the only real method of passage, especially where machetes and axes are required to be taken to vegetation to clear paths for even simple routes.
Mounts: Where roads or tracks are available, and where the jungle or forest isn’t too dense to traverse, horses, mules, and other beasts of burden are a common, safe, and reliable way to navigate the forests of the realms. With often copious vegetation for the creatures to eat and streams or lakes rarely far off, forests provide much of the basics required to keep a mount happy and ready to go.
Vehicles: Where roads are more significant, designed for the passage of trade and the armies of local lords and rulers, it is often possible for horse and carriage to make their way through the wooded realms. While lacking the ability to freely roam through the depths of the forest, unlike those on foot or horseback, cart and carriage allow the transport of goods and people where otherwise they would be limited. While often one of the safer environments to traverse, forests are still often roamed by creatures and bandits that would seek to do harm to unwary travelers, carts, and slower vehicles that are limited in their passage an easy target for the picking.
Uncommon Methods of Travel - The less common approaches to forest travel are often reserved to those that inhabit the depths of the biome, the woodland elves, and the creatures of the treetops. While some locations are forced to utilize these methods due to the lay of the land, it is a rare occurrence, with most paths and roads more likely to simply go around an area rather than construct elaborate or dangerous methods to cross it. When coming across the more unique structures or methods of passage within the forest, it is always recommended to consider the age and reliability of any device or natural route, with many forests as old as the land itself. There is nothing worse than stepping up on a walkway to have it collapse underneath, or swing from the heights of a tree to find the vine being held is brittle and weak.
Vines: In the dark and crowded jungles of the tropics, where vegetation sprawls over and in between every surface available, a dangerous and exhilarating method of travel lowers from many trees. Used by wood elves to traverse rivers, leap gorges, and swing between mighty trees, vines are a useful and thrilling means of travel. Caution is heavily advised with falling a dangerous outcome for those less dexterous of travelers.
Walkways: Sprawling across alpine forests that rise high into mountains, or jungles that climb over riverways and canyons, are walkways and bridges that swing between trees and along the ground. Made of wood, rope, and vines they allow passage in areas that would otherwise be insurmountable. While some are constructed by local towns, villages, or tribes, the wood elves of deeper forests are the most likely to have forged the pathways during their long years within the forests. The catwalks and trails of the air often come in varying degrees of age and usability, with some rotten and neglected, no longer maintained by the locals that built them. Others, however, like those found in heart of the elven kingdom, are structures of grand design and beautiful construction, still strong after centuries of use.
Types of Roads - Roads are frequently found to twirl their way through the depths of a forest. From simple paths made by constantly moving locals or grand expanses built by kings and queens for trade and war. The paths of the forest are often only as useful and grand as the local civilization, with any consideration to their use often best placed against the current state of the realm that one is within.
Forest Paths: Winding between the trees of a forest, worn away by time and locals, are the forest paths that commonly skirt towns and villages that lie within, or on the fringes of a forest. Often traveling between remote houses or buildings, to farms or worksites, from one village to another, these paths are places where constantly foot traffic has pushed back the vegetation and stamped down the soft earth. They are often only as wide as needed by those that utilize them, some able to allow the passage of horse or cart, others no more than a few feet wide. These paths rarely stray into the wilds for no reason and coming across one is often a sign of locals.
Hunting Trails: In places where hunting is a major source of revenue for the village, town, or tribe, the local forests are often riddled with hunting trails used by hunters to stalk their prey. These trails are in a similar nature to forest paths, however, are of immensely less use and rarely ever wide enough for cart or horse to utilize. The trials often lie between places of habitation and watering holes within the forests. Sometimes they lead to common den areas or places where games are known to eat. Hunting trails often lack the signage or markers that are found on larger roads and paths, with hunters using local knowledge and skill in their place.
Kings Roads: The grandest of roads to pass within a forest’s depths are that of a Kingsway. Given many names, especially where it is not a king that reigns, these grand roads contain many of the same features and designs that bring with them the constant flow of travelers and trade. Carving through forests these roads are wide and well-trodden affairs, often of stone or paving, that are frequently traveled by local guards or militia. They are maintained to allow caravans of trade and the passage of armies between major kingdoms and cities across the realms. These roads often are highly marked by signage and often contain inns or taverns at major crossways.
Walkways: As referenced in Uncommon Methods of Travel, walkways are a sight to be seen across the forests of the realms. These roadways are generally crafted for two reasons; one to allow passage over extremely difficult terrain, these seen in jungles and alpine forests, or two as structures in elven kingdoms, for travel and passage between the great trees of their domain.
I hope you enjoyed a brief look into a portion of the content that will be included in the forest’s terrains section. There is additional content like travel tips, the ecology of forests, residents, geography, and more.
Through the colder reaches of the realms, there are many sorts of strange creatures. Yet, when one comes across the white-haired Norqe, they are usually at peace with how docile and calm the creature is.
Just because they seem as if they are easy to capture, one will soon realize that there is much more to these creatures than their normal demeanor.
Just a bit on the different approaches to starting world building:
The Macroscopic Approach - This approach begins with only the broadest generalizations since you will begin by creating the gross physical features of the planet and zoom in step by step to greater levels of detail. The macroscopic approach is good for building a world when you have no plan in mind and want to see what you come up with. Continents and climates can be determined with random rolls; as you begin to look more carefully at specific areas, you may find that the basic characteristics of the world are beginning to suggest interesting cultures or situations. This approach is also good for creating worlds with a climatic theme, such as the previously mentioned desert world or forest world. Selecting the global conditions first might give you a better idea of how and why these specialized settings came about.
The Microscopic Approach - In many respects, this is the opposite of the macroscopic method. In this approach, the DM starts with a dungeon, town, or similar focused setting, and works his way outward. For example, if you have a great idea for a dungeon set in a volcanic mountain, your next step in zooming out would be to create a kingdom or region with a volcanic mountain in it, followed by the continent that surrounds the kingdom, and so on. Many campaigns are built by happenstance as fledgling GMs begin to place adventures farther and farther from the PCs' base of operations. This method for world-building applies when you have a fragment of a world. A small province, town, or dungeon, you're trying to flesh out this one-dimensional construct into a living, breathing campaign world. Starting small and working up is a natural progression as the PCs grow more powerful and begin to exert their influence over a wider and wider area. It is also good for GMs who want to watch the PCs explore the world a little bit at a time. In this system, discovering what lies on the other side of the hill is an important part of world growth and campaign advancement.
The greatest adventures ever made for the greatest game that was ever played....
Listen... we know the truth. If you're a Game Master you want only one thing: to make great games for your players – amazing and memorable adventures that they talk about for years. At Gooey Cube, we help you make that happen... while helping make your game prep WAY easier in the process. Gooey Cube produces a fantasy world and some of the most amazing, mysterious, and immersive adventures ever made for the 5th edition of the world's greatest role-playing game (or any edition for that matter). We know it's a bold claim. But we truly believe that once you try out a Gooey Cube adventure you... and your players... will never want to play anything else. In this Kickstarter you'll find:
Incredible adventures that are like nothing you, or your players, have ever seen... Our original, already produced, Chapters 1 - 3 of the Red Star Rising Campaign, plus two NEW chapters: The Dreadmist Curse and Spawn of Zanvichu!
A world that is gritty, realistic, and one that YOU can contribute to (yes you can)... Included is our original world LoreBook, The Wy'rded World, which is already produced, plus two NEW LoreBooks, The Cyclopaedia Wesverdia and the Cyclopaedia Esenverdia!
The most amazing city you have likely ever seen in two NEW box sets: the grand city of Darkenhaven and the fearful dock district that lies beneath it in a massive sea cavern which, named The Gloomport.
Plus add-ons to dramatically enhance to your gaming experience. These will include Custom Character Portraits, Gooey Dice, Side Quest Adventures, The amazing Deck of Perilous Fortuity, and SO much more!
Plus about half of the materials in this Kickstarter are ALREADY PRODUCED and will be available for early shipping!! Even though it is our first Kickstarter we have much of the work already completed and paid for.
