Building a World

Undoubtedly, the best part of writing is creating the world for the characters to live in and interact with each other. It could be in some far off land with magic, or a war-torn nation on a distant planet, or even your home town with a few tweaks here and there.

However, as fun as world building is, it's also the most daunting task.
As the author, you take the place of God, essentially. Creating the world and watching these sweet little creations of yours kill and murder each other for funsies.

"My sweet little babies!!"

Sometimes, the situations in your head don't make sense to the world you've just built and you find yourself with a paradox, or a character acting...well, out of character.
For instance, if I have a character who is all up their own ass helping a small child get his rubber ball from the gutter at the very beginning, people are going to think he's a nice guy.
Until he throws it into oncoming traffic.

A lot of world building comes from the world around us. Take the "Emperor's New Groove" for example.

The world in that was based around Aztec legend and aesthetics. They had a basis to start from for reference. The fact that literally everything is on the tallest mountains ever makes everything comical, but also shows what kind of power Kuzco has over the villagers below.

Or, look at my favorite series, Scott Pilgrim

It's set in the mythical land of Canada. Canada is a real place. I know people from Canada. They're very nice, and I've been told the sunsets are beautiful.

However, you'd be hard-pressed to find a Pizza Pizza, Rockit, or Chaos Theatre on the map of actual Toronto.

It's this kind of world building that keeps the series interesting, along with character development.

However, I'd be more likely to put up a poster of Scott Pilgrim's Toronto, than a poster of Scott's character arc, or of the actual map of Toronto.

Hell, I have a poster of the Achievement Hunter's Achievement City they made for their 100th episode of Minecraft. It changed after that, and then Achievement City got destroyed in a......malfunction.

(I don't understand why this is so small)

But, the theme still remains; Maps are neat. They let us be at a place, without being at a place, and really put some things into perspective.

So, next time you're writing something, try looking around where you live first. Find the locations of the bank, the coffeehouse, the supermarket, a bar. See how far apart they are from one another, or if they're on the main strip. 

In fact, look at the map. Find the places on there. Google Maps will work fine, especially since it can tell you how long it will take you to get from A to B.

Hey, so quick announcement!!
I'll page break here for anyone who doesn't want to read this and simply go about their day! If that's you, have a good day!!

Back to the that ol' DnD bullshit.

an actual picture of how crowded my desk is. Also, welcome.

(I just want to mention that this post is very long, so please take breaks or you'll see pink everywhere)

So, I've been playing D&D and similar table top games a lot recently, and something has been on my mind since the start; how to write a campaign.

Here are a few things I've learned over the years that I will go more in depth about. If you're looking to write a campaign, this is a good place to start.
(I should mention that I've never purchased a module. Just the 3 core books)

1. Keep it open
2. Keep it fun
3. Plan ahead
4. Action is fun (Keep it challenging)
5. Don't be controlling
6. Map Making 
7. Dealing with enemies
8. Money
   8.5 Experience point

Lyrics from Open Your Heart by The Men

1. Keep it open

By "open" I mean that anything could and should be able to happen. If your PCs (Player characters) want to examine an old mine shaft instead of going on your carefully plotted quest, let them. Don't let the fun bus stop because they're driving the wrong route.

If you really REALLY don't want your players to go to that shaft, politely give an explanation as to why they can't go there. A supposed cursed gate detected by a magic user through a random arcana check, the sound of a monster 10 times their size and 100 times more fierce heard in the shaft by the person up front with a perception check, a magic barrier preventing anyone from entering, found when they walk closer, or through arcana check. The d20 is your friend. (sometimes)

By keeping your story open, you can allow yourself to improve on your improvisation skills and story telling, while also allowing your PCs to explore this world you've created.

In the game I'm writing, I start the PCs out in a pub to introduce themselves. After intros and drinks are finished, there is yelling heard outside. It's a little boy! He lost his dog! It went into the woods!
The adventuring party now has a few options. They can do nothing, go back into the pub and drink themselves into a coma. They can follow the boys instructions and find the dog. They can ignore the kid and explore the town.

The way I word it will help them make their decision. Instead of saying "All of the town is gathered in the square, surrounding the small child" I should say "You all go outside into the street to find a little boy crying and pointing to the woods, muttering something about his dog"
By not detailing the town, I'm showing it's not where they want to be.
However, if a player decides "What else is in town?" instead of asking where the dog went, I would say "Besides the pub, there's a bank and a few houses nearby. The road you're on leads down to a four-way, and leads up to some hills, and also the woods this little boy is talking about"

Don't force your players to do anything.

2. Keep it fun

Pictured; Friends. Not pictured; any of mine

How many games have you played that weren't fun?
You probably can't bring many to memory because they were so uneventful and boring.
This is why you want to make sure your players are having fun. If your players aren't having fun, then what's the point of the game? It's a game, after all. It's not a textbook.

Something a lot of new DM's (Dungeon Masters) struggle with are spells. How do they work?
Well, they work however you interpret them to work.
When I got Cloud of Daggers for my Bard character, I read it as a bunch of daggers start spinning in a 5ft x 5ft square, like the book tells me. When I first cast it, the other players and DM said it was 15ft x 15ft. I wasn't one to argue since I wanted to defeat the enemies quickly, so a 3x3 square was drawn (Each square was 5ft in game) and the enemies that walked into it died of many stab wounds.
I cast it later, only for it to be back to the 5ft x 5ft size.

Were we wrong in making it bigger the first time?
No.
They had just remembered it incorrectly.
But the point was that we were having fun. We didn't care how big the spell was. As long as it aided in battle, we were okay with it.

3. Plan ahead

You are allowed to write more than one story when making a campaign.
One of the sessions in the Into The Borderlands campaign had us in a hole in the Caves of Chaos. This hole started on a map we had, but then disappeared through a secret door to a long shaft with lava at the bottom and a skeleton archer shooting at us.
Our party wanted to go down this hole, and see where this mysterious pit lead.

This part was not in the module my DM was using. He made this part of the adventure up.
Had he not planned on our curiosity getting the better of us, we would have walked back to the actual caves to probably die at the cruel hands of orcs.

Again, in my own campaign, I have many things for my players to do while in the forest area. The main plot of the forest area is about a rouge wizard who wants to take over this island. However, the party can search around and find some old ruins that can be awakened. Or a cave overrun with Hook Horrors. Or perhaps a tower maiden in need of assistance.
By knowing that no one wants to keep on track, and would instead do side-missions to understand the world more, I plan ahead.

If you're running out of ideas for side-quests, I suggest the Elder Scrolls. I have Skyrim, but I suppose any medieval-style RPG will do. They're usually a wealth of inspiration. I detail this later in the post.

4. Action is fun and challenging

Pictured; Intense combat

Think about all the times you spent trying to defeat a Mega Man boss, or solve a Zelda puzzle.
You knew that by defeating these obstacles, you were going to get something good, but you were going to have to put in work to get it.
These games were challenging, but the challenge only lead to the fun of the actual game, and moved the plot along; You were unable to get to the next dungeon without the Hookshot, but now you have it, so you are one step closer to defeating Ganon!

And with these, I should mention, that there is always combat happening. There will always be some enemy blocking your way that you will have to defeat.
Some people play for the combat, other people play for the interaction. I like combat, even though I'm a bard and smol.

Players want to be where the action is. Like with any story.
No one reads a story for the parts where no plot is developing; I once read a book, an autobiography, about this guy and his childhood. It was so outrageously boring to my 8th grade head that it was such a struggle to get through.
I didn't care about his stupid dad's stupid truck. I didn't care about the frog he found by a creek. I didn't give two shits about when they got their first TV. All I cared about was getting the book over with so I could get a good grade.
It was literally like he just sat down with me, started talking about himself, and within a minutes time, it was midnight and I had to get home, but I didn't want to be rude, so I sat and listened to his shitty story until he got tired out and told me to leave.

5. Don't be controlling

I know this can be hard for some people, but controlling PCs that aren't yours isn't a good thing to do, especially as a DM. The only time I've ever had to control a PC that wasn't mine was when she was in desperate need of healing, and there was a pixie nearby at the mouth of the cave the party was fighting in. I disengaged her and crawled her over to the pixie because she didn't know completely what to do. It was her first time playing, after all.

After that, I gave the party the option to call on pixies in battle when they needed healing, because the party was small and no one was a healer.
The one character also obtained a Head That's Always Screaming, one of my own cursed items. But we'll get to that another time.

By controlling your players personal character, you are taking the "play" out of "role play." To help them along like I did is fine, as long as that the ONLY TIME YOU DO IT.
Telling them how to navigate a dungeon is fine. Literally leading them along, holding their hand and disabling traps as they walk is not fine.

This can also apply to how your plot is. When I started making campaigns, I had one set path on a small map and designated fights. You had options to choose from, instead of being allowed to walk freely. You HAD to be doing something along the lines of MY plot.
Luckily, I grew out of this, and started making more open maps with less of a linear plot in mind.
Basically, instead of a first person shooter's campaign mode, I chose more of an open world campaign mode. The best comparison I can come up with at 8 in the morning is between Halo 3 and GTA IV.

Halo 3 has you going along a set path, barely diverging to side quests.
GTA IV lets you explore Liberty City, while still maintaining a plot and choice-driven path.

Some will argue "But those are two completely different games" and that's the point.
You're making a Role Playing Game, not a point-and-click adventure.

6. map making

Borderlands

This is one that I still struggle with. I'm not the best with measurement, I never really have been.
But, disappointed girlfriends aside, maps are essential to your games. Grid mats work best, but failing that, making your own from grid paper and marker is just fine. Keep the lines consistent, though. Use a ruler if you have to. (You're probably going to need a ruler)

The squares can change 'size' in game. If you want to show more of the map, you should use 5 foot squares. If you want to show a detailed room, use 10 foot squares.

I recently talked with my DM about the mat he uses. The one he has can only use water-based markers, but others can use dry erase markers, or are even just paper and don't erase.
Whatever works best for your play style and budget.

In modules, the maps are already laid out for you. The corridors, the rooms, the layout, certain elements of treasure, I'm pretty sure enemy placement as well.

7. Dealing with enemies

Skyrim

When I write my stories, I don't want my enemies to be too hard so everyone has to make new characters every session. Yet, I don't want them to be too easy so that all the fun is sucked out of every battle, and nothing is rewarding.
When placing enemies, you should be firm, yet fair.
An example of this would be, not placing 20 Kobolds in a single room for two PC's to take out.
I would instead lower it to 5, especially if they're level 1.
The one campaign I'm playing in, almost every player has two PC's. Our adventuring party, including the few who left, totaled to about 10 at one point.
This is perfectly okay to throw insane amounts of enemies at us, since we have a few healers, a few buffers, and a buncha muscle.

However, the campaign I ran a while back only had a sorcerer and a barbarian. Neither are really "healing" types. They're both destructive and want to kill.
What I should have done was had the druid and cleric NPCs follow them. However, I was inexperienced, and thus sent them off on their own to face the wilds of the Fey-ridden forest.

Also in my campaign, I have awakened shrubs and trees attack the players who enter the forest. This way, they can beef up, get used to battle, and find their favorite attacks to use. I also make sure they level up. This way, they can understand HOW to level up, and with what they just learned about combat, what spells, abilities, or feats will help them as they progress.

8. Money, honey.

your party after 3 dungeons

Typically, after a quest, adventures like to be rewarded. Not with just experience points, but with money!
In DnD, there are 5 different kinds of monies you can obtain; copper, silver, gold, electrum, platinum.
What I do, just to make it easier on myself as a DM, is just go with one type of money.
The way I would look at it to simplify them for myself would be as follows, but you can do whatever makes you feel comfortable because math;

Copper; $.25
Silver; $1.00
Gold; $10.00
Electrum; $50.00
Platinum; $100.00

The DM guide also explains the value of these.

8.5 Experience points

The wrong kind of XP, but you get the idea

Another question I had as a budding DM was how to dish out experience points.
Some DM's would give them out for each enemy killed by the player. Some would give them out based on teamwork. Others would divvy up the points after the session, divide by the number of players, and give them out that way. Or simply do it after every battle.
As you level up, your health will increase. I didn't really understand this, but you keep your HP (health/hit points) and roll your level number of attack die and add it. I was wondering why I was dying so quickly. Then I talked to my DM about it and he straightened it all out for me.
So, instead of being level 4 with only 16 hit points, I'm level 4 with 25. I rolled 4d8 and got a 9 and added it to my previous HP. Or I could have added 5 and my constitution modifier, then added that number to my previous HP.

Other ideas

Some good inspiration comes from Skyrim. If you've never played Skyrim, how are you reading this? Does your rock have Wi-Fi?
Skyrim is so open, random encounters happen all the time. You could just be walking along a path to a town, when suddenly the battle music starts playing and, lo! It's a bear.
Or, you're in a town and you just talk to a few NPC's to find out that some of the townsfolk have gone missing.
If you need some ideas, Skyrim is the place to go.

Another game that is action driven is Borderlands. It has a linear plot, as you expect any FPS to have, but it also has RPG elements. You are able to visit locations more than once in a mostly open world environment. This is good, because you can level up quickly by defeating the same boss over and over again with no fear of cut scenes or the logic of the situation.
All you know is that you love your guns. It's basically Texas; the game. All it's missing is the American flag, blatant racism, and Sandy Cheeks.

These are things you should think of as you write.
What games have you played that taught you how to play seamlessly?
How about ones with tutorials, and where they enjoyable?
How were you introduced to the hobby, and what kept you playing? Thinking about this will help you get in your players head, because what attracted you probably attracted them.
Does this make sense?

Also, I would like to mention, don't overload yourself.
I told my best friend about the campaign I'm working on and how large it is. He is a far more experienced DM than I am. He told me not to take everything on at once. So, focus on one area at a time, especially the stories.
For example, earlier I mentioned the forest area. It is my main focus right now. Instead of focusing on all 6 areas, and every possibility for them, I'm just worrying about forest area, what's going on, and what the main story arc is. From here, I can make new places, new NPCs, new situations, and eventually move on to the next area. I have a general idea of each area in my head, so I can sort of get a basic story going for each at the drop of a dime, but for now I'm keeping my players in one spot.
This is also considering that there is a monthly meeting of the nations in the center of the island given by a Couatl to make sure peace is maintained.

(Also, I'm starting to use labels now. Ain't that neat as shit?)

That thing I hate doing but I'm doing anyway

So, I've had a busy past few weeks. From travel to fires, to storms almost knocking out the power, to storms actually knocking out the power, to school things, to job things, to having no money to do anything.

I've been writing and thinking of posts to put up. They're either in my drafts or in my phone. They just need...tweaked.

I hope the blog update is pleasing, and if not, oh well.

I'm focusing more on art than writing at the moment. I've hired a model to do some poses for me so that my drawings can look more natural, and so that I can get into some different body types (she's a thicc girl)

So, relishing the fun I've had this summer, and this weekend kinda being the pinnacle of it, I'd have to say it was a pretty sad summer.

With Warped Tour ending, it kinda puts a damper on the whole "fun summer!" deal.

I've had personal issues and struggles. Some with money, some with family, some with friends.

Even though it rained a good amount, my summer was dry. I had no friends to hang out with, people flaked out on me constantly, or cancelled last minute. 

I'm not going to ramble. This is a blog about writing, not about me. Should the day come, I may make a personal blog but for right now, it would be too much.

Happy unofficial start of fall!!