A World of Your Own

Your world is the setting for your campaign, the place where adventures happen. Even if you use an existing setting, such as the Forgotten Realms, it becomes yours as you set your adventures there, create characters to inhabit it, and make changes to it over the course of your campaign. This chapter is all about building your world and then creating a campaign to take place in it.

The Big Picture

This book, the Player’s Handbook, and the Monster Manual present the default assumptions for how the worlds of D&D work. Among the established settings of D&D, the Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Dragonlance, and Mystara don’t stray very far from those assumptions. Settings such as Dark Sun, Eberron, Ravenloft, Spelljammer, and Planescape venture further away from that baseline. As you create your own world, it’s up to you to decide where on the spectrum you want your world to fall.

Core Assumptions

The rules of the game are based on the following core assumptions about the game world.

Gods Oversee the World

The gods are real and embody a variety of beliefs, with each god claiming dominion over an aspect of the world, such as war, forests, or the sea. Gods exert influence over the world by granting divine magic to their followers and sending signs and portents to guide them. The follower of a god serves as an agent of that god in the world. The agent seeks to further the ideals of that god and defeat its rivals. While some folk might refuse to honor the gods, none can deny their existence.

Much of the World Is Untamed

Wild regions abound. City-states, confederacies, and kingdoms of various sizes dot the landscape, but beyond their borders the wilds crowd in. People know the area they live in well. They’ve heard stories of other places from merchants and travelers, but few know what lies beyond the mountains or in the depths of the great forest unless they’ve been there themselves.

The World Is Ancient

Empires rise and fall, leaving few places that have not been touched by imperial grandeur or decay. War, time, and natural forces eventually claim the mortal world, leaving it rich with places of adventure and mystery. Ancient civilizations and their knowledge survive in legends, magic items, and their ruins. Chaos and evil often follow an empire’s collapse.

Conflict Shapes the World’s History

Powerful individuals strive to make their mark on the world, and factions of like-minded individuals can alter the course of history. Factions include religions led by charismatic prophets, kingdoms ruled by lasting dynasties, and shadowy societies that seek to master long-lost magic. The influence of such factions waxes and wanes as they compete with each other for power. Some seek to preserve the world and usher in a golden age. Others strive toward evil ends, seeking to rule the world with an iron fist. Still others seek goals that range from the practical to the esoteric, such as the accumulation of material wealth or the resurrection of a dead god. Whatever their goals, these factions inevitably collide, creating conflict that can steer the world’s fate.

The World Is Magical

Practitioners of magic are relatively few in number, but they leave evidence of their craft everywhere. The magic can be as innocuous and commonplace as a potion that heals wounds to something much more rare and impressive, such as a levitating tower or a stone golem guarding the gates of a city. Beyond the realms of civilization are caches of magic items guarded by magic traps, as well as magically constructed dungeons inhabited by monsters created by magic, cursed by magic, or endowed with magical abilities.

It’s Your World

In creating your campaign world, it helps to start with the core assumptions and consider how your setting might change them. The subsequent sections of this chapter address each element and give details on how to flesh out your world with gods, factions, and so forth. The assumptions sketched out above aren’t carved in stone. They inspire exciting D&D worlds full of adventure, but they’re not the only set of assumptions that can do so. You can build an interesting campaign concept by altering one or more of those core assumptions, just as well-established D&D worlds have done. Ask yourself, “What if the standard assumptions weren’t true in my world?”

The World Is a Mundane Place

What if magic is rare and dangerous, and even adventurers have limited or no access to it? What if your campaign is set in a version of our own world’s history?

The World Is New

What if your world is new, and the characters are the first of a long line of heroes? The adventurers might be champions of the first great empires, such as the empires of Netheril and Cormanthor in the Forgotten Realms setting.

The World Is Known

What if the world is completely charted and mapped, right down to the “Here there be dragons” notations? What if great empires cover huge stretches of countryside, with clearly defined borders between them? The Five Nations of the Eberron setting were once part of a great empire, and magically aided travel between its cities is commonplace.

Monsters Are Uncommon

What if monsters are rare and terrifying? In the Ravenloft setting, horrific domains are governed by monstrous rulers. The populace lives in perpetual terror of these darklords and their evil minions, but other monsters rarely trouble people’s daily lives.

Magic Is Everywhere

What if every town is ruled by a powerful wizard? What if magic item shops are common? The Eberron setting makes the use of magic an everyday occurrence, as magical flying ships and trains carry travelers from one great city to another.

Gods Inhabit the Land, or Are Entirely Absent

What if the gods regularly walk the earth? What if the characters can challenge them and seize their power? Or what if the gods are remote, and even angels never make contact with mortals? In the Dark Sun setting, the gods are extremely distant-perhaps nonexistent-and clerics rely instead on elemental power for their magic.

Gods of Your World

Appendix B of the Player’s Handbook presents a number of pantheons (loose groupings of deities not united by a single doctrine or philosophy) for use in your game, including the gods of established D&D worlds and fantasy-historical pantheons. You can adopt one of these pantheons for your campaign, or pick and choose deities and ideas from them as you please. See “A Sample Pantheon” in this section for an example. As far as the game’s rules are concerned, it doesn’t matter if your world has hundreds of deities or a church devoted to a single god. In rules terms, clerics choose domains, not deities, so your world can associate domains with deities in any way you choose.

Loose Pantheons

Most D&D worlds have a loose pantheon of gods. A multitude of deities rule the various aspects of existence, variously cooperating with and competing against one another to administer the affairs of the universe. People gather in public shrines to worship gods of life and wisdom, or meet in hidden places to venerate gods of deception or destruction. Each deity in a pantheon has a portfolio and is responsible for advancing that portfolio. In the Greyhawk setting, Heironeous is a god of valor who calls clerics and paladins to his service and encourages them to spread the ideals of honorable warfare, chivalry, and justice in society. Even in the midst of his everlasting war with his brother Hextor, god of war and tyranny, Heironeous promotes his own portfolio: war fought nobly and in the cause of justice.

People in most D&D worlds are polytheistic, honoring deities of their own and acknowledging pantheons of other cultures. Individuals pay homage to various gods, regardless of alignment. In the Forgotten Realms, a person might propitiate Umberlee before setting out to sea, join a communal feast to celebrate Chauntea at harvest time, and pray to Malar before going hunting.

Some individuals feel a calling to a particular deity’s service and claim that god as a patron. Particularly devoted individuals become priests by setting up a shrine or helping to staff a holy site. Much more rarely, those who feel such a calling become clerics or paladins invested with the responsibility of true divine power.

Shrines and temples serve as community gathering points for religious rites and festivals. Priests at such sites relate stories of the gods, teach the ethics of their patron deities, offer advice and blessings, perform religious rites, and provide training in activities their deities favor. Cities and large towns can host several temples dedicated to individual gods important to the community, while smaller settlements might have a single shrine devoted to any gods the locals revere.

To quickly build a pantheon for your world, create a single god for each of the eight domains available to clerics: Death, Knowledge, Life, Light, Nature, Tempest, Trickery, and War. You can invent names and personalities for these deities, or borrow deities from other pantheons. This approach gives you a small pantheon that covers the most significant aspects of existence, and it’s easy enough to extrapolate other areas of life each deity controls. The god of Knowledge, for example, might also be patron of magic and prophecy, while the god of Light could be the sun god and the god of time.

A Sample Pantheon

The pantheon of the Dawn War is an example of a pantheon assembled from mostly preexisting elements to suit the needs of a particular campaign. This is the default pantheon in the fourth edition Player’s Handbook (2008). The pantheon is summarized in the Dawn War Deities table.

This pantheon draws in several nonhuman deities and establishes them as universal gods. These gods include Bahamut, Corellon, Gruumsh, Lolth, Moradin, Sehanine, and Tiamat. Humans worship Moradin and Corellon as gods of their respective portfolios, rather than as racial deities. The pantheon also includes the archdevil Asmodeus as god of domination and tyranny.

Several of the gods are drawn from other pantheons, sometimes with new names for the gods. Bane comes from the Forgotten Realms. From Greyhawk come Kord, Pelor, Tharizdun, and Vecna. From the Greek pantheon come Athena (renamed Erathis) and Tyche (renamed Avandra), though both are altered. Set (renamed Zehir) comes from the Egyptian pantheon. The Raven Queen is akin to the Norse pantheon’s Hel and Greyhawk’s Wee Jas. That leaves three gods created from scratch: Ioun, Melora, and Torog.

Dawn War Deities

Other Religious Systems

In your campaign, you can create pantheons of gods who are closely linked in a single religion, monotheistic religions (worship of a single deity), dualistic systems (centered on two opposing deities or forces), mystery cults (involving personal devotion to a single deity, usually as part of a pantheon system), animistic religions (revering the spirits inherent in nature), or even forces and philosophies that don’t center on deities.

Tight Pantheons

In contrast to a loose pantheon, a tight pantheon focuses on a single religion whose teachings and edicts embrace a small group of deities. Followers of a tight pantheon might favor one of its member deities over another, but they respect all the deities and honor them with sacrifices and prayer as appropriate.

The key trait to a tight pantheon is that its worshipers embrace a single ethos or dogma that includes all the deities. The gods of the tight pantheon work as one to protect and guide their followers. You can think of a tight pantheon as similar to a family. One or two deities who lead the pantheon serve as parent figures, with the rest serving as patrons of important aspects of the culture that worships the pantheon. A single temple honors all members of the pantheon.

Most tight pantheons have one or more aberrant gods-deities whose worship isn’t sanctioned by the priests of the pantheon as a whole. These are usually evil deities and enemies of the pantheon, such as the Greek Titans. These deities have cults of their own, attracting social outcasts and villains to their worship.

These cults resemble mystery cults, their members strictly devoted to their single god, though even members of aberrant cults pay lip service in the temples of the tight pantheon.

The Norse deities serve as an example of a tight pantheon. Odin is the pantheon’s leader and father figure. Deities such as Thor, Tyr, and Freya embody important aspects of Norse culture. Meanwhile, Loki and his devotees lurk in the shadows, sometimes aiding the other deities, and sometimes working against them with the pantheon’s enemies.

Mystery Cults

A mystery cult is a secretive religious organization based on a ritual of initiation, in which the initiate is mystically identified with a god, or a handful of related gods. Mystery cults are intensely personal, concerned with the initiate’s relationship with the divine.

Sometimes a mystery cult is a type of worship within a pantheon. It acknowledges the myths and rituals of the pantheon, but presents its own myths and rites as primary. For instance, a secretive order of monks might immerse themselves in a mystical relationship to a god who is part of a broadly worshiped pantheon.

A mystery cult emphasizes the history of its god, which is symbolically reenacted in its initiation ritual. The foundation myth of a mystery cult is usually simple and often involves a god’s death and rising, or a journey to the underworld and a return. Mystery cults often revere sun and moon deities and agricultural deities—gods whose portfolios reflect the cycles of nature.

The cult’s ritual of initiation follows the pattern of its foundation myth. Neophytes retrace the god’s footsteps in order to share the god’s ultimate fate. In the case of dying and rising gods, the symbolic death of the initiate represents the idea of death to the old life and rebirth into a transformed existence. Initiates are born into a new life, remaining in the world of mortal affairs but feeling elevated to a higher sphere. The initiate is promised a place in the god’s realm after death, but also experiences new meaning in life.

Divine Rank

The divine beings of the multiverse are often categorized according to their cosmic power. Some gods are worshiped on multiple worlds and have a different rank on each world, depending on their influence there.

Greater deities are beyond mortal understanding. They can’t be summoned, and they are almost always removed from direct involvement in mortal affairs. On very rare occasions they manifest avatars similar to lesser deities, but slaying a greater god’s avatar has no effect on the god itself.

Lesser deities are embodied somewhere in the planes. Some lesser deities live in the Material Plane, as does the unicorn-goddess Lurue of the Forgotten Realms and the titanic shark-god Sekolah revered by the sahuagin. Others live on the Outer Planes, as Lolth does in the Abyss. Such deities can be encountered by mortals.

Quasi-deities have a divine origin, but they don’t hear or answer prayers, grant spells to clerics, or control aspects of mortal life. They are still immensely powerful beings, and in theory they could ascend to godhood if they amassed enough worshipers. Quasi-deities fall into three subcategories: demigods, titans, and vestiges.

Demigods are born from the union of a deity and a mortal being. They have some divine attributes, but their mortal parentage makes them the weakest quasi-deities.

Titans are the divine creations of deities. They might be birthed from the union of two deities, manufactured on a divine forge, born from the blood spilled by a god, or otherwise brought about through divine will or substance.

Vestiges are deities who have lost nearly all their worshipers and are considered dead, from a mortal perspective. Esoteric rituals can sometimes contact these beings and draw on their latent power.

Monotheism

Monotheistic religions revere only one deity, and in some cases, deny the existence of any other deity. If you introduce a monotheistic religion into your campaign, you need to decide whether other gods exist. Even if they don’t, other religions can exist side by side with the monotheistic religion. If these religions have clerics with spellcasting ability, their spells might be powered by the one true deity, by lesser spirits who aren’t deities (possibly including powerful aberrations, celestials, fey, fiends, or elementals), or simply by their faith.

The deity of a monotheistic religion has an extensive portfolio and is portrayed as the creator of everything, in control of everything, and concerned with every aspect of existence. Thus, a worshiper of this god offers prayers and sacrifices to the same god regardless of what aspect of life is in need of divine assistance. Whether marching into war, setting off on a journey, or hoping to win someone’s affections, the worshiper prays to the same god.

Some monotheistic religions describe different aspects of their deity. A single god appears in different aspects as the Creator and the Destroyer, and the clerics of that god focus on one aspect or the other, determining their domain access and possibly even their alignment on that basis. A cleric who venerates the Destroyer aspect chooses the Tempest or War domain, while one who worships a Creator aspect chooses the Life or Nature domains. In some monotheistic religions, clerics group themselves into distinct religious orders to differentiate clerics who choose different domains.

Dualism

A dualistic religion views the world as the stage for a conflict between two diametrically opposed deities or divine forces. Most often, the opposed forces are good and evil, or opposed deities representing those forces. In some pantheons, the forces or deities of law and chaos are the fundamental opposites in a dualistic system. Life and death, light and darkness, matter and spirit, body and mind, health and illness, purity and defilement, positive energy and negative energy-the D&D universe is full of polar opposites that could serve as the foundation for a dualistic religion. Whatever the terms in which the dualism is expressed, half of the pair is usually believed to be good-beneficial, desirable, or holy-while the other half is considered bad, if not explicitly evil. If the fundamental conflict in a religion is expressed as the opposition between matter and spirit, the followers of that religion believe that one of the two (usually matter) is evil and the other (spirit) is good, and so seek to liberate their spirits from this material world and its evils through asceticism and contemplation.

Rare dualistic systems believe that the two opposing forces must remain in balance, always pulling away from each other but remaining bound together in creative tension.

In a cosmology defined by an eternal conflict between good and evil, mortals are expected to take sides. The majority of those who follow a dualistic religion worship the deity or force identified as good. Worshipers of the good deity trust themselves to that god’s power to protect them from the evil deity’s minions. Because the evil deity in such a religion is usually the source of everything that is detrimental to existence, only the perverse and depraved worship this god. Monsters and fiends serve it, as do certain secretive cults. The myths of a dualistic religion usually predict that the good deity will triumph in an apocalyptic battle, but the forces of evil believe that the outcome of that battle isn’t predetermined and work to promote their deity’s victory.

Deities in a dualistic system maintain large portfolios. All aspects of existence reflect the dualistic struggle, and therefore all things can fall on one side or the other of the conflict. Agriculture, mercy, the sky, medicine, and poetry reside in the portfolio of the good deity, and famine, hatred, disease, and war belong to the evil deity.

Animism

Animism is the belief that spirits inhabit every part of the natural world. In an animistic worldview, everything has a spirit, from the grandest mountain to the lowliest rock, from the great ocean to a babbling brook, from the sun and moon to a fighter’s ancestral sword. All these objects, and the spirits that inhabit them, are sentient, though some are more aware, alert, and intelligent than others. The most powerful spirits might even be considered deities. All are worthy of respect if not veneration.

Animists don’t typically pay allegiance to one spirit over the others. Instead, they offer prayers and sacrifices to different spirits at different times, as appropriate to the situation. A pious character might make daily prayers and offerings to ancestor spirits and the spirits of the house, regular petitions to important spirits such as the Seven Fortunes of Good Luck, occasional sacrifices of incense to location spirits such as the spirit of a forest, and sporadic prayers to a host of other spirits as well.

An animistic religion is very tolerant. Most spirits don’t care to whom a character also offers sacrifices, as long as they receive the sacrifices and respect they are due. As new religions spread through animist lands, those religions typically win adherents but not converts. People incorporate new spirits and deities into their prayers without displacing the old ones. Contemplatives and scholars adopt complex philosophical systems and practices without changing their belief in and respect for the spirits they already venerate.

Animism functions as a large tight pantheon. Animist clerics serve the pantheon as a whole, and so can choose any domain, representing a favorite spirit for that cleric.

Forces and Philosophies

Not all divine powers need to be derived from deities. In some campaigns, believers hold enough conviction in their ideas about the universe that they gain magical power from that conviction. In other campaigns, impersonal forces of nature or magic replace the gods by granting power to mortals attuned to them. Just as druids and rangers can gain their spell ability from the force of nature rather than from a specific nature deity, some clerics devote themselves to ideals rather than to a god. Paladins might serve a philosophy of justice and chivalry rather than a specific deity.

Forces and philosophies aren’t worshiped; they aren’t beings that can hear and respond to prayers or accept sacrifices. Devotion to a philosophy or a force isn’t necessarily exclusive of service to a deity. A person can be devoted to the philosophy of good and offer worship to various good deities, or revere the force of nature and also pay homage to the gods of nature, who might be seen as personal manifestations of an impersonal force. In a world that includes deities with demonstrable power (through their clerics), it’s unusual for a philosophy to deny the existence of deities, although a common philosophical belief states that the deities are more like mortals than they would have mortals believe. According to such philosophies, the gods aren’t truly immortal (just very long-lived), and mortals can attain divinity. In fact, ascending to godhood is the ultimate goal of some philosophies.

The power of a philosophy stems from the belief that mortals invest in it. A philosophy that only one person believes in isn’t strong enough to bestow magical power on that person.

Humanoids and the Gods

When it comes to the gods, humans exhibit a far wider range of beliefs and institutions than other races do. In many D&D settings, orcs, elves, dwarves, goblins, and other humanoids have tight pantheons. It is expected that an orc will worship Gruumsh or one of a handful of subordinate deities. In comparison, humanity embraces a staggering variety of deities. Each human culture might have its own array of gods.

In most D&D settings, there is no single god that can claim to have created humanity. Thus, the human proclivity for building institutions extends to religion. A single charismatic prophet can convert an entire kingdom to the worship of a new god. With that prophet’s death, the religion might wax or wane, or the prophet’s followers might turn against one another and found several competing religions.

In comparison, religion in dwarven society is set in stone. The dwarves of the Forgotten Realms identify Moradin as their creator. While individual dwarves might follow other gods, as a culture the dwarves are pledged to Moradin and the pantheon he leads. His teachings and magic are so thoroughly ingrained in dwarven culture that it would take a cataclysmic shift to replace him.

With that in mind, consider the role of the gods in your world and their ties to different humanoid races. Does each race have a creator god? How does that god shape that race’s culture? Are other folk free of such divine ties and free to worship as they wish? Has a race turned against the god that created it? Has a new race appeared, created by a god within the past few years? A deity might also have ties to a kingdom, noble line, or other cultural institution. With the death of the emperor, a new ruler might be selected by divine portents sent by the deity who protected the empire in its earliest days. In such a land, the worship of other gods might be outlawed or tightly controlled.

Finally, consider the difference between gods who are tied to specific humanoid races and gods with more diverse followers. Do the races with their own pantheons enjoy a place of privilege in your world, with their gods taking an active role in their affairs? Are the other races ignored by the gods, or are those races the deciding factor that can tilt the balance of power in favor of one god or another?

Mapping Your Campaign

When creating the world where your campaign takes place, you’ll want a map. You can take one of two approaches with it: top-down or bottom-up. Some DMs like to start at the top, creating the big picture of the world at the start of the campaign by having a map that shows whole continents, and then zooming in on smaller areas. Other DMs prefer to go the opposite direction, starting with a small campaign area that is mapped at a province or kingdom scale, then zooming out as adventures take the characters into new territory. Whichever approach you take, hexes work well for mapping outdoor environments where travel can go in any direction and calculating distance might be important. A single sheet of hex paper with 5 hexes to the inch is ideal for most maps. Use a scale for your map that’s best suited to the level of detail you want. Chapter 7 offers more information about creating and mapping wilderness areas.

Province Scale

For the most detailed areas of your world, use a province scale where each hex represents 1 mile. A full-page map at this scale represents an area that can be covered in one day’s travel in any direction from the center of the map, assuming clear terrain. As such, province scale is a useful scale for mapping a campaign’s starting area (see “Creating a Campaign,” later in this chapter) or any location where you expect to track the adventurers' movement in hours rather than days.

The ground cover of an area this size will include broad stretches of one predominant terrain type, broken up by other isolated terrain types.

A settled region mapped at this scale might have one town and eight to twelve villages or farming hamlets. A wilder region might have only a single keep, or no settlements at all. You can also indicate the extent of the cleared farmland that surrounds each city or town. On a province-scale map, this will show as a belt a few hexes wide surrounding each town or village. Even small villages farm most of the arable land within a mile or two.

Kingdom Scale

On a kingdom-scale map, each hex represents 6 miles. A map at this scale covers a large region, about the size of Great Britain or half the size of the state of California. That’s plenty of room for adventuring.

The first step of mapping a region at this scale is to sketch out the coastlines and any major bodies of water in the area. Is the region landlocked or on a coast? A coastal region might include islands offshore, and a landlocked area might include an inland sea or major lakes. Alternatively, the region could consist of a single large island, or an isthmus or peninsula with multiple coastlines. Next, sketch in any major mountain ranges. Foothills form a transition between the mountains and lowlands, and broad patches of gentle hills might dot the region. That leaves the rest of your map for relatively flat terrain: grasslands, forests, swamps, and the like. Place these elements as you see fit.

Map out the courses of any rivers that flow through the area. Rivers are born in mountains or inland areas that see a lot of rainfall, winding down to the nearest major body of water that doesn’t require the river to cross over higher elevation. Tributaries join rivers as they grow larger and move toward a lake or the sea.

Finally, place the major towns and cities of the region. At this scale, you don’t need to worry about small towns and villages, or about mapping every belt of farmland. Even so, a settled region this size might easily have eight to twelve cities or towns to put on the map.

Continent Scale

For mapping a whole continent, use a scale where 1 hex represents 60 miles. At this scale, you can’t see more than the shape of coastlines, the biggest mountain ranges, major rivers, huge lakes, and political boundaries. A map at this scale is best for showing how multiple kingdom-scale maps fit together, rather than tracking the movement of adventurers day by day.

The same process you use for mapping a region at kingdom scale works for mapping a whole continent. A continent might have eight to twelve large cities that deserve a place on the map, most likely major trade centers and the capitals of kingdoms.

Combining Scales

Whichever scale you start with, it’s easy to zoom in or out on your maps. At continent scale, 1 hex represents the same area as 10 kingdom-scale hexes. Two cities that are 3 hexes (180 miles) apart on your continent map would be 30 hexes apart on your kingdom map, and might define the opposite ends of the region you’re detailing. At kingdom scale, 1 hex equals 6 province-scale hexes, so it’s easy to put the region covered by your province-scale map into the center of a kingdom-scale map and create interesting areas around it.

Settlements

The places where people live-bustling cities, prosperous towns, and tiny villages nestled among miles of farmland-help define the nature of civilization in your world. A single settlement—a home base for your adventurers-is a great place to start a campaign and begin your world building. Consider the following questions as you create any settlement in your world:

• “What purpose does it serve in your game?”
• How big is it? Who lives there?
• What does it look, smell, and sound like?
• Who governs it? Who else holds power? Is it part of a larger state?
• What are its defenses?
• Where do characters go to find the goods and services they need?
• What temples and other organizations feature prominently?
• What fantastic elements distinguish it from an ordinary town?
• Why should the characters care about the settlement?

The guidelines in this section are here to help you build the settlement you want for whatever purpose you have in mind. Disregard any advice here that runs counter to your vision for a settlement.

Purpose

A settlement exists primarily to facilitate the story and fun of your campaign. Other than that point, the settlement’s purpose determines the amount of detail you put into it. Create only the features of a settlement that you know you’ll need, along with notes on general features. Then allow the place to grow organically as the adventurers interact with more and more of it, keeping notes on new places you invent.

Local Color

A settlement might serve as a place where the characters stop to rest and to buy supplies. A settlement of this sort needs no more than a brief description. Include the settlement’s name, decide how big it is, add a dash of flavor (“The smell of the local tanneries never lifts from this town”), and let the adventurers get on with their business. The history of the inn where the characters spend the night, the mannerisms of the shopkeeper they buy supplies from-you can add this level of detail, but you don’t have to. If the characters return to the same settlement, start adding these local features so that it begins to feel a little more like a home base, albeit a temporary one. Let the settlement develop as the need arises.

Home Base

A settlement gives the adventurers a place to live, train, and recuperate between adventures. An entire campaign can center on a particular town or city. Such a settlement is the launching pad from which the characters go out into the wider world.

Designed well, a home base can hold a special place in the adventurers' hearts, particularly if they care about one or more NPCs who live there.

To make a home base come alive, you’ll need to invest some time fleshing out details, but the players can help you with that work. Ask them to tell you a bit about mentors, family members, and other important people in their characters' lives. Feel free to add to and modify what they give you, but you’ll start with a solid foundation of the nonplayer characters (NPCs) who are important to the characters. Let the players describe where and how their characters spend their time—a favorite tavern, library, or temple, perhaps.

Using these NPCs and locations as a starting point, flesh out the settlement’s cast of characters. Detail its leadership, including law enforcement (discussed later in the chapter). Include characters who can provide information, such as sages, soothsayers, librarians, and observant vagabonds. Priests can provide spellcasting as well as information. Make note of merchants who might regularly interact with the adventurers and perhaps compete with one another for the party’s business. Think about the people who run the adventurers' favorite tavern. And then add a handful of wild cards: a shady dealer, a mad prophet, a retired mercenary, a drunken rake, or anyone else who adds a dash of adventure and intrigue to your campaign.

Adventure Site

A village harboring a secret cult of devil worshipers. A town controlled by a guild of wererats. A city conquered by a hobgoblin army. These settlements aren’t merely rest stops but locations where adventures unfold. In a settlement that doubles as an adventure location, detail the intended adventure areas, such as towers and warehouses. For an event-based adventure, note the NPCs who play a part in the adventure. This work is adventure preparation as much as it is world building, and the cast of characters you develop for your adventure-including allies, patrons, enemies, and extras-can become recurring figures in your campaign.

Size

Most settlements in a D&D world are villages clustered around a larger town or city. Farming villages supply the town or city population with food in exchange for goods the farmers can’t produce themselves. Towns and cities are the seats of the nobles who govern the surrounding area, and who carry the responsibility for defending the villages from attack. Occasionally, a local lord or lady lives in a keep or fortress with no nearby town or city.

Village

• Population: Up to about 1,000
• Government: A noble (usually not a resident) rules the village, with an appointed agent (a reeve) in residence to adjudicate disputes and collect taxes.
• Defense: The reeve might have a small force of soldiers. Otherwise, the village relies on a citizen militia.
• Commerce: Basic supplies are readily available, possibly from an inn or a trading post. Other goods are available from traveling merchants.
• Organizations: A village might contain one or two temples or shrines, but few or no other organizations.

Most settlements are agricultural villages, supporting themselves and nearby towns or cities with crops and meat. Villagers produce food in one way or another-if not by tending the crops, then supporting those who do by shoeing horses, weaving clothes, milling grain, and the like. The goods they produce feed their families and supply trade with nearby settlements.

A village’s population is dispersed around a large area of land. Farmers live on their land, which spreads them widely around the village center. At the heart of the village, a handful of structures cluster together: a well, a marketplace, a small temple or two, a gathering place, and perhaps an inn for travelers.

Town

• Population: Up to about 6,000
• Government: A resident noble rules and appoints a lord mayor to oversee administration. An elected town council represents the interests of the middle class.
• Defense: The noble commands a sizable army of professional soldiers, as well as personal bodyguards.
• Commerce: Basic supplies are readily available, though exotic goods and services are harder to find. Inns and taverns support travelers.
• Organizations: The town contains several temples, as well as various merchant guilds and other organizations.

Towns are major trade centers, situated where important industries and reliable trade routes enabled the population to grow. These settlements rely on commerce: the import of raw materials and food from surrounding villages, and the export of crafted items to those villages, as well as to other towns and cities. A town’s population is more diverse than that of most villages.

Towns arise where roads intersect waterways, at the meeting of major land trade routes, around strategic defensive locations, or near significant mines or similar natural resources.

City

• Population: Up to about 25,000
• Government: A resident noble presides, with several other nobles sharing responsibility for surrounding areas and government functions. One such noble is the lord mayor, who oversees the city administration. An elected city council represents the middle class and might hold more actual power than the lord mayor. Other groups serve as important power centers as well.
• Defense: The city supports an army of professional soldiers, guards, and town watch. Each noble in residence maintains a small force of personal bodyguards.
• Commerce: Almost any goods or services are readily available. Many inns and taverns support travelers.
• Organizations: A multitude of temples, guilds, and other organizations, some of which hold significant power in city affairs, can be found within the city’s walls.

Cities are cradles of civilization. Their larger populations require considerable support from both surrounding villages and trade routes, so they’re rare.

Cities typically thrive in areas where large expanses of fertile, arable land surround a location accessible to trade, almost always on a navigable waterway.

Cities almost always have walls, and the stages of a city’s growth are easily identified by the expansion of the walls beyond the central core. These internal walls naturally divide the city into wards (neighborhoods defined by specific features), which have their own representatives on the city council and their own noble administrators.

Cities that hold more than twenty-five thousand people are extremely rare. Metropolises such as Waterdeep in the Forgotten Realms, Sharn in Eberron, and the Free City of Greyhawk stand as vital beacons of civilization in the D&D worlds.

Atmosphere

What do the adventurers first notice as they approach or enter a settlement? The towering wall bristling with soldiers? The beggars with hands outstretched, pleading for aid outside the gate? The noisy hubbub of merchants and buyers thronging the market square? The overpowering stench of manure?

Sensory details help bring a settlement to life and vividly communicate its personality to your players. Settle on a single defining factor that sums up a settlement’s personality and extrapolate from there.

Maybe a city is built around canals, like real-world Venice. That key element suggests a wealth of sensory details: the sight of colorful boats floating on muddy waters, the sound of lapping waves and perhaps singing gondoliers, the smells of fish and waste polluting the water, the feel of humidity. Or perhaps the city is shrouded in fog much of the time, and you describe the tendrils of cold mist reaching through every crack and cranny, the muffled sounds of hooves on cobblestones, the cold air with the smell of rain, and a sense of mystery and lurking danger.

The climate and terrain of a settlement’s environment, its origin and inhabitants, its government and political position, and its commercial importance all have a bearing on its overall atmosphere. A city nestled against the edge of a jungle has a very different feel than one on the edge of a desert. Elf and dwarf cities present a distinct aesthetic, clearly identifiable in contrast to human-built ones. Soldiers patrol the streets to quell any hint of dissent in a city ruled by a tyrant, while a city fostering an early system of democracy might boast an open-air market where philosophical ideas are traded as freely as produce. All the possible combinations of these factors can inspire endless variety in the settlements of your campaign world.

Government

In the feudal society common in most D&D worlds, power and authority are concentrated in towns and cities. Nobles hold authority over the settlements where they live and the surrounding lands. They collect taxes from the populace, which they use for public building projects, to pay the soldiery, and to support a comfortable lifestyle for themselves (although nobles often have considerable hereditary wealth). In exchange, they promise to protect their citizens from threats such as orc marauders, hobgoblin armies, and roving human bandits.

Nobles appoint officers as their agents in villages, to supervise the collection of taxes and serve as judges in disputes and criminal trials. These reeves, sheriffs, or bailiffs are commoners native to the villages they govern, chosen for their positions because they already hold the respect of their fellow citizens.

Within towns and cities, lords share authority and administrative responsibility with lesser nobles (usually their own relatives), and also with representatives of the middle class, such as traders and artisans. A lord mayor of noble birth is appointed to head the town or city council and to perform the same administrative functions that reeves carry out in villages. The council consists of representatives elected by the middle class.

Only foolish nobles ignore the wishes of their councils, since the economic power of the middle class is often more important to the prosperity of a town or city than the hereditary authority of the nobility.

The larger a settlement, the more likely that other individuals or organizations hold significant power there as well. Even in a village, a popular individual—a wise elder or a well-liked farmer-can wield more influence than the appointed reeve, and a wise reeve avoids making an enemy of such a person. In towns and cities, the same power might lie in the hands of a prominent temple, a guild independent of the council, or an individual with magical power.

Forms of Government

A settlement rarely stands alone. A given town or city might be a theocratic city-state or a prosperous free city governed by a merchant council. More likely, it’s part of a feudal kingdom, a bureaucratic empire, or a remote realm ruled by an iron-fisted tyrant. Consider how your settlement fits into the bigger picture of your world or region-who rules its ruler, and what other settlements might also lie under its control.

Forms of Government

Typical and fantastical forms of government are described below. Choose one or randomly determine a form of government for a nation or city from the Forms of Government table.

Autocracy

One hereditary ruler wields absolute power. The autocrat either is supported by a well-developed bureaucracy or military or stands as the only authority in an otherwise anarchic society. The dynastic ruler could be immortal or undead. Aundair and Karrnath, two kingdoms in the Eberron campaign setting, have autocrats with royal blood in their veins. Whereas Queen Aurala of Aundair relies on wizards and spies to enforce her will, Kaius, the vampire king of Karrnath, has a formidable army of living and undead soldiers under his command.

Bureaucracy

Various departments compose the government, each responsible for an aspect of rule. The department heads, ministers, or secretaries answer to a figurehead autocrat or council.

Confederacy

Each individual city or town within the confederacy governs itself, but all contribute to a league or federation that promotes (at least in theory) the common good of all member states. Conditions and attitudes toward the central government vary from place to place within the confederacy. The Lords' Alliance in the Forgotten Realms setting is a loose confederacy of cities, while the Mror Holds in the Eberron campaign setting is a confederacy of allied dwarf clans.

Democracy

Citizens or their elected representatives determine the laws in a democracy. A bureaucracy or military carries out the day-to-day work of government, with positions filled through open elections.

Dictatorship

One supreme ruler holds absolute authority, but his or her rule isn’t necessarily dynastic. In other respects this resembles an autocracy. In the Greyhawk campaign setting, a half-demon named Iuz is the dictator of a conquered land that bears his name.

Feudalism

The typical government of Europe in the Middle Ages, a feudalistic society consists of layers of lords and vassals. The vassals provide soldiers or scutage (payment in lieu of military service) to the lords, who in turn promise protection to their vassals.

Gerontocracy

Elders preside over this society. In some cases, long-lived races such as elves or dragons are entrusted with the leadership of the land.

Hierarchy

A feudal or bureaucratic government where every member, except one, is subordinate to another member. In the Dragonlance campaign setting, the dragon armies of Krynn form a military hierarchy, with the Dragon Highlords as leaders under the dragon queen Takhisis.

Kleptocracy

This government is composed of groups or individuals primarily seeking wealth for themselves, often at the expense of their subjects. The grasping Bandit Kingdoms in the Greyhawk campaign setting are prime examples. A kingdom run by thieves' guilds would also fall into this category.

Magocracy

The governing body is composed of spellcasters who rule directly as oligarchs or feudal lords, or participate in a democracy or bureaucracy. Examples include the Red Wizards of Thay in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting and the sorcerer-kings of Athas in the Dark Sun campaign setting.

Matriarchy or Patriarchy

This society is governed by the eldest or most important members of one gender. Drow cities are examples of theocratic matriarchies, for each is ruled by a council of drow high priestesses who answer to Lolth, the Demon Queen of Spiders.

Meritocracy

The most intelligent and educated people oversee the society, often with a bureaucracy to handle the day-to-day work of government. In the Forgotten Realms, scholarly monks preside over the fortress-library of Candlekeep, overseen by a master of lore called the Keeper.

Militocracy

Military leaders run the nation under martial law, using the army and other armed forces. A militocracy might be based on an elite group of soldiers, an order of dragon riders, or a league of sea princes. Solamnia, a nation ruled by knights in the Dragonlance campaign setting, falls into this category.

Monarchy

A single hereditary sovereign wears the crown. Unlike the autocrat, the monarch’s powers are limited by law, and the ruler serves as the head of a democracy, feudal state, or militocracy. The kingdom of Breland, in the Eberron campaign setting, has both a parliament that makes laws and a monarch who enforces them.

Oligarchy

A small number of absolute rulers share power, possibly dividing the land into districts or provinces under their control, or jointly ruling together. A group of adventurers who take control of a nation together might form an oligarchy. The Free City of Greyhawk is an oligarchy composed of various faction leaders, with a Lord Mayor as its figurehead.

Plutocracy

Society is governed by the wealthy. The elite form a ruling council, purchase representation at the court of a figurehead monarch, or rule by default because money is the true power in the realm. Many cities in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, including Waterdeep and Baldur’s Gate, are plutocracies.

Republic

Government is entrusted to representatives of an established electorate who rule on behalf of the electors. Any democracy in which only landowners or certain classes can vote could be considered a republic.

Satrapy

Conquerors and representatives of another government wield power, ruling the settlement or region as part of a larger empire. The satraps are bureaucrats and military officers, or unusual characters or monsters. The cities of Highport and Suderham in the Greyhawk campaign setting are satrapies controlled by agents of a vicious gang of marauders known as the Slave Lords.

Theocracy

Rulership falls to a direct representative or a collection of agents of a deity. The centers of power in a theocracy are usually located on sacred sites. In the Eberron campaign setting, the nation of Thrane is a theocracy devoted to the Silver Flame, a divine spirit that resides in Thrane’s capital of Flamekeep.

Sample Hierarchy of Noble Titles

Commerce

Even small villages can provide characters access to the gear they need to pursue their adventures. Provisions, tents, backpacks, and simple weapons are commonly available. Traveling merchants carry armor, martial weapons, and more specialized gear. Most villages have inns that cater to travelers, where adventurers can find a hot meal and a bed, even if the quality leaves much to be desired.

Villages rely heavily on trade with other settlements, including larger towns and cities. Merchants pass through regularly, selling necessities and luxuries to the villagers, and any successful merchant has far-reaching contacts across the region. Traveling merchants pass on gossip and adventure hooks to the characters as they conduct their business. Since merchants make their living traversing roads that might be menaced by bandits or wandering monsters, they hire guards to keep their goods safe. They also carry news from town to town, including reports of situations that cry out for the attention of adventurers.

These merchants can’t provide the services normally found in a city. For instance, when the characters are in need of a library or a dedicated sage, a trainer who can handle the griffon eggs they’ve found, or an architect to design their castle, they’re better off going to a large city than looking in a village.

Currency

The straightforward terms “gold piece” (gp), “silver piece” (sp), “copper piece” (cp), “electrum piece” (ep), and “platinum piece” (pp) are used throughout the game rules for clarity. You can imbue these denominations with more interesting descriptions in your game world. People give coins specific names, whether as plain as “dime” or lively as “gold double-eagle.” A country typically mints its own currency, which might correspond to the basic rules terms. In most worlds, few currencies achieve widespread distribution, but nearly all coins are accepted worldwide-except by those looking to pick a fight with a foreigner.

Example: The Forgotten Realms

The world of the Forgotten Realms provides an extensive example of currencies. Although barter, blood notes, and similar letters of trade are common enough in Faerun, metal coins and trade bars are the everyday currency.

Common Coinage

Coins appear in a bewildering variety of shapes, sizes, names, and materials. Thanks to the ambitious traders of Sembia, that nation’s oddly shaped coins can be found throughout Faerun. In Sembia, square iron steel pence replace copper coins. Triangular silver pieces are ravens, diamond-shaped electrum pieces are harmarks (commonly called “blue eyes”), and five-sided gold pieces are nobles. Sembia doesn’t mint platinum coins. All coinage is accepted in Sembia, including copper and platinum pieces from abroad.

In Waterdeep, the bustling cosmopolitan center of trade, coppers are called nibs, silvers are shards, electrum pieces are moons, gold pieces are dragons, and platinum coins are suns. The city’s two local coins are the taol and the harbor moon. The taol is a square brass trading-coin pierced with a central hole to permit it to be easily strung on a ring or string, worth 2 gp in the city and nothing outside Waterdeep. The harbor moon is a flat crescent of platinum with a central hole and an electrum inlay, named for its traditional use in the docks for buying large amounts of cargo at once. The coin is worth 50 gp in Waterdeep and 30 gp elsewhere.

The northern city of Silverymoon mints a crescent-shaped, shining blue coin called an electrum moon, worth 1 gp in that city and 1 ep elsewhere. The city also issues a larger coin called an eclipsed moon, which looks like an electrum moon combined a darker silver wedge to form a round coin worth 5 ep within the city and 2 ep outside it.

The favored form of currency in the kingdom of Cormyr is the royal coinage of the court, stamped with a dragon on one side and a treasury date mark on the other. There, coppers are called thumbs, silvers are silver falcons, electrum pieces are blue eyes, gold pieces are golden lions, and platinum coins are tricrowns.

Even city-states mint their own copper, silver, and gold pieces. Electrum and platinum pieces are rarer in these lands. Smaller states use coinage borrowed from other nations and looted from ancient sources. Travelers from certain lands (notably the wizard-dominated realms of Thay and Halruaa) use the currencies of other realms when trading abroad because their own coins and tokens are feared to be magically cursed, and so are shunned by others.

Conversely, the coins of long-lost, legendary lands and centers of great magic are honored, though those who find them are wise to sell them to collectors rather than merely spending them in markets. The coins of the old elven court of Cormanthyr are particularly famous: thalvers (coppers), bedoars (silvers), thammarchs (electrum), shilmaers (golds), and ruendils (platinum). These coins are fine, numerous, and sometimes still used in trade among elves.

Trade Bars

Large numbers of coins can be difficult to transport and account for. Many merchants prefer to use trade bars-ingots of precious metals and alloys (usually silver) likely to be accepted by virtually anyone. Trade bars are stamped or graven with the symbol of the trading company or government that originally crafted them. These bars are valued by weight, as follows:

• A 2-pound silver bar is worth 10 gp and is about 5 inches long, 2 inches wide, and 1/2 inch thick.
• A 5-pound silver bar is worth 25 gp and is about 6 inches long, 2 inches wide, and 1 inch thick.
• A 5-pound gold bar is worth 250 gp and is about the size of a 2-pound silver bar.

The city of Baldur’s Gate mints large numbers of silver trade bars and sets the standard for this form of currency. The city of Mirabar issues black iron spindle-shaped trade bars with squared ends weighing about 2 pounds each, worth 10 gp in that city, markedly less in nearby trade centers, and as iron is normally valued elsewhere (1 sp per pound).

Odd Currency

Coins and bars aren’t the only forms of hard currency. Gond bells are small brass bells worth 10 gp in trade, or 20 gp to a temple of Gond. Shaar rings, pierced and polished slices of ivory threaded onto strings by the nomads of the Shaar, are worth 3 gp per slice.

Creating Your Own

As shown in the previous examples, currency doesn’t need to obey a universal standard in your world. Each country and era can have its own coins with its own values. Your adventurers might travel through many different lands and find long-lost treasures. Finding six hundred ancient bedoars from the rule of Coronal Eltargrim twelve centuries before offers a deeper sense of immersion in your world than finding 60 sp.

Varying names and descriptions of coins for the major contemporary and historical realms of your world adds an additional layer of texture. The golden lions of Cormyr convey the noble nature of that kingdom. If a nation mints gold coins stamped with leering demonic faces and called torments, that currency expresses a distinct flavor.

Creating new coins connected to specific locations, like the taols of Waterdeep or the eclipsed moons of Silverymoon, provides another level of detail. As long as you keep the value of these new coins simple (in other words, don’t invent a coin worth 1.62 gp), you add local flavor to key locations in your world without adding undue complexity.

Languages and Dialects

When fleshing out your world, you can create new languages and dialects to reflect its unique geography and history. You can replace the default languages presented in the Player’s Handbook with new ones, or split languages up into several different dialects.

In some worlds, regional differences might be much more important than racial ones. Perhaps all the dwarves, elves, and humans who live in one kingdom speak a common language, which is completely different from that spoken in the neighboring kingdom. This might make communication (and diplomacy) between two kingdoms significantly more difficult.

Widely used languages might have ancient versions, or there might be completely different ancient tongues that adventurers find written in tombs and ruins. Such languages can add an element of mystery to inscriptions and tomes that characters encounter.

You might invent additional secret languages, besides Druidic and thieves' cant, that allow members of certain organizations or political affiliations to communicate. You could even decide that each alignment has its own language, which might be more of an argot used primarily to discuss philosophical concepts.

In a region where one race has subjugated another, the language of the conquerors can become a mark of social status. Similarly, reading and writing might be restricted by law to the upper classes of a society.

Factions and Organizations

Temples, guilds, orders, secret societies, and colleges are important forces in the social order of any civilization. Their influence might stretch across multiple towns and cities, with or without a similarly wide-ranging political authority. Organizations can play an important part in the lives of player characters, becoming their patrons, allies, or enemies just like individual nonplayer characters. When characters join these organizations, they become part of something larger than themselves, which can give their adventures a context in the wider world.

Adventurers and Organizations

At the start of a campaign, backgrounds are a great way to connect adventurers to your world. As the game progresses, though, background ties often become less important.

Factions and organizations aimed at player characters are a way to keep higher-level adventurers connected to your world, providing ties to key NPCs and a clear agenda beyond individual gain. In the same way, villainous organizations create an ongoing sense of menace above and beyond the threat of solitary foes.

Having different characters tied to different factions can create interesting situations at the gaming table, as long as those factions have similar goals and don’t work in opposition to one another all the time. Adventurers representing different factions might have competing interests or priorities while they pursue the same goals.

Adventurer organizations are also a great source of special rewards beyond experience points and treasure. Increased standing in an organization has value in and of itself, and might also come with concrete benefits such as access to an organization’s information, equipment, magic, and other resources.

Creating Factions

Factions and organizations that you create for your campaign should grow out of the stories that are important to the world. Create organizations that your players will want to interact with, whether as allies, members, or enemies.

As a starting point, decide what role you want an organization to play in the world. What is it all about? What are its goals? Who founded it and why? What do its members do? Answering these questions should give you a good sense of the organization’s personality. From there, think about typical members. How might people describe them? What are the typical members' classes and alignments? What personality traits do they tend to share?

Choosing a symbol and a motto for the organization is a way of summing up the work you’ve done so far. A faction that uses a stag as a symbol probably has a very different personality from one that uses a winged viper. For a motto, choose not just a message but also a tone and style of speech that fits the organization as you’ve defined it. Consider the motto of the Harpers: “Down with tyranny. Fairness and equality for all.” The Harpers have a straightforward message of freedom and prosperity. Contrast that with the motto of a group of politically allied cities in the North calling themselves the Lords' Alliance: “Threats to home must be terminated without prejudice. Superiority is our security.” These are sophisticated people involved in a delicate political alliance, with more emphasis on stability than on fairness and equality.

Finally, think about the ways that player characters might come into contact with the organization. Who are the important members-not just the leaders, but the agents in the field that the adventurers might encounter? Where are they active, and where do they have headquarters or strongholds? If adventurers do join, what kind of missions might they be sent on? What rewards can they gain?

Sample Faction: The Harpers

The Harpers is a scattered network of spellcasters and spies who advocate equality and covertly oppose the abuse of power, magical or otherwise.

The organization has risen, been shattered, and risen again several times. Its longevity and resilience are largely due to its decentralized, grassroots, secretive nature, and the autonomy of its various members. The Harpers have small cells and lone operatives throughout the Forgotten Realms, although they interact and share information with one another from time to time as needs warrant. The Harpers' ideology is noble, and its members pride themselves on their ingenuity and incorruptibility. Harpers don’t seek power or glory, only fair and equal treatment for all.

Motto: Down with tyranny. Fairness and equality for all.

Beliefs: The Harpers' beliefs can be summarized as follows:

,- One can never have too much information or arcane knowledge.,- Too much power leads to corruption, and the abuse of magic in particular must be closely monitored.,- No one should be powerless.

Goals: Gather information throughout Faerun, discern the political dynamics within each region, and promote fairness and equality by covert means. Act openly as a last resort. Thwart tyrants and any leader, government, or group that grows too powerful. Aid the weak, the poor, and the oppressed.

Typical Quests: Typical Harper quests include securing an artifact that would upset the balance of power in a region, gathering information on a powerful individual or organization, and determining the true intentions of an ambitious political figure or evil spellcaster.

Sample Faction: The Zhentarim

The Zhentarim (also known as the Black Network) is an unscrupulous shadow network that seeks to expand its influence and power throughout the Forgotten Realms. The public face of the Black Network appears relatively benign. It offers the best and cheapest goods and services, both legal and illicit, thus destroying its competitors and making everyone dependent on it.

A member of the Zhentarim thinks of himself or herself as a member of a very large family and relies on the Black Network for resources and security. However, members are granted the autonomy to pursue their own interests and gain some measure of personal wealth and influence. As a whole, the Zhentarim promises “the best of the best,” although in truth the organization is more interested in spreading its own propaganda and influence than investing in the improvement of its individual members.

Motto: Join us and prosper. Oppose us and suffer.

Beliefs: The Zhentarim’s beliefs can be summarized as follows:

,- The Zhentarim is your family. You watch out for it, and it watches out for you.,- You are the master of your own destiny. Never be less than what you deserve to be.,- Everything and everyone has a price.

Goals: Amass wealth, power, and influence, and thereby dominate Faerun.

Typical Quests: Typical Zhentarim quests include plundering or stealing a treasure hoard, powerful magic item, or artifact; securing a lucrative business contract or enforcing a preexisting one; and establishing a foothold in a place where the Zhentarim holds little sway.

Renown

Renown is an optional rule you can use to track an adventurer’s standing within a particular faction or organization. Renown is a numerical value that starts at 0, then increases as a character earns favor and reputation within a particular organization. You can tie benefits to a character’s renown, including ranks and titles within the organization and access to resources.

A player tracks renown separately for each organization his or her character is a member of. For example, an adventurer might have 5 renown within one faction and 20 renown within another, based on the character’s interaction with each organization over the course of the campaign.

Gaining Renown

A character earns renown by completing missions or quests that serve an organization’s interests or involve the organization directly. You award renown at your discretion as characters complete these missions or quests, typically at the same time you award experience points.

Advancing an organization’s interests increases a character’s renown within that organization by 1. Completing a mission specifically assigned by that organization, or which directly benefits the organization, increases the character’s renown by 2 instead.

For example, characters with connections to the noble Order of the Gauntlet complete a mission in which they free a town from the tyranny of a blue dragon. Because the order likes to punish evildoers, you might increase each character’s renown within the order by 1. Conversely, if killing the dragon was a mission given to the adventurers by a senior member of the order, completing the task might instead increase each character’s renown by 2, showing the adventurers as effective allies.

Meanwhile, the party’s rogue might have looted a box of rare poisons from the dragon’s hoard and sold it to a fence who is secretly a Zhentarim agent. You might increase the rogue’s renown within the Zhentarim by 2 since this action directly increased that group’s power and wealth, even though the task was not assigned by an agent of the Zhentarim.

Benefits of Renown

The benefits of increasing renown within an organization can include rank and authority, friendly attitudes from members of the organization, and other perks.

Rank

Characters can earn promotions as their renown increases. You can establish certain thresholds of renown that serve as prerequisites (though not necessarily the only prerequisites) for advancing in rank, as shown in the Examples of Faction Ranks table. For example, a character might join the Lords' Alliance after earning 1 renown within that organization, gaining the title of cloak. As the character’s renown within the organization increases, he or she might be eligible for further increases in rank.

You can add rank prerequisites. For example, a character affiliated with the Lords' Alliance might have to be at least 5th level before becoming a stingblade, at least 10th level to be a warduke, and at least 15th level to be a lioncrown.

You can set these thresholds of renown to any numbers that work for your game, creating appropriate ranks and titles for the organizations in your campaign.

Examples of Faction Ranks

Attitudes of Organization Members

As a character’s renown within an organization grows, members of that organization are increasingly likely to have heard of the character. You can set thresholds at which the default attitude of an organization’s members toward the character becomes indifferent or friendly. For example, members of the Emerald Enclave—a faction dedicated to preserving the natural order—might be less friendly toward characters who have not cultivated at least 3 renown within that organization, becoming friendly by default only when a character has gained 10 renown within the Emerald Enclave. These thresholds apply only to the default attitude of most members of an organization, and such attitudes aren’t automatic. NPC faction members might dislike an adventurer despite that character’s renown—or perhaps because of it.

Perks

Earning a rank within an organization comes with certain benefits, as defined by you. A character of low rank might gain access to a reliable contact and adventure leads, a safe house, or a trader willing to offer a discount on adventuring gear. A middle-ranked character might gain a follower (see chapter 4, “Creating Nonplayer Characters”), access to potions and scrolls, the ability to call in a favor, or backup on dangerous missions. A high-ranking character might be able to call on a small army, take custody of a rare magic item, gain access to a helpful spellcaster, or assign special missions to members of lower rank.

Downtime Activities

You might allow characters to spend downtime between adventures building relationships and gaining renown within an organization. For more information on downtime activities, see chapter 6, “Between Adventures.”

Losing Renown

Disagreements with members of an organization aren’t enough to cause a loss of renown within that organization. However, serious offenses committed against the organization or its members can result in a loss of renown and rank within the organization. The extent of the loss depends on the infraction and is left to your discretion. A character’s renown within an organization can never drop below 0.

Piety

With a few alterations, the renown system can also serve as a measure of a character’s link to the gods. It’s a great option for campaigns where the gods take active roles in the world.

Using this approach, you track renown based on specific divine figures in your campaign. Each character has the option to select a patron deity or pantheon with goals, doctrine, and taboos that you have created. Any renown he or she earns is called piety. A character gains piety for honoring his or her gods, fulfilling their commands, and respecting their taboos. A character loses piety for working against those gods, dishonoring them, defiling their temples, and foiling their aims.

The gods bestow favors on those who prove their devotion. With each rank of piety gained, a character can pray for divine favor once per day. This favor usually comes in the form of a cleric spell like bless. The favor often comes with a sign of the divine benefactor; for example, a character dedicated to Thor might receive a spell accompanied by the boom of thunder.

A high level of piety can also lead to a character gaining a more persistent benefit, in the form of a blessing or charm (see chapter 7, “Treasure,” for such supernatural gifts).

Magic in Your World

In most D&D worlds, magic is natural but still wondrous and sometimes frightening. People everywhere know about magic, and most people see evidence of it at some point in their lives. It permeates the cosmos and moves through the ancient possessions of legendary heroes, the mysterious ruins of fallen empires, those touched by the gods, creatures born with supernatural power, and individuals who study the secrets of the multiverse. Histories and fireside tales are filled with the exploits of those who wield it.

What normal folk know of magic depends on where they live and whether they know characters who practice magic. Citizens of an isolated hamlet might not have seen true magic used for generations and speak in whispers of the strange powers of the old hermit living in the nearby woods. In the city of Waterdeep in the Forgotten Realms setting, the Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors is a guild of wizards. These arcanists wish to make wizardry more accessible so the order’s members can profit from selling their services.

Some D&D settings have more magic in them than others. On Athas, the harsh world of the Dark Sun setting, arcane magic is a hated practice that can drain life from the world. Much of Athas’s magic lies in the hands of evildoers. Conversely, in the world of Eberron, magic is as commonplace as any other commodity. Mercantile houses sell magic items and services to anyone who can afford them. People purchase tickets to ride airships and trains propelled by elemental magic.

Consider these questions when fitting magic into your world:

• Is some magic common? Is some socially unacceptable? Which magic is rare?
• How unusual are members of each spellcasting class? How common are those who can cast high-level spells?
• How rare are magic items, magical locations, and creatures that have supernatural powers? At what power level do these things go from everyday to exotic?
• How do authorities regulate and use magic? How do normal folks use magic and protect themselves from it?

The answers to some questions suggest the answers to others. For example, if spellcasters of low-level spells are common, as in Eberron, then authorities and common folk are more likely to have access to and use the results of such spells. Buying commonplace magic isn’t only possible, but also less expensive. People are more likely to keep well-known magic in mind, and to protect against it, especially in risky situations.

Restrictions on Magic

Some civilized areas might restrict or prohibit the use of magic. Spellcasting might be forbidden without a license or official permission. In such a place, magic items and continual magical effects are rare, with protections against magic being the exception.

Some localities might prohibit specific spells. It could be a crime to cast any spells used to steal or swindle, such as those that bestow invisibility or produce illusions. Enchantments that charm or dominate others are readily outlawed, since they rob their subjects of free will. Destructive spells are likewise prohibited, for obvious reasons. A local ruler could have a phobia about a specific effect or spell (such as shapeshifting effects if he or she were afraid of being impersonated) and enact a law restricting that type of magic.

Schools of Magic

The rules of the game refer to the schools of magic (abjuration, illusion, necromancy, and so on), but it’s up to you to determine what those schools signify in your world. Similarly, a few class options suggest the existence of magic-using organizations in the world—bardic colleges and druid circles-which are up to you to flesh out.

You could decide that no formal structures like these exist in your world. Wizards (and bards and druids) might be so rare that a player character learns from a single mentor and never meets another character of the same class, in which case wizards would learn their school specialization without any formal training.

However, if magic is more common, academies can be the embodiments of the schools of magic. These institutions have their own hierarchies, traditions, regulations, and procedures. For example, Materros the necromancer could be a brother of the necromantic Cabal of Thar-Zad. As a sign of his high standing within its hierarchy, he is allowed to wear the red and green robes of a master. Of course, when he wears these robes, his occupation is easily identified by those who know of the cabal. This recognition could be a boon or a nuisance, since the Cabal of Thar-Zad has a fearsome reputation.

If you go this route, you can treat schools of magic, bardic colleges, and druid circles as organizations, using the guidelines for organizations presented earlier in this chapter. A player character necromancer might cultivate renown within the Cabal of Thar-Zad, while a bard seeks increasing renown within the College of Mac-Fuirmidh.

Teleportation Circles

The presence of permanent teleportation circles in major cities helps cement their important place in the economy of a fantasy world. Spells such as plane shift, teleport, and teleportation circle connect with these circles, which are found in temples, academies, the headquarters of arcane organizations, and prominent civic locations. However, since every teleportation circle is a possible means of entry into a city, they’re guarded by military and magical protection.

As you design a fantasy city, think about the teleportation circles it might contain and which ones adventurers are likely to know about. If the adventurers commonly return to their home base by means of a teleportation circle, use that circle as a hook for plot developments in your campaign. What do the adventurers do if they arrive in a teleportation circle and find all the familiar wards disabled and guards lying in pools of blood? What if their arrival interrupts an argument between two feuding priests at the temple? Adventure ensues!

Bringing Back the Dead

When a creature dies, its soul departs its body, leaves the Material Plane, travels through the Astral Plane, and goes to abide on the plane where the creature’s deity resides. If the creature didn’t worship a deity, its soul departs to the plane corresponding to its alignment. Bringing someone back from the dead means retrieving the soul from that plane and returning it to its body.

Enemies can take steps to make it more difficult for a character to be returned from the dead. Keeping the body prevents others from using raise dead or resurrection to restore the slain character to life.

A soul can’t be returned to life if it doesn’t wish to be. A soul knows the name, alignment, and patron deity (if any) of the character attempting to revive it and might refuse to return on that basis. For example, if the honorable knight Sturm Brightblade is slain and a high priestess of Takhisis (god of evil dragons) grabs his body, Sturm might not wish to be raised from the dead by her. Any attempts she makes to revive him automatically fail. If the evil cleric wants to revive Sturm to interrogate him, she needs to find some way to trick his soul, such as duping a good cleric into raising him and then capturing him once he is alive again.

Creating a Campaign

The world you create is the stage for the adventures you set in it. You don’t have to give more thought to it than that. You can run adventures in an episodic format, with the characters as the only common element, and also weave themes throughout those adventures to build a greater saga of the characters' achievements in the world.

Planning an entire campaign might seem like a daunting task, but you don’t have to plot out every detail right from the start. You can start with the basics, running a few adventures, and think about larger plot lines you want to explore as the campaign progresses. You’re free to add as much or as little detail as you wish.

The start of a campaign resembles the start of an adventure. You want to jump quickly into the action, show the players that adventure awaits, and grab their attention right away. Give the players enough information to make them want to come back week after week to see how the story plays out.

Start Small

When you first start building your campaign, start small. The characters need to know only about the city, town, or village where they start the game, and perhaps the nearby dungeon. You might decide that the barony is at war with a nearby duchy, or that a distant forest is crawling with ettercaps and giant spiders, and you should note these things. But at the start of the game, the local area is enough to get the campaign off the ground. Follow these steps to create that local area:

1. Create a Home Base

See the “Settlements” section earlier in this chapter for guidance on building this settlement. A small town or village at the edge of the wilderness serves as a fine home base in most D&D campaigns. Use a larger town or city if you want a campaign with urban adventuring.

2. Create a Local Region

See “Mapping the Campaign” earlier in this chapter for guidance. Draw a map at province scale (1 hex = 1 mile) with the home base near the center. Fill in the area within a day’s travel-about 25 to 30 miles-of the home base. Pepper it with two to four dungeons or similar adventure locales. An area that size is likely to have one to three additional settlements as well as the home base, so give thought to them as well.

3. Craft a Starting Adventure

A single dungeon makes a good first adventure for most campaigns. See chapter 3, “Creating Adventures,” for guidance.

A home base provides a common starting location for the characters. This starting point might be the village where they grew up or a city that attracted them from points beyond. Or perhaps they begin the campaign in the dungeons of an evil baron’s castle where they’ve been locked up for various reasons (legitimate or otherwise), throwing them into the midst of the adventure.

For each of these steps, give the locations only as much detail as they need. You don’t need to identify every building in a village or label every street in a large city. If the characters start in the baron’s dungeon, you’ll need the details of this first adventure site, but you don’t have to name all the baron’s knights. Sketch out a simple map, think about the surrounding area, and consider whom the characters are most likely to interact with early in the campaign. Most important, visualize how this area fits into the theme and story you have in mind for your campaign. Then start working on your first adventure!

Set the Stage

As you start to develop your campaign, you’ll need to fill in the players on the basics. For easy distribution, compile essential information into a campaign handout. Such a handout typically includes the following material:

• Any restrictions or new options for character creation, such as new or prohibited races.
• Any information in the backstory of your campaign that the characters would know about. If you have a theme or direction in mind for the campaign, this information could include seeds hinting at that focus.
• Basic information about the area where the characters are starting, such as the name of the town, important locations in and around it, prominent NPCs they’d know about, and perhaps rumors that point to trouble that’s brewing.

Keep this handout short and to the point. Two pages is a reasonable maximum. Even if you have a burst of creative energy that produces twenty pages of great background material, save it for your adventures. Let the players uncover the details gradually in play.

Involving the Characters

Once you’ve identified what your campaign is about, let the players help tell the story by deciding how their characters are involved. This is their opportunity to tie their characters' history and background to the campaign, and a chance for you to determine how the various elements of each character’s background tie into the campaign’s story. For example, what secret has the hermit character learned? What is the status of the noble character’s family? What is the folk hero’s destiny?

Some players might have trouble coming up with ideas-not everyone is equally inventive. You can help spur their creativity with a few questions about their characters:

• Are you a native, born and raised in the area? If so, who’s your family? What’s your current occupation?
• Are you a recent arrival? Where did you come from? Why did you come to this area?
• Are you tied to any of the organizations or people involved in the events that kick off the campaign? Are they friends or enemies?

Listen to the players' ideas, and say yes if you can. Even if you want all the characters to have grown up in the starting town, consider allowing a recent arrival or a transplant if the player’s story is convincing enough. Suggest alterations to a character’s story so it better fits your world, or weave the first threads of your campaign into that story.

Creating a Background

Backgrounds are designed to root player characters in the world, and creating new backgrounds is a great way to introduce players to the special features of your world. Backgrounds that have ties to particular cultures, organizations, and historical events from your campaign are particularly strong. Perhaps the priests of a certain religion live as beggars supported by a pious populace, singing the tales of their deity’s exploits to entertain and enlighten the faithful. You could create a mendicant priest background (or modify the acolyte background) to reflect these qualities. It could include musical instrument proficiency, and its feature probably involves receiving hospitality from the faithful.

Guidelines for creating a new background are provided in chapter 9, “Dungeon Master’s Workshop.”

Campaign Events

Significant events in the history of a fantasy world tend toward immense upheavals: wars that pit the forces of good against evil in an epic confrontation, natural disasters that lay waste to entire civilizations, invasions of vast armies or extra planar hordes, assassinations of world leaders. These world-shaking events title the chapters of history.

In a D&D game, such events provide the sparks that can ignite and sustain a campaign. The most common pitfall of serial stories without a set beginning, middle, and end is inertia. Like many television shows and comic-book series, a D&D campaign runs the risk of retreading the same ground long after the enjoyment’s gone. Just as actors or writers drift away from those other mediums, so can players-the actors and writers of a D&D game. Games stagnate when the story meanders too long without a change in tone, when the same villains and similar adventures grow tiresome and predictable, and when the world doesn’t change around the characters and in response to their actions.

World-shaking events force conflict. They set new events and power groups in motion. Their outcomes change the world by altering the tone of the setting in a meaningful way. They chronicle the story of your world in big, bold print. Change-especially change that occurs as a result of the characters' actions-keeps the story moving. If change is imperceptible, the actions of the characters lack significance. When the world becomes reliable, it’s time to shake things up.

Putting Events in Motion

World-shaking events can happen at any time in a campaign or story arc, but the biggest incidents naturally fall at the beginning, middle, and end of a story.

That placement reflects the structure of dramatic stories. At the beginning of a story, something happens to shake the protagonists' world and spur them into action. The characters take action to resolve their problems, but other forces oppose them. As they reach a significant milestone toward their goal, a major conflict disrupts the characters' plans, shaking their world again; failure seems imminent. At the end of the story, they succeed or fail, and the world is shaken again by the way the characters changed it for good or ill.

At the beginning of a D&D campaign, world-shaking events create instant adventure hooks and affect the characters' lives directly. In the middle, they make great turning points as the characters' fortunes reverse-rising after a defeat or falling after a victory. Near the end of a campaign, such events serve as excellent climactic episodes with far-reaching effects. They might even occur after the story has ended, as a result of the characters' actions.

When Not to Shake It Up

In constructing a narrative, beware of “false action,” or action for its own sake. False action doesn’t move a story forward, engage characters, or cause them to change. Many action movies suffer from false action, in which car chases, gunfights, and explosions abound but do little more than inconvenience the characters and eventually bore the audience with their repetition and dearth of meaningful stakes. Some D&D campaigns fall into the same trap, stringing world-spanning disasters together one after another with little impact on the characters or the world. Thus, it’s probably not in the DM’s best interest to reorder the world every single time there’s a lull in the action, lest world-shaking events become ordinary.

As a general rule, a campaign can sustain up to three large-scale, world-shaking events: one near the beginning, one near the middle, and one near the end. Use as many small-scale events that disturb the bounded microcosms of towns, villages, tribes, fiefs, duchies, provinces, and so forth as you like. Every significant event shakes someone’s world, after all, no matter how small that world might be. Let unexpected and terrible events regularly afflict the world’s smaller territories, but unless your story demands it, save the large-scale map-spanning events for the biggest, most important moments of your campaign.

World-Shaking Events

You can use this section for ideas and inspiration to expand on world-shaking events already occurring (or soon to occur) within your world. Alternatively, you can roll on the tables below to randomly generate an event to inspire your imagination. The attempt to justify a random result can reveal unforeseen possibilities.

To get started, select a world-shaking event category or roll on the World-Shaking Events table.

World-Shaking Events

1-2. Rise or Fall of a Leader or an Era

Eras are often defined by the prominent leaders, innovators, and tyrants of the day. These people change the world and etch their signatures indelibly on the pages of history. When they rise to power, they shape the time and place where they live in monumental ways. When they fall from power or pass away, the ghost of their presence lingers.

Determine the kind of leader that influences the new or passing era. You can choose the type of leader or determine one randomly using the Leader Types table.

Leader Types

Political leaders are monarchs, nobles, and chiefs. Religious leaders include deities' avatars, high priests, and messiahs, as well as those in charge of monasteries and leaders of influential religious sects. Major military leaders control the armed forces of countries. They include military dictators, warlords, and the heads of a ruler’s war council. Minor military leaders include the heads of local militias, gangs, and other martial organizations. At the broadest scale, a criminal or underworld leader wields power through a network of spies, bribes, and black-market trade. On the smallest scale, these are local gang bosses, pirate captains, and brigands. A leader in art or culture is a virtuoso whose work reflects the spirit of the age and changes the way people think: a prominent playwright, bard, or court fool in whose words, art, or performance the people perceive universal truth. On a smaller scale, this might be an influential local poet, minstrel, satirist, or sculptor.

A major leader in philosophy, learning, or magic is a genius philosopher, a counselor to emperors, an enlightened thinker, the head of the highest institution of learning in the world, or an archmage. A minor leader might be a local sage, seer, hedge wizard, wise elder, or teacher.

Rise of a Leader, Beginning of an Era

In dramatic stories, a new leader’s rise often comes at the end of a period of struggle or turmoil. Sometimes it’s a war or uprising; other times it’s an election, the death of a tyrant, a prophecy fulfilled, or the appointment of a hero. Conversely, the new leader might be a tyrant, a fiend, or black-hearted villain, and the era that just ended could have been one of peace, tranquility, and justice.

A new leader shakes the foundations of your campaign world and begins a new era in the selected region. How does this person or this era begin to affect the world? Here are several things to consider when determining the leader’s impact on the world:

• Name one thing that has been consistently true about the world, which is now no longer true due to this leader’s rise or influence. This is the biggest change that occurs when the new leader takes power and becomes the prevailing trait that defines the era, the characteristic for which it is remembered.
• Name the person (or people) whose death, defeat, or loss opened the door for this leader to take power. This might be a military defeat, the overthrow of old ideas, a cultural rebirth, or something else. Who died, lost, or was defeated? What weren’t they willing to compromise? Was the new leader complicit in the death, defeat, or loss, or was the opportunity serendipitous?
• Despite the leader’s virtues, one flaw in particular outrages a certain segment of the populace. What is that flaw? What person or group of persons will do their utmost to foil this leader because of it? Conversely, what is this leader’s greatest virtue, and who rises to the leader’s defense because of it?
• Who believes in this leader now, but still retains doubts? This is someone close to the leader, who has the leader’s trust and knows his or her secret fears, doubts, or vices.

Fall of a Leader, End of an Era

All that begins must end. With the fall of kings and queens, the maps of the world are redrawn. Laws change, new customs become all the rage, and old ones fall out of favor. The attitude of the citizens toward their fallen leader shifts subtly at first and then changes dramatically as they look back or reminisce about the time before. The fallen leader might have been a benevolent ruler, an influential citizen, or even an adversary to the characters. How does the death of this person affect those formerly under his or her influence? Here are several things to consider when determining the effects of a leader’s passing:

• Name one positive change that the leader brought to his or her domain or sphere of influence. Does that change persist after the leader’s death?
• State the general mood or attitude of the people under this person’s power. What important fact didn’t they realize about this person or his or her reign, which will later come to light?
• Name one person or group that tries to fill the leader’s shoes in the resulting power vacuum.
• Name one person or group that plotted against this leader.
• Name three things for which this leader will be remembered.

3. Cataclysmic Disaster

Earthquake, famine, fire, plague, flood-disasters on a grand scale can eradicate whole civilizations without warning. Natural (or magical) catastrophes redraw maps, destroy economies, and alter worlds. Sometimes the survivors rebuild from the ruins. The Great Chicago Fire, for instance, provided an opportunity to rebuild the city according to a modern plan. Most of the time the disaster leaves only ruins-buried under ash like Pompeii, or sunk beneath the waves like Atlantis.

You can choose the cataclysm or determine one randomly using the Cataclysmic Disasters table.

Cataclysmic Disasters

Some of the disasters on the table might not make immediate sense in the context of your campaign world. A flood in the desert? A volcanic eruption on grassy plains? If you randomly determine a disaster that conflicts with your setting, you can reroll, but the challenge of justifying the catastrophe can produce interesting results.

With two exceptions, the disasters on the table resemble those that affect our own world. Think of planar warps and magic gone awry like nuclear incidents; they’re big events that unnaturally alter the land and its people. For example, in the Eberron campaign setting, a magical catastrophe lays waste to an entire country, transforming it into a hostile wasteland and ending the Last War.

Divine judgment is something else entirely. This disaster takes whatever form you want, but it’s always a big, bold, unsubtle sign of a deity’s displeasure.

You might decide to wipe a town, region, or nation off the map of your world. A disaster ravages the land and effectively eliminates a place the characters once knew.

Leave one or two survivors to tell the characters what happened, and ensure that the characters feel the depth of the catastrophe. What are the ongoing effects of this cataclysm? The following points can help you define the nature and consequences of the disaster:

• Decide what caused this cataclysm and where it originated.
• An omen presaged this event, or a series of signs and omens. Describe the omen in detail.
• Describe or name the creature that warned the populace about the oncoming disaster. Who listened?
• Who were the lucky (or unlucky) ones who survived?
• Describe what the area looks like after the disaster, in contrast to how it looked before.

4. Assault or Invasion

One of the most common world-shaking events, an invasion occurs when one group forcibly takes over another, usually by military strength, but also by infiltration and occupation. An assault differs from an invasion in that the attacking force isn’t necessarily interested in occupation or taking power. On the other hand, an assault might be the first step of an invasion.

Regardless of the scale, a world-shaking assault or invasion stands out because its repercussions change the characters' world, and its effects echo long after the initial attack or takeover.

Imagine that part of your campaign world is attacked or invaded. Depending on the current scale of your campaign, the area might be as small as a section of a city or as large as a continent, world, or plane of existence.

Define the aggressor and whether it represents a known enemy or a previously unknown adversary. Select a threat that already poses a danger to the area you’ve chosen, or use the Invading Forces table to determine the aggressor.

Invading Forces

Now consider these other aspects of the conflict:

• Name one element of the invasion or assault that the defenders didn’t expect or couldn’t repel.
• Something happened to the first defenders who stood against the invasion or assault-something no one wants to talk about. What was it?
• The attackers or invaders had a motive for their action that wasn’t obvious or understood at first. What was it?
• Who turned traitor, and at what point did they turn? Why did they do it? Did an attacker try to stop the incursion, or did a prominent defender throw in with the invaders?

5. Rebellion, Revolution, Overthrow

Dissatisfied with the current order, a person or group of people overturns the dominant regime and takes over-or fails to take over. Regardless of the result, a revolution (even an attempted one) can shape the destiny of nations.

The scale of a revolution need not involve the common masses against the nobility. A revolution can be as small as a merchants' guild revolting against its leadership or a temple overthrowing its priesthood in favor of a new creed. The spirits of the forest might attempt to overthrow the forces of civilization in a nearby city that cut down trees for timber. Alternatively, the scale can be as dramatic as humanity rising to overthrow the gods.

Imagine that part of your campaign world erupts in revolution. Pick a power group in your current campaign and name (or invent) a group that opposes it, fomenting revolution. Then let the following points help you flesh out the conflict:

• Name three things the rebels want or hope to achieve.
• The rebels achieve a victory against those they wish to overthrow, even if it’s a pyrrhic victory. Which of their three goals do they achieve? How long is this achievement likely to last?
• State the cost exacted upon the old order after its fall from power. Does anyone from the former power group remain in power during the next regime? If the old order remains in power, describe one way that its leaders punish the revolutionaries.
• One of the rebellion’s prominent leaders-in some respects the face of the revolution-was driven by a personal reason for his or her part in events. Describe this person and state the true reason he or she led the rebellion.
• What problem existed before the revolution that persists in spite of it?

6. Extinction or Depletion

Something that once existed in the campaign world is gone. The lost resource might be a precious metal, a species of plant or animal that held an important place in the local ecology, or an entire race or culture of people. Its absence causes a chain reaction that affects every creature that uses or relies on it.

You can eliminate a people, place, or thing that previously existed in a certain location or area in your campaign world. On a small scale, the last of a family dynasty passes away or a once-thriving mining town in the region dries up and becomes a ghost town. On a grand scale, magic dies, the last dragon is slain, or the final fey noble departs the world.

What is gone from the world-or the region of the world you’ve chosen-that once existed there? If the answer isn’t immediately evident, consult the Extinction or Depletion table for ideas.

Extinction or Depletion

Then consider these additional questions:

• Name a territory, race, or type of creature that relied on the thing that was lost. How do they compensate? How do they attempt to substitute for what was lost?
• Who or what is to blame for the loss?
• Describe an immediate consequence of the loss. Forecast one way that the loss impacts or changes the world in the long term. Who or what suffers the most as a result of the loss? Who or what benefits the most from it?

7. New Organization

The foundation of a new order, kingdom, religion, society, cabal, or cult can shake the world with its actions, doctrine, dogma, and policies. On a local scale, a new organization contends with existing power groups, influencing, subverting, dominating, or allying with them to create a stronger base of power. Large and powerful organizations can exert enough influence to rule the world. Some new organizations benefit the populace, while others grow to threaten the civilization they once protected.

Perhaps an important new organization arises in one part of your world. It could have humble or auspicious beginnings, but one thing is certain: it is destined to change the world as long as it progresses along its present course. Sometimes an organization’s alignment is apparent from inception, but its morality can remain ambiguous until its doctrines, policies, and traditions are revealed over time. Choose the type of organization, or use the New Organizations table to generate ideas.

New Organizations

Then consider some or all of the following options:

• The new order supplants a current power group in the world, gaining territory, converts, or defectors and reducing the previous power group’s numbers. Who or what does the foundation of this new order supplant?
• The new order appeals to a specific audience. Decide whether this order attracts a certain race, social class, or character class.
• The leader of this new order is known for a particular quality valued by his or her followers. Elaborate on why they respect him or her for this quality, and what actions this leader has taken to retain the followers' support.
• A rival group opposes the foundation of this new organization. Choose an existing power group from your campaign to oppose the new organization, or create one from the categories on the table. Decide why they oppose the new group, who leads them, and what they plan to do to stop their rival.

8. Discovery, Expansion, Invention

Discoveries of new lands expand the map and change the boundaries of empires. Discoveries of new magic or technology expand the boundaries of what was once thought possible. New resources or archaeological finds create opportunity and wealth and set prospectors and power groups in motion to vie for their control.

A new discovery-or rediscovery-can impact your campaign world in a meaningful way, shaping the course of history and the events of the age. Think of this discovery as a big adventure hook or series of hooks. This is also an opportunity to create a unique monster, item, god, plane, or race for your world. As long as the discovery matters, it doesn’t have to be wholly original, just flavored for your campaign.

A discovery is particularly impressive when the adventurers in your campaign are the ones who make it. If they discover a new mineral with magical properties, map a new land that’s eminently suitable for colonization, or uncover an ancient weapon with the power to wreak devastation on your world, they are likely to set major events in motion. This gives the players the opportunity to see exactly how much influence their actions have on your world.

Decide on the type of discovery that is made or use the Discoveries table to generate ideas.

Discoveries

Once you have determined the type of discovery, flesh it out by deciding exactly what it is, who discovered it, and what potential effect it could have on the world. Ideally, previous adventures in your campaign will help you fill in the blanks, but also keep the following in mind:

• This discovery benefits a particular person, group, or faction more than others. Who benefits most? Name three benefits they stand to gain from this discovery.
• This discovery directly harms another person, group, or faction. Who is harmed the most?
• This discovery has consequences. Name three repercussions or side effects. Who ignores the repercussions?
• Name two or three individuals or factions struggling to possess or control this discovery. Who is likely to win? What do they stand to gain, and what are they willing to do to control the discovery?

9. Prediction, Omen, Prophecy

Sometimes the foretelling of a world-shaking event becomes a world-shaking event: an omen that predicts the fall of empires, the doom of races, and the end of the world. Sometimes an omen points to change for the good, such as the arrival of a legendary hero or savior. But the most dramatic prophecies warn of future tragedies and predict dark ages. Unlike otherworld-shaking events, the outcome doesn’t happen immediately. Instead, individuals or factions strive to fulfill or avert the prophecy-or shape the exact way it will be fulfilled-according to how it will affect them.

The prophecy’s helpers or hinderers create adventure hooks in the campaign by the actions they take. A prophecy should foretell a big event on a grand scale, since it will take time to come true (or be averted).

Imagine that a world-shaking prophecy comes to light. If events continue on their present course, the prophecy will come true and the world will change dramatically as a result. Don’t shy away from making this prophecy both significant and alarming, keeping in mind the following points:

• Create a prophecy that foretells a major change to the campaign world. You can build one from scratch using ideas from the current campaign or randomly determine a world-shaking event and flesh out the details.
• Write a list of three or more omens that will occur before the prophecy comes to pass. You can use events that have already occurred in the campaign so that the prophecy is closer to being fulfilled. The rest are events that might or might not happen, depending on the actions of the characters.
• Describe the person or creature that discovered the prophecy and how it was found. What did this creature gain by revealing it? What did this person lose or sacrifice?
• Describe the individual or faction that supports the prophecy and works to ensure its fulfillment, and the one that will do all in its power to avert the prophecy. What is the first step each takes? Who suffers for their efforts?
• One part of the prophecy is wrong. Choose one of the omens you listed or one of the details you created for the world-shaking event that the omen predicts. The chosen omen is false, and if applicable, its opposite is true instead.

10. Myth and Legend

If wars, plagues, discoveries, and the like can be called regular world-shaking events, mythic events exceed and surpass them. A mythic event might occur as the fulfillment of an ancient or long-forgotten prophecy, or it might be an act of divine intervention.

Once again, your current campaign probably provides a few ideas for the shape of this event. If you need inspiration, roll a d8 on the World-Shaking Events table, instead of the normal d10. Address the bullet-point notes for that disaster, but magnify the result to the grandest scale you can imagine.

The rise or fall of a leader or era is the death or birth of a god, or the end of an age or the world. A cataclysmic disaster is a world-drowning deluge, an ice age, or a zombie apocalypse. An assault or invasion is a world war, a world-spanning demonic incursion, the awakening of a world-threatening monster, or the final clash between good and evil. A rebellion dethrones a god or gods, or raises a new force (such as a demon lord) to divinity. A new organization is a world-spanning empire or a pantheon of new gods. A discovery is a doomsday device or a portal to eldritch dimensions where world-shattering cosmic horrors dwell.

Tracking Time

A calendar lets you record the passage of time in the campaign. More importantly, it lets you plan ahead for the critical events that shake up the world. For simple time tracking, use a calendar for the current year in the real world. Pick a date to indicate the start of the campaign, and make note of the days that adventurers spend on their travels and various activities. The calendar tells you when the seasons change and the lunar cycle. More importantly, you can use your calendar to track important festivals and holidays, as well as key events that shape your campaign.

This method is a good starting point, but the calendar of your world need not follow a modern calendar. If you want to customize your calendar with details unique to your world, consider these types of features.

The Basics

A fantasy world’s calendar doesn’t have to mirror the modern one, but it can (see “The Calendar of Harptos” sidebar for an example). Do the weeks of a month have names? What about specific days of each month, like the ides, nones, and calends of the Roman calendar?

Physical Cycles

Determine when the seasons fall, marked by the solstices and equinoxes. Do the months correspond to the phases of the moon (or moons)? Do strange and magical effects occur at the same time as these phenomena?

Religious Observances

Sprinkle holy days throughout your calendar. Each significant deity in your world should have at least one holy day during the year, and some gods' holy days correspond to celestial phenomena such as new moons or equinoxes. Holy days reflect the portfolio of a deity (a god of agriculture is honored in the harvest season) or significant events in the history of the deity’s worship, such as the birth or death of a holy person, the date of a god’s manifestation, the accession of the current high priest, and so on.

Certain holy days are civic events, observed by every citizen of a town where a god’s temple can be found. Harvest festivals are often celebrations on a grand scale. Other holy days are important only to people particularly devoted to a single deity. Still others are observed by priests, who perform private rites and sacrifices inside their temples on certain days or specific times of day. And some holy days are local, observed by the faithful of a specific temple.

Give some thought to how priests and common folk celebrate holy days. Going into a temple, sitting in a pew, and listening to a sermon is a mode of worship foreign to most fantasy religions. More commonly, celebrants offer sacrifices to their gods. The faithful bring animals to the temple to be slaughtered or burn incense as an offering. The wealthiest citizens bring the largest animals, to flaunt their wealth and demonstrate their piety. People pour out libations at the graves of their ancestors. They spend all-night vigils in darkened shrines or enjoy splendid feasts celebrating a god’s bounty.

Civic Observances

Holy days provide the majority of the special celebrations in most calendars, but local or national festivals account for many others. The birthday of a monarch, the anniversary of a great victory in a war, craft festivals, market days, and similar events all provide excuses for local celebrations.

Fantastic Events

Since your setting is a fantasy world and not a mundane medieval society, add in a few events of an obviously magical nature. For example, perhaps a ghostly castle appears on a certain hill on the winter solstice every year, or every third full moon fills lycanthropes with a particularly strong bloodlust. Also, the thirteenth night of every month could mark the ghostly wanderings of a long-forgotten nomadic tribe.

Extraordinary events, such as the approach of a comet or a lunar eclipse, make good adventure elements, and you can drop them in your calendar wherever you want. Your calendar can tell you when there’s a full moon for a lunar eclipse, but you can always fudge the date for a particular effect.

The Calendar of Harptos

The world of the Forgotten Realms uses the Calendar of Harptos, named after the long-dead wizard who invented it. Each year of 365 days is divided into twelve months of thirty days each, which roughly correspond to months in the real-world Gregorian calendar. Each month is divided into three tendays. Five special holidays fall between the months and mark the seasons. Another special holiday, Shieldmeet, is inserted into the calendar after Midsummer every four years, much like leap years in the modern Gregorian calendar.

Month	Name	Common Name
1	Hammer	Deepwinter
	Annual holiday: Midwinter
2	Alturiak	The Claw of Winter
3	Ches	The Claw of the Sunsets
4	Tarsakh	The Claw of the Storms
	Annual holiday: Greengrass
5	Mirtul	The Melting
6	Kythorn	The Time of Flowers
7	Flamerule	Summertide
	Annual holiday: Midsummer
	Quadrennial holiday: Shieldmeet
8	Eleasias	Highsun
9	Eleint	The Fading
	Annual holiday: Highharvesttide
10	Marpenoth	Leaffall
11	Uktar	The Rotting
	Annual holiday: The Feast of the Moon
12	Nightal	The Drawing Down

Ending a Campaign

A campaign’s ending should tie up all the threads of its beginning and middle, but you don’t have to take a campaign all the way to 20th level for it to be satisfying. Wrap up the campaign whenever your story reaches its natural conclusion. Make sure you allow space and time near the end of your campaign for the characters to finish up any personal goals. Their own stories need to end in a satisfying way, just as the campaign story does. Ideally, some of the characters' individual goals will be fulfilled by the ultimate goal of the final adventure. Give characters with unfinished goals a chance to finish them before the very end.

Once the campaign has ended, a new one can begin. If you intend to run a new campaign for the same group of players, using their previous characters' actions as the basis of legends gives them immediate investment in the new setting. Let the new characters experience how the world has changed because of their old characters. In the end, though, the new campaign is a new story with new protagonists. They shouldn’t have to share the spotlight with the heroes of days gone by.

Play Style

By building a new world (or adopting an existing one) and creating the key events that launch your campaign, you determined what your campaign is about. Next, you have to decide how you want to run your campaign.

What’s the right way to run a campaign? That depends on your play style and the motivations of your players. Consider your players' tastes, your strengths as a DM, table rules (discussed in part 3), and the type of game you want to run. Describe to the players how you envision the game experience and let them give you input. The game is theirs, too. Lay that groundwork early, so your players can make informed choices and help you maintain the type of game you want to run. Consider the following two exaggerated examples of play style.

Hack and Slash

The adventurers kick in the dungeon door, fight the monsters, and grab the treasure. This style of play is straightforward, fun, exciting, and action-oriented. The players spend relatively little time developing personas for their characters, roleplaying noncombat situations or discussing anything other than the immediate dangers of the dungeon.

In such a game, the adventurers face clearly evil monsters and opponents and occasionally meet clearly good and helpful NPCs. Don’t expect the adventurers to anguish over what to do with prisoners, or to debate whether it’s right or wrong to invade and wipe out a bugbear lair. Don’t track money or time spent in town. Once they’ve completed a task, send the adventurers back into the action as quickly as possible. Character motivation need be no more developed than a desire to kill monsters and acquire treasure.

Immersive Storytelling

Waterdeep is threatened by political turmoil. The adventurers must convince the Masked Lords, the city’s secret rulers, to resolve their differences, but can do so only after both the characters and the lords have come to terms with their differing outlooks and agendas. This style of gaming is deep, complex, and challenging. The focus isn’t on combat but on negotiations, political maneuverings, and character interaction. A whole game session might pass without a single attack roll.

In this style of game, the NPCs are as complex and richly detailed as the adventurers, although the focus lies on motivation and personality, not game statistics. Expect long digressions from each player about what his or her character does, and why. Going to a temple to ask a priest for advice can be as important an encounter as fighting orcs. (And don’t expect the adventurers to fight the orcs at all unless they are motivated to do so.) A character will sometimes take actions against the player’s better judgment, because “that’s what the character would do.” Since combat isn’t the focus, game rules take a back seat to character development. Ability check modifiers and skill proficiencies take precedence over combat bonuses. Feel free to change or ignore rules to fit the players' roleplaying needs, using the advice presented in part 3 of this book.

Something in Between

The style of play in most campaigns falls between these two extremes. There’s plenty of action, but the campaign offers an ongoing storyline and interaction between characters as well. Players develop their characters' motivations and relish the chance to prove their skills in combat. To maintain the balance, provide a mixture of roleplaying encounters and combat encounters. Even in a dungeon setting, you can present NPCs that aren’t meant to be fought but rather helped out, negotiated with, or just talked to.

Think about your preferred style of play by considering these questions:

• Are you a fan of realism and gritty consequences, or are you more focused on making the game seem like an action movie?
• Do you want the game to maintain a sense of medieval fantasy, or do you want to explore alternate time lines or modern thinking?
• Do you want to maintain a serious tone, or is humor your goal?
• Even if you are serious, is the action lighthearted or intense?
• Is bold action key, or do the players need to be thoughtful and cautious?
• Do you like to plan thoroughly in advance, or do you prefer improvising on the spot?
• Is the game full of varied D&D elements, or does it center on a theme such as horror?
• Is the game for all ages, or does it involve mature themes?
• Are you comfortable with moral ambiguity, such as allowing the characters to explore whether the end justifies the means? Or are you happier with straightforward heroic principles, such as justice, sacrifice, and helping the downtrodden?

A World to Explore

Much of a campaign involves the adventurers traveling from place to place, exploring the environment, and learning about the fantasy world. This exploration can take place in any environment, including a vast wilderness, a labyrinthine dungeon, the shadowy passages of the Underdark, the crowded streets of a city, and the undulating waters of the sea. Determining a way around an obstacle, finding a hidden object, investigating a strange feature of a dungeon, deciphering clues, solving puzzles, and bypassing or disabling traps can all be part of exploration.

Sometimes exploration is an incidental part of the game. For instance, you might gloss over an unimportant journey by telling the players that they spend three uneventful days on the road before moving along to the next point of interest. Other times exploration is the focus, a chance to describe a wondrous part of the world or story that increases the players' feeling of immersion. Similarly, you should consider playing up exploration if your players enjoy solving puzzles, finding their way around obstacles, and searching dungeon corridors for secret doors.

Character Names

Part of your campaign style has to do with naming characters. It’s a good idea to establish some ground rules with your players at the start of a new campaign. In a group consisting of Sithis, Travok, Anastrianna, and Kairon, the human fighter named Bob II sticks out, especially when he’s identical to Bob I, who was killed by kobolds. If everyone takes a lighthearted approach to names, that’s fine. If the group would rather take the characters and their names a little more seriously, urge Bob’s player to come up with a more appropriate name.

Player character names should match each other in flavor or concept, and they should also match the flavor of your campaign world-so should the nonplayer characters' names and place names you create. Travok and Kairon don’t want to undertake a quest for Lord Cupcake, visit Gumdrop Island, or take down a crazy wizard named Ray.

Continuing or Episodic Campaigns

The backbone of a campaign is a connected series of adventures, but you can connect them in two different ways. In a continuing campaign, the connected adventures share a sense of a larger purpose or a recurring theme (or themes). The adventures might feature returning villains, grand conspiracies, or a single mastermind who’s ultimately behind every adventure of the campaign.

A continuing campaign designed with a theme and a story arc in mind can feel like a great fantasy epic. The players derive the satisfaction of knowing the actions they take during one adventure matter in the next. Plotting and running that kind of campaign can be demanding on the DM, but the payoff is a great and memorable story.

An episodic campaign, in contrast, is like a television show where each week’s episode is a self-contained story that doesn’t play into any overarching plot. It might be built on a premise that explains its nature: the player characters are adventurers-for-hire, or explorers venturing into the unknown and facing a string of unrelated dangers. They might even be archaeologists, venturing into one ancient ruin after another in search of artifacts. An episodic game like this lets you create adventures-or buy published ones-and drop them into your campaign without worrying about how they fit with the adventures that came before and follow after.

Campaign Theme

A theme in a campaign, as in a work of literature, expresses the deeper meaning of a story and the fundamental elements of human experience that the story explores. Your campaign doesn’t have to be a work of literature, but it can still draw on common themes that lend a distinctive flavor to its stories. Consider these examples:

• A campaign about confronting the inevitability of mortality, whether embodied in undead monsters or expressed through the death of loved ones.
• A campaign revolving around an insidious evil, whether dark gods, monstrous races such as the yuan-ti, or creatures of unknown realms far removed from mortal concerns. As heroes confront this evil, they must face the selfish, cold tendencies of their own kind as well.
• A campaign featuring troubled heroes who confront not only the savagery of the bestial creatures of the world, but also the beast within-the rage and fury that lies in their own hearts.
• A campaign exploring the insatiable thirst for power and domination, whether embodied by the hosts of the Nine Hells or by humanoid rulers bent on conquering the world.

With a theme such as “confrontation with mortality,” you can craft a broad range of adventures that aren’t necessarily connected by a common villain. One adventure might feature the dead bursting from their graves and threatening to overwhelm a whole town. In the next adventure, a mad wizard creates a flesh golem in an effort to revive his lost love. A villain could go to extreme lengths to achieve immortality to avoid confronting its own demise. The adventurers might help a ghost accept death and move on, or one of the adventurers might even become a ghost!

Variations on a Theme

Mixing things up once in a while allows your players to enjoy a variety of adventures. Even a tightly themed campaign can stray now and then. If your campaign heavily involves intrigue, mystery, and roleplaying, your players might enjoy the occasional dungeon crawl—especially if the tangent is revealed to relate to a larger plot in the campaign. If most of your adventures are dungeon expeditions, shift gears with a tense urban mystery that eventually leads the party into a dungeon crawl in an abandoned building or tower. If you run horror adventures week after week, try using a villain who turns out to be ordinary, perhaps even silly. Comic relief is a great variation on almost any D&D campaign, though players usually provide it themselves.

Tiers of Play

As characters grow in power, their ability to change the world around them grows with them. It helps to think ahead when creating your campaign to account for this change. As the characters make a greater impact on the world, they face greater danger whether they want to or not. Powerful factions see them as a threat and plot against them, while friendly ones court their favor in hopes of striking a useful alliance.

The tiers of play represent the ideal milestones for introducing new world-shaking events to the campaign. As the characters resolve one event, a new danger arises or the prior trouble transforms into a new threat in response to the characters' actions. Events need to grow in magnitude and scope, increasing the stakes and drama as the characters become increasingly powerful.

This approach also allows you to break your design work down into smaller pieces. Create material such as adventures, NPCs, maps, and so on for one tier at a time. You only need to worry about the details of the next tier as the characters approach it. Even better, as the campaign takes unexpected turns in response to the players' choices, you don’t have to worry about redoing much work.

Levels 1-4: Local Heroes

Characters in this tier are still learning the range of class features that define them, including their choice of specialization. But even 1st-level characters are heroes, set apart from the common people by natural characteristics, learned skills, and the hint of a greater destiny that lies before them.

At the start of their careers, characters use 1st- and 2nd-level spells and wield mundane gear. The magic items they find include common consumable items (potions and scrolls) and a very few uncommon permanent items. Their magic can have a big impact in a single encounter, but it doesn’t change the course of an adventure.

The fate of a village might hang on the success or failure of low-level adventurers, who trust their lives to their fledgling abilities. These characters navigate dangerous terrain and explore haunted crypts, where they can expect to fight savage orcs, ferocious wolves, giant spiders, evil cultists, bloodthirsty ghouls, and hired thugs. If they face even a young dragon, they’re better off avoiding a fight.

Levels 5-10: Heroes of the Realm

By the time they reach this tier, adventurers have mastered the basics of their class features, though they continue to improve throughout these levels. They have found their place in the world and have begun to involve themselves in the dangers that surround them.

Dedicated spellcasters learn 3rd-level spells at the start of this tier. Suddenly characters can fly, damage large numbers of foes with fireball and lightning bolt spells, and even breathe underwater. They master 5th-level spells by the end of the tier, and spells such as teleportation circle, scrying, flame strike, legend lore, and raise dead can have a significant impact on their adventures. They start acquiring more permanent magic items (uncommon and rare ones) as well, which will serve them for the rest of their careers.

The fate of a region might depend on the adventures that characters of levels 5 to 10 undertake. These adventurers venture into fearsome wilds and ancient ruins, where they confront savage giants, ferocious hydras, fearless golems, evil yuan-ti, scheming devils, bloodthirsty demons, crafty mind flayers, and drow assassins. They might have a chance of defeating a young dragon that has established a lair but not yet extended its reach far into the surrounding territory.

Levels 11-16: Masters of the Realm

By 11th level, characters are shining examples of courage and determination-true paragons in the world, set well apart from the masses. At this tier, adventurers are far more versatile than they were at lower levels, and they can usually find the right tool for a given challenge.

Dedicated spellcasters gain access to 6th-level spells at 11th level, including spells that completely change the way adventurers interact with the world. Their big, flashy spells are significant in combat-disintegrate, blade barrier, and heal, for example-but behind-the-scenes spells such as word of recall, find the path, contingency, teleport, and true seeing alter the way players approach their adventures. Each spell level after that point introduces new effects with an equally large impact. The adventurers find rare magic items (and very rare ones) that bestow similarly powerful abilities.

The fate of a nation or even the world depends on momentous quests that such characters undertake. Adventurers explore uncharted regions and delve into long-forgotten dungeons, where they confront terrible masterminds of the lower planes, cunning rakshasas and beholders, and hungry purple worms. They might encounter and even defeat a powerful adult dragon that has established a lair and a significant presence in the world.

At this tier, adventurers make their mark on the world in a variety of ways, from the consequences of their adventures to the manner in which they spend their hard-won treasure and exploit their well-deserved reputations. Characters of this level construct fortresses on land deeded them by local rulers. They found guilds, temples, or martial orders. They take on apprentices or students of their own. They broker peace between nations or lead them into war. And their formidable reputations attract the attention of very powerful foes.

Levels 17-20: Masters of the World

By 17th level, characters have super heroic capabilities, and their deeds and adventures are the stuff of legend. Ordinary people can hardly dream of such heights of power-or such terrible dangers.

Dedicated spellcasters at this tier wield earthshaking 9th-level spells such as wish, gate, storm of vengeance, and astral projection. Characters have several rare and very rare magic items at their disposal, and begin discovering legendary items such as a vorpal sword or a staff of the magi.

Adventures at these levels have far-reaching consequences, possibly determining the fate of millions in the Material Plane and even places beyond. Characters traverse otherworldly realms and explore demiplanes and other extraplanar locales, where they fight savage balor demons, titans, archdevils, lich archmages, and even avatars of the gods themselves. The dragons they encounter are wyrms of tremendous power, whose sleep troubles kingdoms and whose waking threatens existence itself.

Characters who reach 20th level have attained the pinnacle of mortal achievement. Their deeds are recorded in the annals of history and recounted by bards for centuries. Their ultimate destinies come to pass. A cleric might be taken up into the heavens to serve as a god’s right hand. A warlock could become a patron to other warlocks. Perhaps a wizard unlocks the secret to immortality (or undeath) and spends eons exploring the farthest reaches of the multiverse. A druid might become one with the land, transforming into a nature spirit of a particular place or an aspect of the wild. Other characters could found clans or dynasties that revere the memory of their honored ancestors from generation to generation, create masterpieces of epic literature that are sung and retold for thousands of years, or establish guilds or orders that keep the adventurers' principles and dreams alive.

Reaching this point doesn’t necessarily dictate the end of the campaign. These powerful characters might be called on to undertake grand adventures on the cosmic stage. And as a result of these adventures, their capabilities can continue to evolve. Characters gain no more levels at this point, but they can still advance in meaningful ways and continue performing epic deeds that resound throughout the multiverse. Chapter 7 details epic boons you can use as rewards for these characters to maintain a sense of progress.

Starting at Higher Level

Experienced players familiar with the capabilities of the character classes and impatient for more significant adventures might welcome the idea of starting a campaign with characters above 1st level. Creating a higher-level character uses the same character creation steps outlined in the Player’s Handbook. Such a character has more hit points, class features, and spells, and probably starts with better equipment.

Starting equipment for characters above 1st level is entirely at your discretion, since you give out treasure at your own pace. That said, you can use the Starting Equipment table as a guide.

Starting Equipment

Flavors of Fantasy

Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy game, but that broad category encompasses a lot of variety. Many different flavors of fantasy exist in fiction and film. Do you want a horrific campaign inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft or Clark Ashton Smith? Or do you envision a world of muscled barbarians and nimble thieves, along the lines of the classic sword-and-sorcery books by Robert E. Howard and Fritz Leiber? Your choice can have a impact on the flavor of your campaign.

Heroic Fantasy

Heroic fantasy is the baseline assumed by the D&D rules. The Player’s Handbook describes this baseline: a multitude of humanoid races coexist with humans in fantastic worlds. Adventurers bring magical powers to bear against the monstrous threats they face. These characters typically come from ordinary backgrounds, but something impels them into an adventuring life. The adventurers are the “heroes” of the campaign, but they might not be truly heroic, instead pursuing this life for selfish reasons. Technology and society are based on medieval norms, though the culture isn’t necessarily European. Campaigns often revolve around delving into ancient dungeons in search of treasure or in an effort to destroy monsters or villains.

This genre is also common in fantasy fiction. Most novels set in the Forgotten Realms are best described as heroic fantasy, following in the footsteps of many of the authors listed in appendix E of the Player’s Handbook.

Sword and Sorcery

A grim, hulking fighter disembowels the high priest of the serpent god on his own altar. A laughing rogue spends ill-gotten gains on cheap wine in filthy taverns. Hardy adventurers venture into the unexplored jungle in search of the fabled City of Golden Masks.

A sword-and-sorcery campaign emulates some of the classic works of fantasy fiction, a tradition that goes back to the roots of the game. Here you’ll find a dark, gritty world of evil sorcerers and decadent cities, where the protagonists are motivated more by greed and self-interest than by altruistic virtue. Fighter, rogue, and barbarian characters tend to be far more common than wizards, clerics, or paladins. In such a pulp fantasy setting, those who wield magic often symbolize the decadence and corruption of civilization, and wizards are the classic villains of these settings. Magic items are therefore rare and often dangerous.

Certain Dungeons & Dragons novels follow in the footsteps of classic sword-and-sorcery novels. The world of Athas (as featured in numerous Dark Sun novels and game products), with its heroic gladiators and tyrannical sorcerer-kings, belongs squarely in this genre.

Epic Fantasy

A devout paladin in gleaming plate armor braces her lance as she charges a dragon. Bidding farewell to his dear love, a noble wizard sets forth on a quest to close the gate to the Nine Hells that has opened in the remote wilderness. A close-knit band of loyal friends strives to overcome the forces of a tyrannical overlord.

An epic-fantasy campaign emphasizes the conflict between good and evil as a prominent element of the game, with the adventurers more or less squarely on the side of good. These characters are heroes in the best sense, driven by a higher purpose than selfish gain or ambition, and facing incredible dangers without blinking. Characters might struggle with moral quandaries, fighting the evil tendencies within themselves as well as the evil that threatens the world. And the stories of these campaigns often include an element of romance: tragic affairs between star-crossed lovers, passion that transcends even death, and chaste adoration between devout knights and the monarchs and nobles they serve.

The novels of the Dragonlance saga exemplify the tradition of epic fantasy in D&D.

Mythic Fantasy

While an angry god tries time and again to destroy him, a clever rogue makes the long journey home from war. Braving the terrifying guardians of the underworld, a noble warrior ventures into the darkness to retrieve the soul of her lost love. Calling on their divine parentage, a group of demigods undertake twelve labors to win the gods' blessings for other mortals.

A mythic-fantasy campaign draws on the themes and stories of ancient myth and legend, from Gilgamesh to Cu Chulainn. Adventurers attempt mighty feats of legend, aided or hindered by the gods or their agents—and they might have divine blood themselves. The monsters and villains they face probably have a similar origin. The minotaur in the dungeon isn’t just another bull-headed humanoid, but the Minotaur-misbegotten offspring of a philandering god. Adventures might lead the heroes through a series of trials to the realms of the gods in search of a gift or favor.

Such a campaign can draw on the myths and legends of any culture, not just the familiar Greek tales.

Dark Fantasy

Vampires brood on the battlements of their accursed castles. Necromancers toil in dark dungeons to create horrid servants made of dead flesh. Devils corrupt the innocent, and werewolves prowl the night. All of these elements evoke horrific aspects of the fantasy genre.

If you want to put a horror spin on your campaign, you have plenty of material to work with. The Monster Manual is full of creatures that perfectly suit a storyline of supernatural horror. The most important element of such a campaign, though, isn’t covered by the rules. A dark-fantasy setting requires an atmosphere of building dread, created through careful pacing and evocative description. Your players contribute too; they have to be willing to embrace the mood you’re trying to evoke.

Whether you want to run a full-fledged dark-fantasy campaign or a single creepy adventure, you should discuss your plans with the players ahead of time to make sure they’re on board. Horror can be intense and personal, and not everyone is comfortable with such a game.

Novels and game products set in Ravenloft, the Demiplane of Dread, explore dark-fantasy elements in a D&D context.

Intrigue

The corrupt vizier schemes with the baron’s oldest daughter to assassinate the baron. A hobgoblin army sends doppelganger spies to infiltrate the city before the invasion. At the embassy ball, the spy in the royal court makes contact with his employer.

Political intrigue, espionage, sabotage, and similar cloak-and-dagger activities can provide the basis for an exciting D&D campaign. In this kind of game, the characters might care more about skill training and making contacts than about attack spells and magic weapons. Roleplaying and social interaction take on greater importance than combat, and the party might go for several sessions without seeing a monster.

Again, make sure your players know ahead of time that you want to run this kind of campaign. Otherwise, a player might create a defense-focused dwarf paladin, only to find he is out of place among half-elf diplomats and tiefling spies.

The Brimstone Angels novels by Erin M. Evans focus on intrigue in the Forgotten Realms setting, from the backstabbing politics of the Nine Hells to the contested succession of Cormyrean royalty.

Mystery

Who stole three legendary magic weapons and hid them away in a remote dungeon, leaving a cryptic clue to their location? Who placed the duke into a magical slumber, and what can be done to awaken him? Who murdered the guildmaster, and how did the killer get into the guild’s locked vault?

A mystery-themed campaign puts the characters in the role of investigators, perhaps traveling from town to town to crack tough cases the local authorities can’t handle. Such a campaign emphasizes puzzles and problem-solving in addition to combat prowess.

A larger mystery might even set the stage for the whole campaign. Why did someone kill the characters' mentor, setting them on the path of adventure? Who really controls the Cult of the Red Hand? In this case, the characters might uncover clues to the greater mystery only once in a while; individual adventures might be at best tangentially related to that theme. A diet of nothing but puzzles can become frustrating, so be sure to mix up the kinds of encounters you present.

Novels in various D&D settings have explored the mystery genre with a fantasy twist. In particular, Murder in Cormyr (by Chet Williamson), Murder in Halruaa (by Richard S. Meyers), and Spellstorm (by Ed Greenwood) are mysteries set in the Forgotten Realms. Murder in Tarsis (by John Maddox Roberts) takes the same approach in the Dragonlance setting.

Swashbuckling

Rapier-wielding sailors fight off boarding sahuagin. Ghouls lurk in derelict ships, waiting to devour treasure hunters. Dashing rogues and charming paladins weave their way through palace intrigues and leap from balconies onto waiting horses below.

The swashbuckling adventures of pirates and musketeers suggest opportunities for a dynamic campaign. The characters typically spend more time in cities, royal courts, and seafaring vessels than in dungeon delves, making interaction skills important (though not to the extent of a pure intrigue campaign). Nevertheless, the heroes might end up in classic dungeon situations, such as searching storm sewers beneath the palace to find the evil duke’s hidden chambers.

A good example of a swashbuckling rogue in the Forgotten Realms is Jack Ravenwild, who appears in novels by Richard Baker (City of Ravens and Prince of Ravens).

War

A hobgoblin army marches toward the city, leading elephants and giants to batter down the stronghold’s walls and ramparts. Dragons wheel above a barbarian horde, scattering enemies as the raging warriors cut a swath through field and forest. Salamanders muster at an efreeti’s command, poised to assault an astral fortress.

Warfare in a fantasy world is rife with opportunities for adventure. A war campaign isn’t generally concerned with the specifics of troop movements, but instead focuses on the heroes whose actions turn the tide of battle. The characters carry out specific missions: capture a magical standard that empowers undead armies, gather reinforcements to break a siege, or cut through the enemy’s flank to reach a demonic commander. In other situations, the party supports the larger army by holding a strategic location until reinforcements arrive, killing enemy scouts before they can report, or cutting off supply lines. Information gathering and diplomatic missions can supplement the more combat-oriented adventures.

The War of the Lance in the Dragonlance Chronicles novels and the War of the Spider Queen in the novel series of the same name are prominent examples of wars in D&D novels.

Wuxia

When a sensei disappears mysteriously, her young students must take her place and hunt down the oni terrorizing their village. Accomplished heroes, masters of their respective martial arts, return home to free their village from an evil hobgoblin warlord. The rakshasa master of a nearby monastery performs rituals to raise troubled ghosts from their rest.

A campaign that draws on elements of Asian martial-arts movies is a perfect match for D&D. Players can define the appearance of their characters and gear however they like for the campaign, and spells need only minor flavor changes so that they better reflect such a setting. For example, when the characters use spells or special abilities that teleport them short distances, they actually make high-flying acrobatic leaps. Ability checks to climb don’t involve careful searching for holds but let characters bounce up walls or from tree to tree. Warriors stun their opponents by striking pressure points. Flavorful descriptions of actions in the game don’t change the nuts and bolts of the rules, but they make all the difference in the feel of a campaign.

Similarly, a class doesn’t need new rules to reflect a cultural influence; a new name can do the trick. A traditional Chinese wuxia hero might be a paladin who has a sword called the Oath of Vengeance, while a Japanese samurai might be a paladin with a particular Oath of Devotion (bushido) that includes fealty to a lord (daimyo) among its tenets. A ninja is a monk who pursues the Way of Shadow. Whether called a wu jen, a tsukai, or a swami, a wizard, sorcerer, or warlock character works just fine in a game inspired by medieval Asian cultures.

Wuxia Weapon Names

Having players refer to a tetsubo or a katana rather than a greatclub or a longsword can enhance the flavor of a wuxia campaign. The Wuxia Weapon Names table lists alternative names for common weapons from the Player’s Handbook and identifies their real-world cultural origins. An alternative name changes none of the weapon’s properties as they are described in the Player’s Handbook.

Crossing the Streams

The renowned paladin Murlynd, from the world of Oerth (as featured in Greyhawk novels and game products), dresses in the traditional garb of Earth’s Old West and wears a pair of six-shooters strapped to his waist. The Mace of St. Cuthbert, a holy weapon belonging to Greyhawk’s god of justice, found its way to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1985. Somewhere in the Barrier Peaks of Oerth, the wreckage of a spacefaring vessel is said to lie, with bizarre alien lifeforms and strange items of technology on board. And the famous wizard Elminster of the Forgotten Realms has been said to make occasional appearances in the kitchen of Canadian writer Ed Greenwood—where he is sometimes joined by wizards from the worlds of Oerth and Krynn (homeworld of the Dragonlance saga).

Deep in D&D’s roots are elements of science fiction and science fantasy, and your campaign might draw on those sources as well. It’s okay to send your characters hurtling through a magic mirror to Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland, put them aboard a ship traveling between the stars, or set your campaign in a far-future world where laser blasters and magic missiles exist side by side. The possibilities are limitless. Chapter 9, “Dungeon Master’s Workshop” provides tools for exploring those possibilities.