How to Build a Homebrew Campaign Setting That Creates Play

Ready to create your first homebrew RPG campaign but unsure where to start? There are many ways to build a campaign setting. I am going to walk you through one of my simpler methods for creating a world that is ready to produce play without requiring you to know everything about it first.

The one thing to keep in mind as you read through this campaign builder guide is that your preferences take precedence. I fully admit my process is heavily influenced by what I am going to call “traditional fantasy roleplaying game” tropes. There is a whole world of fantasy culture developed around modern heroic fantasy, fantasy video games, and anime with which I am not overly familiar. My lack of familiarity means I may be missing problems, pressures, relationships, and choices that you and your players personally love.

My lack of knowledge does not mean you cannot use this framework for your campaign. When it comes to themes and lines of conflict, overlay your influences or outright replace the elements I have included in the workbook. Consider the workbook only one tool at your disposal, to use and ignore as you see fit, in order to create the campaign world in which you and your players’ stories will come alive.

The Local-to-Active Method

There are several ways to write a campaign setting for D&D or any other roleplaying game. I will not detail all of them here, but I do want you to know there are other options. I used to call this method Local to Global, or Bottom-Up. Local to Active is more accurate because the campaign does not always expand neatly outward across the map.

I find Local to Active the easiest way to get started because it means you do not have to know everything about the world before play begins. Start with the world elements the player characters (PCs) will interact with first, then expand toward whatever begins to act on them, whatever consequences spread outward, and whatever catches their interest.

This means you need only a basic idea of the larger forces at work. You can adjust and develop those elements in response to the actions, interests, and consequences the PCs bring to the surface while they are playing.

It also gives you more elbow room to improvise. Your prep time can be spent on the parts of the world the players can experience, investigate, influence, or suffer consequences from instead of on material with no immediate impact on play.

Local to Active also does not require every threat to be conveniently scaled to the PCs. A true sandbox may contain a dracolich on the characters’ first day of adventuring. The important question is whether the danger is able to be perceived and whether the characters have meaningful responses besides standing in place and being killed. They may retreat, bargain, hide, learn, redirect the threat, or decide to return much later.

I still try to avoid casually killing beginning characters with an overpowered encounter they had no reasonable way to understand. We can get into GM philosophy, but I believe part of our job is to help cultivate heroes, which means giving them time and room to grow. Their early mistakes can cost pride, time, safety, resources, trust, or position. Humiliation can be fun at the right table, but it is not the only alternative to death.

Lines of Conflict

Story requires conflict, or at least instability. For your campaign world to feel dynamic, several things should be happening whether or not the PCs become involved. Within the Campaign Builder Workbook, I ask you to define three lines of conflict: natural, political, and martial.

You can change those categories any way you want. I use them because they push me to create different kinds of pressure, not because each category has one correct solution. The players may solve a political problem with a sword, a martial problem with a treaty, or a natural problem by stealing the one object somebody needs to make matters worse. Players are inventive that way.

Three Types of Conflicts

A Natural Conflict

A natural conflict can be something as simple as a rockslide that has cut off the roadway to another village. It can also be as complex as an ancient curse laid upon the land. The concept of “natural” stretches a bit in a magical world. Define what is happening, who is affected, how it is getting worse, and what leverage exists. Do not decide in advance that a sword, theft, persuasion, or any other approach cannot matter. Let the situation establish what is plausible and let the players surprise you.

A Political Conflict

A political conflict tends to have more social solutions. The PCs don’t need to be directly connected to the political conflict but they need to be affected by it. Think about rival families. The PCs don’t need to be members of the families but could be hired by them, or associated with them in some way. Other political conflicts can be between the village/settlement and a regional authority. Conflicts between guilds or guildmembers, between two villages, between workers and the boss, or the village and outsiders are all political conflicts. 

A political conflict can flare up into a violent conflict, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be solved with violence. There may be other solutions to the problem.

A Martial Conflict

A martial conflict is at its core a military conflict. A roving band of goblins or kobolds, a nearby ogre, a foreign militia, cultists, and even just a band of bullies in the town are all conflicts that might require physical conflict to resolve. The PCs might be able to solve the problem using non-violent means, though, so be prepared for some out-of-the-box thinking. 

This actually applies to all conflicts. Avoid scripting the solution, let the players explore different ways to resolve them.

One Conflict Can Create Many Adventures

Conflicts are not adventures. Conflicts put adventures in a framework, they provide context for an adventure. Think about why someone goes on an adventure. What transforms a town guard into a fighter that explores a crypt filled with undead? Why would a thief who makes a nice living pick pocketing suddenly want to join a group of others to fight off bandits who are hijacking wagons delivering grain to the village?

Don’t think of the conflicts with easy solutions. The rivalry between the Capulets and the Montagues wasn’t resolved, even with the deaths of Romeo and Juliet, and yet it provided a lot of conflict, including sword fights in the street. 

Themes for Campaigns

As you build out the lines of conflict the PCs initially encounter, you may want to start thinking about the greater themes of the campaign. A curse on the land may tie into something bigger. A plague could have been unleashed by a tomb that was raided for an artifact being used by some villain for a nefarious plan.

Themes provide an interpretive layer for the campaign. Is it good versus evil? Corruption? Greed? Security? Theme can help you decide what to emphasize, but it is not the engine that makes the campaign move. The engine is made of active people, current pressure, useful information, player decisions, and consequences.

Some other themes we see in fantasy stories you can tap into:

• Tradition vs. Change
• People vs Society
• People vs. Nature
• People vs. Themselves
• Coming of Age
• Love
• Quest
• Loyalty/Betrayal
• Epic journey

Be cautious about themes that center the entire campaign on one individual. A lost heir, missing messiah, or reluctant hero can create strong play, but not if one PC becomes the predetermined protagonist and everyone else is reduced to supporting cast. Give the other characters independent stakes and meaningful influence. Also do not be afraid of common themes like Family, Honor, or Revenge. Revisit all those books we read in English class in high school. There is a reason those books are studied. Their themes are pretty timeless.

These themes do not need to be decided on immediately. In fact the Campaign Workbook doesn’t even have you detail the themes. I am reluctant to start with theme details until I have an understanding of what my players find fun, then I can lean into those story ideas and develop the theme which they will find entertaining and compelling. That is my way of doing it, you will find your own way. If you think starting with the theme is important, then do it.

The Campaign Builder Workbook is meant to help you think through some of the larger pressures in the setting as well as the nuts and bolts of the first playable situations you can put in front of the players. Revisit sections and change details as the PCs act. Preserve what their decisions change. Follow the actors and loose ends they make important. That is how the campaign develops layers that feel unique and memorable rather than like a plot waiting to be uncovered in the correct order.

How to Use the Campaign Builder Workbook

The Campaign Builder Workbook does not do the heavy lifting for your campaign. It provides a system for organizing the variables in a Local-to-Active fashion. You most likely have some semblance of a campaign in your head, but wrangling all those details can be tricky. This tool helps you turn ideas into situations you can actually run.

Local to Active begins with the NPCs, places, pressures, and information the PCs can engage with immediately. Geography still matters in a fantasy RPG, but the campaign may deepen in one neighborhood for months or leap across a border in the second session. Let player interest, actor movement, and consequences determine where you prepare next. Familiar places and recurring people give the players relationships worth protecting, exploiting, changing, or abandoning.

You do not need to complete the entire workbook before starting to play. Begin with a minimum playable state: one immediate place, one problem already moving, a few relevant actors, an unattended outcome if the characters do nothing, some discoverable leverage, and visible pressure. Fill in additional survey fields only when they help you portray an actor, clarify a choice, reveal information, advance pressure, or preserve a consequence.

Campaign Survey

If you are using the Campaign Builder Workbook as a spreadsheet, as you enter information on the Campaign Survey, it will push that information to the other tabs in the workbook where you will expand upon them, filling in additional details. If you are using it as a PDF then you will have more manual action to take and will need to reference a few tables to help put your campaign together.

Starting village

I think the idea of a “starting village” began with the published adventure T1 – The Village of Hommlet. A village makes a useful starting place because it is legible. The PCs can learn who matters, form relationships, and see the effects of their decisions. It can be relatively safe, but it does not have to be. A besieged district, caravan, ship, court, station, or dangerous frontier can serve the same purpose.

The Campaign Builder Workbook allows for a starting village the size of a large city. Large cities can contain entire campaigns, which is not a reason to avoid them. Narrow the immediate scope to a neighborhood, institution, faction, route, or local problem. I still love wilderness because it is unexplored or forgotten territory filled with ruins, lost temples, forgotten mines, dangerous caverns, monster havens, mysteries, and wonders. Use it because that is the game you want, not because adventure is impossible inside city walls.

What this section will not do for you is bring the starting place to life. It provides the bare bones. You can take a published location, create your own, or use a random generator. The life of a village is not found in NPC stat blocks. It comes from people who want things, possess limited ways to get them, take action without waiting for adventurers, and react when the PCs interfere. Decide what changes if the characters do nothing and what signs allow them to notice that movement.

I don’t want to dip too far into the DM advice pool, but a village is a place of activity. People don’t wait in silence for adventurers to approach them. They have kids they are raising. They have chores that need to be done. Animals to be taken care of. There are buildings that need to be built, social events to attend, and fences to be mended literally and figuratively. Watch the first season of Little House on the Prairie to get a sense of what village life is like. Then watch shows like Hart of Dixie, Gilmore Girls, Northern Exposure, True Blood, Stranger Things, Twin Peaks, Jericho, and Friday Night Lights to get a sense of how to bring a small town community to life.

Every person in town has a personality and personal goals. They may be failed adventurers who now run a shop or successful adventurers who settled down to become farmers. They have love interests, secrets, and hobbies. They possess the wisdom of the ages or are dumb as a box of non-sentient rocks. Your villagers can be weird and lovable as well as stubborn and mean. You do not need to write all of that in advance. Begin most people as a role, name, or impression, then add depth when the players make them important.

The gruff mill owner who leaves bouquets of wildflowers on the Widow Marsdale’s steps could be showing affection or expressing guilt for causing her husband’s death. These are barely side quests, but if the PCs uncover the truth, they will think you are a genius and fall in love with their adopted home. The detail becomes especially useful when the flowers, the guilt, or the relationship supplies evidence, leverage, a claim, or a decision. If it never affects play, it can remain atmosphere. Atmosphere is worthwhile; it just should not consume the prep time needed for something the players can act upon.

Village Name

Go nuts, it is your village.  I am the last person to offer advice on naming villages. I like literal names like Crossroads or Seawatch but no matter what you name it, one of your players will make fun of it. Get used to it. Try to avoid naming villages something overly complex and make sure it is easy to pronounce. I know how easy it is when writing to piece together something that looks good but when you and others try to pronounce it, gets muddled.

Village Government

How is the village governed? This says something about the people who live there, but do not spend much time documenting the exact structure unless it matters. Ask who can compel action, who challenges that authority, what resource or decision is contested, and what the governing actor will do next. The government label is useful only when it changes what the characters can attempt or whom they must deal with.

• Elected Mayor – Once in a while, the village holds an election to choose a mayor who then runs the administration of the town.
• Elder Council – The oldest (presumably wisest) members of the village run the town.
• Elected Council – A few council people are elected by the town and together they run the town.
• Noble – The town is under direct control of a noble who dictates the administration of the village.
• Imperial Bureaucrat – A bureaucrat who reports to an Imperial structure runs the town.
• Religious Authority – The high cleric of a temple administers the town.
• Brutal Authority – A single person controls the town through force, fear, and coercion.
• Industrial Authority – The main industry of the village has a boss who essentially controls the administration of the town.
• Town Hall – The entire town votes and decides on administrative matters.
• No Government – There is no governing structure. This is more common you might realize. A group of farmers living near each other really don’t need an administrator to handle their affairs. They might come together to plan bigger projects like damming up a nearby stream to create a retention pond, or band together to handle pests and nuisances. They may want to worship together or educate their children in a school which would mean coordinating building a proper place to do that.

Village Purpose

I will repeat this a few times in this guide, but you will notice the one thing not addressed is the map. Some campaigns start with the map. This is an extreme Top-Down (Global to Local) approach to campaign development. There is nothing wrong with this approach and it can be inspirational to look at a geography and think about the cultures and societies which can develop there. The reverse can be more freeing. You want the village to be near a Fey filled forest, you can just have the forest there without worrying about how that falls on the map. 

Historically, villages developed for a reason. They did not appear at random spots. Thinking about why the village exists begins to bring geography into the picture without requiring you to draw the entire globe. During initial design, let geography bend toward useful play. Once a road, river, mountain, or distance has entered the campaign, treat it as real. Those constraints become sources of danger, access, and leverage rather than scenery you keep rearranging to protect an intended story.

You can take a blank piece of paper, put a dot on it and call it your village. Now you can fill in detail around it. Knowing why the village is in that particular spot on the blank paper will help you tremendously.

Here are some examples to start with, these were taken from a study of village names which often revealed the original ancient purpose for the settlement.

• Farming – A village devoted to farming in order to sell crops at market.
• Mining Camp – A village built up around a mine.
• Fishing – A village devoted to fishing in order to sell the catch at market.
• River Ford – A village built up at a natural place to cross a river usually between at least two well populated cities/towns.
• Crossroad – A village built up at the crossing of two major roads, trade routes.
• Frontier Fortress – A village built up to support a military fortification.
• Castle – A village built up to support a castle. 
• Temple – A village built up to support a temple.
• Forestry Camp – A village built up around a forestry industry.
• Homestead – A village built up by farmers/artisans intending to be self-sufficient.
• Hunting Camp – A village built up around a hunting camp that sells meat to market.
• Trade Route bottleneck – A village built up at a spot where trade routes naturally converge.
• Oasis – A village built up at a spot along a trade route where fresh water can be attained.

Village Size

Tiny (50-150) – This is a very small village, more like a homestead. three to five large families, farm workers, a few specialized workers. Or this can be a hunting camp or mining camp where most of the people work for the mine or are hunters with everyone else providing camp services. 

Small (150-500) – A more traditional sized village offering more advanced services. This is a castle or temple village

Medium (500-5,000) – This is a trading town with several smaller villages and homesteads nearby. It has more resources and services, better merchants, access to better magic.

Large (5,000 – 25,000) – A small city. The city of Neverwinter in Forgotten Realms has a population of 23,200. 

Massive (25,000+) – A large city, usually a capital city, a regional seat of power or even a seat of power for the entire country.  For perspective, the City of Waterdeep in the Forgotten Realms is 130,000 people. The Free City of Greyhawk is 69,500. I consider 25,000+ massive because there is no way I could even begin to catalog everyone who lives and visits. It is an entire campaign universe in and of itself.

Threats

Natural Threats – Storms and weird wild magic, curses, disease, and pests. You can see natural disasters all around. An earthquake, volcano, tornadoes, and floods all cause hardships and disadvantages for communities.  

Political Threat – Conflicts between people over differences of opinion on policy or struggles over money are political conflicts. A political conflict boils down to power, who has it, who wants it, and the means by which people try to keep and take it.

Martial Threat – Villages near the frontier are beset upon the bandits, raiders, and nomadic barbarians. Foreign military scouts and massive monsters also present a military threat to the village. In D&D terms these can be the initial goblins, gnolls, and kobolds the PCs cut their combat teeth on.

Long-term goals in the village – A village may rally around growing in size, building a temple, bridge, walls, aqueduct, school, or mine, planting a new cash crop, attracting merchants, winning a contest, or putting on a play. Even the dour need entertainment. But a community rarely wants one thing with one voice. Identify who benefits, who pays, who resists, and what happens if the project succeeds or fails. That disagreement is often more useful than the project itself.

Primary Village NPCs

Every village has movers and shakers: people who can act directly or indirectly because they are respected, feared, connected, informed, or in control of something others need. The Workbook prompts you for a leader, a powerful NPC, an influential NPC, and a knowledgeable NPC. Treat those as prompts, not a quota. Start with the actors most likely to affect the opening situation. For each, record what they want, what leverage they possess, what limits them, what they are doing now, and how they are likely to react. Everyone else can begin as a name, role, or memorable impression.

Village Leader

Whether elected, appointed, or birthed into the role, the village leader is the person with the authority to enact policy. I know using “policy” in this sort of way makes it seem very political science, but in D&D terms this is the person everyone sees as responsible for the safety of the community, the prosperity of the community, and the person who has to solve all the big problems of the community. Even in a No Government village, there will be the person who has the big ideas they are always bringing to the community or the person the community relies on to negotiate freight rates to carry their goods to market.

Most Powerful NPC in the village

This could be the village leader, but village leaders often rely upon more powerful people to bolster their position. The most powerful NPC could be physically the most powerful or is in charge of a large faction of people. This could be the owner of the main industry so has a lot of economic clout. For my part, I like the idea of the person who is asked to get stuff done and then having other people with the resources to get it down. It is a natural balance of power.

Most Influential NPC in the village

The most influential NPC does not have to be a different person than the leader or the most powerful NPC.  This is the person whose opinion holds a lot of sway with the other villagers. This could be the wise old woman who knits in a rocking chair while sharing bits of wisdom or the stalwart farmer whom everyone turns to when things go awry. The head of the local temple might have considerable sway over how the villagers behave and react to events.

Most Knowledgeable NPC in the village

Every village has the person who just seems to know a lot about everything. Maybe this is a person educated elsewhere before coming to the village. This person knows about history, arcana, theology, and other information learned from books and study. 

Making these NPCs all part of the leadership of the village removes lines of conflict. It is better if they are scattered throughout the village so the PCs are exposed to more areas of the villages, more points-of-view, not just from leadership but from those who are led.

Points of Adventure Near the Village

Near the village are points of adventure: places that can be explored, stumbled upon, or learned about through word of mouth. Something of value may be discovered there, whether treasure, knowledge, security, access, or leverage that helps somebody in the village pursue a goal.

The examples in the Campaign Builder Workbook come from adventures I have written and run. Feel free to slot in your own ideas. Select only the locations likely to matter soon. A location becomes playable when somebody is acting there, something changes without intervention, information can be discovered, more than one approach is plausible, and the outcome affects the surrounding campaign.

• Abandoned Mine – What was mined here? Why was it abandoned? What is here now?
• Ancient Crypt – Who was buried here? Why were they buried at this location?
• Ancient Ruins – An ancient town or fort? What lost treasures might exist here?
• Bandit Camp – Hidden in the forest or in the mountains? Who leads these bandits?
• Caverns – Who might be using these caves as shelter? Do these caverns lead someplace?
• Corrupted Temple – What corrupted the temple? Who worships there now?
• Dangerous Forest – A wilderness filled with predators or a wilderness filled with the spirits of a slaughtered army?
• Desolated Mill – Why has the mill fallen into disrepair? Why has the village given up on it? Can it be restored and what would that mean to life in the village?
• Druid Grove – In the deep forest or close enough to affect the village? What is the agenda of those who worship there and what affect will it have on the lives of the villagers?
• Fey Circle – a portal to the lands of the fey or a source of mysterious disturbances?
• Goblin War Party Camp – potential trading partners or a threat to the lives in the village — or both?
• Hag Hut – Friend to the village or a threat?
• Haunted Mansion – A grand house filled with the spirits of the old owners or grand house now filled with pests?
• Kobold Camp – a nasty threat to the village, messengers from a nearby dragon, or lost refugees of a far-off war?
• Nomadic Barbarian Camp – Pillagers and raiders looking for food and resources to carry back to their clan or the original inhabitants of the land now trying to survive between the cracks of a growing kingdom.
• Orc Raider Camp – A threat to the territory, emissaries or a greater power, or pursuers of a bigger threat?
• Ruined Stone Bridge – Where did the bridge lead? Was this a vital link to another part of the kingdom? What lives at the bridge now?
• Wizard Tower – Who is this wizard? Why has the wizard built a tower far from the resources a wizard would normally need to perform powerful magic?

The Region

Using Local to Active means expanding only when play calls for it. After outlining the immediate village, you might prepare the region because a regional actor moves against the village, because the PCs follow a consequence outward, or because the players become curious about what lies beyond the road. You might also spend twenty sessions deepening the same place. Local to Global is a preparation economy, not a required campaign itinerary.

Regions can be political or geographical, though geographic regions tend to become political regions as the boundaries make convenient borders.

Name of the region the village is located in?

Now you are giving a name to a large landmass as big as a state or province or as small as a county or parish. It might encompass an entire valley like the Shenandoah Valley or a bay area like the San Francisco Bay. Just keep in mind that you will probably want a few regions in your country/kingdom so don’t go wild. If you want a country PCs can criss-cross in a reasonable amount of time you don’t want to create a region like The Great Northern Plains. 

This is another point where you can start thinking about the map of your land. Do you want sea adventures? Do you want the feeling of the wild west with no law beyond the mightiest sword? Maybe you want to play out some survival aspects of adventuring and putting the PCs in a challenging environment to start sounds like a blast. 

Type of Region

Here are some examples of political and geographic regions to start.

• District – A political section of land usually part of an Empire.
• Fiefdom – Standard feudal construct, a barony or region controlled by a noble.
• March – A political section of land that lays along the edge of a kingdom or country. 
• County – A well-developed political section of land more closely controlled by the monarch/country leader, though directly ruled through vassals.
• Valley – A region between two mountain ranges.
• Plateau – An area well above sea level that is relatively flat.
• Bay – An area surrounding a significant amount of sea that pushes inward.
• Forest – A large section of wooded territory.
• Plain – An expanse of flat grassland.
• Mountain Range – A long section of mountains.
• Foothills – An area near a mountain range of smaller rounded hills. 
• Wetlands – A flat area usually near a large body of water where the land is saturated with water creating pools of water of differing depths. 
• Desert – An arid expanse of land that gets very little rainfall. It does not need to be hot or sandy.

Who Can Act in the Region?

There is not always one person in charge. A Baron, Duke, appointed sheriff, council, guild, occupying army, religious authority, or wealthy family might control part of the region. The Mongols appointed Darughachi to administer and tax provinces, which is one clear historical model. Other regions have disputed, distributed, hidden, or barely recognized authority. Ask who can act, who can obstruct, who controls the resources people need, and whose claim the population recognizes.

Most powerful NPC in Region

At this level, powerful isn’t just the guy who can rally the most people in a fight or can spend the most money to get his way. Powerful on a regional level means this person can raise an army of trained soldiers, can hire the best mages, has access to arcane knowledge, and is feared.   

Most influential NPC in the Region

On a regional level, influence is more than having sway with villagers. Influence means powerful people listen to this person. This person can walk into any town, any village in the area and be immediately recognized. This person is a minor celebrity. They could be bards or royal advisors. They could be inventors or great healers.   

Most knowledgeable NPC in the Region

Wise and respected, this person might run a school like Plato’s Lyceum or could be seen as a keeper of a valued library like Zenodotus of Ephesus at the Great Library of Alexandria.

Most immediate concern of the Region

What is the leader of the region working on right now? Collecting taxes? Fending off bandits? Negotiating a trade deal? Something is occupying the leader and the leader’s agents right now. It can be benign like taking a census or nefarious like tracking down the first born son of every family in his demesne. This is the opportunity to think in terms of political weddings, feasts, festivals, and fairs. 

The region could also be occupied by a military force. During the Hundred Years war, England occupied areas of France and didn’t necessarily disturb the small villages. An earthquake could have destroyed bridges and roads, collapsed temples and fortifications which is now taking time, money, and energy to fix. 

This issue can connect to events around the village, which often creates a satisfying expansion from local to regional play, but it does not have to. Connections are useful when they explain behavior or create consequences. Do not force every loose thread into a tapestry you have already designed. Preserve what changes, and follow the threads the players make important. Players love discovering that something from an early adventure matters later, but it matters more when the connection grew from play rather than from a reveal they were always scheduled to reach.

Long-Term Goals in the Region

The active leaders, institutions, and factions in a region have agendas. In five years or a generation, what would each like to see accomplished? It is fine to begin with an abstract goal. Use it to explain why people are acting now, what they stand to gain, and what others may lose.

A region can contain several goals, and it probably should when different actors possess real leverage. Keep only the goals that can affect current decisions or become visible through consequences. Theme may help you emphasize a conflict, but it should not make every actor pull in the same direction.

Simple regional goals include gaining prominence in the kingdom, becoming the source of currency, rebelling, banning infernal magic, stamping out the worship of a god, ending slavery, expanding slavery, or opening a mine for a special mineral. I tend to be pragmatic, but do not let my lack of far-fetched ideas impede you. Identify who wants the goal, who opposes it, and what both sides are doing about it.

The regional ruler may be a villainous person who wants to bathe in the blood of maidens every full moon, while other regional actors are focused on ending peasant unrest, stopping raids, or building fortresses against the ancient black dragon Gtharian the Putrid and his kobold armies. The region is not one person. That disagreement creates choices.

Playable Situations in the Region

These are geographic areas and places that can be explored, stumbled upon, or discovered through word of mouth. They can connect to a current regional concern, matter personally to the PCs, or simply become interesting because someone begins acting there.

The examples in the Campaign Builder Workbook come from adventures I have written and run. Feel free to substitute your own. Select only the places likely to enter play. Before developing one, identify the current problem, active opposition, moving pressure, discoverable information, several plausible approaches, and the consequences of intervention or neglect.

This is another opportunity to start to think about the geography of the region. The starting village may be inland, but the region itself may have a coastline. The village could be near more civilized areas but the region may border an unexplored wilderness, badlands, or an infernal field of fire.

• Abandoned Fortress – Ancient or modern? Why was it abandoned?
• Abandoned Village – What caused the villagers to leave this village? Was it quickly or over a generation?
• Ancient Crypt – What was buried here and why was this location chosen as the burial site?
• Ancient Ruins – What was once here? What led to its destruction?
• Caverns – What could live in these caves and why is it now a concern to the region?
• Cursed Village – What has cursed this village? What keeps the villagers there?
• Dangerous Swamp – Swamps are a geographic nuisance filled with dangers, but why is this particularly dangerous to the region?
• Desolate Lighthouse – Why has the lighthouse fallen into disrepair? Can it be restored? What will that mean for the region?
• Dragon Den – What dragon lives here? What does the dragon want? What threat does the dragon pose to the region?
• Dungeon – a Tomb of Horror? A Temple of Elemental Evil?
• Hag Hut – Does this hag have an agenda or does she want to be left alone? Does she hold a secret that must be revealed to save the region?
• Haunted Castle – What haunts this castle?
• Hobgoblin Camp – A camp of savage warriors bringing chaos to the region, a military invasion of the region, or a frontier outpost to keep the region’s military force in check?
• Monastery – Why have these monks secluded themselves? What secrets do they hide?
• Monster Habitat – Owlbears? Chimera? Medusa?
• Shipwreck – The remains of a tradeship? The hull of a military vessel? The last pieces of a pirate ship? What treasures does it contain?
• Temple – A lost temple? A forgotten temple? A temple to a new god?
• Thieves’ HQ – Who are these thieves and what thievery do they plan?

The Country

Name of the Country the region and village are in?

Now is the time to pull out all the creative stops. Your starting village can have a quaint little name: Bluebell, Stars Hollow. The region can hint towards prominent culture or the location like the Stormlands, or The Shire. 

The country’s name means something more. It must be evocative but not on the nose. Ansalon of Dragonlance, Skyrim and Morrowind of the Elder Scrolls games, The Dwendalian Empire, Xorhas, and Menagerie Coast of Matt Mercer’s Wildemount.

Type of Country

This is admittedly very loose in definition. Ideally you want to have an idea of how the country is ruled. These are six primary governing structures which you can use as a base to fashion a political structure for your campaign. 

The limitation of the Campaign Builder Workbook is it isn’t a world building workbook. There are other resources to help you flesh out a full working government structure for the lands of your campaign world. 

For the most part, unless my players are really into political machinations, I avoid getting into the details of how the government is run. Just knowing if it is kingdom with a monarch, an empire with an Imperial leader, or a republic populated by senators is all I need. The government can also be a hybrid, like an imperial republic, which is essentially what Rome was or a Constitutional Monarchy like England after the Magna Carta. 

These are all traditional European/Asian constructs of government. Whether you are replicating the Holy Roman Empire, the Han Dynasty, the Mongol Empire, the Rashtrakuta Dynasty, or the Khmer. 

• Feudal Monarchy – Usually an inherited seat of power with a complex structure of lines of successions and oaths of fealty. These are the standard European kingdoms we are accustomed to reading about in European history. 
• City-State – A more rare form of government, City-States made up most of pre-Italy Italian peninsula. Large powerful cities with little direct control of land beyond their borders. 
• Sovereign Principality – These are smaller kingdoms, ruled by a noble sometimes in the line of succession of a greater kingdom or sometimes appointed by powerful nobles.  Monaco is an example of an existing Sovereign Principality. 
• Empire – Pharoahonic Egypt, Ghengis Khan’s empire, Alexander the Great’s empire, the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, are all historical examples to draw inspiration from. 
• Republic – Not common historically or even in fantasy literature, republics/democracies are countries led by elected officials. You can look back to ancient Rome or Greece for examples.
• Theocracy – A government led by a religion.  There are many ways in which this can be pieced together under the guise of other governmental structures. Consider Spain under Ferdinand II of Aragon who established the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition to enforce religious law. 

Name of the ruler of Country

Who leads the country? The name will be made fun of, no matter how hard you try, so don’t dwell too much on this. Keep it memorable and unique though so it doesn’t get lost in the mix of other NPCs. I like adding a nickname or some other element to the nomenclature, like Monarch Gabrielle the Learned or Imperial Viscount Hammon Veritoth IV.  Those examples are just that, examples. It is your campaign world, your NPC. Name them as you wish.

Relevant Rivals, Allies, and Other Powers

Countries often define themselves through relationships with other powers, but every country does not need a designated rival. Elizabethan England had Spain and France. Ancient Rome had Carthage and many others. Your country may instead depend upon an ally, owe a debt, occupy another land, suffer internal fracture, compete in exploration, or be largely ignored.

Add another power only when its wants, leverage, actions, or claims affect the campaign. It does not have to be a full-fledged country. It could be peasant leaders, religious reformers, merchants controlling a trade route, or a resurrected evil from the dawn of time slowly corrupting the land while masquerading as an Elven farmer. The point is not to fill an international-relations quota. The point is to know who can change the situation.

Most Immediate Concern of the Country

A military build-up on the border, the death of a leader, lost trade routes, missing colonies, broken treaties, or a necromantic cult creating chaos in the land are all country level concerns. 

As before, this is something a leader, institution, faction, or population is acting on right now. It may grow into a larger campaign problem or remain background pressure that explains NPC decisions. Decide who is doing what, what signs the PCs can notice, and what happens if nobody interferes.

Greatest Pressure on the Country

This entry is deliberately nebulous. The pressure does not have to be something everyone knows about. It could be a cabal plotting a coup, a lich gathering the means to open a portal for Orcus, or a famine in a neighboring nation that will force refugees across the border. It could also be a discovery, reform, religious movement, or economic opportunity that different actors are trying to control.

Treat this as an unstable situation rather than the opening move in a predetermined campaign plot. In past campaigns I have used an attempted coup or invasion to push the PCs into the main groove. That works, but it is not the only structure available. Establish what the actors want, how the pressure escalates, and what the country becomes if nobody stops or redirects it.

Disrupting the peace is an easy way to motivate PCs. Even chaotic and evil PCs do not like other people creating chaos on their doorstep. Still, instability can be smaller or stranger than war: a disputed inheritance, a shortage, a new trade route, a forbidden discovery, or a social change can generate plenty of play if the characters have a reason to care.

Playable Situations in the Country

This is another opportunity to think about the geography of the land. Where are the ancient ruins and why are they there? Shipwrecks, dying forests, and mysterious glows need a place in the world once they enter play, but they also need people, pressure, information, and consequences before they become more than map pins.

As in the other sections, these are starting points: little seeds you can use to tickle your imagination. At this scale, a playable situation may cover a route, border, forest, chain of villages, or other wide area. Develop only the part the characters can reach or affect now.

• Abandoned Fortress – Ancient or modern? What drove the occupants away?
• Abandoned Village – Ancient or modern? What drove the villagers away?
• Ancient Ruins – What was once here and what destroyed it?
• Caverns – What lives in these caverns and why is it a concern for the country?
• Cursed Temple – Why was this temple cursed and what effect does that have on the country?
• Cursed Village – Who cursed this village and why?
• Disappearing Ships – What is causing ships to disappear?
• Dragon Den – What dragon lives here and what does the dragon want?
• Dungeon – A White Plume Mountain or a Shrine of Bundushatur?
• Dying Forest – What is killing this forest?
• Foreign Military Camp – Why has a foreign military set up an outpost so close to the border?
• Giant Camp – Who are these giants and why have they migrated into the country?
• Haunted Castle – What haunts this castle? Is this castle needed by the country for defense?
• Monastery – Do these hermits have knowledge needed by the country in a time of crisis? Are these monks secretly controlling a cabal to thwart or enact some prophecy?
• Monster Habitat – Home of a fabled unicorn or phoenix or maybe a pit of unspeakable horrors.
• Mysterious Glow – Why is that mountain glowing?
• Shipwreck – Was this ship carrying the proof of a conspiracy or was it the ransom for the monarch’s child?
• Temple – Why is this temple significant to the fate of the country? Does something need to be brought to the temple as part of a periodic offering or has this temple brought forth a message from a god that needs to be heard by all in the country?

The Wider World

The country exists within a larger area, but none of it needs detail until it can affect play. At first, a name and a vague direction may provide all the geographic context you need. Develop the wider world when trade, diplomacy, migration, war, travel, actor movement, or player curiosity makes it relevant.

If you want to build the continental area in the same way as the village, region, and country, you can. It may contain an empire like Alexander the Great’s, a network of tributaries like the Mongol sphere of influence, or no single dominant structure at all. Identify only the powers that can act on the current campaign or become reachable through its consequences.

Name of the Continent or Wider Area

This can be your entire world, like Discworld or Narnia, or one part of a larger world like Faerûn, Oerik, or Wildemount. By now you get the point. No matter what you name the continent, some wise-acre player will corrupt it. Go ahead and call it Hartgreller knowing it will become Fartsmeller. The players’ mockery may be the first sign that the place has become real to them.

Powers That Can Affect the Campaign

Two powers can create a clean conflict. A third can introduce uncertainty, competing offers, and choices. That does not mean you need separate lists of the three largest political, military, and economic powers. Add an actor when it can intervene, obstruct, provide leverage, or become reachable through consequences. Leave room for a Portugal, Netherlands, Ireland, or Scotland between the dominant powers. It is easier to add a small country when it matters than to unveil a massive military armada nobody has ever heard of.

Village Details

You have just finished the Campaign Survey, and that can be a lot of information. Do not mistake a completed field for useful preparation. Every answer should earn its place by helping you portray an actor, reveal leverage, clarify a decision, advance pressure, or preserve a consequence. If it does none of those things yet, leave it blank.

In the Village section of the Campaign Builder Workbook, you begin developing details. Everything here is a seed: a quick sketch you can use, ignore, or postpone. The goal is not to complete the village. The goal is to prepare enough of it to respond when the players act.

Village Leader

How did the Village Leader become the village leader?

Knowing how someone was put in charge tells you a lot about them. Were they ambitious and craving the power? Was it thrust upon them? 

Who is Village Leader’s biggest rival/nemesis?

Don’t think of a rival or nemesis as a villainous person. This could just be someone who would rather be in charge or someone who is opposed to a policy. 

Who is Village Leader’s biggest ally/friend?

This person is the person the village leader turns to for support and advice. 

What Makes the Village Leader Recognizable?

A physical or behavioral trait can help everyone recognize the NPC quickly. Old, young, fat, thin, short, tall, weird hair, bald, always polishing a ring, or never looking directly at anyone: choose something useful at the table. Appearance matters less than motive unless it conveys information or changes how people respond.

What Is the Village Leader’s Defining Manner or Personality Trait?

A defining trait helps you portray the NPC consistently: kind, curious, absent-minded, suspicious, patient, or fiercely focused. Do not confuse a trait with a complete personality. Let play reveal the rest.

What Does the Village Leader Want?

Give the leader an immediate goal and, if useful, a longer one. A child in a bad marriage may distract them from public duties. Family motives are good because they are not always obvious. Do not tie every desire to the central problem. Loose threads and a little messiness make people feel real.

What Leverage Does the Village Leader Possess?

Authority is one form of leverage. Skilled laborers, money, loyal guards, public trust, access to records, a family connection, or a dangerous secret may matter more. Record what the leader can actually use to pursue the goal.

What Limits the Village Leader?

The leader may lack money, information, legitimacy, time, courage, or support. An oath, rival, dependent, law, superstition, or private fear can constrain action. Limits create space for the PCs and other actors to matter.

What Is the Village Leader Doing Now, and How Will They React?

Choose a current action connected to one of the village pressures: organizing workers, negotiating with a faction, recruiting mercenaries, concealing a failure, or ignoring the problem. Then decide how the leader is likely to react if the PCs help, interfere, expose new information, or do nothing.

The Other Notable NPCs in the Village

Each of the other NPCs called out in the Campaign Survey have the same rundown as the village leader. 

There is a section on this page that gives some suggestions for the maximum level of clerics, magic-users, fighters, and rogues in the village. Small villages and towns usually share a religious figure who travels between them. Magic-users need access to specialized supplies that aren’t commonly found near and around small villages. A rogue needs targets to rob and a backwater village doesn’t have much to steal. This is a suggestion and just helps you figure out who is in your village. Does this mean you can’t have a 20th level wizard in your tiny village? Nope, you totally can. You’d just want to think about why that wizard, warlock, sorcerer is there. Did they bring along enough pieces of adamantine worth 500 gp in order to cast Invulnerability more than once? Casting a Glyph of Warding uses a 200 gp diamond.

Just having this stuff stored in his home/workshop makes him a huge target for thieves. Of course, at a certain point, Going remote is one of the best ways to stop the constant attempts at theft. People not familiar with magic might not realize that bag in that chest is a pocket dimension holding 20 feet by 20 feet by 20 feet of gemstones to be used in casting spells.

Structure of the Village

When I first started building campaigns, I’d think about this building or that building in the town, but I found that it was creating cookie cutter villages. Seriously, I’d say “here is the Inn, here is the temple, here is the Mayor’s house” and so on. So I started thinking about the functions a village needs. 

I won’t lie, I was motivated to change my methodology by watching Little House on the Prairie. Walnut Grove is a tiny village and has a school that acts as the church. They built a bank, have a mill for grinding grain to flour that is also is a sawmill when harvest isn’t happening. There is only one store and much of the commerce is based on trade and barter.

Now the method talks about what the village needs and how those needs are met which lets me think a bit outside of the box at times. Now instead of there always being an inn and tavern, sometimes it is old Duren Brassthumb’s home where he serves up his special maple and honey liquor for those craving some spirits and if they need a place to stay, the Shrine of St. Cuthbert let’s people sleep in the main hall after dark.

• Where does the community get food?  
• Where does the community get fresh water?  
• Where does the community get supplies?  
• Where do most of the people in the community work?  
• What is the most prominent feature of the village?  
• What is the oldest feature of the village?  
• Where does the community gather to discuss issues?  
• Where does the community gather for entertainment?  
• Where does the community practice the primary religion of the area?  
• Where do visitors to the community stay?  
• Where would a visiting noble stay if they came to the village?  
• Where would the community go if threatened by a military force?  
• Where do ne’er-do-wells gather?  
• Where does the village bury their dead?  
• Where does the main road in and out of the village lead?  
• What is the nearest town larger than the village?  
• What is the nearest city to the village?  

The Culture of the Village

Here are some important details. Is this a village of all one people, all humans or elves, is it mixed? How mixed? How do the villagers react to outsiders? An adventuring party might be composed of Half-Orcs, Kenku, Tabaxi, Dwarves, or any other playable folk. Are Tieflings accepted by everyone or are they seen as bad luck, cursed people? You need to know this to prepare for whatever your players throw at you.

When a player chooses one of the newer folk in D&D – the Genasi, Tabaxi, Kenku, and so on, I try to get a sense of what they are looking for in the choice. If they want to play out the social issues, then I know to edge my villagers into not liking and accepting the PC. Maybe certain villagers won’t do business with them. My one word of caution is roleplaying racism will make you feel gross, so proceed with caution and only if the player is interested in playing out these themes. Most of the time players choose a type of folk to play because they like the abilities and aren’t thinking about negative aspects. They see D&D like a bar in Star Wars, filled with interesting and wild people and no one is singling them out in a racist sort of way (unless they are droids). So in this case, even if your campaign relies upon people seeing Dragonborn as some sort of evil, this particular village doesn’t for some reason.

A starting village does not mean all the PCs come from this village. There will need to be a reason why the PCs are here, but that reason can be figured out in a session 0 and ideally a prompt for the first adventure.

• Who are the primary people of the village?  Is this a human village, dwarven, elven, halfling?
• What is the primary religion of the village?  What god do most of the people worship in this village?
• What story do villagers like to tell the most?  Did the monarch once visit to hunt in the nearby woods or did a dragon once descend upon the village and was fought off by a local hero?
• What are the villagers most proud of?  Did the village once contribute soldiers to a cause and these soldiers were part of an important battle? Maybe this village makes the best beer in the kingdom.
• What are the villagers most ashamed of?  Home of a traitor or hiding a curse?
• What major festivals and holidays does the village celebrate?  Are there harvest festivals, days of feasting or fasting?
• How do the villagers feel about outsiders/unfamiliar people?  Is this a welcoming village or a closed off tightknit village?
• What do the villagers eat on a daily basis?  Soups, stews, roasted meats, bread, or gruel, the daily diet says a lot about how the village spends its time and the level of its resources.
• What do the villagers drink on a daily basis? Water, beer, wine… what the village drinks is important. Does the cleric purify water or is there a fresh spring supplying the village with drinkable water?
• What do the villagers eat/drink on special occasions?  Knowing what the special feast foods are will help you create those memorable scenes.

Village History

The past is prelude, but only part of the past needs preparation. Keep the history that helps you understand what is happening now or gives the players something they can discover, claim, fear, owe, exploit, or decide.

Connect historical events to a current threat, relationship, resource, prejudice, obligation, or piece of evidence when that connection creates play. Interesting but inert history can remain undefined until the campaign makes it relevant.

The Recent History

What event had the most profound effect on the village?  

Who was affected by this event?  

What are the lasting effects of this event?  

Ancient History

What was here before the village?  

Most notable event in or near the village?  

What are the signs of this event still experienced by the people and/or land?  

Village Adventure Hooks

These questions begin turning a location into an adventure situation. They are not a plot outline and they do not prescribe a solution. They establish who is acting, what pressure is moving, what the characters can learn, and what the surrounding community stands to gain or lose.

• Who is acting here, and what do they want?
• What happens if the characters do nothing?
• What visible pressure or clock is changing the situation?
• What can the characters discover that gives them leverage?
• What different approaches could plausibly work?
• What does success change in the surrounding community?
• What do failure, delay, retreat, or partial success change?

Region Details

Key Settlements

Here we want to expand on the details of the region. We start by identifying what other villages are nearby. There is an additional detail included here. You want to indicate how many days walking it takes to get from the village (settlement 1) to the others. 

A person can walk 30 miles in a day (8-hours of walking). These details will help you start building the map of the region. You want at least 1 day’s distance between villages just to keep it inconvenient. 

Two villages may be close physically but PCs walking or riding horses need to go around a large geographic obstacle. The thing to remember is each day on the road means spending a night out in the open. 

The largest city in the region will usually be a trading center or a political center of some sort. It might be where some of the PCs actually come from. 

Region NPCs

As regional NPCs become relevant, add the details that help you run them: motives, capabilities, limits, relationships, current actions, and likely reactions. Physical and personality traits are useful when they make the NPC recognizable, reveal information, or matter to the situation.

These questions should feel familiar because they grow out of the village actors. Potential connections will start occurring to you. Record them as possibilities, not promised plot developments. Wait for player interest, actor movement, and consequences to show you which threads deserve more preparation.

Regional History

Like with the village history, you want to figure out what has happened in the region. Don’t just think of political or military type events, think about geographic events (and divine and magical events).  Think of some of the people involved in these events and the effects these events have on communities and lands.

Regional Adventure Hooks

Regional adventure hooks use the same situation questions as local ones. Distance adds its own pressure: travel consumes time, creates exposure, and may allow actors to move while the PCs are on the road. You still need to know who is acting, what changes without intervention, and what the characters can discover and influence.

• Who is acting here, and what do they want?
• What happens if the characters do nothing?
• What visible pressure or clock is changing the situation?
• What can the characters discover that gives them leverage?
• What different approaches could plausibly work?
• What does success change in the region?
• What do failure, delay, retreat, or partial success change?

Country Details

Key Cities

Looking at the country as a whole, you don’t want to waste time building out dozens of villages that will never be visited. But you want to give a sense that the country is significant in size (or not, that is a design choice). I’ve run campaigns with as few as 3 cities and 2 villages. I’ve run campaigns with as few as 1 city. 

All this is doing is giving you a skeleton to work with. 5 cities too few, add more. 5 cities too many, don’t put them all down.

This will also detail the distance between the cities. Once again allowing you to sort out the layout of your lands.

NPCs

Start with the actors who can affect the current situation or whose resources, claims, and reactions the PCs may encounter. The country’s formal leader may be one of them, but a council, army, merchant house, religious movement, rebel faction, or distant patron may matter more. Leave everyone else vague until play makes them relevant.

Country History

Detailing the entire history of a country is daunting and usually unnecessary. Keep the prominent events that still produce evidence, obligations, claims, danger, prejudice, resources, or decisions the PCs can encounter. Let the rest of history remain unwritten until the campaign needs it.

Country Adventure Hooks

You will provide more detail on these hooks in the next section, but do not assume country-level locations require epic heroic solutions or that local problems are beneath powerful characters. High-level characters can care deeply about one family or neighborhood. Low-level characters can become involved in a national crisis without being able to defeat an army. Scale the characters’ leverage and the consequences of their choices, not the importance of the world around them.

• Who is acting here, and what do they want?
• What happens if the characters do nothing?
• What visible pressure or clock is changing the situation?
• What can the characters discover that gives them leverage?
• What different approaches could plausibly work?
• What does success change in the country?
• What do failure, delay, retreat, or partial success change?

Situation Statements

A situation statement needs only a few sentences: what is happening, who is involved, what they want, and why the condition cannot remain stable. The original workbook called these plotlines and sorted them by the D&D 5e Tiers of Play. You can still use tiers to gauge the sort of leverage characters possess, but do not encode an expected sequence or ending.

Each adventure area should have a brief situation statement. If you already plan to use a published adventure and know you need a Keep on the Borderlands near some Caverns of Chaos, use the published location and setup. Then consider how its actors and consequences connect to the campaign state the players have already changed.

The workbook includes tie-in summaries between tiers. I originally imagined these as adventures that would bring the PCs to the attention of more powerful figures and move them toward bigger adventures. I still like recognition as a consequence, but it should not be a scheduled promotion. Access, enemies, obligations, and geographic reach should emerge from what the characters accomplish and whom they affect.

Please do not think you need three or four prepared adventures at each tier. That is a great way to create work the players may never see. Prepare the next playable situation and maintain a short list of opportunities. Develop a future adventure only when the players’ direction, an actor’s movement, or an unresolved consequence makes it likely to matter.

What does the ID mean?

Don’t worry about it. I have delusions of grandeur and I like giving ID tags to my adventures with the hopes that I might be able to publish them at some point. I also use online tools to build encounters and I used these ID tags to align the encounters to the adventures I am writing.

Campaign Actors and Arcs

The final element is the campaign arc. A campaign can contain several arcs, but an arc is something you can recognize after a sequence of meaningful changes. At the beginning, prepare the actors and pressures capable of producing one. The workbook helps you start with a prominent actor, but the campaign does not require a single destination antagonist.

Who Is Acting?

The Big Bad, Big Bad Evil Guy, or Main Antagonist is an easy identifier. This is the person or entity whose agenda disrupts the status quo. That agenda may not be evil. In fact, it is often better if the goal sounds noble on the surface. I say “often better,” but I regularly fall back on a High Priest of an Evil God summoning demons because it is simple, classic, and sometimes the players need a clear “that is the person we need to stop” call to action. Indiana Jones fought Nazis. You do not need further motivation. Just remember that a primary antagonist may emerge, be negotiated with, be replaced, or become irrelevant because of what happens in play.

What Does This Actor Want?

The agenda needs to matter, but it does not have to threaten the entire world. Building a fortress or kidnapping a noble may become campaign-defining because of whom it affects, what it reveals, what value it compromises, or what choice it forces. Ask what changes if the actor gets what they want and why the players might become invested in that change. Devastation is one answer, not the measurement of significance.

Why Does This Actor Want It?

The desire to destroy everything is a great agenda but it is sort of suicidal. Motives can be quite complex but as with all things you can begin with a nucleus, a core element and build up around it. (Notice a theme in all of this?)

• Romance – the actor does it for love. 
• Revenge – the actor is punishing those who have wronged them.
• Justice – the actor is righting a wrong, poorly.
• Greed – the actor wants to amass wealth (usually there is a reason for the wealth but sometimes a dragon just likes all the shiny things).
• Existential Threat – the actor is driven by a threat to their existence.
• Fate – the actor is driven by fate or prophecy and trying to change a predicted outcome or achieve it.
• Power – the actor wants power over the land, but like greed there is usually something else behind that, a need to change something about the land.
• Hate – the actor has a blinding hate which drives them. 
• Rebellion – the actor needs to overthrow the current power structure because the current power structure is unfair or an obstacle to some other goal.
• Savior – the actor believes they are a savior and their actions will have greater benefits in the long run.
• Grief – the actor is driven by sorrow or the fear of sorrow.
• Protection – the actor wants to protect someone or something.
• Isolation – the actor wants to be alone and is looking for a way to achieve that isolation.
• Fear – the actor is afraid of something and is driven to take action to avoid it.
• Narcissistic Pride – the actor believes they are the only one capable.
• Competition – the actor is competing with others for a prize.

What Is Preventing This Actor from Accomplishing It?

Knowing why the actor cannot simply achieve the goal explains the actions that may trickle down to the starting village. Record the obstacles, resources, dependencies, and limits involved. Then decide what the actor is doing now, what progress looks like, what signs reveal that progress, how they react to interference, and what the resulting campaign state will be if nobody stops or redirects them.

That progression is your clock. It does not need to be a literal row of boxes, although boxes are useful. It needs stages you can advance when time passes, opportunities are missed, or the actor succeeds. The players do not need to know every stage, but they need enough visible evidence to understand that the world is moving.

Notes on Campaign Settings

The original concept behind Dungeons & Dragons drew heavily on a dark-age or medieval Europe imagined after collapse. Many classic D&D settings are post-apocalyptic worlds: empires fell, knowledge was lost, and cataclysms or plagues left ruins across the land. Dragonlance was one of the first settings I remember really nailing this.

Does D&D have to take place in such a world? No. But a campaign set in a rebuilding world, where lost knowledge is being recovered, magic is not universally understood, and ancient ruins still contain dangerous wonders, is an exciting place to be an adventurer.

The time after a cataclysmic event is also a time of significant change. For Europe, the depopulation that occurred because of the Black Death caused feudal lords to entice peasants with better housing and days of rest in order to get them to work the fields. They built churches and worked to improve the lives of the peasants. 

Please don’t think I am saying the feudal lords made things perfect, but things went from a harsh life to a less harsh life and a blessing from a priest. 

One of the most interesting periods in European history for me is the Hundred Years’ War. This was a time of apocalypse for France: English victories and internal division left the French crown controlling only part of the country. Then a young woman from the small village of Domrémy went to the Dauphin and asked to be sent to the siege of Orléans. Joan of Arc was about seventeen when she helped transform the course and morale of the war.

Why am I writing about Joan of Arc in a campaign builder workbook guide? Ever since I read Mark Twain’s book about Joan of Arc, I have been absolutely fascinated by her story. Whenever I do anything involving Dungeons & Dragons, I look to this period in France for inspiration. It was weird and complicated. People lived their entire lives without knowing who truly ruled them. Danger came out of nowhere, but life could still be good. People were happy. They married, raised families, and celebrated life and community.

In terms of the Local-to-Active methodology, I keep thinking about how Mark Twain began with Domrémy and its people, then let Joan’s actions and the forces moving around her carry the story outward across France.

From a small village to the fate of the French crown, Joan of Arc led a remarkable life and helped reverse the course of a war. The sword traditionally associated with Charles Martel, reportedly found at the Church of Sainte-Catherine-de-Fierbois, mattered because France was in crisis and Joan was already becoming a symbol. Otherwise, it would have been an interesting archaeological find. Crisis gave the relic a handle in the present.

The book and Netflix series The Last Kingdom begins in an England that has been fundamentally conquered by the Danes. It tells the story of a young English boy captured by the Danes, trained by the Dane, and then becomes the man who helps unify the kingdoms of England under the rule of one person.

England at that time was in an apocalypse. The norms of English life were devastated by the Vikings. (Honestly, watch The Vikings to get a glimpse of how it all started).  And actually, the show The  Vikings also presents a different version of apocalypse. The Norse farms weren’t able to support the growing population and exploration and conquering was the only way for their culture to survive.

A land in crisis is a land that needs heroes, and I love that kind of campaign. But crisis is a genre choice, not a requirement. The framework needs instability: a condition that cannot remain as it is. That may be an apocalypse, or it may be a dispute, shortage, discovery, opportunity, social change, or private need. Keep that in mind as you build. You can also begin before the crisis. Game of Thrones was a pre-crisis land before someone decided chaos could become a ladder to power.

Let’s See What You Create

I would love to see what you create using this campaign builder workbook or share your methods for starting a homebrew campaign.