Starting Out

I started this blog to archive some of my thoughts on running D&D games, including running adventures, building them, and creating new campaign settings.

I’ve only been running games as a DM for a short while now, and I’ve found that there’s a lot of crucial information for new DMs that’s not in the official books. Some of it can be picked up from older editions or other TTRPG rulebooks, some of it you learn through trial and error, and — if you’re lucky — some of it can be picked up by almost being appreciated into the hobby.

For example, Labyrinth Lord — part of the Old School Revival movement — has good guidelines on creating your own setting by starting with a hex map and then drawing different biomes, followed by putting towns and cities where it makes sense. If you already have themes and factions picked out for your setting, that should help.

Going through the first Pathfinder Core Rulebook, I also found some good information there about campaign writing where you start off by picking out what character level you want to end at, and then write your adventures to lead up to that point.

Stuff like that just isn’t in the official D&D rulebooks, which truthfully feel more as if they’re geared toward people new to the current edition than people new to running games or new to the hobby altogether.