When it comes to playingDungeons & Dragons, there’s all the tough work of figuring out your character, howyou’ll flavor your spells, or what class you’ll play. But what about when it comes to actually making a campaign? Whether you’re a Dungeon Master looking to host their first-ever campaign or you’re experienced enough but want to know how to make the job easier, we have you covered.
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Thanks to the internet and the popularity of the game, it’s easier than ever to track down the resources you’ll need to make campaign building a lot easier than it should be. Here are some resources that will help you along the way.
10Media
It’s a running joke that a lot of Dungeons & Dragons campaigns are just pieces of media that the DM really liked and decided to put in the campaign. But there’s also the saying that every joke has some truth to it. With streaming services, YouTube, and fandoms, you now have access to more media than ever before.
There’s nothing wrong with using your favorite cartoon, films, or books to be fuel for your inspiration and to give you ideas on that cool NPC you want to put in a tavern or that quest you’ll entice players with. Just try to ensure you’re not being too obvious.
9Kobold Fight Club
There are plenty of encounter builders, but few are as good asKobold Fight Club. The website has everything you need to tailor your encounters to your players, with options for including party size, levels, and a metric for what kind of monsters to throw in, depending on how difficult the encounter will be.
Whether it’s a boss fight or an ambush at the roadside, you’ll have a handy tool to calculate your encounters for you.
8Campaign Modules
So there’s always media, but what about something a little closer to home? If you’re only getting ideas from media but want concrete notes on how to perhaps lay out your plans and notes for a session, then campaign modules have you covered.
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you’re able to study campaign modules, see all the little notes for DM’s written there, and learn a lot. It might even be worth running a campaign module just to see how the notes apply to an actual game too.
7Inkarnate
Chances are that if you’re making a campaign, you’ll likely be doing some home brewing. There’s nothing more satisfying and frustrating thanmaking the mapto your totally epic and cool continent or nation or general landmass, which you’ve poured tons of effort into world-building.
But how do you make a map? Well, you useInkarnate. Though it’s not great for smaller-scale maps like buildings or dungeons, this is the type of map you’d want to use for a nation or continent with easy-to-use software that is available for anyone who has an Internet connection.
6Dungeon Master Guide
It sounds typical, but yes, the Dungeon Master Guide is something you can use as a resource. It’s called the Dungeon Master Guide for a reason, not because the font looks cool but because it has actual information on items, classes, encounters, and more that you’ll need.
If you’re an experienced Dungeon Master, you could forgo this, but if you haven’t ever made a campaign, you should pick this up.
5Notion
Making a campaign is touch. Organizing a campaign is downright hellish.Notionis a piece of free software that allows you to create a wiki-like collection of information for just about anything.
From journals and task lists (quest logs) to items spreadsheets and info pages, Notion has easy-to-use templates to create the perfect pages for you to organize plot lines, quests, and your lore.
4Reddit
It sounds a little odd, but there is a thriving community onReddit for Dungeons & Dragons, and it should be used to your advantage. Sometimes it can be difficult to connect with other people who have played the game extensively in real life, so an online community may be the next best thing.
You can find all sorts of interesting threads about how people flavor spells, what different languages sound like, and experiences from other Dungeon Masters on their campaigns.
3Your Players
As fun as it is to go above and beyond to create any type of campaign you want, you have to also think about the type of people you’re going to be playing with. Sometimes you’ll create a campaign and look for players online, but it’s best to understand what kind of campaign they’re expecting if you’re going to be playing with friends or such.
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Talk to them and ask them what they imagine their adventures will be like. Players can’t control everything, but it’s also good to know if there’s something they would especially dislike now than to find it out when you’re running the game.
2One Shots
When it comes to being a Dungeon Master, there is no real first draft; well, except for one shots. If you’re very nervous about being a DM, try to run something on asmaller scale, like a one-shotthat can help you get used to the role of being a DM. You can also experiment with your game the more comfortable you get. You can maybe even set some of these small-scale adventures in your homebrew world to give it some more depth.
If you’re uncertain about putting your own one-shot together, you’re able to find countless pre-made one-shots online. The D&D community is constantly making one-shots to share with each other on platforms likeDungeonMastersGuild, where you can sort and filter them to fit your party’s needs.
1D&D Beyond
It may be the most typical answer, but there’s a reason for it.D&D Beyondis incredible for keeping character sheets and having all sorts of resources to look at spells and monsters. As well as this, there’s also a homebrew section where you’re able to browse through community-created spells and items.
The only issue is that D&D Beyond isn’t very customizable and has a price for its services and access to the source material. However, it’s still a good way to keep track of things.
