The Ultimate DM Blueprint Book - Update #8 (July 3, 2023)

Today I have another short excerpt for you. But first, I want to wish you an early happy 4th of July! 🇺🇸

Although America’s favorite dessert (and mine) is pie, today we’re going to explore another delicious baked good: cake.

Down Prep and cake

As a Dungeon Master your job is to create a world for your players to explore. A world complete with dungeons to delve, villains to thwart, and where epic battles happen.

But before you can lead your group on a journey of adventure, you need to prepare for the game, and form your world.

I call preparation before a game, "down prep."

This is the time you spend outside of the game session preparing for fun. You know, during your down time.

It's when you draw maps, create NPCs, develop storylines, and find adventure ideas. Down prep is essential for creating a rich and immersive game world, but it can also be a daunting task.

But, before I get into the details of down prep, I want you to envision what you'll be creating. And, the easiest way to do this, is by thinking of your game world as if it were a 3-layer cake.

A cake? Wait, what?!

Yes, because a cake has the right amount of simplicity and complexity you can use to model your game world.

Let's break it down…

If you like cake, one of the first things you notice is its deliciousness. Cake is attractive to those who hungry for its taste. You want the players to see your game world as if it were a delicious cake.

But, the sight of a cake is only part of what makes it delicious. The other delicious half of the cake, are its ingredients. Hidden away by decorated frosting and 3 layers of cakey goodness.

Slices of your campaign world

The 3 layers

1. Design - quality, brand, playability

2. Culture - people, places, languages

3. Structure - systems, procedures, chronology

Whether your game world is store bought, or baked from scratch, doesn't matter too much because they both have similar ingredients.

And, you may blend the best of both worlds and have a little bit of each.

As DM, your job is to gather the ingredients, mix them, pour and mold, bake, then decorate.

And, you also get to serve it up. You cut the slices to serve, as large and small as you want.

Whether it's a pre-made campaign or a world of your own design, you need a good understanding of your setting. This means creating a landscape your players will explore.

Then, populating it with enough depth and width to make it seem real. Your world needs a history and a purpose.

You'll need denizens to inhabit your creation. Flora, fauna, and challenging obstacles.

You need:

• roads

• rivers

• lakes

• oceans

• mountains

• forests

• towns

• cities

• governments

• ruins

• and treasure!

Your landscape should contain a hidden history. Mysteries for your players to discover. And, where they can make their mark and add to your world's rich tapestry.

Once you have an understanding of your world, you can populate it with its non-player characters (NPCs). These can be shopkeepers, quest-givers, or even the big bad villain the players will face.

NPCs add depth and complexity to your world. They interact with the PCs to move the story forward and creating new arcs that you'd never be able to create alone.

But they need careful consideration. You should give them personalities, goals, desires, flaws, and motivations.

And you need to be ready to improvise when players throw you a curveball. You know they will.

Creating storylines is another important aspect of Down Prep. A good story can keep players engaged and invested in the game world.

You should have a general idea of where you want the story to go.

But it should be flexible enough to adjust as the players make choices that affect the storyline.

Remember, their actions move the story forward. It's a give and take between the world, and them.

Pre-order The Ultimate Campaign Blueprint and save $10 until July 17, 2023.

Please do me a quick favor and forward this email to 5 of your friends who play D&D. You never know how it could help them or their game.

Thanks,

Joe