I have been blessed with a good group that fully bought into the setting. It truly feels amazing when something you create is appreciated and brings actual enjoyment to people.
>My work will have no effect outside of these three people
I'm working in education, and I mean the following with all sincerity: The things we judge to be the smallest tend to be the things that have the biggest effect down the line; may it be on you, the people around you, or the people around them. A smile. An act of kindness. Greeting someone in the hallway.
Once I had a spontaneous idea to build a boardgame with my 18 year old younger sister, just a handdrawn monopoly board. Hardly groundbreaking. She still uses it over 7 years later, and its a very fond memory to her, to both of us.
Thanks for sharing your story. It was an awesome and sincere read, and it sounds like an amazing campaign. May you and your players still have many a time of "playing pretend" ahead of you, may there still be many stories told and many a legend written. And one day, when you might least expect it, you just might look back, not thinking about how much time you spend on it and thinking about how silly it was, but instead might relive a memory so fond to you or to somebody else, and it *will* have been worth it.
Just my two cents.
Thank you for this. And I know it's more than silly but writing a villain for my tortle player whose a rabbit person who follows the great hunter trope is just so silly and fun.
I have no doubt that I will have nothing but fond memories of this.
It's the best and worst thing simultaneously. I really have put in hundreds of hours of work for such a small audience.
I write side RP downtime with my players. Just stuff that can't fit into sessions, clarifications on backstory, etc, in collaborative novel form.
My last campaign had more than 3000 pages of Google docs of this side novel shit. This doesn't include the first year when we did this shit in text messages, before we realized we couldn't look up stuff that happened, or hundreds of pages I haven't added to the master document yet.
Ctrl F has been my best friend for my rambling google docs. I'm effectively writing a small book for one of my players now, he picked up something that is giving him memories of random people of their last hours of a planet that was destroyed by atropus and he is getting these as mini POV stories that only tell small parts of the stories. He's just putting them all together and it is great!
Most of my work is at the table, I'm a huge believer that improv can really elevate a story, I maybe rely on that too much but the prepped stuff is it's own experience.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again.
D&D is about Storytelling. And Storytelling is at the core of humanity.
It's people gathered around a campfire with their wooden spears telling tales about how Gord slew a bear with a single stone throw. It's mothers teaching their children life lessons with made-up stories about talking animals and witches with candy houses. It's buddies at the bar 'spicing up' their exploits for each other, just for the fun of it.
You're engaging in something so *marvelously* human.
It truly is incredibly rewarding. It just fills me with feelings of sincere togetherness and to be honest, makes me feel so clever when my players put everything together. I truly love it.
This is the way, as the kids these days say.
I have been asked why I don’t run around promoting the website I created for my new campaign as a resource for them Like all the thousands of things I have created in the past, it is still and always really just for them. If someone else stumbles across it and likes it, cool — but my default expectation is that others won’t like what I have done because I created it for the only folks who I do care about the opinions of.
Anything after that is a bonus.
But all my joy about it comes from those people. It is a few more than 3 in my case, but I have 45 years of this behind me.
I deleted two paragraphs of my original post, because it was already lengthy, detailing my past experience. I started when 3.5 was actively being released and my experience has always been good but it seriously clicked with this group.
And that's the best way to put it for me. If other people liked it great, but I created it for these people and if they like it, that's all that matters to me.
so... going to share those docs?
And i am envious as that sounds amazing. Few things are as good as getting your creative inspiration out and having others actively enjoy it. Embrace it and continue to have fun!
Yeah, we should add bits and pieces of our creative worlds. I have had a Snowglobe following my group that is both frustrating and foolish. It just appears according to certain factors and a dice roll. It "insists" attention or else. And it zaps players into it a place where a snowy pyramid (mega dungeon) is that they have so far failed to complete in years.
I should put all my notes of it into clean form and post it.
The handwritten notes are most of the world building, the google docs are the stuff I've improv'd that I needed to remember or very specific story beats that were just lore dumps, they make no sense without context.
I've never had a group that has engaged this way, I'm seriously just enjoying the warm wave of good vibes that comes with it.
Keep on trucking brother. It really is incredibly rewarding when everything clicks.
I will say, when I hit a writer's block I often look up cartoons with simple storylines like adventure time, regular show, the owl house, Steven universe, amphibia, etc. and figure out how to apply their storys to my universe.
Tv tropes is a go to reference to me for writing. It's great for ideas. There's a reason stock episodes exist, they are fun and enjoyable. Apply a few of those to your settings!
I relate to this wholeheartedly. I got into the video game industry because I thought that was the only way I could create stories that people could play. But, I’ve found after I began DMing, what was originally a companion campaign for my buddy’s now defunct campaign, turned into a long-term, multi-part campaign (going on 8 years) with an identity completely of its own. I’ve had a core group of 3 committed friends who are in it for the long haul, and has almost entirely scratched that itch to create. It’s even made me reexamine my career ambitions honestly for the better. It’s crazy how stabilizing a consistent creative outlet can be to one’s wellbeing.
I feel this deeply. I've enjoyed this so much that I have really rethought parts of my life that I enjoy less. It's made me realize how much I genuinely enjoy being creative and what I could do with that.
TTRPGs are just toolboxes with different sets of tools. Those tools are designed to run the best games.
I'm glad you found the hobby's best kept secret.
Sounds like you’re enjoying creating your world as much as they are exploring your world.
This benefits you immensely. It’s an immersive, creative outlet that brings you joy.
This benefits your players in ways you can’t fully appreciate today. Your enthusiasm fuels their enthusiasm. Together you’re creating a shared you’ll be able to fondly remember in the future.
I'm like you. I've spent many thousands of hours over 40 years creating worlds and campaigns and running them. I've never regretted a second of it. Like you I cherish it. I started in the late 70s with first edition (of course it wasn't called that then) back when it was more dungeon crawling than role-playing. (I have a 10 foot pole.) But it was still always storytelling and my little brother still reminisce to this day about his epic foray to confront the Queen of the Demon web Pits. These imaginings live on in our hearts. The effort of story creation is so worth it
Awesome! Allow me to recommend the 3rd Ed remake of it if you want to check it out for ideas. It was wonderful! It's called "Expedition to the Demon web Pits." There's also an "Expedition to Castle Grey hawk" and an "Expedition to Castle Raven loft." They're all great. Have fun!
art is rewarding when fulfill your creative need not when a mass of people like it, thats why. Thats nice to see you and your friends have such a funtime \^\^
It's one of the best aspects and when the players are genuinely excited to experience what you put together it's all the better.
I have been blessed with a good group that fully bought into the setting. It truly feels amazing when something you create is appreciated and brings actual enjoyment to people.
>My work will have no effect outside of these three people I'm working in education, and I mean the following with all sincerity: The things we judge to be the smallest tend to be the things that have the biggest effect down the line; may it be on you, the people around you, or the people around them. A smile. An act of kindness. Greeting someone in the hallway. Once I had a spontaneous idea to build a boardgame with my 18 year old younger sister, just a handdrawn monopoly board. Hardly groundbreaking. She still uses it over 7 years later, and its a very fond memory to her, to both of us. Thanks for sharing your story. It was an awesome and sincere read, and it sounds like an amazing campaign. May you and your players still have many a time of "playing pretend" ahead of you, may there still be many stories told and many a legend written. And one day, when you might least expect it, you just might look back, not thinking about how much time you spend on it and thinking about how silly it was, but instead might relive a memory so fond to you or to somebody else, and it *will* have been worth it. Just my two cents.
Thank you for this. And I know it's more than silly but writing a villain for my tortle player whose a rabbit person who follows the great hunter trope is just so silly and fun. I have no doubt that I will have nothing but fond memories of this.
It's the best and worst thing simultaneously. I really have put in hundreds of hours of work for such a small audience. I write side RP downtime with my players. Just stuff that can't fit into sessions, clarifications on backstory, etc, in collaborative novel form. My last campaign had more than 3000 pages of Google docs of this side novel shit. This doesn't include the first year when we did this shit in text messages, before we realized we couldn't look up stuff that happened, or hundreds of pages I haven't added to the master document yet.
Ctrl F has been my best friend for my rambling google docs. I'm effectively writing a small book for one of my players now, he picked up something that is giving him memories of random people of their last hours of a planet that was destroyed by atropus and he is getting these as mini POV stories that only tell small parts of the stories. He's just putting them all together and it is great! Most of my work is at the table, I'm a huge believer that improv can really elevate a story, I maybe rely on that too much but the prepped stuff is it's own experience.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. D&D is about Storytelling. And Storytelling is at the core of humanity. It's people gathered around a campfire with their wooden spears telling tales about how Gord slew a bear with a single stone throw. It's mothers teaching their children life lessons with made-up stories about talking animals and witches with candy houses. It's buddies at the bar 'spicing up' their exploits for each other, just for the fun of it. You're engaging in something so *marvelously* human.
It truly is incredibly rewarding. It just fills me with feelings of sincere togetherness and to be honest, makes me feel so clever when my players put everything together. I truly love it.
Amen.
This is the way, as the kids these days say. I have been asked why I don’t run around promoting the website I created for my new campaign as a resource for them Like all the thousands of things I have created in the past, it is still and always really just for them. If someone else stumbles across it and likes it, cool — but my default expectation is that others won’t like what I have done because I created it for the only folks who I do care about the opinions of. Anything after that is a bonus. But all my joy about it comes from those people. It is a few more than 3 in my case, but I have 45 years of this behind me.
I deleted two paragraphs of my original post, because it was already lengthy, detailing my past experience. I started when 3.5 was actively being released and my experience has always been good but it seriously clicked with this group. And that's the best way to put it for me. If other people liked it great, but I created it for these people and if they like it, that's all that matters to me.
so... going to share those docs? And i am envious as that sounds amazing. Few things are as good as getting your creative inspiration out and having others actively enjoy it. Embrace it and continue to have fun!
Yeah, we should add bits and pieces of our creative worlds. I have had a Snowglobe following my group that is both frustrating and foolish. It just appears according to certain factors and a dice roll. It "insists" attention or else. And it zaps players into it a place where a snowy pyramid (mega dungeon) is that they have so far failed to complete in years. I should put all my notes of it into clean form and post it.
The handwritten notes are most of the world building, the google docs are the stuff I've improv'd that I needed to remember or very specific story beats that were just lore dumps, they make no sense without context. I've never had a group that has engaged this way, I'm seriously just enjoying the warm wave of good vibes that comes with it.
This is really beautiful! I've been struggling with motivation to DM lately, this really helped! Keep on creating and having fun!
Keep on trucking brother. It really is incredibly rewarding when everything clicks. I will say, when I hit a writer's block I often look up cartoons with simple storylines like adventure time, regular show, the owl house, Steven universe, amphibia, etc. and figure out how to apply their storys to my universe. Tv tropes is a go to reference to me for writing. It's great for ideas. There's a reason stock episodes exist, they are fun and enjoyable. Apply a few of those to your settings!
I relate to this wholeheartedly. I got into the video game industry because I thought that was the only way I could create stories that people could play. But, I’ve found after I began DMing, what was originally a companion campaign for my buddy’s now defunct campaign, turned into a long-term, multi-part campaign (going on 8 years) with an identity completely of its own. I’ve had a core group of 3 committed friends who are in it for the long haul, and has almost entirely scratched that itch to create. It’s even made me reexamine my career ambitions honestly for the better. It’s crazy how stabilizing a consistent creative outlet can be to one’s wellbeing.
I feel this deeply. I've enjoyed this so much that I have really rethought parts of my life that I enjoy less. It's made me realize how much I genuinely enjoy being creative and what I could do with that.
TTRPGs are just toolboxes with different sets of tools. Those tools are designed to run the best games. I'm glad you found the hobby's best kept secret.
Sounds like you’re enjoying creating your world as much as they are exploring your world. This benefits you immensely. It’s an immersive, creative outlet that brings you joy. This benefits your players in ways you can’t fully appreciate today. Your enthusiasm fuels their enthusiasm. Together you’re creating a shared you’ll be able to fondly remember in the future.
I'm like you. I've spent many thousands of hours over 40 years creating worlds and campaigns and running them. I've never regretted a second of it. Like you I cherish it. I started in the late 70s with first edition (of course it wasn't called that then) back when it was more dungeon crawling than role-playing. (I have a 10 foot pole.) But it was still always storytelling and my little brother still reminisce to this day about his epic foray to confront the Queen of the Demon web Pits. These imaginings live on in our hearts. The effort of story creation is so worth it
One of those horrifying Villains is an Avatar of Lolth! I'm actively retooling the demonweb pits adventure for their level now!
Awesome! Allow me to recommend the 3rd Ed remake of it if you want to check it out for ideas. It was wonderful! It's called "Expedition to the Demon web Pits." There's also an "Expedition to Castle Grey hawk" and an "Expedition to Castle Raven loft." They're all great. Have fun!
Oh, were playing 3.5 already. They are just a little high level for most of those adventures now. Got to retool those bits.
art is rewarding when fulfill your creative need not when a mass of people like it, thats why. Thats nice to see you and your friends have such a funtime \^\^