D&D Custom Worlds.

[Sir Tawmis]

There's plenty of pre-existing D&D worlds, such as Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Greyhawk, Dark Sun; even some stranger ones such as Spelljammer.

However, my question is custom worlds. How many of you play in them? How many of you are DMs that create them?

As players, what do you look for in a custom world? Do you prefer a site that has information about the world? If so, what type of information do you want to see about a custom world that makes you feel like you know enough about it?

Reason I ask - I love to play D&D - but more so, I enjoy DMing. I love building a world, forging history, creating gods, and all of that for my players to be a part of. Quite a few of my players in my most recent game, this is their first exposure to D&D. (We've been playing together now for about three years). But my game was their first exposure to D&D for three of the players. Two of them had played very casual, laid back, D&D games with me. And my wife has gamed with me in D&D for like 15 years now, off and on.

I created a site for my world, and listed out the gods, the history, some of the known lore. I even listed all the monsters from the Monster Manual with a picture from the 5e MM books, so that they could get a visual. (99% of the descriptions don't contain vital information; only the monster's general history and where they come from, where they lair, etc - information a character might know). This provides a visual for a character who may not know what a goblin or troll or oughyt looks like.

I was just curious what players look for - and what other DMs do - for those players - when playing in a custom world.

I remember when I was younger, there was no need for history, and all of that - you just rolled up a character and hoped to survive.

[Komag]

I wish I had more free time to enjoy something like that! Just way too busy with career and family

[Sir Tawmis]

I wish I had more free time to enjoy something like that! Just way too busy with career and family

Heh - I can tell, from you profile photo, good sir, that you literally have your hands full with family!

I just have a wife (and two fur kids) to take care of. Much easier than actual children.

[Komag]

Plus that pic is out of date, doesn't show the baby twins!

[Sir Tawmis]

Plus that pic is out of date, doesn't show the baby twins!

We won't tell them that dad didn't include them in his profile pic!

But going back to custom worlds - this could go for CRPGs as well. If it's a new world (say, the first time you've played Grimrock, Pillars of Eternity, etc) - do you wish they'd have resources that explain some of the lore and what not?

I might just be weird. But the lack of lore and backstory to Grimrock, was why I initially started writing my characters Grimrock story.

[Komag]

Oh definitely, an RPG game world needs tons of lore to be good. I'm writing a whole bunch into my little game, who knows if I'll ever finish it!

[Sir Tawmis]

Oh definitely, an RPG game world needs tons of lore to be good. I'm writing a whole bunch into my little game, who knows if I'll ever finish it!

Well if you ever want to outsource your lore creation ideas for some suggestions or help - let me know! I thrive on that!

[leewroy]

It's been a while I don't play pen and paper rpgs. Something like 15,16 years.

I made a custom world, the map was divided in 9 standard paper sleeves. I took most of the names for places from D&D, tough. I 'm not good in creating names. Last time I was playing a grimrock module, all the four chars had names with...bad language

I miss these times so much...

[Sir Tawmis]

It's been a while I don't play pen and paper rpgs. Something like 15,16 years.

I love D&D... well, except 4th Edition.
5th Edition, to me, has recaptured the magic that ensnared me into D&D. It's a really nice, and very easy system.

I made a custom world, the map was divided in 9 standard paper sleeves. I took most of the names for places from D&D, tough. I 'm not good in creating names. Last time I was playing a grimrock module, all the four chars had names with...bad language
I miss these times so much...

I love D&D creation. I have an entire map, world, cities, gods, history - all for the current campaign I am running.