XIII. COLLIDING WORLDS
Quentin Tarantino has a knack for mashing up genres into movies that become far more than the sum of their parts. He doesn’t even try to hide the mix of styles. In Inglourious Basterds, he rewrote history to fit the story he wanted to tell.
Collide your own worlds
You are hereby given full license to use your game materials, including all published game worlds, however best fits the vision you and your players have for your game. There are no limits and you need make no apologies. Steal from everywhere and use it to build something new and wonderful.
A new world on a 3x5 card
You don’t need a ten thousand-year timeline to build a good world. You just need a single line and a few bullet points on a 3x5 card. Write a single sentence that describes your worldly mashup (your elevator pitch).
Example: Ten world mashups
- In a desert stone-age world, hunters find a derelict space ship filled with incredible technology.
- City hall politics with vampires.
- Stone-age nomads and derelict alien space ships.
- Undercover police work in a dark elf city.
- Murder mysteries on a planet about to be enveloped by a nova.
- Mind flayers as emperors in medieval Japan.
- The Godfather meets Serenity.
- Conan the Barbarian in a Cyberpunk setting.
- A dead-end wild-west town just found the most valuable substance in the universe.
- Vampire hunting in World War One.
XIV. SIX TRAITS ABOUT YOUR GAME WORLD
“A homebrew campaign setting is a great way to create a lot of work for yourself that your players will ignore and/or destroy.” — Scott Rehm, the Angry Dungeon Master
Instead of writing reams on geography, history, and culture, stick to a fixed number of traits of this world that your players will grasp and remember. Six to eight is likely a good sweet spot.
Example: Four traits about Yellowtop
- Salt Miners: At its core, Yellowtop is a village of salt miners.
- Mercenary Tyranny: For the past two years, mercenaries have slowly taken over the town.
- Orc Tribes: On the outskirts, the last ragged bands of orcs hunt the tundra.
- Haunted Caverns of an Ancient Power: Salt miners discovered chambers buried beneath the mountain; those who explored them came back mad or never at all .
XV. TOOLS OF THE LAZY DUNGEON MASTER
Gathering the right tools might take time up front, but the end result will save you hundreds of hours in the long run.
The 3x5 note card
Creativity through limitation is a key concept. The 3x5 card has just enough room for:
- Front: Adventure introduction and three potential paths.
- Back: Current actions of the primary NPCs.
Essential Toolkit
- The dry-erase poster map: The Paizo dry-erase poster map is the best money you can spend for re-usable game aids.
- Monster books: Keeping a monster book handy means less planning up front; you can pull monsters as the group faces them.
- Cheat sheet: A sheet containing the most useful mechanics helps you with improvised events.
- Random names: Always have a list of twenty random names on a 3x5 card. Choose names with different beginning letters that are easy to spell and pronounce.
XVI. RESKINNING
Reskinning defines the act of replacing the flavor, story, and description of a set of roleplaying mechanics (a monster, trap, or terrain).
Example: Eladrin battledancer into half-orc assassin Shade is a half-elf, half-orc assassin. Instead of building a new stat block, use a level 9 Eladrin Battle Dancer. Change the “dancing blade” description to “powerful set of accurate blows”. You don’t have to prepare anything; just change the flavor at the table.
XVII. LAZY ENCOUNTER DESIGN
Surveyed DMs spend significant time designing encounters, but it’s one of the trickiest components to improvise.
The components of encounter design
- The scenario: Flow from the story itself.
- The battle space: Use a portfolio of pre-built maps or poster maps.
- The combatants: Use standard versions of monsters from manuals.
- Terrain effects: Add layers to familiar battles (e.g., unholy circles, fire cauldrons).
The Combat Out
Coined by Dave Chalker, you should aim for ways to end a battle early (a “combat out”) without just calling it over.
- Examples: Villains surrender, cavern collapses, monsters flee, or an item is stolen.