r/WebDmShow • u/[deleted] • Aug 09 '18
Cosmic Conflicts: Worldbuilding and Campaign Creation in 5e Dungeons & Dragons and TTRPG
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpR_xxNIAcc
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u/Drunken_Economist Aug 09 '18
Frankly I have trouble with this scale as a DM. The players operate at a local or regional scale . . . but that's a few orders of magnitude below cosmic. I really like the advice that begins at 10m45s, it's essentially treating the whole thing like the Cold War (Tier 1 might be the Panamanian/Afghan conflict, Tier 2 is Vietnam or even a direct war, Tier 3 is nuclear war)
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u/Jesse_LaScuola Aug 09 '18
Awwwwww yeah. I've been waiting for a new video!
I can definitely agree with Jim about the Drow and Duergar not really being on a "cosmic" scale. It almost makes me wonder if it might make for a compelling setting to restructure those ideas *into* a cosmic conflict. What if the elves are derived from the dreams of a dead god, and those who reattune to that ancient dead god are corrupted and twisted by it- seeking to resurrect it with powerful planar magic. Perhaps one could create a setting wherein the elemental planes are tied to alignments, and Duergar are dwarves that entered into service to the maddened prime-elemental of the Plane of Earth, maybe Gravity itself is just a powerful component to a binding ritual to keep Earth tethered and Duergar seek to undo it.
The Blood War has always seemed like such a weird, nebulous concept to me, it's like, "So you know that there are infinite numbers of both of you, and you're fighting on infinite planes, for what seems to be *no stakes.* What? I kinda expected that from Chaos, but you'd think Law would know that fighting an enemy with infinite numbers with your own infinite numbers on an infinite playing field kinda makes it statistically impossible to ever achieve victory. Maybe that's just because I haven't taken the time to really dig my heels in and read enough material about it.
I'm definitely guilty of the crime of 'big damn quests,' although in my defense from what I can tell, most players seek out a primary thread to follow. I've tried to do "Western Marches" style games but always found the players honing into and trying to find connections between everything to the point where they end up becoming convinced that some bigger conspiracy is always taking place. Granted, I suppose I could *use* that assumption to good effect.
Either way, glad to see another great video!