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The Amazing Digital Circus REVIEW - Episode 3: The Mystery of Mildenhall Manor

The Amazing Digital Circus, the juggernaut indie animation series created by Gooseworx and produced by GLITCH Productions, has hit its third episode, and boy, is it a spooky doozy perfect for the Halloween season! It's got scares! It’s got lore! It’s got discussions of body dysmorphia, memory issues, and trauma! And shotguns! What more could you WANT?!? 

Overall, I would consider this the most mature episode we have seen (so far) in terms of subject matter and tone. Still, those facts only make for a more memorable experience that builds on the existential themes the show is building!

Synopsis

The third episode of The Amazing Digital Circus follows the gang (sans Zooble) going on a horror-themed adventure in the ghost-infested Mildenhall Manor. This haunted mansion sees Pomni and Kinger trapped in the “Rated Mature” section, trying to puzzle their way out of the physical and mental horrors the path presents. Pomni slowly comes to understand Kinger more throughout the ordeal and his unique mental state.

At the same time, Zooble, who had been doing all she could to avoid going on these adventures, is put into “therapy” by Caine, who is trying to understand why she keeps skipping out despite his efforts to appeal to her tastes more. The session, after Zooble tries to articulate her utter discomfort with her digital body and the dysmorphia she grapples with, pivots then to Caine’s insecurities (since he can’t grasp her issues despite her efforts) of his only purpose, making adventurers, being subpar, and Zooble keeping him from having a mental breakdown. 

With the plots of the episode roughly broken down, let's deep dive into each of them to discuss what made them great!

The ‘A’ Plot: The Mildenhall Manor

The ‘A’ Plot of the episode, the adventure in the manor, is, naturally, the most dense, leaving a lot of ground to cover. The episode leaves little room for Jax, Gangle, and Ragatha (besides for some brief checkups and gags with them) but gives us A LOT of attention to Pomni and the here-to-unexplored nutcase, Kinger! The two of them trapped in a “mature” haunted house horror experience gives them both time to shine, requiring them to lean on the other in the face of being hunted by a literal face and headless monster! 

This episode marks the first time Pomni can bounce off one of the main cast 1-on-1 for the entire episode (besides Ragatha), which gives room to show her growth. Pomni, still several layers of traumatized from the first two episodes, is trying her best to engage with and socialize with the rest of the cast, even trying to explore the limits of her new digital body, but is still noticeably on edge after all she’s faced so far and, when faced with the horror-game scenarios, barely keeping it together. Thankfully, Kinger is there! 

Kinger, a chess-themed lunatic who, at first, seemed more like comic relief than anything, really shines (literally) in this episode. Kinger, at first, gets the two of them stuck on the “mature” horror path, barely helping, if at all, with his mania and memory issues. As the episode continues, his lucidity and competence grow, from coming up with solid plans to escape the manor, remembering more and more, and making shockingly good use of a shotgun against the monsters in the manor! All of this comes to a head when he reveals that his memory issues fade when in darkness as a result of one of his strongest memories: His wife abstracted, and before being banished to the cellar, Kinger managed to calm her down just long enough to hold her one last time, thanks to the two of them being in darkness. Kinger is a tragic figure, a shambling husk of a man just trying to keep sane, with only the dark giving him the mental clarity he has lost in the light. He manages, though, thanks to the main message he imparts to Pomni. 

Pomni, through her existential struggles in the first few episodes, always seems to pull through better when interacting with and empathizing with others. It has not been perfect, with the loss of Gummigoo being the sharpest knife in her (so far!) attempts to adjust. Later, at Kofmo’s funeral, she starts to get what helps everyone else keep moving forward in The Digital Circus, which Kinger would then spell out. The people in the circus are what make it all worthwhile. None of them are perfect, but they all try and, in those little moments of care, selflessness, and camaraderie, those memories they make are what make it a little more bearable and worth treasuring, as there is no telling how long that might last before any of them abstract. They all need to lean on one another to make it through the adventure to the next, and, in the end, that’s precisely what Pomni and Kinger do, escaping the mature horror section of the manor, hand in hand, holding their breaths, as the entire cast was doing in the start of the episode. The plot caps off with Pomni both thanking Ragatha, already applying the lessons she learned in that adventure to appreciate and love while she can, and her having a newfound respect and appreciation for Kinger, seeing him in a much better light thanks to what she saw of him when he’s in darkness. 

In short, there is a lot of heavy stuff in that Plotline, so what about the Zooble therapy? How does it compare to such a dense main plot? I would say: Very well! 

The ‘B’ Plot: The Zooble Therapy Session

Zooble has not participated in any adventurers so far! But why??? That is what Caine wants to discover in this plotline, where he makes her go through a “therapy” session that straddles the line between a body dysmorphia discussion and great comedy!

The ‘B’ plot is, naturally, not as long as the ‘A’ plot. Still, it manages to use all its time by giving us a brief but powerful look at Zooble’s issues and a more comedy-charged but telling glimpse at what makes the ringmaster of the Digital Circus tick. 

The crux of the plot is after Caine fails to recall what Zooble’s problem was (and not make the therapy session all about him), Zooble explains they struggle with being comfortable in their own (digital) skin, unhappy with their bizarre body and, even with Caine having provided them with an entire box of body parts to swap in and out, can’t find anything that feels right. The most profound nuances of this are beyond the scope of my education or personal experiences, but the messaging of body dysmorphia is clear as day, and the dismissive attitude of Caine, who, even with the attempts to “help,” comes very close to modern insincerity over the issue. Overall, this revelation recontextualized many of Zooble’s actions up until now, presenting someone profoundly uncomfortable with their customizable body and, very likely, unable to ever escape due to the nature of Digital Circus. Caine, meanwhile, is as funny and, in his way, oblivious as ever.

Caine, as always, continues to be a great source of comedy, and, as someone who loves to overthink animated, more stuff to speculate over!

His attempts to figure out what has been wrong with Zooble are interesting. They come from a decidedly selfish place, wanting them to participate in the adventures he worked hard on but is at least trying to understand it in a way that makes sense to him. It seems to me Caine is not trying to be insincere when listening to Zooble's problems (at least intrinsically), but the AI is, as he spells out, born and built to make adventurers for the players to enjoy. It is entirely possible that Zooble’s dysmorphia, beyond his attempt to give more options for them to explore (as one might give a player customization options in a video game) is literally beyond his digital scope to grasp and, in the wake of that, defaults to trying to make the adventurers more appealing to them without hitting the root problem. That is not all we can speculate about in this therapy session plotline. 

The episode also introduces something that may come up later: When Caine begins to question if he is even good at his sole purpose, creating adventurers, the area around Zooble and him starts to glitch out. Was this a one-off gag or foreshadowing that the entire Digital Circus, on some level, is predicated on the AI’s own mental stability and confidence? They could build up this little moment later as either a dangerous outcome the rest of the cast must avoid for their survival or, on the flip side, the key to escaping the circus, as the game glitching out may allow them to leave (if such a thing is possible). At this very moment, we don’t have enough information to determine if it was good or bad, but it might be worth watching out for in later episodes! 

Overall, this plotline offered a lot of laughs, an extraordinary exploration of Zooble (and their very real body dysmorphia), and the potential for Caine’s problems as an AI and how it could make or break the Digital circus moving forward!

With all that said and done, how does the episode compare to the preceding two? 

How Does The Episode Compare?

Episode three is the best of the series we have seen so far from a writing and visual standpoint, barely losing out to episode two in comedy. 

Regarding writing, the previous two episodes were not bad by any means. The first episode functioned as the pilot and had the baggage of establishing the gist of the series, which kept any overall narrative within the episode non-complex but straightforward. The second episode was a step up from there, showing us what the series would look like going forward. Still, its B plot (the rest of the gang still going on the adventure while Pomni is gone) paled compared to the A plot, which is saved only by its stronger comedy. By a mile, the third episode is the most tightly written of the three. Its opening segment pays off in the ending; the segmentation of the A and B plot contrast enough to be unique and fun to watch in their own ways, tackling separate but still meaningful topics, and the entire story of Kinger is short but sweet in a way that will stick with viewers well after watching and completely recontextualizes him in a way that is worth rewatching the other episodes for. These points are built up better with the episode's visuals, which are out of this world!

The animation and visuals of episode three are easily the best we have seen. The Amazing Digital Circus, while a visual marvel at its baseline, uses a very bright, pastel color palette that can be a bit visually overstimulating and offputting at times. This episode changed all that with its location in a haunted mansion. The dark and spooky locations we see the cast go through, filled with shadows, low light, and more muted colors, honestly make all the models of the cast look absolutely gorgeous, making even the cartoony Kinger’s stronger emotions feel melancholy and substantial. The highlights were the monster chasing Kinger and Pomni, an utterly terrifying fleshy beast straight out of an early 2000s horror game, and the darkness segment where the characters mentioned above had their eyes drawn and animated in 2D. This tremendous creative choice enhanced the scene! The previous two episodes were not bad visually at all. Each had their marvels of animation between them (the abstracted Kaufmo, The Fudge, etc.), which are brought down a bit from the visual overstimulation and samey use of bright pastel colors. In contrast, this new episode goes up proverbial points for bucking that trend and doing it masterfully! That is not to say the Mystery of Mildenhall Manor is without fault, as I feel it loses out in the comedy department. 

The comedy for episode three is no doubt the weakest aspect. It still has its fair share of great jokes. Caine and Kinger (even with his sanity increasing) are still comedy gold. The focus on more serious and horror-themed subjects does not allow for more comedy to shine in the storytelling as a necessity. The pilot and the second episode win out in the comedy department, with the latter being the best of the bunch with its heavier focus on slapstick and great visual gags and the former making more of an effort to fill out its characters in their initial characterization. Losing out in comedy is a small price for sweeping the other two episodes in visuals and writing. 

The Mystery of Mildenhall Manor is clearly a standout episode compared to what we have so far! Overall, though, how is this episode?

Conclusion

The Mystery of Mildenhall Manor, the third episode of The Amazing Digital Circus, is the best of the show so far. The episode's choice to focus on the very human struggles of loss, mental instability, body dysmorphia, and the need to connect and love while you still can was an inspired one to make. The visuals and writing make this episode stand head and shoulders above what we have seen. Overall, The Amazing Digital Circus keeps improving with each passing episode in all categories, and if the show keeps up at this pace, it will no doubt be legendary!

Want to read more reviews like this? Keep an eye on this Tumblr or my Blogger

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Player's 8-Step Guide to Character Creation and Roleplaying

Being a player in any Tabletop role-playing game (TTRRG) comes with an immediate hurdle: making your character! Choosing your character options and rolling up stats is easy; Deciding on the type of person, attitude, goals, backstory, etc., and how all that will play out when role-playing is more challenging. Coming up with a unique character in which you intend to roleplay, most likely for extended durations, is never easy and can leave one wondering where to start. To help new and old role-playing game players, here is a ten-step guide to help craft your characters into purposeful, meaningful, and enjoyable additions to any campaign!

Step 1: Understand What Kind of Game You Are Playing

An excellent place to start is understanding the game and campaign you are making a character (or Importing an existing one) about!

At the most basic level, understanding and reading up on the TTRPG system you will be playing should be your starting point. It allows you to understand the options to craft your character(s) and grasp how the game will be viewed and played.

 For example, Dungeons and Dragons, even in campaigns where combat is less the focus, is constructed with it in mind down to its very bones; every class features extensive combat abilities and utilities  (even the most support-focused like Bard or Artificer), and that, naturally, would steer players to design their characters with that expectation in mind: battle. 

In contrast, Call of Cthulhu, a horror RPG system based on the HP Lovecraft Mythos, is built around social interaction, research, and the player's insignificance in the face of the unknown. Most player options are more specific and modern, with skills like accounting, psychology, and occultism that point more towards a game of investigation, attempting to outwit, outrun, and outlive the Lovecraftian horrors, with combat only as a last resort. 

A character made for one system, like D&D, will, most likely, be very different than a character created in another, like CoC, due to what said systems focus on as a game, one being more combat-focused and the other more roleplaying-focused. 

That is not to say a person can’t make a character that goes against or actively breaks the mold of the system present, but intentionality is vital. To intentionally break the rules in a way that works requires a firm understanding of what got broken in the first place. Such as playing a Warlock in D&D with Intelligence as their casting ability instead of Charisma or having Cthulhu Mythos skill points at a starting level in Call of Cthulhu. With all that in mind, establishing a firm grasp of the system you intend to play allows the character(s) you make to have the most options available and provides a better experience of how it fits (or breaks) within the game’s system. 

Once you know how to play the game(s), what the Game Master (GM) intends for you in the campaign comes next!

Step 2: Collaborate with Your Game Master and Players

Knowing the system of the game you are playing is the first hurdle; after that, knowing what kind of campaign your Game Master has in mind for you all and how your fellow players intend to interact with it is what you should learn next.

A campaign, in its length, in-house rules, setting, themes, worldbuilding, etc., is as essential to consider when constructing your character as the system rules. Every GM will have varying levels of customized elements for their campaign, no matter how inflexible the game system is. They could use a custom gameplay mechanic, setting, or even rules, so getting a good grasp of those changes and the base game (as discussed earlier) is the recipe for success when making your character at the most foundational level. It also never hurts to allow your GM to give feedback on your character to help fit into the campaign as best you can.

The relationship between GM and player(s) should always be open and receptive to what all parties can get from the games they play together. An excellent way to make that happen is collaborating with the GM during the process of coming up with and creating your character. You can make sure your ideas are both acceptable and fit in with the campaign, but also give your GM feedback on story ideas for your character and try to weave your backstory into the narrative they plan. Whatever a GM decides to help you with during character creation, your working together should ideally enhance your involvement in the campaign with your fellow players. Players whom you should also work alongside when making your characters.

Your fellow players are undoubtedly in the same boat as you, trying to develop a fun character as best they can, so why not work together? Your mileage will vary on how far you can take potential collaboration: it can be as simple as all mutually choosing unique character options and roles for a more balanced group of PCs or go as far as all to create backstories that feature each other somehow! In any case, working with your fellow players can offer much extra value for your mutual enjoyment of the game!

Naturally, this step works best for a campaign with friends or family who are easy to approach and collaborate with. Plenty of campaigns you might play will be with total strangers, but that should not stop you from trying to understand the GM's expectations (and how to meet them) going in or even trying to bounce an idea or two off a fellow player(s). 

Where do you go from here, now that you know the rules and have insights from the GM and fellow Players? It is finally time to roll your character up! 

Step 3: Roll Up Your Character!

Past all those rules, collaborations, and planning, it's time to roll up the stats and write down your character's abilities!

When and how you go about this will vary depending on how your GM wants it done. Sometimes, it's okay to roll up your character independently; some prefer to do it in a Session Zero or even a private  one-on-one, but you need to roll up your character to play!

It might seem like a know-brainer step that does not require a guide to tell, which is not wrong, but what choices and options you take should be done with seriousness. At its core, it is a game, and you should always pick what you want to play, but it is also the basis of your character. 

The stats, skills, powers, etc., you give your character will be the basis on which you interact with the game and express your PC. The following steps will go over not just how to make the best of your choices when you first roll them up but also how to make the best of what you don’t have available to you and when it's best to leave intentional gaps in your character. 

The first place to start is to see how your stats and skills can inform how you write and express your character in roleplaying. 

Step 4: Play Into Your Strengths, Embrace Your Weaknesses

Most Tabletop roleplaying games come with a collection of statistics, abilities, and skills (be they random or actively decided on), and those choices will make up the foundation of your characters in some way or another, so lean into it during roleplay.

 A typical example of character statistics is the classic six RPG attributes: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma, with one or more thrown in depending on the game (if not the names changed around), but these are relatively ubiquitous and easy to translate into your character’s backstory and how they roleplay. 

For example, suppose you're playing a Fighter in D&D who leans heavily into physical attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution) but lacks the remaining mental attributes. In that case, you can easily write them and roleplay them as a “brain over brown” dullard with little going on in their heads. The inverse of that example, the stat block could be a Wizard, a scrawny intellectual with a big personality, but could get knocked over by a hamster if they got in a fistfight. These are two examples on the extreme ends of the spectrum, but they represent how you can express yourself by how your character’s stats ended up. 

Your stats (and how you play them in roleplaying) also roll into the class/profession/role(s) you pick for your character, be them fantasy classics (wizard, paladin, bard), more modern professions (investigator, artist, athlete), or futuristic roles (starship pilot, mad scientist, cyborg), you can then add your stats into the equation to make something exceptional!

 You could make a good-natured musician with little brains but a charismatic presence and strong body, an anti-social investigator with a sharp mind and mean right hook, or a brilliant mad scientist with incredible stage presence but little athletic talent. The statistics and the class you pick go hand in hand, so make something fun with them!

There also exist plenty of systems that don’t use the attributes mentioned above or express them way differently (EX: Slayers, Shadowrun, Cyberpunk Red, etc.), but depending on how the statistics and player options operate, the above advice should still be just as applicable despite the differences. 

In short, using the statistics and skills you are best and worst at to their fullest, in conjunction with The type of character role you are playing, is a surefire way to make a unique and fun character! 

Of course, when coming up with something “unique,” it never hurts to get inspired, especially from your favorite media!

Step 5: Don’t Be Afraid To Be Inspired

Nothing is 100% original, and you should not place the expectation on yourself that your character(s) have to be either! A crucial part of the creative process is taking what you like most from other art/media and slowly evolving it into something that fits your style, and your characters should also be something like that. 

Do you have a favorite protagonist in a fantasy series, like Harry Potter or Geralt of Rivia, that you like and want to try and make your spin on for your character in D&D? Go for it! Make a wizard who is the chosen one of a prophecy from a wizard school or a blood hunter with sorted affairs with sorceresses! Do you want a tragic backstory where your father is secretly the evil enforcer of an evil space empire, like Star Wars? Go for it! It might seem like stealing or unoriginal, but realistically, none of these character ideas or story beats will be 100% replicable and change almost immediately when put into practice. No matter how derivative, these concepts you place upon your character(s) will get filtered through your tastes, roleplaying sensibilities, and the campaign setting, then swiftly morph into something wholly new and, ideally, you as a result!

Inspiration is always the starting point for any great idea. Never feel bad or fake for trying to make something just because it resembles something that came before. You can always do whatever you can to make the details that matter, big and small, something different until it becomes something new. 

You do not need to fill in every little detail or use every possible change at the onset; sometimes, it is better to leave some gaps open so you and your character can grow as you play the game. 

Step 6: Allow For Improv and Intentionality in Roleplaying

Improv is one of the core elements of all roleplaying games, so lean into it! Any player can relate to having to come up with some stray character detail, quirk, or backstory element on the fly, and, quite frankly, it is something you should aim for when making your character(s). 

A roleplaying character is not the same as a main character in a novel; it does not require complete intentionality of actions and a slew of backstories to back that up. What matters most is enough details to make your roleplaying meaningful and engaging in the campaign. 

The amount of detail can range from (contradicting what was said above) a long-winded backstory you put countless hours into or half a page of bullet points you fill in the blanks for as you play. It varies from person to person what they feel constitutes a backstory worth using for proper roleplay, and there is no wrong answer, but what matters is the ability to be flexible with it and allow for improvisation. No backstory, no matter how well thought out and intricate, will have covered everything that might come up (EX: You wrote a 30-page backstory for your warrior where his family died and he was drafted to be a child soldier but did not write down what his favorite kind of pastry was when you encounter a baker who asks), and that is okay! Make it up! Live in the moment of roleplaying!! That is exactly how these games are meant to be played and, quite often, allow for organic expansions on the characters, making them even more fun to play!

Conversely, having details thought up for your character that you actively seek to use with intentionality never hurts. A character that is, frankly, just a pile of statistics and items with no backstory that you play with at the whims of what is directly in front of you is not a roleplaying character. That description would be the best fit for an storyless avatar in a video game like World of Warcraft, tacitly involved in an overarching narrative but not truly a participant in a meaningful capacity. Stats are not enough. It takes some measure of personal connection, stakes, and investment in the conflict(s), world, and NPCs to make a roleplaying character something that is both real and active in the campaign. 

Circling back to “just write the exact amount of backstory you feel is most comfortable,” at least some elements you can navigate your character would be the play. The backstory elements can be as simple as, for example, when a mad scientist character got their start in their profession, some friends and enemies they have (described in single sentence blurbs), and an assortment of topics they are interested in and have opinions on which they prattle on when prompted. That is not a lot, but it is enough to have some connection to how the campaign unfolds, as the GM, ideally, can either use those details to make the character feel involved in the plot or at least collaborate with you to make it work for how the campaign is unfolding.

Improvisation and intentionality, as it pertains to a Roleplaying character in a TTRPG, is a tightrope walk. You need to keep a good balance on just enough details to make the path more meaningful and structured but enough slack to have fun with it as you move forward. 

You are, ultimately, playing someone you want to keep moving forward and have fun with matters most for your character. So, make a character you want to play above all else!

Step 7: Make A Character You Want to Play and Be Played With

In a game, you, shocker, want to play something you enjoy! It is the same for a TTRPG character, in their gameplay elements, story, and how you interact with fellow players and vice versa. You should always be conscious of that fact from the moment you roll up a character to the end of a campaign.

At the most basic level, selecting your character’s classes/professions/skills, whatever the game may allow you to choose, you should go for something you would personally enjoy. You might not know if the choices you made to play with were a good fit, so try to change them if you can! Any good GM will allow some wiggle room to change or even replace your character if given a good enough reason. Do not be afraid to communicate your needs in the gameplay of a TTRPG. The gameplay is half the battle; the story is the next, and you can also have some say. 

No matter what sort of system or campaign you are in, you (as your character) still engage with it and should steer things in the direction you enjoy most. It is not uncommon for a campaign to go in a direction or two you might not like, for example, an NPC from your character’s backstory represented in a way you don’t like or NSFW elements becoming more commonplace, and in those instances do not be afraid to speak up! Talk with your GM and fellow players and either make sure the game going forward steers clear of the things you might not have been okay with or at least tone it down to help your overall enjoyment. Roleplaying games are a group activity, and everyone’s thoughts and opinions should have weight when deciding how things play out. A fact that you should also be cognizant of with how you play.

While championing sticking up for what you enjoy and avoiding what you don’t, the above paragraph is not a license to disregard what your fellow players and GM like. Remember, it is a group game, and EVERYONE has a valid voice in the proceedings; ergo, you must consider how you present yourself through your actions. Suppose you are roleplaying or making decisions actively detracting from everyone else's fun or bringing forth elements (like the ones in the previous example). In that case, you should be open to hearing them out and changing your approach to playing, just like how you’d want them to do the same.

In short, TTRPGs are about having fun, and you must do what you can to facilitate that and not hinder your fellow player’s fun in the process. 

Step 8: Have Fun!

As we just went over, playing a TTRPG is all about fun, and, for a player, that starts with the character you play. These steps and tricks aim to make creating a player character and roleplaying them much more straightforward and ( ideally) fun by giving you some good tips and tricks to clarify the process.

Conceiving a roleplaying character, one you intend to put your heart and soul into, takes time and effort. It requires a firm grasp of the rules you intend to play and some help from your GM and fellow players. You also need to embrace what you have and make the best of what you don’t, using what you are passionate about to give it life and being sure to behave like you’d want your fellow players to act. All of which, while daunting, can be done after using this guide!

Ideally, by reading this guide, the creation and execution of your roleplaying game characters will be all the more manageable, and your TTRPG experiences will be all the more memorable for it!

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Dungeon Master's 10-Step Guide to Worldbuilding 

Dungeon Master's 10-Step Guide to Worldbuilding 

When it comes to being the Dungeon Master while playing Dungeons and Dragons, one of the most intimidating parts is how you go about crafting the world. The process of creating a diverse setting, NPCs, antagonists, and gods can seem like a lot to tackle, especially if it's your first time DMing. To help new and old Dungeon Masters alike tackle the daunting task of world-building for your Dungeons and Dragons campaign, here are Ten Steps to make engaging you and your players fun, easy, and effective. 

STEP 1: Read the Dungeon Master’s Guide. 

It is a bold move for a blog to start with “read something else,” but it is warranted here. The official Wizards of the Coast Dungeon Master’s Guide (5E, but any edition works) contains, among other things, many tips and tricks for crafting a solid campaign setting, grand world, and striking multiverse. It is a godsend for a beginner DM trying to wrap their head around the specifics of what a setting would need, and it offers a lot of practical insight into how your world should intersect with your player's play style and preferences. 

For example, the first few chapters of the 5E Dungeon Masters guide discuss not just how to tailor make your campaign to your player's tastes but how to craft gods and unique faiths, developing locations (with all sorts of details to think about like scale, commerce, governments, etc.), factions, magic systems, inciting events and much MUCH more! It is a must for DM, but where do you get it?

The book is reasonably straightforward to find for free online (such as the Internet Archive), but it can also be easily acquired from any bookstore, hobby shop, or major retailer. Many mom-and-pop bookstores sell used copies at reduced prices and in excellent condition. 

Overall, the Dungeon Master’s Guide offers a lot of well-written, nitty-gritty advice to help you craft a setting and would be an excellent place to start for advice. In contrast, the meat and potatoes of this blog are more concerned with the macro craft of world-building, offering the broad strokes of the best approaches to save time, reduce the anxieties of the daunting task of world-building, and make your role-playing sessions more memorable. How do you start this? By setting the scope of your campaign. 

STEP 2: Set the Scope of your Campaign

A good trick when outlining your worldbuilding is understanding how broad its scope is. Is your campaign just a one-shot? Is it going to be a handful of sessions? A multi-month, even multi-year campaign? How many players do you have? What level do you plan to start your players on, and when do you plan to cut them off (if at all)? While seemingly unrelated to making a world for a role-playing game, all these questions offer an excellent framework for designing the world and how much you’ll need at a given time. 

For example, a one-shot, which is literally just a session or two long, will not necessarily require your players to traverse many drastically different townships, cities, and civilizations like a multi-month or year campaign might, so temper your focus to accommodate that scope. A one-shot set in one or two story-rich towns will be more rewarding for you and your players than a vast world that will remain unexplored in any meaningful way. On the flip side, a multi-year campaign set to traverse all sorts of locations necessitates a more expansively planned world that could fill out such an extensive duration of time and, therefore, be worth the effort in the first place. In either scenario, another critical factor is how many players there are and what level you intend them to be at.

The number of players and the general level of the party are also significant to know when going in. A handful of level one characters, compared to level five or twelve, will require different challenges that scale with their power level, and the setting they inhabit must reflect that difference. A few level one players are best set upon by bandits or wolves on the road, while a level ten party of the same number can tackle an Aboelth and its cult or even a Dragon in its lair! With that specific level of power, your players kept in mind, you can craft your setting to accommodate the level of danger they would face without it coming off as jarring. For example, a village facing a kobold problem sounds like a perfect starting point for a campaign of early-level players (of any duration of time), while a capital city besieged by demons is either best suited for the middle or the end of a campaign for higher level players; or the inciting incident of a high-level campaign. 

In any case, understanding the scope of your campaign and the amount of firepower your players have (in level and numbers) is just as essential when crafting the setting you wish them to inhabit. 

Now that you have a good idea of the campaign's length and your party's numbers and strength, it's time to start world-building! Where do you start? Small. 

STEP 3: Start Small and Build as you go

Rome wasn't built in a day, nor will your massive role-playing world be. The previously discussed scope of your campaign provided an excellent blueprint for building the world, but now the actual construction has begun, and it's best to start small. 

What is “small” in this context of role-playing game worldbuilding? That would depend on your priorities, but a good rule of thumb is to start with what you need as soon as possible. A long-running campaign will unlikely need the intricate lore of the lost city the entire story will be building to on day one when the party first meets at a tavern, but some lore on the local happenings and monsters in the area would come in handy. You are not writing a novel or making a video game when you are the Dungeon Master in D&D (even if there is a lot of overlap). When you are the Dungeon Master, you are playing just as much as the players, and prioritizing the immediate things you all will be engaging with will make your life a lot easier when you start and then build up as you go. 

A campaign can begin in many places, like taverns, prisons, battlefields, etc. Whatever the case, beginning where you will engage in play first, as a player and a DM, is a solid place to begin. That is not to discourage future planning or more scattered bits of world-building lore you string together as you go, but what matters is that you start one piece at a time.

Creating a world, be it for a one-shot or long-running campaign, is a big task, and breaking it down into sequential little steps will make it more manageable and less daunting. That can shake out in any manner; starting with the first immediate location I just described, making a handful of continents and some general locations you might use, the gods your world has, etc. It can be tackled however you want, but it does not have to be all at once. It does not have to be all on your own, either. It is a team game, so why not get your players involved?

STEP 4: Make Your Players Invested in Your World By Making Them Part of It

The relationship between Dungeon Masters and their Players should not be adversarial. They are not trying to defeat one or the other but collaborating and enjoying a role-playing world together. Consulting the players could make the world that the Dungeon Master is building even more engaging in its early stages.

A world in which your player's characters exist is one in which they already have a history. Those characters, be they knights of a kingdom, wandering magicians, cutthroats with a dark past, or whatever the case may be, will need personal connections, backstories, etc., for the world they live in. Now, that is not to say you or the player need to write an entire book on the subject of their character’s life up until the start of the campaign, nor should they need much of one at all. What matters is giving them personal stakes in the setting. 

World-building does not stop when you have a slew of fantastical locations, NPCs, etc.; it is about connecting your world with the players to best engage with it. This engagement can involve the player characters actively consulting with their NPC close friends and loved ones in the campaign, villains from their past taking center stage in the world, or the locations they call home being the central setting of their activities. Either way, making the players feel like they are a part of this world is vital. The specifics will vary from group to group, but it almost always starts with communicating with your players beforehand.

When your players are constructing their characters, be it during Session 0 or beforehand, try to communicate with them to understand the stories their characters are going to have. Knowing what sort of backstory, places of origin, fears, and goals the player characters have can go a long way in designing settings and conflict that lead to attractive roleplaying opportunities and greater engagement. It would be good to have a hand in crafting your player's backstory, giving them input on what would best fit, and collaborating on how both parties can enjoy them to the fullest. 

Admittedly, these practices are better for more well-established groups where open communication is more accessible, like with friends and family, than, say, a group of strangers meeting up at a local games club or Discord, but even just tossing a few references to their characters' lives in your already established setting makes all the difference when crafting your world for your players' enjoyment and your own. 

If all else fails, you can draw inspiration from elsewhere to spice up your world and foster more engagement from your players. 

STEP 5: Don’t be afraid to be Inspired

Coming up with a world for a D&D is, shocker, hard! It is even harder to come up with a slew of new ideas right out the gate, so what better way to fill those gaps than to get inspired from outside sources?

No story or setting is perfectly original. Every creator draws inspiration from their favorite books, shows, games, etc., to help inform their unique creative voice. D&D is brimming with direct inspiration in its most official sources (drawing heavily from Tolkien's works to the point that their Hobbits needed to be renamed Halfings for legal reasons), so why not do the same with your own?

Do you have a favorite plotline or faction from a video game or movie? Take it, put your spin on it, and put it in your world! Read up on other people’s D&D campaigns and settings, see what most appeals to you, and see how you can translate it to your own. Even just reading setting guides and other official Dungeons and Dragons books can offer a wellspring of different sources of inspiration to help craft your world. It may feel like cheating, looking at other people’s work and putting it on your own, but it's a necessary start to many creative processes. Your sources of inspiration can be molded and changed to best fit your tastes and be modified in practice when your campaigns begin in earnest until they are no longer some other idea but your own. The world is filled with so many incredible pieces of art and media to draw from, and there is no shame in taking some aspects of any of it and making it something unique to you. 

Whatever you decide to be inspired by, there is one thing you should never let fall by the wayside when creating your world: ORGANIZING IT. 

STEP 6: ORGANIZE! ORGANIZE!! ORGANIZE!!!

Worldbuilding takes a lot of pages and notes, so you better organize them. It cannot be overstated how much extra time and effort is saved by doing some basic organization when coming up with your world from the onset. 

How do you organize your concepts, locations, and gods? It is a pick-your-poison situation where your preferences for writing and note-keeping matter most. You can use Google or Microsoft Suite programs (Drive, Doc, Sheets, Word, Excel, etc.), use dedicated world-building and writing programs that streamline the process (like World Anvil, Fantasia Archive, and Obsidian to recommend a few), make use of simple pen and paper binders and notebooks, or whatever works best for you! What matters is using something you are comfortable with writing with, can keep organized and easy to refer back to, and, as needed, share with your players. 

Disorganized world-building can be disastrous for your creative process and campaign when it begins in earnest. Imagine how much time you could have spent designing a fantasy culture if you just didn't have to search through each document/paper for a particular lore idea you had. It will save you a lot of headaches by keeping all your world-building elements tidy, well-documented, and organized for your mental health and the health of your fledgling D&D world. 

No matter how many ideas you generate and organize for your world, you will almost certainly encounter something in the campaign proper. What do you do when that situation arises? Improvise! 

STEP 7: You won’t Know it all. Improvise!

At its core, tabletop RPGs have a lot of built-in improvisation. Players constantly make role-playing plans and combat choices on the fly, and the DM is similar. The players will throw as many unexpected situations, questions, and scenarios at the DM as they will at them. When interacting with worldbuilding, there is no question that something you have yet to consider will arise in the gameplay. How do you handle a situation like that? You do what your players do: Improvise!

As already discussed, world-building is a step-by-step process you will not complete in a day. It is just as accurate that you will never truly have a totally complete world. The very nature of roleplaying, where an infinite number of eventualities, questions, and activities could be involved, does not invite the possibility of ever really having a world filled out. So, improvisation is as vital to your world as methodical writing and organization. 

There is no Dungeon Master on Earth who has not gotten blindsided by something from their players, which then forced said DM to improvise. It is just part of the game for the DM as it is for the players, so expect it and account for it in your world-building. You do not need to have every name of every shopkeeper in a town that is not plot-relevant, so just make something up when asked and integrate it into your world if you like it. You will get players wanting to explore areas that are not as fleshed out or going in directions with the plot you have yet to account for. Roll with it (within reason) and allow your world to build itself organically around this new route. In essence, allowing for gaps in your worldbuilding, large or small, is natural, as improvisation is just part of the game and an organic way to build your world through your player's interactions with it. 

That said, there is a big difference between allowing for improvisation and having your players take the reins of your world in a way that you would instead not go, and you must stop it. 

STEP 8: Make sure your Players know the Limitations of the Craft

Dungeons and Dragons is not just a game for the players, but the DM, too, playing in the world together. The exact modes of enjoyment between both parties may differ, but the game is a collaborative experience where the enjoyment of everyone involved should be the chief concern. The sensation of seeing the world you painstakingly constructed, being engaged with, enjoying, and actualizing via RP is hard to describe and an experience any Dungeon Master can relate to. With that fact in mind, it is not wrong to prevent your players from taking things in your world in a way you do not enjoy, as your fun is just as important as theirs.

The nature of D&D, a game where coming up with things on the fly on both sides of the table happens often, can snowball or go in the direction the DM or other players might not be comfortable with. Situations like that can usually go for the better, like a one-off NPC becoming a player favorite, a dumb joke becoming integrated into the world, or an in-character argument that keeps everyone engaged. These examples(and more I did not outline) can result in new and dynamic ways for your evolving world and the players to interact with it, but it also can go wrong. 

A situation might arise where players try to go dramatically off course in a way that you are both unprepared for and frankly unwilling to go, be it active defiance of the plot to go to a completely unrelated location without ever engaging with the story or even NSFW elements uncomfortable to most involved. It will happen somehow and in some way, and it is imperative to communicate that these situations are not cool as early as possible.

When creating your world, do what you can to curb any potential “off the rails” shenanigans you are frankly uncomfortable with. Dungeon Masters, while just as much playing the game as the players, are the ones actively creating the setting, story, and direction of the actual “playing” that is occurring, and have a right to establish ground rules for proper conduct and keep the world from spiraling in ways they don’t want. 

The most common way to achieve this is to establish and discuss some ground rules before the game starts properly. Player etiquette, the types of story elements in the setting that might warrant a trigger warning you may or may not use, and even the types of player lineages, classes, or backgrounds that are and aren't allowed are all perfectly valid things to outline and encourage when making your world and campaign. Your ideas and interests do not just shape your world but what you are and aren't comfortable with, and making sure your players understand that is just as much about worldbuilding as it is about collaborative gameplay.

Be it rules to keep things on track, intentional gaps to improve, or worldbuilding tools, a DM needs many tools in their toolbox to make the most of their setting, so why not get as many ready as you can before letting your players interact with it? 

STEP 9: Set yourself up for Success!

To bring back the “Rome was not built in a day” analogy, it was also not built with a single tool for its entire process. It takes many diverse and specialized tools and resources to make a building, let alone a whole empire, and that is also the case with worldbuilding for D&D.

We have already discussed many potential resources you can draw on to make your life easier, like world-building programs, official books, and more, but why stop there? D&D is a game enjoyed by millions, with many incredibly talented enthusiasts taking the time to create resources waiting to be used to make your world-building a little smoother. 

Let's take some time to outline some of the many out there in the hopes that a few can used to make any reader’s worldbuilding woes a little bit easier to weather:

Map Making Tools

Here is a collection of free and paid tools for constructing maps that can be as big as worlds or as small as cities or streets! Either way, they make great visuals when presenting your world. 

Inkarnate

Wonderdraft

medieval-fantasy-city-generator

Song Of The Eons

Dungeondraft

Fantasy Name Generators

Names can be some of the hardest things to conceive in writing, especially in fantasy settings where they can be odd and esoteric. Here are some robust free online name generator tools to save you a headache by generating any name you need at the click of a button. 

Fantasy Name Generators

Donjon

Behind the Name

Homebrew Tools:

Creating your monsters, magic items, and lineages is just as much a part of worldbuilding as anything else. Here are some free tools to help you craft your homebrew or even generate it!

Giffy Glyph's Monster Maker

The Homebrewery

Kenji's Magic Item Generator

Here Be Taverns

Rules, Resources, and Reference Guides:

There are A LOT of rules, player options, monsters, items, etc., in D&D! It can be hard to keep track of what cool things you can integrate into your world when so many options exist across the many books that possess them. Here are some handy catch-all reference websites for 5e materials and some 3e and 3.5e tossed in there, too!

5e.Tools

dnd5e

d20srd

These tools, tips, tricks, and steps in this guide are all meant to make worldbuilding for your Dungeons and Dragons campaign straightforward. It makes the chief reason for even playing the game as achievable as possible: having fun!

STEP 10: Have Fun!

At its core, a tabletop RPG is played as a dungeon master or as a player to have fun. These steps and tricks aim to make the daunting task of world-building much more straightforward and ( ideally) fun by giving it more concrete aims and tools to eliminate much of the tedium.

As explained before, worldbuilding has many components and is unlikely to be genuinely “complete,” but it never has to be. The world you craft is nothing but a stage for your players to act on and for you to direct them from; the immersion and depth will only need to be as deep as you all need to find enjoyment in. Even with that in mind, it can be a long and tedious task, but having a proper scope, tools, and know-how can make it all the easier. It becomes all the more fun and engaging when you build your world with your players in mind, set firm boundaries so everyone can have a good time, and have some fun by letting some improvisation and spontaneous thinking shine through!

To reiterate, you are not writing a book when you present your players with your world, but rather a vehicle for them and for you to have a good ride together in the crazy ride that is tabletop roleplaying. 

By following the previous steps (in whatever order you choose), I hope you are prepared to offer a fun experience when your setting is complete and have a stellar time playing in it for your campaign!

[zapperman26]

Meet the Shaman! A Wisdom-based, Learned Spell Caster Homebrew class focused on AOE, Utility, and Support! Enhance your and your allies' abilities, summon a spiritual icon to make cast alongside you, and unleash the fury of the elements, spirits, and more with the first attempt of mine into homebrew class design!

Let me know your thoughts and suggestions!

[zapperman26]

Dohwar: Psionic Merchant Penguins

Do you want to play as a Dohwar from Spelljammer Campaign Setting? Do the four foot tall, fanged space penguins merchant penguins with psychic powers appeal to you??

Then give this Homebrew Lineage option of mine a try!

Ability Score Increase. Increase one ability score by 2, and increase a different one by 1, or increase three different scores by 1. Alternatively, increase your Charisma score by 2, and increase your Constitution score by 1.  

Creature Type. You are a Fey.

Size. Dohwar averages 3 to 4 feet tall and 40 to 52 lbs. You are Small.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet, and you have a swim speed of 30 feet. 

Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Dohwar; Dohwar is a language derived from both Sylvan and Aquan. 

Hold Breath. You can hold your breath for 30 minutes. 

Bite. You have a pair of hidden fangs that you can use to make unarmed strikes. When you hit with it, the strike deals 1d6 + your Dexterity modifier slashing damage, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike. 

Wheeler and Dealer. Dowhar have a natural propensity for mercantilism. You gain proficiency in Persuasion or Deception of your choice. 

Cold as Ice. Dohwar are from an arctic planet and enjoy similar climates. You have resistance to cold damage.

Merchant Mentalist. Dohwar are unskilled but natural psionics specialized in communication and short-term manipulation. You know the Message Cantrip. 

You can ignore the material components requirement in any spell usage associated with this feature. You can also cast these spells using any spell slots you have. Your spellcasting ability is either Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma (you must choose one when selecting this lineage)

 When you reach 3rd Level, you can cast Distort Value once using this trait per long rest. 

 When you reach 5th Level, you can cast Detect Thoughts once using this trait per long rest. 

If you have any thoughts, critiques, etc. about this homebrew, hit me up I am always open to constructive critique!