Crazy Clinto's Handy Home Brew Hacks

This is a post about making your own worlds with your players at the table, whilst playing a TTRPG, like Dungeons and Dragons. It is not actually about any beverages, caffeinated, alcoholic, or otherwise. 

I need to preface this post with the following admission. I am not a home brew guy. I grew up in the 90's, surrounded by more D&D products than any one person could ever run and no one to play D&D with. I spent hours enjoying the "lonely fun" of steeping myself in the the lore of The Forgotten Realms, Planescape, The Dark Sun, Spelljammer, Greyhawk, Mystara, and Thunder Rift. I poured over sourcebooks, read adventure modules, and experienced the adventures of Drizzt, Caderly, Minsc, The Nameless One, and many more through novels and video games. When my day finally came to begin running D&D adventures for my friends, my children, and anyone who would let me, I was prepared with decades of lore in my back pocket. Nothing comes up that I don't have an answer for. Further, I love these worlds that I've spent my youth reading about. Until very recently, I've had zero desire to make any forays into home brewing my own D&D world. Why would I need to? 

Well, if you're here because you run D&D for a table of kids, like I do, you know the answer to that question. Kids, youngsters, children, teens, tweens, or whatever you wish to call them, want to have a part in the world they're experiencing at the table. Many are happy just to explore this new and wonderful place, but others want to put their stamp on it. They want to say, "I'm from the village of Patchenville on edge of the Clear Fields region, just on the outskirts of the the Grand Duchy of Cambria" or "I studied under the famous bard, Jacob Durwood, known throughout the north western kingdoms." If there's one thing that I've learned as an educator, the best thing we can do with a child's creativity is stomp all over it and pound it into submission. As such, it's probably best to tell them to stay in their swim lane and that you, the DM, will handle the lore.

Of course, I jest. I'm all about the pre-written lore, as noted above, but this is a game where we make stuff up in a make-believe world. It's very hard to look at a kiddo who has just shown real investment in the character and the game by making up a bit of lore and say, "I'm sorry. That's wrong. You actually probably grew up in Leilon", or "You likely studied under Mattrim (3 strings) Mereg." 

Also, there is so much great material out there that is set in numerous settings. Maybe you want to run Dragon of Icespire Peak, followed by Ghosts of Saltmarsh, with a brief inland detour to The Scarlet Citadel. Already, you're beginning in Forgotten Realms, then going to Greyhawk, and dungeon delving into Midgard (The Campaign Setting by Kobold Press). Your world can quickly become a hot-mess hodgepodge of conflicting histories and magic systems... or not. You are not Tolkien, and this is just make believe. IT DOES NOT NEED TO BE THAT HARD. So, here are my three biggest home brew lore hacks that will hopefully help you have the most fun making stuff up with that table of kiddos while keeping everything straight. 

Hack 1: Ignore the Lore / Kicking it Old School. 

This is probably less of a hack and more of a cop-out, but it's definitely an option. In the olden days of B/X D&D this was largely the norm. This concept is still embraced in such glorious old school systems as Old School Essentials, seen in adventures like "Hole in the Oak". Original D&D was a game of totally gonzo dungeon dives with ridiculous premises. If you're running brief one-shots or even 5-shots for kids, how much world building do you need to do beyond the adventure they're currently experiencing? Does it matter what borderlands your keep is on if you're just going to fight a bunch of monsters, loot caves, and then roll up new characters for the next adventure? Yes, there was a world fleshed out in the olden days, called the "Known World", which we will get to later, but most people ignored it during play. This is a crazy fantasy game. Let the kids make up what they want, use what helps the adventure, and ignore the rest. 

Hack 2: This is how it is in our version of this world. 

A lot of published adventures are a great start, particularly those in the Starter Set and Essentials Kit. Not only do they give beginning players and Dungeon Masters a great start into the 3 pillars of play, but they also are an excellent primer into the concept of spiral campaign development, or building your lore outward from the player's immediate perspective. 

As such, even though these adventures assume an "official setting", the Forgotten Realms in this case, the setting's history, deities, factions, and other lore take a back seat to what's important to the character's right now. Phandalin, the town featured in the above mentioned box sets first appeared in a video game, called Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir. Before that it was not even a part of the Forgotten Realms lore. Again, this is all just crap that someone is making up! Further, there is information in the official campaign adventure, Ghosts of Saltmarsh to place it in the Forgotten Realms, not far from Phandalin, instead of its default setting of Greyhawk. In other words the official publishers of D&D are recommending that you make crap up that's not part of official lore BECAUSE IT'S YOUR GAME!!!

So, if one of your players says, "My Tabaxi barbarian is from the Rothneian Plain", then that's canon for your world, even if it's based on Faerun (the Forgotten Realms world). "Okay," you may ask, "What is found at the Rothneian Plain?" It doesn't matter right now! Mike Shea, writer of the Lazy DM series, recommends always thinking two horizons out, or what's within the characters' reach right now, and where is the next adventure likely to be. In this way, you can blend the lore your table comes up with with what is in the adventure you're running as it comes up in your prep for the very next session. The rest doesn't matter to your players right now. You don't need to worry about it. 

Finally, if someone joins your table that is steeped in official D&D lore and says, "Hey, the Rothneian Plain isn't even in this world! She's probably from the Shaar!", then you can respond with "This is how it is in our version of this world". There it is. 

Hack 3: Borrow, Steal, and Re-skin the crap out of everything.

Finally, maybe you aspire to be the next Matt Mercer, and you dream of creating your own realms on the scale of Tal'Dorei or Wildemount. You dream of developing your own setting but don't even know where to begin. Well, you need not make anything up from scratch. Even Matt Mercer recommends mining his campaign settings for parts to use in your own. 

In the game I'm currently running with my own children, I have elements of Wildemount, Midgard, Thunder Rift, and Sandpoint, along with random locations and elements from the Gamemaster's Book of Random Encounters. Now, I realize that I have a lot of money represented there, but I collect D&D stuff. It's literally my only hobby. You can buy zero books and still collect a lot of lore. 

There is so much you can get for free, and as you may have guessed from previous posts, I'm here to curate a list for you. Before I do, though, know that it's easy to get in over your head in this process, but it helps to remember these two precepts: 

1. The whole point of home brew is including your players in the development of the world! - Let it happen organically at the table as you explore and adventure together using these resources to flesh out the voids. 
2. You are not Tolkien and your players don't care about the history of the sacred tree in the courtyard of the ancient temple of your forgotten god. - You should still be thinking two horizons out.

Without further adieu, here is my curated list of free (zero budget) resources for fleshing out you own D&D campaign setting:  

Whole Campaign Settings. 

• Morgansfort & The Western Lands  on the Basic Fantasy Downloads page. - This campaign module combines: The Western Lands, a briefly sketched campaign area; Morgansfort, a detailed "home base" for an adventuring party; The Old Island Fortress, and more (yes, you would have to adapt the mechanics to 5e, but it's mostly lore).
• Mystara at the Vaults of Pandius - this is the first D&D setting (mentioned above), originally known as "The Known World". There are many who consider this to still be the best, most interesting D&D world. 
• In fact many consider the setting of "Thunder Rift" (Also mentioned above) to be part of Mystara, and it is therefore covered on Pandius. 
• Finally, there are a ton of other folks out there making worlds and sharing them online, like Elthelas, or any number of other worlds found here. 

Map Resources

• I've mentioned Dysonlogos here before, but I've never specifically covered the wealth of city, town, and region maps to be found there.  
• A resource that is unbelievably free is DonJon, and yes, they have a World Generator.
• Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator is simple and powerful for getting your creativity flowing. 
• Honorable mentions include freemium sites like:
• Inkarnate
• World Anvil

People Places and Things

These are the most useful resources to a DM as you think two horizons out. This is the stuff that really makes your world feel real and alive to your players. The people they meet and the places they go mean a lot more than any bit of historical lore they may uncover. 

• Generators upon generators are available at DonJon. Shops, taverns, NPC's, calendars, teasure, demographics, encounters, and more can be found here. 
• Kassoon City Street Generator (because I don't think Donjon has one)
• NPC Generators
• NPC Generator
• RPG Tinker
• My favorite Name Generators (because being able to say it makes it more memorable).
• Reedsy Character Name Generator
• Masterpiece Generator - Character Name Generator

Finally, I know there's nothing earth shattering or originally brilliant here. I mainly write this blog for folks who are trying to get their legs under them while running games for kids. That said, I leave you with this benediction. Go forth. Have fun playing games with your kiddos, and remember:

You are not Tolkien, and this is just make believe. We're all just making crap up.

The whole point of home brew is including your players in the development of the world! - Let it happen organically at the table as you explore and adventure together, using these resources to flesh out the voids. 

If you're all having fun and enjoying this, you're doing it right!

 

Final Thought / Parting Shot

Remember, as big a part of any world as what is has is what it doesn't have... Thanks to Mr. Welch for this thoughtful take: