Creating Memorable Places in TTRPGS & 5e Dungeons & Dragons - Web DM

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Never create a boring location again! In this episode, Jim and Pru break down the elements to consider when making settlements for your campaign. How do you make them fantastic, vibrant, believable, and memorable? Don't forget to subscribe, comment & share. New episodes every Wednesday.
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Written & Hosted by Jonathan Pruitt & Jim Davis
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Intro To 5th Edition - • 5th Edition Dungeons &...
Backgrounds, Feats & Spellcasters - • Backgrounds, Feats & S...
Inside Editions - • Inside Editions - Web DM
Getting Started in 5th Edition - • Getting Started In 5th...
Character Creation Part One - • Character Creation Par...
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Campaigning “On Rails” - • Is Your D&D Campaign "...
Treasure - • Treasure: How Much Is ...
Player Styles - • Different Player Style...
Killing Characters - • Killing Characters Res...
Barbarians & Bards - • Barbarians & Bards - W...
Druids,Fighters, Monks, Rangers & Rogues - • Druids, Fighters, Monk...
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5e Dungeons & Dragons is here to stay, and Web DM is here to help!!! Jim Davis & Jonathan Pruitt have been playing Dungeons & Dragons for a combined 30+ years, and on Web DM they demystify, dethrone, and defrock this Dungeon we call Dragons! Subscribe to our channel for weekly videos on 5e Classes, Monsters, DM Tips, and more! Join Pruitt & Jim as we kick down the door and talk some serious Dungeons & Dragons!

Пікірлер: 277

  • @WebDM
    @WebDM5 жыл бұрын

    Thanks for watching! Want more Web DM in your life? Check out our Patreon for our podcast, bonus vids, and more! Patreon.com/webdm Or our Twitch channel for live streamed ttrpgs every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday! Twitch.tv/webdm Or our live play archive on KZread: KZread.com/webdmplays

  • @TardisPilot2004

    @TardisPilot2004

    5 жыл бұрын

    Web DM that intro was weird and fun. I liked it.

  • @CalCuredBoredom

    @CalCuredBoredom

    5 жыл бұрын

    Hey, you guys have mentioned it on and off but could you make an episode all about Curse of Strahd and horror since no one has made a good video on how to go through the book or improving the story. Heavily biased, DMing a 9man party and the book just can't challenge that till I rewrite everything.

  • @filchhoff

    @filchhoff

    5 жыл бұрын

    Hey guys, I know $2 patrons are supposed to do episode ideas but I can't spend the extra money until I find a new job, so is there any chance you could talk about suicide dice and other odd ball stat rolling methods? I'd love to see it, and thanks for the great content

  • @WebDM

    @WebDM

    5 жыл бұрын

    Hi! We answer Patron questions for some specific short videos, but we take suggestions anywhere and everywhere! Thanks for asking! Here's an older video on rolling stats. May not be exactly what you're looking for, but it covers what we have experience with. kzread.info/dash/bejne/k2iCs7KjgpqcgJs.html

  • @nathanpang7791

    @nathanpang7791

    5 жыл бұрын

    What song is that in the outtro?

  • @inkblotCrisis
    @inkblotCrisis5 жыл бұрын

    The Dungeon Salesman: (slaps door) This door is actually a monster, roll initiative.

  • @haggisllama2630

    @haggisllama2630

    5 жыл бұрын

    Even if it is an overused meme I love it

  • @codumus

    @codumus

    5 жыл бұрын

    Best use of this meme I've seen

  • @maxwellvindman7212

    @maxwellvindman7212

    2 жыл бұрын

    Monk unarmed strike

  • @joekrampus1154
    @joekrampus11545 жыл бұрын

    The City of Brass: where the Elite of the Efreet like to Meet in the Heat.

  • @Bluecho4
    @Bluecho45 жыл бұрын

    An idea I have for my homebrew setting is a city that is very like Venice, with its canals and gondolas and ornate architecture. Except, because it's also home to Tritons and Merfolk and Sahagan and other aquatic races, there's a lot more going on _below_ the water line than actual Venice. You can walk down a set of stairs into the water, and the city just keeps going down, with vibrant activity going on. It's a rich city - the center of a vast and lucrative trade network - so it's flush with magic items and wizard colleges. Any random air-breathing citizen could _happen_ to own a Cap of Water Breathing or other such item, so they can go below the water and do business. Not to mention those water-breathers who are amphibious, so they can pop up to the air levels to do _their_ business. Not to mention that vast trade network means the city is cosmopolitan, and full of people and goods from distant lands. Much larger than actual Venice, because the aquatic inhabitants can build out farther into the water than the land-bound people could. And they construct their buildings tall enough that they breach the surface, and can be built up from. So it's an ever-expanding metropolis. Like Venice, the city is run by a council of business leaders. Half of them are aquatic folk, so the center of their government - the Palace of Pools - incorporates water into the basic features of its meeting halls. Because you don't want the Tritons or Merfolk getting dried out; gotta have easy access to places they can hang out and moisture up. Many buildings in the city have such features, really, to accommodate water-bound citizens and customers. The local tavern (one of the hundreds thereof) the PCs visit might be half underwater, with retaining walls with flat surfaces on top that divide watered and dry spots, so patrons can freely mingle. And it might have a siren in the corner, singing a low-key magical melody to sooth the atmosphere. I also like the idea that this city has a major bank in it, and the bank is owned by a Bronze dragon. Whether the owner is _openly_ a dragon, or it's a secret, or it's an open secret, I don't know. I just love the idea that the bronze dragon flies over the city or swims beneath it, or polymorphs himself into humanoid form so he can attend sessions of the city government. Maybe another member of the council of merchants is a water genie from the Elemental Plane of Water. For conflicts, nothing seems more appropriate than an Aboleth trying to gain a "foothold" in the city, hiding in the sunken areas of the city and plotting how to take it over.

  • @Karak971

    @Karak971

    5 жыл бұрын

    Bluecho4 this is honestly amazing

  • @eerebidae

    @eerebidae

    4 жыл бұрын

    This is awesome

  • @maxmoseley6330

    @maxmoseley6330

    4 жыл бұрын

    The idea of a city that looks like a small cluster of islands and canals but is actually just the tip of huge spires and castles and skyscrapers is so cool

  • @Ty-ri7dy

    @Ty-ri7dy

    4 жыл бұрын

    Check out the first in the "Gentlemen Bastard" serious of books, The Lies of Locke Lamora. The city of Cammor is a lot like this, minus the aquatic races.

  • @shmoogersgoml2437

    @shmoogersgoml2437

    4 жыл бұрын

    Im 100% using this almost word for word its brilliant.

  • @ethangrant5061
    @ethangrant50615 жыл бұрын

    I was running a campaign for younger kids where I had a town who's commerce was 100 percent story based, you had to tell a story to earn your supper and boarding, I used it to get the kids to be more into roleplay

  • @MrSJPowell

    @MrSJPowell

    5 жыл бұрын

    Yoink. Will be using this if I ever run a game for the niece and nephews.

  • @fredslipknot9

    @fredslipknot9

    4 жыл бұрын

    That’s an absolutely brilliant idea

  • @rufflesandfalcor199
    @rufflesandfalcor1995 жыл бұрын

    I want to believe that Pruitt comes up with those intro gags on the spot. Shakespeare level puns.

  • @WebDM

    @WebDM

    5 жыл бұрын

    Honestly that's pretty much how it happens most of the time. He is a master.

  • @oOPPHOo

    @oOPPHOo

    5 жыл бұрын

    I think I recall previous episodes where they actually show "outtakes" of gags that didn't make it usually because they both started laughing mid take. The outtakes weren't just bloopers of the same line, but entirely different gags for the same video. So aside from the confirmation above there's actually some proof to back up you suspicion

  • @Alessandro-vv2fh
    @Alessandro-vv2fh5 жыл бұрын

    A city built on a Terrasque is the biggest Chekhov's Gun you can have in a D&D setting!

  • @garrettwilson8471

    @garrettwilson8471

    3 жыл бұрын

    Unfortunately, the Terrasque has the ability earth glide which would make building a city impossible. And the end result of the city crashing down to the ground when the Terrasque dives in the earth would not be a pretty site.

  • @sirgideonofnir6840

    @sirgideonofnir6840

    2 жыл бұрын

    @@garrettwilson8471 use it to build a fortress somewhere with plenty of resources, use the terrasque to move it and "plant" the fortress where you want.

  • @robertcales8544
    @robertcales85445 жыл бұрын

    So, I'm the type of DM who doesn't mind taking ideas and inspiration from other sources and putting them in my game, and I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm probably going to steal every town, city, and settlement you just described and plant them in my game lol you guys are pure genius, and your videos are always so densely packed with information. I love it.

  • @WebDM

    @WebDM

    5 жыл бұрын

    Steal away!

  • @Andrewc87563

    @Andrewc87563

    5 жыл бұрын

    Plagiarism is the first rule of scholarship! Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

  • @cyan4845

    @cyan4845

    5 жыл бұрын

    I think a lot of these definitely need that revision process that they mentioned early on. The city where no one dies for example, why did they decide to test various forms of killing, by killing a bunch of different people? Why not just kill one guy (probably someone that no one likes, like a criminal) in a hundred different ways?

  • @snowman9631

    @snowman9631

    5 жыл бұрын

    If you dm and dont steal ideas then you're not do all that you can

  • @olivermeloche2042

    @olivermeloche2042

    5 жыл бұрын

    some fights/madness are going to break out if your alive forever and can't leave, after its established they can't die most of the mutilations would be for sadistic cruelty moreso then anything else

  • @ZrinNZ
    @ZrinNZ5 жыл бұрын

    Something I'm going to be implementing to make locations more memorable is mundane oddities that happen. I got this idea after listening to Tales from the Gas station. The party is walking through a forest and sees a garden gnome on a branch of a tree. They think it's weird and keep walking. More gnomes turn up along the path, but they literally mean nothing. When they ask at the forest village what's up with the gnomes, they are told "oh yeah. Don't worry about those. They turn up every now and then. Don't touch the ones with green hard though, they bite." Once again, there is no bigger story. It's just a thing that happens around here. Like Jim mentioned about a place where any animal might be a familiar, you could take a leaf out of The cats of ulthar and have all cats be conscious, sentient creatures who act as the guards and royalty of the city. Also if you've played Sunless Sea, do something like anthropomorphic apes be the citizens of a town. Everyone treats it as normal, but the players will be like "woah okay this is a thing."

  • @dracoargentum9783
    @dracoargentum97835 жыл бұрын

    I've started for my game a homebrew setting, that basically runs as what if Athas had Eberron's magical technology. Where instead of despotic Dragonkings, cabals of mages dedicated to the advancement of magic, and thusly the survival of civilized races, had formed and took over. I started with simple ideas, like having nine countries ran by different magocracies, each one based around an alignment, and, like you suggested, I kept adding layers of logic to each idea to get how one country would affect the world. It forms a more "modern" fantasy than most aim for, as in general we try to escape the modern, though, actually, due to concepts like Warforged, Teleportation, and even simple magics like Cure Wound or Goodberry it touches on being more slightly futuristic fantasy. I admit I've taken ideas from other medias: the 'lawful evil' country is heavily based around the Coalition from Rifts, and I have a Warforged Wizard king that utilizes a modified Clone spell to ensure that he is never permanently assassinated, a la Dr. Doom, from Marvel.

  • @zijldianrage
    @zijldianrage5 жыл бұрын

    I love watching your video, but this video, and some others, really stand out and are very helpful as a DM. The questions that you pose and the list of ideas are massively helpful. You make it easy to be a patron. Thank you.

  • @xSharkNinjax
    @xSharkNinjax5 жыл бұрын

    I made a city that had an aboleth as its ruler, since it essentially had infinite knowledge. People would try to get some form of unique information that the aboleth didn't know, and if it was something that it didn't know, the person would be eaten (since the city's religion was that only those eaten by the aboleth were able to go to heaven essentially).

  • @DMXXCorps

    @DMXXCorps

    5 жыл бұрын

    That's a great idea.

  • @Draeckon

    @Draeckon

    2 жыл бұрын

    YOINK!

  • @garberasandor9699

    @garberasandor9699

    2 жыл бұрын

    If I may add to the concept: What if the brains of those eaten by the aboleth end up in organic vats within it? These vats would run simulations, in which the consumed individuals live their personalized afterlives.

  • @AlexDeMiro
    @AlexDeMiro5 жыл бұрын

    The underwater city - Leomund's Giant Dome. The wizards casting it can NEVER leave, otherwise it would pop like a bubble.

  • @graventhered

    @graventhered

    5 жыл бұрын

    Can imagine the extreme measures the citizens would go to to keep those mages safe.

  • @grantstephens8754

    @grantstephens8754

    4 жыл бұрын

    Graven The Red put them inside another leomunds tiny hut

  • @IAmTheStig32
    @IAmTheStig325 жыл бұрын

    Perhaps a city in a cold climate has a bound and captive dragon or giant fire elemental in the centre, and the city radiates out with the warmth. The inner rim is the "old town" and has big fancy houses occupied by the nobility and merchants, while the outer rim is the workers and the poor in more solid houses. You can even make a plot point: the dragon breaks out or is freed, but the dragon turns out to be like Alexstrasza, an intelligent and gentle creature who was forced into captivity. Do the party drag her back to the city in irons and deprive a good creature of her freedom, or do they let her go free but possibly doom a city full of people in the process?

  • @ffffffffffffffff5840

    @ffffffffffffffff5840

    5 жыл бұрын

    Convince the dragon to stay ;)

  • @IAmTheStig32

    @IAmTheStig32

    5 жыл бұрын

    That may not be possible if she is convinced she will be harmed or mistreated if she goes back. After all, she did trash the place on her way out. But I'm just bouncing an idea. I've also played with a city that was full of undead, but there were two factions who constantly fought and killed each other and then were resurrected back.

  • @AnubidIsAwful

    @AnubidIsAwful

    5 жыл бұрын

    J. Jonah Jameson Nice

  • @kahlylroberson2067

    @kahlylroberson2067

    5 жыл бұрын

    Sounds so much like FrostPunk

  • @IAmTheStig32

    @IAmTheStig32

    5 жыл бұрын

    Never played it, but I've heard it's a similar premise.

  • @bigfatopinions1338
    @bigfatopinions13385 жыл бұрын

    As always Pruitt’s word play for the intro is top notch! Thanks for all the work y’all do!

  • @therealdavemg5511
    @therealdavemg55115 жыл бұрын

    I am a simple man. I see a video by webDM I stop everything I am doing and watch.

  • @giuliokatinis790

    @giuliokatinis790

    3 жыл бұрын

    That’s the way

  • @ernstrnsholtmikkelsen9074
    @ernstrnsholtmikkelsen90745 жыл бұрын

    I once had my players visit a deep gnome city which was only visible to people who knew it was there

  • @JoseRS1186
    @JoseRS11865 жыл бұрын

    That was a perfect close to an episode.

  • @HalfOrcMage
    @HalfOrcMage5 жыл бұрын

    I love the idea of big scary monsters as a ruling class in my campaign i wanted it super high fantasy and high magic so I made the continent ruled by a council and the heads of the council are ancient metallic dragons that made a deal with buhammat to advise the mortal peoples of the realm and are unable to interfere directly.

  • @derekburge5294
    @derekburge52945 жыл бұрын

    Now I'm going to feel slightly disappointed at every video that *doesn't* feature Jim Davis blowing us a kiss. Excellent video, gents! Thanks!

  • @DougVehovec
    @DougVehovec5 жыл бұрын

    It's not too outlandish but I've always liked Lankhmar a lot. The street names appeal to me like Cheap Street, and the Street of the Gods. Those Mike Mignola illustrated comics for the stories have a lot to do with my appreciation for it, and of course the original stories are terrific too.

  • @peterplatter
    @peterplatter5 жыл бұрын

    Love how Pruitt can barely stop himself from making a Walking Dead joke when Jim Davis says "Coral" :D

  • @kylewoodward9006
    @kylewoodward90065 жыл бұрын

    I love Web DM you guys put out the most helpful content. If you guys ever come to England you are always welcome at my table. Keep up the great world guys!

  • @ryangudger91

    @ryangudger91

    5 жыл бұрын

    I wish they would come to some cons over hear

  • @nestorskip9410
    @nestorskip94105 жыл бұрын

    Avatar the last airbender is great inspiration for cool locations

  • @kahlylroberson2067

    @kahlylroberson2067

    5 жыл бұрын

    Avatar is great inspiration for everything

  • @youcantbeatk7006

    @youcantbeatk7006

    5 жыл бұрын

    Is that a pun?

  • @sewerpeople346
    @sewerpeople3465 жыл бұрын

    Good way to start the day, Gets the brain pumpin.

  • @kyliepoe6231
    @kyliepoe62315 жыл бұрын

    Ahhh... aqueducts. My yuan ti haunted Omu must have these. Remaining ruins of such aqueducts can serve as pathways for the tree bound locals and a great ambush perch.

  • @justaguy8104
    @justaguy81043 жыл бұрын

    You guys make 40 years of d&d accessible enough that I'm going to try to convince my family to do a one shot over Christmas. Count me in as a web demon!

  • @MrZeyami
    @MrZeyami5 жыл бұрын

    Oh my god an ancap mage city

  • @jimdavis141

    @jimdavis141

    5 жыл бұрын

    MrZeyami basically, yeah

  • @acorns-r-us

    @acorns-r-us

    5 жыл бұрын

    Telvani archmages?

  • @beartube93
    @beartube935 жыл бұрын

    Y'all didn't even need photoshop for the cover this time.

  • @duhg599
    @duhg5995 жыл бұрын

    So here I am, making breakfast and getting ready for work, when you guys up and release this video. Now I’m going to go stop being a responsible adult and make up a bunch of supernatural towns for my campaign because you great big, beautiful nerds had the nerve to go and give me a bunch of inspiring ideas. Dammit, you two!

  • @kyubii972
    @kyubii9725 жыл бұрын

    A morning upload before i download my daily KZread videos for work ? Why thank you DM

  • @sirderik
    @sirderik5 жыл бұрын

    SPOOKY 0:43 i see you are sneaking in stuff for the Halloween episode.

  • @IdontknowImtired
    @IdontknowImtired2 жыл бұрын

    The ideas you guys come up with are so good. I could listen for hours

  • @Danothyus1
    @Danothyus15 жыл бұрын

    This is a nice video for this moment as im preparing a evil campaign on a 3 layered city controlled by crime lords, merchant lords and mage lords.

  • @Pliznitz
    @Pliznitz5 жыл бұрын

    Of the people who cover content that you guys cover, y'all are for sure my favorite. You're informative, fun, and your "how-to's" never come off as the ONE TRUE WAY. Watching your vids made me take the leap to use resources available to find a group(a few, actually) after almost 30 years away. So, thank you for that. (edit) I also find the comments sections of your stuff to be almost as entertaining and informative as the videos. Rare.

  • @foghammer9767
    @foghammer97675 жыл бұрын

    The whole bubble city idea Jim brings up would make an interesting inter-planar settlement where the bubbles are amorphous demi-planes that are in some kind of planar lava lamp. Like, someone/something powerful created a utopian society inside this demi-plane, but they died or lost their power and the demi-plane is now unstable and scattered, and now the disparate "bubbles" float around and only occasionally collide. Maybe there is some kind of effort to fix it, but the people keep being separated and it's messing up their attempts to stabilize the plane. I dunno. That's what I thought of.

  • @madmanwithaplan1826

    @madmanwithaplan1826

    5 жыл бұрын

    I just thought of an idea for a slightly underwater city a coral reef where bubbles stream up constantly and devices siphon off the air but the higher it floats up the less air is left so the people living in the higher stacks get less air

  • @TempestRequiem0

    @TempestRequiem0

    5 жыл бұрын

    Definitely has nice potential for D&D. The locations essentially being time gated on their accessibility can create narrative tension, and move/force things forward or into action. One of those "bubbles" can also have more resources (another source of tension) so every time there's an overlap in the bubbles there could be fighting over valuable commodities only available in said "bubble". Cool idea.

  • @nickwilliams8302
    @nickwilliams83025 жыл бұрын

    Great ideas and points here. I very much like Jim's approach of, "Okay, it's a normal village except for these three things." One thing people might want to look at for this is the game Numenera. Or pretty much anything by Monte Cook (his "Arcana Unearthed" for 3e is also pretty good). The guy's just a master of weird shit. One city in Numenera is built on - and sometimes in - the pipes of some ancient machine. Another is built atop a kind of inverted mountain. A "City of Bridges" built over the water. A city built into the walls of a massive chasm. A rotting nightmare of a city built in the lightless depths of another chasm. I'm probably not going to _run_ Numenera anytime soon. But I have _no shame whatsoever_ in stealing the ideas within it.

  • @logan5818
    @logan58182 жыл бұрын

    Was going to run a dark sun campaign but the more prep I did the more it became my own homebrew thing that was loosely based on dark sun, and one of the things I did to be lazy turned out really fun. Dark sun had ceramic pieces as it's core currency, which is super cool and hammers home the lack of metal and post-apocalyptic vibe. However because we play online with digital sheets, I'd have to learn coding to change cp , sp , gp , pp into bd , bit, cp, sp, gp system dark sun uses. To mitigate this, I took the abbreviations for copper, silver, gold, and platinum pieces and tried to think of what else they could stand for. Which led me to glass pieces as the core currency. This ended up being really cool, making the non-metal coins harder to make forgeries of, and just sounding better in conversation. "Glass and glory" weird local sayings about dangerous places to loot well and greed "Get a handful of glass but bleed out before spending it". It's a little goofy but ended up being pretty neat.

  • @iGuttsi
    @iGuttsi5 жыл бұрын

    I think it would be interesting to do a video ( and dm a game) on an ecumenopolis since most adventures take you from City to Forest to dungeon, I've always wondered how someone would handle a high fantasy low technologically medieval fantasy coruscant basically.

  • @terryfan15
    @terryfan155 жыл бұрын

    I would like to remark, that this is not really a video about memorable places but much rather fantastical (high-fantasy) cities. Great inspiration, I just came here for the wrong reason.

  • @VeenusOver
    @VeenusOver5 жыл бұрын

    A really good episode! I got loads of ideas and inspiration! Time for me to get back to work on the good ol' campaign!

  • @MPPRODUCTIONSger
    @MPPRODUCTIONSger5 жыл бұрын

    Hey the Yuuzhan Vong are awesome :D At least they were a different threat than another empire remnant...

  • @actingkeith
    @actingkeith5 жыл бұрын

    This is one of my top videos that you guys have done... very inspiring and elucidating.

  • @MrRJPE
    @MrRJPE3 жыл бұрын

    My campaign had a Fomorian tribe in the Underdark that lived off of a hydra. They would cut off a head that then grew more heads and used them as a food source. Over time they eventually gain the trait of regeneration.

  • @TheNerdySimulation
    @TheNerdySimulation5 жыл бұрын

    One minor thing that I think can be easily overlooked when making unusual/memorable locations is animals. What kind of pets do people have? What strays move around your cities? What animals are considered food that maybe would otherwise be considered pets? Stuff like that. Also, an easy way to introduce secret portals is to have people walk into buildings from abnormal doorways, making it clear that they didn't come from that room. The only other time I have seen players become so intensely fascinate with doors was in Season 1 of Critical Role. But now I need a shirt now that says, "There are Bitches, she is saying hi to them."

  • @Mr_Mashall
    @Mr_Mashall5 жыл бұрын

    When you guys up load, it’s got to be the best part of the week!

  • @partydean17
    @partydean175 жыл бұрын

    Damn guys this is a hell of a video. Made me realize I foolishly have not subscribed until now

  • @wesleyorr438
    @wesleyorr4384 жыл бұрын

    This channel has been very helpful. I have put together a group of new to RPG players who are very interested. We will be using Quest rules with some home brew to introduce RP to the group. We will be building the world with this rule set to eventually move to D&D 5e rules. We will eventually play D&D in this same world we built as a group.

  • @ecta9604
    @ecta96045 жыл бұрын

    I always thought that a polar campaign on a world that had been subjected to massive climactic changes in the unimaginably distant past would be interesting. You’d still have the midnight sun and the polar night, but in a more or less temperate environment. If you moved too far north or south you’d end up in a place where agriculture was difficult or impossible, inhabited by nomads. If you kept going you’d come to an almost impassable band of desert circling the equator, and the whole area would be dotted with artifacts of dead civilizations, giving it an almost ancient-Egyptian vibe.

  • @keegansullivan1571
    @keegansullivan15715 жыл бұрын

    A perfect video to start my day, planning a homebrew campaign right now and sometimes I fall into the banality for starting villages on occasion.

  • @russveld
    @russveld5 жыл бұрын

    Awesome video, can't wait to use some of this material in my Homebrew campaign!

  • @robertcales8544

    @robertcales8544

    5 жыл бұрын

    Same here!! Definitely using some of this stuff, it's pure gold!

  • @ANTIMATTERLAZAR
    @ANTIMATTERLAZAR5 жыл бұрын

    This the perfect video to talk about my one campaign setting that's just like an entire chunk of mountain range just up started walking around, you got a human settlement, an elf settlement, and a dwarf settlement no longer tied to any kingdoms and now they are just trying to make do on one specific demi-gods pet rock.

  • @Reapor234
    @Reapor2345 жыл бұрын

    What a coincidence. I was writing up some information on a new campaign idea and was trying to draw up some ideas for different cities, towns, empires, etc when this video comes up in my notification bar. Great vid as usual, it really helped me get some different perspectives on some cities that might have otherwise just been kinda normish and conventional. +1 from me to you two.

  • @sebaseba6710
    @sebaseba67105 жыл бұрын

    You guys deserve so much more! I love your videos!

  • @fhuber7507
    @fhuber75075 жыл бұрын

    I was 3D printing a figure of a king. Well, he turned out about 40% too big. But he looked so good that I decided to run with it I now have "Stormvald, Giant-kin, Lord of the Mountain". Within minutes I had a 3 page backstory about the king including his ascension from an oversize peasant kid to a baron to becoming king, along with notes about his relationship to storm giants and how he's just too lazy to be dishonest. You can grab ideas anywhere...

  • @saschasteenaart7589
    @saschasteenaart75895 жыл бұрын

    Great stuff. Discovered your channel recently and watched all the vids. Funny and great tips.

  • @MrSodapop85
    @MrSodapop855 жыл бұрын

    Are we just not gonna talk about how awesome Jim and Pruitt’s dancing was at the end or...

  • @Ko_Zilek
    @Ko_Zilek5 жыл бұрын

    The one problem I have, I want to draw my places the more fantastic it becomes the better to play, but to draw is a real difficult sometimes. Eeh a good well detailed description never hurt nobody.

  • @kahlylroberson2067

    @kahlylroberson2067

    5 жыл бұрын

    Well you could make the geography simple but the things in the geography fantastical

  • @AnnanMoth
    @AnnanMoth5 жыл бұрын

    I must say its rather amusing to see Pru's face around 17:50 as he tried to not descend into a Walking Dead reference!

  • @unktheunk1428
    @unktheunk14285 жыл бұрын

    this is a fascinating look into the thought process that you go though when worldbuilding

  • @alexanderdunbar1412
    @alexanderdunbar14125 жыл бұрын

    Here's my idea for a magical city. There is only one city in the entire world, but it's more of a teleportation network with most of the portals leading to grown structures in-between plains. The idea is that every structure adds to a grid of structures that tracks, and catalogs any breaches in to prime material plain. You basically are given a home structure for free because it's relatively cheap to make and any money they do get from you for upgrades just is a bonus for a structure they would make anyway. It's basically like a free to play game on your phone, but with housing. Shops work the same way. There is no towns in the world, no roads as well. There are mining, wood cutting, and farming camps, but no one lives there they all live in the "City". They work then at the end of the day they go to a teleporter and go home. The cool thing about this idea is that when the party wants to go somewhere outside of the city, say a ruin, or looking for some artifact, it's way more dangerous, because there is no civilization there, no well worn roads, just empty, rugged terrain, and monsters everywhere. However down time activities become quicker, and easier in a way. Your never more than a few seconds from anywhere, and any person.

  • @georgewesley17
    @georgewesley175 жыл бұрын

    One of my cities that I’ve ever created was based off the idea “What if the cities most prestigious college professors were also the rulers?” An aristocracy based on grades in school made for a hyper competitive and dark school system, although the rulers were all educated.

  • @nextlevel8822
    @nextlevel88225 жыл бұрын

    This is really important to the 3 pillars of the game. The 'Exploration' pillar isn't as important without interesting places to discover.

  • @thewastedwanderer5787
    @thewastedwanderer57874 жыл бұрын

    "There are bitches-" *as one* "And she is saying hi to them." Lost it man, love these guys.

  • @TukWest
    @TukWest5 жыл бұрын

    An Inuk here, love the channel, like the reference.

  • @telkei3365
    @telkei33655 жыл бұрын

    I love the idea of an town with planar portal , and EVERYONES ready when something goes down

  • @kyletenorio8541
    @kyletenorio85415 жыл бұрын

    " There are bitches she's saying hi to them." That CL easter egg is the best thing ever. xD

  • @Cam0412
    @Cam04125 жыл бұрын

    Nice community reference

  • @Radiotomb
    @Radiotomb5 жыл бұрын

    Yuuzhan Vong shout out! Loved the classic Expanded Universe ♥

  • @dm_ex_machina3395
    @dm_ex_machina33954 жыл бұрын

    I've liked you guys for a while, haven't really watched your videos in any particular order, but today, coming across this one, I realise I love you guys. Why? What finally sold me? The Firefly references. And now I realise that somehow I'm not actually subscribed to you guys? What the hell? Well, that can't do...

  • @WebDM

    @WebDM

    4 жыл бұрын

    Welcome! This grand entrance did not go amiss.

  • @willajer
    @willajer Жыл бұрын

    I miss this 😢

  • @Greybeardstavern
    @Greybeardstavern5 жыл бұрын

    PRUITT!!! You do you BOO!! I’m like 50 and I love that CL jam! Minus of course the negative connotation associated with the word bitches.

  • @michaelmorey3110
    @michaelmorey31105 жыл бұрын

    Love the concept of Jim Davis' lava lamp city

  • @dreddbolt
    @dreddbolt5 жыл бұрын

    Disclaimer: Had to watch again from the beginning because the sink faucet was too loud while I was doing dishes. I have this somewhat Waterdeep-like city which supports a corrupt cycle of crime syndicate politics, essentially having various Zhentarim-like factions. The province's shady governor lives in a manor within the city, named after his family's surname. Underneath is a sewer system which has its own ecosystem, with some areas having an economy in addition. Under the sewers is an Underdark of sorts, with the drow pushed down even further into the depths due to dwarves and rock gnomes banding together to make flintlock firearms and firearms of a magical nature. This city has different facets to it, depending on what the player characters have as a class and background. My current surviving campaign is a father and son team of rogues, one a human arcane trickster, and the other a drow thief. I structured my world to operate as legacy content, essentially enabling my players to affect my other campaigns in my world. However, regardless of legacy content, my world does have a specific narrative 'skeleton' in which it operates, so the rest of my world has to follow suit if need be. Were my current surviving campaign to fail, I could hit a sort of 'reset button' so my improvised major narrative 'hubs' can be explored from the beginnings of their story points without previous interventions from past players... like change in law, power structure, and so on/so forth.

  • @SaetiStrakur
    @SaetiStrakur5 жыл бұрын

    17:10 look at Pruitts face! he just barely keeps it together after Jim says Coral xD

  • @AllegoryGar
    @AllegoryGar3 жыл бұрын

    I want to make a town that in self defense; tried to protect themselves from an outside calamity by casting a spell in which shrunk the town to the size of a globe and encased it in a protective field. The place where it used to be has a huge spherical area dug out, and the “orb” of the town fell to the bottom of the ocean. Now they exist yet are remnants of an older time, trying to continue to live in pitch darkness and an area the size of a large town.

  • @Kittykattarina
    @Kittykattarina5 жыл бұрын

    Jim, listening to Pruitt talk about his citys reminds me of my dad listening to w/e nonsense I was always blabbering about lol

  • @cronaman3196
    @cronaman31965 жыл бұрын

    I had a magic town where if a building had no door it was empty if it had a door it was still literally empty but had the illution of being occupied. The doors led to another plane that shaped the interior of the house, this made it interesting to the players when there was a 1 story building on the outside but they go in and it’s 3 stories. I didnt know what to do with the indor windows so I just made them mirrors. My players did somthing unexpected but so creative; they “purchased” a door and modded it to this wagon they rode around and the interior of their wagon became an entire house.

  • @aidanosullivan7731
    @aidanosullivan77315 жыл бұрын

    Gnomes the original Venture Capitalists. 😂😂😂

  • @timkramar9729
    @timkramar97293 жыл бұрын

    Thanks, now I have a name for my town: Milquetoast. I think I might make it a city of rings. The buildings get taller as you leave the center with soldiers on the outermost wall of inhabited buildings

  • @TheIrishman0828
    @TheIrishman08285 жыл бұрын

    Jolly good Show!

  • @davidwatches
    @davidwatches3 жыл бұрын

    In "The Bakery", a campaign I ran a couple years ago, the capital city of Seaside had a sewer brigade that included otyugh sewer cleaners who were official citizens of the city. To help make sure the party didn't attack them unnecessarily, I portrayed each one using an eye stalk sock puppet. Hilarity ensued.

  • @vader6972
    @vader69725 жыл бұрын

    that intro was well done, one of the better

  • @ChieftainKirk
    @ChieftainKirk5 жыл бұрын

    I built a halfling village for my campaign that was essentially on stilts. The village was on a huge flood plain, and in an area with large predators, so I asked myself how they'd adapt. Visually it's sort of micronesian stilt home with short rope bridges connecting the buildings.

  • @kynandesouza
    @kynandesouza4 жыл бұрын

    ending was amazing

  • @CarburetorThompson
    @CarburetorThompson5 жыл бұрын

    My current game takes place during the post revolutionary period. So the settings have been limited to how fantastical 1780’s New York is, but I’ve found even with out fantasy settings you can make something fantastical if it is foreign, by playing up the fact that the players may not have much experience with it. Even if it’s not magical you can still get the same sorta effect.

  • @pitanguirj
    @pitanguirj5 жыл бұрын

    I like Yellyark, in TOA. The goblin village on top of trees that folds itself into a wrap n is hurled away by a tree sling in case things get nasty. Cool as f.

  • @nomnomgoblin8901
    @nomnomgoblin89015 жыл бұрын

    I mean, the forsaken -had- the undercity... RIP, noble sewerprison.

  • @LotharTheFellhanded
    @LotharTheFellhanded5 жыл бұрын

    Jim ya gotta point the party at that city of the undying! That would be super dope.

  • @davidotoole2853
    @davidotoole28535 жыл бұрын

    In my world there’s a dwarven city suspended above a volcano where the lava is a portal to the plane of fire and these dwarves forge the rare metal starsteel which has a melting point of 100,000,000,000,000,000°

  • @kahlylroberson2067

    @kahlylroberson2067

    5 жыл бұрын

    What's the benefit of starsteal?

  • @davidotoole2853

    @davidotoole2853

    5 жыл бұрын

    Gives the user the a bonus 20 feet of movement and if they use it they get a charge attack with advantage (basically Deadpool’s negasonic teenage warheads powers but with 19 AC

  • @kahlylroberson2067

    @kahlylroberson2067

    5 жыл бұрын

    @@davidotoole2853 that sounds amazing!! Might consider giving your players the ability to set up a mine if they wanted to

  • @awaytoanywhere699

    @awaytoanywhere699

    5 жыл бұрын

    an ice drangon keeps the suspended volcano city cool. but the dragon is imprisoned, so it won’t escape. will they (the party) free the good dragon ...or search to get the precious starsteel to craft magic weopons to slay the crazy wizard-demon that has cast a undead spell on their home city....

  • @Nickman826
    @Nickman8265 жыл бұрын

    Now I want a city that is built entirely around MC Esher style architecture. Imagine having your next door neighbor live directly below your backyard and people play sports that are built around the unique way gravity works in that city

  • @Anon-yz1xr
    @Anon-yz1xr5 жыл бұрын

    Been thinking about running an Avernum game using Veins of the Earth. Avernum is basically the Underdark being used as Fantasy Australia by the Evil Surface Empire to exile its undesirables.

  • @seraphlord
    @seraphlord5 жыл бұрын

    Absolutely pronounce fantasy or fictional names/words how you want. But for those who are interested. Sigil - an inscribed or painted symbol considered to have magical power. Pronounced: ( Sih - gel ) like hair gel Sigil - The Dungeons & Dragons city located in the Outlands the official pronunciation by Wizards is ( Sih - gill ) like fish gill Source: Chris Perkins

  • @TheReykjavik
    @TheReykjavik5 жыл бұрын

    The city on the sleeping Tarrasque can also just wake it up as a weapon of last resort. Not only do you have to defeat the city, you have to be prepared for it to be destroyed, along with your army, by a tarrasque.

  • @RykerDavis123
    @RykerDavis1235 жыл бұрын

    I have a capital city that also a port city built onto of a mega dungeon. They also have trade agreements with towns and cities within the dungeon like a town of gnolls and two cities of sentient skeletons and drow. I also have an island with a pyramid grown out of the islands trees that's a home for an order of nature paladins

  • @Hellbunnyism
    @Hellbunnyism5 жыл бұрын

    Another great video guys! #TeamSigil Friends and I recently made a map using the map/community building (an RPG...kind of?) game called The Quiet Year (with fantasy as a theme). I'll be using the stories we made as inspiration for fantastical elements and locations for my upcoming campaign we'll be playing in.

  • @BodyByBenSLC
    @BodyByBenSLC5 жыл бұрын

    32:56 best part

  • @Licjr
    @Licjr5 жыл бұрын

    A city that's abandoned and falling into ruin, but looks like a thriving bustling place due to illusions?

  • @JimothyTheGreen

    @JimothyTheGreen

    5 жыл бұрын

    Licjr 1018 You mean Anor Londo?

  • @kahlylroberson2067

    @kahlylroberson2067

    5 жыл бұрын

    That sounds really cool the party might need special goggles that give them true sight to see the facade

  • @Licjr

    @Licjr

    5 жыл бұрын

    Kahlyl Roberson I was thinking something subtler, like the food they get there is also an illusion (like the creation spell). Like, they feel full immediately after eating it, but the next morning they're hungry like they didn't eat, and have to make a Constitution save to avoid a level of exhaustion. If that prompts someone to cast Detect Magic, everything (including the people) show up as illusion. And everyone showing up as illusion in range stops what they're doing and staring at the caster until the spell is dropped. For added creepiness, maniacal smiles slowly spread across their faces

  • @Licjr

    @Licjr

    5 жыл бұрын

    Jimothy the Green I don't know what that is, my apologies if I accidentally ripped someone off

  • @kahlylroberson2067

    @kahlylroberson2067

    5 жыл бұрын

    @@Licjr Wow I love that idea so much!! Do you love the school of illusion?

  • @Nolinquisitor
    @Nolinquisitor5 жыл бұрын

    That dance number... PRUITT FOR PRESIDENT OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM PLEASE!

  • @harker-san6903
    @harker-san69034 жыл бұрын

    This my favourite end card.

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