If you would like to build a homebrew world with me, sign up to the $10 tier on my patreon to join our community worldbuilding project creating the polar islands of Jandir. Sign up here: bit.ly/2XeqzJv

As an Egyptian that wants to get into D&D, this really delights me. Thank you. P.S. When you translated "Capital" on Google it translated it into "رأس مال", which means the money you start with during a project, not "Capital" the capital of a country, that means "عاصمة" which was the first word under *Translations of capital*.

@IcarusGames

4 жыл бұрын

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the video. That is a great example of the problems with Google translate and non-native speakers! I've been trying to read up on Egyptian and middle eastern myth and history but finding quality English language sources that aren't super biased with European influence is hard. I don't want to achieve a historically accurate campaign, but I'd like to incorporate more non-European myth and folklore into my game.

@johntheherbalistg8756

2 жыл бұрын

The issue here is the difference between capital (money or value) and capitol (the seat of government). Gotta check that spelling lol

@johntheherbalistg8756

2 жыл бұрын

Also, is fantasy roleplay popular in Egypt, or are you stuck to online gaming?

D&D aside, this is just plain good world-building advice. Kudos!

@IcarusGames

5 жыл бұрын

I'm glad you liked it :)

This series has been very helpful! I am a first time DM but I have played as a player once before. This really helped me actually delve deep into my world and make it more immersive, so thanks!!

@IcarusGames

5 жыл бұрын

I'm really glad you've found it helpful!

Your ideas about the use of slaves is exactly where I was trying to get to for my own campaign world. I'll definitely be using them for inspiration. Keep up the good work!

"You're going to want to avoid using names people can recognize." *proceeds to name the capital city after the most notable goddess in the Greek Pantheon* nice dude.

@IcarusGames

3 жыл бұрын

That's a classic whoopsie right there! Though you are the first person (including myself) to make that connection in relation to the city, so I'd say all is well. It's more advice not to use names of places your players would immediately recognize such as the names of cities in your country or towns within your local area. My players buy into Hera and don't immediately make the association of the Greek Goddess because we're playing a sandbox that evokes more Egyptian vibes. If we were playing in Theros or a similarly ancient Greece inspired world, I've no doubt they would make the Hera connection immediately.

@Crickethill

3 жыл бұрын

Icarus Games First of all let me say: Amazing worldbuilding advice! I am already playing a campaign but still fleshing out parts of the world, inventing new ones etc. and lately I hit a bit of a creative roadblock. So your tutorials have helped me by inspiring me and getting my creativity back. Also: I do study history and most of my players do as well - that‘s why I chose this comment to reply to. They know all my references, all the names I could imagine, every civilization that could be my inspiration. One of my players specializes in ancient history, so when it comes to Ancient Greece, Rome or Egypt as inspirations I am completely f**ked. But hey, that‘s the fun of it, right? Toying with your players‘ imagination. Anyways, thanks for your videos, they‘re great! :)

@IcarusGames

3 жыл бұрын

I'm glad you've found the videos helpful. If all your players are familiar with Greco-Roman history, that's a perfect opportunity to take inspiration from elsewhere in the world as a starting point. You can also reward their knowledge by incorporating elements of obscure history that foreshadow upcoming events.

@Raginmunnd

3 жыл бұрын

@@IcarusGames Dude your videos have helped me so much, I'm so glad you offered this advice. And your response here is so succinct and awesome. Love you bro, keep up the good work! 🐉

@IcarusGames

3 жыл бұрын

I'm so glad you've found the videos helpful and gotten useful info from them.

This is PERFECT not only are you talking you are actually screen showing how you do it. Cannot thank you enough.

When I think of Egypt: Pyramids, Pharaos When this guy thinks of Egypt: Isolated towns, loose clothing

@IcarusGames

4 жыл бұрын

That's because what we're building here isn't just a fantasy Egypt, but something that evokes the feeling of ancient Egypt and the surrounding nations. Pyramids and Pharaohs just make you think Egypt rather than a fantasy world that feels like Egypt. We don't want the players to be playing in ancient Egypt, but we do want to evoke some of the themes of that period.

@marten_mkklsn

4 жыл бұрын

@@IcarusGamesOkay I get it now, enjoyed the Video by the way :)

I am have played D&D since late 80's, always as a player, but took a 24yr break. After starting playing again I decided to start writing my book based on my character again. On a suggestion from a fellow player I decided to make a homebrew campaign . This is my first attempt at such a humungous effort. I find your series(only watch 2 epi so far mind you) informative but have so many questions just in watching those. This is all a bit overwhelming at times.

I know it's an older video but I wanted to say that this series has inspired me to work on my Norse campaign setting finally.

@IcarusGames

2 жыл бұрын

I'm really glad you found it useful!

As a conlanger, your Google Translate method hurt me 🥵 This series is super helpful tho! I love worldbuilding, but never really knew where to start with actually **making** the campaign.

@IcarusGames

4 жыл бұрын

For anyone with an interest in language or conlangs, its going to be horrible method, but for the majority of tables it gives you a quick way to name things that evoke the feeling you're looking for. I've made a conlang for dwarvish in my setting, and all the dwarf settlements and characters have been named using it, which brings me joy, but the players don't care about it any more than the greco-latin names of other places in the setting. The google translate method isn't subtle, but it is effective.

Thank you for making this video, I was actually working on a campaign map while listening to this and it made me think of a few things I should look at before my group starts (first time DM, so still learning).

@IcarusGames

5 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it! What's the elevator pitch for your campaign?

@mister_carrot8428

5 жыл бұрын

"In ancient times, the Icon Korran tried to subsume all of creation into his domain but was stopped in the Shatter wars. Now, dark winds begin to blow across the realm leaving turmoil and rebellion in its wake. And on a small island off the coast of the SilberTal Empire a new legend shall be forged and the fate of a world shall be decided." I have no idea if that is any good or not LOL EDIT: reading it over again and thinking about it, that sounds like complete rubbish LOL. the basic gist of what I am thinking is that one of the primordial entities (the very beings that created the gods) tried to consume all of creation long ago but was stopped in a great celestial war. Now a new evil is rising and wishes to plunge the world into turmoil in a bid to re-awaken this being and help it win. This new evil does not have the power needed to operate openly yet so is still in the early stages of creating tension and weakening possible threats through a network of spies and proxies.

@fleecy7979

5 жыл бұрын

@@mister_carrot8428 way better than mine haha (first time dm as well)

@uwuowo7718

5 жыл бұрын

I think it’s good, I’ve only done 1 campaign so far but if you make it take place after it’s already sprung to power it can work

Thanks, this video has been really useful to me in preparing my notes for my various nations within my setting. I was really worried about them feeling too bland and indistinct from one another but using this method I started to really get a feel about what separates each nation from one another. Hope you continue making these videos and hopefully more people manage to find them

@IcarusGames

5 жыл бұрын

I'm glad I could help :) this week I will be making the map of Ashk. Having a clear sense of the geography will really help to get more detail on the world going forward.

Good stuff my friend. Volume is really good

Just started this series but youve really helped out with how i should think when im making my own world for a campaign, thanks. Keep up boi!

@IcarusGames

3 жыл бұрын

Glad you're enjoying it so far!

For naming, I’ve long been partial to a modified version of what you describe in here. Similar to you, I’ll use foreign languages (Google translate) as my names, but in the interest of filing the serial numbers off, I’ll choose a word that is emblematic of the thing I’m naming (so if it’s a city that has horses as a major export, I might go with horse, bridle, hoof, or the like), pick two to four languages, run the translation of that word into each language, and select individual syllables and sounds from some subset of the languages I’ve chosen to make a composite word that still feels somewhat real but isn’t immediately traceable back to “hey, isn’t that just the Punjabi word for horse?” As long as I’m consistent with what languages a culture draws its names from, I still tend to wind up with a fairly cohesive feel. So a horse city from culture A pulls from Norwegian, Irish, and Japanese, winding up with hest, capall, and uma as my components, so maybe I go with Palluma or Umestall. Whereas culture B is Punjabi, Spanish, and Greek -> Ghōrā, caballo, and álogo, so maybe it becomes Lollō or Ghallo (looking at those, I might rethink what languages I was pulling from for culture B at this point). As a bonus, if I wanted to do something like Scandinavia, where you have multiple cultures, each with their own languages, but all of which share some similarities (Swedish and Norwegian are basically dialects of each other; Danish is fairly close to those two; Icelandic and Finnish sound like those except weird), I could keep some subset of the languages constant and change others, so from country A maybe I keep the Norwegian and Irish but replace the Japanese with Latin (equus) resulting in a city named Palleq or Stumeq.

This made me think of making a Stargate based d&d game. You could start by overthrowing your god like masters amd them discover they came through a stargate which could turn the campaign into a high level dimension spanning game.

@KingsBard

3 жыл бұрын

"Indeed"

This is so helpful! I'm also currently working on a world inspired by the Bronze age Mediterranean/Late Neolithic.

@IcarusGames

4 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it and found it helpful!

@andersschmich8600

4 жыл бұрын

@@IcarusGames I definitely did! I'm still trying to find a historical inspiration to use as a starting point, right now i'm thinking Neolithic Malta or the Etruscans.

thumbnail looks like an iron maiden album cover

You deserve more views. Great work and Thank You!

@IcarusGames

4 жыл бұрын

Thank you :)

Insanely good stuff man, cheers to you.

@IcarusGames

5 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed :)

thank you so so so so so so much

@IcarusGames

4 жыл бұрын

Glad you found it helpful.

Check out my full HOW TO: HOMEBREW CAMPAIGN playlist here: kzread.info/head/PL3cwve_r0qbFtopu_ektfE3k9smywAFOB

Great video

Very helpful, indeed. This is why i am a subscriber.

@IcarusGames

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks, Donald, I glad you enjoyed!

Great video, keep it up.

@IcarusGames

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks :) glad you enjoyed!

This is actually perfect because my campaign is also inspired by ancient Egypt (this is my first time being a dm) I actually had a cool boss idea basically there is this large space of deserted desert with ancient catacombs buried in the sand and there a also these giant golems that seem to have a skeletal structure under their outer layer of metal hinting that they may have been alive at some point they are actually not intended to be killed and if you do kill them it will be at very high level in the early game you are supposed to sneak under them in the catacombs but we’ll see what my players do they may come up with something else

I’m making a more industrial revolution style campaign where kings and queens are slowly losing power as democracy grows and takes monarchy’s place. And magic based technology is beginning to bloom and things like healing potions are commonplace and easy to find.

I really liked the video. Thanks 4 giving me inspiration to make campaigns. I keep on making one shots accidentally, can you tell me how to make them longer?

@IcarusGames

5 жыл бұрын

Do you mean you want to turn your one shots into ongoing campaign stories? I like to think of it like a TV show - each individual session (episode) might be separate, but each has a sprinkle of an overarching plot that builds to be the main focus of several sessions at the end of a "season". This video I did covers how I approach it: kzread.info/dash/bejne/ooWqzaeBmb2-eJM.html

Just found this video, but I just wanted to say if you wanted an authentic ancient Egyptian feel, Coptic words & the names of ancient cities (most of which have stopped being used since the post-Islamic "Arabization" of Egypt) would have been a better base. Coptic is the closest modern relative of ancient Egyptian. It's related to Arabic, but it isn't still a very distinct language. Still, Ashk sounds like an interesting campaign setting & this guide is pretty good in my opinion.

@IcarusGames

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the tip! I'll take a look into Coptic and try to incorporate it into my worldbuilding moving forward :). My main goal was to take the *feel* of that part of the world rather than try to represent it, as I would have definitely failed at the later as someone living half a world away.

@bobmcbob9856

3 жыл бұрын

@@IcarusGames That's fair, I feel like Arabic will sound more "desert like" to westerners, but ancient Egyptian & by extension Coptic still have plenty of words that fit the vibe. At the end of the day, it's your game, run it however you think is best.

The idea that I had will be the whole of Warhammer fantasy world with adaptations to races and places (for example, cathay is not a human country, but a country run by half-dragons). I intent to hide 5 especial itens in 5 corners of that world: Lustria, Nehek, Cathay, Empire and Naggarond/Ulthuan. And make mini thematic campaigns depending where they choose to go, if they go to Lustria it will be an pre-Columbian campaign with dinossaurs, nehek will be an Egyptian/Arab thematic campaign, empire will be medieval/steampunk, Cathay will be Chinese/japanese campaign and Naggarond/Ulthuan will be a classic fantasy campaign. Each region will have their own boss that had the item that they need (the bosses are not related). Once they get the 5 items they can venture into the caos waste/norsca for the finale. They would start in Miragliano (which will be heavily inspired in Venice) and deal with a minor Skaven Threat to get acclimatized

I am subscribed

@IcarusGames

3 жыл бұрын

Cheers buddy! (You should be in bed though 😉)

your deserve more subscribers

@IcarusGames

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Sharing the videos is the best way to help the channel grow :)

If there was 1 billion DM you should have a bilion views at least

@IcarusGames

5 жыл бұрын

^_^ what a lovely thing to say, thank you! Glad you enjoy what I'm doing.

what program is that you write you stuff in ?

@IcarusGames

5 жыл бұрын

I use OneNote. I've done a whole series of videos on using it for D&D: kzread.info/head/PL3cwve_r0qbEyjU-Q95KDprUUhOQoccBj

Is you talking about dungeon & dragon online or any other version of this game?

what program are you using for writing

@IcarusGames

4 жыл бұрын

The program I use in this is Microsoft OneNote.

What is the software you used in this video? If it was mentioned, I missed it.

@IcarusGames

Жыл бұрын

It's Microsoft's OneNote software :)

It always makes me uneasy when DMs or writers in general are so preoccupied with slavery. Even without the suspect interest in it, it's just boring. Slavery, in D&D...groundbreaking.

@michaelmurphy19

3 жыл бұрын

Why? No one is preoccupied with it, but it was a huge part of history for almost every culture. Just how it is my dude.

@eldritchbaobun9976

3 жыл бұрын

@@michaelmurphy19 And what, are you suggesting D&D has to be some kind of historical accurate translation of history and culture? Be real, a DM has the opportunity to be creative and "you live in another slave state" isn't. I've heard that song before.