Gulags and Mythical Fire Breathing Beasts

 For the last couple of years, I have been the...DUNGEON MASTER...of for a D&D campaign with my wife and a couple of friends. I'm probably not the best choice of a...DUNGEON MASTER...but it was Covid times and we just needed a way to be able to see other people. I've never actually gotten a character to level 20, so I had a lot of learning to do.

I knew I wanted to build the world from scratch, so I wasn't needing to worry about other people's lore. I kinda went overboard though. I wanted each race to be different than their stereotype, Gods were almost non-existent, the mood would be darker than usual. This didn't survive contact with the party though. I've learned a lot about what I should worry about in world building and realised that the players themselves help with that world building just as much.

So, now that we are nearing the end of our first campaign, I've been preparing for the next one. I've focussed on the high-level stuff such as world map, main story possibilities, etc., but left the details for later. No point in me making a city on the far side of the world that they never get to.

I think I've got the map nailed down really well though. I've always been a big fan of large maps in video games but when you look at how long it takes to walk from one side to the other, they are usually only the size of town or something like that. My current world is focused on one continent that is the second largest continent on the planet when, in reality, it smaller than PEI.

So, this time, it's a space station! An entire D&D world on the inside surface of a rotating space station. The size comes out to roughly the same as Saskatchewan. This is small for multiple countries in the real world (kinda) but will be plenty big to give lots and lots of play time in D&D. Plus, if it gets boring, maybe some aliens come and stab some people.

My original world was supposed to be 100% original and give me a place to write grand stories like Tolkien. But I'm not Tolkien. Never will be. Instead, keeping the main factors such as races, gods, magics, calendars, etc., makes it way easier for me to just focus on the stories. Plus, then my players don't have to try to figure out a bunch of lore that doesn't really matter. I could make a thunder god named Bill or I could just use Thor and save myself time and my players confusion.

I may make a thunder god named Bill though. Just a bunch of peasants shaking their fists at the clouds cursing Bill. Bob? Tex? I'll have to put some though into that one.