The Lost and the Damned

Generally thought of as fierce horse warriors, the Scythians were a multitude of Iron Age cultures who ruled the Eurasian steppe, playing a major role in Eurasian history. A new study published in Science Advances analyzes genome-wide data for 111 ancient individuals spanning the Central Asian Steppe from the first millennia BCE and CE. The results reveal new insights into the genetic events associated with the origins, development and decline of the steppe’s legendary Scythians.

Every creature, class and caricature can be found for free on the internet, with almost no digging. Dungeons and Dragons has never been easier to play. These are the resources I used to build the beginning of my campaign. This one isn’t for building story, this one is for building world. (Story Masterpost coming soon)

What I Use

The Obvious: dndbeyond.com - Character Builders, Rule Guides, Guides to Monsters, Tips, Tricks and everything in between. Does require a little money to access the full scope of the site, but the free version is superb as well.

Create your own world map: Inkarnate.com - awesome map creator with free and Pro versions (at very reasonable prices). Example:

The Best of the Dungeon Builders: http://www.dungeonographer.com (free and paid versions. I use the free one) - dungeon builder, but you can make anything! The best dungeon maker I’ve found, with sheer simplicity of use balanced with scope of opportunity. Example:

How deep do you want to go? Donjon’s Generators - https://donjon.bin.sh Calendars? Loot? Dungeons? Demographics? Inns? Towns? Magic Shops?

Cities are big. Someone else can build it. fantasycities.watabou.ru (free) - City Map Generator. Great for creating big cities or tiny towns, and so much easier than building every single major city of your world, if you want to have those maps.

There are plenty of places to download and print tokens for combat play (if you want to use a map at all) online, but I bought mine from: SidequestTTM

Watch and Learn

The Bare Basics of D&D - Handbook Helper. New too Dungeons and Dragons? The team behind Critical Role have a whole (and continuing) series on the basic rules of D&D 

Matthew Mercer and Satine Phoenix’s GM Tips - Some of the best Game Masters in the world share their tips for Mastering the Game. I’ve watched the whole thing twice and always learn more.

Matt Colville’s Running the Game - An incredible video resource that goes from building the very start of a campaign to how to navigate tough spots, how to plant story hooks and some of the best advice I’ve ever seen.

Other Great Resources

“All You Need” Site, http://autorolltables.github.io/index.html - need an npc? A plot? A settlement? A monster? An encounter? autorolltables will make it.

World Map Making: http://www.hexographer.com - specific style of simplistic map making, very useful though I don’t use it myself. 

Azgaar World Map Generator: has landscape, political boundaries, names and more. If you don’t want to design your own, this one’s a perfectly viable option.

https://sketchbook.com: free drawing software, very intuitive but no map making specifics. 

https://rpgtinker.com:  great for more complex characters.

Dungeon Building: https://deepnight.net/tools/tabletop-rpg-map-editor/ - a fantastic but very simple map maker, works best in Chrome and requires flash.

Extras

Make your homebrew content look official