#voodoosciencelies

I’m full of DM'ing tips! I want to eventually make a series about how to create your own campaign (which I believe I’ll be holding off until I can make some videos) but I understand completely feeling like the task of crafting everything yourself as being pretty difficult. I’ve got some tips for you on how to tackle this.

1. Establish the Main Idea2. Draw a Map3. Populate Your World4. Conflict & History5. How Does Magic Work?6. You Don’t Need to Know Everything

1. Establish the Main Idea

I believe that in order to create a new and exciting world you need to have a strong central idea to go off of. Some random examples:“The Gods are dead and now the power they wielded is up for grabs in the objects they left behind.” “The world is a desolate wasteland after an apocalyptic catastrophe. Nobody remembers how or why but what we do know is that the only way we’ve been able to stay alive is with the help of travelers from beyond the stars.” An example from The Adventure Zone being: An organization that defends the planet below from powerful artifacts in a world full of powerful magic.

Starting with an idea of how you want the world to be is a great start, and it doesn’t need to be incredibly complex. Try figuring out your Main Idea by creating a hook that is only a couple of sentences. This is also a great way to get your players excited about the world they are going to be exploring.

2. Draw a Map

Honestly, I’ve found that creating your own setting is a lot easier when you are drawing up your own map of the world. Sometimes you don’t even think, you act. Ideas flow much easier that way for me. Why did I make a huge volcano in the desert? I don’t know but damn that could be cool. Maybe a dragon lives there or is home to a society of goblins who worship and craft armor built from the magma itself. Just draft something up and don’t be afraid of making something dumb or poorly drawn. You can always create a more finalized version later.

3. Populate Your World

Now that you’ve got a map it’s time to decide who lives in this world of yours. Start big with Kingdoms/Empires and other big cities. Who are they and how do they feel about one another? Is there a Queen who rules over a rich gold mine and controls all trade in the north?  How does the RedLion Kingdom feel about the GreenEagle Kingdom attempting to colonize close into their territory? Once you know who runs the world shrink down your scope a little bit and build smaller villages your players could reasonably live in.

And let’s not forget, you need to create specific NPCs that live in these places. Create characters you want to run and help guide or hinder the players. What are their goals? Are they Chaotic Neutral or Lawful Good? You can also create NPCs that sort of represent where they are from. A Bard from the RedLion Kingdom may act as a someone who thinks they own everything or perhaps they are the exact opposite. They think the rich steals from the poor and their goal is to take back from the elites.

4. Conflict & History

Of course, introducing factions, kingdoms, and varied characters is bound to create conflict. After all, what is a campaign without conflict? I got into this a little bit above, but figure out what are the BIG conflicts in your world. These can tie into your Main Idea and in fact I would say they should, at least in some capacity. Is there imminent war? Does a malicious Wizard think they need to right a wrong in the world? Are monsters running rampant through the world and need to be destroyed before the problem worsens? There are so many ideas and potential hooks you can insert into your setting.

Any world is not complete without history. You don’t need to develop this so much that it takes weeks to concoct. Instead I’d say come up with some really general ideas that you can use to strengthen your understanding of the world. Even something as simple as, a hundred years before a great war was fought and with it society has changed forever. And make sure you have some idea of what earlier history would have been. Who are these forgotten civilizations and why are these dungeons here? Who used to own this treasure? Again, you only need a general idea before you develop this more (or not) as your continue through your campaign.

5. How Does Magic Work?

Magic is important to tabletop fantasy games. Maybe your world is without magic or magic is rare and unexpected. Perhaps everyone has magic within them. There are so many possibilities. And while magic is a big one, there are other questions you should tackle. How important is religion? Are science and medicine still early in their practices? These questions can always be answered later. Brainstorm and come up with as much as you can before the campaign begins. However…

6. You Don’t Need to Know Everything

This is the most important thing to keep in mind if you are feeling stuck when try to develop your world. There’s so much to developing a setting that it can feel impossible or too scary to attempt. Don’t let this type of thinking stop you! Honestly you just need to lay out the foundation of your world before starting your first session. Your players aren’t going to need to know EVERYTHING about the world and neither do you. As you run you will develop ideas, characters, locations, villages, conflict, etc. This will make things more flexible and fun as you DM for your players. So relax, draw a map, write some ideas down and set a goal for when you will start session 0.

Thanks for the question, I hope you find this helpful as you begin prepping your world! Good luck and let me know if you need any other ideas or feedback!

Well . . . there is going to be a sequel, but I haven’t written it yet.

(( Haven’t decided on a title yet, so that’s how I’ll name these updates for now. Inspired by @voodoosciencelies. The Baby Blaster AU belongs to @spacegate. This one ends a bit abruptly because I felt it was getting a bit too long. Note: Papyrus is referred to as ‘they/them’ by Toriel in her thoughts and by narration from her perspective because it’s hard to tell the sex let alone the gender of a dog-skeleton monster without asking them, and she hasn’t got around to asking yet. ‘They’ is the default pronoun for strangers in monster society in this universe, so that’s why Toriel is using it for Papyrus. She will eventually use’he/him’ when she asks. I hope you enjoy. ))

As she reached the stairs to the main area of her house, Toriel came to a sudden realisation. What would she do with a skeleton-dog? She had never had the experience of dealing with this type of monster. What would they eat? Would she be able to teach them to speak? Were they even capable of speech? All these questions raced through her mind as she began to doubt whether she could actually take care of this child. Their own kind would know how to deal with them better, but the little tyke had no-one. They were all alone. After considering things, she decided that she had made the right decision and that things would work themselves out eventually.

The most immediate thing to attend to was sleeping arrangements. There were no canine-type monsters in the Ruins, so she did not own anything akin to a dog bed. Even if she had possessed such a thing, leaving the poor thing alone in the kitchen after experiencing such an ordeal didn’t seem fair on them.

“Oh, what am I to do with you?” she whispered with a smile on her face, “I suppose you will have to make do with the foot of my bed tonight.”

She proceeded to her bedroom, turning off all the lights on her way. The door opened with a soft creak and she made her way over to her bed. The gentle lighting of the lamp on her desk bathed the room in dim golden light despite the blue paint on the walls. She smoothed the end of the bed out and carefully placed the bundle of weary bones onto the blue coverlet. He twitched a little in his sleep and Toriel let out a contented sigh accompanied by a peaceful expression.

Thus began her nightly routine. Picking a good book from the bookshelf came first. Tonight she fancied re-reading some of her favourite snail facts from ’72 Uses for Snails’. She slipped under the duvet, put her reading glasses on and read until she felt sleepy. Her eyes drifted across the all-too-familiar pages. Did you know that some snails can lift ten times their own weight? she read to herself silently, Such a fascinating and strong animal, she thought, it’s inspiring how such a small and often overlooked creature can be that strong when it wants to. Eventually, fatigue got the better of her and she decided to rest. Although she had no reason to have mastered such a skill, Toriel closed the book without a sound almost effortlessly. She moved carefully so as not to disturb her charge who seemed to be happily dreaming about chasing something. All within a minute, ’72 Uses for Snails’ had been returned to the bookshelf and the lamp had been turned off to leave Toriel and her companion in the quiet, cosy darkness.

~

The next morning, Toriel opened her eyes to quite the puzzling sight. There was still a white silhouette at the end of her bed. She rubbed her eyes. The image became clearer. Still, there was a skeleton in a ball sleeping on the coverlet. Once again and the scene before her became crystal clear. Next to her feet was, not what one would describe as a strange dog skeleton, but a humanoid skeleton instead. Beneath a furrowed brow, her eyes stared in disbelief.  …Why is there a skeleton child curled up on my bed? And where did the poor pup go?

On further inspection, the monster at the foor of the bed did seem familiar and did have old scrapes on them that were similar to what the canine had. There was a chip in their left radius right where the dog had the same type of injury. A seemingly impossible thought hit Toriel in that moment. Could... could the humanoid child and the canine child be one and the same?

She had so many questions, but didn’t want to wake the poor thing from what was probably their first undisturbed and comfortable sleep in a long while. The confused lady went about her daily business and made preparations for her new guest, but she did it with a face that hardly concealed the gears turning in her mind. Should she make a pie or dog food? Plan a curriculum or learn how to teach tricks?

Her thinking session was interrupted by the pattering of small bony feet. The child had woken up and was peeking around the wall into the living room. He was still clad in the ragged blanket that Toriel had found him in the night before. The tense goat monster stopped her pacing and turned to face him with surprised look.

“Oh, hello. Up already, I see?”

The skeleton retreated slightly and assessed the situation. This lady seems nice, I think I can trust her. He let go of the doorframe, brought his balled fists up to his chest and gave an enthusiastic nod. Toriel’s muscles relaxed and she tilted her head to the side in an endearing manner in an attempt to appear as non-threatening as possible. She did not want to scare the child by taking her pent up worry and frustration out on him.

“Did you sleep well?” she asked, eager for a response.

The little monster’s features lit up as he gave a heart-warming smile and a firm nod. It looked like the expression of someone who had just had the best night’s sleep of their entire life.

“I am glad to hear that!” As she saw his reaction, Toriel felt a genuine sense of joy that she hadn’t felt in a very long time. This feeling showed in the form of a lingering smile that reciprocated the child’s brightness. After unintentionally melting her heart a little, the skeleton tilted his head as if to ask what was going to happen next. This snapped Toriel out of her hazy happy state and made her notice a little detail that she had been meaning to correct.

“Oh goodness, you are still wearing that rag?” she said as she gestured to the dishevelled fabric being worn by the skeleton as a poorly-done toga.

“We should probably get you some fresh clean clothes to wear, no? And maybe a sponge-down as well?” The smaller monster replied with a hum of agreement followed by his first words to her in his stay at the house.

“UM, OKAY.”

“Come with me then, my child. We shall clean you up and find you something decent to wear.” Toriel held out her hand for the little skeleton to hold as he followed her. He approached, slowly, and took her hand with caution. As soon as he figured it was okay, he happily skipped along behind his new caretaker as they made their way to the kitchen.

Toriel opened one of the cupboards underneath the kitchen counter and produced a small green bucket and a round, rather worn sponge. It still looked quite soft and this suspicion would be confirmed later.

“I am filling the bucket now. It will not take longer than a minute,” he heard alongside the rushing sound of the tap water hitting the bottom of the bucket, “Here we are.”

She took a bar of soap from the sink before kneeling down before the smaller monster with bucket and sponge in hand. After removing the make-shift clothing from him, she soaked the sponge in the pleasantly warm water and then rubbed the soap into it. Once it was all lathered up, she began wiping the dirt off of his face and upper body. She dipped again, wringed out most of the water and moved down to work on his legs. He stood very still during this process, unsure of exactly what she was doing, but trusting her to do him no harm.

Being as attentive as she was, the woman couldn’t help noticing some rather troubling markings dotted around the poor thing’s body. Sections of bone were chipped and there were some cracks here and there too. He didn’t react with pain when she grazed them with the sponge, which made her conclude that they must be old injuries. However, this just concerned her more as she thought of how young he must have sustained these wounds for them to act like forgotten scars now.

When Toriel had finished cleaning him, she fetched a small towel and handed it over. He continued to stare.

“My child, you know how to use a towel, do you not?” More staring. “Oh dear. Well, you take it in your hand” she said as she demonstrated, “and rub it on the wet parts to dry them. Do you see?”

He gave a slow nod of understanding, took the towel and did as Toriel had said. Suddenly, she thought of something. If this child does not know how to use a towel, have- have they never been washed before? What kind other kinds of neglect has this poor child faced? Her line of thinking disturbed her quite a bit, so she decided to get back to the task at hand.

“Well then, I shall go and find some clothes for you. I will be right back.” She got up and swiftly walked out. Just as the little skeleton thought he was alone again, Toriel popped her head around the door with a silly grin on her face. This confused him and also gave him a bad feeling.

“My child, when I come back please make sure that you are-” Her grin got wider as the anticipation grew and the smaller one began to dread what was going to happen next, “-bone dry!”

“ARGH, NOOOOOOOO.”

The woman howled with laughter and the child tried to hide his snickers with loud protesting. The joke was terrible, but he couldn’t help himself. It reminded him of someone. Someone that he hoped would join them soon so that he could enjoy these awful jokes as well.

“WHY DO YOU HAVE TO LIKE BAD PUNS…” he muttered to himself as he tried not to worry about the other pun-lover he cared about.

“I am sorry, my child,” she said between giggles, “I will go and fetch your clothes now.”

Although he didn’t openly show it, he had enjoyed her joke and for that she felt pleased with herself and happy that she had been able to make him laugh. She made her way to the spare bedroom that she had been preparing for the child that morning and opened up the closet. Inside were old ceremonial robes for children that she had kept as a keepsake. They were a mixture of dark and light blue and similarly to her own, the delta rune had been stitched into the centre. Today, it seemed as if they would actually be put to good use.

She returned to the kitchen carrying a small folded robe. As soon as he noticed her in the doorway, the little skeleton held the bunched up towel as high as he could.

“ALL DONE!” he said, proud of his achievement.

“Very good, my child!” she said in a rewarding tone, “I have something for you wear here. I hope it is not too big. Could you put your arms up for me, my child?”

He obeyed and Toriel slipped the robe over his head and got his arms through the sleeves with ease. It was a tad too long, but she could shorten any parts that needed adjusting in no time so it wouldn’t be much of a long-term problem.

“OOH, PRETTY BLUE! I REALLY LIKE IT!” he exclaimed with sparkles in his eyes.

“I am glad to hear that!” she said in response, just as happy as he was.

(( @voodoosciencelies came up with a couple of awesome ideas to expand the Baby Blaster AU (by @spacegate) and I decided to write a little something based on one of those ideas (Skelebros get separated, Pap gets adopted by Toriel and Sans gets adopted by Grillby). This is the first chapter. So, here is my first attempt at writing fanfiction for Undertale! Sorry for the repetition, Papyrus isn’t called Papyrus yet (the boys don’t have names). I hope it isn’t *too* shit. ))

It was cold. Not in the sense that it wasn’t usually as cold, but the gales of tonight’s blizzard were turning out to be pretty harsh on the little monster curled up against the door to the Ruins. His brother had been out for quite a while trying to find food and would’ve staggered back to his side by now if this had been a normal day. But today wasn’t normal. It was anything but.

The wind howled as it ran through the trees and began to freeze the creature to his core. When would brother be back? Will… will he ever be back? No, he wouldn’t leave me! Worrying thoughts and imagined scenarios ran through his mind as he tried to figure out why his brother hadn’t come back yet. Suddenly, the wind became stronger and angrier than before and, almost like a cruel child tormenting an insect, it knocked the monster back against the door with a loud thud. He felt almost as though being mocked for being weak by the wind’s whispers. He pulled his limbs even closer and wrapped himself as tight as he could with the scrap of cloth that the pair had found the day before. The fabric reminded him of his absent sibling. Why hasn’t he come back? he thought to himself, why do I have to be alone? I just- I just don’t want to be alone!

The creature lifted his snow-covered head with what little strength he had and looked into the distance. No-one in sight. The only thing he could see was white. Blinding white. His breathing heavy and wavering, he opened his mouth and began to wail in his despair. A call to someone, anyone, so that he didn’t have to be alone. His cries continued, on and on, but nobody came. That is, until he heard footsteps.

There was no crunching of snow, nor shuffling of thick and heavy clothes. No, these footsteps sounded as if the owner was walking on a smooth, hard surface and was dressed for much milder conditions. This forced the frightened monster into silence. He got up and turned to face the massive, looming door. Suddenly, there was a voice. A voice that radiated warmth which he had never heard before.

“Hello? Is there anyone there?”

The creature jumped back in surprise and stayed still, frozen in shock. After the initial reaction wore off, he moved forward towards the door with small, timid steps. His brother had always taught him to be wary of strangers because he said that they couldn’t be trusted. It was always him and his brother, against the world. However, the tone of this person’s speech told him that they meant no harm. They sounded genuinely curious and seemed to have no malicious intent. This cordiality told him that his next actions wouldn’t result in anything dangerous.

Watching for any sudden changes, he scratched the wood of the door with his paw. The sound of bone against wood wasn’t a particularly pleasing one, but it was loud enough for anyone near to notice. From the other side came a sound indicating that the person that the friendly voice belonged to had just pressed their ear to the door in an attempt to find more information out about the source of the odd sound. In response, the little skeletal monster let out a weak whine. When no reply came, he tried again a bit louder despite it being quite draining for him in his current state.

“...a dog?” the voice said in an interested tone. The bone creature managed a muted, but hopeful bark in return. He heard more shuffling.

Slowly but surely, the door moved to provide a small opening into the dark space beyond. The person behind the door moved away as soon as a gust of wind blew a group of snowflakes into their face. This caused them to quickly slip to one side of the slim entrance to the outside world to avoid the biting cold.

“Oh dear, I had forgotten how cold it can get out there…”

The skeleton tilted his head to the side in confusion. Had this person been out here before? He had certainly never seen anyone wandering about this far out in the woods. Maybe it had been a while since they had been around?

A pair of squinting eyes emerged from the darkness and caught sight of the shivering monster wrapped in a torn blanket in the snow below.

“Oh my goodness! You poor thing, you must be freezing!”

From the door came a kind looking woman with soft-looking white fur and long ears that framed her face. She wore a simple lavender robe that had a symbol on it that the little skeleton didn’t recognise. It seemed to carry some sort of importance in its design and something at the back of the smaller monster’s head told him that there was something familiar about it. However, he disregarded it in favour of focusing on what the seemingly friendly goat monster was doing. Her eyes darted back and forth, looking to see if someone was accompanying such a helpless little creature. When her search yielded no positive results, her gaze returned to the little ball of bones looking up at her in fright.

“Ah, do not be afraid. I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins. Are you lost, little one?”

The skeleton was speechless. He had never seen someone like her before and her towering size was overwhelming for a monster only used to his brother’s company. Toriel looked ahead again and her expression changed to a worried frown.

“Who would leave a child so young out here to fend for themselves? I cannot believe some people have such cold hearts sometimes. Oh dear, I cannot just leave you out here alone, can I?”

She knelt down and scooped the shivering monster up into her arms.

“You had best come with me and warm up. Do not fret, for I will take good care of you, my child.”

With that, she stepped back inside with the young skeleton pressed against her chest and closed the door to the cruel, cold world beyond. Although he was slightly afraid, he felt he could trust this kind lady and held onto the hope that his brother would come back eventually. As she walked down the long corridor, the rhythmic sound of her footsteps and her soothing words of comfort lulled the tired little skeleton into a peaceful sleep. The last thing he remembered from that night was his new guardian humming a lullaby that would go on to stay a fond memory for him his whole life.