I’ve got the itch to play D&D again. Ever since playing it in middle school, I’ve been forced to be the Dungeon Master if I actually want to convince anyone to play with me. It’s not the worst fate. I feel like there are opportunities for growth as a DM that you just don’t get as a player.

I’m trying to start a new campaign now. So far I’ve got one friend, my wife, my neighbor and maybe my neighbor’s friend. I tried working through the Gygax 75 method, but it’s emphasis on running a mega dungeon doesn’t appeal to me. Instead I decided to grab pre-made one-shot adventures, and create a simple world to fit those adventures in to. It’s got a town, a forest and some mountains, which covers most of the locations an adventure would take place in.

As is, I could start running the game today, but I’ve got some time so I’m spending it fleshing out the town. Creating NPCs, naming shops and taverns. I used a fantasy town generator to create the layout, exported it as a JSON file which I imported in to another site that created a 3D model from it. I took THAT model and stuck it in to Blender. Next I’ll take a screenshot from Blender and create a draw over for a nice illustration of the town. Do I have to do any of that? Of course not! I just like building little imaginary worlds.