“And don’t even get me started on the sense of control that a DM has. We know what world-building, god-complex control freaks they all are.” – Dave Noonan
I’ll confess for a minute:
I love building a new Dungeons and Dragons campaign world.
Even if no one ever read this journal, I’d love doing it.
Why? Lots of reasons. Yep, I’ve got the DM’s god complex. But there are other reasons. Here are a few:
- I’ve got something to say, deep down. Whether or not anyone else every hears it is secondary.
- I like toying with ideas. I’ve always been an idea guy; I majored in History and Philosophy. Building a campaign world uses both disciplines.
- I get to be the bad guy. I don’t know if I’m catering to the lesser angel of my nature here, but sometimes it’s just cool to be evil.
Which brings me to today’s campaign building diary. Today, I built a villain. Not just any villain, mind you, but a campaign-style villain. The villain that the PCs encounter at every level. The villain that is behind every corner. The villain that serves as a red herring, but only sometimes. The villain whose victory means the end of the world, and whose defeat means glorious retirement and fabulous riches for the PCs.
I’m not posting him here. If you play in my game at GenCon, or in the local campaign to follow, you’ll meet him soon enough.
