You need a way to make your Dungeons and Dragons world feel larger than just the campaign you’re setting up. You want the world to feel alive. Like the everyday people do more than their everyday jobs and drink ale at the pub. Like they have a passion. A passion, however meaningless, that gets them out of bed each morning with something to look forward to. Give those NPC’s something to laugh, cry and cheer about. Give them the ultimate sport. Can you see it? The sport that makes people come from miles around to cheer it on? What are it’s stakes? Is there a favorite athlete? How did get invented? Is there magic involved? Is it compatible with D&D so PC’s might join in on the fun? Let’s find out!
Choose a premise
The goal in every sport is to win. But do they do that in a group, individual or as one-versus-rest? Is there a specific goal that needs to be accomplished like Harry Potter’s snitch-catching in “Quidditch”, is there a way to score points before the end of the time limit like in the ballgame of “Road to El Dorado” or is it the goal to defeat your opponent in a feat of strength or strategy like in the sport in “The Legend of Korra”? All of these are a great premise to build your sport around. Now choose a basic premise and make it your own!
Making it D&D
Dungeons & Dragons relies heavily on turns and rolling dice for calculation of chance. Turns plays in excellently for both turn-based strategy games and fighting sports and rolling dice comes into play when forcing an opponent into a (strength) contest. As long as there are enough turns or dice-rolls for the players to make an impact on the outcome. Important to note is making sure the sport works for you world. Maybe the use of magic breaks the game or maybe there are items that forego any of the challenge. After covering that all that is left to do is define what is and isn’t allowed and let it roam the world.
How does it effect the world?
Now that you have the sport you can use it to color in your world and see how it makes it’s impact. How was the sport invented. Who plays it and are there some local or global stars because of it? Is there a championship and most importantly.. can the players join?
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Fan fiction D&D one-shots
Are you ready to play some D&D, and do you want to further explore fantasy worlds like that of Harry Potter, Pokémon, Hunger Games or Avatar? Try out these free one-shots!
Recommended products
Looking for more ways to make your world feel more alive? Check out the “A world of your own” chapter on worldbuilding in the “Dungeon Master’s Guide” in the link below.
