Help a newish DM world build...again.

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as far as a starting objective goes i was thinking the samurais grandfather "retired adventurer" willed a estate he owns in a neighboring country to him because the first born would be inheriting the family title and most of the family's wealth. his grandfather had one request written into the will should Tin choose to accept and travel to the land, Upon arriving to the estate and presenting proof of ownership to the local Lord/State/Kingdom or whatever it may be he is to retrieve a very important item from the house and... thats all i have so far.

i am very open to suggestions and changing the objective entirely. i thought it would be cool to have the party work their way through to the other side of the country and be rewarded with a stronghold along with some valuables like a few magic items. thats about all i have so far, any and all suggestions and ideas are appreciated.and heres the next part of the map

As I'm sure many other anons have said, try not to do too much long term planning. Whichever of your long term side quests the players gravitate towards could develop into a main story. Also, get a feel for your PCs motivations. Try to use that to your advantage when possible. For example, my tempest cleric is all about freedom and self determination, suddenly the village is being raided by slavers.

The fact that you're posting all this shit shows you at least care which is half the battle. The other half is being flexible. Good luck

>>49418929
appreciate the advice, will keep that in mind im gonna talk with them a little to better determine that.

>>49418877
>>49418915
I think the first thing you should do is put down the road leading from Berg to Penrith. Maybe add in a village or coaching inn somewhere along the path.

After that extend the rest of the terrain, and as you do so keep in mind any encounters that could happen along the way. Maybe there's a problem with bandits or a particular kind of wildlife in the area, and you could add locations that would make those encounters turn into their own sidequests if the PCs wanted to. For instance, taking the Bandit idea from earlier, you could have a small hideaway tucked away in a few hills towards the southern end of the map, bandits from this area would try to accost the PCs on the road, then if the PCs were inclined to they could try to follow the bandits back to their hideaway to either talk them into leaving the place alone, or kill them depending on tehir predilections.

Also try to keep in mind as to how influential a town Penrith is supposed to be. You said it would be in a neighboring country/state/kingdom, but is Penrith its capital, or just a large city?

If so, other towns may have sprung up nearby as a result. Its just something to think about. There have been times in my player's campaigns where they've looked at a map where an important city has been, have pointed to a little out-of-the-way village or hamlet in the middle of nowhere that I hadn't even written anything about, and decided that that was where they wanted to go, so be ready to have to pull some stuff out on the spot.

I think writing at least a two or three sentence synopsis about each location, even if you write nothing else about it, will help you immensely.

>>49418915
>i was thinking the samurais grandfather "retired adventurer" willed a estate he owns in a neighboring country to him because the first born would be inheriting the family title and most of the family's wealth.

The danger here is that one PC becomes absolutely plot-essential. What if the PC dies? What if he misses a session? A role like this might be better left to an NPC that hires the PCs for help.

With a region like this you could alternately go full-sandbox. In old-school D&D, the common hook that motivates all the players is getting filthy rich from plundering ancient dungeons, and a GM would then seed the map with treasure filled dungeons for the players to discover and plunder.

You may not want that style of game, but you can easily follow similar logic by placing problems and conflicts in the world. Rather than prepping discrete "jobs", create conflicts that the PCs can find out about and then resolve at the behest of one side or the other.

In terms of DMPCs - why "assign" one to start? Let the PCs hire assistance if they wish - maybe there's an adventurer or two they might encounter in their travels who's willing. This keeps the players in the spotlight and gives them choice over how to round out their party composition.

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>>49420991
As for how to fit the character motivations with the campaign, you're actually in a decent spot - two of the characters are motivated by wealth: Tin Wu wants to get rich, while Norric also is trying to raise money for the monastery. Wealth is a really easy motivator to work with because you can then slap a gp reward onto anything and the players will go for it.

Hornito is a little more difficult - "leave the motivation to the GM" is just extra work for me, and I generally don't appreciate it. Send him back to the player to work on some more, or just make his motivator wealth like the others - the rest of them are then on the same page.

I'm probably being a little harsh here, but the pursuit of wealth and/or glory work very well for the sort of jobs that D&D adventurers do, being essentially hired muscle most of the time. If a character has a completable objective like "Get to City X," well, then what happens after? The nice thing about gold is that you can always accumulate more!

As I said previously, I'd avoid building a specific DMPC for the party. Scatter a few adventurer type NPCs around the cities (or alternately generate a table of random characters and randomly pick one every time the party goes hunting for recruits). If the party feels they need a cleric, let them go out and find/hire one specifically.

This means the choice is still on the party, and it also means you can keep recruitable party NPCs fairly expendable - because again, the PCs can always go back and hire another guy.

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>>49419981
Thanks for the advice I'll get started on those town summaries , I'm also definitely gonna use the bandit idea

>>49421117
>>49420991
thanks for the input guys, about the coflicts for the players to resolve, all i got is a war between orcs and troglodytes for control of the abandoned mine.

and i like the NPCs for hire idea so im gonna start with a list of about 5 or 6 NPCs that the players can seemingly get a hold of any where in the country for hiring. and the Diego player is actually stopping by in a few so ill work it out with him

>>49419981
oh i forgot to mention that penrith is just a town at most, i want to make the major city farther down the line to make it feel like a small accomplishment to get there but not to far.

>>49421368
Other conflicts that would be common in a remote borderlands region

-land dispute between two barons
-beastmen (orcs/kobolds/etc.) raiding a village/town/barony
-bandits preying on a stretch of road frequented by merchants
-different factions trying to take control of an organization in a clandestine internal power struggle (merchant's guild, thieves guild/mafia, wizard's academy, etc.)
-invading army threatens border region (type will affect the feel tremendously - barbarian army is very different from skeleton army)
-restless dead haunting a specific region/area
-roaming hyperpredator (wyvern, dragon, griffin, giant animal, etc.) threatens area
-lycanthrope/vampire threat in outlying village
-fey kidnapping humans in region

The list can go on and on. Think of every conflict that you've heard about, read about, or watched, and apply a fantasy varnish. Then find a suitable location on the map.

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Take detailed notes after every session and track the impression the party left places or NPCs with. They will build a reputation, and faster than they'd expect. Maybe past NPCs will send for their help? Maybe villains take notice? You can have them roll every time they come to a new place to see whether the locals have heard good or bad stories about the party already...

Always have more hooks than the players can follow. This makes the world seem alive and it also gives the players power to select what to pursue. And everything they heard of but didn't follow up on can keep developing in their absence, so you always have plot to fall back on. Of course you only write this out when it becomes relevant. But collect those loose ends somewhere.

Introduce a rival early on. Some multitalent Mary Sue or a ragtag gang of adventurers who sometimes steal quests and eventually compete for the conclusion of one. These aren't bad people, but they are unlikeable. Sow competition whenever possible. If the players roll their eyes when an NPC mentions the 'other' adventuring party then you're doing it right. This can be a much more powerful device to drive the players than a bad guy. And it can remain on simmer indefinitely, only coming into the spotlight when needed. It's also a nice comic relief to structure gritty scenarios with contrast.

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>>49418877

On a side note, I love your map illustrating style your trees and mountains are dope.

In terms of advice on objectives, I like to give every adventure location a kind of core "vibe" then extrapolate a core quest(s) from there.

So like the swampy village has a very independent and homegrown kind of vibe. People have their own accent (maybe a faux southern drawl), The buildings look different (warped wood and overgrown), local interests (hunting), politics (miserly magistrate & oligarchy), and problems (giant gators) are all unique and different from the last village. Also, curate a different playlist of music for each village or location (if you're a music-playing DM) that really helps set the mood, and from there, then you can sort of figure out plot hooks and quest ideas that spring from you, or from what the PC's naturally gravitate towards. Ideas ideas ideas! You can totally fill in the blanks from there.

Like this anon said >>49421745 the more plot hooks the better! You'll come up with fun objectives from there.

I would advise against paying a dmpc. It's very difficult to juggle the knowledge as a dm and the need to contribute to the group as a player. Especially as a new dm. Focus fully on providing fun challenges with none of those restrictions.
Start small! Work your way up. The world saving can wait.

As far as challenge ratings go, there's kobold fight club that calculates it automatically if you mean combat cr. And it's not difficult to adjust from 4 to 3 anyway. Just assume 4 as a base line and adjust from there. Fudge rolls in the beginning if it turns out you overdid it. (Attacking in waves helps here)

And I second the notion of multiple plotlines/hooks at the same time. 3 is a good number. So no matter what the pcs choose to do, there's always trouble on the other side.

>>49422805
I completely agree that having a DMPC is always a bad idea.

But that doesn't mean the character has to go. Just turn over control to the players and make him their follower.

>>49418877
>lakeford
>no crossing over the lake that would indicate a Ford
>Ashton
>doesn't appear to have ash trees
>darkwood
>wood nowhere thick enough to be dark
>Bellmore
>less bells than the average population

>>49425822
>spoilsport
>not featured
Gee, I wonder why?