So you maybe a brand new Dungeon Master ready to start out running a game of your own, and you decided to start with the Essentials line before moving up to full blown Core 4E.
Without looking at all the books (since WotC is once again doing their idiotic staggered release program), we will have to look into the crystal ball and see what we think might be needed.
There will be 10 classes and 10 races and an optional 11th class (Assassin), and race revenant (which I am already canning for my game); tieflings and dragon born are about as far as an old school DM like me is going to stretch.
I would start off with the classes. They are: Cleric (War Priest), Fighter (Knight and Slayer), Rogue (Thief), and Wizard (Mage) from the Heroes of the Fallen Lands source book. The other classes coming out are Druid, Ranger, Paladin, and Warlock.
The races from the first book are Human, Elven, Eladrin, Dwarf, and Halfling. The second book will introduce Dragon Born, Drow, Half Elf, Half Orc, and Tiefling.
It also seems that the designers are going to give the Dungeon Master some history meaning that Arkhosia, Bael Turath, and Nerath empires have happen in the past. This history has been pieced together here:
http://www.northerngamers.org/index.php?title=Nerath
There is also a map available here:
http://www.northerngamers.org/index.php?title=File:Nerath.jpg
Notice, like many good designs the map extends off the page on 3 sides leaving the DM room to create more space. If a DM wanted to start the adventurers in the town of Fallcrest in the Nentir vale, he could certainly do that with very little trouble.
Since I like world building, I am going to at least pencil my own world. I want to keep the history so I will need a place to put Arkhosia and Bael Turath that will be later over run by the Empire of Nerath. I also need a place for the Elven kingdoms and Dwarven lands (and a place for the Halflings too). Looking at the map, this place does not seem big enough for me.
Realistically, there needs to be a place where large armies could maneuver (the battles between Arkhosia and Bael Turath). Later, the human empire of Nerath will over come those places, so there might need to be 3 iterations of the map: The original “Arkhosian” Map, the Nerathian empire map, and the present map.
So where to start? I like to start with geology. I like an ocean on one side which allows me to incorporate seafaring adventures (arrrr). The two biggest natural dividers are water and mountains. I also have used and will use again woods (since this is an ideal place to plop down the elves and eladrin). This will be a political boundary.
Even using the points of light theory presented by the designers as the backdrop for the Dungeons and Dragons games, rivers and commerce are still the prime movers in the advancement of civilization. Where there are groups of people, there is conflict, and it is conflict that drives the story of Dungeons and Dragons. Two great conflicts have already taken place: The battle of Arkhosia and Bael Turath, and the fall of Nerath (allegedly to demons).
There is also the drow war (important since we have drow characters); Orc’s who bring conflict with them everywhere they go, and we need a place for halflings to move around in as well. The Halflings seem to prefer rivers per the designers of 4E.
So we need a place with plenty of space, rivers, and some mountains. We need woodlands to place the elves and eladrin. What place seems to be good for this? For me good old North America! Heavily forested (elves will be happy-eladrin too), plenty of rivers for halflings to sail upon, plains for humans, mountains for dwarves, a seaboard, great lakes, yep this will do just fine. Now to warp it since the good Lord does not like people plagiarizing his handy work. Dang, this is going to take at least one political map as well maybe more, but going into this much detail allows the dungeon master to later have copious material from which to draw on to tell his stories.
It is amazing how much information one can get by just placing in a favorite browser “topical map of North America circa 1700.” We now have geography and topology that can be made into a useful fantastic world with only some changes.
Fist important consideration, where to place Arkhosia and Bael Turath? This comes down to either north -south or east-west. The second is do I want them linked by a major river?
It time to take out a pencil and put some of my wandering thoughts on paper: this is what I came up with (see picture). I need to figure out my scanner!
As my mind rambled, I ended up putting Bael Turath and Arkhosia on the same river chain and ended up putting Nerath on the same waterway as well. I decided to put our town name Lakeside on the northern part of the river as well. (I need a name for the river). There is a major river running through the Elven lands all the way to the sea, and a place in the mountain for the Dwarves. Drow of course are in the under dark, so I have all of the major races covered as far as giving them a place to dwell. I also gave the Orcs and Goblins (and Kobolds) a place to reside as well. There are multiple places where I might place the Nentir Vale. So the first rough map is done.
It is now time to create a monster roster:
Kobolds have a rich roster of monsters up to level 6:
Goblins (and Hobgoblins) have a deep roster as well up to about level 5
Orcs go up to level 10-11(ish)
What do I mean by a deep roster? For me a deep roster is a large group of beings that cover all the major monster roles of the game: Artillery, Brute, Controller, Lurker, Minion, Skirmisher, and Soldier. Drow for example don’t really start covering all the roles until about level 10-14, so they are not a good choice for stories for beginning level adventurers. This covers only monsters that appear on the map and are humanoid; there many other types of monsters and monster rosters that do not fit into a civilization or society (of their own)-for example undead.
Now that there is a brief backdrop for the world, it is time to plan a small town where the beginning adventures can take place.
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