Lore and historical past are necessary facets of most campaigns, even when it’s simply background data that provides extra context to present occasions. A lot of this D&D lore is commonly defined via the historical past of the sapient (and playable) species of the world. And seeing how they work together with one another is what provides depth to the world’s historical past, which is essential to your gamers to grasp! It will allow them to provide you with higher characters and backstories. So, how are you going to current this data to them? Listed below are some tricks to make use of World Anvil’s Chronicles function to construct a vibrant and wealthy tradition round your setting’s races!
1. Use one timeline per species
Chronicles is a device that permits you to hyperlink timelines and maps collectively seamlessly so you possibly can see when and the place every part occurs! Every chronicle can have a number of timelines, so go forward and create one for every DnD race or tradition you need to write about (click on the inexperienced plus button on the backside proper nook of the map space). It will allow you to be as detailed as you need along with your historical past with out having a timeline that’s so complicated nobody is aware of what’s happening!
If creating one timeline for every species appears daunting, don’t fear—you don’t should! Take a look at your world and take into account that are essentially the most influential ones to your marketing campaign. And I’m not speaking about playable races, however concerning the precise affect on the marketing campaign’s occasions. You’ll most likely be capable to get that quantity all the way down to 4, and even much less! You may then lump all remaining races right into a single timeline.
Chronicles will solely have as much as two timelines seen always, however you probably have extra you’ll be capable to scroll via them along with your mouse!
2. Use lanes for various sorts of occasions in your D&D lore
As you possibly can see within the screenshot above, every timeline has 4 lanes. That’s, 4 rows the place you possibly can place occasions in parallel! This can be a nice technique to present occasions that occur on the identical time with out overwhelming your gamers with data. To create an occasion in a particular lane, merely right-click on the lane you need to add it! You can too change the lane and date of an occasion by enhancing it utilizing the pencil icon you’ll see once you click on on it.
To prepare your occasions, take into consideration which 4 teams you need to use to categorise the occasions of a particular D&D race. For instance, one lane might be for battles, one other one for political occasions, one other one for cultural or spiritual occasions, and the final one for “different” occasions. In case your marketing campaign tackles a particular style (resembling intrigue), you may need to fine-tune this construction to focus on the occasions that actually matter for the marketing campaign’s tone and themes.
Lastly, use colours! When creating or enhancing an occasion, you possibly can choose its shade within the “Show” tab—you might have some pre-defined colours at your disposal, however you can also select any shade in any respect! I like to recommend utilizing a single shade for every lane so you possibly can determine them extra simply, however you can additionally use colours for another group methodology if you wish to!
Take a look at all these colours! Sure, it’s a whole lot of data, however it’s additionally introduced in a format that’s very straightforward to digest!
3. Present conflicting histories and interpretations
How do you take care of occasions which might be related to a number of D&D races? Properly, simply put them in all timelines—however from that tradition’s perspective. If a volcano erupted, possibly a human metropolis was destroyed (so it is going to be catastrophic), however the hearth genasi will see it as a very good omen. Equally, a battle between two warring factions might be seen as an absolute victory or a complete catastrophe relying on who you ask.
Within the chronicle above, you possibly can see that the highest lanes (gentle blue and yellow) are very comparable. Although you don’t know what these occasions are, you possibly can in a short time see that they’re someway associated! And this provides a lot depth to your setting as a result of it’s how historical past works in our actual world too.
If you wish to be taught extra about easy methods to use Chronicles in your world, try this tutorial:
Prepared to start out planning your D&D lore to your marketing campaign? Create a World Anvil account to get began!
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