Category: Homebrew Tudor Game

I’m planning a Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) campaign from the ground up and will be providing an overview of the different stages of game design—from conceptualising characters to designing treasure items, and crafting a detailed game map.

When building an adventure, it’s important to also understand the fundamentals of game design—especially within the context of tabletop role-playing games.

Game design is a balance of storytelling, mechanics, and creativity, with an emphasis on crafting an enjoyable experience.

A successful adventure, relies on how well these components are integrated. As a DM or GM, understanding how to strike a balance between these elements is what gives way to a memorable and immersive session.

Let’s make a compelling villain for your Dungeons & Dragons campaign.

Crafting a memorable villain is an essential part of storytelling in tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs), as they often serve as the central source of conflict and drive the narrative forward.

Villains are more than just obstacles for the players to overcome—they are complex characters with motivations, goals, and personality traits of their own.

Throughout this video, we will focus on designing a strong villain character, using Thomas Cromwell—a key figure from Tudor history—as our example. I outline the process of designing a villain from scratch, including how to develop their stat block, personality, motivations, and role in the campaign.

In D&D, clerics are known for their ability to heal, protect, and support others, as well as their proficiency in divine magic. For Anne, these abilities can be expanded to reflect her historical ability to shape the world around her through influence, persuasion, and manipulation.

Perhaps Anne’s cleric abilities centre around themes of justice, divine intervention, and even political influence. This adds an extra layer of intrigue to her character as a potential ally or antagonist, depending on how her goals align with the party’s mission.

For example, Anne could draw on her divine magic to aid others in their quests, using healing spells to restore the wounded or blessings to protect those who follow her cause.

Alternatively, her history of ambition and influence can translate into the use of enchantment or illusion spells to manipulate others or subtly guide the direction of the plot. She could even possess the ability to cast spells that influence the ruling powers of the land, further reinforcing her role as a powerful political and spiritual figure within the campaign.

Here I demonstrate the creative potential of integrating Dungeons and Dragons tarot cards into my homebrew campaign.

This process is a novel way to inject both randomness and thematic depth into my storytelling. While tarot cards, are often used for divination and gaining insight into the future, they can also serve as a fascinating tool for enhancing the narrative of your tabletop role-playing game.

By drawing on the symbolism and imagery within the cards, I can introduce new story elements, characters, and plot twists that might not have been conceived otherwise.

This process helps me add an extra layer of unpredictability and intrigue to my campaign, keeping players on their toes and encouraging them to think critically about their characters’ motivations and decisions.

I’ll be walking you through the process of designing traps for my new Dungeons & Dragons (TTRPG) game, set in the Tudor period during the reign of Henry VIII and the time of Anne Boleyn. I’ll show you how to integrate the era’s politics, architecture, and lore into your trap designs.

Designing traps is not just about adding danger—it’s about immersing players in the world you’ve created. By tying the traps to the history of the Tudor period, you not only challenge players but also help them feel like they are part of a living, breathing world. Imagine a trap set by Thomas Cromwell, designed to protect a royal secret. Or a trap in the Tower of London, placed there by an ambitious noble hoping to thwart Anne Boleyn’s enemies so she can escape.

The traps should be designed to reflect the political intrigue, power struggles, and the dark, dangerous world of Tudor England. Each trap can be a way to emphasise the constant threats of betrayal, danger, and shifting allegiances that marked the reign of Henry VIII and the events leading to Anne Boleyn’s eventual imprisonment.

The book I used to help design my traps was: Jarlaxle’s Guide to Traps.

I will take you through my D&D journal, which serves as a comprehensive record for the homebrew campaign I’m developing.

This journal is a crucial part of my process, allowing me to organise my thoughts, plot out key scenes, and document the various characters and lore that will bring my game to life.

I’ll guide you through the structure of my journal, explaining the different sections I’ve included and how I plan to annotate each one for clarity and ease of reference during planning and gameplay.

If you want to run a campaign set in a historical period or are simply interested in how to use a journal for organising your thoughts and ideas, this video will provide useful insights.

By combining historical research with the flexibility of a role-playing game like Dungeons & Dragons, you can create a rich, immersive experience for your players that feels both grounded in real history and fantasy adventure.

I will guide you through the process of writing a homebrew D&D campaign. I start by showing you how to craft a concise synopsis and develop compelling character hooks that will inspire and engage your players.

Next, I demonstrate how to write a punchy introduction for the first scene of your campaign, setting the stage for an exciting adventure that will draw your players in right from the start.

I also revisit one of my previous NPCs, explaining how I plan to integrate them into the first encounter of the game.

For those interested in using a Dungeons & Dragons journal to organise your campaign notes and planning, I also provide a brief tour of my journal, showcasing the content I’ve written so far and how I structure it for ease of use.

My homebrew campaign is set in the Tudor era, focusing on the period surrounding the imprisonment of Anne Boleyn, so it has a rich historical backdrop. This video is a valuable resource for anyone looking to create a homebrew D&D campaign, particularly those interested in blending history with fantasy elements.

Join me as I demonstrate how the Dungeon Master’s Guide—or more specifically, its core assumptions have influenced and shaped the structure of my game.

I will walk you through how I organise my scenes and talk about why I revised the introduction of my opening scene. This video is particularly useful for those who want to understand how to plan the first act of a D&D campaign or for anyone looking for inspiration to begin writing their own tabletop role-playing game.

All of the work I do in this video is documented in my D&D journal, where I also sketch character designs. Since my campaign is inspired by the Tudor era, my illustrations and miniature designs draw from historical figures such as Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell, offering a unique historical touch to my gaming universe.

If you’re interested in learning how to create a homebrew D&D campaign with a historical twist, you’ve come to the right place.

In this video, I share my process for designing a Tudor-inspired game, focusing on Anne Boleyn’s imprisonment, and offer valuable tips and techniques for creating your own historically based campaigns.

Tudor history is a personal passion of mine, and I believe real-life historical settings offer fantastic opportunities for new and more experienced Dungeon Masters alike.

These settings come with rich lore that can either be directly integrated into your campaign or used as a framework to inspire fresh and original game ideas.

By using historical events as a source of inspiration, you can create a deeper, more immersive narrative for your players.