Ever wondered how it would feel playing in the early days of Dungeons and Dragons? Or maybe you already play it or want to pick it up again! Well, we’re here to tell you about Koth, a new setting designed by Tryggvi to be played with the first D&D edition.
Paintings by Gustav Doré have been an inspiration for this world.
What is Koth?
Tryggvi recently became a Dungeon Master again, after years without playing, and he decided to do so with the game he already knew: Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (1st edition). This setting is not new strictly speaking —he has been working on it since his youth. He was inspired by the old-school dungeons and dragons rules, brutal and challenging, to create a large and complex world. Koth currently has several campaigns going on, both in the 1st and 2nd editions of the game.
World Anvil for old-school Dungeons and Dragons?
As stated above this campaign world is complex and I play with a number of very intelligent, depending roleplayers who want to ferret out and understand the various secrets of the world. The features in World Anvil such as storyteller notes, secrets etc. allow me to keep a lot of this well documented. —Tryggvi
World Anvil is great for organizing your worldbuilding, and Tryggvi has taken full advantage of that! He had hundreds of notes written down in documents, and World Anvil gave him the opportunity to turn them into something far more interactive.
Don’t you feel nostalgia when you see this old-school statblock?
If you want a word of advice, he recommends having a clear structure and methodology before starting to write —and also while you are writing! Always think about the best way to do something while you are doing it. He summarized his worldbuilding process as such:
1) Get your basic site up with high level categories.
2) Build a world map but don’t worry too much about populating it with articles at first
3) Create an order of priority for article and content creation and then get going.
Building on a game that is 40 years old can be difficult due to the lack of updated resources, but he is doing his best —and the results so far are great!
What’s next for Koth?
Tryggvi’s players started a post-session podcast discussing the campaign from their perspectives. He would also like to publish a campaign narrative around these adventures with some player input, to make them feel even more alive and real!
Check out Koth on World Anvil, as well as Tryggvi’s Patreon page. If you are interested in joining his community, join his Discord server!
Want to recommend a Sage for our Sage Spotlight series? Or want to recommend yourself? Gimme a shout in the comments! 🙂
