Unlike people, your audience doesn't usually care about whether or not an item is believable. They want something memorable. Like people, however, the qualities that make an item memorable are its non-physical qualities. Whether that is an item's magical powers, the beliefs about that item, or the memories that are associated with an item - these are traits that make an item unique. An item can be rather plain and yet have a non-physical quality that makes it memorable. The One Ring is just a plain gold ring but it is precious because it is what binds Sauron's spirit to the world and grants its bearer power even if at a terrible cost.

How do you create interesting, believable characters to build your story around? How do we as GMs do this when the main characters are ultimately not of our design? Let's take a look at how to use the world around you as inspiration for the denizens of your game worlds, whether they are NPCs, creatures, and yes, even the player characters!

The call of adventure echoes through the narrow canals of Venice. In this labyrinthine city, history whispers from crumbling palazzos, and every corner promises a hidden secret. As a Dungeon Master, I couldn't help but see Venice as a treasure trove of inspiration for my D&D campaigns. From its unique architecture to its rich tapestry of myth and legend, the City of Masks offers endless possibilities for worldbuilding and storytelling.

Recently, Wizards of the Coast released Keys From the Golden Vault, a collection of Dungeons & Dragons adventures centered around the theme of heists. This book is a slight tie-in to D&D's new theatrical release. By now you have most likely seen Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. If you enjoyed it, you may want to join in on the fun of a heist story. The adventures in Keys From the Golden Vault give you a great starting point for a one-shot or campaign of heists. Each adventure is built around the idea that the player characters are operatives for the Golden Vault, a clandestine organization focused on making sure powerful items stay out of the wrong hands - at any cost. The stories are creative and well-written adventures that can be played in one to two sessions but what do you do if you want to chart your own course? How can you use the elements found in Keys From the Golden Vault as well as other roleplaying games to write your own fantasy RPG heist adventures?

Unfortunately for us in the mundane real world, we don't have fantastical magic items like Bags of Holding or Cloaks of Invisibility. We are left to imagine what it would be like to possess such power. However, in the real world, we do have something that comes close to this idea. For people of certain religions, holy relics hold great significance and some believe they even hold great power.

Dungeons & Dragons has announced that Dragonlance is returning as an official adventure setting with the release of Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen in November of 2022.

Here are some themes you should consider when writing your own Dragonlance adventures along with some DM Lessons that can apply to any game whether Dragonlance or not.

Are there more interesting, or even just more diverse, styles of towns that we can incorporate into our RPG worlds? Absolutely!

Here are just a few examples how to make your RPG town more memorable.

At its core, “DMing the World” is the practice of borrowing from the real world and using it in your own fantasy RPG setting. This does not mean running a historically accurate tabletop simulation. It means looking at the world with an appreciative (and respectful) eye and borrowing something that is unique, beautiful, or quite simply fantastic.