Part 1: "The Caravan of Whispers" Dreaming Phase with AI
Over the next few weeks, I will walk through my process of creating a real, fully fleshed out, playable campaign. One that you will be able to download and play for free.
4 Steps to Create a Campaign
Dreaming: this is where the ideas flow and inspiration comes from many sources. The goal is to create a campaign planning template (PDF).
Building: This is the act of taking a structured idea and turning it into a playable campaign. We start with the campaign planning template and then work on fleshing out the details using AI to help us create a playable campaign. You can find the campaign creation details here.
Running: This is the process of getting to and running your first session and beyond. I shoot for 4-7 encounters and a few random encounters for the first session. Or, if I am playing with a new crew, I will run a session 0.
Publishing: Finally, we will make this campaign live for anyone to play it through the Game Master Platform Marketplace.
Main Purpose of the Dreaming Step
The primary goal of the Dreaming step is to establish a foundational Campaign Planning Template that will guide the entire creative process. This document serves as the blueprint for your campaign, that you will feed to the AI, helping to outline key elements such as:
Themes: Defining the emotional and narrative tone, like survival, betrayal, and discovery in "The Caravan of Whispers."
Main Story Arc: Crafting the overarching journey, conflicts, and goals that will drive player engagement and character development.
Acts: Think of these as chapters in a story. How many acts will you have? A one shot will be just one act. The Caravan of Whispers will be broken into 3 acts.
Pixar's Story Spine: Helps the GM think through and understand the problem and potential resolution of the campaign. It is a great starting point to train the AI on the flow of the story.
Visual Images: Creating a sensory and aesthetic identity using AI-generated visuals that align with the campaign’s tone, from bustling markets to desolate ruins.
NPCs: Develop layered characters, motivations and secrets, deeply broken villains, and dialog that will make the NPCs unforgettable.
PC Backgrounds: Define roles that integrate seamlessly into the story, understand the story arc that each of the players are on and provide opportunities, through encounters, for the players to push that arc.
Drawing Inspiration During the Dreaming Phase
The Dreaming phase is about unlocking creativity and finding sparks of inspiration to shape your campaign. By exploring real-world locations, fictional works, and leveraging AI, Game Masters can create rich, imaginative adventures.
Here are five key sources for inspiration:
Google Maps: Virtually explore stunning locations like Wadi Rum Desert, Banaue Rice Terraces, or Lake Baikal.
Movies and TV Shows: Draw narrative ideas from Mad Max: Fury Road, The Mummy, or Spirited Away.
Books and Mythologies: Use epic stories like The Odyssey and mythologies like Norse or Egyptian.
Blogs and Communities: Learn from creators on platforms like r/DnDBehindTheScreen or world-building blogs.
AI Tools: Use AI to learn, research, understand, refine ideas, craft story arcs, and transform ordinary concepts into unforgettable set pieces.
The Caravan of Whispers invites players into a world inspired by the grandeur of the Silk Road and the mystery of the Taklamakan Desert—a vast expanse known as the "Place of No Return" for its treacherous sands and lost cities. This campaign draws from the region’s rich cultural tapestry, blending the ancient trade routes’ diversity of people, religions, and goods with the stark beauty of the desert. Imagine bustling bazaars, caravans guarded by enigmatic nomads, and whispers of powerful artifacts buried beneath the dunes.
With AI, Game Masters gain access to deep knowledge about historical cultures, trade dynamics, and environmental features to inspire realistic and vibrant settings. Advanced storytelling capabilities bring classic narratives to life, helping GMs craft plots filled with intrigue and drama. AI also enhances visual creation, enabling GMs to develop character portraits, mood boards, and visual story elements that align seamlessly with their vision.
This series will guide you step by step through creating your own campaigns, starting here, in the Dreaming phase, where the sparks of inspiration take root.
Let’s begin the journey.
How the Silk Road and the Taklamakan Desert Inspire "The Caravan of Whispers"
The Silk Road was more than a trade route—it was a bridge between worlds. It connected empires, religions, and cultures, creating a rich backdrop for storytelling. The Taklamakan Desert, by contrast, was a treacherous barrier. Known for its "lost cities" swallowed by the sands, it inspires an air of mystery and danger.
For "The Caravan of Whispers," these elements come together to create a setting ripe with adventure. The players might encounter:
Ruins of Lost Cities: Ancient places abandoned to the desert, rumored to hold treasures and curses alike.
Cultural Tensions: Traders, nomads, and soldiers from distant lands, all converging in one caravan but with their own agendas.
Natural Dangers: Sandstorms that bury the past as quickly as they uncover it, and oases that could be mirages—or worse.
In the Dreaming phase, these ideas act as building blocks. With the help of AI, you can spin them into a unique campaign full of intrigue, peril, and wonder. This is where the magic begins.
Understanding the Dreaming Phase
The Dreaming phase is the first and most creative step in crafting a D&D campaign. It’s where Game Masters imagine freely, laying the foundation for their adventure. This step focuses on unlocking big ideas that will excite and engage both the GM and players.
Tools Used
Google Maps: Explore geography, landmarks, and connections between locations.
ChatGPT and ChatGPT Projects: Research topics, organize ideas, create documents and refine themes. This is the main tool I use early on in the planning process. Please note that projects only come with the paid version of ChatGPT.
Or, NotebookLM: Store and connect notes around the campaign. This is a great second option and one that I would use if I did not have ChatGPT.
Midjourney & Midjourney Patchwork: Define visuals to establish a cohesive aesthetic and to begin to storyboard the campaign and its theme.
Key Elements of the Dreaming Phase
Start with broad strokes and let your imagination wander. For "The Caravan of Whispers," the first step was researching the Taklamakan Desert using Google Maps. This helped visualize its geography, the vastness of the desert, and its relationship to the surrounding mountain ranges. Understanding these features provided insight into the logistical challenges of survival and the significance of the Silk Road that skirted the desert’s edges.
The next step was understanding the culture of the people who lived there. Using ChatGPT, I explored the traditions, daily lives, and beliefs of the region’s inhabitants. This research illuminated how people adapted to such a harsh environment, shaping the campaign’s tone and themes.
Researching in and around the Taklamakan desert included:
Geography and Environment
The desert’s size, terrain, and extreme climate.
The relationship between the Taklamakan and the surrounding Kunlun and Tian Shan mountains, as well as the role of oases in survival.
Historical Trade Routes
The Silk Road’s influence in connecting civilizations and fostering cultural exchange.
Key cities and hubs like Kashgar and Dunhuang that facilitated trade and communication.
Nomadic and Settled Communities
Migration patterns and survival strategies of nomadic tribes.
Their food and clothing
The agricultural and trade-based lifestyles of settled communities near oases.
Cultural Practices and Beliefs
Traditional clothing, cuisine, and rituals suited to the harsh environment.
Myths and legends, including tales of lost cities and spiritual guardians of the desert.
Historical Conflicts and Influences
The impact of empires, religions, and cultural exchanges in shaping the region’s identity.
Political intrigue and the diversity of peoples passing through the area.
Thematic Decisions
Themes define the emotional and narrative focus of your campaign. For "The Caravan of Whispers," key themes include:
Survival in a Harsh Landscape: The unforgiving desert environment challenges both the caravan and its members, requiring resourcefulness and resilience.
Trust and Betrayal: As diverse groups converge on the caravan, hidden motives and fragile alliances create tension, forcing players to navigate intrigue and suspicion.
Secrets Lost to Time: The Taklamakan Desert is steeped in forgotten history and mysterious ruins, symbolizing the fragility of human ambition against the vastness of nature.
Campaign Style: Visual and Artistic Direction
I picked two styles to represent this campaign. Ethereal Watercolor Wash is the style that will be used for most of my images, from encounters to NPCs, this is the style I settled on to highlight the feeling of this area. The second is Persian Miniature Art to bring forth images of paintings, tapestry, artwork, manuscripts and items. Helping to bring the campaign to life through rich images.
The campaign's world comes alive with an Ethereal Watercolor Wash, evoking a sense of dreamlike wonder and mystery. Vast desert landscapes blend into hazy horizons, with colors flowing seamlessly to capture the shifting sands, glowing oases, and the eerie beauty of the desert under starlight. This visual style conveys the transient, mystical nature of the Silk Road and its secrets.
For in-game artwork, books, and items, the intricate elegance of Persian Miniature Art adds a layer of depth and cultural richness. This style brings a timeless beauty to illustrated manuscripts, map designs, and magical artifacts, with detailed patterns and vibrant colors reflecting the cultural diversity and artistic sophistication of the campaign’s world. Together, these artistic choices create a visually stunning and immersive experience for players, weaving narrative and aesthetics into a cohesive tapestry.
Campaign Planning Template
The campaign planning template is an essential tool for Game Masters, offering a structured guide to outline the story arc, key conflicts, and the main problem players must solve. It helps train AI assistants to understand your campaign, becoming a valuable partner in the creative process. Additionally, it provides a clear framework to design encounters and enrich the campaign experience, ensuring a cohesive and engaging adventure for players.
Here is the campaign template for you to copy.
Campaign Planning Template Details
Steps for using the template in ChatGPT.
I will generate a short overview and a few bullets of details of my campaign; you can also use this GPT to generate an idea. I save this to a Google Doc.
I will feed this content in my file to ChatGPT, telling it to reply with "I understand".
Then I will tell ChatGPT to complete the following template by copying and pasting the Campaign Planning Template Details above. Our you can use this GPT Campaign Details generator.
Lastly, I save off my Campaign Planning Template to a Google Doc. Here is the final Campaign Planning Document for The Caravan of Whispers.
Conclusion: Final Output from the Dreaming Step
The Dreaming phase is where your campaign begins to take shape, transforming raw inspiration into the foundation of an unforgettable adventure. By exploring diverse sources, leveraging AI tools, and focusing on key elements like themes, story arcs, and visual identity, Game Masters can craft a rich and immersive world.
The ultimate outcome of the dreaming step is a campaign planning template—a concise, organized document that includes the campaign’s core themes, main story arc, key NPCs, and visual concepts. This template serves as a roadmap for the rest of the campaign creation process, ensuring every step is aligned with your vision. With a solid foundation in place, you’re ready to move to the next phase of bringing your campaign to life.
Next blog we will explore the building phase of The Caravan of Whispers.
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