r/DnD•
Er_Zahu

How do you prep for big, open-world campaigns?

DMing

Hey everyone!

My SO and I are curious on how do you prep big, open-world campaigns.

For us it’s been a struggle, but lately we’ve come up with a formula while reading about Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Basically we wanted our players to feel in an open world, but having to ceate a ton of events and quests gets too overwhelming.

With this “Cartography by Horizons” method we were able to manage the info the players were aware of, and dose it out in a way it created a constant flow of discovery.

Our players are happier and we have to prep way less.

You can read about it here.

Which other techniques and formulas do you use?

P.S. We write a weekly newsletter with advice for DMs who want to increase the immersion of their games and grab their players’ attention. If you like the post, consider subscribing and you’ll get an extra article on how we make our games super engaging, avoiding most scheduling problems in our group.

Posted Nov 10, 2025, 12:01 PM UTC

01
Loading comments…