Starting my second campaign [Archive] - Wizards Community

Starting my second campaign [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
WiscDM
08-06-07, 10:48 AM Greetings all. I am going to be starting my second campaign world this coming month and I thought I'd run a few ideas through here to see what you all think.

The first campaign started in a small generic town and I built outward. The party moved from the town to surrounding towns to the capitol city, and then on multi-kingdom affairs, and finally to the other continent where the campaign ended. This occured over a real-time 5 year span. There wasnt a TON of detail put into settings as my campaign centered more around the events, conflicts, and 'story' than anything else. They were relatively linear and I admit so some railroading as I was a first time DM at the time and I wanted to keep things as simple as possible... as time went on I kept to that style.

This time around I would like to really get into detail with the setting... really establishing the towns and the different buildings in them that most PCs usually go to (Inns, shops, temples, etc) and giving some personality to the NPCs. I was hoping to leave the encounters and quests more up to chance so that it's up the PCs decide where they want to go and what they want to do and find a rich environment when they get there. I'm hoping a more detailed setting will encourage roleplaying and excitment for more than just 'when do we get to role the dice.' The theory I'm going for is the more memorable the town and it's people, the more the PCs will care about the adventure and its goals.

What do you prefer: the keep it simple method where you plan everything out and arent surprised by a whole lot? or give them a great setting and run the risk of writting out a whole person/place/or thing that gets skipped over and never used? Any advice on things to concentrate on, and what can probably be kept simple?

Thanks in advance!
GoriceXII
08-06-07, 11:11 AM I like to do both. The reason for me is that you never know when players will be stumped of things to do or may have a total brainwave of creativity that stuns you. So doing some good details for areas you generally know they'll be in is good, but also having some kind of plan helps too.

BTW here's a good link for building up medieval stuff that might save you some time. http://www.lythia.com/
TunnHarr
08-07-07, 03:58 PM Glad to see the details coming out. I always try to make my campaigns as open ended as possible. It may be a bold venture, but I will venture to say that I will build you a town or city, even a rural area to fill out maps for you if you like. I think it would be an excellent idea to build this environment in modules. See if you can work on getting the main skeleton story line played out, with plot lines leading to certain areas, then ask someone if they can create an area for you based on the story! it would decrease the time required for a fully fledged open ended campaign drastically, and you could at best take the ideas forged here and tweak them to your liking. I could humbly create a base town or area, suggest some profiles for it, perhaps some NPC histories. all equally editable by you, the DM.
Dog_O_War
08-08-07, 12:23 PM Usually the stuff you will spill out at random when the PC's want to go somewhere you hadn't planned for is good enough for a session, giving you time to prepare for the next session. Which brings me to my point; always have something prepared. Even if you never expect to use it (like a small foray into a cave) you can always fall back on what you have prepared. That being said, you will have to keep it fairly generic to keep it easily inserted.
Also, a friend of mine keeps a list of like 20 random NPC names; it is quite possibly the most useful tool I have come across; you may be prepared for a meeting with the king, a dragon fight, and a chance encounter with an old wise woman, but I bet you're always lacking when the PC's ask what the name of the tavern owner is in a town they aren't going to spend more than a night in. On an off note, we (my friends and I) end up with a lot of NPC's named Barstad; rearange to find the hidden message.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
WiscDM 08-06-07, 10:48 AM	Greetings all. I am going to be starting my second campaign world this coming month and I thought I'd run a few ideas through here to see what you all think. The first campaign started in a small generic town and I built outward. The party moved from the town to surrounding towns to the capitol city, and then on multi-kingdom affairs, and finally to the other continent where the campaign ended. This occured over a real-time 5 year span. There wasnt a TON of detail put into settings as my campaign centered more around the events, conflicts, and 'story' than anything else. They were relatively linear and I admit so some railroading as I was a first time DM at the time and I wanted to keep things as simple as possible... as time went on I kept to that style. This time around I would like to really get into detail with the setting... really establishing the towns and the different buildings in them that most PCs usually go to (Inns, shops, temples, etc) and giving some personality to the NPCs. I was hoping to leave the encounters and quests more up to chance so that it's up the PCs decide where they want to go and what they want to do and find a rich environment when they get there. I'm hoping a more detailed setting will encourage roleplaying and excitment for more than just 'when do we get to role the dice.' The theory I'm going for is the more memorable the town and it's people, the more the PCs will care about the adventure and its goals. What do you prefer: the keep it simple method where you plan everything out and arent surprised by a whole lot? or give them a great setting and run the risk of writting out a whole person/place/or thing that gets skipped over and never used? Any advice on things to concentrate on, and what can probably be kept simple? Thanks in advance!
GoriceXII 08-06-07, 11:11 AM	I like to do both. The reason for me is that you never know when players will be stumped of things to do or may have a total brainwave of creativity that stuns you. So doing some good details for areas you generally know they'll be in is good, but also having some kind of plan helps too. BTW here's a good link for building up medieval stuff that might save you some time. http://www.lythia.com/
TunnHarr 08-07-07, 03:58 PM	Glad to see the details coming out. I always try to make my campaigns as open ended as possible. It may be a bold venture, but I will venture to say that I will build you a town or city, even a rural area to fill out maps for you if you like. I think it would be an excellent idea to build this environment in modules. See if you can work on getting the main skeleton story line played out, with plot lines leading to certain areas, then ask someone if they can create an area for you based on the story! it would decrease the time required for a fully fledged open ended campaign drastically, and you could at best take the ideas forged here and tweak them to your liking. I could humbly create a base town or area, suggest some profiles for it, perhaps some NPC histories. all equally editable by you, the DM.
Dog_O_War 08-08-07, 12:23 PM	Usually the stuff you will spill out at random when the PC's want to go somewhere you hadn't planned for is good enough for a session, giving you time to prepare for the next session. Which brings me to my point; always have something prepared. Even if you never expect to use it (like a small foray into a cave) you can always fall back on what you have prepared. That being said, you will have to keep it fairly generic to keep it easily inserted. Also, a friend of mine keeps a list of like 20 random NPC names; it is quite possibly the most useful tool I have come across; you may be prepared for a meeting with the king, a dragon fight, and a chance encounter with an old wise woman, but I bet you're always lacking when the PC's ask what the name of the tavern owner is in a town they aren't going to spend more than a night in. On an off note, we (my friends and I) end up with a lot of NPC's named Barstad; rearange to find the hidden message.