Post/Author/DateTime	Post
OhGreatOne99 04-23-07, 10:21 PM	all of us have been there, and i bet it would be very beneficial for the people that just browse these boards for tips. So do you have any stuff that new creators would and should know???
taradusis 04-23-07, 11:36 PM	Leave part of the map blank.allows you to create new world exploration.Remember to include at least one chain of islands similar to the bahamas(700 islands/80 inhabited)this allows you to have a seaborne campaign-perhaps piratical.
Westbound 04-24-07, 12:43 AM	If this is your first real attempt at campaign making, I have lots of advice: 1) Start simple. Your first adventures in your campaign probably won't be world-spanning or even continent spanning. Start by making a regional situation. For instance: Make a town, make a kingdom or nation that the town resides in (along with a capital), and make border nations, but don't go too far beyond the borders or proximity of where you're starting. When you make your nations, be very topical. You don't have to go into too much detail. Just come up with who rules what, who's the heir if there is one, and what the general political situations may be. Put in areas where monsters are likely to be encountered, but you don't really have to make encounter tables yet, unless you want to. 2) Organization will set you free. When you play this game, you'll be tempted to forsake certain things that are important to the way this game is properly played to be expediant. I find a lot of groups avoid playing with Material Components, for example, because they don't want to have to track this because they think it's something of a hassle. What I usually find is that the DM is woefully disorganized. Get a binder, some dividers, folders, and page protectors, and use this to go further into detail of your towns, your dungeons, and your player-characters. I don't expect you to be able to track every coin, like I can (coins have weight - it's amusing to tell a player who's just found a chest with 1,000gp in it that he's encumbered if he carries it). But if you start organizing your information, you'll find that you'll retain more information and utilize it faster than if you otherwise didn't. Also, it helps keep the players a little more honest. 3) Stretch slowly. As I stated before, I don't expect you to track every coin, every arrow, and every Material Component. Most people starting out don't, and that's fine - it's more important that you become familiar and comfortable with the rules and running a game than being a bookkeeper. But in each successive session, tell the players that you're going to put a bit more effort in DMing by doing one extra thing. You could start by tracking the PCs encumbrance. On your first session, have your PCs make copies of their characters, either a photocopy, or better yet a transcription of their characters on a fresh character sheet, complete with gear and coin. As the game progresses, record major changes to each character, such as leveling and when they acquire a magic item (all magic item acquisition is a major change in my book). On your second session, tell your players that you're going to track encumbrance. On your fourth or fifth session, tell your players that you're tracking arrows and bullets. On your seventh or eighth session, tell your players that, now, you're tracking material components. When you blurt that out, tell your magic users that you're willing to credit them about 100gp to select material components (have a apothecary or alchemist shop in your town). Of course, do what you feel comfortable. Look for ways to make your job easier. For instance, I use poker chips as coins from session to session. For larger sums of money, I use cards as "containers." I use index cards for my players to scribe scrolls, for material components, and other things. The more detail you use and add to your campaign, the more believable it becomes, and the more involved your players will be. 4) When make your dungeons and adventures, put in a treasure for each basic class. For the longest time, I would actually forsake wizards (mages, as they were called back then) by not putting in scrolls in the game. If someone doesn't get a prize for winning and surviving, they're gonna feel left out. What you need to consider is treasure for Warrior, Mage (both wizards and sorcerers), Priests and Rogues (Monks and Rogues). A typical party is bound to have a representative from each of these sources, and even if they don't, put them in anyway. to be continued
Westbound 04-24-07, 01:03 AM	continued from previous post... 5) Sell your campaign. On your first campaign, you're probably going to start with something that most people know and understand Dungeons and Dragons to basically be, with some variation. This is fine, since you're learning the ropes. If you're making a campaign from scratch, it's important to get an idea of what your players like. I can guarantee you one thing - if there's very little combat every session, your campaign is going to wither and die. Running puzzle dungeons is cool, but can get old if you overuse them. Romance can make some players uncomfortable (and is probably inappropriate for young players). Geo-Political intrigue is cool if done properly, but can be boring too. Be careful that you do not, under any circumstances.... 6) Do not lead your players by the nose. Don't force a group of players to go on a particular adventure that you've crafted if they don't want to. If you haven't hooked them well enough for whatever reason, it's your fault, not theirs. What I like to do in a new campaign is start my players in a town or city that I've concocted meticulously. In a typical village I make, I put in about six different shops, an inn, a livery stable, a granary, a temple (most of my villages pay homage to one god, towns have two to three, cities generally pay homage to all good and neutral deities, with evil deities in select places or in secret). I make a number of NPCs, but I normally don't give them stats because most of them aren't very important combat-wise. Just put in a name, a general description, a personality and a mannerism, and general background. More important NPCs might get combat stats if I feel they should have them. I have about a dozen paths the players could take, provided by numerous NPCs and hooks that the PCs can choose from. They don't even have to do any of them. For me, it's more important that they feel as though they're in another world, and the more I can make that world come alive, the better. If my players don't go for my hooks, no problem. I've got a lot of them and I can respond on the fly. I've had my players become bandits on a whim of their own choosing because they found that it was a good way to make loot, and that was a great campaign too. I installed dungeons, ruins, tombs, ancient temples, and all sorts of locales in my campaign worlds that exist independently of the players. If my players visit them, great. If not, great. The point is that I try to avoid pulling my players along against their will because that's not really fun. 7) Before each session, write a list of about 10-15 names, male and female. This is just in case you have to come up with a speaking NPC for whatever reason on the fly, and if you have a name already prepared it doesn't make you look surprised that your players did something you didn't expect. Of course, they did, but the less they know that, the better.
Westbound 04-24-07, 01:09 AM	8) Another thing - Make records of your sessions. This is very important, but you don't have to have a stenographer or have a electronic recording. Just record particular events, meetings with particular NPCs (even shopkeepers, if you have to) and the situation at hand when you ended the session. Then, when you start your next session, do a recap of what transpired in the previous session. This keeps you and your players up to date. You can have a Player do this if you want. In fact, I do assign people roles in the group. For instance, one guy is the recorder, one guy is the group's quartermaster (he tracks everybody's general supplies, like food and water, but I also track that sort of thing too - you know how dishonest players can be), one guy is the mapper, etc.
WHW4 04-25-07, 01:17 PM	I have recently just started DMing myself, so I can offer only what I've learned from my first two sessions at the head of the table. But, who knows, it might help... 1. I listened and watched the DMing style of all the other DMs in the group (we have three that alternate at different times, in different campaign worlds or story arcs within the same world). I decided what I liked, or disliked about each DM's style and made myself a mental note on how I thought I would like to run the game. 2. I decided, after drawing up the continent where the main story would be taking place, to actually use one of the other DM's original campaign settings as a jumping off point. This worked well for a couple reasons. First, everyone was instantly familiar with their surroundings from having played this setting for over two years; and second, this put the PCs on a boat ride to my newly created continent (after some backstory hooking on my part), which made my first few combats MUCH easier to run. I went ahead and drew up a CR appropriate list of monsters for their "random" encounters, read over them, and ran them somewhat adequately. The ship being a limited space, kept me from having to track weird distances or fleeing/pursuing creatures. 3. My second session went very much better. I wrapped up the last leg of the sea voyage and gave the party their first big hook. I unfortunately had my first PC death, having learned alot from my first session of combats, and on the request of the group "bringing it." Two of the PCs I worked with beforehand, so they were actually from this new continent. That way, I had someone familiar with the general geography and political climate. I decided a few key events that would be going on when they arrived on the mainland, and that's where I will be starting session three this weekend. 4. I decided not to plan every little detail out. Not only do I not have enough time to do this, but I'd like to see which general direction the PCs are going to go in, and then I will populate/hookify the region. That's not to say things aren't going on in those areas, but the minutia is left blank for the moment. 5. If you don't learn anything from what I've posted, learn this. The PCs can and will do something unexpected every session. My first session, they got into trouble with the town guard. My second session, they sold the pirate ship they had captured, not needing it immediately. Just be prepared to make stuff up. If there are other DMs in the group, they will understand perfectly. Good luck, and I hope you have blast as I did. It's a totally different kind of fun than playing as a character.
RobbyPants 04-25-07, 03:38 PM	There is already a lot of good advice here. Something I will add, for when you run the game: get a calender of some sort. The easiest way is to get a simple, cheap, day-planner. Once you start with all the complexities of running your vast world, you will want to realistically track time. Nothing kills the suspension of disbelief faster than summers that last for 10 months, PCs not knowing the day of the week, or travel times getting all messed up. It's relatively simple to track the passage of time with something like this. You can also write in important dates. It can also be a nice reminder for wierd things like the incubation periods of diseases.
Khementari 04-29-07, 03:22 PM	The most important thing to solidify a world for play? I have no doubt what it is. What do people worship. You can have a great map. You can have a really cool dungeon. You can have all the homebrewed classes in the world. When someone rolls up a cleric and they say, "Hey, what are the gods about," and you don't have a good answer, then you might as well be playing checkers. Oh just pick two domains is not a good answer. Oh just make it up as you play your guy is not a good answer. Oh just say you worship the good guys is not a good answer. Many, many years ago I started a campaign for my friends and although it only lasted a year or so, and the players changed over time, it is still talked about today. We got together and my friend rolled up a priest and said, "Well, let's get playing, who do I worship?" "You worship Geroth, Lord of the Three Skies," I said that almost on accident. I had no idea who the gods of my game were. But out it came and every player sitting at that table bought into it.
bloodtalon 04-29-07, 07:29 PM	let your players do alot tof the bsckground that way they have a invested part in to the world let them decide how the dwarves of such-a-name mountain got in control or why what-you-call-it woods is controled by the bugbears the more they help flesh it the more they will respect it
Gilgalad 04-29-07, 10:17 PM	Probably the best piece of advise I ever received was to focus on the "story" and not so much the "rules." Many first-time homebrewers will begin their campaign talking about what character classes they will have and what books they will use, etc. Now there isn't anything wrong with this but quite often "rule-driven" campaigns peter out after a while because the DM or the players lose interest in it. Strong story development on the other hand is rich in creativity and imagination. Many DMs who follow this approach will start off with a basic idea or two. As they begin to pursue this idea and elaborate upon it, they discover yet more ideas relating to the former. These in turn will then be developed (if desired) which might lead to even more thoughts, stories and ideas. The world almost seems to build itself so to speak.