Working on my first campaign, got some done and a lot thought up. [Archive] - Wizards Community

Working on my first campaign, got some done and a lot thought up. [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
necromancer745
02-17-07, 06:34 PM I'm going to be running my first campaign soon. I've got the first couple adventures down. I've even been able to tie at least the second one in to my main plot. My problem is when I think up stuff to put in they usually end up having to be later on in the campaign, sometimes really later. I originally was working on a novel in high school I only wrote to page 35, but I had so many more ideas, and just could'nt seem to write them down right. After being just a player and not a DM for a while I tried running a star wars campaign, and it bombed BADLY!!! Although my friends had a part in the bombing, they like to mess with anyone in our group by totally massacring thier first campaign in the spirit of fun. So my campaign I'm working on is based off of what I have done of my novel that will probably never get finished, and of random ideas I forgot to write down earlier. I have so far an excellent plot I've bben sharing the campaign info. with a member of my gaming group who has moved for college. So he won't be able to play unfortunately because he tends to make crazy PC's. I'm having trouble thinking of adventures for the party in the lower levels, and how to tie some not all of them in to the plot. Can you help me out?
DarthMidget
02-17-07, 09:34 PM Well this is just the way I run things, but try not to focus too much on plot. From my experience if I lay out a great plot I can always count on the PCs to derail it! :) One of the hardest things to learn about being a DM is how to wing it, and adapt to the PC's actions. I think it is also one of the critical things of being a good DM.

Of course, I am reminded of what Dwight D. Eisenhower once said. He said, paraphrasing here, "Before a battle, planning is the most important thing you can do. When the battle starts, though, ignore the plan and do what needs to be done."

The same thing kind of applies to DMing. Plan out as much as you can, but be prepared to do what needs to be done. Chances are very high that your players will do something completely other than what you had planned. Let them do this. Act like this is what you planned for. They'll think you did, and they'll think your a genius.

Good luck!
taradusis
02-17-07, 10:18 PM Patrol mission?Have them schlep down a road and back to make sure it's safe for travellers and give them a few warm up encounters.Consider putting in minions from later in the story as patrons in a roadside inn or something?
GoriceXII
02-19-07, 11:57 AM I usually try at first in a campaign to get the players involved with something. If you offer elements of the campaign as 'babies' (ie things they will be pleased with and want to look after) they will have a greater interest in seeing plots and such through.

This can be just about anything. It should ideally fulfill something the players are lacking. For instance they could want to be accepted into some kind of guild or order, they could want to achieve some legendary treasure, or whatever you are able to successfully dangle in front of them.

For instance take my players. For them to find a game consistently interesting, they need their carrots. One of them needs carrots called mystery and magic. If I put interesting or unusual magic in a game he will find it rewarding to have achieved some measure of it, ideally after struggling to get it. He loves solving mysteries as well, so I try to put an element of mystery into every adventure.

The other player is a romantic. She wants to imagine being a white knight hero, and she loves to have someone to rescue and to know she is on the side of right. I can risk being gritty with her provided only that her character has at least an opportunity to create a happy ending.

A third player loves history and wants to get into interesting tactical situations. He also loves exploration and travel, so I try to include these as well. If there isn't a big fight or a desperate Mission Impossible type situation in an adventure he'll probably be disappointed.

Juggling all these interests is challenging but figuring out what they enjoy has prevented them from derailing as much as they might do if they didn't have vested interests in the game.

I know a lot of people will advise you not to focus on plot, and they have a point in a way, but I also know that it can be really enjoyable to have a big campaign, and in fact some of them are totally famous, like the Dragonlance games, which are strongly theme and plot oriented.

So what are your players like? Apart from their s*** disturbing tendencies what do you think is going to hook them?
Leowar
02-20-07, 05:59 PM I am DM of a Dragonlance campaign, and i have very happy but most of the time very odd players; (party of 5 people)

1) one persone is a normal fighter but he can change into a werewolf.
He is a very good persone and normally has the leader function. The rest of the party follows him every where and he even doesn't know always way :P
But he likes to be different and he likes to get a woman's attention. (if you know what i mine:P )

2) there is als zo a kender. And the persone in real live is sometime more curious than the kender, the perfect charakter for this persone. He is also a very crassy persone, the most strange ideas goes throw his head. Not always a bath thing it already helped the party.

3) the third player is a She and plays a druid. Just like a druid, the player doesn't like arcane magic. She find it sometime to powerful. She also want to help every boy. She is also someone who hate to lose and thinks that if she finds it a bath idea everyone has to find it also a bath idea. This bring always a lot of discution in the group. But the positive thing about is that think about what they are going to do. less dangerous

4) the fourth persone is a sorcerer/fighter. More sorecer than fighter because he loves magic and he would like to have more of it. (just a little power hungery :D) and he is also a persone how want to do some special moves or do something epic.

5) the last persone is a brewing witch. In real live he is a very happy and alway cheerful friend, but the witch is very ego and sarcastic. And he plays his charakter very good (sometime to good):D

This people are very good friends of me and as a party they are freaking me out ( most of the time). They always start good but 10 min later it is chaos, but it still stays funny and that's the importend thing, keep it funny;)
So what are your players like?
necromancer745
02-21-07, 09:34 PM I don't know for sure what all my players are going to play but so far.

My friend who usually is the DM is going to be playing a wizard, I haven't really seen him play enough PC's to know his exact playing style.

His girlfriend will probably be playing a ninja, she excel's when it comes to playing a rogue or rogueish character. She also plays a very good paladin.

Another friend of mine has'nt played for the better half of a year. He also is a new addition to our group and he will be playing a druid with a dire rooster as his animal companion.

I'll be playing an NPC cleric of Pelor with the healing and strength domains.

And my other friend I'm not sure what he's playing.
Evil DM Mk3
02-22-07, 03:16 AM The trick for those of us who ALLWAYS think later, "Hey, that is a good idea, wish I could get it in the game!" is to lay out only the very roughest of plotlines. Don't put yourslef in a straighjacket, say what the overall plot is going to do, when and where. Have other plots involved in differant places, if the PCs are about (ie next session) to reach a town where somthing might be happening, see if you want to put somthign there then. Advance the overall plot slowly, but surely, but leave plenty of room for adlibs. eg

Plot: Devil cult seek rare artifact for their master.
PCs: Encounter cult on a dungeon crawl and find a referance to teh artefact in the journal of a cultist, artefact is not in the dungeon. They head off to a magical library to find out more.
Secondary idea: Ethrial flitcher is stealing many of the books. OR a crooked merchant is selling cut-price dragon body parts. OR anything else...
WotC_Huscarl
02-22-07, 12:11 PM Of course, I am reminded of what Dwight D. Eisenhower once said. He said, paraphrasing here, "Before a battle, planning is the most important thing you can do. When the battle starts, though, ignore the plan and do what needs to be done."

The same thing kind of applies to DMing. Plan out as much as you can, but be prepared to do what needs to be done. Chances are very high that your players will do something completely other than what you had planned. Let them do this. Act like this is what you planned for. They'll think you did, and they'll think your a genius. Part of planning is, in fact, planning for the unexpected. It's easy to fall into the habit of planning for only what you want the PCs to do. When Ike (his staff, really) planned a campaign, part of it was trying to figure how the enemy would react and then drawing up contingencies for each possibility.

It's not necessary to go to that extent for an RPG, but it's wise to look at the situation from the players' POV. Lay out the story you want to tell, then mentally (or literally) sit on the other side of the screen and ask, "what would I do in these circumstances. How will I react if the PCs bypass the haunted castle? What if they never find the hidden trap door, or they just don't open it? What if they decide to join the bandits instead of capturing and interrogating them? What if they hock the Scepter of Eternity instead of using it to slay Garganto the Worldeater?" All of those are decisions PCs might make, especially if they're the typical, contrary type of players.

As far as organizing your thoughts, here's how many dedicated writers do it.

Write down all the ideas you can come up with for things that could happen in this adventure, in any order. Don't worry about sequence -- just get them down on paper.
Scratch off the stupid ones.
Separate what's left into 'acts' and 'scenes'. Acts are major episodes; scenes are what make up the acts. Or, in other words, acts are chapters and scenes are the events in those chapters. Ideally, one session of play covers one, maybe two, acts.
Organize the acts into a logical sequence, but bear in mind that your sequence might be disrupted by player actions. Gear things toward flexibility.
Put 2-4 scenes under each act. Again, aim for flexibility. The order of the scenes shouldn't be crucial. Scenes that add to the story but aren't essential are also good, as are a few alternative scenes if things don't go the way you want. One simple way to handle that would be, for example, to note that "the PCs learn about the Tree of Awesomeness from the old hermit. Alt -- they could also learn about it from an Eepwood Ranger, a talkative Spiderbaby, or (as a last resort) the innkeeper at the Bloated Basilisk."

Now you have an outline of your adventure, and that's really all you need. Putting a lot of effort into adding minute details only increases your work load for little payoff, because the PCs' diversions from the path are going to make much of that detail pointless anyway.

If you're mentally prepared to handle some diversions, you won't be thrown off balance when they happen.

Steve
necromancer745
03-29-07, 06:09 PM I've got my first night of DMing this sunday wish me luck. I hope it goes well, thanks for all of ur input on this thread. :)
necromancer745
04-17-07, 09:43 PM It went great. Although not how I thought it would be, and my friends r playing different characters than they originally thought about playing.

1. My one friend is playing a fighter, and also playing a cleric.

2. My other friend is still playing the druid.

3. My friend's gf is playing a ranger, I get the feeling she's going to multiclass with rogue.

4.and my other friend is playing a warmage, who just recently bribed the town guard to go against the incompetent mayor, lol.

I am not playing a character, besides it's easier for me to just worry about the monsters let alone a character of my own.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
necromancer745 02-17-07, 06:34 PM	I'm going to be running my first campaign soon. I've got the first couple adventures down. I've even been able to tie at least the second one in to my main plot. My problem is when I think up stuff to put in they usually end up having to be later on in the campaign, sometimes really later. I originally was working on a novel in high school I only wrote to page 35, but I had so many more ideas, and just could'nt seem to write them down right. After being just a player and not a DM for a while I tried running a star wars campaign, and it bombed BADLY!!! Although my friends had a part in the bombing, they like to mess with anyone in our group by totally massacring thier first campaign in the spirit of fun. So my campaign I'm working on is based off of what I have done of my novel that will probably never get finished, and of random ideas I forgot to write down earlier. I have so far an excellent plot I've bben sharing the campaign info. with a member of my gaming group who has moved for college. So he won't be able to play unfortunately because he tends to make crazy PC's. I'm having trouble thinking of adventures for the party in the lower levels, and how to tie some not all of them in to the plot. Can you help me out?
DarthMidget 02-17-07, 09:34 PM	Well this is just the way I run things, but try not to focus too much on plot. From my experience if I lay out a great plot I can always count on the PCs to derail it! :) One of the hardest things to learn about being a DM is how to wing it, and adapt to the PC's actions. I think it is also one of the critical things of being a good DM. Of course, I am reminded of what Dwight D. Eisenhower once said. He said, paraphrasing here, "Before a battle, planning is the most important thing you can do. When the battle starts, though, ignore the plan and do what needs to be done." The same thing kind of applies to DMing. Plan out as much as you can, but be prepared to do what needs to be done. Chances are very high that your players will do something completely other than what you had planned. Let them do this. Act like this is what you planned for. They'll think you did, and they'll think your a genius. Good luck!
taradusis 02-17-07, 10:18 PM	Patrol mission?Have them schlep down a road and back to make sure it's safe for travellers and give them a few warm up encounters.Consider putting in minions from later in the story as patrons in a roadside inn or something?
GoriceXII 02-19-07, 11:57 AM	I usually try at first in a campaign to get the players involved with something. If you offer elements of the campaign as 'babies' (ie things they will be pleased with and want to look after) they will have a greater interest in seeing plots and such through. This can be just about anything. It should ideally fulfill something the players are lacking. For instance they could want to be accepted into some kind of guild or order, they could want to achieve some legendary treasure, or whatever you are able to successfully dangle in front of them. For instance take my players. For them to find a game consistently interesting, they need their carrots. One of them needs carrots called mystery and magic. If I put interesting or unusual magic in a game he will find it rewarding to have achieved some measure of it, ideally after struggling to get it. He loves solving mysteries as well, so I try to put an element of mystery into every adventure. The other player is a romantic. She wants to imagine being a white knight hero, and she loves to have someone to rescue and to know she is on the side of right. I can risk being gritty with her provided only that her character has at least an opportunity to create a happy ending. A third player loves history and wants to get into interesting tactical situations. He also loves exploration and travel, so I try to include these as well. If there isn't a big fight or a desperate Mission Impossible type situation in an adventure he'll probably be disappointed. Juggling all these interests is challenging but figuring out what they enjoy has prevented them from derailing as much as they might do if they didn't have vested interests in the game. I know a lot of people will advise you not to focus on plot, and they have a point in a way, but I also know that it can be really enjoyable to have a big campaign, and in fact some of them are totally famous, like the Dragonlance games, which are strongly theme and plot oriented. So what are your players like? Apart from their s*** disturbing tendencies what do you think is going to hook them?
Leowar 02-20-07, 05:59 PM	I am DM of a Dragonlance campaign, and i have very happy but most of the time very odd players; (party of 5 people) 1) one persone is a normal fighter but he can change into a werewolf. He is a very good persone and normally has the leader function. The rest of the party follows him every where and he even doesn't know always way :P But he likes to be different and he likes to get a woman's attention. (if you know what i mine:P ) 2) there is als zo a kender. And the persone in real live is sometime more curious than the kender, the perfect charakter for this persone. He is also a very crassy persone, the most strange ideas goes throw his head. Not always a bath thing it already helped the party. 3) the third player is a She and plays a druid. Just like a druid, the player doesn't like arcane magic. She find it sometime to powerful. She also want to help every boy. She is also someone who hate to lose and thinks that if she finds it a bath idea everyone has to find it also a bath idea. This bring always a lot of discution in the group. But the positive thing about is that think about what they are going to do. less dangerous 4) the fourth persone is a sorcerer/fighter. More sorecer than fighter because he loves magic and he would like to have more of it. (just a little power hungery :D) and he is also a persone how want to do some special moves or do something epic. 5) the last persone is a brewing witch. In real live he is a very happy and alway cheerful friend, but the witch is very ego and sarcastic. And he plays his charakter very good (sometime to good):D This people are very good friends of me and as a party they are freaking me out ( most of the time). They always start good but 10 min later it is chaos, but it still stays funny and that's the importend thing, keep it funny;) So what are your players like?
necromancer745 02-21-07, 09:34 PM	I don't know for sure what all my players are going to play but so far. My friend who usually is the DM is going to be playing a wizard, I haven't really seen him play enough PC's to know his exact playing style. His girlfriend will probably be playing a ninja, she excel's when it comes to playing a rogue or rogueish character. She also plays a very good paladin. Another friend of mine has'nt played for the better half of a year. He also is a new addition to our group and he will be playing a druid with a dire rooster as his animal companion. I'll be playing an NPC cleric of Pelor with the healing and strength domains. And my other friend I'm not sure what he's playing.
Evil DM Mk3 02-22-07, 03:16 AM	The trick for those of us who ALLWAYS think later, "Hey, that is a good idea, wish I could get it in the game!" is to lay out only the very roughest of plotlines. Don't put yourslef in a straighjacket, say what the overall plot is going to do, when and where. Have other plots involved in differant places, if the PCs are about (ie next session) to reach a town where somthing might be happening, see if you want to put somthign there then. Advance the overall plot slowly, but surely, but leave plenty of room for adlibs. eg Plot: Devil cult seek rare artifact for their master. PCs: Encounter cult on a dungeon crawl and find a referance to teh artefact in the journal of a cultist, artefact is not in the dungeon. They head off to a magical library to find out more. Secondary idea: Ethrial flitcher is stealing many of the books. OR a crooked merchant is selling cut-price dragon body parts. OR anything else...
WotC_Huscarl 02-22-07, 12:11 PM	Of course, I am reminded of what Dwight D. Eisenhower once said. He said, paraphrasing here, "Before a battle, planning is the most important thing you can do. When the battle starts, though, ignore the plan and do what needs to be done." The same thing kind of applies to DMing. Plan out as much as you can, but be prepared to do what needs to be done. Chances are very high that your players will do something completely other than what you had planned. Let them do this. Act like this is what you planned for. They'll think you did, and they'll think your a genius. Part of planning is, in fact, planning for the unexpected. It's easy to fall into the habit of planning for only what you want the PCs to do. When Ike (his staff, really) planned a campaign, part of it was trying to figure how the enemy would react and then drawing up contingencies for each possibility. It's not necessary to go to that extent for an RPG, but it's wise to look at the situation from the players' POV. Lay out the story you want to tell, then mentally (or literally) sit on the other side of the screen and ask, "what would I do in these circumstances. How will I react if the PCs bypass the haunted castle? What if they never find the hidden trap door, or they just don't open it? What if they decide to join the bandits instead of capturing and interrogating them? What if they hock the Scepter of Eternity instead of using it to slay Garganto the Worldeater?" All of those are decisions PCs might make, especially if they're the typical, contrary type of players. As far as organizing your thoughts, here's how many dedicated writers do it. Write down all the ideas you can come up with for things that could happen in this adventure, in any order. Don't worry about sequence -- just get them down on paper. Scratch off the stupid ones. Separate what's left into 'acts' and 'scenes'. Acts are major episodes; scenes are what make up the acts. Or, in other words, acts are chapters and scenes are the events in those chapters. Ideally, one session of play covers one, maybe two, acts. Organize the acts into a logical sequence, but bear in mind that your sequence might be disrupted by player actions. Gear things toward flexibility. Put 2-4 scenes under each act. Again, aim for flexibility. The order of the scenes shouldn't be crucial. Scenes that add to the story but aren't essential are also good, as are a few alternative scenes if things don't go the way you want. One simple way to handle that would be, for example, to note that "the PCs learn about the Tree of Awesomeness from the old hermit. Alt -- they could also learn about it from an Eepwood Ranger, a talkative Spiderbaby, or (as a last resort) the innkeeper at the Bloated Basilisk." Now you have an outline of your adventure, and that's really all you need. Putting a lot of effort into adding minute details only increases your work load for little payoff, because the PCs' diversions from the path are going to make much of that detail pointless anyway. If you're mentally prepared to handle some diversions, you won't be thrown off balance when they happen. Steve
necromancer745 03-29-07, 06:09 PM	I've got my first night of DMing this sunday wish me luck. I hope it goes well, thanks for all of ur input on this thread. :)
necromancer745 04-17-07, 09:43 PM	It went great. Although not how I thought it would be, and my friends r playing different characters than they originally thought about playing. 1. My one friend is playing a fighter, and also playing a cleric. 2. My other friend is still playing the druid. 3. My friend's gf is playing a ranger, I get the feeling she's going to multiclass with rogue. 4.and my other friend is playing a warmage, who just recently bribed the town guard to go against the incompetent mayor, lol. I am not playing a character, besides it's easier for me to just worry about the monsters let alone a character of my own.