Post/Author/DateTime	Post
danhenry 05-19-06, 08:32 PM	Well. So my story goes... I've been playing D&D since before highschool. I know the rules very well, and can almost tell you the page that something is on, in any book I own. But lately, any campaign that me and my friends have tried to play, has - bluntly said - sucked. I'm not sure what's wrong? I used to have so much fun playing campaigns that we used to play! But for the last year, we haven't had a single good campaign that any of the players have enjoyed. Each player generally takes turns DMing (not in the middle of a campaign, but rather when a campaign fails). And usually it ends the same too. We get a campaign going up for, about 2 weeks (tops), and then it just shuts down. It seems like none of the people want to DM. So this is my idea. I would like to put together a very good campaign for the players to play. Not just one that is written up the night before it's played. Any suggestions on how I should do this? I'm not very familiar with the "Campaign Settings". And I don't fully know what everyone means by that. So if someone could help me get a nice campaign off on the right foot, that would be gladly appreciated :D. Thank you for listening to what I have to say, and I hope to hear from you.
Zherog 05-19-06, 08:45 PM	Build things around the PCs. Encourage them to work together to make their characters, and hopefully they'll all find a common hook. For example, in the campaign I've been DMing for a bit over 2 years the players all decided they would be affiliated with the same religion. From there, the person who was going to play the cleric picked a deity (Olidammara), then everybody else worked him into their character's background. Once they had the character concept, I started working out what to do. I planned how to bring the PCs together, and then planned their first adventure. It's worked really well. The key is cooperation.
Thistle Rosewood 05-19-06, 09:50 PM	AS a dm, i would find out what would interest your players, if they want hack and slash, pick hack and slash. if they want puzzles and plots this will take a bit more work, but ulitimately, what do you all want. I dm for a party, that was iniatially hack and slash, I know it drove me mental, to have them ignore clues, to ignore plots that slapped them in the face, so I mentioned that if they wanted hack n slash, i would change it, cause I was unhappy Dm'ing for a group that didnt problem solve. They all thought on it, and are still in the game, NOW realizing how much trouble they are in due to the missing of clues earlier on, but they are enjoying the game more, as am I . you need to find out what your players want out of a game, and as a dm, try to cater to that, to entice there desire to play and keep it interesting. And if players want different things, try to balance them all. Thistle
danhenry 05-19-06, 10:22 PM	Thanks a bundle guys! So far you've given some very good ideas to help develop the interesting point of the campaign. Now would you have any helpful tips on how to develop a world for it? Like I said, I've never fully had a complete world for the players to play in, I've just had a few towns made and that's about it. :D Thanks.
rijeagle 05-19-06, 11:23 PM	The "Campaign Settings" are Greyhawk(which is the default world - Oerth), Forgotten Realms (Toril), Dragonlance, Ebberon. WotC has several books on the Realms, with history, cities, towns, NPCs, and numerous pre-made adventures. Ebberon is the newest setting ,and there are several books on this world also. Also the DMG II has suggestions on how to flesh out a campaign and bring it alive.
danhenry 05-20-06, 12:14 AM	The "Campaign Settings" are Greyhawk(which is the default world - Oerth), Forgotten Realms (Toril), Dragonlance, Ebberon. WotC has several books on the Realms, with history, cities, towns, NPCs, and numerous pre-made adventures. Ebberon is the newest setting ,and there are several books on this world also. Also the DMG II has suggestions on how to flesh out a campaign and bring it alive. So you would suggest that I go out and purchase one of these books? That it may help highly with the developement of the plot/story and the interest of the characters?
rijeagle 05-20-06, 12:23 AM	So you would suggest that I go out and purchase one of these books? That it may help highly with the developement of the plot/story and the interest of the characters? Well, let's say this: If you've got a large area going already, get the DMG II to flesh it out. If you don't, take a look at two or three of these books. I don't have a preference myself as we use our own world, but Forgotten Realms and Ebberon each have a Campaign Setting Book, Players Guide to..., Faith and Pantheons(FR anyway), Monsters of.... If you, as the DM, have a decent background info, it's less work to set up the 'world', and allows you to concentrate on the storyline. Each of these worlds are pretty rich in detail, new monsters, deities, NPCs, cities, and some quest ideas to get you on a pretty good start for a campaign. Good Luck! Try Amazon.com - most of these books have been out awhile, so you should get a good deal on them here. * edit - oh and the advice from the other fellas are awesome to follow! ;)
Rab-Ka-La 05-20-06, 02:11 AM	A well written and thought out world can help the players immerse themselves in their characters and the game. FR, Dragonlance, and probably Eberon all have some good information to guide them. A world rich in history like Greyhawk can be quite fun to use. There is also a lot of info about Greyhawk on the web. Pick a date in its history as a starting point. Let them feel that it is a living world. Give them numerous updates of what things are happening around them. Wars, floods, famines, border disputes, feuds, new laws, power changes, royal weddings, goblin raids, ... whatever. Let them wander the world around them and look for the battles they feel drawn to champion. They are in charge of their own destiny! They will not feel railroaded into one simple adventure. Get a subscription to Dungeon magazine or some other sources of good adventures to slip in while they discover the world and bump into some random traveling encounters. With newer players, you can run many of the free adventures (like those at wizards site or rpg archives) or updated classics without worrying that they will have encountered them before. A few slight modifications to existing material can then personalize and customize whatever adventure into which they stumble. thistle rosewood and Zherog also made some very good points.
Zherog 05-20-06, 10:28 AM	You can get by without a campaign world. If you do, though, you and your players will need to be willing to ignore the inconsistencies that pop up from time to time. I've payed in FR in the past, I currently play in a game set in Eberron, and the game I DM is set (mostly) in Greyhawk. Greyhawk may be the easiest of the three to set a campaign in, because things like deities won't change at all from the core rules. There's lots of interesting areas, from large cities (Greyhawk, Dyvers) to jungles to wild plains to "monster" infested areas and so on. So finding a place in the world to adventure shouldn't be difficult. My game is set in Dyvers. Once the players decided to affiliate with the Laughing Rogue's church, a city based campaign made the most sense. FR and Eberron are both very cool in their own ways. You might be able to find those campaign setting books at a major book store. If you can, take a look and see what you think. If you think they'll work for your group, you can even try to convince your friends to chip in a few bucks to help buy the book. If you decide to go with core/Greyhawk, I highly recommend the Living Greyhawk Gazateer. It'll give you a really good primer on the history and geography of the world. It's one of the best books I own - and I probably have over 50 D&D/d20 books. link to the book on Amazon (sort of) (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0786917431/sr=8-1/qid=1148135113/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-9828672-1941704?%5Fencoding=UTF8) - note that the book is out of print; so if you "buy" from amazon, you'll actually be getting it from another retailer. The cover here is different from the actual book - but if you click the image, you'll see the right cover. If you decide to buy it, make sure you buy the 192 page version, not the 32 page version.
danhenry 05-20-06, 01:05 PM	Thanks a bundle for the information so far guys! This surely should develop the world that they'll play in. I really hope they like it. I'm gunna get my friends to chip in some money (even if it's 5 dollars). And purchase this book, I think. Any other quick tips to improve the gameplay? Thanks so far!
The Phantom Flan Flinger 05-20-06, 01:33 PM	Sounds like you just need to shake things up a bit to get yourselves out of that rut, rather than make drastic changes. If you have a good, reliable group, you're all friends and you all play well together, already you've got more going for you than some groups ever do! If it ain't broke and all that. I'd recommend Eberron, it's got a different feel to it than the other D&D settings I've played. If your problem is that things are getting a bit stale, I think this would suit you. It isn't as big on deities/alignment (compared to e.g. the FR), but instead has powerful Houses and national politics that your players might like to get involved in as an alternative to the "traditional" D&D stuff. I'd play through the pre-written modules first, to give you an idea of the tone of the setting and the new classes and races. This has two benefits, one it gets around the fact that the DM won't know any more about the world than the players, and two it means that if nobody is really that fussed about DMing at least they aren't having to put in all the work required to build adventures from scratch. Once you've played through those, hopefully one of you will be inspired to do your own. I've never understood how people can write a campaign from start to finish without even knowing who the characters will be. I don't lay claim to that much experience, but I find if I try to plan ahead further than one session, the PCs do something I wasn't expecting (but equally cool, so that I'd definitely rather run with it than try to railroad) and I end up having to throw most of what I've done away.
Zombie Carl 05-20-06, 01:43 PM	Try a planar setting. An adventure starting in Sigil would be incredibly varied, and you could make it as bizarre as you want without it becoming over the top. a legion of demons is unusual on the prime material. It's not so unusual on the outer planes.