Campaign Advice... [Archive] - Wizards Community

Campaign Advice... [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Zerowolf2nd
06-23-05, 02:34 AM Ok now i know that most of us when we do a DnD game we all imagine this grand storyline. My question to all the DM's out there and about...

Whats a good way to get your ideas down and on paper and then hopefully getting it all sorted; Making it into an epic that the peots of old would be proud of? :D

So shall we get started?
Mike W
06-23-05, 04:35 AM I usually brainstorm while I'm working or wandering around town on one of my endless trips to and from the FLGS, work, or gaming sessions. These are my most productive periods, although I tend to wander into traffic occasionally. Try to avoid this (traffic, not brainstorming).

Once I've got something figured out pretty well in my head, I usually decide that it's a stupid idea, and shelve it to think about something else.

Come Thursday afternoon, I still don't have a session for Friday, so I go back to the shelved idea and remind myself of all the merits of the plot. I sit down with my laptop and start typing up session notes. The typing usually runs me about ten minutes, then I have a smoke break, get a snack, go to work, and then come home and browse the WoTC boards for a bit.

Friday, I still haven't accomplished anything meaningful - I have a campaign to run, a paragraph of semicoherent thoughts strung together, and four hours in which to figure something out.

I watch a few episodes of Cowboy Bebop.

With about an hour to go, I'll remember that I really should write down some campaign-related stuff. I finish watching the episode I'm on, then gather my books. By the time I've torn my apartment apart trying to find the book that I loaned to the guy next door, it's time to go.

I arrive at Dave's (the guy who hosts the game) about five minutes early, and desperately try to remember what happened last week. Someone asks me a rules question, which I answer incorrectly. In a flash of inspiration, a session comes to me. I jot down no more than six words on a 3x5 card and run a three-to-six hour session based solely on these notes, having forgotten my computer and the paragraph or so of actual work I did.

The players have a blast and thank me for the game, and the cycle repeats itself.

I kind of wish that I were writing a punchline here, or maybe a "sike!" or something. But that's pretty much how I run games.

Over last summer, I designed a pretty effort-intensive game. I drew up some maps, made a whole mess of notes, statted out NPCs and Villians months before they were to become an issue, just on the off-chance that the players did something foolish and bumped into them early. I slowly, carefully breathed life into a world of my own design, a culture born and bred of my imagination. I don't remember how I did it, though, and I lost all of my notes in the Great Apartment Cleaning of aught-five, so I couldn't even reference those for you.

My suggestion: Baby steps. Take whatever the muse gives you, don't try to force it. I've got a friend who is working with a world of his own creation, in which he has run three highly successful campaigns so far. He is planning another, in the same world, which is slated to start as soon as he finishes working on it - probably in about three months. He'll have spent about a year on it by that point.
SeidonVanDolf
06-23-05, 05:46 AM I cannot believe it. Someone else who runs games the way I do. I was supposed to come up with a game for Sunday and I had been thinking on it all week. I could not come up with anything I liked. It needed to start small and then get bigger and hopefully become one of those epic Bard's tales aforementioned. Well I had made some notes in my trusty notebook and had some of the minor details, most of which I came up with while taking my daughter for a walk and walking to the video store.

And that traffic thing, he's serious about it. Got to watch that. But come Friday I still had nothing I liked. Then Saturday came and went and I thought okay I'll just go with the little dungeon crawl and I'll leave hints and clues as to something bigger later. So I did just about a page of notes on it and Sunday comes around and I'm resigned to Saturday's planning.

Well less than an hour before the guys are due to arrive I am in the shower when suddenly I have a whole plan for what I am going to do to them. I hop out and garbed in a towell sopping wet I jot down my notes and get dressed just minutes before they arrive. I run the new idea and they have a blast and are still trying to figure out what I have set them up with. And now I have most of it on paper.

I feel so much better knowing it's not just a 'me-thing'. lol Like he said though, baby steps. Start small and let it grow.
The_Elder
06-23-05, 06:01 AM Thought I was the only one who did that.....for the little stuf

The magor plot(oft forgoten) I at least have somewhere in my poseshion....some notes, theese notes often go un used becaus the pcs trash them so easaly

but about 95% of it is 5 minits befor seshion....while smokeing

The:dice:Elder
astute1
06-23-05, 09:03 AM Typically I write adventures last-minute, or have a jumbled pile of notes I made while at work that I turn into an adventure on-the-fly. For my current campaign, however, I'm running adventures from Dungeon and other sources. I'm going to modify them a little bit during play, so that they are a bit more interesting (some of those adventures are just dungeons with terribly sketchy plot) and I'm going to come up with an overarching plot.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Zerowolf2nd 06-23-05, 02:34 AM	Ok now i know that most of us when we do a DnD game we all imagine this grand storyline. My question to all the DM's out there and about... Whats a good way to get your ideas down and on paper and then hopefully getting it all sorted; Making it into an epic that the peots of old would be proud of? :D So shall we get started?
Mike W 06-23-05, 04:35 AM	I usually brainstorm while I'm working or wandering around town on one of my endless trips to and from the FLGS, work, or gaming sessions. These are my most productive periods, although I tend to wander into traffic occasionally. Try to avoid this (traffic, not brainstorming). Once I've got something figured out pretty well in my head, I usually decide that it's a stupid idea, and shelve it to think about something else. Come Thursday afternoon, I still don't have a session for Friday, so I go back to the shelved idea and remind myself of all the merits of the plot. I sit down with my laptop and start typing up session notes. The typing usually runs me about ten minutes, then I have a smoke break, get a snack, go to work, and then come home and browse the WoTC boards for a bit. Friday, I still haven't accomplished anything meaningful - I have a campaign to run, a paragraph of semicoherent thoughts strung together, and four hours in which to figure something out. I watch a few episodes of Cowboy Bebop. With about an hour to go, I'll remember that I really should write down some campaign-related stuff. I finish watching the episode I'm on, then gather my books. By the time I've torn my apartment apart trying to find the book that I loaned to the guy next door, it's time to go. I arrive at Dave's (the guy who hosts the game) about five minutes early, and desperately try to remember what happened last week. Someone asks me a rules question, which I answer incorrectly. In a flash of inspiration, a session comes to me. I jot down no more than six words on a 3x5 card and run a three-to-six hour session based solely on these notes, having forgotten my computer and the paragraph or so of actual work I did. The players have a blast and thank me for the game, and the cycle repeats itself. I kind of wish that I were writing a punchline here, or maybe a "sike!" or something. But that's pretty much how I run games. Over last summer, I designed a pretty effort-intensive game. I drew up some maps, made a whole mess of notes, statted out NPCs and Villians months before they were to become an issue, just on the off-chance that the players did something foolish and bumped into them early. I slowly, carefully breathed life into a world of my own design, a culture born and bred of my imagination. I don't remember how I did it, though, and I lost all of my notes in the Great Apartment Cleaning of aught-five, so I couldn't even reference those for you. My suggestion: Baby steps. Take whatever the muse gives you, don't try to force it. I've got a friend who is working with a world of his own creation, in which he has run three highly successful campaigns so far. He is planning another, in the same world, which is slated to start as soon as he finishes working on it - probably in about three months. He'll have spent about a year on it by that point.
SeidonVanDolf 06-23-05, 05:46 AM	I cannot believe it. Someone else who runs games the way I do. I was supposed to come up with a game for Sunday and I had been thinking on it all week. I could not come up with anything I liked. It needed to start small and then get bigger and hopefully become one of those epic Bard's tales aforementioned. Well I had made some notes in my trusty notebook and had some of the minor details, most of which I came up with while taking my daughter for a walk and walking to the video store. And that traffic thing, he's serious about it. Got to watch that. But come Friday I still had nothing I liked. Then Saturday came and went and I thought okay I'll just go with the little dungeon crawl and I'll leave hints and clues as to something bigger later. So I did just about a page of notes on it and Sunday comes around and I'm resigned to Saturday's planning. Well less than an hour before the guys are due to arrive I am in the shower when suddenly I have a whole plan for what I am going to do to them. I hop out and garbed in a towell sopping wet I jot down my notes and get dressed just minutes before they arrive. I run the new idea and they have a blast and are still trying to figure out what I have set them up with. And now I have most of it on paper. I feel so much better knowing it's not just a 'me-thing'. lol Like he said though, baby steps. Start small and let it grow.
The_Elder 06-23-05, 06:01 AM	Thought I was the only one who did that.....for the little stuf The magor plot(oft forgoten) I at least have somewhere in my poseshion....some notes, theese notes often go un used becaus the pcs trash them so easaly but about 95% of it is 5 minits befor seshion....while smokeing The:dice:Elder
astute1 06-23-05, 09:03 AM	Typically I write adventures last-minute, or have a jumbled pile of notes I made while at work that I turn into an adventure on-the-fly. For my current campaign, however, I'm running adventures from Dungeon and other sources. I'm going to modify them a little bit during play, so that they are a bit more interesting (some of those adventures are just dungeons with terribly sketchy plot) and I'm going to come up with an overarching plot.