Post/Author/DateTime	Post
crazyhorse 03-05-04, 04:10 PM	ok i have a dm problem im the dm lol my campaigns only end up lasting like one or two sessions apiece, and i was wonderin if anybody would have a good "outside lookin in" perspective...here's the general layout i had a campaign that lasted a looong time (for us), like months, and it eventually grew stale. it was my first time as dm, so i still had a player's perspective, u know, the more magic=more fun perspective, and the players enjoyed that too. well, the campaign grew stale (i really really just wanted to play) and i handed the reigns over to a player. one session later, i was dm again. ever since then, it's like after ever session or a few, somebody hates their character and purposely gets them killed. or i get a stroke of genious for a campaign, and it goes from "incorporate into new campaign" to "new new campaign" u know what i mean? anyway, i'm basically lookin for help and advice on how to make these grrrrrr campaigns last for more than one session!! i can't tell ya how many plot lines i've lost, how many good ideas i've wasted cuz my campaigns keep gettin cut short!! gyaaaaah!!!
Autosponge 03-05-04, 04:16 PM	If they hate their PC's so much maybe start them out at 4th or 5th level and take it from there.
Shadow Hammer 03-05-04, 04:35 PM	I suffered from this exact same problem for most of my gameing career. I still suffer from it from time to time. Something that helped though was I began writeing stories based on my game ideas. Alot of them were pretty good. Other than that all I can suggest is start the game with action and don't let the action die. If you get another game idea maybe you could try running two games on different nights.
Loopy 03-05-04, 04:40 PM	Take the campaign in steps. Have "generals" in your BBEG's Army of Darkness as it were. This way, you could keep the flavor fresh throughout the campaign. I'd say 3 levels per minor BBEG and 10 levels per major one is fine. Don't forget that you can have several different campaigns involving the same characters. In addition, it might be worth your while to pick up a few Dungeon magazines and run a game separate from your campaign. You can use this separate game to give your players a chance to dink around with other characters and stuff. Alternate between the two games on a weekly basis.
BRJN 03-05-04, 09:16 PM	The old Worldbuilder's Guidebook had a bit of advice that might help you. It suggested making a campaign area about 30x30mi and putting a little bit of everything in it, to see what the PCs liked. A big town, several villages, a half-dozen dungeons that could be explored (each with their own excuse), some old ruins, a swamp for monsters to hide in, &c. Do something like this, but do so as a cooperative effort - have the players help create the area. This way they have a stake in it too, it isn't somebody else's world to visit and leave if they don't like it. This may help with the 'kill-my-character-and-end-the campaign' problem. This will certainly help guide you towards things your players like to do. You can also learn what they do NOT like to do. If they spend almost no time on the town, don't build plot hooks around it. If they hate ancient ruins, work on something else. If they would rather be outside than inside some musty old tunnels, you will know that, too. If one guy is fascinated with the ruined wizard's keep, you can put a few things in it - and a bunch of false rumors about it. If the group wants to get rich, or to collect cool boost-items, or be famous, you will know how to weight the treasure collections they find.
Tevish Szat 03-05-04, 09:28 PM	Run Planescape, or just a planar campagin. Then, if you are suddenly struck for a cool campagin world, your players can find a portal to it and return to the planes/another prime when you burn out there! that helps with the "Random insparations" bit.
Squeakypants 03-05-04, 11:03 PM	I've always been naturally creative (not to brag) and have had no problem w/ ideas. What I do is look on the big picture. I try to think of something outrageously insane that it is barely possible to happen in the fantasy world. Once I have that, I think of the cause and effect of how it will happen, why it happened, why someone did it (if there is a "someone"), and what kind of things will happen because of it. It seems to just create a story by itself. You just keep on thinking cause and effect. Then I read up on how it is possible to do it using mostly book rules (though I ALWAYS have a couple house rules...w/o them it just isn't free enough) Just start out with the BIG PICTURE. Then build off it. Remember, if you can't think of anything, just think "why did this happen" and/or "what will happen because of it". Just remember, make events happen for a logical reason and remember that your players are only so high a level.
Skeane 03-05-04, 11:23 PM	If players play one session and hate their characters, there's little you can do about that. Let them roll up new characters, and have the new character's pick up where the old ones failed (i.e. continue the campaign with new characters). If the players play 2-3 sessions, and hate the characters, that may not be so much their problem-- take a look at your DM'ing for two possible weaknesses: -poor reward system: your players have encountered a couple of big nasties and been thwarting two or three BBEG, but don't have much in the way of xp, gold, treasure, or reputation to show for it. This takes value away from the PC, and makes it seem like their actions are trivial... they're on the hero path- they want to feel like heroes. -stale campaign: I had this problem. You've got a campaign theme that's either too intricate to fully develop in 1 session, or you've got one that's just not capturing the players attention. My solution: "Monster of the Week". Design adventures that have very little to do with your big campaign thread... instead have a session that focuses on the need to rid an unrelated menace- that way you can drip drop your intricate plot and monitor player response as you go... 'Monster of the Week' launches you into the action and gives you a chance to customize your campaign to the kind of stuff that your PCs are gonna genuinely love.
Twilight_doom 03-05-04, 11:41 PM	Once played in a stale campain myself, and the flaw of it was the lack of personnal goals for the PC. Let me explain... If, for example, saving the day for inept villagers or noblemen doesn't appeal to your players, (example, my druid did not really care that the noble's riches were stolen, no point for her to help him), add a little personnal sidequest flavor to it. For example, the players travel to a town where a vampire kidnaps young peasants to feed. Encounter ensues a bit later, and smack, it seems the vampire is no other than the cleric's younger sister! He might not want to dust her, so the party makes her flee elsewhere. You could then plant pointers that a cure might be possible to her affliction if they find out what happened to her and also who did it. They travel to the cleric's hometown to meet the parents and learn of the sister's life events, to retrace the vampire behind it... It always depends of the players you have, weither they do have enough roleplaying interest to actually care about such NPCs and their struggles, but if it's the case, they might take it personnal enough to embark on the journey!
Timbo234 03-06-04, 12:48 AM	My best suggestion would have to be for you to let your players create the adventure...to a certain extent. Have your players write out all of their backgrounds and submit them to you. Tell them there must be some goals in there, some motivation to be an adventurer. Out of four or five players there will have to be one story line you can work from, then you link your own in there. Pretty simple really, once the ball gets rolling. Good luck.