Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 WanderingBard May 21, 2015 21:11:29	My DM period is done and now begins the period of experimentatin by the other players trying out dming. So now I have about an year to create a campaign for the time when my turn to DM comes around. I personally love crafting stories and characters, and thus I enjoy playing the role of the DM equally or perhaps even more so then the role of a PC. However, I feel really discouraged when as a DM I realize I made a horrible mistake and screwed up the experience for my players. So I want to create a campaign that will be the best campaign I have ever made, an actually good campaign actually haha... Any tips on making a good campaign? I know a lot of the things I'm not going to do, but no much of what I can do. Is there any example campaigns I can reference that are good? Any individual tips? I plan on constructing a well structured campaign and a world so that the rules are consistent, and I wont have to improvise as much besides the parts when the players deviate from the main storyline. IN other words I want to get everything I can get down, down so that when improvising time comes I have a firm set of things to work with and a lot more freedom in my mind to focus on the improvisition. So any storytelling tips, campaign construction tips, etc that you have found helpful will be great! I want to make the best campaign I can. Also where would I post a campaign for peer review? This is for a month or two down the road for when I plan the first session or so.
#2 edwin_su May 22, 2015 1:48:06	WanderingBard wrote:
#3 Touc May 22, 2015 8:29:57	In a nutshell, I'd go structured sandbox, that is there's a set area of the world you're playing in but players are on their own agenda as far as where to go, what to do. Pathfinder's Kingmaker adventure path is probably one of the more recent and most well done example of a sandbox (party earns a charter to scout bandit infested frontier and may wish to reclaim it). You'll probably want several maps (Kingmaker had "hex" maps for overland), and many can be gotten off Wizard's "map of the week" pages for lairs and so on.   In this setup, you'll want an overarching goal (e.g. take out the bandit leader, claim his fort) that is unattainable to start (buried deep in the wilderness, random encounters plus level of foes would end a 1st level party), and plenty of small subquests to keep the party busy. In Kingmaker, events start when the party arrives at the local stockade general store and finds the owner being roughed up by bandits. There's old postings on the board (reward for killing the legendary boar tuskkiller), and NPCs come and go with things needing to be done. The party might stumble across quests in the wilderness (a kobold lair at war with a tribe of mites, possibly recruiting the party to aid them), and you'll keep the overarching goal from time to time (a few weeks after the party arrives, the bandits take some action).  Throw in some non combat (the authority that provided the charter has political issues, or the owner's wife wants you to retrieve some rare berries that might help the barren couple conceive a child), and you've got a campaign with plenty to do and no need to "strong arm" the party in any particular direction.   To aid characters with investing in your campaign, create generic snippets of info to tie them into the area and maybe subplots. If there's an old temple, maybe a character worships that diety or has some affiliation. Another character might be a reformed bandit.  Let the players flesh out the story, you're just helping them care about where they are by incorporating it into the role play.   Finally, have an end game in sight. Is this campaign for levels 1-5?  Once the bandit fort is cleared, do you want to go on with restoring the fort, having a charter provided to actually settle the area, and then dealing with the more dangeorus southern region past the fort where a monstrous kingdom is rising?  Not every campaign has to aim for 20th level.
(Reply to #2) WanderingBard	edwin_su wrote:
#5 Qzoo May 23, 2015 10:11:23	I feel like the general nature of the question really gives away that you are still new to this.  Nothing wrong with that, but I think you have a lot of resources (certainly way more than I had when I started) to help you along the road to building your campaign.   It would help a lot if you spent some time with Google and did some research about general campaign building.  There are just piles of advice on the topic.   If you have more specific questions, then I think the messageboards make more sense for helping you with particular details.   If you want to voice chat about campaign building, I'm up for it (PM me), mostly because I get to ask you questions back about your campaign, but typing out general info that has been repeated elsewhere can feel tedious, and most people are busy enough that they won't post detailed answers to a general question.
#6 dave2008 May 24, 2015 4:43:43	I would check out Sly's website, he has tons of good DM advice and a few books too (you may have to scroll several pages to get what your looking for though):  http://slyflourish.com/   Personally I do it the wrong way, I always start from the top (gods, primordials, etc.) and work my way down.
#7 Eck May 24, 2015 13:33:23	The Kingmaker adventure path was already mentioned and you were given a brief synopsis. You should consider picking up a copy: http://paizo.com/pathfinder/adventurePath/kingmaker   Even though it's for Pathfinder, the campaign material is pretty darn epic and converting it to 5th edition wouldn't be too difficult.   - Eck
#8 Imaculata May 25, 2015 4:14:13	I'm in the sandbox camp as well.   Create a vast landscape for your players to explore, and give them complete freedom. Allow them to travel both by sea or by land. Introduce new creatures that are often ignored from the Monster Manual, and pick a unique theme for your campaign. For example, maybe theme your campaign around deserts? Or what about extreme cold? You can also allow them to build their own base.