Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 forgelord Oct 03, 2009 17:26:54	As many of you may have noticed, I've asked for ideas for over ten different adventure/campaign ideas on this forum. I've had ideas for horror dungeons, aerial, aquatic, Tolkien, elves and ents, end-of-the-world war campaigns, gods vs. primordials, kill Orcus, medusa, Greek mythology, evil campaigns, and many more. I even attempted a Monty Python & the Holy Grail adventure, but that quickly fell through.  I've always been a person whose interest changes in an instant according to what sort of mood I am in, and I've discovered it unfortunately bleeds through into my DMing. As a player, I'm fine. Whatever adventure the DM makes I'm good with. But when I'm a DM, I just can't decide. My office is littered with discarded papers from countless thrown away adventures and campaigns, and some of these I've gone very far into, almost to the climax. Has anyone had this problem? How do you find an adventure idea and stick with it to the end without starting on another one?
#2 RPJesus Oct 03, 2009 17:28:48	Combine them all? The simplest way would be a dimension hopping campaign, although you could prolly create a world vast enough to support all the different types of games.
#3 forgelord Oct 03, 2009 17:30:03	Hmm, I don't think so. I don't want my players to feel insecure and unsure of the adventure. I really want a concrete theme for my campaign that I can stick with.
#4 RPJesus Oct 03, 2009 17:51:36	Have about 3 campaigns that you rotate between?
#5 forgelord Oct 03, 2009 18:22:34	One. Campaign. With. Concrete. Theme.
#6 death_isthe_begining Oct 03, 2009 18:46:51	Mercenary campaign could sucessfully link all of those together starting with horror(1st-3rd) then aquatic and aerial(5th-8th use the merc company to loan appropriate items) continue to end-of-the-world-war(11th-15th/17th depending on the war) and if the world is still around afterward it would be the perfect time to strike against gods, primordials, or demon princes(kill the meddling fools around 16th+) all set in a tolkien style world. The levels between are for freelance missions. To give some more consistency to the world, give the merc group an overarching goal. In the above example perhaps the merc group wants to remove all outsiders(including gods and primordials), make it a big secret(it would have to be) and each mission is a trial either to prove they are strong enough or to see if the heroes will chose the way they want them to.     Note: The above example is 3.5 change is needed for the levels in 4e.
#7 leowulf Oct 03, 2009 21:22:05	I have this same challenge, and I'm not even DM'ing just now - only hammering out a campaign setting.  I also had this same thing happen when writing short fiction a few years back.  It's easier with stories - you just pick up where you left off and bounce between stories as desired.  But of course, with a campaign you should have a bit of consistency.  Perhaps the solution is to pick a campaign and stay with it, and when you feel inspired or interested in another setting, do work on it for a future campaign.  That way, you still get to exercise your creativity, but you still have your current setting for consistency. So let's say you're doing a nice horror campaign, and you get inspired to do a world war campaign.  You still do the horror campaign, while writing notes about your war setting and sketching out a few adventures.  That way, you've got some nice material for future use and for the fun of creating.
#8 lokis Oct 03, 2009 23:13:28	I have the exact same problem. One of the things I do to keep myself in line is hand my players a questionaires that sort of specifies what sort of tone they want (horror movie v.s. disney movie) to what sort of monsters they would most like to fight (I had a list of 7-9 and had each person pick 3). Since doing this shows you what the players want to do, it encourages you to try and keep things as close to that as possible. Of course, I have the players fill out the questionaire after they make their charecters (otherwise they'd all pick undead and make divine charecters).
#9 pbn Oct 04, 2009 2:33:52	As many of you may have noticed, I've asked for ideas for over ten different adventure/campaign ideas on this forum. I've had ideas for horror dungeons, aerial, aquatic, Tolkien, elves and ents, end-of-the-world war campaigns, gods vs. primordials, kill Orcus, medusa, Greek mythology, evil campaigns, and many more. I even attempted a Monty Python & the Holy Grail adventure, but that quickly fell through.  I've always been a person whose interest changes in an instant according to what sort of mood I am in, and I've discovered it unfortunately bleeds through into my DMing. As a player, I'm fine. Whatever adventure the DM makes I'm good with. But when I'm a DM, I just can't decide. My office is littered with discarded papers from countless thrown away adventures and campaigns, and some of these I've gone very far into, almost to the climax. Has anyone had this problem? How do you find an adventure idea and stick with it to the end without starting on another one? I'm going to repeat what a prior poster said - Use. All. of. Them. (well, except maybe the Monty Python bit) And before you reply with "One. Campaign. With. Concrete. Theme." Isn't Orcus a demon - ie. element/primordial?  Is it beyond him to create dissent to spark a war between gods and primoridials? (to perhaps unseat another demon?)  Would not such a war be "end-of-the-world"?  Also - do you plan on having your L1 adventurers against Medusae?  As for Tolkien - I can picture an artifact of great power needed for the final battle?  How do you find it?  Maybe the quest to find such will take you to an aerial locale, and underwater.  You might even have to get a piece from some haunted region in the shadowfell. You are building 30 levels (300 encounters) of a super-adventure.  How you tie it all together is up to you.  It CAN, however, be tied all together.  And yes - into One. Campaign. With. Concrete. Theme. edited: typo
#10 Grimbus Oct 04, 2009 2:43:45	Variety is the spice of life. You don't have to have one central theme, you can run with several different themes over different levels which can work better than others. There's nothing run with running a tokeinesque forest for one or two levels, an underwater for a couple of levels adventure and so on. You could have a really flexible central theme if you want such as reconstruct a powerful artefact  that will destroy a powerful litch lord or something at the end. Each sequence of adventures ends with the players recovering a piece of artefact, or a clue as to where the last part is. So if you give the players one piece every 2 levels that will take you up to level 14, then the players have to find someone who will explain how it works which will take another couple of levels. Someone then steals it from the players and uses it to become a monarch and the players have to depose the monarch and recover the atrefact. Once they have done this the Litch breaks through into the material plane and starts to wreak havoc. Tolkein managed 4 books with chararcters find a ring and kill a dragon. Characters in trilogy take ring to Morder and destroy it, which on the face of it looks quite simple, but runs into 1000 pages of text, so you really don't need anything too elaborate and if it doesn't work you can change it as you go. If you this outline (or something similar) you can run the different types of adventure without too much trouble and you have a loose structure.
#11 RPJesus Oct 06, 2009 1:12:48	I'm going to repeat what a prior poster said - Use. All. of. Them. (well, except maybe the Monty Python bit) This is what I was going for, except with purtier langage. Consider the Zelda games, Majora's Mask prolly being the most prominent, but any of them will do really. You go from walking on ceilings in a volcano to collecting soup ingredients in a sprawling mansion in a recluded tundra to fighting a dragon hundreds of miles in the air in the rain while spidermanning around him in order to get on his back and stab him.
#12 Polis Oct 06, 2009 9:32:44	Why don't you ask your players?  They might not even want a theme and would rather play in a generic fantasy setting rescuing princesses. When you say theme do you mean plot of the campaign?  It seems that the use of campaign and setting are bleeding together a bit.  Do you have  a setting and not a campaign in mind? Or are you asking about both?
#13 nowiwantmydmg Oct 06, 2009 9:41:04	Plane hopping.  Give them an astral skiff or spelljammer. At low levels it just functions as a normal boat, but eventually they find X that unlocks it's true potential and then the real fun begins.
#14 Rhineglade_ Oct 06, 2009 11:49:34	It is a common "trap" to fall into the "flavor of the week."  Whether it is based on whatever is the hottest TV show, movie or book at the moment, it is easy to say "Oooo, I want to base a campaign on that."  However, emotion-based decisions like that generally prove unable to bear fruit because the DM often lacks the necessary background infomation to sustain the campaign. Since creating a successful campaign involves a LOT of writing, I like to use some of the basic principles of creative writing when developing a new campaign.  Rule #1 is "Write what you know." What do I mean by this?  Take a look at all of the options you have listed and think about it for a bit.  Which of these, if any, REALLY stands out to you?  Which of these are YOU personally interesting in finding out more about?  Considering your choice of books and hobbies, do any of these options more closing reflect these choices?  Don't jump to a decision simply because a particular option is currently popular for whatever reason.  Such trends will quickly fall by the wayside. Hope this helps.
#15 mykrox Oct 07, 2009 19:22:32	I'm currently running a campaign for my wife who is also my only PC. She played God of War and wanted a D&D adventure along those lines. I came up with a quest-based adventure involving temples of the 6 different Gods. Inside each is an artifact...etc. You get the idea. I used a theme to unify the adventure...A temple, a tomb, a tower, a dungeon, a castle, a kingdom. After the artifacts are assembled, they are placed on wooden statue.    The artifacts are made of copper and are referred to as 'The Pauper's Treasure'. They fit a wooden statue shot through with copper(located in a lesser temple at the beginning). As they progress, your players will draw the ire of various Gods and their clerics.    The punchline is the statue is the Key to a larger than colossal statue big enough for them to walk around inside it. The Shears of Atropos is the grand prize.   Ancient Greece as the time period limits weapons and armor, but provides some excellent encounter oppurtunities.Hope this helps
#16 cmennell Oct 19, 2009 1:21:45	I'm currently running a campaign for my wife who is also my only PC.   I'm sorry to intrude...and I get that this comment is 2 weeks old already, and this is completely off topic, but...you're running a 4e game for one player?  What is that experience like?  Do you helm a bunch of NPC party members?  Does she run multiple characters?  Or are all of your combats just skued to match her character up against the appropriate "role" of enemy for her class to face? I'm just so intrigued by the idea of one DM, one Player in 4e.
#17 mykrox Oct 25, 2009 9:19:38	We've been playing for about 5 years now. Haven't made the transition to 4e yet(we did buy the books,but are finishing this campaign first). It is a challenge with only one player. I use terrain, and environment features to provide advantages for her. I use a range for encounters to keep it difficult but not overwhelming.If the MM says the creature is a 5d8 and the average is 22 then I go 22-40. If she holds her own I play it out, if she's down there on HP and she's close to 40 I call it a win. Same applies to the numbers.I space the creatures out at intervals. It gives her a chance to use her full distance and if all else fails, RUN.   I use one NPC as a tag along to help.Having a party of NPCs would just be fighting myself by proxy.With just two players,one of which is me,it is very interesting to see what she comes up with when faced with improbable odds.It's just we two(and I have to live with her) and it's just for fun but she surprises me sometimes.
#18 ordrus Oct 25, 2009 16:12:50	One of the best things I've read from the 4th ed books was in the PHB 1 (don't quote me). It described the different ideas behind the three tiers of play. Heroic was akin to a young dragon; one that hasn't found it's own lair and is looking for something greater. Paragon tier was much like an adult dragon; a creature that has built up it's strength and allies and exerts control with a greater sphere of influence. Epic tier is obviously the ancient dragon who has greater power and greater influence. I had a few ideas for my current campaign but nothing solid or longlasting. When I read that, I realised that it would fit my campaign well. I had the players start off in a brutal war working as mercenaries for a kingdom. The war went badly and they found themselves a year later as sellswords who already had a history built up by being veterans of a war. I'm now taking them through the entire heroic tier doing seemingly unrelated adventures. In reality most if not all the adventures will have hooks and far-reaching consequences that will show up in the paragon and epic tiers. It allows me to throw a variety of monsters at them and not have to worry about whether it fits the story. This really gave the entire campaign a feeling that they are living in a complex world, but it still allows me to bring it together into a cohesive storyline later on. Sometimes a specific campaign idea can be counter-productive if you really just feel like experimenting.