Help Kickstarting a Campaign? - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Help Kickstarting a Campaign?

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
brainstem
Jun 14, 2008 1:18:01 With 4E out, I've decided to shift my focus toward D&D, specifically acting as DM for a game. I don't have much experience in genreal with D&D (which may explain why I don't feel offended by 4E), so bear with me.

My idea for a campaign involves the characters jumping between planes in order to collect magical gemstones (or some other kind of relic; point is, they need to get them) in order to rebuild a seal placed on an incredibly deadly monster (think Orcus kind of character). Each artifact is secured in a large temple (basically a dungeon that'll probably take more than one session to get through, Ocarina of Time style), with the artifacts protected by some kind of wicked boss encounter (I've got these cool ideas for boss encounter traps, rather than monsters). Kind of reflective of the Order of the Stick plotline, but I only realized that after the fact and the players don't read OotS anyway, so I'm clear on that.

What I'm wondering is how to shift the players into the main campaign. I want to start them off in a small castle town of sorts and prove their worth to the king (read: wizard, town elder, other important person) through various works around the area to be charged with the task of acquiring these artifacts. What are good quests to give heroes to bring them up to around level 3 or 4 (maybe even a mini-campaign) before setting them off on the real quest.

Ideas that are kicking around in my mind are:

1) General busywork tasks around the village and the outlying areas. This is one I'd really like to avoid, as I don't want it to seem like "Oh, well this week you're going to go kill 10 boars to earn some exp, good luck!" Things like these are just completely contrived and never seem to come across well.
2) Maybe they'd start out being hired by the king/leader/some important guy to take out a group of kobolds/goblins/goons that are starting to settle too close for comfort. While this would be a nice way to work in a few level's worth of adventuring, I kind of want the heroes to be more than just hired mercenaries for the village. Ideally, I'd like it if they all grew up in the area, but I'm not planning on actually requiring them to write that into their backstory. I just want some sense of familiarity/home associated with the starting location, which would be more difficult to convey reasonably should the party start out as mercenaries (I'm a sucker for Campbell, what can I say?).
3) Just start them out right at level 1 on the campaign. This could work as well, but I would still have the issue of coming up with stuff for them to do in between super dungeons, which could easily be the same as points 1 or 2, just that it'll start with them already having the main campaign presented to them. This would work well, but as I mentioned before, I'd like some sense of "home" to be associated with the starting location; by making the first few levels revolving around this area without any notion of extra-planar adventuring, it could cause for more connection to the home-village.

So thoughts/ideas? Anything would be great. My history with RPGs, in general, is one of one-night stands where Campaigns go terribly (usually lasting no more than 2 sessions) due to unfocused players, so I don't have much experience in lengthy gaming. Thankfully, I've got a new group in college, so maybe things will go better? They're all total newbs, which I think is awesome; no preconceived notions at all!
#2
g-pa
Jun 14, 2008 1:34:23 I like to have my players come up with their character concepts first (one paragraph is plenty) and then try to image what kind of situation might interest all those characters. That thinking writes half the adventure for me.

Especially since you're a new DM, it's totally cool for you to just have the players make characters who already know and trust each other.

Try re-asking your question in a more focused way.
#3
brainstem
Jun 14, 2008 1:39:52 Ah, I'm not really new to DMing or anything, I've been running games (postly Play-by-Post on-line) for a few years now. D&D, though, is a much less familiar system to me, although I like it much better than Star Wars (my main exposure to d20 gaming).

And I definitely already plan on the characters starting out knowing each other. I've attempted games/had to deal with playing in enough games with the Chaotic Evil Rogue that doesn't want anything to do with any of the other players, as he would rather run around killing hookers and looting their bodies that I've mostly given up on running games with characters that have no initial reason to work together. All of them knowing each other simply makes it easier for all of us (another reason why I would, ideally, like all the characters to be native to the starting location).

And by saying I should ask the question in a more focused way, what exactly do you mean? I'd be more than happy to elaborate if it could help address my issues.
#4
g-pa
Jun 14, 2008 1:44:35 I mean are you asking for ideas about 3 levels of adventure that are essentially separate from your interplanar quest? Are you looking for plot hooks?
#5
brainstem
Jun 14, 2008 2:11:17 Ah, gotcha. I'm trying to figure out the best way to start the game out from level 1 (with the previously mentioned group, games tended to start around level 6, so low level play is somewhat foreign, but interesting, to me). The three points I mentioned are just ideas I have on how to start it out, before the main campaign actually begins, with idea 3 being to start with the main campaign from level 1 and forego any "prelude" levels. While this might be the easiest way through (and what I'm leaning toward for now), I'd like to do some quests before the campaign kicks up in order to get everyone into the feel of the game and loose of their "newb" status.

Actually, upon writing this, I kind of realize something that may work. I had an idea about two kings using the PCs as messengers, carrying letters back and forth to one another. Maybe the letters contain information about their main campaign and encounters the PCs have to deal with on the roads between relays could foreshadow the impending doom. Goblin raids on small towns in order to appease their god, who they believe is connected to a mystically foreseen apocalypse brought about by "Orcus."
#6
SoulCatcher78
Jun 14, 2008 6:32:57 Just to make sure that the PCs are vested in the quest, I would begin associating the minions *not in the technical sense BTW* of whoever wants to release your big bad. Drop them *or information about them* into the beginning of things and then whenever your PCs run into them in the future, they will have more of an intrest in finding out why monster type X has been so persistent in the area. This was done with great effect with the original G1-3 series of modules to introduce the Drow as the final protaganists *and to ensure that the party would follow up on the plot to find out who was running the show*.

The messenger thing might work better if they are escorts for the messenger who gets damaged during transit and has to pass on the message through one of the PCs. You could work this into an item *amulet of thought storage...sounds hinky but you get the idea* that has to be taken back and forth. PC touches the item and BAM he knows about the impending doom. Dunno, just a thought. Better yet, the messenger gets captured while being escorted and the PCs have to rescue him from the evil baddies encampment (abandoned mine, etc). Evil baddies are working for the final antagonists which ties into the idea from the first paragraph).

If you're not sure about how focused you can keep your new group, start small and leave the far future stuff in outline form in case things start changing due to PC "inventiveness" (aka plot breaking) so you don't have to scrap three weeks worth of work because they went left instead of right.
#7
brainstem
Jun 14, 2008 11:16:43 Ah, very good advice, SoulCatcher. Do you have any advice on how I can keep the PCs interested in figuring out who these minions are?
#8
evokersrule
Jun 14, 2008 13:05:37 You probably know your players better then I do, but it should work if you just have your players just get jumped by the enemies twice (or even more). Make sure the PCs know it's the same group (maybe they all wear some special amulet? have a weird tattoo carved into their foreheads?) Once the PCs realize these guys are going to keep bothering them, they should have an incentive to work out who they are. If they still don't, there are more forceful ways to press the message -- perhaps the group of enemies kidnaps a PC, sends rogues to nick some of the PCs' equipment, frames the PCs for some crime (in a way that the PCs are sure to realize was them) If they still don't do anything, your group is probably so dumb you need a big sign: DANGER! PLOT AHEAD!
#9
Kensan_Oni
Jun 15, 2008 11:12:45 If you aren't sure how to start an adventure, I suggest you start it In Media Res. The old Star Wars trick for running an adventure was to start them off shooting or running away from the bad guys (Just like the opening of the first star wars film) and let them know why they are doing the things they are doing either in the opening speel, or immediatly after the combat they just held.

It works for me when I have to open up at one shots. Should work well for an opener.
#10
namer_and_shaper
Jun 15, 2008 14:48:51 Funnily enough I've just made a thread that might help, I won't link it, it's easy enough to find if you want to take ideas from it. :P

Good luck with your campaign.
#11
theonetruestripes
Jun 15, 2008 15:16:40
[...]What I'm wondering is how to shift the players into the main campaign. I want to start them off in a small castle town of sorts and prove their worth to the king (read: wizard, town elder, other important person) through various works around the area to be charged with the task of acquiring these artifacts. What are good quests to give heroes to bring them up to around level 3 or 4 (maybe even a mini-campaign) before setting them off on the real quest.
So thoughts/ideas? Anything would be great. My history with RPGs, in general, is one of one-night stands where Campaigns go terribly (usually lasting no more than 2 sessions) due to unfocused players, so I don't have much experience in lengthy gaming. Thankfully, I've got a new group in college, so maybe things will go better? They're all total newbs, which I think is awesome; no preconceived notions at all!

Something I have used is to let everyone write their own backgrounds, and tell them to end their backgrounds roughly like "and then I left [WHERE EVER I WAS] and when to BIG-CITY-NAME-HERE where many adventurers of legend started out, but quickly found my money didn't go as far as I had thought. I had to put my dreams of adventure on hold and work as a guard for NAME-OF-SOME-DUKE-HERE. I've been trying to figure out what to do next for [CHOOSE TIME PERIOD FROM DAYS TO MONTHS]." (the stuff in brackets the player gets to fill out, the other all-caps stuff you pick)

Now you have PCs that may or may not have known each other since they grew up, but they have at least known each other for a few days, and ahve a reason to be together and armed.

Then throw an attack at the duke's stronghold (or whatever he had them guarding, a caravan maybe, whatever). Something the PCs should be able to handle, but not too easily. The Gnools/Orcs/Goblins/Whatnot have some sort of map on them, make sure the PCs find it.

If the PCs do poorly, the Duke fires them because they are incompetent. If they do well, he regretfully lets them go because he feels unsafe and wants to hire Real Guards. If they do spectrally either do another encounter for them to fail at, or maybe have the duke send them off to investigate whatever was on the map anyway.

The thing at the end of the map has the first artifact, stolen from it's normal place (which partly explains why it is easier the the later quests). Set 'em up to find out that the artifact is important, but may not know for what. Let 'em figure it out over time.

I like to avoid having some wizard give them the quest (hey, why isn't the wizard doing it?) or the like. But that may be just me. :-)

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 brainstem Jun 14, 2008 1:18:01	With 4E out, I've decided to shift my focus toward D&D, specifically acting as DM for a game. I don't have much experience in genreal with D&D (which may explain why I don't feel offended by 4E), so bear with me. My idea for a campaign involves the characters jumping between planes in order to collect magical gemstones (or some other kind of relic; point is, they need to get them) in order to rebuild a seal placed on an incredibly deadly monster (think Orcus kind of character). Each artifact is secured in a large temple (basically a dungeon that'll probably take more than one session to get through, Ocarina of Time style), with the artifacts protected by some kind of wicked boss encounter (I've got these cool ideas for boss encounter traps, rather than monsters). Kind of reflective of the Order of the Stick plotline, but I only realized that after the fact and the players don't read OotS anyway, so I'm clear on that. What I'm wondering is how to shift the players into the main campaign. I want to start them off in a small castle town of sorts and prove their worth to the king (read: wizard, town elder, other important person) through various works around the area to be charged with the task of acquiring these artifacts. What are good quests to give heroes to bring them up to around level 3 or 4 (maybe even a mini-campaign) before setting them off on the real quest. Ideas that are kicking around in my mind are: 1) General busywork tasks around the village and the outlying areas. This is one I'd really like to avoid, as I don't want it to seem like "Oh, well this week you're going to go kill 10 boars to earn some exp, good luck!" Things like these are just completely contrived and never seem to come across well. 2) Maybe they'd start out being hired by the king/leader/some important guy to take out a group of kobolds/goblins/goons that are starting to settle too close for comfort. While this would be a nice way to work in a few level's worth of adventuring, I kind of want the heroes to be more than just hired mercenaries for the village. Ideally, I'd like it if they all grew up in the area, but I'm not planning on actually requiring them to write that into their backstory. I just want some sense of familiarity/home associated with the starting location, which would be more difficult to convey reasonably should the party start out as mercenaries (I'm a sucker for Campbell, what can I say?). 3) Just start them out right at level 1 on the campaign. This could work as well, but I would still have the issue of coming up with stuff for them to do in between super dungeons, which could easily be the same as points 1 or 2, just that it'll start with them already having the main campaign presented to them. This would work well, but as I mentioned before, I'd like some sense of "home" to be associated with the starting location; by making the first few levels revolving around this area without any notion of extra-planar adventuring, it could cause for more connection to the home-village. So thoughts/ideas? Anything would be great. My history with RPGs, in general, is one of one-night stands where Campaigns go terribly (usually lasting no more than 2 sessions) due to unfocused players, so I don't have much experience in lengthy gaming. Thankfully, I've got a new group in college, so maybe things will go better? They're all total newbs, which I think is awesome; no preconceived notions at all!
#2 g-pa Jun 14, 2008 1:34:23	I like to have my players come up with their character concepts first (one paragraph is plenty) and then try to image what kind of situation might interest all those characters. That thinking writes half the adventure for me. Especially since you're a new DM, it's totally cool for you to just have the players make characters who already know and trust each other. Try re-asking your question in a more focused way.
#3 brainstem Jun 14, 2008 1:39:52	Ah, I'm not really new to DMing or anything, I've been running games (postly Play-by-Post on-line) for a few years now. D&D, though, is a much less familiar system to me, although I like it much better than Star Wars (my main exposure to d20 gaming). And I definitely already plan on the characters starting out knowing each other. I've attempted games/had to deal with playing in enough games with the Chaotic Evil Rogue that doesn't want anything to do with any of the other players, as he would rather run around killing hookers and looting their bodies that I've mostly given up on running games with characters that have no initial reason to work together. All of them knowing each other simply makes it easier for all of us (another reason why I would, ideally, like all the characters to be native to the starting location). And by saying I should ask the question in a more focused way, what exactly do you mean? I'd be more than happy to elaborate if it could help address my issues.
#4 g-pa Jun 14, 2008 1:44:35	I mean are you asking for ideas about 3 levels of adventure that are essentially separate from your interplanar quest? Are you looking for plot hooks?
#5 brainstem Jun 14, 2008 2:11:17	Ah, gotcha. I'm trying to figure out the best way to start the game out from level 1 (with the previously mentioned group, games tended to start around level 6, so low level play is somewhat foreign, but interesting, to me). The three points I mentioned are just ideas I have on how to start it out, before the main campaign actually begins, with idea 3 being to start with the main campaign from level 1 and forego any "prelude" levels. While this might be the easiest way through (and what I'm leaning toward for now), I'd like to do some quests before the campaign kicks up in order to get everyone into the feel of the game and loose of their "newb" status. Actually, upon writing this, I kind of realize something that may work. I had an idea about two kings using the PCs as messengers, carrying letters back and forth to one another. Maybe the letters contain information about their main campaign and encounters the PCs have to deal with on the roads between relays could foreshadow the impending doom. Goblin raids on small towns in order to appease their god, who they believe is connected to a mystically foreseen apocalypse brought about by "Orcus."
#6 SoulCatcher78 Jun 14, 2008 6:32:57	Just to make sure that the PCs are vested in the quest, I would begin associating the minions not in the technical sense BTW of whoever wants to release your big bad. Drop them or information about them into the beginning of things and then whenever your PCs run into them in the future, they will have more of an intrest in finding out why monster type X has been so persistent in the area. This was done with great effect with the original G1-3 series of modules to introduce the Drow as the final protaganists and to ensure that the party would follow up on the plot to find out who was running the show. The messenger thing might work better if they are escorts for the messenger who gets damaged during transit and has to pass on the message through one of the PCs. You could work this into an item amulet of thought storage...sounds hinky but you get the idea that has to be taken back and forth. PC touches the item and BAM he knows about the impending doom. Dunno, just a thought. Better yet, the messenger gets captured while being escorted and the PCs have to rescue him from the evil baddies encampment (abandoned mine, etc). Evil baddies are working for the final antagonists which ties into the idea from the first paragraph). If you're not sure about how focused you can keep your new group, start small and leave the far future stuff in outline form in case things start changing due to PC "inventiveness" (aka plot breaking) so you don't have to scrap three weeks worth of work because they went left instead of right.
#7 brainstem Jun 14, 2008 11:16:43	Ah, very good advice, SoulCatcher. Do you have any advice on how I can keep the PCs interested in figuring out who these minions are?
#8 evokersrule Jun 14, 2008 13:05:37	You probably know your players better then I do, but it should work if you just have your players just get jumped by the enemies twice (or even more). Make sure the PCs know it's the same group (maybe they all wear some special amulet? have a weird tattoo carved into their foreheads?) Once the PCs realize these guys are going to keep bothering them, they should have an incentive to work out who they are. If they still don't, there are more forceful ways to press the message -- perhaps the group of enemies kidnaps a PC, sends rogues to nick some of the PCs' equipment, frames the PCs for some crime (in a way that the PCs are sure to realize was them) If they still don't do anything, your group is probably so dumb you need a big sign: DANGER! PLOT AHEAD!
#9 Kensan_Oni Jun 15, 2008 11:12:45	If you aren't sure how to start an adventure, I suggest you start it In Media Res. The old Star Wars trick for running an adventure was to start them off shooting or running away from the bad guys (Just like the opening of the first star wars film) and let them know why they are doing the things they are doing either in the opening speel, or immediatly after the combat they just held. It works for me when I have to open up at one shots. Should work well for an opener.
#10 namer_and_shaper Jun 15, 2008 14:48:51	Funnily enough I've just made a thread that might help, I won't link it, it's easy enough to find if you want to take ideas from it. :P Good luck with your campaign.
#11 theonetruestripes Jun 15, 2008 15:16:40	[...]What I'm wondering is how to shift the players into the main campaign. I want to start them off in a small castle town of sorts and prove their worth to the king (read: wizard, town elder, other important person) through various works around the area to be charged with the task of acquiring these artifacts. What are good quests to give heroes to bring them up to around level 3 or 4 (maybe even a mini-campaign) before setting them off on the real quest. So thoughts/ideas? Anything would be great. My history with RPGs, in general, is one of one-night stands where Campaigns go terribly (usually lasting no more than 2 sessions) due to unfocused players, so I don't have much experience in lengthy gaming. Thankfully, I've got a new group in college, so maybe things will go better? They're all total newbs, which I think is awesome; no preconceived notions at all! Something I have used is to let everyone write their own backgrounds, and tell them to end their backgrounds roughly like "and then I left [WHERE EVER I WAS] and when to BIG-CITY-NAME-HERE where many adventurers of legend started out, but quickly found my money didn't go as far as I had thought. I had to put my dreams of adventure on hold and work as a guard for NAME-OF-SOME-DUKE-HERE. I've been trying to figure out what to do next for [CHOOSE TIME PERIOD FROM DAYS TO MONTHS]." (the stuff in brackets the player gets to fill out, the other all-caps stuff you pick) Now you have PCs that may or may not have known each other since they grew up, but they have at least known each other for a few days, and ahve a reason to be together and armed. Then throw an attack at the duke's stronghold (or whatever he had them guarding, a caravan maybe, whatever). Something the PCs should be able to handle, but not too easily. The Gnools/Orcs/Goblins/Whatnot have some sort of map on them, make sure the PCs find it. If the PCs do poorly, the Duke fires them because they are incompetent. If they do well, he regretfully lets them go because he feels unsafe and wants to hire Real Guards. If they do spectrally either do another encounter for them to fail at, or maybe have the duke send them off to investigate whatever was on the map anyway. The thing at the end of the map has the first artifact, stolen from it's normal place (which partly explains why it is easier the the later quests). Set 'em up to find out that the artifact is important, but may not know for what. Let 'em figure it out over time. I like to avoid having some wizard give them the quest (hey, why isn't the wizard doing it?) or the like. But that may be just me. :-)