Pre-campaign survey?

I'm putting down the foundations for the campaign I'll be running this fall, and I'm thinking of doing a pre-play survey of the players to see what they want out of the game. Has anyone done anything like this before? Questions I'm thinking of include:

What level would you like to begin at? (1-3)
What level would you like to end at? (10-20)
Possible rules variants (actions points, etc)
Introduction of new PC races? (I'm a little tired of elves and dwarves)
Urban/wilderness/dungeon adventure balance?
Balance of time spent on meta-plot adventures, stand-alone adventures, and character development?


Any thoughts on what might be good to include?

I like starting at level 5. I dont care about ending, but at or around 20 seems best. I like rules variants that are value add, like action points, I dislike huge problematic ones, like hp changes. I like new races, sick of old races. I like balance of adventure types. I like plot, and character dev.

Oh, oops!

Maybe put some "campaign flavor" examples out there, e.g.,:

* High fantasy (Lord of the Rings, Arthurian)
* Sword and sorcery (Conan, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser)
* Trippy fantasy (Elric, Amber)
* Historical fantasy (Solomon Kane/Bran Mak Morn, Harry Turtledove)
* Classic D&D (Greyhawk/FR, dungeon crawls, common magic items)
* Novelty D&D (Ebberon, Dark Sun, Planescape)

...customized as you see fit, of course.

-The Gneech

Questions I might ask (a pre-game survey isn't a bad idea BTW):

- magical power level (high-magic setting, low magic, etc).
- overall genre (high fantasy, low fantasy, horror, classic, etc).
- party theme (are they on a holy quest, are they mercs in it for the money, good, evil, lawful, chaotic, etc).
- episodic vs continuous (all one mega adventure, smaller semirelated adventures, unrelated 'episodes', etc).

and any variations on the above might be handy for game and party cohesion.

Are there any special rules or alternative d20 books you would like to see included?

Any that you would like to be stricken from the whole of creation in a firey ball?

If this campaign were a movie, what kind of rating would you like it to have? PG-13? R? NC-17 (for violence and mature subject matter)? Bear in mind, this will be directly affecting you.

Do you object to the possibility of enemies attempting to damage, destroy, or steal items in your inventory?

have you learned the fine art of bathing on a regular basis?

Do you have any food alergies I should know about before asking you to buy me snacks?

If you were to see a gazeebo standing alone on a hill, what would you do?

What do you see in this ink-blot?


How would you prepare to deal with it?

Have you ever had a pewter mini lodged in a sensitive area? If so: where, by whom, and what did you do to diserve it?

What is your preferred manner of GM bribery? (Write only Food, Gaming materials, or Money if male. If female you may include "Pouting while emphasizing my breasts" to the list.)

Okay, this is the single most important question of all time: Coke or Pepsi?

BigCat said:

Any thoughts on what might be good to include?

Click to expand...

I'd recommend going so far as to turn your survey into a full-blown chargen/brainstorming session. Get the players together and talk about what kind of campaign everyone would be most interested in. Bring a few of your own ideas to the table to get the discussion going. If you can only get everyone together via email/pm, that'll work, too.

In addition to what you listed, I would talk about:

Campaign settings, especially if a setting that sounds interesting to everyone invovles some alternate rules, e.g. Midnight or Diamond Throne. And even if you're not using some big, published world, get a feel for the environments everyone is interested in. Do they want to skulk around a city filled with intrigue? Traverse overland and explore the wilds? Creep their way through the Underdark? Do a totally different environment each week?

Variants. Iron Heroes and Arcana Evoloved are too good not to offer as possibilities.

The nature of the party. This is a biggie. Definitely get the players to help create a good reason for why the party is together. Make sure that there are hooks and relationships between the characters. Talk about what classes and races people are interested in playing. E.g., if nobody really wants to play a cleric, you want to know that up front so that the classes they do want to play can compensate for a key D&D role like that being absent. It's also cool if there can be a theme, e.g., "thieves' guild", "crusaders of the faith," or "agents of the wizard's cabal".

House rules. If you're going to change anything from the system default, make it clear now and see if everyone in on board with the changes.

Role of the party (heroes/mercenaries/freelance bums)

I tend to run and enjoy option two, and D&D defaults to option one. Find out what your characters want their role in the story to be, not so much what motivates them as what they want to be motivated by.

Scope (save the world/save the kingdom/save a bunch of gp on airship ensurance)

This is different from level. You can play a 20th level game of "find riches and spend them on ale and whores" (Conan) or a 5th level game of "save the world" (LotR from Frodo and Sam's perspectives). How big do the players want the stakes to get?

I like to have questions like:

Out of 10 points, rate your preference for the following.

Example: If you liked combat and puzzles equally but hated role playing, you might rate the first one Combat 4, role playing 2, puzzles 4.

- Types of game play: Combat ___, role playing ___, puzzles/traps ___.
- The main place for adventures to occur: Cities ___, Dungeons ___, Wilderness ___.

And so forth.

Thanks, folks, this is really helpful. I'll post my final version of the survey soon.

Piratecat said:

I like to have questions like:

Out of 10 points, rate your preference for the following.

Example: If you liked combat and puzzles equally but hated role playing, you might rate the first one Combat 4, role playing 2, puzzles 4.

- Types of game play: Combat ___, role playing ___, puzzles/traps ___.
- The main place for adventures to occur: Cities ___, Dungeons ___, Wilderness ___.

And so forth.

Click to expand...

Rather similar to what AEG called The Other 100 Points in 7th Sea. I have used them every game that I have run since.

The Auld Grump