Campaign Handouts

[KingsTears]

What things would you like to have or have handed out with great effect to every player at the start of a new campaign?

 

[Crothian]

Summarry of personal knowledge of their character. I like to give each PC a seperate sheet that has unique information on it. Many times players have info that contridicts each other. It's helped to establish a good ground knowldge fromt he beginning.

 

[res]

What things would you like to have or have handed out with great effect to every player at the start of a new campaign?

There are a few things.

If the DM is using a new, homebrewed campaign world, maybe a world map or even just a map of the local area detailing major countries/cities/land-marks etc. In addition to this, some history about the world as well as some popular legends etc. Something that everyone would know about.

Other than that, not too much. I brief description of the local community and a list of who's in charge, if this is info that the PCs would know about.

 

[billd91]

I put together a folder (you know the cheap folders that are 10-15 cents each at Office Depot) with campaign literature including some background, history, geography, and flavor. I also put together a guide to what the character knows based on where he's from, what race he is, class, etc.
It's up to the players to figure out how or what to do with the information I give them.

 

[dontpunkme]

Some things I generally always hand out:
-Campaign background information (overview, brief regional history, diety changes, etc)
-A full list of house/campaign rules (if everyone knows them in advance then their isn't any room for arguing i.e. no rolling dice unless prompted by me because my players always seem to "roll" 19's when I'm not looking nor prompting them for the rolls)
-Character generation guidelines, if any (what I want to see in a background, ability score generation, etc)
-A character-based equipment map (useful for figuring out just exactly where everything is)
-A listing of my favorite foods/drinks (self-explanatory)
-A game-time scheduler (to figure out what days are generally the best for everyone. I make my players list days as one of the following: always busy, tenetative, free)

 

[RichCsigs]

Most of the people I play with do homebrews, so I'd like a map of the areas we would know, a brief history/common knowledge sheet(s) (ie - "The human lands have been led by the Thordrin dynasty for the past 250 years" or "The elves have been our friends, but lately diplomatic meetings haven't been going so well.") and I would like these things before I make my character to see if something inspires me for a history of my character.

 

[adembroski3]

I do a fairly extensive printout of basic campaign information. A general overview of the campaign, house rules, character creation guidelines, etc.

It's pretty thick because we have a lot of house rules and additions. I list the pre-approved prestige classes (all PrCs must be approved by DM, if they're approved, they're added to the list with any conditions that go along with them), races, recreation policies (i.e. if you die, you create a new character with 80% of your previous character's XP... Raise Dead and such spells are outlawed. The only spells that can bring a character back to life are Wish and Miracle).

I have a page devoted to things I need to know from the character. I want to know hometown, social status, family, and those types of things. I generally allow people to build a character through play, but I want the basics as I very well may use them in game.