Creating Campaigns / Plot Arcs

[PenBoy99]

I've used Savage Worlds Plot Point campaigns for successful campaigns (i.e., multiple connected sessions with some coherence to them, where something is accomplished), but don't have any idea how to plan out my own. What do you do when you are creating a campaign (assuming you're not doing some kind of sandbox)?

I'm familiar with the 5x5 method, but I'm still not sure how to come up with the goals/objectives for that. I own "Odyssey", but it's about organizing your campaign once you have all of your ideas. Also, I'm totally open for player input, but I still need to come up with some ideas for different goals, objectives, what's going on, impending dooms, etc.

I'm planning to run a Demon the Descent (new World of Darkness, God Machine) and a Rotted Capes campaign.

 

[Crothian]

I don't know those specific games so I can't speak specifically about them.

In a campaign the first adventure I always plan with little input from the players. I know what their characters are and some info so I tried to make sure the motives for the adventure and themes can match up. I also introduce more NPCs then needed. I see what NPCs and plots associated with them the PCs gravitate towards. I also see in the adventure how the players want to play the style and approach and tailor future adventures dependent on that information.

What do you have? Are characters made? If you can post what you have people might be able to give more specific feedback.

 

[Somebloke]

If you like the free form stuff then I would suggest the Powered by the Apocalypse (Apocalypse Workd, Dungeon World) Front system , hitch is a lot like the 5x5 method you described above. I intend to use it in my Savage Worlds Kerberos campaign, but for a more rules-heavy system it requires a bit of initial work.

 

[amerigoV]

In our Ptolus game (powered by Savage Worlds ) what the GM did was run his stuff for awhile so we both had a feel for our characters and some loose ends. We then made the 5x5 as part forward looking goals of the PCs and part what loose ends do we want to wrap up. It worked out really nice as the group could either pursue their goals or the GM might have one of the loose ends crop up. Very dynamic.

 

[GMMichael]

What do you do when you are creating a campaign (assuming you're not doing some kind of sandbox)?

. . . but it's about organizing your campaign once you have all of your ideas. Also, I'm totally open for player input, but I still need to come up with some ideas for different goals, objectives, what's going on, impending dooms, etc.

What do I do?

1) Pick a genre. While it's not necessary if your plot system is abstract enough, it can help. Or you can pick a movie that you think would make a good game.

2) Pick a villain. Just the cool things about him. Like how he can extract brains through his pinky finger.

3) Get some PC backgrounds. The more you can weave these into your plot, the better.

4) Set your villain loose. What are his goals, and how is he accomplishing them?

5) Add drama and twists. If you can tie your villain's actions to your PCs backgrounds, in unfortunate ways, you'll get drama. If you can lead your PCs down one road, and then reveal the truth (that they're on the road to thwarting your villain's goals), you'll get twists.

That's the nutshell. If you're having trouble coming up with ideas, just pick the last (good) movie you saw, and twist it around until it fits into your desired genre and PC desires. With luck, you'll get credit for inventing the whole thing yourself.

 

[PenBoy99]

Thank you, that makes sense. The great Deadlands plot point campaign I ran was exactly what you describe.

 

[Burning Yeti]

Perhaps not conventional, but I tend to work backwards. I like to envision how the campaign might end (and oftentimes that would be after expected years of play) and then trace a line back to a starting point. What major revelations will the PCs come to on the course to the ultimate end? What kind of PCs will care about this storyline? And once I get to that point, I can start looking at the finer points, and the individual plotlines sort of come together from that.

Of course, what happens once you start... everything gets derailed. The players go in a direction you didn't expect. A key NPC or villain is killed by the players' ingenuity or dumb luck... But that's when things really get fun, and the story starts to tell itself. The main villain has to course correct for the players actions, and since you've already envisioned the ending, you have some idea of what the villain WANTS to happen.

But the most important thing in running any game, regardless of system or genre, is to make sure your players' actions and decisions matters. Once you plan your "ending" you should expect that you'll never actually get there. Don't try to push the players back on track if things take a turn you didn't plan for. Let the game be organic and just go with the flow.

On a more micro level, it helps to plan 3-4 sessions in advance, but then take some time in between each session to re-evaluate in case the course has shifted.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Like [MENTION=6777211]Burning Yeti[/MENTION], I like to work backwards but, I would also add, I really like to find some key pieces of art. The right pictures, for me, can outline a campaign in a way that words cannot... but then the words follow the pictures.

I'm always looking for new art I can use to inspire an encounter, adventure, or campaign and then I basically outline the encounter, adventure, or campaign by what the art inspires. I suppose it's fairly similar to storyboarding.

 

[Gilladian]

I'm gonna talk about my own current campaign, as I'm having some trouble with it, and maybe I'll "see" some things...

I started with a generic 3-4 level adventure for beginning characters. It involved a ruins site, an "archaeological dig" that was a cover for wererats seeking a demonic book, and a small town/large village with leadership "issues".

I knew I wanted a dragon to be the ultimate villain/boss fight for the campaign. I play a version of 3.5e called "epic 6th" or E6, so my PCs always stay low-level. A dragon will be a MAJOR challenge to them. I also want this campaign to last six months or a year at most, so I don't need TOO much material.

So I began my campaign design by outlining a new region of my campaign world, establishing a small barony without a baron, a kingdom that has its own leadership issues, and a twist on my campaign world's common religious structure, just for fun. I put the generic adventure in place, and then found out who the characters were going to be. I used on PC as the meat of the party's involvement - she's a knightly type, from the kingdom that once controlled the barony, and she's there to see what would likely happen if the kingdom sent in a new Baron to rule the region. So she has good reason to ask questions and talk to people.

Other PCs are a wizard who wants power, a bard who is constantly having to leave places when he's in trouble, and a cleric who has a fascination for historical scholarship.

I decided that I needed a REALLY good reason for why the two major changes in the status quo both happened at once - the ruins of the evil temple are being explored, and the kingdom is sending in a new baron both within weeks of each other. So, I wrote into the history of the area that there was a large, powerful fey creature that helped, 100 years ago, destroy the evil temple that is now the ruins. It swore an oath to the King that it would guard the temple site for 100 years - which has just ended. So now I have a fey being that has just been released from a powerful oath, and it is HUNGRY. It isn't evil, precisely, but nor does it care about humans/demi-humans. It wants a place of unspoiled nature to dwell in, and sees the barony as just needing a little cleaning out to be perfect.

The dragon - she lives about 100 miles away right now, but she's about to settle down for a few years and lay her clutch. She wants a nice safe place that humans avoid, but near enough to people to teach her younglings how to hunt in a decade or two. She's picked the temple ruins as the perfect spot. But of course she doesn't want the Barony re-established. So she's gotten a tribe of kobold assassins to work for her, and she'll be trying to interfere with any hints of political stability in the region.

So I now have two major villains, each with a goal of seizing power, who will probably NOT want to work with each other, and a party of PCs. I have were-rats and a small dungeon. But the village is sort of "flat", and my PCs are still not strong enough to really battle were-rats, so I'm trying to add things to form emotional ties to the region, and to bump the PCs up a bit before they end up in a battle vs the weres... not always easy!