How long does it take to generally take to set a campaign up

Shiroiken · Jun 23, 2019

If you are talking about starting up a new campaign world, it can take either a LOT of time, or very little. As a busy DM, you might honestly be best picking up a 5E AP adventure and just running that. If you don't want to do so, you might want to just buy an old copy of one of the existing settings for D&D, but they will require a little updating.

Some DMs (especially old school DMs) tend to create a "top down" approach, where they design the cosmos, deities, and general world history before detailing out the starting location and 1st adventure. This creates some vibrant, detailed settings that are often used for multiple campaigns. The downside to this is that it usually takes months to prepare, depending on how detailed you want to get it. This is probably not a good choice for a family DM, unless you are a player currently and plan to DM the next campaign.

Ed Greenwood suggests using the "bottom up" approach. You detail out the starting location (village/town/city) and 1st adventure first. You only design a half-dozen deities that are worshiped in the area, along with a few power groups (nobles, merchants, thieves' guild, etc.). Give a little thought to the surrounding area, such as topography and potential adventures. Run a couple of adventures in the starting location, while dropping hints about the surrounding areas (from rumors and news from travelers). If the players seem interested, set up an adventure in that area, and start detailing it. The is a much faster method, and can be done in only a week or so, but the downside is that your players can ask for information you don't readily have, requiring you to make it up on the fly (or just admit to the players, and tell them later).

Beleriphon · Jun 23, 2019

Shiroiken said:
Ed Greenwood suggests using the "bottom up" approach. You detail out the starting location (village/town/city) and 1st adventure first. You only design a half-dozen deities that are worshiped in the area, along with a few power groups (nobles, merchants, thieves' guild, etc.). Give a little thought to the surrounding area, such as topography and potential adventures. Run a couple of adventures in the starting location, while dropping hints about the surrounding areas (from rumors and news from travelers). If the players seem interested, set up an adventure in that area, and start detailing it. The is a much faster method, and can be done in only a week or so, but the downside is that your players can ask for information you don't readily have, requiring you to make it up on the fly (or just admit to the players, and tell them later).

This is what I did. Built the city I want to start in, brief over view of the surrounding area, and some local threats and what not.

Li Shenron · Jun 23, 2019

Christopher Bixby said:
My question here is for all the DM's out there that create their campaigns from scratch using the current edition that is available. How long do you usually take to get a campaign ready for your players. my players are rushing me to finish the campaign that i have started and I have not been able to get as far on it as i have wanted to be at his point. I do work 40 hours a week and have children so it is understandable that i haven't been able to get further on the campaign than i have at this point. I want to get a bit further with it but at the same time i need to spend time with my family especially my kids that i only get to see every other weekend. Please all dm's out there with kids in your lives please help me to find a good balance point because one of my players is my wife and she is getting very impatient with all of this.

Mmm... I have the feeling my answer won't easily suit you.

The way I create campaigns nowadays is pretty random. I start from picking the first adventure, and build from there. I have long left behind the idea of top-down world building, although I have done it in 3e and I could just resume one of those few old fantasy worlds of mine if I want.

But now my favourite way of doing is bottom-up, with player characters starting locally and gradually discovering the world, which leaves me no pressure to design anything in advance, and things get picked up and added from the adventures themselves.

Those few lore things that are needed beforehand, such as which deities can the clerics choose, I can still have ready in no time by just picking an existing pantheon, or let the Cleric player choose any deity freely and leaving the rest up in the air.

So really my prep time before a totally new campaign goes into reading or writing the introductory adventure, which is normally a one-shot so it's pretty short, and making a few pregenerated PCs for beginners. I like starting with a one-shot because I always have some at the table who are new to the game, or the edition at least.

It can get harder later, when I decide to run a bigger module that needs to be read fully. I have lots of old adventures still unplayed so I avoid writing long ones myself, but I do normally need to convert them. Peak prep time is always before starting those, but often it is followed by sessions for which I have almost nothing to prep. In fact, most free time between sessions last year instead of "prep" I've spent in "prop", such as designing action/spell cards and building minis and terrain using Lego.

Bobble · Jun 23, 2019

Immortal Sun said:
Maybe it's just me. I tend to have players who like to "go left" at any given opportunity and I like to be prepared for that.

At the rate low level PCs move that should never be a problem for a good DM. As long as you know the area 30 miles around them no problem. 30 miles in typical medieval settings could take days to traverse. ALL kinds of trouble to keep them busy in one session.

Draegn · Jun 23, 2019

Shiroiken said:
If you are talking about starting up a new campaign world, it can take either a LOT of time, or very little. As a busy DM, you might honestly be best picking up a 5E AP adventure and just running that. If you don't want to do so, you might want to just buy an old copy of one of the existing settings for D&D, but they will require a little updating.

Some DMs (especially old school DMs) tend to create a "top down" approach, where they design the cosmos, deities, and general world history before detailing out the starting location and 1st adventure. This creates some vibrant, detailed settings that are often used for multiple campaigns. The downside to this is that it usually takes months to prepare, depending on how detailed you want to get it. This is probably not a good choice for a family DM, unless you are a player currently and plan to DM the next campaign.

Ed Greenwood suggests using the "bottom up" approach. You detail out the starting location (village/town/city) and 1st adventure first. You only design a half-dozen deities that are worshiped in the area, along with a few power groups (nobles, merchants, thieves' guild, etc.). Give a little thought to the surrounding area, such as topography and potential adventures. Run a couple of adventures in the starting location, while dropping hints about the surrounding areas (from rumors and news from travelers). If the players seem interested, set up an adventure in that area, and start detailing it. The is a much faster method, and can be done in only a week or so, but the downside is that your players can ask for information you don't readily have, requiring you to make it up on the fly (or just admit to the players, and tell them later).

I am in the middle of this. For my current campaign I took an old map of Europe. Doggerland, modified it somewhat, Iberia has been lengthened and broken into islands, then chose one area to start in, Luxembourg. This gave the players the world to look at and allowed me to make up rumors and "news".

For Luxembourg I created the main city, smaller towns and villages so there was a map of where to go. I created a few npcs that they would meet inside the "adventurer hall" and created more as needed. I run a sandbox but in the beginning I gave them quests they could choose to go on if they wanted to or not. When they finalized what they wanted their characters to do I designed plots to work towards those goals.

The rest of the middle parts filled themselves in as the players decided to expand upon their environs. For the most part however, my players have stayed within "Luxembourg".

Immortal Sun · Jun 24, 2019

Bobble said:
At the rate low level PCs move that should never be a problem for a good DM. As long as you know the area 30 miles around them no problem. 30 miles in typical medieval settings could take days to traverse. ALL kinds of trouble to keep them busy in one session.

As someone who is not a fan of random encounters, 30 miles through terrain that is not explicitly dangerous is:
DM:"make some survival checks"
Party: *rolls, someone does well/poorly*
DM: Your travel time is increased/decreased by a day.
*repeat until they reach somewhere interesting*

I live in the American Midwest. You could easily travel 30 miles and never encounter another living thing of note. Sure, fantasy world has dragons and wandering monsters, but I really do to try to substitute them for some portion of the existing creature population.

If I include a fight, or a dungeon in an area it's there for a purpose. It's relevant to something in the world. A hint at things to come, a glimpse at things that were. It may not be immediately relevant (leading the party to ignore it due to lack of understanding) meaning they pass it up entirely.

I'd rather skip the "we wander through the hills for a week and fight a bunch of pointless trash" and go to "we wander through the hills for a week and arrive at our goal and get to do interesting stuff this session.

Bobble · Jun 24, 2019

Immortal Sun said:
As someone who is not a fan of random encounters, 30 miles through terrain that is not explicitly dangerous is:
DM:"make some survival checks"
Party: *rolls, someone does well/poorly*
DM: Your travel time is increased/decreased by a day.
*repeat until they reach somewhere interesting*

Try to find someone to give you DMing lessons if that is the limit of your repertoire

hawkeyefan · Jun 24, 2019

[MENTION=6996142]Christopher Bixby[/MENTION]

Jot down the three things you’d like to see come into play for the campaign. These can be a location or an object or a NPC, whatever you think may be interesting. Then, ask your players to do the same.

Take that list, and create a very loose sketch connecting several of the suggestions, but don’t connect them all, save some to be introduced later.

Use that sketch to get things going. Develop the rest through play. If you run into something you’re not sure of, or that hasn’t yet been fleshed out, lean on your players. What do you think they’ll like? Fill things in as you go. Don’t be afraid to use what the players have offered. Don’t be afraid to outright ask them to provide some details.

Before each session, jot down a list of bullet points of what you expect or want to happen, or what you think your players will want. Spend like 15 minutes on it. Maybe add a few possible branches to indicate alternate paths they may take.

I don’t think there’s anything at all wrong with spending hours and hours on this stuff, but I also don’t think it’s necessary for a fun game. I just wanted to offer a slightly different bit of advice. Start with a sketch and then detail things as you go. Involve the players in creating the world as much as possible.

Charlaquin · Jun 24, 2019

Christopher Bixby said:
My question here is for all the DM's out there that create their campaigns from scratch using the current edition that is available. How long do you usually take to get a campaign ready for your players. my players are rushing me to finish the campaign that i have started and I have not been able to get as far on it as i have wanted to be at his point. I do work 40 hours a week and have children so it is understandable that i haven't been able to get further on the campaign than i have at this point. I want to get a bit further with it but at the same time i need to spend time with my family especially my kids that i only get to see every other weekend. Please all dm's out there with kids in your lives please help me to find a good balance point because one of my players is my wife and she is getting very impatient with all of this.

It’s different for everyone, but I find that about one hour of prep work per hour of play time is a good general guideline. If your players are getting impatient, I would remind them that you are volunteering your free time to do eight extra of your free time a week to entertain them for four.

Umbran · Jun 24, 2019

Bobble said:
Try to find someone to give you DMing lessons if that is the limit of your repertoire

Hey, [MENTION=6999006]Bobble[/MENTION], flinging insults may go okay on other platforms, but it isn't acceptable around here. We expect you to treat your fellow posters with a modicum of respect that is missing in this post. Please bring your discourse up a notch or two.

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