DM Dilemma - I Need Help, ENWorld! - *UPDATED* - Putting YOUR ideas to work!

[Rel]

I haven't seen PirateCat chime in here, so I'll repeat one of his campaign structure ideas - narrow/wide/narrow.

He gives the campaign a kick start, then lets the players choose from a wide range of possible adventures, then based on their choices/successes/failures narrows the focus again. Keep repeating that structure over and over until the end of the campaign.

PS

I'm not sure I've seen him cite that as how he structures a campaign (though I'm not saying that he hasn't). But it is definitely how he structures most of his one-shot games.

Basically the idea is that you start off with a scene/encounter to get the ball moving. Frequently this will be a combat encounter.

Then the game opens up. There is typically a clear goal for the characters to pursue. But how the players decide to get there is entirely up to them (although there are probably a few obvious paths and he'll know what lays along them).

Then the game comes to the "exciting conclusion". This will frequently be a big, set piece battle. Often it'll have some sort of prominent defining feature and will almost always have some sort of amazing Big Bad Evil Guy.

I've been fortunate enough to have played in many of PC's games and this structure works really well for the one-shot format. I'd been doing something vaguely similar but I definitely refined my technique after watching him at work.

 

[Gloomshroud]

I'm not sure I've seen him cite that as how he structures a campaign (though I'm not saying that he hasn't). But it is definitely how he structures most of his one-shot games.

Basically the idea is that you start off with a scene/encounter to get the ball moving. Frequently this will be a combat encounter.

Then the game opens up. There is typically a clear goal for the characters to pursue. But how the players decide to get there is entirely up to them (although there are probably a few obvious paths and he'll know what lays along them).

Then the game comes to the "exciting conclusion". This will frequently be a big, set piece battle. Often it'll have some sort of prominent defining feature and will almost always have some sort of amazing Big Bad Evil Guy.

I've been fortunate enough to have played in many of PC's games and this structure works really well for the one-shot format. I'd been doing something vaguely similar but I definitely refined my technique after watching him at work.

Hmm..I don't do many one shots, else this would be an awesome technique. Don't suppose anyone has any clever ideas on adaptations?

 

[Rel]

Hmm..I don't do many one shots, else this would be an awesome technique. Don't suppose anyone has any clever ideas on adaptations?

Well personally I think it can work well for almost any game.

One of the most common difficulties I see new GMs having is getting a handle on pacing. I usually recommend that they run a campaign as a series of one-shot games. Each session has a beginning, a middle and an end. And you want to do your absolute best to get to all three.

That's when narrow-wide-narrow is a great structure. I also think it works particularly well with a lot of non-fantasy genres.

 

[Barastrondo]

Well personally I think it can work well for almost any game.

It also works well with campaign arcs. I've had much success with starting the players in a very particular situation (a horrible murder has just occurred, you've been lowered down a well into an abandoned city, your mercenary company lies dead all around you, etc.). From there, the players explore the situation, their surroundings, and things they like to do, which could go in a variety of directions. Gradually it narrows back down as the PCs get closer to a goal that may have been hinted at that first session (you find the truth behind Headsman's Wood, you make your bid for escape, you have a plan to wipe out the traitor who destroyed your mercenary company).

I'm kind of fond of running games in arcs, so this process works well for me. In D&D, I usually try to get an idea on various things that PCs may do over the course of a five-level block, and set up a potential villain who's doing things in the background that might make a good climactic fight. Then I turn 'em loose. Usually they do as I expect them to: chase side treks some of the time, work against the villain some of the time, and gradually focus in on the end-target.

For another game, I tended to look at it being broken up into "seasons," with season finales where I'd run the really over-the-top adventures. And so on.

 

[Storminator]

Oooohh, I like that. Any chance I could get some links or something. Just a bit more in depth info?

In the 4e forum there's a loooooooong thread on Pcat's current game (worth reading in its entirety) where he mentions it a couple times. He definitely mentions using it for campaigns. I envision developing a narrow opening adventure, a wide selection of spinoffs that might result (letting the PCs pick which to pursue) and resolving that down into a narrow conclusion, all spanning 4 or 5 levels. Then it opens up again.

Perhaps he'll chime in and do this concept justice.

PS

 

[Doug McCrae]

I think narrow-wide-narrow is also the most appropriate structure for campaigns.

GM writes an adventure or two to start off. PCs pretty much have to accept those adventures. The players don't know much about the setting anyway so what other options do they have? Then as the game progresses, more hooks show up and are accepted/ignored, the world becomes a bigger place, options are explored. Towards the end the BBEG and/or macguffin has become apparent, the PCs become set on a particular course - kill Orcus, put together the Macguffin of Many Parts or whatever. Their personalities have become clearer. Someone or someones will have, by this stage, really ticked them off. So the ending becomes clear and the campaign gets more linear again.

 

[Doug McCrae]

I used to be a good one-shot GM, ten years ago, but my style seems to have changed. Recently I've been getting very sandbox-y. My most recent session was supposed to be a oneoff but it just morphed into a sandbox-y campaign.

Partly it's because D&D encourages this with its Monster Manual. I either run D&D or superhero and they are quite different in terms of the amount of opposition available in the world. In a superhero game there just isn't that much opposition out there that can challenge the PCs. In D&D you have books and books full of weird, dangerous freaks. Step outside your front door and you're rolling on a random encounter table. D&D worlds are deeply weird, monster-laden places, where adventure is to be found all over the place. In fact you don't really need to write adventures for D&D. Map, monsters, reason to kill em, treasure - that's all you need.

Books full of monsters, an area map, an idea about which monsters are found where, a few colorful NPCs, and a list of good, evocative names. That is literally all you need for a campaign.

So the fact that I'm running D&D now is part of the reason for the change. I've always liked having a fairly large amount of setting material prepped before I start. Even for a oneoff, I've always liked to have an idea of the universe it's set in, what bad guys are out there, even if they don't appear in the session.

Superheroes are much more forced though, they can't be leisurely about who they whack. Bad guy is trashing Manhattan, you have to go stop him now. No sandbox. But with D&D you've got all these monsters holed up in their holes, wandering their appropriate territories - elves, unicorns and dryads in the forest; wolves, goblins and ogres in the hills and so forth. The players can look at the map and choose where to go, mostly monsters aren't causing immediate harm the way they do in superhero.

 

[Gloomshroud]

I used to be a good one-shot GM, ten years ago, but my style seems to have changed. Recently I've been getting very sandbox-y. My most recent session was supposed to be a oneoff but it just morphed into a sandbox-y campaign.

Partly it's because D&D encourages this with its Monster Manual. I either run D&D or superhero and they are quite different in terms of the amount of opposition available in the world. In a superhero game there just isn't that much opposition out there that can challenge the PCs. In D&D you have books and books full of weird, dangerous freaks. Step outside your front door and you're rolling on a random encounter table. D&D worlds are deeply weird, monster-laden places, where adventure is to be found all over the place. In fact you don't really need to write adventures for D&D. Map, monsters, reason to kill em, treasure - that's all you need.

Books full of monsters, an area map, an idea about which monsters are found where, a few colorful NPCs, and a list of good, evocative names. That is literally all you need for a campaign.

So the fact that I'm running D&D now is part of the reason for the change. I've always liked having a fairly large amount of setting material prepped before I start. Even for a oneoff, I've always liked to have an idea of the universe it's set in, what bad guys are out there, even if they don't appear in the session.

Superheroes are much more forced though, they can't be leisurely about who they whack. Bad guy is trashing Manhattan, you have to go stop him now. No sandbox. But with D&D you've got all these monsters holed up in their holes, wandering their appropriate territories - elves, unicorns and dryads in the forest; wolves, goblins and ogres in the hills and so forth. The players can look at the map and choose where to go, mostly monsters aren't causing immediate harm the way they do in superhero.

Thank you for your input! Most helpful!

 

[Vanifae]

First off excellent thread, I really like seeing how people doing things kudos to everyone that has participated. Second, Gloomshroud congratulations on your test session I am glad you found stuff that works. I may be late to the party but I feel like contributing anyway.

Initial Brainstorming

This phase usually begins with watching a show, reading my books, or just driving around. It can hit anywhere and I usually just start collecting ideas. Once I get a general theme going I start writing them down in a stream of conscious kind of way, often to paper and then to Word. That is all the tech I use, for the most part I like to keep it simple. This phase especially for new campaigns is also usually filled with a short session of writing down the big ideas of the setting I want in my game nothing usually campaign specific more big picture and setting just so I have the mindset down.

Below is a brief snippet of my initial planning process. I am currently building a Dark Sun game and this is how I am approaching it. I used this same process for a Legend of the Five Rings game I am also running and I quite enjoyed.

[sblock]
• Psychic power is everywhere; the Way affects all walks of lives. Every player will have some kind of minor wild psychic power to emphasize this element. Many enemies and NPCs will utilize psychic powers in lieu of other abilities or weapons.
• Mutant sun-touched creatures haunt the wastelands, and defiling magic creates horrors bent on destruction. Elementally tainted creatures rise from the distant corners of the known world and spread terror in their wake.
• Moral ambiguity, everyone has something to gain and hide; good and evil are usually relative even in the case of the tyrannical Sorcerer-Kings; they hold society together and impose order where lawlessness and chaos would reign. To challenge them and other organizations is to challenge the current order, who can say what comes next will be better then what has come before.
• Corruption is rampant and the powers that be want to remain in power and influential. Merchant houses seek to exploit others for profit, templars want to consolidate and expand their power, and sorcerer-kings want to remain at the apex of the political ladder. Everyone has a vested interest from the lowliest slave to the mightiest defiler lord.
• Savage world with weapons and armor made from any material that is available, people have a patchwork feel to their clothing and only the wealthy have fine garments that seem tailor made for a setting. Most just get by on what they have. Bone daggers, obsidian swords, chitin based armor plating, and the like. It has a feel of the savage and the genteel in the same setting where savage heroes may come face to face with more refined nobility for a common purpose.
• Channel Conan, Spartacus, and Xena in the same breath with an action packed atmosphere and danger around every dune. Fantastic adventure awaits those brave enough to challenge the wastelands with untold plunder and wealth or a swift and brutal death. Heroes are born of blood and determination, sacrifice and violence are common. Altruism is all but gone but those that cling to higher morals do exist and they find the challenge all the more daunting in this forsaken land.
• Water is precious and often worth more than gold or silver. Water is a precious commodity that only fools squander akin to Dune it is revered and to waste water is a foolish gesture indeed. Pure clean water is a rarity in the wilds and even the city-states but it keeps the living alive.
[/sblock]

Campaign Specific Brainstorming

This point I have generated a bunch of notes on the tone I want to bring to the game major elements that I think will be important and so now I can focus on the particular story. I like planning, I like having tons of notes, and then winging the rest. I tend toward the railroad I suppose but writ large, I give choice but I also give guidance. I have no illusions that my campaign arc will stay exactly as written in fact I fully expect it to go off in directions I had not expected but having a goal in mind allows me to channel my energies. Even if I change my focus I don’t have to invalidate all my planning I just shift them to what makes more sense in the context of the campaign.

At this point I start putting my pieces together in broad strokes I might start mentioning any characters I feel might be important but it’s still vague it’s a plan at this point. Perhaps a skeleton to work from one that I can flesh out as the process grows.

[sblock]
• Characters start as marked sacrifices for the Dragon tithe; even if they come from noble backgrounds somehow they have fallen on these hard times due to circumstances that forced them into this predicament. Not just slaves but dissidents, rebels, and individuals that have run afoul of the authorities.
• PCs begin the story in chains being taken to the Altar of the Dragon, or a similar site deep in the wastelands away from the city-state, the players happen to be chained all together before some event transpires that gives them their freedom while their captors are slaughtered.
• Perhaps the Dragon arrives and wreaks havoc, giving the players a chance to see something that few ever get a chance to see. In the midst of the chaos they have to fight for their freedom, maybe killing a poor templar in way over his head and minions that stand between them and freedom or at least being slaughtered. The Dragon forms the backdrop of the scene while they fight.
• Once the Dragon has had his fill it leaves as the PCs take cover and can pick over the remains to gear themselves out with equipment short of survival days the true test can begin as they must survive the wastelands and seek out a village that is about two to three days away on foot. A hidden village they hear about via either a map or word of mouth from a dying slave or templar.
• Heroic tier will focus on their survival and rise as heroes of the wastes perhaps first focusing on this village and then branching out to forming a resistance against a sorcerer-king and his minions perhaps culminating in some major victory against the tyrannical defiler lords. Perhaps even being instrumental in the freedom of Tyr?
• Paragon tier focuses on the fallout of this victory as word spreads of their triumph. The PCs are positioned as important individuals, movers and shakers, and people of gravity and consequence. Who can they trust? What will they do? How will they defend their newfound freedom? What will they do when they discover there may be some greater threat than just the Dragon and the sorcerer-kings?
• Epic tier would focus on the end-game; the characters are truly powerful individuals who will shape the future of Athas in blood. What will they do with this power? Will they damn the world to some greater evil, compromise their morals for the greater good, or seek an as yet unknown path to glory?[/sblock]

Campaign Mapping Phase

This is something I do based on the whole tier design of D&D, for now I only have the Heroic tier mapped out with the Paragon and Epic tiers fairly loose I can tighten those up as the campaign actually gets underway. At this point I just need to know the general flow of those tiers and what I want to cover, if we get there or close to there I can do a more formal process to what I am doing for the heroic tier. At this point I won’t name any names but I will mention important groups, characters, or monsters/challenges I want to involve to give me a roadmap of where I want to go and what I will need to do to get there.

Below is my initial plot seed for this campaign, I shamelessly stole from another poster and then after that is a more formal look after I had time to write up the details I wanted to really focus on. This was my response to their initial plot idea for an adventure that got me thinking about my own game. Inspiration strikes at weird times.
[sblock]I would handle this adventure this way to avoid the on rails issue. One is that I would just tell them any relevant information they should know with the opening monologue. If there is a water shortage tell them and make sure they know how desperate things are from the start. Emphasize the harshness of the environment and the brutality of these slavers with other slaves. Maybe even note that they have felt the harsh lash on occasion if for nothing else to maintain the show of dominance over the slaves.
Then hit them with the elf bandit attack, but make it a desperate struggle that soon turns against the slavers and the players are set free and can grab weapons to defend themselves. Make it a fight they can win, even if it is a short term victory; give them a sense of taking their lives in their own hands. Now I am not sure if the old adventure relied on them getting captured a second time but at this point I would deviate and have the elves leave with what slaves they can carry, goods, and plunder. The only standing survivors being the PCs who can take some time to outfit themselves as is normal for 1st level characters except for survival days.

Have them find a map, maybe on a dying slaver who curses his luck to give them a role playing opportunity. Do they kill this slaver o they spare his life, do they leave him for carrion beasts and just move on? From this point I would run a skill challenge punctuated by combat encounters for failures and the threat of sun sickness, not too much but definitely push them within an inch of their lives before they find the village.
Once at the village they have to prove themselves trustworthy or at least useful again a skill challenge can cover this as well. If they succeed they can resupply and maybe even use the village as a safe point and then decide on their next course of action. They could be given a task one made easier if they succeed the skill challenge to gain the village trust, but a combat encounter nonetheless of some type. This should be a climactic battle, maybe it seems easy at first and then slavers burst on the scene intent on recapturing the heroes. If they let that slaver go from earlier he/she could be leading them in the assault. Athas is a harsh place and people are just as harsh as the landscape.

If victory is had they can return to the village assured of their place amidst their new peers and can begin their true destiny in earnest. Again you can splice in some skill challenges of survival if you so choose. This is how I would do my introduction adventure based on your earlier design.[/sblock]

That was the initial seed and this is how I fleshed this out into something more formal:

[sblock]Fall of a Sorcerer-King Heroic Tier Outline

Levels 1 – 2: The PCs begin the campaign in chains, marked with tattoos/brands as sacrifices for the Dragon of Tyr they are being marched out to a place of sacrifice as a levy for the brutal defiler beast. Something goes wrong though and a great battle ensues allowing the party to break their bonds get some simple weapons, daggers/clubs perhaps a makeshift shield from their now dead guards and fight for their freedom. The Dragon provides a backdrop for the encounter with constant defiling pulses that sap at their strength, mixed with the defiling power in the region forever marks the PCs with boons, treasure reward.

Once the fighting ends the PCs can fully outfit themselves with whatever gear they can find, suitable items dependent on their classes will be available nothing of masterwork quality obviously. One of the sacrifices is still breathing though dying and gives them a map to a hidden village of freed slaves begging, possible quest as well. The PCs now have a path and a place if they can survive the wastes without any survival days and the items they have on their backs, weapons, armor, and little else. This will be a group skill challenge of survival, each failure punctuating a day and a chance at sun sickness. Halfway through the skill challenge they find a small oasis, but have to challenge whatever occupants currently hold it for water. This phase ends when the PCs arrive at the village, which should hopefully put them at level 2 by the conclusion.

Levels 2 – 5: The village is not welcoming of strangers especially armed folks that just stumble out of the wastes. The PCs will need to engage in a skill challenge/role playing to earn the trust of the village, if they fail they will be given meager provisions at a price, they probably cannot afford, and sent on their way. If they succeed they are allowed to stay in the village but must prove their usefulness. Assuming they decide to use the village as a temporary base of operations they are given a task, given their armed and capable nature, to hunt down a predator/bandit group/monster for the good of the village.

This task is a test to see if the newcomers are as capable as they appear and if they succeed and seem amenable they will be asked to join a growing resistance to the sorcerer-king and his/her minions. This test should culminate with them reaching level 3, hopefully the fact that they were about to be sacrificed to the Dragon as a levy on behalf of the defiler lord should give them some incentive for payback. Once they are recruited the PCs should stumble upon news that a powerful relic that could aid in the defeat of their enemy may be stored in a hidden vault guarded by undead creatures and demon guardians. The search, investigation and retrieval of this relic should end with them reaching 5th level or so. A twist is that there is a spy in the village feeding information to their enemies, something they discover in their search for the relic.

Levels 5 – 8: The stage is starting to open up for the PCs, there is treachery afoot and their resistance and village will come under siege from the forces of their enemy. But they have the relic now and possibly a chance to win, even if that chance is slim. The campaign will branch out from here taking them across the wastelands to the city-state facing danger across the way and defeating minions of the sorcerer-king. They have become important people in the resistance and their names resonate with those that yearn for revolution. This section should end with the PCs reaching the city-state from whence they originally came, a chance to tie up loose ends, settle old scores, and assist the resistance directly. Their arrival should bring them close to 6th level or so.

The urban environment will be a new one for the players to contend with, they will need to use subtlety and guile as well as their combat prowess to face their enemies. They may have to deal with nobility in social settings; strike deals with less than trustworthy templars, and make sure the resistance stays true to their goal. The end of this arc should end with a daring raid on a powerful sorcerer-king servant to gain information that will prove crucial to the plans of the resistance. The defiler templar is also a competent demonologist as well.

Levels 8 – 11: The final pieces of this heroic tier arc are coming together armed with the information and possibly new, if dangerous, allies the PCs and the resistance can put their plan into motion. Armed with the relic and the information they learn that they need one final piece to create a weapon that should greatly weaken their enemy and allow them a chance to deliver a mortal blow. The final piece exists in a ruin high up in the Ringing Mountains and will require a dangerous journey to acquire it. The PCs will have to contend with ravenous halfling tribes, a strange forested environment that is still quite deadly, and ancient horrors that haunt the ruined structure.

All the while they are being hunted a group of defiler assassins sent by their enemy to silence them and destroy the resistance for good. It is within the walls of the ruin that they learn some of the secrets of Athas and that some greater evil threatens their world that the Dragon and the slave levies are tied to. The ruin is filled with guardians and twisted aberration horrors that used to be halflings. This sojourn should end with them just about or at level 10, assuming they find the relic and return back to the city-state for the final showdown.

The capstone of this tier would be the assassination attempt on the sorcerer-king using the completed weapon. The sorcerer-king, far too arrogant to heed the warnings of his underlings is going to hold a grand melee that will have the arena sands drenched in blood to honor the opening of his final great work. The PCs will be placed in the role of the grand finale, the final spectacle of the games, after a week of bloodshed. They will face some horrible creature, a solo encounter, and then if they succeed the sorcerer-king will personally reward them which is their moment to strike with the weapon. He will flee and their allies will aid them in following amidst the chaos to finish him once and for all. Normally he would be too much a match for them but in his weakened state due to the weapon which is now all but useless they could win. What follows is skill challenges, traps, and a final bloody encounter with a level 12-13 solo and the fate of the city-state in their hands.[/sblock]

Now this may seem kind of plan heavy but I do this because even I go off the rails I still have ideas I can pull from and incorporate into the story. I have power groups I can flesh out and characters that I can drop in for later. Also if I feel that the players may go a different way I have enough information to figure out a way to get them back on track if need be without being hopefully too forceful. One important caveat I should mention is that at this point I would start plotting out the first adventure and tied to that I would go to my players and have them come up with at least one hook to tie them to the setting beyond the brands they will all receive at the beginning. This way if I need a hook to pull them back into the main plot I can tug on this as a carrot using a Minor or Major quest to get them interested in what I want to focus on.

I love quests, they really are nice motivators for the characters and I would probably abuse them as needed to keep their interest and focused on the story. Sure it’s a railroad but the players would have the agency and hopefully motivation to see it through. I hope this helps.

 

[Gloomshroud]

First off excellent thread, I really like seeing how people doing things kudos to everyone that has participated. Second, Gloomshroud congratulations on your test session I am glad you found stuff that works. I may be late to the party but I feel like contributing anyway.

Initial Brainstorming

This phase usually begins with watching a show, reading my books, or just driving around. It can hit anywhere and I usually just start collecting ideas. Once I get a general theme going I start writing them down in a stream of conscious kind of way, often to paper and then to Word. That is all the tech I use, for the most part I like to keep it simple. This phase especially for new campaigns is also usually filled with a short session of writing down the big ideas of the setting I want in my game nothing usually campaign specific more big picture and setting just so I have the mindset down.

Below is a brief snippet of my initial planning process. I am currently building a Dark Sun game and this is how I am approaching it. I used this same process for a Legend of the Five Rings game I am also running and I quite enjoyed.

[sblock]
• Psychic power is everywhere; the Way affects all walks of lives. Every player will have some kind of minor wild psychic power to emphasize this element. Many enemies and NPCs will utilize psychic powers in lieu of other abilities or weapons.
• Mutant sun-touched creatures haunt the wastelands, and defiling magic creates horrors bent on destruction. Elementally tainted creatures rise from the distant corners of the known world and spread terror in their wake.
• Moral ambiguity, everyone has something to gain and hide; good and evil are usually relative even in the case of the tyrannical Sorcerer-Kings; they hold society together and impose order where lawlessness and chaos would reign. To challenge them and other organizations is to challenge the current order, who can say what comes next will be better then what has come before.
• Corruption is rampant and the powers that be want to remain in power and influential. Merchant houses seek to exploit others for profit, templars want to consolidate and expand their power, and sorcerer-kings want to remain at the apex of the political ladder. Everyone has a vested interest from the lowliest slave to the mightiest defiler lord.
• Savage world with weapons and armor made from any material that is available, people have a patchwork feel to their clothing and only the wealthy have fine garments that seem tailor made for a setting. Most just get by on what they have. Bone daggers, obsidian swords, chitin based armor plating, and the like. It has a feel of the savage and the genteel in the same setting where savage heroes may come face to face with more refined nobility for a common purpose.
• Channel Conan, Spartacus, and Xena in the same breath with an action packed atmosphere and danger around every dune. Fantastic adventure awaits those brave enough to challenge the wastelands with untold plunder and wealth or a swift and brutal death. Heroes are born of blood and determination, sacrifice and violence are common. Altruism is all but gone but those that cling to higher morals do exist and they find the challenge all the more daunting in this forsaken land.
• Water is precious and often worth more than gold or silver. Water is a precious commodity that only fools squander akin to Dune it is revered and to waste water is a foolish gesture indeed. Pure clean water is a rarity in the wilds and even the city-states but it keeps the living alive.
[/sblock]

Campaign Specific Brainstorming

This point I have generated a bunch of notes on the tone I want to bring to the game major elements that I think will be important and so now I can focus on the particular story. I like planning, I like having tons of notes, and then winging the rest. I tend toward the railroad I suppose but writ large, I give choice but I also give guidance. I have no illusions that my campaign arc will stay exactly as written in fact I fully expect it to go off in directions I had not expected but having a goal in mind allows me to channel my energies. Even if I change my focus I don’t have to invalidate all my planning I just shift them to what makes more sense in the context of the campaign.

At this point I start putting my pieces together in broad strokes I might start mentioning any characters I feel might be important but it’s still vague it’s a plan at this point. Perhaps a skeleton to work from one that I can flesh out as the process grows.

[sblock]
• Characters start as marked sacrifices for the Dragon tithe; even if they come from noble backgrounds somehow they have fallen on these hard times due to circumstances that forced them into this predicament. Not just slaves but dissidents, rebels, and individuals that have run afoul of the authorities.
• PCs begin the story in chains being taken to the Altar of the Dragon, or a similar site deep in the wastelands away from the city-state, the players happen to be chained all together before some event transpires that gives them their freedom while their captors are slaughtered.
• Perhaps the Dragon arrives and wreaks havoc, giving the players a chance to see something that few ever get a chance to see. In the midst of the chaos they have to fight for their freedom, maybe killing a poor templar in way over his head and minions that stand between them and freedom or at least being slaughtered. The Dragon forms the backdrop of the scene while they fight.
• Once the Dragon has had his fill it leaves as the PCs take cover and can pick over the remains to gear themselves out with equipment short of survival days the true test can begin as they must survive the wastelands and seek out a village that is about two to three days away on foot. A hidden village they hear about via either a map or word of mouth from a dying slave or templar.
• Heroic tier will focus on their survival and rise as heroes of the wastes perhaps first focusing on this village and then branching out to forming a resistance against a sorcerer-king and his minions perhaps culminating in some major victory against the tyrannical defiler lords. Perhaps even being instrumental in the freedom of Tyr?
• Paragon tier focuses on the fallout of this victory as word spreads of their triumph. The PCs are positioned as important individuals, movers and shakers, and people of gravity and consequence. Who can they trust? What will they do? How will they defend their newfound freedom? What will they do when they discover there may be some greater threat than just the Dragon and the sorcerer-kings?
• Epic tier would focus on the end-game; the characters are truly powerful individuals who will shape the future of Athas in blood. What will they do with this power? Will they damn the world to some greater evil, compromise their morals for the greater good, or seek an as yet unknown path to glory?[/sblock]

Campaign Mapping Phase

This is something I do based on the whole tier design of D&D, for now I only have the Heroic tier mapped out with the Paragon and Epic tiers fairly loose I can tighten those up as the campaign actually gets underway. At this point I just need to know the general flow of those tiers and what I want to cover, if we get there or close to there I can do a more formal process to what I am doing for the heroic tier. At this point I won’t name any names but I will mention important groups, characters, or monsters/challenges I want to involve to give me a roadmap of where I want to go and what I will need to do to get there.

Below is my initial plot seed for this campaign, I shamelessly stole from another poster and then after that is a more formal look after I had time to write up the details I wanted to really focus on. This was my response to their initial plot idea for an adventure that got me thinking about my own game. Inspiration strikes at weird times.
[sblock]I would handle this adventure this way to avoid the on rails issue. One is that I would just tell them any relevant information they should know with the opening monologue. If there is a water shortage tell them and make sure they know how desperate things are from the start. Emphasize the harshness of the environment and the brutality of these slavers with other slaves. Maybe even note that they have felt the harsh lash on occasion if for nothing else to maintain the show of dominance over the slaves.
Then hit them with the elf bandit attack, but make it a desperate struggle that soon turns against the slavers and the players are set free and can grab weapons to defend themselves. Make it a fight they can win, even if it is a short term victory; give them a sense of taking their lives in their own hands. Now I am not sure if the old adventure relied on them getting captured a second time but at this point I would deviate and have the elves leave with what slaves they can carry, goods, and plunder. The only standing survivors being the PCs who can take some time to outfit themselves as is normal for 1st level characters except for survival days.

Have them find a map, maybe on a dying slaver who curses his luck to give them a role playing opportunity. Do they kill this slaver o they spare his life, do they leave him for carrion beasts and just move on? From this point I would run a skill challenge punctuated by combat encounters for failures and the threat of sun sickness, not too much but definitely push them within an inch of their lives before they find the village.
Once at the village they have to prove themselves trustworthy or at least useful again a skill challenge can cover this as well. If they succeed they can resupply and maybe even use the village as a safe point and then decide on their next course of action. They could be given a task one made easier if they succeed the skill challenge to gain the village trust, but a combat encounter nonetheless of some type. This should be a climactic battle, maybe it seems easy at first and then slavers burst on the scene intent on recapturing the heroes. If they let that slaver go from earlier he/she could be leading them in the assault. Athas is a harsh place and people are just as harsh as the landscape.

If victory is had they can return to the village assured of their place amidst their new peers and can begin their true destiny in earnest. Again you can splice in some skill challenges of survival if you so choose. This is how I would do my introduction adventure based on your earlier design.[/sblock]

That was the initial seed and this is how I fleshed this out into something more formal:

[sblock]Fall of a Sorcerer-King Heroic Tier Outline

Levels 1 – 2: The PCs begin the campaign in chains, marked with tattoos/brands as sacrifices for the Dragon of Tyr they are being marched out to a place of sacrifice as a levy for the brutal defiler beast. Something goes wrong though and a great battle ensues allowing the party to break their bonds get some simple weapons, daggers/clubs perhaps a makeshift shield from their now dead guards and fight for their freedom. The Dragon provides a backdrop for the encounter with constant defiling pulses that sap at their strength, mixed with the defiling power in the region forever marks the PCs with boons, treasure reward.

Once the fighting ends the PCs can fully outfit themselves with whatever gear they can find, suitable items dependent on their classes will be available nothing of masterwork quality obviously. One of the sacrifices is still breathing though dying and gives them a map to a hidden village of freed slaves begging, possible quest as well. The PCs now have a path and a place if they can survive the wastes without any survival days and the items they have on their backs, weapons, armor, and little else. This will be a group skill challenge of survival, each failure punctuating a day and a chance at sun sickness. Halfway through the skill challenge they find a small oasis, but have to challenge whatever occupants currently hold it for water. This phase ends when the PCs arrive at the village, which should hopefully put them at level 2 by the conclusion.

Levels 2 – 5: The village is not welcoming of strangers especially armed folks that just stumble out of the wastes. The PCs will need to engage in a skill challenge/role playing to earn the trust of the village, if they fail they will be given meager provisions at a price, they probably cannot afford, and sent on their way. If they succeed they are allowed to stay in the village but must prove their usefulness. Assuming they decide to use the village as a temporary base of operations they are given a task, given their armed and capable nature, to hunt down a predator/bandit group/monster for the good of the village.

This task is a test to see if the newcomers are as capable as they appear and if they succeed and seem amenable they will be asked to join a growing resistance to the sorcerer-king and his/her minions. This test should culminate with them reaching level 3, hopefully the fact that they were about to be sacrificed to the Dragon as a levy on behalf of the defiler lord should give them some incentive for payback. Once they are recruited the PCs should stumble upon news that a powerful relic that could aid in the defeat of their enemy may be stored in a hidden vault guarded by undead creatures and demon guardians. The search, investigation and retrieval of this relic should end with them reaching 5th level or so. A twist is that there is a spy in the village feeding information to their enemies, something they discover in their search for the relic.

Levels 5 – 8: The stage is starting to open up for the PCs, there is treachery afoot and their resistance and village will come under siege from the forces of their enemy. But they have the relic now and possibly a chance to win, even if that chance is slim. The campaign will branch out from here taking them across the wastelands to the city-state facing danger across the way and defeating minions of the sorcerer-king. They have become important people in the resistance and their names resonate with those that yearn for revolution. This section should end with the PCs reaching the city-state from whence they originally came, a chance to tie up loose ends, settle old scores, and assist the resistance directly. Their arrival should bring them close to 6th level or so.

The urban environment will be a new one for the players to contend with, they will need to use subtlety and guile as well as their combat prowess to face their enemies. They may have to deal with nobility in social settings; strike deals with less than trustworthy templars, and make sure the resistance stays true to their goal. The end of this arc should end with a daring raid on a powerful sorcerer-king servant to gain information that will prove crucial to the plans of the resistance. The defiler templar is also a competent demonologist as well.

Levels 8 – 11: The final pieces of this heroic tier arc are coming together armed with the information and possibly new, if dangerous, allies the PCs and the resistance can put their plan into motion. Armed with the relic and the information they learn that they need one final piece to create a weapon that should greatly weaken their enemy and allow them a chance to deliver a mortal blow. The final piece exists in a ruin high up in the Ringing Mountains and will require a dangerous journey to acquire it. The PCs will have to contend with ravenous halfling tribes, a strange forested environment that is still quite deadly, and ancient horrors that haunt the ruined structure.

All the while they are being hunted a group of defiler assassins sent by their enemy to silence them and destroy the resistance for good. It is within the walls of the ruin that they learn some of the secrets of Athas and that some greater evil threatens their world that the Dragon and the slave levies are tied to. The ruin is filled with guardians and twisted aberration horrors that used to be halflings. This sojourn should end with them just about or at level 10, assuming they find the relic and return back to the city-state for the final showdown.

The capstone of this tier would be the assassination attempt on the sorcerer-king using the completed weapon. The sorcerer-king, far too arrogant to heed the warnings of his underlings is going to hold a grand melee that will have the arena sands drenched in blood to honor the opening of his final great work. The PCs will be placed in the role of the grand finale, the final spectacle of the games, after a week of bloodshed. They will face some horrible creature, a solo encounter, and then if they succeed the sorcerer-king will personally reward them which is their moment to strike with the weapon. He will flee and their allies will aid them in following amidst the chaos to finish him once and for all. Normally he would be too much a match for them but in his weakened state due to the weapon which is now all but useless they could win. What follows is skill challenges, traps, and a final bloody encounter with a level 12-13 solo and the fate of the city-state in their hands.[/sblock]

Now this may seem kind of plan heavy but I do this because even I go off the rails I still have ideas I can pull from and incorporate into the story. I have power groups I can flesh out and characters that I can drop in for later. Also if I feel that the players may go a different way I have enough information to figure out a way to get them back on track if need be without being hopefully too forceful. One important caveat I should mention is that at this point I would start plotting out the first adventure and tied to that I would go to my players and have them come up with at least one hook to tie them to the setting beyond the brands they will all receive at the beginning. This way if I need a hook to pull them back into the main plot I can tug on this as a carrot using a Minor or Major quest to get them interested in what I want to focus on.

I love quests, they really are nice motivators for the characters and I would probably abuse them as needed to keep their interest and focused on the story. Sure it’s a railroad but the players would have the agency and hopefully motivation to see it through. I hope this helps.

I absolutely LOVE this. I do not mean to sound conceited or trite, but this is EXACTLY the same process that I used, incorporating the ideas garnered from this discussion. That is most uncanny!

However, I am REALLY trying to employ those narrative ploys talked about so much here (see the post about Kill the Cutie, Big Deal, etc). These things breed plot twists, which I'm not too good at. I see you've got it down tho. Love the material! Keep on posting, friend. I'd like to see what else you come up with.