Some Thoughts on Campaign Design

[Hussar]

I've been out of the loop of campaign design for a while. Took a break for the last year and a half or so and played a bunch of very short campaigns. More or less really long one shots. However, of late, I find myself getting the itch again to try to come up with something a bit more significant. It's still just kind of wallowing around in the back of my head, and nothing more than that, but, I had a thought that I thought I would share.

When I design adventures, I tend to use modules as a template. Each adventure tends to be more or less self contained. It might link off the adventure before it and preface the adventure ahead, but, by and large, it's a complete unit.

For this next adventure, I'd like to make things run a bit more parallel rather than serial. I want each adventure to be fairly porous with overlap between multiple adventures. It might even be possible to engage more than one adventure at a time without really realizing it.

OTOH, I don't want to go full bore sandbox. Not to my taste. I want more power to control pacing in the campaign than what a sandbox generally allows.

So, I've got this idea. I know what I want, but, I'm not entirely sure how to get there.

Obviously, an easy link is geography. That's a bit of a no-brainer. Several events occur in geographical proximity and the PC's can stumble onto them. But, I find that geography also tends to be very forgettable. It doesn't have enough.... what's the word? .... oomph? impact? resonance? Yeah, that's the word, resonance with the players. Sure, you see the geography, the DM hands you the boxed text description, but, the players don't really interact with geography.

There's also the idea that certain NPC's could be involved in multiple adventures as well. This one, I think, is a better means of linkage. When the players engage a given NPC, that tends to stick out in their minds. Particularly if the NPC is flavourful enough. Sure, Sarah the Bartender is fine, but, if Sarah the Bartender is supplying a backroom hideout for the Purple Mask Gang and also waylaying customers from time to time to sell to slavers, that makes her a bit more of a connection between adventures.

What other things could be used to draw links between adventures? How would you present a sort of "cloud" of adventures, rather than a bunch of soap bubbles?

 

[raindog308]

One way is to have various plot threads going at once. Usually they revolve around different factions competing with each other. Those factions might be NPCs, organizations, races, cities, kingdoms, whatever.

It's helpful to think of the major NPC/orgs/kingdoms in your world and how they compete. Some are allies, some are enemies. Map that out and look for relationships, they ask yourself how things might play out over the next year or two. Give the players leads and introductions to the factions.

Again, I say "faction" but it could be all intrigue within the Mage's Circle, or kingdoms circling for war, or the Secret Order of X vs. the Noble Order of Y, or perhaps thieves, guilds, and the royal family inside a city.

When I was younger, my adventure planning was mostly a series of plot points and if the players deviated too much, I got lost. After playing Vampire: the Masquerade for a while, I realized the value of using coterie charts...and even though I've gone back to my fantasy roots, I still plan out stories that way, because once you understand the major players, their relationship with each other, and how events are likely to unfold over the near/mid-term, you can go as freeform as you like.

BTW, the best campaigns are one in which the players materially alter how things unfold ;-)

 

[Derulbaskul]

(snip) I still plan out stories that way, because once you understand the major players, their relationship with each other, and how events are likely to unfold over the near/mid-term, you can go as freeform as you like. (snip)

This is largely how I do it.

I put some effort into the "factions" and their motivations and goals. Once I have these set in my mind I can pretty much roll with anything the players decide to have their characters do.

It also gives me ideas for the sort of sites and encounters that I need to prepare (and pre-prepared encounters, especially of the "random" sort can buy you just the amount of time you need when the story starts to shift our of your control).

 

[steeldragons]

I would say your original impulse to do it through NPCs would be my first choice. You're absolutely right that the players are more apt to remember and "resonate" with another character than with the geography. This seems to be especially true if they are NPCs the characters LIKE, maybe family members even. Develop some folks that the party REALLY likes interacting with...and kill them. Or have them go missing. Or stricken by some curse. The characters will (or hopefully SHOULD) be up in arms in seconds.

I would also reiterate raindog's suggestion for use of organizations. I have found it very useful to have some background organization, a thieves' guild, an "order of whoozits", "the venerable aristocratic house of so-and-so"...who ever. They could also be an organization the party has used or likes dealing with OR one that has caused some thorns in the party's side...or perhaps the party, unwittingly, is causing a thorn in the organization's side?

Religious organizations are useful for this too. Especially with varying factions within a church or conflicting religions.

With those kinds of "background personalities" whatever the immediate "adventure/mission" is there's always this "back burner" thing going on tying session to session...the sense that "we still have to get (or have not gotten) to this/that." or 'We should go see Wisesageguy. We haven't seen him a while..."

--SD

 

[Lanefan]

I would also reiterate raindog's suggestion for use of organizations. I have found it very useful to have some background organization, a thieves' guild, an "order of whoozits", "the venerable aristocratic house of so-and-so"...who ever. They could also be an organization the party has used or likes dealing with OR one that has caused some thorns in the party's side...or perhaps the party, unwittingly, is causing a thorn in the organization's side?

Religious organizations are useful for this too. Especially with varying factions within a church or conflicting religions.

Good advice.

A further twist can be to have some of these at-face-value-opposed organizations turn out to be in unexpected alliance with each other, for whatever reason. An example in my current campaign: a not-always-ethical spy organization run by a Vampire Lord is in alliance with the main temple of Zeus (LG), mostly because the Vampire Lord and the head of the temple have come to realize that despite their obvious differences in outlook and methodology their goals are in fact almost precisely the same: restoration of the Empire.

My players were pretty shocked when they found out these organizations (they'd dealt with both at various times and had in fact met both leaders) were allied; and I can still mine lots more story out of that vein later if I need to.

Another thing that can contribute hugely to the sense of ongoing and interweaving stories is to - if your time permits - run two or more parties in the same campaign world/area at the same time; and have it that their actions can potentially influence what happens to the others. A rather extreme example: right now I've got one party (A) on hold until another party (B) finishes its current adventure, mostly because the adventure A is trying to get to could be massively altered if not completely destroyed by B in the course of completing their own (unrelated but geographically very close by) adventure; and B got there first. [note that the players are the same, so nobody is missing out on gaming due to this]

This multi-party aspect also allows for characters and-or players to switch parties from time to time, always a simple and easy way to shake things up a bit.

A word of caution, though: you really have to keep careful track of time when doing this, to know who is where when and potentially able to interact with who else. Also, you'll need to keep at least vague track of major events...for example, if party A is in Praetos City on Auril 16 and there's a major storm where the Aphrodite temple gets damaged by a lightning strike, a few real-time months later if party B also happens by Praetos on Auril 16 you don't want to tell them it's a clear sunny day!

Lan-"game logs are your friend"-efan

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

What other things could be used to draw links between adventures? How would you present a sort of "cloud" of adventures, rather than a bunch of soap bubbles?

When I ran my Supers 1900 game, the PCs were all part of an INTERPOL-like organization, so it was easy for me to put out an "in-house newsletter" for the organization that 1) recounted the events of the PCs; 2) gave them updates on the effects their actions had put into motion (IOW, their actions caused ripples in the campaign world); 3) let them know about other events in the world that had come to the organization's attention, and that might pique the PCs' curiosity; and 4) let them get a feel for the speed at which OTHER things happened in the campaign world- IOW, gives them the campaign world's tempo. And I posted this newsletter on the corkboard in our host's game-room, so everyone could read and re-read it at their leisure. (Today, I'd send out an email, or write some kind of blog.)

Essentially, though, it was just a consolidated and physical version of the kind of stuff you'd typically find on a sheet behind the DM's screen to be handed out piecemeal when PCs hit the bars and other locales looking for "rumors" in your average FRPG session.

Rather than do things in the traditional way, though, I found that the newsletter has additional advantages in that it lets players repeatedly mull things over in their minds- much as a PC would do IRL- and maybe float ideas past each other...hopefully in your earshot. This means you'll be able to gauge whether they've read your mind, whether you're going to surprise them, or even whether their ideas are so amazingly awesome that you'd be a fool not to yoink it in favor of what you've already written.

To that end, I'd be tempted to make some kind of document that does what my newsletter did for my Supers 1900 game. I'd justify it as something like a summary of everything that is listed at the town hall's posting pillar, or a transcript of the herald's daily news cries...or even the dawn of an actual news rag for your city.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Metroidvania.

Create an open space, but link that to other open spaces through the use of "locks" that require particular macguffins/plot points/adventures to pass through.

So, the players start off, and they can go anywhere on these three continents, but to get across the Great Sea (where they'll eventually have to go, narratively), there's only one or two ways to do it (and no particular rush to get there).

Impact with the geography doesn't happen a lot in D&D (to my despair), but you can play it up over the course of several adventures that are "local." Say, within those three continents, you've got the Jungle Continent and the Ice Continent and the Generically European Continent. The PC's can go anywhere around, and wherever they go, specific encounters show the local environment (jungles are poison and acid, ice floes are aquatic and have volcanoes and vikings, generic europe has a fallen empire, so lots of undead and ruins).

But, ultimately, the evil empire across the Eastern Sea must be stopped, and to do that, the PC's need a ship to sail on, and to get that ship, there's one adventure that they need to complete at some point. Once they do that, the ship's ready to take them to the next three continents, which involve, I dunno, a Cowboy World and two Mirror Worlds (one of Darkness that is not evil, and one of Light that is not good).

4e actually sets this up in tiers, which is natural to stick to if 4e's what you're using:
1-10 affects the world.
11-20 affects the planes.
20-30 affects all of existence.

I also find it's useful to use a "constantly ticking clock" of sorts, so that you have something planned, for, say, the Level 10 adventure, but it's a specific event you have in mind. That event happens no matter where the PC's are when they hit Level 10, and they have to deal with its fall out no matter what they do in the next 10 levels (or whatever).

A three-act structure works well in this context: set the stage, let them get a feel, then present them with a big problem, ratchet up the tension, force them to make a big choice, and then present the great opposition to their choice, and let them fight it on their terms.

It doesn't matter where they are when the adventure that you've determined will "present them with a big problem" is sprung, whatever they're doing, it becomes the "big problem" in the campaign.

 

[Haltherrion]

One way is to have various plot threads going at once. Usually they revolve around different factions competing with each other. Those factions might be NPCs, organizations, races, cities, kingdoms, whatever.

Loosely coupled plot threads around multiple factions can certainly do the trick. You can do the same within a single faction or even an NPC or two who is a plot nexus.

If you still want to work the over arching scenario concept, construct one with multiple paths that can be resolved in any particular order. Dragon Age did this: player needs to get X allies and each of these might have some sub-plots but the order in which you did them could vary and you could go from one to another without too much trouble.

An NPC that is in the thick of things can generate a number of threads; it's always especially nice for the players if you can make these threads seem disparate but tie them together. So the thief-master who is sending out jobs to different groups, all getting/doing stuff for him for one purpose. The players perhaps start connecting the dots (this can work with the thief master as an ally or as a "foe").

It can be hard to pull of multiple subplots at the same time unless you play a lot, though. Players will start forgetting what's buried deep on the plot stack. That's one reason to make sure they are all tightly linked together, less chance for things to get lost and forgotten.

 

[dvvega]

One thing I did when I first got into "serious" campaign design - used the module connected to next module method in early high school (age 12-15 or so) - was to use TV series as a template. Actually I use this method nowadays depending on the game type still.

For example if you take Buffy Season 1 ... it has an overarching plot - stop the Master, but each episode is self-contained except for the odd double shot. Some episodes lead to more information about the overarching plot, others are self-contained and give out no more information but are a diversion for the Scooby Club.

That became my template for a couple of years. It worked really well, and only forced me to prepare 1 session ahead (as if I was doing the module thing) but had a stronger connection to the "finale".

If you sit down and draw out the linkages between episodes you will see that some are actually preludes to another episode 5 shows away and so forth.

Then if you sit down and draw it out for all the Seasons you will get a strong idea of how a campaign might be developed. The core group drives the show, but really - they're not more than a group of players in a campaign.

Try this method out with various styles of shows - Babylon 5 (space opera), Buffy/Angel, Supernatural and you will find different executions of the concept.

Be aware that there are series like LA Law that have no real overarching plot lines and they resemble the old 1 module at a time method closely.

D

 

[raindog308]

For example if you take Buffy Season 1 ... it has an overarching plot - stop the Master, but each episode is self-contained except for the odd double shot. Some episodes lead to more information about the overarching plot, others are self-contained and give out no more information but are a diversion for the Scooby Club.

That became my template for a couple of years. It worked really well, and only forced me to prepare 1 session ahead (as if I was doing the module thing) but had a stronger connection to the "finale".

If you sit down and draw out the linkages between episodes you will see that some are actually preludes to another episode 5 shows away and so forth.

A similar approach is typical comic book series pacing.

Issue 1: Start plot A
Issue 2: Main story of plot A, start plot B
Issue 3: Plot A finish, main story of plot B
Issue 4: Plot B finish, start plot C

etc., and typically with 3-4 at once. The idea is to always have some storylines starting, some finishing, and some at center front.