payn
Glory to Marik
Greetings,
Well you may be asking yourself, “What is this Player’s Guide thing Payn won’t shut up about?” Suppose its time I answered fully, and gleefully, as I find the Player’s campaign guide to be one of the best TTRPG campaign innovations in the last 20 years. By campaign, I mean a planned set of adventures in a setting with a direct or indirect plot. Throughout this posting, I’ll use both linear and non-linear campaign examples. If you are starting to think that you are a master home brewer, and published adventure writers can go eat donkey goobers, please stick around because making content is something that should interest you anyways.
Disclaimer; I use a lot of Paizo examples because they have been doing it well for a long time now. WOTC/EN Publishing/Etc... may or may not even do these. If they do, and you like them, please post about it!
The Skinny (TL;DR):
A Player’s Campaign Guide is a short supplement that gives the players advice on good/bad mechanical choices that will best suit the campaign. It also gives the players some background information on the setting to whet their imagination’s appetite. Finally, the player’s guide acts as a teaser trailer to muster up interest and excitement for the upcoming game! Publishers and GMs can really step up their game by enticing the players with material that doesn’t spoil the campaign itself.
The Examples:
If you don’t do published campaigns, or never played any of Paizo’s adventures, you may be curious what a Player’s Guide might look like. Below are links to several free PDFs of high quality Paizo creations. I say “high quality” as in production and value, these guides can and do have issues at times, which I will cover next.
Linear PGs;
Curse of the Crimson Throne (an urban adventure campaign)
Jade Regent (West travels East adventure with supplemental wagon traveling rules)
Iron Gods (Sword and Sorcery meets sci-fi)
Non-linear PGs:
Kingmaker (Tame the wildlands and build a kingdom)
Pirates of Drinax (Space Empire building game in The Traveller universe. Cant link to it because it’s mixed with GM material, but will talk about it coming up)
The content:
TTRPG campaigns obviously have GM material. Plot, setting, exploration, all the good stuff RPGs are made of. Over time, they started to feature additional player material that a GM can distribute if they would like. We already covered the bases, but for a refresher, this material is character mechanical options, setting info, and non-spoiler campaign teasers. PCGs focus on player centered material.
Mechanical character features come in a wide variety. There may be traits such as, member of a secret cult, student of a particular school, or friend/colleague/rival of an NPC. These story bits marry the mechanics to the character and campaign. They give advice on race/class/etc distinctions that are well suited to the campaign. They also advise on avoiding poorly thought out characters like a Druid with a Shark companion in a desert based campaign.
Player Campaign Guides also add the opportunity to highlight a new race and/or species to the game. For example, Iron Gods adds Android as a playable race to the campaign. There are stats, mechanics, and a little flavor to help guide players into the experience. Pirates of Drinax has an entire section dedicated to buffing the flavor of a species named Aslan. Career paths, cultural distinctions, etc... are provided to help players bring these new offerings to life.
Player Campaign Guides can highlight the use of new sub-systems and mechanics. If you are including a new romance module, the guide is a good way to convey that to the players. Maybe, its mass combat rules, or ship sailing and combat, any new sub-system that introduced is going to draw questions. The guide can serve as a resource for the players that gives them the basic guidelines. This takes a load of the GM from having to constantly explain the rules and nuances of said new systems.
Player faced setting info can also be provided. What is this place like? What is its history? What is happening today? All questions that can be answered in text for the players to discover. Combine that benefit with artwork and you really start to run the imagination of the players. Obviously, artwork is subjective, and possibly out of reach for home brewers, but it has a big impact on perception and buy in of a campaign for many players.
Finally, the player’s campaign guide delivers the pitch. Where, what, who, when, why? All should be answered in the simplest, but engaging, terms for the players. This will inform them about the types of adventures they will be going on, the particular skills the characters need, and the types of people and factions they will encounter. All presented in an intriguing package without giving away the mystique of the campaign.
The Challenges:
Why make a separate Players Campaign Guide?
Separating this info out has been a chore left to GMs. Some go to great lengths to do this, others do not even bother. For example, in the campaign box set for Pirates of Drinax sandbox game for Mongoose Traveller much player facing sections are sandwiched into the GM material. There is an entire section on a playable species. Not just career mechanics for chargen, but cultural info to expand the player’s knowledge on playing a different species. There is also a section that details three distinct home worlds complete with life event tables to flavor character’s backgrounds into the setting.
Now that is all good stuff. However, the PDFs material is entwined so there isn’t an easy way to share this. Sure a GM can copy paste and make a new document, or share only the pages from their physical book at the table. Though, that clearly has a few disadvantages. First, as mentioned, the GM may not want to put in the extra effort to make this material available. Also, players can’t preview this material in advance to see if they even want to jump into the campaign. Paizo giving them out free is a huge interest booster and really helps groups decide if the time and resource investment is worth it. This is something adventure publishers and homebrewers should take note of!
If I had advice for Mongoose (any publisher really), it would be to make a player resource for their future campaigns. Either a short production that is light on teasers and heavy on mechanics, or an entire campaign book just for players. The first route steers players into the campaign and buys their interest. The second gives them detail to have staying power within the campaign. Both options are a boon to GMs as they don’t have to worry about keeping their material separated. (Also, sales man, sales!)
Don’t bait and switch…
Some guides will go the distance to talk about the character’s home town. Let’s call it Awesome Place. So, you got all this detail about where the character grew up and lived and became who they are. You are totally ready for adventure in Awesome Place. Then, the campaign immediately redirects to Cool Town. Cool Town is neat too, but it’s completely different than Awesome Place. You’ve been bait and switched and good luck stopping this campaign from fizzling.
If the campaign is about being X type characters, then tell people not to play Y ones. Occasionally, you will see a guide that talks about how an X character might, kinda, sorta, maybe, fit in. Do not do this. It is entirely ok for some archetypes to not match the given campaign style. Life will be better for all involved if you are not constantly trying to explain why a shark companion of a druid is living in the desert.
Many Player’s Campaign Guides will provide a reason why the characters are working together. Maybe they are family, or crew of a starship, are caught up in the same conspiracy, etc... This is actually a strong thing to do for a campaign. It provides focus to the players as they make decisions and directs their energy. Also, it helps keep the campaign going in the right direction. If all the characters are together because a no good scoundrel wronged them, it’s a bad idea to have that scoundrel be the first villain. If that piece holding the PCs together is gone by 3rd level, you still have 80+% of the game to go (D&D reference). Then, the GM then has to figure out an entirely new reason to keep the characters together. If you are lucky the characters will bond through play and this won’t be difficult, but that isn’t always the case. Far from it.
Discussion Topics:
Well you may be asking yourself, “What is this Player’s Guide thing Payn won’t shut up about?” Suppose its time I answered fully, and gleefully, as I find the Player’s campaign guide to be one of the best TTRPG campaign innovations in the last 20 years. By campaign, I mean a planned set of adventures in a setting with a direct or indirect plot. Throughout this posting, I’ll use both linear and non-linear campaign examples. If you are starting to think that you are a master home brewer, and published adventure writers can go eat donkey goobers, please stick around because making content is something that should interest you anyways.
Disclaimer; I use a lot of Paizo examples because they have been doing it well for a long time now. WOTC/EN Publishing/Etc... may or may not even do these. If they do, and you like them, please post about it!
The Skinny (TL;DR):
A Player’s Campaign Guide is a short supplement that gives the players advice on good/bad mechanical choices that will best suit the campaign. It also gives the players some background information on the setting to whet their imagination’s appetite. Finally, the player’s guide acts as a teaser trailer to muster up interest and excitement for the upcoming game! Publishers and GMs can really step up their game by enticing the players with material that doesn’t spoil the campaign itself.
The Examples:
If you don’t do published campaigns, or never played any of Paizo’s adventures, you may be curious what a Player’s Guide might look like. Below are links to several free PDFs of high quality Paizo creations. I say “high quality” as in production and value, these guides can and do have issues at times, which I will cover next.
Linear PGs;
Curse of the Crimson Throne (an urban adventure campaign)
Jade Regent (West travels East adventure with supplemental wagon traveling rules)
Iron Gods (Sword and Sorcery meets sci-fi)
Non-linear PGs:
Kingmaker (Tame the wildlands and build a kingdom)
Pirates of Drinax (Space Empire building game in The Traveller universe. Cant link to it because it’s mixed with GM material, but will talk about it coming up)
The content:
TTRPG campaigns obviously have GM material. Plot, setting, exploration, all the good stuff RPGs are made of. Over time, they started to feature additional player material that a GM can distribute if they would like. We already covered the bases, but for a refresher, this material is character mechanical options, setting info, and non-spoiler campaign teasers. PCGs focus on player centered material.
Mechanical character features come in a wide variety. There may be traits such as, member of a secret cult, student of a particular school, or friend/colleague/rival of an NPC. These story bits marry the mechanics to the character and campaign. They give advice on race/class/etc distinctions that are well suited to the campaign. They also advise on avoiding poorly thought out characters like a Druid with a Shark companion in a desert based campaign.
Player Campaign Guides also add the opportunity to highlight a new race and/or species to the game. For example, Iron Gods adds Android as a playable race to the campaign. There are stats, mechanics, and a little flavor to help guide players into the experience. Pirates of Drinax has an entire section dedicated to buffing the flavor of a species named Aslan. Career paths, cultural distinctions, etc... are provided to help players bring these new offerings to life.
Player Campaign Guides can highlight the use of new sub-systems and mechanics. If you are including a new romance module, the guide is a good way to convey that to the players. Maybe, its mass combat rules, or ship sailing and combat, any new sub-system that introduced is going to draw questions. The guide can serve as a resource for the players that gives them the basic guidelines. This takes a load of the GM from having to constantly explain the rules and nuances of said new systems.
Player faced setting info can also be provided. What is this place like? What is its history? What is happening today? All questions that can be answered in text for the players to discover. Combine that benefit with artwork and you really start to run the imagination of the players. Obviously, artwork is subjective, and possibly out of reach for home brewers, but it has a big impact on perception and buy in of a campaign for many players.
Finally, the player’s campaign guide delivers the pitch. Where, what, who, when, why? All should be answered in the simplest, but engaging, terms for the players. This will inform them about the types of adventures they will be going on, the particular skills the characters need, and the types of people and factions they will encounter. All presented in an intriguing package without giving away the mystique of the campaign.
The Challenges:
Why make a separate Players Campaign Guide?
Separating this info out has been a chore left to GMs. Some go to great lengths to do this, others do not even bother. For example, in the campaign box set for Pirates of Drinax sandbox game for Mongoose Traveller much player facing sections are sandwiched into the GM material. There is an entire section on a playable species. Not just career mechanics for chargen, but cultural info to expand the player’s knowledge on playing a different species. There is also a section that details three distinct home worlds complete with life event tables to flavor character’s backgrounds into the setting.
Now that is all good stuff. However, the PDFs material is entwined so there isn’t an easy way to share this. Sure a GM can copy paste and make a new document, or share only the pages from their physical book at the table. Though, that clearly has a few disadvantages. First, as mentioned, the GM may not want to put in the extra effort to make this material available. Also, players can’t preview this material in advance to see if they even want to jump into the campaign. Paizo giving them out free is a huge interest booster and really helps groups decide if the time and resource investment is worth it. This is something adventure publishers and homebrewers should take note of!
If I had advice for Mongoose (any publisher really), it would be to make a player resource for their future campaigns. Either a short production that is light on teasers and heavy on mechanics, or an entire campaign book just for players. The first route steers players into the campaign and buys their interest. The second gives them detail to have staying power within the campaign. Both options are a boon to GMs as they don’t have to worry about keeping their material separated. (Also, sales man, sales!)
Don’t bait and switch…
Some guides will go the distance to talk about the character’s home town. Let’s call it Awesome Place. So, you got all this detail about where the character grew up and lived and became who they are. You are totally ready for adventure in Awesome Place. Then, the campaign immediately redirects to Cool Town. Cool Town is neat too, but it’s completely different than Awesome Place. You’ve been bait and switched and good luck stopping this campaign from fizzling.
If the campaign is about being X type characters, then tell people not to play Y ones. Occasionally, you will see a guide that talks about how an X character might, kinda, sorta, maybe, fit in. Do not do this. It is entirely ok for some archetypes to not match the given campaign style. Life will be better for all involved if you are not constantly trying to explain why a shark companion of a druid is living in the desert.
Many Player’s Campaign Guides will provide a reason why the characters are working together. Maybe they are family, or crew of a starship, are caught up in the same conspiracy, etc... This is actually a strong thing to do for a campaign. It provides focus to the players as they make decisions and directs their energy. Also, it helps keep the campaign going in the right direction. If all the characters are together because a no good scoundrel wronged them, it’s a bad idea to have that scoundrel be the first villain. If that piece holding the PCs together is gone by 3rd level, you still have 80+% of the game to go (D&D reference). Then, the GM then has to figure out an entirely new reason to keep the characters together. If you are lucky the characters will bond through play and this won’t be difficult, but that isn’t always the case. Far from it.
Discussion Topics:
- What are your experiences with Player Campaign Guides?
- Anybody doing this regularly besides Paizo?
- Ever make a Player’s Campaign Guide for your own homebrew?
- What did Payn leave out?
