A DM's S.O.S

[Weregrognard]

I have committed one of the classic blunders! No, not getting into a land war in Asia or going up against Sicilians when death is on the line, but something much worse for DMs: too much daydreaming of campaign ideas and not enough adventure writing. My only excuse is that I'm rusty at adventure writing after running so many published adventures in the past.

I'm supposed to kick off a 4E campaign this Saturday but so far I have nothing. Help!

 

[Weregrognard]

Some of the ideas that were kicking around in my head:

- The PCs wash up on a mysterious island. This is actually the infamous Isle of Dread re-imagined with some stuff from Eberron's Xendrik, Hollow World, and Palladium RPG's Yin Sloth Jungles.

- The PCs wake up in a crypt with no memories of who they are, only what they assume is their names on the granite slabs they wake up in. They are actually ancient heroes brought back to fight an ancient evil.

- A campaign loosely based on the Metal Gear video game (guess what I've been playing lately?) in which a "legendary soldier" has gone bad and is (secretly) behind a growing army of human mercenaries, humanoids, and monsters. The ace up his sleeve: the discovery of an ancient arcane weapon of mass destruction.

 

[Rechan]

Start by having them roll intiative.

Seriously, start in media res, and then color the scene afterwards, and go from there. Why are they in that fight? What are they doing there? Etc. That should leave them with enough to experiment with.

That might not give you something to work with as far as an adventure. So here is a real suggestion:

Do the Ye Olde "You all have recently been looking for work, and so have been contacted by an individual who needs a job done". Cue a shadowy warehouse. The PCs are assembled, and asked to do a simple job: disrupt a party. More specifically, a business deal between a Bandit Lord and (insert gnome anarchists/any other magically potent type). All the PCs are tasked with is making sure the deal doesn't go down.

Sure, it comes straight from "Three Days to Kill", a module, but I think it's a nice fun way to start on a different foot.

Option two: Watch "Night of the Living Dead". Repeat it. Necromancers need not apply; just the dead walking, laying siege to small town in the middle of no where, and the PCs are trapped and need to survive. Though if you want to change it up a little, toss in a few different undead types.

Any other suggestions will require details about your PCs, their backgrounds, and the players' tastes, to detail it to your party specifically.

 

[Family]

Thinks small, the grand world will form around them slowly. What do they see, why is that there, who is talking to them, what does he want. Let what the PC's know guide the flow, be willing to adapt. When the time is right your "reveals" will come.

Take a single idea from PCs with backstories and place them in casually.

 

[Rechan]

Thinks small, the grand world will form around them slowly. What do they see, why is that there, who is talking to them, what does he want. Let what the PC's know guide the flow, be willing to adapt. When the time is right your "reveals" will come.

Take a single idea from PCs with backstories and place them in casually.

This.

You don't have to worry about anything except the immediate. If you don't have an entire campaign mapped out, or even a campaign idea, don't worry about it. Just come up with an idea that will engage the players, and now you have stalling time while you Think.

"The game starts with you in situation X. The goal: get out." Fairly simple.

 

[Steely Dan]

Start by having them roll intiative.

This, plus it's something for them to immediately sink their teeth into.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Starting a new campaign from scratch can seem like an enormous roadblock to actually playing. The idea of starting in the midst of a combat was a good one. After the battle the PC's might need to figure out why they were attacked. That can lead to sketching out an NPC bad guy or group and determining thier motivations. As far as world development goes just concentrate on the immediate area and determine what lies beyond as the PC's explore. Your players can often help create a lot of the world without ever knowing it if you listen to them during the game and make some notes.

Some possible starting points:

1) The PC's were not the intended victims. Whatever attacked them was too stupid to realize it was the wrong target. Questioning an attacker might lead to a contact about what was going on and who the intended targets were and why.

2) The PC's were the intended victims. Someone, somewhere has a grudge against them. It doesn't have to be very important in the greater scheme of things. Perhaps it was a schoolmate of the party wizard that was always jealous, or a professional rival of the rogue. What matters is the importance of the thing to the NPC's acting on it.

Once the initial encounter concludes (and having one bad guy snivel and beg and fall over themselves to divulge info is good here) the PC's can decide on how they follow up. Have the motivated NPC(s) and some fodder for them statted up and play it by ear.

After the first session, you can develop deeper and more important plots and the players might give you clues about what type of things they like to do.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Take a look here for some advice http://www.gnomestew.com/gming-advice/hitting-the-right-spot-campaign-design

I really liked the idea of kicking off a fresh campaign with the mini-game described in the little pdf - but then that's me liking campaign design...

 

[Zinovia]

There's a campaign opener contest over on the WotC forums

Perhaps one of the campaign openers entered in 4E Expert Dungeon Master Competition - Open a Campaign! might give you some ideas. There are several interesting ideas there with enough variety that one of them should fit in with your particular group and play style. There's no need to blindly follow any of them either if you want to mix it up a bit and customize whatever you choose for your group.

That's what's fun about DM'ing to me; even if I steal ideas from modules, books, or ideas on the forums I still wind up with something uniquely mine by the time I'm done with it. My KotS game is using material I wrote myself, some from the "KotS Kitbashing" thread on the WotC forums, and of course the info in the module itself.

 

[TerraDave]

I'm rusty at adventure writing after running so many published adventures in the past.

Any reason you are not doing that this time?

On the upside, the monster/npc side of 4E really is pretty easy. You might also get something from the standard traps and skill challenges in the DMG (though, while they did something with these, I think they could have done more).

And you can still take a few things from the little town and adventure in the DMG, the two published modules or online dungeon (though that has been a mixed bag), even if you don't use them.