Best step by step campaign design advice?

[Ry]

We've seen them many times over the years; The Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide, Creative Campaigning, articles in Polyhedron, Dragon, and Dungeon in their turns. But what is the best?

Where do you go for a setting design walkthrough?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I like the original Dungeoncraft columns in Dragon.

 

[Ry]

I like the original Dungeoncraft columns in Dragon.

The '97 Ray Winniger ones?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The '97 Ray Winniger ones?

Yup.

 

[IanB]

I'm sort of past the point in my gaming career where I spend a lot of time looking at that sort of content, but I think between DMG2 and Dungeonscape, new DMs are pretty well taken care of in 3.5.

 

[Bayushi Seikuro]

I also enjoyed the Dungeoncraft articles.

For my new homebrew, I'm going a different direction. Not using a book, but using Campaign Planner - can't remember who it's by. Yes, it's just sheets with fill-in-the-blanks, but I went a different direction because of being inspired by it.

Before I get into mapping, building the realms, etc... I started with prestige classes available. I thought I'd try this because 1) it sets limits for what directions characters can go for 'builds', and 2) it helps me visualize the movers and shakers of the world.

Again, random non-book advice/ideas... Orkworld by John Wick had a completely blank map, and in the campaign chapter of the book, it listed areas/places of interest and their backgrounds. It left the placement of the locations up to the DM.

Of course, again, I know these aren't books that give campaign world creation advice; just some helpful (hopefully; if not helpful, I hope not actively hindering ) thoughts.

But, otherwise, I second Dungeoncraft

 

[LostSoul]

Where do you go for a setting design walkthrough?

World Burning from Burning Empires.

 

[Ry]

I'm sort of past the point in my gaming career where I spend a lot of time looking at that sort of content

What do you do when you're stuck on a new campaign? I'm building a theatre of nations and trying to create some evil secrets in the background (aboleth agents infiltrating society, demon princes trying to bring about the apocalypse, kittens being kept as household pets) but I find myself frequently stumped as I try to fill it in.

 

[Shadeydm]

The approach which I find works best for me when homebrewing is to try and stay focused on the more immediate details and how they relate to the PCs. Perhaps a better way to put it is the further out your campaign ideas are from current events or events looming just over the horizon the more vague they should be and less time you should spend working on them. For example if you game is starting at first level and there is a nation which is controlled by alboleths it doesn't really need much attention right off the bat. The evil secrets don't need the details filled in at the beginning just a simple line or two so you don't forget to forshadow and develop these things later should suffice in most instances.

If you are trying to balance out a group of nations try a flow chart with simple stuff like imports/exports and attitudes towards the other nations. But the only nation that requires any real detail is the one the PC will start out adventuring in and even then not much detail beyond the immediate starting area is initially needed. Don't get me wrong I love to crank out the homebrew fluff, but its easy to become distracted this way.

Stay focused and build out from the starting point like ripples from a stone you threw into a pond.

IMO, YMMV, Yadda yadda yadda...

 

[Desdichado]

I've always done stuff that I wanted to do and not followed an formula for campaign setting design.

That said, I really enjoyed the Ray Winninger run, and I've adopted many (most?) of his ideas into how I do things now.