Campaign Session help...

[Tdata]

Hello all, I am new to enworld. I have been looking for helpful ideas on how to come up with the ideas for the individual sessions in a campaign.

I have a campaign thought up but, except for some of them, I am having trouble coming up with ideas for what (in general) I want to happen at this part in the main storyline. Keeping in mind, I KNOW things can change when players get involved.

For example:
Overall storyline, a country has plans on invading its neighbors.
Now I don't want the players to just stumble on an army with plans on invasion, I might want to figure out how they might get to, or have a reason to visit the country in the first place.

Then I might want to specify in general what I want to have happen while they are in the country(leaving room for the unexpected from them).

One session I might want them to stumble(or be stumbled on) by some scouts from the army(this might work with a Random Encounter though).

One session might be having to convince the other country that there is going to be invasion, maybe trying to counter a traiter in that country.



Now this is just an example, but for the Mutants & Masterminds campaign I have planned, I am running into a blank on what some of the session ideas could be.

What methods/thoughts/whatever do some of you use when you run into a little thinking trouble like this?

 

[Hand of Evil]

The news is a good place to start. Just see what is happening and then apply it to my session, like the mid-east right now. People in the game will be talking about events, others will be running from it and yet some will be running to it.

Also WHAT IF, for every action there is a reaction. If the players do something in game, ask yourself what is the reaction to it. Example is burning an inn down, what happens to the owners, does it get re-built?

 

[Numlock]

One of the most useful things I've done in cases similar to yours is asking your players what their ideas are. It helps on multiple levels.

1. You get inspiration
2. Your players get the action or play they want

 

[Tdata]

Replies..

Thanks for the replies!! I will be thinking on it.

Anyone else?

I can see how during one game session the players might give you idea/s for future sessions.

If you haven't guessed, I am not the most experienced GM, esp when it comes to thinking up my own campaigns(most of what I have run has been bought campaigns).

Really wanting to improve my GMing.

 

[the Jester]

Hey, first of all- good luck with your game!

My one primary piece of advice is to plan, but don't make any of your plans dependent on the pcs' actions. In other words, plan situations but not stories- the stories will write themselves based on the actions of the party.

Don't be afraid to steal plot ideas from comics, books, movies, tv, the news, plays, current events- you name it. Don't be afraid to twist them up, change them around and mix them together.

 

[kurtsparkuhl]

When I have writer's block one of my favorite things to do is to convert old AD&D modules, which you can still find .pdf versions of floating around on the net with a little work, and convert them to the current edition I'm playing.

Sounds like Keep on the Borderlands would give you plenty of material to start your campaign with and you could customize it to fit really well. Those classic modules are really fun to go through still today.

 

[Tdata]

Thoughts...

Good ideas.

The overall plan I am having for the campaign is where a hi-tech science/equipment company from Freedom City that is lead by an evil person has come across the technology to traverse dimensions. They plan on using the tech to conquer a parallel earth for resources and testing grounds/subjects.

The earth they end up trying to conquer is OUR earth. But before that happens I have a way planned to get my players powers(obviously not like in real life).

So the players will have to end up figuring out that there is an invasion going on, or at least started, then figure out it is from another dimension, get themselves through the portal and figure out how to stop it from the otherside.


I wanted to set this in the real world, that way I have more to draw from for the setting. Then I got the Freedom City sourcebook and a few others and wanted to campaign there. Then I tried to think up how to get characters from here(who my players had already been thinking up) to there and came up with an invasion.

So I have the way planned for the players to get powers and the overall plan, but am kind of having some trouble for the middle part(s).

 

[kurtsparkuhl]

totally didn't realize this was for an M&M campaign. LOL go ahead and ignore my post!

 

[MinistryOfGame]

My suggestion in this situation is to work out what information you want the party to have (ie there is an invasion imminent) and then have the character with the least amount of backstory and fluff that information, in-game, somehow that is relevant to their character's skills.

For example, say you've got a motor mechanic. One day, he's working on a car with its radio on, he fiddles with the engine, and the radio starts picking up signals from space ships talking about the invasion force that is headed to the planet.

I find this is a great way of putting new players, or players who aren't great at coming up with character background, right in the forefront, giving them their shot in the spotlight early, making them feel like their character is useful, before the other, more extroverted players take over and get their characters to use the information in whatever way they're good at.

 

[CuRoi]

Going off of what you mentioned - this is might sound cliche, but perhaps the way your players characters get powers is precisely because of the dimensional rift or whatever wyrmhole this guy opens. Gamma Rays/Theta Rays/Dimension X Rays whatever wierd pseudo-science explanation you want to throw in here leaks through the rift in large amounts as it is opened. the radiation tags these unsuspecting characters (who yes magically happen to be in the right place at the right time) and suddenly they are manifesting super powers.

This Dimension X radiation could even lead to how the players start figuring out what is going on. They begin trying to figure out what happened to them, they key in on the radiation as a cause, and then start looking for the source of the radiation.

You could control the pace of the plot by having this radiation leave traces where ever this big bad guy and his goons go. So the newly minted superheroes slowly figure out cluse as to what happened ot them, why this guy is here, and how to stop him (or her!)

EDIT - OOPS Sorry, didnt see you said you already had a way planned for them to get powers. At anyrate, perhaps the whole latent radiation thing could work for sloly tracking down this guy. Some sort of uncommon energy signature they can detect (side kick with a gizmo, maybe one of them is a super intellect like Reed Richards, etc.)