Campaign Writer's Block

[Aus_Snow]

That your players are more into the 'hack and slash' is not necessarily a problem. Just make the adventures more action-oriented.

For inspiration, it's different for each DM (yeah, duh, I know) but I'll suggest a couple of things, and you can see if any of them work for you. Like. . .

Study an adventure/module or two, that you really like or admire, figure out what the best things about it [or them] are, and try to emulate these features, shamelessly even, if you like. What is it that makes them interesting / made them work for your group / makes them cool, fun, etc. ?

Steal shamelessly (see a pattern here?) from stories, TV, movies, comics, whatever. Seriously - everyone does this anyway, so you might as well make it official, and get more out of it in the process.

Check out things like the Roleplaying Tips site, Treasure Tables site, Dungeoncraft series of articles, and any other DM advice type stuff that's out there [like this one I just stumbled upon, maybe]. Some of it is really good! Or, some might suit your tastes and needs, more to the point.

Likewise, some of the threads that are long gone on these very forums, but still accessible via searching with Google (just put a space then 'site:enworld.org' [without the quote marks] after your search terms in Google), or this site's own search function if you're a community supporter. Alternatively, there's this nifty little site.

I'll see if I can dig up some of those threads myself, and if anything leaps out, I'll post a link here.

Unless you're totally happy running ready made stuff though, don't give up - and have fun with the task if possible; makes it much more pleasant. And, in case it's an issue, don't judge your work too harshly (or be too much of a perfectionist, in other words). Really, this can be a killer.

 

[Lord Xtheth]

I prefer to use paladium book's hook line and sinker method.
IE:
Hook: the PC'S are trapped in a 10 foot by 10 foot room, there are doors on every wall and on the floor and ceiling. Each room is exactly the same as this.
Line: remember the movie " cube", exactly like that.
sinker: roll 1D6, on a 1-3 there is a trap see Trap sheet. On a 4-6 there is a monster, see monster reference sheet.

 

[Lord Ipplepop]

If you have all of these ideas that die on paper... then don't put them on paper... at least not at first.
Get a small tape recorder, or use a microphone into your computer, or some other such manner of recording your voice, and tell the device what it is you are thinking... do it in a manner that you would use to tell it to a friend of yours:
"Man, check this out... I have this really cool idea for a <campaign, mission, adventure, etc>..."
and then tell yourself about it.
Once you have it all on tape (so to speak), then sit down and write your conversation to yourself. Once you have the notes down, flesh them out. The fact that you already have it down on tape in a way that you can understand will help you to put it on paper in a manner that makes sense.

Happy writing.

 

[Hereticus]

I have a problem.. I have been playing D&D for almost 6-7 years now, always as a DM (no-one else wants to DM). My party is mostly hack and slash and has role playing as a low priority.

I have always ran the classic modules and/or other published adventures.

In these times i usually have a period where i want to create my own adventure/campaign and my head spins with ideas.. Cool ideas for my players, things like chase downs in cars, invasions of hordes of orcs and undead...

This is why I like the players to create backgrounds when I DM... ideas for new campaigns just jump out at me. And I know that the players will have some interest.

I like to say that as DM, the burden of storyline creation should not be all on me. In fact in my last 3.5E campaign, I asked my players for some of their old high level characters to use as NPCs. Most players were excited to see new life breathed into old favorites, and they generated many great campaigns.

 

[JoeGKushner]

And never underestimate the value of art for inspiration. Sometimes you'll see a piece and be like... yeah, I'm stealing that. Works for miniatures and terrain (tiles) too!

 

[Mercurius]

Gems under poo.

This is the answer.

 

[Oompa]

This is the answer.

Thanks for all the helpful posts all,

I am going to start scribbling all idea's down and later connect the idea's to each other. I just have to see how much information i want to have ready for each room..

I hope it shall work, I'll let it know how things progress