Constucting a Campaign?

[Yellow Sign]

Ok, you have a prebuilt campaign world or you have built one of your own. Now what? How do you constuct a campaign plot to run your players in? I don't have the luxury of running a predone campaign. I am building it from the ground up. Do I start from the beginning and plot to a end or the other way around.

How do you do it? I am looking for ideas where to start.

 

[S'mon]

Ok, you have a prebuilt campaign world or you have built one of your own. Now what? How do you constuct a campaign plot to run your players in? I don't have the luxury of running a predone campaign. I am building it from the ground up. Do I start from the beginning and plot to a end or the other way around.

How do you do it? I am looking for ideas where to start.

I always start with a scenario and go from there. I never have a whole campaign plotted from the start - if the PCs decide to do something different, I want to be able to accommodate them, not throw away tons of work. But I do think about likely future events - things that will happen, unless the PCs stop them. Usually bad things...

 

[JoeGKushner]

When the SL came out, I scooped it up, hungry for something different. Well, two campaigns latter, and I decide to go back to the Forgotten Realms.

The first thing I do is build NPCs. I have notes on backgrounds, items, personalities, etc.., but I keep it a little vague so I can tie them into the players as friends, foes, mentors, allies, rivals, etc...

Now I'm waiting on the players to finish their characters. Once done, I'll decide where to set 'em up. It's one of the good things about using a world with as much detail as the FR in that I can pick a place very detailed and run material there or vague and run material there.

I make sure that the NPCs help keep the players moving by acting as guides and reminders, as well as making sure that when the players actually do go adventure, that they stay way back and let the players get the glory by doing the dirty work. Tends to work well and keeps the palyers moving and roleplaying at the same time.

 

[Desdichado]

Like Joe, I typically build some NPCs and some locations. Give the NPCs some motivations, and agenda, and a plan. Decide what will happen if the PCs don't exist. Throw the PCs into the mix, and see what happens.

I'm a huge fan of not planning too much of the campaign. Certainly, I'm very much agin' planning out plots. If you have a solid background of NPCs and their agendas and plans, though, the rest of it seems to fall into place fairly easily.

 

[Psion]

I'm also a big fan of the NPC driven (or as often, the organization driven) plots. I don't here many other people say they do games that way; I'm surprised to hear it today.

I typically decide who the powers in the world are, what their motivations, resources, MOs, and goals are. Then, I try to decide what conflict might arise that the PCs might get entangled in, and plant some hooks to draw the PCs in.

I just switched campaigns and find that without my richly developed and familiar stable of NPCs and organizations, it's a bit harder to make plots come together. Having the existant NPCs and organizations are a real boon when it comes to campaign design. When you are sitting there trying to conceive what would be a challenge/what could happen/etc., it becomes really convenient to free associate until you have a really rich plot.

I still do some "events imagining" and have an events agenda vice a strict plot to drive things, since you never know which way the PCs are going to go. But I have learned the hard way to not try to conceive plots too far in advance, because a lot of times your tastes, your players tastes, or the campaign conditions will change, and you will have wasted efforts. So, I like to keep things further in the future sort of vague.

 

[Wraithdrit]

Heh, even with a prepublished adventure (City of the Spider Queen) and Prepublished Campaign world (FR) I do the above. I never use adventures as is (Got burned once when a group of players bought the module... idiots, how is that fun?) and generally like merging them into my campaigns and ideas, using the motivations for the NPCs in the adventure as a guide.

So yeah, come up with the grand 'what's wrong, who is doing it, and why' plan and then through the PCs in from there.

Also, use a good writing technique of beginning in the middle. Don't start the PCs at the same time as the NPCs are starting thier machinations. Make the PCs come in at about stage two of four, or whatever. That way the NPCs have momentum and the PCs get to work on finding out why things are happening, revealing the main protagonists, etc.

 

[Wraithdrit]

Oh, another thing. Through in a few hooks and NPCs that are NOT related to your current thoughts on the plot, then later go back and see if you can tie them in. That always gets a good reaction from the players.

 

[Gnarlo]

I'm a firm believer in the advice given in the old Dungeoncraft articles. Good advice to carry around note cards or a small pocket sized notebook and jot ideas down as they hit you, no matter how trite, bizarre, or unfinished, and file them away for future use and idea crafting. Plus, I use their advice to always come up with a couple or three secrets about every person place and thing when creating them in the game, whether it's as grand as "the desert holds the ancient doomsday machine bured beneath its sands" or as mundane as "the village blacksmith has a soft spot for small puppies".

 

[Desdichado]

Speaking of Dungeoncraft articles, feel free to check out the link in my sig.

 

[Nightfall]

Use legos!