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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Clint_L" data-source="post: 8981332" data-attributes="member: 7035894">I recommend starting small. Using a pre-existing world is a possibility, but can also be overwhelming with the scope of what you have to learn to make your own stuff fit.I run a new mini-campaign for beginning players every term. First, I figure out how many games it will be. Then I come up with some kind of basic story hook - why/how do the player characters meet, and what incentivizes them to stick together? I might come up with a unifying story (i.e. they have been hired by a village to save them from marauder's located in the nearby ruins) or go for something more episodic (local mucketty-muck hires the party to take care of some problems).After that, I loosely plot out the broad story beats for each game - this is a few sentences, tops, and has to be open-ended enough to take into account player choices and successes/failures.Here's an example of how I sketched out one campaign that turned into a fairly detailed storyline:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Dungeon. Level 1. Characters begin trapped in a pair of dungeon cells and have to break out while also rescuing Archmage Maya Obsillian, returning with her to the nearby town of Feolinn. Maya becomes the party’s patron. Maya reveals that a number of mysterious incidents have been occuring and she wishes the party to investigate and discover whether there is a pattern.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Cavern. Level 2. Maya sends the party to a cavern in the Cyrios mountains to investigate reports of a terrifying beast that has attacked local vintners. The beast, an unusually large nergaliid, seems to be controlled by a sigil (of the Remnants) inscribed on its collar.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Forest. Level 2. On the way back through Cyrios End Forest, the party comes across a ritual at a ruined temple. The cultists summon a greater zombie to cover their escape while they flee, but leave behind a clue.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Village. Level 3. Maya messages the party that gnoll raiders threaten a nearby farming village. The raiders have been paid off by the cult in an effort to ruin one of the local vintner families.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Sewer. Level 3. The party breaks up a cult gathering beneath Feolinn. The party learns that the cult call themselves the Remnants and are sworn to the service of newly ascended Vecna. They seek two artifacts that, they hope, will allow them to weaken the Divine Gate enough so that he can return to Exandria.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Fire. Level 4. Mission to retrieve the Orb of the Ancients, with Maya teleporting the party to a ruined dungeon under Mt. Mentiri in the northern Cyrios Mountains. The party fights elementals as they race to get the orb before Legrande, and before attracting the attention of Desirat herself.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Ocean. Level 4. Having learned that the second artifact was lost at sea, Maya hires a ship, Sailor’s Delight, to transport the party. As they reach the location of the shipwreck, they are intercepted by the Remnants and attacked by the cultists mid-voyage.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Undersea. Level 4. A sea fury attempts to stop the party from claiming the second artifact. After winning it they return to the Sea Spirit and make for Feolinn, but are contacted by Maya and told that Marquis Solinas has been deposed, the city is in chaos, and she fears that the Red Cultist will attempt the ritual with only the orb of power. She directs them to a deserted island where, in a hidden chamber, they find a teleportation circle to return to her tower.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Urban. Level 5. Maya learns that the Remnants are going to attempt the ritual with only two artifacts, gaining the additional power needed from a mass sacrifice of the people of Feolinn. The party must use the one artifact they possess and their own skills to prevent this disaster.</li> </ol></blockquote>

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