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Message: <blockquote data-quote="anest1s" data-source="post: 5298691" data-attributes="member: 94230">Recently, I started to plan a campaign which I intent to DM sooner or later. I was thinking to plan as much as possible before I actually start playing it.I have never done this before, and even though I have read the rules and guidelines of DMG I still think there are parts I do wrong (or I am in danger of doing wrong in the future). So here I am, asking for some advice <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />First of all, I have a general idea in my mind...what happens in the world, what the PC's have to do with it and what may be the ending of the story there are "bad" endings and "good" endings in my mind. Notice, that by "story", I don't mean a short range adventure, but something longer (much,much longer). So I have the "story", though its still flexible. I don't expect players to go trough a certain path which will lead them to the end instead I have thought of several points in the plots timeline, where the PC's will have to get involved (even by avoiding getting involved). Now where is the problem; the problem is that I don't know where to start. I have thought some way to do this though.First way, is to think of the overall plot, then divide it in huge parts (around the historic events that will happen). For example: From the beginning until the war breaks out, from the start of the war until its end, from its end until the magic stops working etc (these were imaginary examples). Then I am thinking of filling these parts with other, smaller events (like from when the players realize the cause of war, until it breaks out). I am thinking these sub-events as something that will happen during an adventure, or even an adventure themselves.However I don't want the PCs to be forced into these events in a specific way- like to force them to join the city guard (just because I happened to make a background for every guard in the city). I want to leave them the option to join the assassins guild (or whatever they want) and be able to react to what happens from there. I thought that by leaving the events between the beginning and the war undetermined, I can easily adapt that part of the plot to make sense and to work even if the players choose something entirely different. However, and here is the problem- I can't actually plan the encounters if I leave the players to go wherever they want. Ok, sure; I can tell them "Ok you join the assassins guild, and they send you to infiltrate the city guard..." but thats not what I would like to do <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/erm.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":erm:" title="Erm    :erm:" data-shortname=":erm:" />. I know, I could just make a shorter story, and then plan the next one according to what the players showed interested in the first one. The two reasons I am not doing this, is because my story is big enough (before characters are made and after the end of the campaign) and I feel that by leaving it unplanned I make it vulnerable to not actually happen, or make sense.  And because I feel that I can add subtle details if I know what will happen in the future, rather than being dragged by them.So...any ideas about what should I do? Thx for reading all this...(and please tell me if I made some horrible spelling mistake or something <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/nervous.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":heh:" title="Nervous Laugh    :heh:" data-shortname=":heh:" />)</blockquote>

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