Hell All,
I thought I'd write a quick excerpt on Dynamic Campaign Creation. Its an idea I came up with a while ago (though, I am sure that others have done this themselves, so I am not claiming to be the originator) that helps DM's create unique campaign worlds without all the overhead of initial campaign creation.
This is not campaign or game specific. I certainly encourage you to use whatever systems are native to your game system to help you fill in the gaps (for example, D&D has encounter charts for random encounters, treasure charts for treasure rolls, etc..).
The Basics
The basic concept of Dynamic Campaign Creation (DCC) is creating a campaign world a little bit at a time. The advantages of DCC is that the DM is not tied to a pre existing set of "scripts" and can generate new content as the game progresses. The major fall back of this system is that the DM must take rather good notes of what has occurred in order to make use of it down the road.
Where to Start
DCC starts with the first adventure, and is recommended to start with brand new characters. The opening setting should be easy for the DM and the players to manage. Depending on the amount of time available dungeon master, the following back stories should be created:
- Pick the geographic region the opening story (and several following adventures) takes place. This should be something the DM can work with easily, and the characters can grasp without too much mental work.
- Create the Town / Village. Do not use a city, as cities are very large and difficult to manage, and can cause the players to become lost and confused in short order. Small villages / towns with some standard facilities such as shops, taverns, temple/church, and town hall. Also create a short, general history of the town, such as what type of industry the town has been, who the ruler is (council, baron, king, anarchy, etc..), and any major current events. Do not get into any great detail with any of the above, and do not mention any major regional political affairs. These are events that are beyond the care of young adventurers and should not be bothered with AT THIS TIME (down the road).
Example: Wooddale is a small lumber town of roughly seven hundred people located in the forested and hilly region of the Far North. The summers are hot and the winters are cold, fall and spring are always wet and damp. Things have always been quiet in Wooddale, until late when a group of young men went off into the woods towards the old temple and never returned, causing the locals to become concerned.
- Stocking the Shops. The DM needs to decide early on what level of weapon/armor sophistication is available from a "stock" (aka: off the shelf) perspective. If you are happy with making all non magic weapons and armor available from your local black smith, then you do not need to worry about this. For those who want to add a touch of realism, you can make only "common" weapons and armor available, such as Battle Axes, Long Swords, Long Bows, and anything Chain mail and lighter available off the shelf, everything else requiring additional cost and time to create. This is a customization choice, but adds a level of complexity.
- Create the supporting cast. Write very brief narratives about the minor players in the town such as the tavern keep, priest, shop keepers, a short list of NPC friends, and even family members and give this to the player for reference. The DM, at his discretion, can keep a seperate list of notes about each NPC if he feels they could be relevant to a future or undeveloped plot. No need to put any thing of great detail. Putting a short blurb about the characters relationship with each individual can really spice things up.
Example: Thomas Brasscup, 45, Male. Grey Hair, Blue eyes, looks older than he should be. Thomas is a bitter old man who runs the Brasscup tavern in Wooddale. His bitter fueds with your parents over bar tabs has made him no friend of yours.
Supporting cast characters can be used to ask questions about the region, and each NPC should have answers which are relevant from their perspective.
- The first adventure. Your opening adventure should be something that does not take your character too far afield from their starting town. On the surface, this may not sound too attractive, as your little town may not offer a whole host of opportunities. However, if you have followed the above advice, you should now have a pretty fleshed out town with a cast of support NPC's that can appeal to the players sense of belonging. The first adventure should have a direct effect on the characters life in the town, and perhaps other people in the town (maybe even tied to the PC's family).
Example Adventure: Several families in Wooddale have gotten together to petition Baron Wood, lord of Wooddale, to do something about the children who disappeared near the temple. With most of the guards and people of the town being superstitious of the temple, the Baron has posted a reward for anyone who can determine what happened to the children. The Baron is beloved by the people, and anything that can be done to help the people will put those who find the children in his favor.
- Set an in game date for the campaign and keep track of time as things go on. Associate any notable event with a date and time, also with the name of the characters and players involved (perhaps a quick blurb on what occured).
Let the Campaign Begin
The end of the first adventure gives birth to your new Dynamic Campaign. As a DM its now up to you to determine how the last adventure affected your little town, and where the adventure can go from there. In our last example, the local lord placed a reward to find the lost children of the town folk. Depending on the outcome (which many, many come to mind) the stage can now be set for bigger and better adventures, each growing your campaign world. Here are a few examples of possible growth:
- Example 1: The players found that the children were turned into dark minions of a lost and forgotten deity. During their adventures, the player found a strange looking door they could not open at the bottom of some steps in the ruined temple. The local priest explains that the ruin is the temple of an ancient evil that was locked away ages ago, but must be returning.
Example 1 shows how you can use the temple adventure to create some back ground history that your characters can relate to. In the follow up adventure the characters can explore the ruins and learn more detail about the local region, leading to other possible towns or lost temples, exposing the players to your new world a little bit at a time.
- Example 2: The players return with the missing children after slaying a band of orcs. The Baron, greatful for the players service and recognizing their bravery and courage, asks them to go to one of his distant outposts and investigate a town which was burned to the ground.
Example 2 is an example of how the adventure can be used to get the players out of their starting town and further out into the world where they will meet new people (Outpost commander), and learn about other aspects of your world (the Outpost commander believes the town was burned down by agents of King Zulan in the neighboring kingdom).
- Example 3: On the way to the temple, the characters run into a random encounter for bug bears. The characters discover a (random) powerful magical item in the bug bears lair that they need to have identified. The source and origin of the magic item is unknown...
Example three shows how the DM can take advantage of a random encounter and add to his own campaign. The players accidentally finding a powerful magic item (through some random high roll) now have a new adventure they can go off on and explore. This presents new options for the DM to add to his campaign.
- Example 4: As in example 3, but the characters notice a large amount of bug bears, which is indicative of a bug bear invasion! (because the characters found the lair and there were 10d100 bug bears!).
Another example of how a random die roll can effect the campaign on the fly, giving the DM more and more options to work with.
A Final Note
The key to a successful Dynamic Campaign is the DM taking notes of what has happened. Perhaps all three of the examples above occured during the adventure, and the party can only take one of the three adventure segways. Well... someone is going to have to go down into that dungeon... or deal with those bug bears... or out to that outpost... or find out the origin of that powerful magic item! Since the players are unable to do it themselves, these adventure paths may be open to other groups (or the same group with different characters). Remember, each adventure should add new content, or make use of previous content!
If the DM keeps good notes, then the players characters can become renown for their heroism, bravery, and the great deeds they have accomplished. Their names will become known to the people in the places where they have done great things, and the word will spread, making for a campaign world that grows with the accomplishment of their players and characters.
I thought I'd write a quick excerpt on Dynamic Campaign Creation. Its an idea I came up with a while ago (though, I am sure that others have done this themselves, so I am not claiming to be the originator) that helps DM's create unique campaign worlds without all the overhead of initial campaign creation.
This is not campaign or game specific. I certainly encourage you to use whatever systems are native to your game system to help you fill in the gaps (for example, D&D has encounter charts for random encounters, treasure charts for treasure rolls, etc..).
The Basics
The basic concept of Dynamic Campaign Creation (DCC) is creating a campaign world a little bit at a time. The advantages of DCC is that the DM is not tied to a pre existing set of "scripts" and can generate new content as the game progresses. The major fall back of this system is that the DM must take rather good notes of what has occurred in order to make use of it down the road.
Where to Start
DCC starts with the first adventure, and is recommended to start with brand new characters. The opening setting should be easy for the DM and the players to manage. Depending on the amount of time available dungeon master, the following back stories should be created:
- Pick the geographic region the opening story (and several following adventures) takes place. This should be something the DM can work with easily, and the characters can grasp without too much mental work.
- Create the Town / Village. Do not use a city, as cities are very large and difficult to manage, and can cause the players to become lost and confused in short order. Small villages / towns with some standard facilities such as shops, taverns, temple/church, and town hall. Also create a short, general history of the town, such as what type of industry the town has been, who the ruler is (council, baron, king, anarchy, etc..), and any major current events. Do not get into any great detail with any of the above, and do not mention any major regional political affairs. These are events that are beyond the care of young adventurers and should not be bothered with AT THIS TIME (down the road).
Example: Wooddale is a small lumber town of roughly seven hundred people located in the forested and hilly region of the Far North. The summers are hot and the winters are cold, fall and spring are always wet and damp. Things have always been quiet in Wooddale, until late when a group of young men went off into the woods towards the old temple and never returned, causing the locals to become concerned.
- Stocking the Shops. The DM needs to decide early on what level of weapon/armor sophistication is available from a "stock" (aka: off the shelf) perspective. If you are happy with making all non magic weapons and armor available from your local black smith, then you do not need to worry about this. For those who want to add a touch of realism, you can make only "common" weapons and armor available, such as Battle Axes, Long Swords, Long Bows, and anything Chain mail and lighter available off the shelf, everything else requiring additional cost and time to create. This is a customization choice, but adds a level of complexity.
- Create the supporting cast. Write very brief narratives about the minor players in the town such as the tavern keep, priest, shop keepers, a short list of NPC friends, and even family members and give this to the player for reference. The DM, at his discretion, can keep a seperate list of notes about each NPC if he feels they could be relevant to a future or undeveloped plot. No need to put any thing of great detail. Putting a short blurb about the characters relationship with each individual can really spice things up.
Example: Thomas Brasscup, 45, Male. Grey Hair, Blue eyes, looks older than he should be. Thomas is a bitter old man who runs the Brasscup tavern in Wooddale. His bitter fueds with your parents over bar tabs has made him no friend of yours.
Supporting cast characters can be used to ask questions about the region, and each NPC should have answers which are relevant from their perspective.
- The first adventure. Your opening adventure should be something that does not take your character too far afield from their starting town. On the surface, this may not sound too attractive, as your little town may not offer a whole host of opportunities. However, if you have followed the above advice, you should now have a pretty fleshed out town with a cast of support NPC's that can appeal to the players sense of belonging. The first adventure should have a direct effect on the characters life in the town, and perhaps other people in the town (maybe even tied to the PC's family).
Example Adventure: Several families in Wooddale have gotten together to petition Baron Wood, lord of Wooddale, to do something about the children who disappeared near the temple. With most of the guards and people of the town being superstitious of the temple, the Baron has posted a reward for anyone who can determine what happened to the children. The Baron is beloved by the people, and anything that can be done to help the people will put those who find the children in his favor.
- Set an in game date for the campaign and keep track of time as things go on. Associate any notable event with a date and time, also with the name of the characters and players involved (perhaps a quick blurb on what occured).
Let the Campaign Begin
The end of the first adventure gives birth to your new Dynamic Campaign. As a DM its now up to you to determine how the last adventure affected your little town, and where the adventure can go from there. In our last example, the local lord placed a reward to find the lost children of the town folk. Depending on the outcome (which many, many come to mind) the stage can now be set for bigger and better adventures, each growing your campaign world. Here are a few examples of possible growth:
- Example 1: The players found that the children were turned into dark minions of a lost and forgotten deity. During their adventures, the player found a strange looking door they could not open at the bottom of some steps in the ruined temple. The local priest explains that the ruin is the temple of an ancient evil that was locked away ages ago, but must be returning.
Example 1 shows how you can use the temple adventure to create some back ground history that your characters can relate to. In the follow up adventure the characters can explore the ruins and learn more detail about the local region, leading to other possible towns or lost temples, exposing the players to your new world a little bit at a time.
- Example 2: The players return with the missing children after slaying a band of orcs. The Baron, greatful for the players service and recognizing their bravery and courage, asks them to go to one of his distant outposts and investigate a town which was burned to the ground.
Example 2 is an example of how the adventure can be used to get the players out of their starting town and further out into the world where they will meet new people (Outpost commander), and learn about other aspects of your world (the Outpost commander believes the town was burned down by agents of King Zulan in the neighboring kingdom).
- Example 3: On the way to the temple, the characters run into a random encounter for bug bears. The characters discover a (random) powerful magical item in the bug bears lair that they need to have identified. The source and origin of the magic item is unknown...
Example three shows how the DM can take advantage of a random encounter and add to his own campaign. The players accidentally finding a powerful magic item (through some random high roll) now have a new adventure they can go off on and explore. This presents new options for the DM to add to his campaign.
- Example 4: As in example 3, but the characters notice a large amount of bug bears, which is indicative of a bug bear invasion! (because the characters found the lair and there were 10d100 bug bears!).
Another example of how a random die roll can effect the campaign on the fly, giving the DM more and more options to work with.
A Final Note
The key to a successful Dynamic Campaign is the DM taking notes of what has happened. Perhaps all three of the examples above occured during the adventure, and the party can only take one of the three adventure segways. Well... someone is going to have to go down into that dungeon... or deal with those bug bears... or out to that outpost... or find out the origin of that powerful magic item! Since the players are unable to do it themselves, these adventure paths may be open to other groups (or the same group with different characters). Remember, each adventure should add new content, or make use of previous content!
If the DM keeps good notes, then the players characters can become renown for their heroism, bravery, and the great deeds they have accomplished. Their names will become known to the people in the places where they have done great things, and the word will spread, making for a campaign world that grows with the accomplishment of their players and characters.
