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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Uller" data-source="post: 1634371" data-attributes="member: 413">I've been DMing for 20+ years now and I've got to agree with this.  Even now I tend to follow these simple guidelines (or something like them).When I start a campaign, I start it in an interesting local with a few interesting plot hooks (that aren't necessarily fleshed out).  The game world, even the region and nation the PCs are in are not detailed yet.  Start at a low level (somewhere between 1st and 3rd)...this gives your players a chance to grow they're characters as your world grows and you a chance to build the world around them.  Don't start out with your main plot line.  Start small.  Save the village from the ogre.  Save the farmstead from the centaur slavers.  Save the neighborhood from the gang of goblins in the sewer lead by a wererat goblin.  Save the monestary from the coven of witches that has infiltrated it.  Whatever.  This allows your players to develop thier PCs' connections to the world.  You can introduce recurring NPCs that will serve as friends or enemies or useful neutral parties or whatever. At the same time, you can be developing your main plot line in the background.  You'll also find that what starts out as a simple one-shot adventure might turn into an epic campaign spontaneously.For instance, my players are currently locked in a struggle with a Barghest, an evil Druid, a tribe of savage humans and several goblin tribes.  What started out as a simple monster hunt for 5 3rd level characters has now gone on for 4 game sessions and has resulted in the destruction of a village, the murder of a 17 year-old girl at the hands of a cursed lover, the capture, rescue and capture again of a friend of the PCs, the flight of the PCs from the adventure area (pursued by goblins and worgs), lots of intrigue about who this evil druid might be and what are his goals and plans, etc. etc.   None of this was really planned by me.  It just came up as the players explored and interacted with the NPCs.   Now the PCs are gearing up and preparing to make a second attempt at driving the evil out from the area.  Hopefully things will go better for them this time.   <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" /> My point is, you don't have to lay out your whole campaign in advance.  As a player, I find that undesirable.  If the DM has too many big plans, I end up feeling railroaded.Here is what I do:  plan an initial (very short) adventure that can be played in one 4 hour session (so like 4 encounters).  Include a hook to get the PCs together and then 2-3 hooks to further adventures.  At the end of that adventure, ask the players what they are going to do.  Phrase it as a multiple choice question:What do you do next?  a) Follow the centaur slavers.  b) Help the merchant discover who stole his goods.  c) take a message to the next town to warn them of the slavers.  d) something else entirely.I find it is important to outline their options so that they remember what they are and no that they do have options.  They may pick "something else entirely".  That's okay.  But once they pick, you can then go off and plan the next adventure for the next session or two.  The campaign will lay itself out and you're players will feel like it is their story, not yours.</blockquote>

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