GM Advice. Running a decent campaign.

[Arrgh! Mark!]

I think I'd like some advice. Perhaps we all need some advice some times.

The advice I would ask to more experienced GM's would be this; how do I have a long standing campaign?

Most of my campaigns involve a short series, generally between one and five sessions to wrap up a plotline. When that's done, we move onto something else. I always ask for criticism of my GMing, to which replies are "Good, excellent - but that other campaign you mentioned sounded so cool, I had an idea for a character.."

One thing that I've noticed - I oppose ressurection on flavor grounds. There isn't a great deal of death in my games, but every few sessions an idiotic move will kill a character, or the dice just don't fall his way. As my campaigns are always involved with the personal histories and backgrounds of the players - when a character dies, the campaign goes skew-iff, and either ends quickly or derails - or occasionally a player wants to try something else, tired of his old character, which the new party never really accepts properly..

Overall, my campaigns reach a successful ending where everyone has fun when it's short. Longer campaigns derail for the reasons mentioned. When I tried a non-character motivated plot though, there wasn't the good roleplaying or whatnot.

Well, what I'm asking.. how is it that you keep your games going past the end of the first plotline?

 

[Piratecat]

Cattle prods. Every time the players start to broach the subject, zap 'em. "Mark, I want to start a new. . ." ZZZAP! "Hey, look at this cool new set. . ." ZZZAP!

Seriously, the trick is to get them invested in the world and to show them that their actions change that world. For my game, once the PCs realized that they were having a ripple effect in the world, they wanted to hang around and see what happened.

 

[DarrenGMiller]

Long does not always necessarily mean decent and short does not mean it is not decent. Run the campaign that is most satisfying to you and your players. It sounds like your players like the chance to shift games from time to time. Have you tried resurrecting an old campaign?

If you want to "go long" then try weaving multiple plot lines that will end at different times. To avoid the death = derailment, try to keep plot lines from being too character specific. I have had that problem too.

Also, with episodic campaigns, it is just hard for me to keep it fresh for a long time. It is much easier to make an "epic" campaign last longer.

DM

 

[Arrgh! Mark!]

Piratecat: May I ask for an anecdote or example?

Thanks Wolf, though I'm uncertain of too many interweaving plots. I tried that once; some players liked it, others were confused as for what to do. I've tried to avoid too many plot threads since. Also, would you advise leaving character backgrounds out, or simply nothing of importance other than a RP motivator?

 

[DarrenGMiller]

Piratecat: May I ask for an anecdote or example?

Thanks Wolf, though I'm uncertain of too many interweaving plots. I tried that once; some players liked it, others were confused as for what to do. I've tried to avoid too many plot threads since. Also, would you advise leaving character backgrounds out, or simply nothing of importance other than a RP motivator?

There don't have to be many, just 2 or 3 as long as they involve goals or outcomes of different time frames. In my experience, if I focus on one PC with a plot line, the other players get jeaous of the face time that PC receives, then when I give them all equal time later in the campaign, it seems the original focus players forget that they got theirs already and get jealous. Of course, it could just be my players.

Also, a plot line can be simple.

DM

 

[Mark]

Some of this might be helpful -

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=47525

 

[Rystil Arden]

Since my main DMing strength lies in improvisation, I tend to use that to follow character interests on the fly. For instance, a giant epic plot in the current campaign began as Aust the Barbarian's desire to find the world's best wood to use as a haft for a powerful axe so it wouldn't break. Add in a few PC-related threads to keep it interesting. Here's some examples from mine:

The Wild-Elf barbarian is chosen to go on a quest to save the world's mana flow, which comes from a tree that has excellent wood for his axe-haft. The nymph archmage wants to protect nature, and at the same time she is intrigued with creating a ritual to directly divert flow from the tree to herself. The azer cleric of Moradin follows an ancient prophecy to learn that the dwarven race has a part to play in reforging legendary weapons to use against an Apocalyptic creature that will soon resurface.

Also, family backgrounds from players who don't produce a complete background can help:

The high-elven Incantrix's father is a powerful archmage, who despises his former patron deity, Sehanine Moonbow, because he once irresponsibly shirked his duty to the elves, and a stray fireball from one of Sehanine's minions sent to bring him back killed his wife. Now the PC has to deal with his partly-mad father and his sister--a priestess of Sehanine Moonbow.

The wild-elf actually descended directly matrolinearly from an ancient race of advanced creatures, and his possession of identical mitochondria (which go from mother to child directly) allows him to activate secrets in their ruins.

The azer became blue due to a magical accident, and he and his pixie compatriot roam the world in a never-ending quest to revenge themselves on the mage who wronged them...

 

[A'koss]

I want to expand a little on something here that PirateCat touched on and I feel has played a vital role in our longer term campaigns - characters with goals.

Once characters start to become forces in the world I try to steer them towards putting that power, wealth and influence to work towards some long term goal - even if it's one they may never fully realize in their own lifetimes. Create something in the campaign that outlive the character who made it. Then the, uh, "acquisition of wealth" becomes a means to an end, rather than an end in itself.

Some of the most memorable campaigns were based in this way and many features and locales in our games were created by characters who preceeded them. In Greyhawk City, the most prestigious gaming house/inn in the entire city was built by a Paladin with a dream... and about 1.5 million in gold. We've had characters leave their mark in other ways - building a city in his name (though he never lived to finish it), a well-respected business for... extraplanar activities... and so on .

Cheers!

 

[Runesong42]

Most of my campaigns involve a short series, generally between one and five sessions to wrap up a plotline. When that's done, we move onto something else. I always ask for criticism of my GMing, to which replies are "Good, excellent - but that other campaign you mentioned sounded so cool, I had an idea for a character.."

One interesting idea I've used in the past is taken right out of Dark Sun. Have the players make a "character tree". Each character is present somewhere in the game universe, and players can decide which character to use for the beginning of any adventure. They cannot change during the adventure unless they die, or unless your plot calls for it. Then, as each character gains in XP, the characters all share the same total -- each character advances at exactly the same rate.

Another good plot idea is to have conjointed plots. For example (and I like this example, because I'm a die-hard fan of crossovers), take the CSI series of shows -- CSI, CSI: Miami and CSI: New York. Each "show" has its own "cast", but they are all working in different areas towards the same goal -- solving murders. Now, what would happen if there were some sort of national conspiracy that required these people to work together? In the same vein, you could have the PC's "trade out" each time they want to play something different, you could then run a separate mini-campaign with those characters involved in each area.

That in mind, it should be easy for you to make a ton of mini-adventures which somehow connect with one large, over-arching story line.

Another keen idea is to have your other players try running once in a while, if only so that you can get an idea of what they enjoy in adventures and then plan ahead to include those likes in your own work. Then... you could have a once-in-a-while crossover where PC's from one DM can interact with PC's from another. (Again, crossovers!)

Hope this helps!

Dru

 

[megamania]

This is what I try to do-

1. Come up with a campaign idea that has several parts to it.
2. Decide where defining moments are
3. Have each player create a background
4. Work background into story dirrectly and/or indirectly.
5. Adjust storyline and pacing as player interest varies
6. Ask players what they are looking for.
7. Play

I'll use my current campaign as an example-

1. My current Eberron campaign is the most ambitious project I've ever done. I'm looking to go from level 1 to about level 16 using a central theme of the Creation Schema. There are 6 pieces "lost" throughout the known and unknown world. By locating one piece, clues become availiable to the other pieces. Many factions want this item for themselves.

2. Defining moments- When PCs learn they are being used, Dealing with specific foes from the Emerald Claw and other groups (yet to be revealed to them so zip is my mouth). The assembly of the pieces. The use of the schema and whom ultimately will control it.

3. My artificer Gnome wanted to creat magical constructs
My halfling Rogue wanted to steal everything he could
My human Cleric wanted to explore
My two warforged warriors wanted a new war / mission to complete

4. The schema itself reveals secrets of creation so the gnome is happy. All pieces are in far away lands or dangerous locals so my cleric was happy. Each are protected by guardians so the warforged are happy and there are always other goodies with the pieces for the rogue to find.

As PCs die- I have new backgrounds and interests created
Two wrongfully commited criminals looking to avenge the crimes. And of course the folks that set them up just happen to be involved in the search for the pieces. Another not so wrongly accussed of a crime but must now work with the family he commited a crime against.

5. The gnome decided he wanted to be a Trust member so I brought in Zilargo's Trust. Someone else wanted to try psionics so I allowed that.

6. Between adventures I will directly ask players as a group and individually what they want and where they wish to explore. This allows them to become part of the creative process.

7. Play. We play every second Saturday and love it. If we didn't, we would stop.

Not sure if that helps you or anyone else but its how I do it and it seems to work for our group.