GMs: Campaign & Adventure Design Strategies

[Azgulor]

(For the casual pick-up beer-n-pretzels GM, "These aren't the droids you're looking for...")

Lately, I've been giving thought to how I might better introduce thematic elements & atmosphere into my campaigns and/or adventures. My goals are to provide the players with a better game experience but also to help reinforce genre elements as I find it helps me keep the creative juices flowing.

What prompted the thread were a few video game trailers for the Star Wars games Force Unleashed 2 & the Old Republic. The trailers are extremely well done and grab me as a viewer with an incredibly strong "I want to play that!"

Let's face it, bad Star Wars is really, really bad. But Star Wars done right gets you fired up to blast bad guys and swing lightsabers. In the Star Wars genre, you know what to expect. Sure there's room for variation in theme for an adventure or two, but by and large it's Jedi vs. Sith, dogfights in space, and epic battles on alien worlds.

Three other video game franchises, similarly scratch my genre itch:

The Thief series of games, the Mass Effect games, and the Dragon Age: Origins game.

Now being video games, they all have the benefit of graphics, music, sound to reinforce their thematic elements which adds to the superior stories.

At the gaming table, however, I find it much harder to pull off. I want to provide my players the freedom of sandbox-style exploration and decision making yet at the same time reinforce the atmosphere and genre elements (in my particular case, the swords-n-sorcery genre).

So my fellow campaign-driven GMs, how do you do it? Do you let game mechanics only set the tone and reinforce genre elements or are their campaign and adventure design strategies that you employ?

 

[Nagol]

Once I've chosen the genre, tech level, and culture for the game, my next stop is looking for a game engine that fits with the theme and previous choices.

I find the game engine choice pretty critical as a good choice will make a good game decision mesh with a good genre decision and promote the sort of play I want to see at the table.

There are definitely design decisions that go into setting design and scenario design as well. I try to stay true to the original theme and goals for the campaign as the next layers of design are worked on.

The setting and culture needs to support the style of play I want to see as well. If I want to work with a Chivalric period, I make sure the players are aware of the roles of tournaments, parole, and singular combat play in the world. I want the players to see quickly, preferably in the first session or two, the worldview of the people around them.

Scenario design needs to stay clear of design elements that don't work in the game engine. 'Dying declaration' doesn't work well with a game engine that offers near instantaneous healing like D&D, for example.

 

[Woas]

I let the players pick it all.

 

[Rel]

Once I've chosen the genre, tech level, and culture for the game, my next stop is looking for a game engine that fits with the theme and previous choices.

I think that's a great place to start.

Right now I'm running a Deadlands: Reloaded game and I'm fascinated and impressed by how well the genre (Wild, Weird West) is supported by a few simple mechanical changes from the base Savage Worlds rules. The use of poker chips as bennies (action points) and the use of playing cards for a few subsystems in the game are great tactile reminders about the world that the game is set in. It sometimes also helps if we pour a shot of whiskey mid way through the evening.

I think another thing that helps is for you to keep in mind that One Big Thing that is the cornerstone of your game. The last campaign I ran before this was a 4e game in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world where almost the entire surface of the planet was buried under a thick, poisonous, corrupting Mist. And I helped remind myself that the Mist was the One Big Thing by always capitalizing it whenever I wrote or typed the word. If the presence of the Mist had fallen into the background then my game would have been in just another fantasy world (which can still be fun but wasn't what I was after). But I made the Mist a character in the game and it was constantly effecting almost every subplot in the campaign.

I'm a pretty laid back GM and I don't believe in planning things too far into the future. But a little goes a long way in terms of flavor and if you do those couple things I think you'll be well on your way to making your game "pop" and be memorable to the players.

 

[IronWolf]

It sometimes also helps if we pour a shot of whiskey mid way through the evening.

This is never a bad thing...

 

[RangerWickett]

After reading an article on villain leitmotifs in Final Fantasy, I'm pondering if there's a way to accomplish a similar effect in a tabletop RPG without requiring a soundtrack. Like, is there something you can work into the game -- a specific mechanic, environmental element, personality quirk, or encounter style (puzzle?) -- that if you have it crop up every time the villain is involved, will give that villain more weight?

Maybe the villain doesn't himself show up until the final encounter, but by that point you've leveraged the leitmotif enough that he has a persona fixed in the players' minds even before they meet him.

Just a thought. Probably works best for epic fantasy.

 

[RangerWickett]

I highly recommend this article on how to reinforce certain mindsets and behaviors in your players: The Inside Scoop on Gaming - RPGnet

Basically, if you want them to talk to people and form communities, then from the get go, give them situations that require that, and then reward them when they accomplish that. Either give them XP (right away, seriously, like, "Minor quest accomplished. You get XP for that."), or hand them a card or something that says, "You now have the ogre warlord Kishelt as an ally. Here's his stats. You can call upon him in moderation."

Positive reinforcement works much better than negative reinforcement.

 

[ExploderWizard]

Swords & sorcery is a pretty big genre with lots of variation. If you would like a certain feel to permeate your sessions then you will need to get a bit more specific.

The World:
When I think sword & sorcery, the two worlds that leap to mind are Hyboria, and Nehwon. Magic is somewhat mysterious and rare and less available as a resource than in any edition of D&D. Make sure the players would enjoy this kind of setting.

The System:
Make sure you choose a system that your players are least willing to try. There isn't much use in working up a whole campaign based on something that the players have no desire to play. For sword & sorcery something with a very flexible magic system and somewhat gritty combat rules is a good fit. GURPS is good for this but if you have players who hate the system or refuse to try it then there is no point considering it.

The Adventures:
The types of adventures you choose should reinforce the feel that has been set up by the system and the world. In S&S adventures for example it is a good idea to keep the magic level of the world in mind when designing scenarios. It would be hard as a player to get immersed in the feel of the setting if flashy NPC spellcasters were in evidence during most of the adventures.

The Players:
Of course the most important factor in determining the right feel for your campaign are the players. If the people participating in the campaign are not excited by the feel you are trying for then your efforts may be doomed from the start. The more input you can get from players about the type of world, system, and adventures you want to use the more those decisions will be supported in actual play.