Help with campaign planning (my players stay out!!)

[Ellie_the_Elf]

Hi all,

I'm starting running a new campaign in a few weeks' time - this will be my second. First time round, I went in with very little idea of what I wanted to do, or how I wanted to do it, but more through luck than judgement it all came together somewhere along the way (I don't think to this day most of my players have twigged just how many times while they were trying to figure out what was going on with the latest plot development, I was doing exactly the same )

Second time, I'm trying to be a bit more organised!

We've spent some time talking about what kind of campaign the players are interested in, and they've decided they want to do the whole epic journey across the world (The world in this case being Faerun). They (and I) want some kind of big overarching plot, and I've decided to base the whole thing on the rage of the dragons, with the PCs questing for the various orbs of dragonkind (slightly modified from the DMG) which they will then use in some way to stop the problem. The quest for each orb will take them to a different part of the world, and there will be other groups (both good and evil) who basically want the orbs for their own ends.


So if you're still reading...what I'm wondering is how far ahead others plan campaign events/story? Has anyone run a similar campaign before who can offer any advice/things to avoid/useful books or other source material?


Thanks!

Ellie

 

[JVisgaitis]

I do very loose outlines and rarely do much pre-work when DMing. All of my preparation is done at the very beginning of the campaign to get the group together and for key encounters. I would work up a loose outline on how you want to have the campaign play out and just have more then enough material for each session. Don't do a lot of work, because if your players take an unexpected turn, that could throw all of those plans out the window. Hope that helps!

 

[Rel]

Don't do a lot of work, because if your players take an unexpected turn, that could throw all of those plans out the window.

I agree with this. Sort of.

Your players have already agreed to the "epic journey" style of campaign so I'm guessing that they'll be willing to more or less stick with the chase for the Dragon Orbs. In other words, they don't exactly want to hop on the railroad, but they've signed up for the "World Tour" and know there's going to be some kind of itenerary.

What I'd do is this:

Pick several locations where your McGuffins are (in this case the Dragon Orbs). Have a general idea of what the surrounding terrain is like (this should be easy with a published setting) and any particular NPC's or factions operating in those areas. Then dangle some of these leads in front of them and let them pick a direction. THEN you flesh out the particulars of the guardians of that McGuffin.

For example:

You decide that one of them is in some mountains. If the players go after it right out of the gate then you stock it with some Goblins or Orcs led by an Ogre. If they players decide to wait and go after this Orb in the low-mid levels then have it guarded by Duergar led by an Ogre Mage. If they tackle it at mid-high levels, have it be the realm of some Hill Giants or Stone Giants.

That way you're able to have some preconceived notions of what sort of critters you MIGHT want to put them against while still not locking yourself in too soon and avoiding railroading them.

Another approach using the same basic concept would be this:

You put the Orb in the mountains and decide that it is guarded by "evil dwarves". If they go after it early then you just stock it with Evil Dwarves, maybe led by a single Duergar. If they wait to mid levels then have it guarded by Duergar. If they wait to mid-high levels then it is guarded by Duergar with Rogue levels (or Fighter or whatever), led by some kind of Half-Dragon-Demon-Dwarf or something.

Good luck.

 

[JVisgaitis]

I agree with this. Sort of.

I agree with you 100%. You just put it more eloquently then I did. I meant don't over work the particulars of the journey, such as thinking ahead to what the third adventure would be and writing that up.

There is no doubt they will stay the course, but the road there could change because of events that happen in the story. Characters could die, new opportunities could delay or speed up the journey, etc. I usually plan from session to session with an idea of where the story should go next. At the end of each session, you should talk to your players. See what they intend to do so you can plan for it.

If you plan the next session around the party going back to town to restock their supplies and they decide not to, you've wasted your time and you end up having to wing it. I think you get my point. . .

 

[nopantsyet]

I generally flesh out the major plot arc from the very start. Though some particulars of it may change as I flesh out the immediate details, the core of that is sacrosanct.

But I try to come up with numerous likely encounters and let the PCs find them their own way. Sometimes they don't hit all of my encounters, but that's okay. Better to lose a few small encounters than an entire adventure, right?

I figure, out of the portion of my campaign that has not been set in stone (i.e. events that have taken place in-game), at any time about 25% of it is prepared in detail, another 50% that's in some level of composition or revision, and 25% that's completely open. Which gives me lots of time to revise any given segment before it comes up in-game. Most of the time. I've had players make some surprising skips, but at least I'm not completely unprepared.

 

[Ellie_the_Elf]

Thanks all for the advice- I'm lucky that I get plenty of opportunity to talk to my players about what they're planning and we've also set up a campaign message board to use for that kind of thing too..but I suspect they'll still surprise me many times-they usually do

Ellie

 

[Haltherrion]

I generally flesh out the major plot arc from the very start. Though some particulars of it may change as I flesh out the immediate details, the core of that is sacrosanct.

I agree- it can be very effective to create the basic plot structure. It provides the bones for the campaign to "hang on" and can really help you out as a ref when trying to figure out what the next scenario is.

You want to retain flexibility and nothing says you can't change details big and small but having some idea of where the story is going makes for a much more engaging game.

One technique I use is a rule of thirds:

I create an end goal and two intermediate major plot points. Then for the first plot point, I block it out in thirds. If I'm really getting carried away I may block that first sub-third out in thirds again.

A rule of three is well known to players, consciously and un- from fiction where it is used all the time. It also provides some structure without getting too diffuse (that is, by only breaking into threes, you are ensuring that there aren't too many detours to the end).

At any point, you can always reconsider the plot breakout and change something. By frontloading the detail, you haven't invested so much time in the remaining stuff that you can't adapt.

As to the whole matter of whether to have structure, aka plot, in your campaign I'd observe three main points:

1) How many of us like fantasy books and movies without a clear plot?
2) Free form campaigns can work but IME they require frequent game play and lots of player engagement in and out of game
3) Forgoing plot and letting the "players drive things" without the reqiurements of step #2 above results in aimless, forgetable campaigns. It could even be considered a form of referee laziness (been there myself at times.)