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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wombat" data-source="post: 1608402" data-attributes="member: 8447">This varies from campaign to campaign for me.It almost never starts with a map for me; in fact, I have played with the notion a couple times of having a truly medieval sense of space for the characters where the only map they have is of their (very!) local district -- everything else was vague for them.  My in-the-offing campaign began with the purchase of Monte Cook's AU and a lecture I heard about the Spanish conquest of the New World, how the Spanish took over the Aztecs and Inca through extremely lucky timing as much as anything else -- if they had arrived 20 years earlier or later, the situation might well have been very different, with much stiffer and more organized resistance.  From there I worked up the societies, a couple of rough maps, did some reading on Mayan mythology and technology, Spanish colonization efforts, etc.  In other words, this is a really intensely researched campaign, but most of the research will strictly be in the background, not particularly important to the characters, only to me as the GM.  And I fully admit to this campaign being a bit over-the-top in that department!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />One other campaign I had began with my sig line.  I had a dream about people going into a hall and seeing a group of statues, very realistically carved, but with smooth ovals for faces.  This led to a very creepy fantasty-horror mini-campaign where a group of necromancers had severed the connections between the people in long valley and their gods; the PCs were all locals who knew something was wrong, even though the land had been like this for a generation or more.  I created a general map, several "set piece" adventure ideas, and a rough timeline of events-to-come.  I also edited spell lists and the like.The point though is that while my campaigns sound pretty intense in the R&D department, this is because I have been a GM since Day 1 of my gaming, since 1975/6.  I have worked in grander and grander scope each time, as far as background material that I must at least develop for myself.  BUT a starting GM doesn't need to do nearly so much.  Maybe you want a campaign to focuse on dragon-slaying.  Fine.  Come up with a reason for why they should be killed off, a rough map, and suggestions to the players on what kinds of characters would be most useful.  If you want political intrigue, name a few nobles and start from there.  There are many ways, in other words, to start designing a campaign; it is mainly a matter of taste.You don't need a PhD to design a campaign; I don't have one and it never stopped me.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />  All you really need is love for the game, a fun idea, and a group of willing vict ... errr ... players  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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