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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Scorponox" data-source="post: 5426427" data-attributes="member: 93144">I've only DM'ed (and currently only DMing) one campaign, but my world has come alive. I'm not a veteran DM by any means but in my opinion, it's about conflict, conflict, conflict! That is the first reason players adventure. Everything else revolves around that. Give them a problem first, whether it be marauding bandits, an earthquake that has left a city in ruins, or a young dragon which has come into the area to establish her lair. And the story, settings, personalities, and factions all change and center around the conflict. If it's marauding bandits, then goal is to see them driven off. If it's the earthquake, maybe it's to help the people find food and fight off looters. If it's a young dragon, then the endgame is to see it killed or scared away.Think of every sci fi or fantasy TV show which is considered good. I like to use Battlestar Galactica (the new one) and Deep Space Nine as examples. In BSG, it starts with the Cylon attack on the 12 colonies, and immediately, they are on the run. How the various people deal with it, and the different personalities in conflict with each other is what drove good drama. In DS9, it was about the Federation helping Bajor get back on it's feet after the Cardassians stripped them of their resources and occupied their planet for decades.In BSG, the endgame was to either find earth, or die trying, and it took them 4 seasons to finally resolve that issue.In DS9, then endgame was to see Bajor join the Federation. Both end results were not apparent until a little later into the series, and in your games, if you set it up correctly, you will not have to tell your players "you have to do this" but it will be apparent that they will have to do something to solve the conflict once and for all.All the stuff you have written down is great stuff, but I think MOST people will not want to read all that text. Give them a simple hook, just maybe 2-3 paragraphs, and in it, a conflict, and some short, medium, and long range goals. That establishes a good, working skeleton. The rest of it, like cultures, people, history, is all meat and bones. But it will fall limp without a good reason why they are adventuring.</blockquote>

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