How Do You Run a Good Campaign?

[Agback]

How do you make a good campaign?

It's very hard to be specific, partly because tastes vary so much. There are only a few things I can suggest, and they are rather abstract.

1) Have fun. Despite the fact that you are not termed a 'player', RP is supposed to be a game for you, too. Particularly, this means choosing a process that is right for you. Some GMs enjoy detailed preparation, and run a good campaign that way. Others enjoy improvising a dynamic situation around the unexpected actions of PCs, and run a good campaign that way. But GMs labouring at a process they don't enjoy are rarely entertaining, at least not for long.

2) Play up to your players' strengths, and give them what they want. Do not attempt to browbeat them into accepting what you would want in their shoes. Power-gaming and 'roll-playing' are not wrong if the players enjoy them.

3) Read, read, read. I find history, anthropology, and evolutionary biology to be particularly fruitful sources of ideas, you may have other favourites (such as classic adventure stories). But you have to take on cargo before you can deliver.

4) Extrapolate detail from fundamentals, but be intricate, not simplistic. Even if players don't work out what is going all they often appreciate the impression that everything makes a bizarre sort of sense. Besides which, fundamentals are easy to remember and extrapolation can be repeated, but if you produce detail without a framework you will have no choice but to keep copious and unwieldy records.

5) Hone you skills by practice, which means setting youself and completing exercises. For example, go right now and find out about fig wasps. Then prepare and run an adventure using a idea you got from fig wasps.

Regards,


Agback

 

[Creamsteak]

Players come first. Ignore any pre-concieved concepts about your campaign world. Don't limit races, don't limit classes, don't limit allignment, don't limit anything. Let your players take time (lots) to really create a character. Let them look through the epic level handbook if they want. Let them look at every prestige class you have, and tell them that they can make one up if they don't like any that you have.

Once the players have an "idea" of what they want to do, you need to look at ability score generation very specifically. Don't force players to use NPC stat scores, ever. Let thier character concepts decide what kind of ability scores are appropriate. If the players have a lot of "professionals" with professions, crafts, or other skills that are focused on living life like normal people... I recommend 3d6 or 3d6 straight. If you have a lot of people who looked at your epic level handbook, dieties and demigods, and the manual of the planes- I recommend you either give them point buy at 36+ or 5d6 drop two. If you have a lot of adventurers that looked over combat-specific prestige classes, I recommend you use point buy again... to ensure they can do it, or you could go with 4d6 drop one with some degree of insurance that they will get decent scores. There are a lot of other situations... and the dreaded half & half, but I think you all can tell what I'm saying... go with the flow.

Now that you have some relatively defined types of characters, you should think about what world fits them. I know some people are really attached to a specific campaign setting, but don't let it decide anything. If you have professionals... grab yourself a really fletched out world with lots of good fully developed civilizations, cities, countries, laws, and politics. I do know there are some excellent campaigns for this, but I don't think there are any "best" ones... once again, focus on your characters. If you have those super powered characters you need to really think carefully about the world, because things won't look good if you don't make room for things. Players that want to be gods or just really powerful mortals need a world that supports them. Don't be stingy with role-playign opportunities. These players aren't looking for a direct hack-n-slash level up like you might think. What they honestly want, is to be the center of attention. What easier way than being god, right? Make sure you let the world will notice them, whether they are out adventuring to conquer general evil, or just putting down the local thieves guild a notch. They might want a big major plot, but don't force it on them. Try to make them feel like they are important because they are doing whatever they are doing. Don't do the generic "stop bad guy from getting artifact and destroying world" crap... they want to be noticed for what they do... instead of what everyone wants them to do. Now, if you find you have a lot of characters that want to specialize... like becoming an assassin or weapon master, you need to focus more on bringing it out through role-playing. The player shouldn't just walk into an assassins guild and get a job, or go around asking if people want an assassin. Players want the prestige class to come out of the character. Let the player be the driver, but let him learn for himself instead of giving him the instructions. Let him join the assassins by showing promise and getting some kind of line of work. I don't know how much to say about the whole subject, but I know that when someone wants to be an Arcane Archer, they probably used a bow a lot before they gained the class. An Assassin or weapon master should get an opportunity to learn "enough" before they gain the class, but not enough to feel like its just another step...

Erg... this is getting long...

Now you should have an idea of what kind of world to use. Make your own, or modify an existing world enough to accomidate your plan. Professionals should already exist in your campaign world, so thats easy enough to fit in. Epic-Heroes and such might not show up so easily... If there are Epic-Heroes, then you probably need to add a lot to the campaign. If your campaign is prestige-class intensive, or adventure intensive, make sure that the world has a way to accomidate adventurers without losing the realism that you should have...

Now you need to characterise. Help your PCs do this some, but really try to bring it out through NPCs. Memorable NPCs are the best way to bring out characterization. Every group and situation is different... but it comes out through NPCs. Players are likely to just kill threats, ignoring any traits they might have. Players are likely to treat each other with an Out of Character attitude that is hard to break. Focus on the NPCs having friends and not-so-friends in the group. Try to get the characters to make contacts seperately, so that they have friends and people to associate to. If the Weapon Master of your group gets along quite well with a particular monk because they have the same views on life, don't let the monk approach the party as a whole with the same care. NPCs should be built for players as well. In a Professional based game, NPCs should vary from person to person. The Bard/Apothecary sure gets treated nice by the noble that wants to get a "free sample" but the noble is a bastard to everybody else... making the bard suspicous of his intentions and making the party dislike him. Now that bard is going to play a very sense-motive game with this guy, because he isn't a moron. But when that bard gets treated quite nice by the bar-maid in town because she seems to just be a nice person (while playing her as an arrogant and using woman towards the rest of the party) you might see your bard character act a lot more human. He might start thinging with his ... instead of his brain about this bar-maid. Now the party knows he's being not-so-smart, but they also know the bard is being human. Trying to get different attitudes out of different players takes a few dozen sessions, but it does work after you really play the NPCs dramatically. Just don't be a Drama Queen.

Oh god... too long...

So the characters and world are pretty well set. Now you have to plot adventures. Give the players places to look other than the bar... (basically guilds and such work pretty good, but don't forget freelance work and NPCs). Also provide some static locations to visit. Ruins, caves, and other Dungeon Crawls are a good thing to just leave lying around. Don't tell players to go visit a dungeon because they have to, but maybe on the way to another town they find the old dwarven citidel, and that could be an interesting place to look for magical items, but they also don't have to visit it. Static adventures are important to giving a fantasy setting a degree of fantasy realism. In the hobbit they had to travel through some of those caves and places to get from point A to point B. I recommend against this. Let A and B be pretty easy to get between, but allow the players to side-track through point C if they want to Dungeon crawl. Also non-combat adventures are fun, and so are quickies. A woman who passes out in the street can lead to some experience points if the players help her out at some risk to themselves. Plus it doesn't take any time, gives the world one more hint of realism, and makes another friend.

Also, rewards should be plentiful, even if minute. Not every merchant is trying to rip you off, or get you killed. Keep the rip offs and threats around, just not to the point that they become the standard. Overly tough headed townspeople make players aggrivated. Also, there is no reason to simplify the simpler activities, let the trade of gems for gold be somewhat related to who they know in town. Not to shoot down the buy/sell speed, but just allow it to give some hint of a world as a whole.

Ick... theres so much more to say, but I'm not in a typing mood (though this thing would attest otherwise). I didn't say some things as smoothly as I would have chosen too given a little more time to think about it, but somebody needs a nap.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Another point, since nobody else has mentioned it yet - read the Dungeoncraft articles, which are all published online in the 'dragon' section of the wizards web site.

Excellent stuff

 

[Tonguez]

Characters Characters are everything makle usre that your PCs have backgrounds and personalities, families and memories.Make sure that both your players and yourself as DM 'know' that characters. Work the character histories into your story, make family members and other aquaintances into NPCs.
Remember that NPCs are characters too and the important ones should be as well developed as PCs.

Purpose: Get the players (including DM) to decide how they know each other and why they are together now in this setting. Define a purpose for the PCs being together now, cooperating to overcome challenges and achieve goals. Once this purpose has been defined and clearly understood then the whole job of developing the story is much easier as every interaction with the setting will be guided by the groups purpose for being there

Setting Stories arise when Characters interact with the world around them so make sure that the world is interesting and 'alive. keep it open and dynamic and remember that NOTHING exisits in a vacuum.
Remember also however that EVERY setting is a Dungeon with various 'rooms' whether it be an underground tomb, a city, an expanse of forest or a ship at sea - Video games usually divide their settings' into zones or stages and this should be done in rpg settings too. Each dungeon/setting' features 3 things a monster a treasure and a secret that is each room is a discrete area in which the PCs can interact with:
the enviroment/special sites
monsters/NPCs/puzzles/challenges
treasure/information/plot hooks
secrets

Never be linear allow PCs to go where and do what they want in each 'area' of your setting. If it is well designed and has a 'monster', a 'treasure' and a 'Secret' then the PCs can interact and from this creater a story

Scenario Encounters and Events should be planned and sprinkled throughout settings in order to give characters a reason to act. Some encounters and events are important and will lead to adventures, others may be of little obvious conseequence (until later) and some may never be discovered by the PCs

Golden Thread A setting should have some overriding rationale or 'ethos' which links the various areas of the setting and the encounters and events together. This may be an overarching plot, or simply a 'theme'. This however is very important in making sure that there is consistency and flow

 

[Kibo]

Gaaah!

Wow, I must suck then. I'm the antithesis of preparation. I've always found it useless. The few times I've tried it, it's DOA (excepting exactly 3 occasions). And when I abandon it, I'm rewarded.

I go for a little more of a movie feel. Watch a lot of movies, know the rules, get the nugget of a plot, make some badass NPC's and get ready to rumble.

Getting players to follow whatever story I think I have mapped out has always been like herding cats. They're gonna do what they're gonna do, and careful preparation will probably get shot to poop before they roll the opening credits. So I go with something more...dependable. Motivations. NPC's are my characters, typically the Players play the heroes, but I get to play the villains, the wild card, the day players and the crowd. If the NPC's wander, the motivations of the villains will pull them back in, or the wild cards needs will change their path, or they won't in which case it's time for a cool spontaneous sub-plot. It just makes it way easier. Play *your* characters, the players play theirs and the story writes itself. Almost.

You can be a Shakespearean role-player. No, you don't have to speak in iambic pentamiter, wear tights, or die in a tragically ironic gaming accident. Remember what interesting, funny, cool, or just (by any measure) noteworthy, things the players did, and when an opportunity presents itself to have one of those things brought back up, do so.

Other movie-isms, establish your villains. That opening sequence where they throw down unholy hellfire unto their hapless victims and disappear, yeah, they need one. This is easy. The bad guys have the gear, the know how, the plan, and most importantly, the element of surprise. The PC's, can monkey with it, and maybe take down some henchmen to stroke their egos, but the out come was never in doubt. Remember your Sun-Tzu, it's not the best warrior, it's he who chooses when, where, and how to fight best.

Everyone loves the underdog. Therefore, PC's should be the underdog. Don't be afraid of sending the PC's into the lions teeth against a foe who on a level playing field could never loose. If you don't know how they can win, that's their problem . And when they do, it will be that much cooler.

Deus Ex Simian, aka the monkey with the wrench. Every good story has twists, one way to do this is with an NPC, who has similar but different interests as the PC's. You could do this almost any way I suppose, perhaps even diametrically opposed. This could be a love interest, a more dramatic version of a caravan I suppose, the buddy with or without problems, who may or may not be reliable, or any number of the thousand variations one sees. Work them up like they were a character. What do they want? Who do they think they are? Where do they fit in? Why do the do that voodoo that they do so well? How much do they know? If you know the answers to those questions, then the players can't send you somewhere you're not prepared to go.

Man Up. Luck Favors the Bold. And if the PC's know this, they'll probably choose the moment of your climax at least as much as you will. But, to a large part you control the setting. So if I was going to plan a lot, this is what I'd plan. Not with painstaking maps, and all kinds of obscure details I could never use. But I would want a very clear, firm image of what it would be like, look, smell, sound, feel etc. When the time comes, feel it out, does it feel like Clint Eastwood in the old west? A mexican standoff? The end of Empire Strikes Back?

But how to get the player(s) to take the bait? Not that every adventure shouldn't start with the PC's walking into a quaint tavern where a withered old man in a robe asks, "Want to make a few gold pieces?", but...well...they really shouldn't. Just figure out what kind of bait the PC's want to take. Don't be worry if you have to try a few lures out, sometimes it is more about drinking beer than ending a day with entrails in your hand. (I'm talking to you Tony, and I'm not just talking about fishing.)

You can lead a player to danger but you can't make him think. If they do something that would get them killed, injured, or possibly deported, don't hold back. Sometimes this can be the cool opening scene that establishes the villain for the character they've just started rolling up. Sometimes it ends up on the "How Not To Be A Superhero" instructional video. (Can I get an amen for my brother with the shoe box of pictures?)

 

[Spider_Jerusalem]

I'll be very quick...

1. Flesh out the game world. If the adventurers are offered a job and they turn it down, let them see a different party taking it.

2. Recurring villains. You must do this well... make sure they can get away when they need to. Fight on their terms. Be evil. The more evil they are the more the players hate them.

3. Refer to point 1.

4. Don't always make CR2 monsters for a 2nd level party. Put smaller and bigger challenges in the mix. A lone goblin... what to do? A huge sword spider (sorry... personal favourite)... RUN!!! - make the PC's take different courses of action.

5. Give them love interests and people to care about. Important. Then let the villains find out.

6. Give scenarios where the PC's must talk to villains - for example jousting tournaments are perfect for witty banter, but no sword play (and if it does severe public repercussions)

7. Give lots of places to go. Make the players make choices. Search for the DeadlyDragon or find little lost Suzie?

8. Go back to 1 and reread through to 8.

9. Oh yeah. Get the players to imagine their characters at their last level... what they can do, what they are etc. Lets you work towards what the players would like. Be tactful though.

10. have other parties that the PC's can see doing their stuff as they go about theirs. Good fun to keep updated on that all-halfling dragon-attack team.

11. Refer to number 8.


Lots of others that I'm sure are covered else where. Thats the ones that hit me right away.
Final rule: You give the characters their motivations, they'll make their own noose.

 

[Schmoe]

In my opinion, there are several key points that lead to a good campaign.

1. The enjoyment of the players makes the game. If your players enjoy going off and doing things regardless of what plot hooks you have set for them, spend a lot of time detailing NPC's and areas for them to interact with. If your players enjoy following along with whatever plot hook you throw at them, trusting in you to provide a good story, then spend more time detailing an elaborate story arc that will take them on a glorious ride.

If your players enjoy more combat, make sure to create interesting combat scenarios.

If your players enjoy more intrigue, make sure to create engaging political and social scenarios.

And so on.

2. Variety is the spice of life. A scenario, mood, or plot twist works best when it is different, and repeating the same thing over and over can quickly become tedious. Decide what the primary theme of your campaign world will be, and then find ways to work in an occasional scenario in direct contrast to that theme. For example, my game is a mix of Howard, Dante, and Lovecraft, that is to say it's heavy on darkness, evil, and corruption, but in the next session the players will come across a group of happy-go-lucky brewer gnomes in a secluded woodland clearing, where they can have a chance to relax, laugh, and rejuvenate their spirits.

3. The world lives and breathes through you. That means that the more consistent information and details you can provide to the players about the world, the more it will seem real to you. If you need to spend time writing up snippets of interesting factoids about the world, do so. If you are comfortable using improvisation to flesh out the world, do so. Create engaging NPC's. Create interesting cities. Create interesting facts about gems, or herbs, or dragons, or whatever you want, and then find a way to work them into the game. I have yet to meet a player that hasn't appreciated the detail you will provide.

4. A long-term goal is good, but short-term adventures make the game. Regardless of how distant or near, urgent or low-priority, a long-term goal can only provide direction. It is your task to provide small goals for the players to accomplish in each session. Some players are good at creating these goals on their own, some are not. At least every two or three sessions, the players should be able to look back and say "Well, that was hard-fought, but we did it. Good job. Now what's next?"

5. Keep the rules and players in check. It is very easy, especially with third party materials, for the balance of the game to begin to teeter. When your 1st level wizard is casting Charm Person with a DC of 19, without the benefit of magical items, something is wrong. Take the time to learn the rules and understand how they are balanced against each other, and you will be much more comfortable with allowing certain options while forbidding others. Don't necessarily go on the advice of others without examining something yourself. For example, I have personally disallowed the Greater Spell Focus and Persistent Spell feats, though these seem to be taken for granted by most of the people I see posting on these boards. Especially if you are new to the system, you may want to begin a campaign using only the core rules. You might be surprised by just how many options PC's have using just these rules.

6. Have fun! It's a game, for crying out loud! If tempers begin to flare, or players begin to sulk, everyone needs to take a time out and re-evaluate their position. That means you, too. If your players tell you that you seem especially testy or grumpy that night, listen to them. They're probably right.

 

[el-remmen]

Well, first of all planning. . .

A good campaign is planned and a Gm starts with a good and firm guideline for character creation for his players.

That is to say, one thing that can ruin the verisimilitude of a game is having characters who are TOO disparate or have TOO varied goals for themselves. . . Specail limitations on races, classes, religious preference or even gender are all acceptable if they will help create an atmosphere for the campaign which will aid play.

For example, in my "Out of the Frying Pan" campaign I set up the following limitations:

1) All characters must have a reason for wanting to avoid being conscripted into the civil war going on.

2) Only one player could play a non-human (first come first serve)

3) Only one player could play a female character (first come first serve)

And the usual no evil alignments. . .

This allowed me to start the campaign in a particualr way without cheesy or forced beginings and point it in a certain direction before the player s run rough-shot over the whole thing


But all the planning and guiding in the world which can help make a good campaign also runs counter to the other element needed for a good game - which is as GM you have to be able to let your players DO ANYTHING and GO ANYWHERE and NEVER be afraid to play out the consequences of ANY actions the PC might take - even if it means ths campaign ends because they all end up in the King's dungeon or some such.

Knowing your players is important, but personall, I'd rather find new players than change my style of play or change my campaign idea - which I have done before.

 

[Leopold]

i can do it in one simple easy rule:

1. Make sure your players are having fun!


If the pc's aren't having fun, they will not want to come back and play. Find out what they like and how they want to have fun and build upon that. If they are not happy they will not return hence your campaign will fail. I have found that just making sure that everyone is enjoying what i do after every session gives me strength to go on as well as the players drooling in anticipation for the next session...


Example: I had a player in mine whom i gamed with for a while. He dropped out of one game becuase it was redundant and boring. I mentioned i was starting up a game and he said "Sure, I'll come and play".

So 4:00pm comes on our first game session and he shows up to play. Introductions for players goes on and we game till around 830pm where his kid calls him. Everyone has a great time and we comment on starting earlier. He says "I have to spend time with the family but I might be able to push it to 3:30pm to be here and i might be able to stay a bit later too". Well that was 5 weeks ago, and now he is the first person to ask "Can we start at noon now?!??!?! This ending at 10pm is rubbish, come on, Im not tired!!" I chuckle everytime i picture him getting ripped a new one when he gets home and laughing about it the next week. But he and the players are having fun and that's all that counts..

 

[Hand of Evil]

Do not allow your game world to be static, it needs to have a life and grow beyond what happens with your players. It has been my feeling that the players like seeing that the world goes by and stuff happens.

Knowlwdge - know your players, their characters, the game, the rules and what you as a DM want to do.

Interaction - work with the players, talk with them after the game. Use NPCs during the game.

Keep it simple - don't tray to do too much as a DM, some DMs go for really complex plots and adventures. For this to work you have to have a fantastic group of players.

Handouts - take the time to set out some of your notes on your world myth. What is evil, what are the powers of your world, what PrCes you allow, stuff like that. Also note changes or notes you have with spells (harm has will save).