How Do You Run a Good Campaign?

[LostSoul]

Huh?

(re: "crack the whip")

If you have to say, "Look people, this is MY game, so we play it my way!" I think you should re-evaluate your decision to be the DM. If you make a hack & slash dungeon and the players would rather hang out at the inn, trying to make enough gold by fleecing the local thieves guild, don't get upset and threaten to take your books home. And you shouldn't be upset if you make a tragic love story that revolves around a posh party, and the players want to bash heads in the dungeon.

 

[Graf]

Perception is everything

Just started my first long term game (after years and years of being a player)

Personally I think that talking about "sub-plots vs. main plots" and so on kind of misses the forest for the trees. Here's my breakdown.

There are two questions:
1. What makes a good game?
2. What is a good way to game master?

A good game is where a bunch of people who like each other (ideally friends) get together to play in character, over come challenges and accomplish goals (or feel a sense of acompishment) and have fun in a world that feels accetably real to them.
A good DM makes this happen.

Ideally
the people should like each other (I'm not afraid to work things so that irritating people don't play in my games..... other people I know feel like they should include everyone... its a personal kind of choice.)
they should have characters that they like, feel like they had a say in creating and which have backgrounds that are tied into the world.
well done backgrounds give people motivations to do things, they cause characters to seek out challenges and thus have the opportunity to overcome them and feel that sense of accomplishment. Characters who are overcoming goals for personal reason (vs. get xp, get treasure) feel a lot more accomplishment.
realism is the hardest thing to talk about. The best thing to say is "go nuts". Do funny voices, gesticulate wildly, tell them exactly what it is you're seeing in your minds eye. if the world lives and breaths in your mind then it will just come out if you throw yourself into the game.




One think I think people are missing or not saying directly:

Perception is everything.

Its doesn't really matter whether the PCs -are- the center of the universe, or whether you make up 70% of the game on the spot. So long as people feel like you've planned everything out for weeks in advance and it was only their brilliant thinking that allowed them to escape what you though was a death trap then everything sort of falls into place.
Likewise the PCs could spend (and I've done this) the whole game doing things that seem irrelivant but turn out later to be extremely important. Some players handle this better than others.

Dungeon craft had the best advice I've seen in a while: "don't over create". Keep things vague until you absolutely need to make a key decision.
FOCUS ON THE NEXT GAME SESSION. Its the one that matters. You'll have the week after to worry about the next one.

There will be lots of crisis moments were people do unexpected things and you wind up making things up on the spot. You won't have time to think much, just go over things for a second and say whatever comes out of your mouth. Write down a note or two about it and worry about it later.
Listen. Talk to the PCs after the game (having dinner together is good) find out what they think but not by asking just let them talk. Send out plot summaries after each game so people remember what happened (you'll usually get replies from people that give you good hints about how the game went for those people).

My personal taste is to avoid big pushy metaplots. The big metaplot should be like it is in a good CRPG..... its always there and its always looming but the PCs aren't constantly forced to go after it. I like to let the PCs feel like they can do anything they want and just run with it.

Let PCs know that they're "creating the character WITH you" and that sort of thing. Change things in their backgrounds (sometimes telling them sometimes not). Each character needs the following
1. They're from some place (especially if its "some village" you need to know about that village). I like making people from weird places. Its easier.
2. Everyone has family, especially parents and brothers and sisters, one mentor and at least one childhood friend. They can call on these people in game.
3. Everyone has one immeadiate sort of goal as a result of their background ("reclaim the lands stolen from me" "find my missing mother" "I'm dying of a strange disease and I must find the cure" -- these are all currently from my game and they were all made up by-the-players).
4. Everyone's background has a secret that's going to shock them when they find out about it. (Dungeoncraft on the WotC site was dead-on about this).

I (respectfully) think that creamsteak's idea about allowing anything is just a terrible idea. Let people look at everything they want, pick the most outlandish idea possible and then beat them until its actually playable. In general anything that you think is "too weird" is fine. (its not weird it just seems like it now) anything that would break the game is not. Any player who wants to play a "new class" should keep the same character idea but make that character a core class. I think letting Pcs make their own Prestige classes is just a terrible idea but mostly because you need to redo it to make it work 90% of the time. If you have the time and know the rules better than your PCs then its not the end of the world.

Give people "character treats". In parituclar magic items. Attach catches to the magical items. In particular give pcs who seem to want the "extra power". Pretty soon they learn that they can have lots and lots of powerful .... but they'll wind up regretting it. Its a tough line to follow but its the best way to go.

Don't roll abilitiy scores at lower levels. Don't roll hit points. Which is to say "you can roll 4d6 like in the PH. You can keep those scores or use 32 points to build your scores like in the DMG". "Everyone rolls hitpoints. You can keep that roll or take 8 points for d10, 6points for 8d, 4 for d6 or 3 for d4". Making PCs more powerful just means that they won't die randomly as much. Just give NPCs 50-80% of their total and move along. I've never understood the whole rolling thing.

 

[Voobaha]

Here's my 2 cents worth on the topic of setting up a campaign. So much good advice has already been given, I had to struggle to think of something that hasn't already been said.

I first learned to really be a good GM by playing Champions. The Hero System Rulebook has one of the absolute best GM sections; it takes you step by step into how to set up a campaign from scratch. This section was written by Rogue Squadron author and Champions Gaming guru Aaron Allston. In 1983 he was an original Champions playtester, and set up one of the first superhero campaigns on record. Hero Games published his original campaign, "Strike Force", in which Mr. Allston describes the history of how he set up the game and how he dealt with all sorts of problems that occurred (with solutions).

For example, he describes how he handled it when a player had to move away, or new players were recruited; how he handled getting burnt out; how he learned to communicate better with a female player to give her more of what she wanted (slightly less action, a little more swashbuckling romance), etc etc.

He also defines different player stereotypes. He argues that you need to figure out what each player wants in the game, and then give it to them. He also singles out problem players and suggests solutions.

Some examples:
"The Plumber" - a player who likes to develop a character with a rich background and then "plumb" the character to it's depths. You must provide the plumber with a wide variety of difficult moral situations to deal with and relationships to act out, or they won't be happy.

"The Pro From Dover" - This player has to be the best at everything (world's greatest martial artist, strongest man in the world, etc). Let the Pro get a chance to shine occassionally, but not at the expense of stealing the other players' spotlight.

"The Mad Slasher" - A selfish player who takes out his frustrations on the game, killing NPCs (sometimes even other PCs) without regard to the story or the enjoyment of the other players. Either talk to the Slasher about the problem or kick him out of the game...

Anyway, this post is getting long. If you can pick up a copy of the Hero System rulesbook, maybe an older copy on eBay, it's worth it.

It includes an extemely useful worksheet for planning campaigns: a "Ground Rules" form that I'll repeat here at the risk of making this post astronomically long, so please bear with me:
Hell, actually, let me just make it a separate post...

 

[Xarlen]

I want to write an article on this very subject.

Does anyone apose for me using some points made here, or using the initial idea?

 

[Voobaha]

CAMPAIGN GROUND RULES SHEET

This worksheet is organized to help you think through and plan out a campaign. Fill out this sheet (with player input) and hand it out to the players, so they all know what kind of game you're playing, and what the rules are going to be ahead of time. It's mostly from the FANTASY HERO rulesbook, embellished by me.

CAMPAIGN GROUND RULES SHEET

1) GENERAL DESCRIPTION & GOALS
(A paragraph sized blurb describing what the campaign is about. Especially what the GOALS are. Are they ACHIEVABLE? If so does the campaign have a time limit? For example, if your PCs goals are to throw the One Ring into the Volcano from which it was forged, will they win the game and end the campaign? If your game has NON-ACHIEVABLE GOALS--like most continuing campaigns--then the PCs finish lots of quests, but there's always new, changing things to strive for. Finally, do the PCs all have the SAME GOAL (ex: defeat the dark lord) or OVERLAPPING GOALS (fred the rogue wants to get rich, thelma the paladin wants to defeat evil, and scooby the mage is lonely and wants to adventure with his friends...) ).

2) IMPORTANCE OF THE PCs
(Describe how important the PCs are to events in the game world)
*All Important (PCs are superheroic, the fate of the world rests on their shoulders. ex: PCs are demi gods)
*Very Important (heroes are an elite group of individuals who have a major impact on the world. ex: they are the Avengers or the Fellowship of the Ring)
*Important (PCs make a difference & are exceptional heroes, but their actions usually don't have earth-shattering consequences. ex: most D&D heroes, most superteams)
*Unimportant (a rare choice, PCs don't/can't make much impact on the world. ex: PCs are drones in a nightmarish totalitarian state, PCs are footsoldiers serving under high level NPCs, etc)

3) CAMPAIGN TONE
(What is the outlook and feel of the adventures in your campaign? Is it funny or serious? Is it going to be consistent, inconsistent, or gradually change--for example starting upbeat and then getting slowly grimmer as the forces of evil threaten the campaign world. Define the campaign tone through it's:
MORALITY (how clear are moral choices)
REALISM (is the game going to be wildly dramatic and flashy, or realistic and/or gritty)
OUTLOOK/SERIOUSNESS (how easy is it to win--are things optimistic or pessimistic & how seriously are you taking this? Is the game grim or played for laughs?)
CONTINUITY (how connected are the adventures & how important is it to you?)

*MORALITY (rate 1-5): 1) Good vs Bad is black & white; 2)Good v Bad mostly clear cut; 3)Some crossover; 4) Little distinction; 5) Morality always shades of grey
*REALISM (rate 1-5): 1) Very Romantic, nobody ever dies; 2) Romantic; 3) Neutral; 4) Realistic; 5) Extremely realistic, PCs suffering from bleeding and permanent disability from combat
*OUTLOOK (rate 1-5): 1) Everything works out - Very Optimistic; 2) Almost everything works out; 3) Seriousness balanced by light hearted; 4) More serious than light hearted; 5) Almost entirely serious
*CONTINUITY (rate 1-5): 1)Episodic -- No effort is made to tie adventures together [ex: The Brady Bunch, Gilligan's Island]; 2) Mostly episodic, with some continuing stories [ex: Star Trek TNG, James Bond Movies]; 3) Some long stories, some episodic [ex: the X-Files]; 4) Mostly serial, some enforcement of campaign continuity [ex: most superhero comic books; 5) Entirely Serial -- everything must fit into the storyline [ex: TV soap operas, "24"]

PHYSICAL WORLD (DESCRIPTION)
(what is the world like and where is the SETTING? Is it *Familiar*, so the players can understand and relate to it easily, or is it *Unfamiliar* that the players will have to learn a lot of weird stuff to play in it?)

CHARACTER STATS/REQUIREMENTS
(Describe how you're going to roll up characters. What level does everyone start at? What equipment is allowed?)

HOUSE RULES
(Are there any rules changes in this campaign? Make sure you and the players know and agree on them before the game starts to avoid arguments later).

MAGIC
OCCURRENCE OF MAGIC (Rate from 1-5):
1) No magic; 2)Some, usually in form of items/creatures; 3) Magic Uncommon, but accessible by PCs; 4) Magic common, items and creatures abound; 5) Campaign is steeped in magic, everything is magical

INFLUENCE OF MAGIC (Rate from 1-5):
1) Magic useful for only minor tasks; 2) Magic useful, but not on a large scale; 3) Mix of powerful & weak magic; 4) Magic extremely influential; 5) Magic powerful enought to alter game world on massive scale

SOURCE OF MAGIC
(Where does magic come from and how does society view it's use?)

STATE OF RELIGION
What Gods/Pantheons (if any) exist in world? How does religion affect world?

CIVILIZATION/TECH LEVEL
How much knowledge does the world possess? Do people live in the stone age and use magic for their needs, or do they drive fantastical steam dirigibles and spelljam thru space?




Anyway, hope this helps. I'll provide an example campaign in another post...

 

[Falcon]

This is a great thread.

I tend to run long campaigns--generally 2 years in real life time. Besides all of the previous excellent commentary ( I hope this thread gets archived), I'd like to suggest that DMs maintain the focus on what made them passionate about the campaign, the players, and the campaign setting to begin with.

There are things I do really well, and things I don't do so well as a DM, and I have decided to focus on what I do well, because the players respond with enthhusiasm to what I do well. My campaign is not for everyone, and I make that clear as best I can.

Oh, and something else. Doing something like throwing a dinner party or a barbecue, and inviting all your and their friends who don't game in your campaign to come on over and hang out, or instead of gaming, going to a ball-game or on a hike or something, every once in a while is great. I really do enjoy getting to know the people I game with outside of the game context, and, believe me, it does support the campaign to be able to hang out and be who you are with people you spend a significant amount of time together with.

 

[Voobaha]

GROUND RULES EXAMPLE

Here's a couple short examples of how you can use the GROUND RULES SHEET to make just about any fantasy campaign:

#1 THE WORLD OF ANURIA

1) GENERAL DESCRIPTION & GOALS
Weird fairytale fantasy campaign: The PCs are strange (sometimes grotesque) fey creatures in a highly magical kingdom ruled by the immortal Erl King. The world is threatened by the sinister Clockmaster and his steam powered technological minions who are invading from another dimension. The Erl King tasks his Moon Elven Daughter to gather a fey fellowship (the PCs) to infiltrate the Clockmaster's blasted "METAL LANDS" and find a way to assassinate him before his technology destroys the world. The problem, he's immune to magic and the PCs are all magical creatures. This shared UNIFIED GOAL has a definite time limit of 3 real months (our group's summer vacation time).

2) IMPORTANCE OF THE PCs
The PCs are ALL IMPORTANT: during this short campaign, the fate of the world rests on the PCs elite shoulders. They are the heroes of the fey races.

3) CAMPAIGN TONE

MORALITY 4) Little distinction between Good & Evil: In this fey and dangerous world, our heroes face many grim moral choices that you wouldn't expect in most fairy tales
REALISM 3) Neutral: Sometimes things work out, but the PCs can die. Things get less light hearted as the game progresses
OUTLOOK 4) More serious than light hearted: Fairies aren't cute, they're kinda creepy. Neil Gaiman would love this.
CONTINUITY 5) Entirely Serial -- everything must fit into the storyline, a short, focused campaign where the PCs save the world or die trying

PHYSICAL WORLD (DESCRIPTION)
This is an UNFAMILIAR SETTING. All sorts of weirdness exists in a sometimes nightmarish fantasy world. The setting consists of one major continent with lots of enchanted lakes, vales, towns & forests. Think the Neverending Story mixed with Arthurian Legend mixed with Time Bandits. Everything is infused with magic, but the world is starting to break down due to the Clockmaster's influence.

CHARACTER STATS/REQUIREMENTS
All classes but sorcerer & wizard are allowed. PCs start as 7th level heroes. PCs may choose several magical items from a DM prepared list. (etc etc)

HOUSE RULES
New Fey races have been specially created for this campaign. All PCs are magical, and can cast spells as a 3rd Level Sorcerer for free at the start of the game. Characters can't become sorcerers or Mages though, as magic is low powered (see below).

MAGIC
OCCURRENCE OF MAGIC (Rate from 1-5):
5) Campaign is steeped in magic, everything is magical

INFLUENCE OF MAGIC (Rate from 1-5):
2) Magic useful, but not on a large scale: Everything is magical on the world, but in a low powered fashion. It's commonplace, but there are no great sorcerers, but everyone's a naturally low level sorcerer.

SOURCE OF MAGIC
Magic is the force that binds the world together. It infuses everthing. Without it, the world would cease to exist.

STATE OF RELIGION
The Fey peoples pay homage to the Erl King, who they worship as a demigod. The Erl King's health starts to fail as the world dies--he is a magical barometer reflecting the state of ANURIA

CIVILIZATION/TECH LEVEL
Early medieval technology, though the Gnomes know how to make magical gadgetry reminiscient of early steam-era Victorian England. They seek to use this forbidden technology against the Clockmaster.


another example follows...

 

[Voobaha]

EXAMPLE 2

#2 SLARSH'S SEWER RATS

1) GENERAL DESCRIPTION & GOALS
The PCs are a group of scummy half orcs that can pass for human. They are bumbling misfits, brought up in an orc tribe where they've lived as second class citizens, hated & feared for their human-ness. The Orc Warchief, Slarsh makes them part of an "elite" team called the "Sewer Rats". He sends them into the human lands as advance scouts for an invading orcish horde. Will the Sewer Rats find glory & acceptance by performing thankless missions for the tribe, or is Slarsh just trying to get rid of them?

2) IMPORTANCE OF THE PCs
The PCs are UNIMPORTANT: the PCs are bumbling squabbling fools, and the missions they're sent on are seemingly designed to get them killed. The goal of the game is to survive through deviousness, but this isn't possible without a team effort. It's a long term campaign played for as long as we feel like it.

3) CAMPAIGN TONE

MORALITY 4) Little distinction between Good & Evil: In this cynical game, everyone looks out for number one, even the cute little peasant kids
REALISM 2) Romantic: Even though the players are idiots, they're insanely lucky. Weird, paranoid, even wacky behavior is rewarded.
OUTLOOK 1) almost entirely light hearted: This is a fantasy version of Paranoia meets Mission Impossible, played for laughs.
CONTINUITY 2) Mostly Episodic, occasionally some continuing stories. This is a humorous game; things don't always have to make sense.

PHYSICAL WORLD (DESCRIPTION)
The World of Greyhawk will be used. It's a standard medieval swords n' sorcery world, but seen through the eyes of Orcs.

CHARACTER STATS/REQUIREMENTS
All classes allowed, all standard rules apply. PCs will be rolled with only 3d6, arranging stats to taste, as these guys are idiots. PCs start at 1st Level. PCs with who's stats add up to 48 or less may be freely rerolled until a PC with 49 or more points is generated.

HOUSE RULES
PCs receive 5 LUCK POINTS at the start of the campaign, which they can use to reroll any die roll (friendly or enemy). They can also be used to modify any d20 die roll by +2 before making the roll. You can spend a LUCK POINT to reroll a die and apply a +2 bonus to the reroll with another LUCK POINT. Bonus LUCK POINTS get awarded regularly during game sessions for particularly clever, spirited or funny behavior at the DM's whim. LUCK POINTS are awarded at the end of sessions too. LUCK POINTS are a primary way to stay alive, so stay in character and make the game fun for everyone. Especially the DM.

MAGIC
OCCURRENCE OF MAGIC (Rate from 1-5):
3) Magic uncommon, but accessible

INFLUENCE OF MAGIC (Rate from 1-5):
3) Mix of powerful and minor magic.

SOURCE OF MAGIC
Standard D&D--magic is elemental and planar energy focused by mages and sorcerers.

STATE OF RELIGION
Standard Greyhawk Pantheons. PCs worship Orc Gods provided by DM. Are they watching the PC's petty struggles? Do they care? More importantly, do they have a sense of humor?

CIVILIZATION/TECH LEVEL
Mid to Late Medieval technology. The Orcs are behind the average tech of the world. They have mix of early medieval and scavenged human equipment. PCs are used to being cringing tribal cowards, and might have trouble "adjusting" to human customs.


Okay, enough examples...just got creative and have waaaay too much free time. Hope this helps.

 

[rendarkin]

Just a few DMing tricks

Handouts: They've been mentioned several times and I've always found them to be great. I cannot stress maps enough, however. If you draw/print out a nice large map with lots of detail and just start putting unlabbeled 'X's in the wood here, some wilderness there, adventurers might just go checking those out just cause they want to know. Maps are wonderful self-starters and they help the players really feel that the world is "real".

Rumors: Rumors are great. If players overhear stories (that may or may not be true; that you may have extensively written in detail or be pulling out of thin air on the spot), it also engages them and makes the world seem real. My favorite rumors, though, are rumors (often exaggerated or wrong) of the PLAYER CHARACTER'S exploits. They LOVE to hear that, and often enjoy either correcting the mistakes or posing as someone totally ignorant who "wants to hear the whole tale". It's an obscure (and free) form to reward: to be remembered and integrated into the world.

Mysteriousness: (old Gygx trick) - roll dice for no reason every now-and-then and look at notes/screen (keeps a sense of suspence). Also pass out notes every now and then instructing a single charcter to roll 1d20 and right the results down (then ignore the message to build tensions, or it was actually a saving throw/Spot check/etc.) My favorite: Ask the entire party to "roll 1d20 for no reason. Thank you". Sometimes it means nothing, sometimes it was Character Y making a saving throw/skill check.etc. I like to toss in 1-2 mystery dice rolls per session; not too much to interrupt things, but it breaks up monotony sometimes and makes them think I'm eviller than I really am

 

[Lela]

Decide now how much you're going to cheat for your players. If you are not going to do so, tell them from the beginning. They deserve to know.

And don't be afraid to not cheat for them. This adds yet another element of realism, though it is a harsher lesson than others.

At the same time, cheating in favor of your players isn't necissarally a bad thing. You may have made the encounter to hard (it happens to the very best) or they're just rolling 1's like no other.

Just decide before hand if you're going to cheat for them. It has an adverse effect on the players if they never know what rules you are going to go by this time.

If only one thing in your game doesn't change, it should be the rules. If the PCs can use it, so can the NPCs. And, by that same token, if the NPCs can, then the PCs can likely do it better. If rules become random, even your most chaotic players will start to hate your game. If you make an unjust ruling and feel it needs to be changed then change it, making sure to inform your players of it.

And, last but definatally least, throw something at them that will keep them confusied on occation. Pick something that is almost crewl but legal. Such as something from this thread or something you made up yourself. The point is to keep them guessing about everything (exept the rules of course).