How Do You Run a Good Campaign?

[Agback]

the dm-player communication is very important pre-game!

Hear! Hear!

One of the best things you can do is discuss the campaign with prospective players before you run it, even before you finish planning it. You get an idea of what the players expect and enjoy that will help you with [final] design. You give the players an idea of what sort of characters will suit and flourish in the campaign.

We're drifting a little off the topic here, but one of the things that has always bugged me is when players go of separately and design detailed characters without consulting one another, and end up making characters that don't work together. At the crudest level, this might mean designing a D&D party with no divine spellcaster or no rogue, or in another context an A-Team consisting of four copies of Mr T. Unfortunately I've never had the success I've hoped for by getting the players together and getting them to design their party and their character concepts before I let them stat out their characters.

Getting back on track: one of my pre-game communications tools is the "campaign prospectus", a written document that helps (a) attract only those players who are inclined to enjoy the kind of campaign I plan to run this time, and (b) guide players to conceiving of/generating suitable characters. I will append a couple of examples, in case anyone is interested.

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Brave Music

“How sweet is mortal sovranty!”– think some,
Others– “How blessed the paradise to come!”.
Ah, take the cash and let the credit go:
How brave the music of a distant drum!

‘Brave Music’ will be a HindSight: Jehannum campaign set in the Decadent Period, initially in the remote mountain city of Charn in the province of Mela. It will follow the adventures and careers of a clique of young warriors of great ambitions but uncertain means. My aim in this campaign will be to reproduce the strange blend of cynicism and quixotry that marks Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers.

Characters should be generated on five of the optional enhanced background factors, with “normal” wealth and a bonus 20 merit points in Social Standing, to reflect the fact that they are of Good Families, but younger sons or in reduced circumstances. They must be citizens of Charn, aged twenty (or at least eighteen) to twenty-five years, and active in the militia in the heavy-armed category. They should have little experience of circumstances outside Charn (perhaps a few trips to Bethan and Elmis, or two years of ephebe training in one of those cities), and if any has active military experience, it must be outside Charn.

The five player characters will make up a half-file of the militia, led by the highest-ranked warrior among them, who should work out to rank 2 or 3 (file leader or file closer). Close friends and dear comrades (perhaps some of them close relatives, or mentor and protegé), they should be such as will stick together in thick and thin: a band of inseparables noted for their mutual loyalty, flamboyance, and verve.

Within the group, each character should have his own modus operandi and personal style: grim or gallant, foppish or austere. I will need at least two characters susceptible to romantic hooks, of whom one at least should be subject to sincere but fleeting passions. One character should be an inquiring bent (or just inquisitive), one should have a passion for justice, and at least three should have some tendency to involve themselves in others’ affairs. None of the party can afford too many scruples, but if most are to be good-hearted rogues, the party will need at least one sin-eater. Vanity, quarrelsomeness, or philosophical affectations would be suitable for one character each if not hammed up.

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Regards,


Agback

 

[mmadsen]

But it's something that there's no real instruction manual for, no real way of how to do it....How do you make a good campaign?

Since there's no real instruction manual for generating an exciting campaign, what advice do you think should be in the Dungeon Master's Guide? Any simple suggestions you'd like to see in there?

 

[spunky_mutters]

Although the initial question was about a good campaign, the truth shows through in most of the responses: The quality of the campaign depends a great deal on the quality of the DM.

You need to Challenge the players. Ride that line between easy and death. They need to know they can fail. And you should let them. Warning players is fine, but if they insist on acting against your advice, let the dice decide their fate.

As far as planning. I like to work on the NPCs, maps and plots that are happening in the world around the players. I don't worry as much about having a full module laid out. This way I have enough information to keep them busy no matter what they choose to do. You can keep them occupied with other things while you flesh out the dungeon they are headed for.

It's sort of Just-In-Time DMing.

 

[Black Omega]

I'll second the comments on Aaron Allstron's Strike Force. It dates back to the mid 80's, but had the first set of Character Types I've seen and had interesting ideas on blue booking, character stories, and keeping campaigns fresh. It's also a facinating look into a campaign that ran for years, as it grew, developed and changed.

For me personally, I'm pretty much the opposite of Creamsteak. When I start a game the first thing I do is let the players know the basic type of campaign. ie Modern Horror, Mercenary Superpowered types, Rokugan, whatever. I type up a hand out, largely based on the classic Hero System format. So the players have a little information on the world, one races and classes. For example, for my Rokugan game it was made clear Good and Evil is not the overriding conflict it typically is in Forgotten Realms. So while a Paladin from the Forgotten Realms is not prohibited, it would be pretty tough since he'd be operating in an Empire where some of the heros show up as Evil.

It's standard in our group to have a 'create characters' night. People might show up with character ideas, but it's a night for answering questions, actually working up the characters, and very often linking them together. It was much easier to bring together two groups of three instead of six individuals and it gives characters back histroy.

 

[mmadsen]

I'll second the comments on Aaron Allstron's Strike Force.

I'll "third" that recommendation. Strike Force opened my eyes. Great supplement -- for any game, not just Champions.

 

[mmadsen]

Is a good campaign made by stringing together dungeon crawls in a story line? Is it made by making the PC's the main characters? Is simply fighting increasingly tougher monsters a good campaign?

If you plan on a more-or-less never-ending campaign with the same main characters, that sounds like either a TV show or a comic book. How do you keep fans interested in an episodic TV show?

 

[hong]

Re: Re: How Do You Run a Good Campaign?

If you plan on a more-or-less never-ending campaign with the same main characters, that sounds like either a TV show or a comic book. How do you keep fans interested in an episodic TV show?

Easy!

sex

and

violence


Hong "I might have mentioned this before" Ooi

 

[hong]

I keep reading the title of this thread as "How do you ruin a good campaign?" Ooo, now there's something we could talk about.

 

[Lela]

I keep reading the title of this thread as "How do you ruin a good campaign?" Ooo, now there's something we could talk about.

Start a new thread. This could be fun.

 

[darklight]

One thing I seem to have a problem with is focus. In real life, I very much prefer freedom of choice for everyone, unfortunately, that is not always good for a rpg campaign. What I mean by this is that I tend to let the players make all the choices from the beginning, not giving them anything to go by. This has resulted in a very unfocused game, since none of the pc's really want the same thing. It really struck me after reading Voobaha's fey example, where there is a definite focus. I'm contemplating starting a new campaign instead, with a much tighter focus, but I'll probably wait and see, 'til after our summer hiatus ends.

*wishes everyone a great campaign*

darklight