How do You start..?

[DonTadow]

For an individual adventure I look and see what i have done so far and what my pcs have been wanting. For instance, If we've been in a dungeon for 7 sessions and the party has been hinting that they want to rest for a bit, I'll start writing up something political and not too engaging. I also look at what characters have been "quiet". I might write something up to bring them more into the game such as some time of artifact or tome that deals with an aspect of their background.

The plots revolve around thing's Im interested in the most. I"m always trying to make adventures that have significant moral delimma's.

 

[pogre]

Plot hooks - I start brain storming for a smany plot hooks as possible and build the stories from there. I start with motivations both general and specific, and then go on to work on the scenes.

 

[NewLifeForm]

I always start with a core story concept, similar to der_kluge. It's usually something like , "Heroes are convicted of crime that didn't commit and are on their way to the gallows...". Then I design the crime, the accusers, the town with the gallows, etc.

I just start building from there.

With world and campaign design I sometimes start with a bigger, more vague concept. Something akin to, "In a world just climbing out of the wreckage of a magical holocuast...".

Something like that.


NewLifeForm

 

[cmanos]

I start with a BBEG and come up with what he wants to do....then I figure out how he is going to do it, and the steps alongt he way. Knowing that you can have a pretty easy time coming up with an adventure

PLOT: "OK, BBEG is breaking into the elven crypt to use the artifact he got away with in the last adventure to drain the lingering life force from the elves, thereby building enough life energy to give the evil demi-god an acual body."

Characters find out about it and make their way to the crypt, big fight ensues.

Several things can happen.

1. BBEG gets away with the artifact and doesn't drain the elves lifeforce. Therefore he will need to figure out a different way.

2. BBEG activates the artifact and the demigod is embodied. PC's now have a NEW BBEG.

3. Characters retreive artifact and don't activate it. BBEG wants it back.

4. Characters retreive artifact and activate it, allowing the demigod to embody. OOPS. (This is the one my characters wanted to do....)

Gives you not only a "Whats happening in this adventure" but a "What is going to happen in the future".

 

[Bryon_Soulweaver]

1. World: Got one, my DM made it three years ago and we've been playing since.
2. Patheon: Got that too.
3. Major cities: Plenty of them.
4. Major families: 1-8 in each major city.
5. Minor families: Lots, especially in major cities.
6. BBEG: still working on one.
7. Minor cities: Hundreds.
8. Open lands.
9. Plot hooks.
10. Villages and towns.
11. Starting point.

At least thats how I started, which was about a week and half ago. Most of the stuff was already stated out, and history from my DM's champaign is current with my champaign.

 

[MonsterMash]

Usually just with an idea or plot hook, then I start building from there. Sometimes it creates an new BBEG, sometimes I'll reuse an existing character, but I use an existing campaign world and fit things into that usually.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Players and characters background - Call it a stepping stone but at least one of my players will provide an idea in their character's background that I can use to get an adventure up and running, be missing relation or how the party meets.

 

[Eye Tyrant]

Adventure writing is no where near as easy as I wish it was...

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

Start with an interesting location or environment, detail it, and then start filling in the surroundings.

I don't do BBEGs (not intentionally.) All my NPCs are designed with the possibility or likelihood in mind that the PCs will attempt to kill them, and on the rare occasions when I even have a plan about what the future will hold, that plan does not assume that any particular NPC will survive.

Sometimes an NPC gets away and reappears later, but that's never prewritten.

 

[twofalls]

My campaigns grow organically. I start with a small local problem that low level heroes can wrap their minds about and stick their swords through, then I grow it from there. For example, the campaign that is coming to close (Dreams of Glory) has been very successful. The PC's started out as travelers from all across Faerun who had come to Shadowdale to petition Storm Silverhand to train them to become Harpers. Of course they didn't get to see her that early in their careers, instead they discovered that some girls had been kidnapped from some locals and set about to uncover the mystery. This led them on a 4 year long campaign featuring the Black Network as the BBEG in which they liberated Daggerdale, foiled a Zhentrim plot to place puppet rules in many dalelands, aided Cormyr in its time of dire need. As a campaign finale, they are infiltrating Darkhold to rescue the very girls they set out to find four years ago when the campaign started.

All that grew out of one little adventure I found on the web four and a half years ago.

My next campaign will be Gamma World and I hope to start it off much the same way.

Note that the central theme of the Dreams of Glory campaign is very simple and has remained the same the entire time I've run it. Go find the girls Kidnapped from Shadowdale and bring them home. Everything they have accomplished has been a result of their attempts to find the girls and recover them. You don't need complex bad guys, or intricate and sophisticated plots to run a great campaign, in fact I've found that the more simple storylines tend to be the most satisfying for the players.