New campaign: Where to start?

[Ry]

I've got a new group lined up, a great setting, an idea for the kind of campaign I want (episodic, relatively small-zone) and all the rules I want exactly the way I like them.

I've built many campaigns before, but somehow I'm still stuck.

Where do you start when you want to build a new campaign?

 

[BiggusGeekus]

When I don't have a plan, I have what I call generic adventure 1a: Orcs attack the town. The PCs help fight the orcs back and the town leaders ask them to hunt down the orc camp.

Yes, it's so generic the PCs end up looking for the bar codes. But it gets things rolling and usually at least one of the guys will have a character hook I can work into things. After watching the players in action I usually have ideas for the second adventure.

 

[Michael Morris]

My last game I started with their hometown. I described the tavern, then had each player describe a place of import and I took notes. I also had each one explain one connection with at least two other PC's. That took 4 hours - the length of one session - but it provided a healthy plot mine.

 

[arscott]

Find the Core of your campaign. What is it that makes this campaign special or different than the other campaigns you've run or played in?

Find a plot that speaks to that core. And make it big--Don't save your good ideas for the end of the campaign... use them now.

 

[ssampier]

I guess I'm confused by the part you’re stuck on. You seem to have a good grasp of everything. Perhaps you're being too hard on yourself, falling into the DM Trap, "It's going to be great--this time!" If this is the case don't worry. We all make mistakes.

Talk to your players; ask them what kind of adventures they want to play in. When you start your first adventure starting drop "seeds" that could suggest something larger (usually more powerful and malevolent). Run with the seeds your PCs are interested in. The other seeds can be red herrings or could be diabolical connected somehow; your choice.

When I don't have a plan, I have what I call generic adventure 1a: Orcs attack the town. The PCs help fight the orcs back and the town leaders ask them to hunt down the orc camp.

Yes, it's so generic the PCs end up looking for the bar codes. But it gets things rolling and usually at least one of the guys will have a character hook I can work into things. After watching the players in action I usually have ideas for the second adventure.

Not a bad idea, keep it simple and straight forward. As your suggestion you can always add "cool stuff" later (my suggestion: an evil necromancer, psion or other baddy to the mix).

 

[Umbran]

Start, as they say, at the beginning...

One of my favorite books has a wonderful opening line - "In the tower of the nameless necromancer, it is always cold."

Every novel has a first page, a first chapter. It doesn't have to be the most dramatic or deepest. Your only real requirement at the start, the only thing you really need to do now is to capture their imaginations. Grip 'em with the analog of a good first sentence or paragraph. The rest can follow.

 

[Infernal Teddy]

Start, as they say, at the beginning...

One of my favorite books has a wonderful opening line - "In the tower of the nameless necromancer, it is always cold."

Every novel has a first page, a first chapter. It doesn't have to be the most dramatic or deepest. Your only real requirement at the start, the only thing you really need to do now is to capture their imaginations. Grip 'em with the analog of a good first sentence or paragraph. The rest can follow.

Sounds good, what book is that?

 

[Umbran]

Sounds good, what book is that?

Grunts by Mary Gentle. Be warned, it includes some more adult scenes and does get a bit silly at times. It is the story of the usual struggle between Evil and Good, from the point of view of the orcs. But the orcs get AK-47s...

 

[Infernal Teddy]

*G* I've just had that recomended to me...

 

[taliesin15]

Start the new setting with a riddle that each of the PCs receive...

another one: they are daughters and sons of farmers, and they all happen to meet each other at the Harvest Festival Games where all the local villages break out their new wine, cider and ale, and have competitions (foot races, climbing, wrestling)--but at this one, all yr PCs are free to leave their families now that the harvest is in, that's where you start the plot

'course there was one a couple of months back I liked where you simply start the campaign with "everyone roll for initiative"