Planning Campaigns

[Dagger75]

After planning my new campaign I realized something, I don't plan the whole the darn thing.
Example, I had a pirate type game. I wanted to have a newly discovered area with islands. So I drew a map and put down a few cities. I left a lot of it blank. Then I had a cool idea for a sea dragon fight, okay party level 3, but I wrote out the encounter anyway. I have few adventures here and there but nothing that will the get the party to levle 8 or 9 for my dragon battle. I find I make a lot of it up the week before. The players are great for ideas. That drunken sailor who told them the story of the disappearing island I just added for flavor, they started asking around for it, so now I made something up for that.

Do you plan most of the campaign before you start to finish or just wing it.

I'm betting most will say a little of both but I had maybe 5 adventures planned. That will not get a party to level 9 for my dragon battle at the climax at the game when I started it.

 

[Maerdwyn]

I need to feed off what my players do - they never do what I plan on them doing anyway, so, might as well roll with it.

So, when I start out, I begin with the over arching campaign concept, then plan (in as much detail as is practical) the initial town/city/village/star system/etc. (depending on the type of game) they are in, the first adventure or two, and some plot hooks that might grab their attention. From there, I build (both the campaign itself and the maps for it) as the PCs move and act and reques details, hopefully a little bit ahead of them, but occasionally on the fly.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Yes and no - I tend to have two or three (or four or five) overacing storylines that the PCs may or may not interact which, but that do have an effect on the game world - the locations, timelines (barring PC intervention) and characters of these are planned out ahead of time.

Other things are planned out only a few weeks ahead of time.

I can not run off the cuff worth a darn! So to make time I will play out some of the journey between point A and point B if the players suddenly have a desire to run off to point B. I have 'Adventure McNuggets (TM)' that I drop down for those interem points.

The Auld Grump

 

[Sigurd]

I enjoy planing and creating internal consistency. That eases my sorrow when the players choose options that don't end up revealing my brilliant plans.

I think you are probably about right. Plan some but watch a whole lot more. You want to challenge your particular players and excite them that means a lot of sensitivity to what they choose next. Have some broad planning to encourage and inform you but don't be afraid to wing it.

Sigurd

 

[Crothian]

I come up with is going on in the world. This country is doing this, this secret orgnaization is doing that, blah blah blah. Once the wheels of the world are defined and moving the players make characters and learn some of the wheels and witness others. I don't choose what the players do, they can go anywhere do everything. In the background though the wheels turn. Sometimes they see things or hear things other times it doesn't come into play. THis give the character freedom to do a lot of things and have choices to persue or even create their own. At the same time it gives me the feeling that I matter and things I come up with play in the picture.

 

[dpmcalister]

My current pirates campaign is all done by winging it. I used a couple of pre-written adventures to kick it off and then just went with the players

 

[CarlZog]

I come up with is going on in the world. This country is doing this, this secret orgnaization is doing that, blah blah blah. Once the wheels of the world are defined and moving the players make characters and learn some of the wheels and witness others. I don't choose what the players do, they can go anywhere do everything. In the background though the wheels turn. Sometimes they see things or hear things other times it doesn't come into play. THis give the character freedom to do a lot of things and have choices to persue or even create their own. At the same time it gives me the feeling that I matter and things I come up with play in the picture.

Crothian's style is identical to mine. Nothing in the world is static; the party's decision NOT to pursue some plot hook I dangle may turn out to be as significant, or more, to world events than if they did follow that adventure.... What happens to the Kingdom when nobody goes to save the princess?

 

[Shadowslayer]

After planning my new campaign I realized something, I don't plan the whole the darn thing.
Example, I had a pirate type game. I wanted to have a newly discovered area with islands. So I drew a map and put down a few cities. I left a lot of it blank. Then I had a cool idea for a sea dragon fight, okay party level 3, but I wrote out the encounter anyway. I have few adventures here and there but nothing that will the get the party to levle 8 or 9 for my dragon battle. I find I make a lot of it up the week before. The players are great for ideas. That drunken sailor who told them the story of the disappearing island I just added for flavor, they started asking around for it, so now I made something up for that.

Do you plan most of the campaign before you start to finish or just wing it.

I'm betting most will say a little of both but I had maybe 5 adventures planned. That will not get a party to level 9 for my dragon battle at the climax at the game when I started it.

I'd say you made a mistake in predetermining the outcome. Personally, I wouldn't set my heart on the final Dragon Battle. Write up the encounter so its there to use if it comes up...but don't count on it coming up.

I don't like campaigns where story arcs and climaxes are ordained from the start. As a player I always feel like I've stepped into a soap opera that's halfway over.

Start out with a couple of locations, as you've done. Create a few conflicts between some of those locations...maybe the inhabitants of Island 1 want to enslave the folks on Island 2, while the folks on island 2 are really only there because they've been searching for a treasure that is located somewhere deep in the depths of monster inhabited island number 3...and so on. Then see what the PCs get themselves mixed up in. Let them surprise you for a switch.

Its fun if you take the time to learn how to wing it well.

 

[Dog Moon]

I plan far enough ahead that I have something for the PCs to do. Unfortunately, a habit I'm trying to break, I tend to be kinda railroading. The problem is that I write too much so I tend to think of Dnd as a story, my story and not so much the player's. The weird thing is that though I tend to railroad a lot, my 'stories' are interesting enough that my group goes along with them anyway. Of course I do have a little leeway, but I'm not used to winging it much, except for little things.

For my next campaign, I've been creating the world and a few sites within the world which the PCs will 'find', a somewhat less form of railroading, but a lot of it is me thinking about how things will go in the world, how they will affect the PCs and mainly try to react to the group as best as I can while occasionally putting in an area [and have it make sense and have them have a reason to go there] which I had prepared a while ago.

 

[Li Shenron]

Do you plan most of the campaign before you start to finish or just wing it.

My campaigns are mostly just series of adventures, sometimes linked to each other, but not strongly. So no, I cannot say that I plan much ahead, tho I definitely look forward for certain interesting encounter with mid-high CR monsters for later use.