Running a homebrew campaign is HARD

[ThirdWizard]

Is there a way to subtly encourage my players to sandbox it up? Mine seem a little leery of striking out on their own; perhaps I am just not giving them enough hooks to grab on to, though.

Drop multiple plot hooks during the session. This gives them a choice of things to do, helpful for people who aren't comfortable with coming up with ideas like that on their own. End with "what are you guys planning to do next week?" Write up your next session based on their answer. Be sure that they know that their answer will determine what is available later. This will allow you to give them lots of options while taking some of the pressure off of you for improvisation. It's a nice segue into a more sandbox style so you don't have to jump into the deep end and sink or swim.

 

[Rel]

There's a lot of good info in this thread!

I think my problem has been trying to play it too tight, and not relying on improvisation. Perhaps I should also drink less at the table.

Is there a way to subtly encourage my players to sandbox it up? Mine seem a little leery of striking out on their own; perhaps I am just not giving them enough hooks to grab on to, though.

Hopefully their characters have agendas of their own or at least personalities that you can hook into. Play off of those things.

The tricky (but fun) part for me sometimes is making sure that a given "adventure" has hooks into all of the characters. The kind of thing where if one character is looking for the lost family heirloom and another has a vendetta against the Orcs then you plant a rumor that a tribe of Orcs has the heirloom. Most of the time I'm able to accomplish something like that but also I've got players who understand that sometimes they need to "take turns" having the plot hooks revolve around their character.

Honestly though what I mostly do is simply throw out piles of plot hooks all over the place when I have absolutely no idea where most of them will lead. Only after the players express an interest in something do I flesh it out. Thus I'm only doing work on the things that I know are going to see use.

 

[Storminator]

I once played in an epic level 3.5 game. Prepping for a game like that is very hard. I forced a table rule on the group that we as players would decide what we want to do next session at the end of the night. Then we couldn't deviate from that plan when the next session started.

I suggest this to everyone that's overwhelmed with prep. Get your players to agree to use the material you prep, and don't worry so much about every little contingency. Give your players free rein at the end of the session, so they can take the game wherever they want it to go, but get them to help you out.

Obviously, this completely fails if you force your players into it - it must be agreed by all.

PS

 

[nedjer]

A loose, 'throw a few ideas into the bag and leave me to work with them' meet at the start of a campaign is fun and gives you a broad agenda to mull over. That'd put me in the planning camp, but not in a nailed down, they know what's coming, we can't adapt kind of a way.

 

[Vanifae]

Hopefully their characters have agendas of their own or at least personalities that you can hook into. Play off of those things.

I find this to be terribly important the player characters really need motivations; even if they are just I want to be rich and powerful. You can use that to entice them into different hooks that promise power or more riches. Hopefully they have a diverse grouping of needs and motivations so you can throw a variety of hooks at them. This is usually something I do now before or during session 1, try to establish what it is that they want to do or hope to achieve. Keep in mind it can and probably will change, but it gets things moving

Honestly though what I mostly do is simply throw out piles of plot hooks all over the place when I have absolutely no idea where most of them will lead. Only after the players express an interest in something do I flesh it out. Thus I'm only doing work on the things that I know are going to see use.

I use this technique pretty extensively, I often sprinkle the game with hooks; either through characters or plot hooks and see what sticks. Often like you stated without even knowing the full details of said hook/character, I just throw it out there and if it begs for more clarification, exploration, and detail I give it. Only if the players actually decide to pursue it, I tend to write down and make notes of things as the game goes on and flesh out things after the fact. You never know when a player will latch onto an idea or character that you never expected. When that happens I tend to milk it for all it’s worth.

As to homebrew games and campaign settings, start small. Recognize that the 1000 year history of the kingdom won’t really matter much to anyone unless a player shows an active interest in it. Use broad strokes and fill in details when you need to. Do provide a colorful cast of characters in whatever locality you decide to use and some important landmarks/locations filled with hooks to jumpstart adventures. Do provide immediate and obvious “adventures” for the players to explore that can link to more adventures.

Meaning that if the players complete Adventure A, they should encounter enough hooks that it gives them ideas to further explore Adventure Hook 1, 2, and 3 at a minimum and then branch out from there. This works equally well for sandbox or Plot driven stories or any mixture of the two.

 

[Smoss]

Things that have helped me are really threefold...

1) A love of creation. If you don't love creating new things, new people, a new world, etc. Well, running a campaign is going to be a lot tougher.

2) World Creation. A living breathing world makes adventures easier. Knowing that group A and B have tensions between each other is nice. Now who wants to exploit that? The giant monkey ninja pirate cyborg of Bunny Isle is a constant threat - How do people prepare for it? Etc.

3) Inspiration. Break down TV, movies, and Video Games to their basic components. So what if you are running a medieval game - steal from Sci-Fi or modern drama. Personality traits, plot points, and even creatures can be universal. Re-flavor the Xenomorph of Alien fame. You can find inspiration in the oddest of places sometimes if you know to be open to it.

Hope that helps some,
Smoss

 

[WizarDru]

I think my problem has been trying to play it too tight, and not relying on improvisation. Perhaps I should also drink less at the table.

Is there a way to subtly encourage my players to sandbox it up? Mine seem a little leery of striking out on their own; perhaps I am just not giving them enough hooks to grab on to, though.

Some suggestions, both practical and theoretical.

1. Think Global, Design Local - It's been mentioned, but is good to be reinforced. In most campaigns, you set up somewhere relatively small and then branch further out as the heroes adventures carry them far afield. This saves you work AND sanity. The players don't need to know the layout of the fallen city of Gandros until they actually GO THERE. Until then, they merely need to know it exists and some simple lore about it. Lore that, by the way, could be totally wrong. But you DO need to know what's in the cave down in Tarwin's Gap just 2 miles out of town, if the players know of it. If you're working off of a story arc, decide only the broadest of strokes. If you're doing a sandbox, design only so far ahead...and plant HONEYPOTS to lure the players to the work you've done. Sure, there's a mark on the town map about the cave down in the gap...but if a man stumbles in to the tavern and swears that a creature just killed his prize mule and dragged it off to the cave, it's more exciting. If he says that he spied some strange men crossing his land all with strange yellow armbands on their shoulders and he followed them to the gap....it inspires curiousity more than simply 'cave' on the map.
2. Don't be aftraid to STEAL - Seriously, I can't stress this enough. The work in maintaining your own homebrew setting comes down to two things: Rules Prep and Ideas. Just because you have a printed module doesn't mean you have to use it verbatim. Quite the opposite. Steal the set piece encounter and scratch the numbers off. Take a generic monster, 're-skin' it and present it to the players (you'd be surprised how exciting an encounter becomes when a standard creature with a new coat of paint shows up: Take an Owlbear, for example, turn it into a thing of undead bone and slightly change it's stats...the party will react totally differently to it). The point here is to save yourself work. Running the game is supposed to be FUN, not a chore. Don't ignore perfectly good sources of material. I needed a village for my game. I could have designed the whole thing...but instead I just used one out the DMG and then just changed it to suit my needs. Renamed it, changed two buildings and even used the NPCs with a minor change. Quick and easy. ENWorld is a great resource for this, naturally.
3. Be Prepared to CHANGE IT ALL - Remember, the players don't know your grand plans. Be prepared to change anything. In my 3E game that ran 8 years straight, the players were originally going to fight a big bad evil guy. Yadda yadda yadda. But when he showed up, my players reacted to him differently than expected. Moreover, the story evolved away from him being the BBEG. The player's personal stories guided things to another place and a new foe arrived...and it was one of the best games I ever ran. The players didn't know that the story had changed...because they didn't know what it was to begin with. Sometimes the story will take you somewhere else...sometimes you don't even KNOW what the story is. Let it carry you like the tides. Heck, put out odd tidbits and let the players interpert them AND THEN USE THIER IDEAS. I've done this on several occassions. On other occassions, the players came up with a better story idea than what I had planned...and so I changed it to match their idea. Win-Win.
4. Talk to Your Players - Seriously, if you take no other idea, then let it be this one. Just asking two questions will make your game better. 1 - "So, how did you guys enjoy the session?" and 2 - "So where would you like to see your character going?". You don't have to immediately change the game to what they want...but see if they're having fun and see what you can do to accomomdate their goals. Motivated players will follow stories and breadcrumbs with an almost religious fervor. One player has a family? Use them. Another player is chasing the man who murdered her father? Drop clues to his location. They can be false leads, sometimes (though don't tease players, just use this as a plot element). Players who perceive that you're giving them stories for their characters are usually motivated to advance them.
5. Brainstorm - As Rel mentions, I spend much more time, generally, THINKING about the game than actually working on game material. Ideas trump rules, IMHO. Take the dog for a walk, take a drive with the radio on or just chill. Let your mind wander. Think in broad strokes. "Zorban's going to try and climb the Dead Tower. What's in there? Why's it called that? Will the city watch find out? What would they do if they did? What is Lady Delia doing while Zorban's off at the tower? How would she react if Zorban gets arrested? Hmmmmm...." Just understanding major NPCs and monsters is worth the effort. I know that Sir Kelvin would die before dishonor and is hot-headed. It's all I know about him, but it's enough for now. When the players humiliate him in the public square, I know that Kelvin would react badly. He demands a battle on the field of honor! But a player suddenly says he'll try and make amends, give him a way to save face diplomatically. If I know what kind of man Kelvin is, I know if that will be easy or hard. Perhaps he'll become a PC ally...or a lasting enemy. Knowing the IDEA of Kelvin ahead of time lets me decide on the fly. IMHO, good characters MAKE a story, not the other way around. Personally, I enjoy listening to soundtracks while thinking on the plot. I've had some of my best ideas while driving to get Chinese take-out 20 minutes prior to the game.
6. Keep Rough Notes - Make stuff up on the fly, but then keep quickie notes as you do it. Players will do stuff you don't expect...but if you improvise, it can be useful. The players decide to visit the local temple. You have no idea who the head priest is...so on the fly you say "Oh, the head priest is Father Alvin...he worships Pelor. He's chubby and good-natured and blesses the party." Now make a note of that for later. Bring him back, especially if he makes an impression. If you drop a hint off the cuff, keep a note of it for later use. Continuity creates the illusion of planning and prep-work.
7. Enlist the Players - Let your players help develop the world and keep notes, if they want. One of my players keeps rough notes and shares them on Google Docs. Let them create elaborate backstories, if they want. Let them know you can't guarantee you'll use them the way they're offered, but some players love to help. LET THEM. Poll them periodically on what they're thinking, either through e-mail or off-line. Let them develop content that you can approve/change, like their own Paragon Paths, for example.

 

[Rel]

Great stuff WizarDru!

Also I highly recommend that you find some people to talk to who are not in your game but who are on the same wavelength as you are from a game design standpoint. Finding that kind of person and using each other as sounding boards for game ideas is priceless. There are a couple of ENW/CM posters who I keep in regular contact with about this kind of then.

And then there is my wife who is simply AMAZING at coming up with ideas for my games when she's not a player. What I love most about her in this respect is that she asks questions that cause me to reexamine what I've already come up with as well as throws outside the box ideas at me. This has often taken the game into directions I'd never have expected.

 

[Ulrick]

There's a lot of great advice here, so I won't reiterate what's been said.

Therefore, if you haven't already, I highly recommend getting AEG's [[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Toolbox-Aeg-Dawn-Ibach/dp/1594720606/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1301341390&sr=8-1"]I]Ultimate Toolbox[/I].[/ame]

I use it when I have "writer's/DM's block" or need to come up with something on the fly. I did, however, recently used the book to come up with an entire 6 hour adventure session when I only had about 2 hours of prep time.

There's even a short section where the book shows you how to create the skeleton of an adventure and then you let the players flesh it out almost on the fly. I've done it, and it really cool to watch.



And no, I'm not a paid spokesperson for AEG, but I do like giving credit where credit is due.

Have fun. Running your own homebrew is one of the most rewarding experiences one can have in the hobby. There's nothing like watching players interact with your creation, and then months (even years!) later rememeber details of your homebrew world.

Believe me (and all of us), its worth the work!

 

[Rel]

One other related thought:

I've always felt like I'd had mixed results with improvising when the players threw me a curveball in session. Sometimes I've been able to roll with it seamlessly and other times my results have been a lot uglier.

Lately I've been running/playing a lot of Con/Game Day games that require me to think on my feet. I've been running Old School Hack games where I purposefully prepare nothing and make up the adventure for the one-shot game on the spot simply by weaving together the PC's various "Adventuring Goals". And I've been playing a fair bit of Fiasco, which is almost entirely improvisation.

I think these exercises have really helped me in terms of being able to get away with less prep work for my regular game and being able to handle whatever the players throw at me.