I'd be interested in some help with seeding long-term campaign plots. For that matter, the basics of building short-term plots too, considering I don't actually know how long this campaign will run.
Okay, since you don't know how long it's going to run, my advice is this: if there is anything you feel
must be in the campaign, make sure it's in there right away!
However, for the most part, I would recommend just assuming it will run about as long as average*, and not worry about it too much. You will need to accept the risk that the campaign may fold before some plots come to fruition, but that's always a risk, and anyway you can recycle them.
* For me, that's between 6 and 12 months. Obviously, you're likely to have a different answer.
I've got a general idea about taking what players put in a backstory and ensuring it comes out, plus putting in early details of what I want to do - but how long to wait?
Rule of thumb #1: You probably want to start seeding things by the second adventure. (The first adventure would be even better, but that adventure already has a lot of ground to cover.)
Rule of thumb #2: Most PC background stuff tends to be quite personal, small-scale stuff. In D&D, then, it's generally a good idea to deal with it while still in the low-levels in 3e (1-5), or in the Heroic tier (4e).
Neither of these is absolute, of course.
What methods to GM's here use to ensure there is a steady flow of plot information?
For my current campaign, I have a significant number of ongoing mysteries. I try to ensure that the PCs learn
something in every session. Additionally, I make sure to seed
lots of clues, so that they're free to miss them and still have a good chance of getting the information they need.
The net effect of this is that 18 months into the campaign (it's a long one), they've managed to unpick something like 90% of the mysteries I've laid down. And, crucially,
they worked it out without prompting by me. Which has proven to be immensely satisfying.
How do you account for players going off in random directions and not seeing the hints you're laying down?
I recently read through the Lankhmar stories, and one of the things I noticed was that Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser tended to go off in all sorts of random directions... and wherever they went, adventure was
there waiting for them. Of course, they weren't necessarily the
same adventures, but there was always something...
I recommend doing much the same - seeds loads of campaign points all over the place, and that way the PCs are likely to encounter some wherever they go. They won't necessarily be the
same seeds, but that's fine. (Of course, it helps if you have more than one thing going on in the campaign world at a time.)
How subtle is too subtle, in your experience?
Depends on the players. IME, though, you could hit them with a stick and it could be too subtle.
More seriously, I advocate adopting the "three clue rule" (which I got from the
Alexandrian) - for every conclusion you want the players to reach, seed three clues. They'll likely miss one, misinterpret one, and finally "get it" with the third.
I hope some of that helps!
