"Selling" your wacky campaign to players.

[Chronosome]

Hey, all.

I've got a question for all you homebrew DMs out there (<i>*raises fist in "homebrew homie" salute*</i>). In particular, those of you who've tweaked certain standard D&D concepts for your game (things like which races or classes exist, how they function, and how magic is learned).

How did you present your wacky campaign idea to players? How did you sell them on things like "well, on Varbaxia, elves are psychotic barbarians who live on clouds, gnomes <i>are</i> kobolds, and magic is a form of currency!"?

Did you print something like a "Varbaxian Player's Guide" with every tweak you've done? Have your players accepted your campaign with open arms or grumbles and grunts?

The D&D game is infinitely customizable--that's one of the reasons I love it so much. Change a favored class here, extinctify a race there, and you've got the beginnings of something really unique. I know some of you out there agree...help me out, homies!

 

[Crothian]

I take a session and go through everything with them step by step. I do have a players guide of sorts, but I perfer they read along as I'm explaining things so that all answers can get be presented when they have questions. And with all of them togetrher, one might think of a question another doesn't. THis also helps them develope their party together and to figure out what they want to do.

 

[Psion]

Having the right players and having their trust is the place to start. Some players know what they like and are pretty closed minded (From the WW fannish group I played with for a SHORT time after I moved here: "You wanna run something SF? Cool, run Star Wars or B5 and we'll play! ). Others are far more accomodating (from my players last week when I pitched T20 to them. "Sure, it's d20, it's space, can't be that different from star wars... we're game! )

 

[MarauderX]

Did you print something like a "Varbaxian Player's Guide" with every tweak you've done? Have your players accepted your campaign with open arms or grumbles and grunts?

The D&D game is infinitely customizable--that's one of the reasons I love it so much. Change a favored class here, extinctify a race there, and you've got the beginnings of something really unique. I know some of you out there agree...help me out, homies!

Yo. I did the whole "Correl Players Guide" which lists the races & classes with any modifications. Granted mine aren't complicated, but got a negative response from cleric mods that removed 1 domain and downplayed undead in my setting. It's 10 pages long (~4600 words), has all the house rules and includes some sections that can be easily glossed over. So far it is going ok (players are still feeling it out I think) but we have only played once and they will discover more about the world as we move on through their first adventure.

 

[Henry]

"Okay, guys, I've got a new idea for a campaign, now are you ready? In this campaign, all the players get to play trolls."

"All right!"

"Cool!"

"I've always wanted to play one! Can you imagine a troll fighter, with improved critical on his claw and bites?!"

"No, guys, you don't seem to understand. You'll play Trolls - you know, those short little naked guys with the multi-colored hair? Uh, guys? GUYS! Come Back!!!"

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Mostly, I just tell them the cool part of the "hook" - what I think makes the campaign setting cool. I use the same idea when recruiting them for a different game system.

 

[DrZombie]

I always play with the same group, alternating gamesmasters. Usually I try to get the players involved in the modifying process. Like starting a 7th sea campaign but with all the races that are in the MM starting ECL12 evolving into playing 7th sea setting riles, but based on 15th century europe, with all the players playing changelings (humans that show their seeming (real race) when in an area of great glamour) at ECL 6.


Best way to start in a new world, btw, is as 1st lvl characters, so that the players can explore the world a bit before things get too political.

 

[Wormwood]

A Player's Guide really helps.

I've also found that emphasizing the new concepts in your homebrew is more important than providing a list of tings you don't allow.

 

[Silver Moon]

How did you present your wacky campaign idea to players?

I've done lots of off-the-wall things with my group and I take one of three approaches:

1. Give it to the as a list of choices and let them vote. If enough players like the idea we run with it. That's how my D&D/Boot Hill hybrid western campaign began. At some point I plan to do a D&D/Toon hybrid which many of my players like the sound of.

2. Just spring it on them unannounced as a one-night-only thing. If it works, great. If it doesn't, oh well, just move on. This works well if you need a "filler" between modules or when the scheduled DM can't make it at the last minute.

3. Just spring it on them unannounced and hope like hell that it works. The most radical concept game I ever did was one that once they picked which PC's to bring in I introduced a divine being who announced to them they were all dead. A villain had gone back in time and changed history, simply by killing an orc, and each of the playing characters died in the alternate history. They had to go back in time as a team, as ghosts who could possess bodies of the living (like D.C. comic's Deadman) and change history back to the way it was before and stop the villain from changing it again. All of the players went along with the concept and it worked great, one of the best modules I've ever run.

 

[am181d]

I'm wrapping up a major campaign now, with plans to unveil a 'wacky new campaign world' towards the end of this year. (That's wacky with a capital 'w': new races, no classes, two new magic systems, a sci-fi/fantasy mix, etc. Obviously a tough sell.) What I've been doing is "leaking" ideas one at a time, to get people used to some of the more radical concepts.

So one week, I'll talk about "GoGoGens"--tiny magic creatures that all arcane spells are channeled through. The next week I'll talk about how cool the Polytheurge divine spellcasting system will work. The concepts they are more skeptical about I keep telling them more about, till they're won over. By the time we start, I'm hoping every player will want a Green Lightning Elephantkin GoGoGen.

I will definitely give them some sort of "overview document" before we start play, and I would definitely recommend that, but the wackier the world, the more I advocate pre-selling before you get to that point.

 

[Adonis]

I think your best bet is to have at least some sort of synopsis of your game setting printed out, something that can be easily referenced to. A good idea may be to write something similar to the first few chapters of the PHB, you know. Races, classes, weapons, and so on, and possibly have a "What's unique" section with bulleted highlights.