Starting Campaigns

[widderslainte]

I'm starting up a new campaign, and it's been a while. It's a homebrew world, and we're still bouncing around character ideas. I've got some thoughts on how to get the party together and what to do once things get going. I'm looking for plot suggestions, campaign ideas, planning methods, anything to get my mind rolling. Suggestions?

 

[Dave Blewer]

Start small.

I always find that a community in peril is always a good starting point for a campaign... Maybe the village or whatever that the PC's start at is the built on the foundations of an ancient temple or something...

This is even better if the blood soaked stones of the old temple have been used to build some of the buildings in the village.

This sort of start is nice, because it allows you to build the menace with low level encounters as things start to go wrong around the village, building to a nice crescendo as the evil spirits awake...

 

[EricNoah]

They don't all have to know each other from the same experience, but you can set it up so that character A knows character B, and character C knows character B, like that.

Some ways these characters could know each other:

common employer (past or present)
related
served time together
in the military together
common love interest
in love
common rival
they are rivals
educated together


As far as early adventures, let them get to know their surrounding community and countryside. Let them do minor quests like "go to such and such a town and kill this evil wizard's familiar" or "deliver these six horses to a town 3 days away from here."

 

[Erebus Red]

If it's humanly practical - an ideal approach is to spend some time role-playing for individual players/character before they meet. I have found this pays off in the long run in terms of:

Indentifying with the character
Introducing individual sub-plots
Building credible motivations for the campaign

 

[aurin777]

I know I seem to be popping in posts with this a lot, but, NEMORAN'S VAULT! I love the premise. Take a look, you won't be disappointed. Basically, each PC somehow acquired a key throughout his pre-adventuring life, and he has a share of a dead wizard's fortune, but he, and the rest of the keyholders, have to go into the dungeon to get it. Its good... PCs get a lot of interaction with it if done right. If I were to run it, I would add a beginning and give it a sort of haunted house type. Have them sit down to a banquet first and rp and whatnot before a little dungeon crawl. Think about it.
~~Brandon

 

[Old Fezziwig]

NeMoren's Vault is a good introductory adventure (I'd recommend it). Dave and Eric have really good suggestions, too.

One thing I'd suggest is to always hold something in reserve and not to aim to tie up loose ends too quickly — I'd mix in events/rumours that may not be things that can be dealt with right now and could pop up later if the characters want. Even if you bring them up obliquely. You don't need to flesh them out too much now, but it gives you things to play with later and makes the world seem more alive. There are some problems with this (the PCs may just be more interested in those rumours than the planned adventure), but if you're careful, those types of things can be avoided. Alternately, you don't even have to bring them up in play, just have them in your notes and keep them there for a while (I'm thinking this came from the old Dungeoncraft column on WotC's Dragon website — something about having secrets). I think this makes sense — it's late and I should have turned in by now.

Best,
tKL

 

[Dave Blewer]

I really like Nemoreans Vault as well... Really good Mcguffin for bringing a player party together...

The only complaint I have about the scenario is the amount of treasure that the scenario gives away. If you are going to run the scenario I would definately edit that.

Although there is one really superb sword in there.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

A lot of the plot ideas will depend on your campaign's intended flavor, of course. For myself, I prefer to DM a campaign that's based in a large city, such as the equivalent of a Milan or Venice. I keep a file on my computer detailing the names of shops, who owns them, and a bit about them. What I like about this is that I can constantly be expanding the city while watching TV in the evening, just coming up with shop names and little plot hooks. Then as the PCs wander throughout the city, NPC interaction and such just takes care of itself.

 

[wighair]

The only complaint I have about the scenario is the amount of treasure that the scenario gives away. If you are going to run the scenario I would definately edit that.

Although there is one really superb sword in there.

Whats the problem? Too much or too little?

 

[Dave Blewer]

Far too much...

guess I wasn't very clear on that was I