Nightcloak:
Notebook Essential #12: Campaign Planner - Part 2
Now that you have the Campaign Planner ready to rock and roll said:
has 55 lines of detail), you then need
to assign a dice to roll that matches your numbers. In this case I’ll decide that a d6-1 for the tens and a d10 for the singles with a result of 56 or higher being a re-roll will suffice. Those dice rolls are a little convoluted, and if you want an easier bunch of dice just add some more details to your planner! You’re campaign can never hurt for more details and planning. Now when ever you spend some time creating an important detail, be it a major NPC, or a setting, or whatever then just roll those dice and come up with a secret to attach to that important detail. If you are going to spend all of that time creating a NPC, or stating a monster, or fleshing out some inn, then roll the dice and give it a secret.
When you have the piece of information to add, DO NOT just throw it out there for everyone to see. I’m calling it a secret for a reason. You want to try to work it into the picture in a creative way; a way that will not reveal what it is without the players investigating the information or at least asking questions (i.e. Roll Playing). But more importantly, if the secret is some fact that would not normally be available for
sometime yet (say you are at line 5 of your planner and you roll a 40), then you want to disguise the secret in layers of hints. This is the key to foreshadowing.
Why a random secret? Well, I’m glad you asked. First, a secret adds detail to the encounter. Second, it adds depth to your campaign. Third, it adds a story element of foreshadowing if the players connect the dots.
Detail:
If you are going to spend some time detailing an important part of your campaign, then it deserves an extra shot of detail to make it three dimensional. The more vivid the information you give, the more your players will see the adventure as less a game and more of an adventure.
Depth:
This is detail that turns an adventure in a campaign. It ties places, people, and things together in the detail that only a story can deliver. When places and people become tied forward and backwards throughout the campaign, your players can only believe in the completeness of your world. It will be a story they will remember.
Foreshadowing:
This is depth with a big payoff that every reader enjoys in a story when they get that “Oh!” moment of realizing they have known part of the story all along but didn’t know it until the author finally told that lynch-pin piece of information. It’s that wonderful little trivial piece of information you don’t think about much until it hits you over the head several books later.
Pushing your comfort zone:
The big problem with writing adventures is that it is easy to repeat yourself. Everyone has themes that they like and they naturally gravitate towards. I became aware of this when one of my players took over GMing for a while, during an adventure, a crack was made by another player about undead to which the GM mentioned, “Nope. No undead. Nightcloak has the covered enough.” What I realized then is that I was getting stuck on monster themes, so now I watch it and try to add more variety. The same thing can happen to a GM when it comes to descriptions or even game style. By randomizing the results, then trying to stick to those results, it will force you into stretching out beyond your comfort zone with new ideas and descriptions. It is easy to always focus only
on destinations in dreams or images of bad guys, but wracking your brain to describe those Ghost Touch Chimes of Opening will push in a creative direction. It will add variety to your game and grow you as a GM.
Let’s put it together with two examples.
Example 1:
I’m stating out the barmaid who is our secret spy. I’ll give her a secret to complete her character, so I pull out my not so lucky six-siders (you’ll understand if you ever watch me roll up a character, I have not had a natural 18 since second edition!) and roll a …
28: Tower is full of half-fiends from an experiment during the war gone wrong
Well… That is interesting. Let’s see if we can work that into the details of our barmaid/spy. I’m going to give her a severely scarred left hand; something noticeable. She tells those who ask that she use to be an adventurer who explored the woods far to the west. Her band of adventurers stumbled onto a tower that was reputed to be filled with magic. But inside things went horribly wrong. They were attacked by some kind of fiends that demolished her party and she barely escaped with her life. The horrible damage done to her hand killed her adventuring carrier and she has stayed domesticated ever since…
Now that is true up to the part were her carrier was ended. The reality is that her group ran into the BBEG and his demon cronies, who did destroy her group. She was hurt in the fight, but she also turned on the group to save her own neck when the part cleric couldn’t heal the unholy vile damage done to her hand during the fight. She panicked and helped the BBEG. Now she works for him and hopes to somehow get by long enough to make some money and get out of the region. Now the nice thing about all of this detail is that it gives you a complete picture of the spy and what her motivation is. It also tells you how
treacherous and devious she is. Further, when the bard steals the gem from her, we now can easily see what her course of action will be: She has to get that gem or the BBEG will finish what he started in that tower!
Next, your players will rewarded with an interesting story that will have tons of extra meaning. All they have to do is roll play a little. They will see the barmaid as so much more than a typical barmaid. And further, when the players are dealing with her trying to hunt them down it will mean so much more since she is already “alive” to them.
Finally, the foreshadowing of the demon filled tower in the forest. You didn’t tell them what forest or what tower, you focused on her plight. But someday they will need to go to that forest to find a tower with a map they need. It is several adventures away in your time line, which could mean months of game time. But the look on your players faces when one of them speaks up and says, “Hey! Didn’t the barmaid mention that her hand was burned by fiends in some tower in a forest!” will be oh so priceless.
Example 2:
I’m detailing the inn for possible fights and the eventual gem theft. So I roll my dice for a secret…36: Portal is hidden in sunken castle in the "Howling Swamp"!?!? Uh oh - That is a pretty big secret that I really don’t need to let loose. It will just bury the evolution of the story and ruin any pre-tense of adventuring. When you roll something game breaking like this, it is time to get extra creative and really bury the information in layers and glimpses. Never re-roll. Otherwise you’ll just start to re-roll all of the time and lock yourself into patterns. Beside, if you pull it off, the rewards are even greater. So let’s work it in to a detail of the inn…The main tap room of the inn has an ancient picture of dubious worth above the fireplace. It is a bit shaded from the smoke over the years. The picture is of two knights, who oddly wear the same armor, fighting each other on the parapets of a castle while a tidal wave of water crashes over those parapets. Its hard to tell really do to the age and fading, and the inn owner brags how it was painted by a famous bard, or
so he had heard from the guy who traded it to him to clear his bar tab.
OK. Let’s see - no mention of portals or demons or even the howling swamps. Just a snap shot at the sinking of the castle during the insurrection from the corrupted knights. But even that information is a lot of research and time away from the players. Assuming they even think about it much after this adventure is over. But hopefully the old picture and their first inn will resonate when they are 12th level and learn that the portal is in a castle that sunk into a swamp. When they learn of the details of how the castle sunk, hopefully they will realize how much forethought you put into the campaign to foreshadow such an event!
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Secrets are fun and can add a lot of depth to a game when used properly. You will wow your players with the complexity of your game and the planning of the campaign. You already put tons of work into the game, now it is simply time to put all of that work to work for you. You are the referee, the judge, a cast of thousands, and the writer of the whole experience. Time to be a writer and write a story that ties the whole campaign together; from beginning to end with the whole seeming continuous and interrelated. Further, you need to write a story that the players may up and change on you not only at any moment, but most likely several times throughout the entire campaign. Your story
needs to foreshadow details and hooks, not a story itself for that is railroading and not an adventure or a game. The game is a story the writes itself by the act of the players and the details of your planning. And if you can take all of that variety and chance, and still write a story that is continuous and tied from front to back, then you are indeed more than a writer…You are the Essential GM!
