Dnd DM help
Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2013 2:20 am
Here's my personal opinion of how a campaign should be created, I urge you guys to post your experiences and tips.
1. Setting :
- Get a vague idea of the campaign world ( You can get inspiration from pc games, books, movies, your own stuff, w/e). You have a vague idea about what you want to do with your world.
- Get a rule system that you know well.
- Now brainstorm some initial details ( NPC Characters, Vague Maps, go into some description of places stuff like that).
- Start fleshing out the begging of your world
- Keep the player characters in mind and think of ways of providing them options and helping them make their character more interesting ( Be very careful since you usually have to balance between railroading and full sandbox, neither are good because too much liberty can screw with your campaign though that isn't a problem as often as railroading where the players are spectators to your story. Try to provide as much content as you can).
2. Immersion :
- The Hooks :
- While you go further into detailing your world think of a hook you have for your player characters ( Why should they care? Why should they get involved in your adventure? ).
- Leave room for characters backstory.
- Try to provide some mystery.
- Immersion is very important. ( If your player characters don't know or interact with an NPC they won't care if it dies, give NPCs a life and details)
- You should first have a vague idea of your hook and then change it and flesh it out with new ideas and character backstories.
- It's good to have one fairly early in the story ( Right at the start if possible)
- Details( I think this is at least 75% of the work in creating a campaign) :
- In the core handbook there's not that much of details a plate armor is a plate armor a shield is a shield etc. try to provide details ( Emblems, Shape, etc)
- A good source of inspiration is the Modules ( pre-written adventures) they have a lot of flavor text for details. (try to have as much of it as possible) "You see a ranger with a composite bow" isn't interesting.
- Well detailed/made grids, maps, NPCs
- Consistency :
- Try to keep the mood constant ( lets say you make a campaign with a bleak mood and so on)
- If your mood is constantly changing the immersion is lost.
- Don't have random stuff happen all the time.
- Try to make stuff make sense.
- Connection :
- Connection to the character ( allowing opportunities and encouraging roleplaying and background stories)
- Connection to the NPCs (details and interaction)
- Connection to the World (details details details)
3. Rules :
- Know your rules well. Have the books/references on hand.
- Character creation rules :
- Stats, Available races/classes/feats/items note that some of the stuff in the advanced/3rd party books aren't that well balanced esp compared to the core classes and how the work together.
- Be very careful of overpowered player characters compared to others, 1 guy should carry the entire party that takes the fun out of it for the rest of the players.
- I prefer using point buy with lower points because lvl 1 characters shouldn't feel like heroes.
- Alignments (If you're new don't allow evil alignments, very hard to manage for you and the players. Chaotic neutral can also cause trouble if you have immature players. Evaluate your players.)
- Good - Evil Preservation of life (They value life or not)
- Lawful - Chaos You like things ordered and well defined and you like laws and rules - Or you don't and you want more free spirit
- How powerful do you want the player characters to be?
- Evil games can be very rewarding if you have mature and experienced players.
4. Packaging ( What the players need to know before we start) :
- Rules.
- Player backgrounds, so you can integrate them into the campaign and also making them care more for their characters.
- Maybe reward extra gold for every paragraph in the background to a max of X or offer them some magic items for their backgrounds if you need to provide some incentive.
5. Integrating players :
- People will usually come up with better things than you could of come up with for them.
- Saves you time for fleshing out the world when you integrate them.
- More freedom for backgrounds = Better.
- You may have to modify things in your first vision of the campaign to be able to integrate them.
- The sooner you get the backgrounds the better.
- Sidequests from backgrounds.
6. Designing :
- Towns :
- Geography of the area/town (have the towns fit into the geography)
- Size / Population ( population diversity as well)
- Wealth ( related to the resources and shops you can find there as well )
- Shops ( Owner, Items, you can also use random percentages lets say a shop has 25% chance to have a martial weapon or a magic item. You can also have certain services(upgrade normal to masterwork)/sidequests(buys monster heads or w/e) and stuff like that)
- Major Figures ( who is significant in the town. roleplaying opportunities etc)
- Flavor text to give a sense of how the town is right. You don't need it for each building in the town but the more the better.
- Dungeons :
- Hook
- Think about how this dungeon would be like if the adventurers would never be there. ( Helps describing the dungeon and building it)
- Variety :
- Skill checks ( the more variety the better. Acrobatics, Read magic, Knowledge )
- Traps
- Fighting ( special bosses, special moves, special encounters, different env to have encounters )
- Loot ( special loot with description, lets say an armor with + intimidation , doesn't have to be a huge item)
- Secrets (passages, doorways)
- Routes ( some are s8 forward, try having multiples routes to the same end or even better some dead ends where they have to backtrack)
- Flavor and Atmosphere ( try to anticipate some player questions in the flavor text ) "What am i seeing" "It's a room" booooring
- Lighting
- NPCs :
- Some NPCs don't need all their stats but some that players interact with should, esp the important ones, like the major characters in towns.
- Villains :
- Build them up, the first time the player fight them shouldn't be the first time they hear about it, etc.
- Have them have memorable minions that stand out. You could have a few adventures just combating this minion. (Lord of the ring Sauron main villain , Saruman memorable minion)
- Multiple escapes, the minions(or main villain) keep coming back, either raised from the dead or make an escape. Although it can frustrate the players it will make it all that more rewarding when they manage to defeat it.
- Build up to it, give it significance, make it motivating.
7. Pre-game :
- Make sure you've reviewed your notes.
- Material, make sure you got all your stuff ready.
- Go in with a positive attitude.
- Your players will be understanding.
8. After Session:
- What went well?
- How will your game change? What did the players or you introduce that was unplanned? Take that into consideration to make your world more dynamic, find a way to make your players feel like the impacted the world.
- What can you add, improve for the next time? What wasn't enough?
- Was it too easy or too hard?
- Try to start anticipating your players actions.
- Maybe provide some experience rewards for players writing somewhere( wink wink, cohhilition forum) a log or a journal or reflect on the last session. This is a way to keep the players thinking about their characters outside the session time. (This will help them get more immersed)
- It's also a good idea to ask the players what they liked / didn't like about the session.
Sorry for any grammatical or spelling mistakes. English is not my first language.
1. Setting :
- Get a vague idea of the campaign world ( You can get inspiration from pc games, books, movies, your own stuff, w/e). You have a vague idea about what you want to do with your world.
- Get a rule system that you know well.
- Now brainstorm some initial details ( NPC Characters, Vague Maps, go into some description of places stuff like that).
- Start fleshing out the begging of your world
- Keep the player characters in mind and think of ways of providing them options and helping them make their character more interesting ( Be very careful since you usually have to balance between railroading and full sandbox, neither are good because too much liberty can screw with your campaign though that isn't a problem as often as railroading where the players are spectators to your story. Try to provide as much content as you can).
2. Immersion :
- The Hooks :
- While you go further into detailing your world think of a hook you have for your player characters ( Why should they care? Why should they get involved in your adventure? ).
- Leave room for characters backstory.
- Try to provide some mystery.
- Immersion is very important. ( If your player characters don't know or interact with an NPC they won't care if it dies, give NPCs a life and details)
- You should first have a vague idea of your hook and then change it and flesh it out with new ideas and character backstories.
- It's good to have one fairly early in the story ( Right at the start if possible)
- Details( I think this is at least 75% of the work in creating a campaign) :
- In the core handbook there's not that much of details a plate armor is a plate armor a shield is a shield etc. try to provide details ( Emblems, Shape, etc)
- A good source of inspiration is the Modules ( pre-written adventures) they have a lot of flavor text for details. (try to have as much of it as possible) "You see a ranger with a composite bow" isn't interesting.
- Well detailed/made grids, maps, NPCs
- Consistency :
- Try to keep the mood constant ( lets say you make a campaign with a bleak mood and so on)
- If your mood is constantly changing the immersion is lost.
- Don't have random stuff happen all the time.
- Try to make stuff make sense.
- Connection :
- Connection to the character ( allowing opportunities and encouraging roleplaying and background stories)
- Connection to the NPCs (details and interaction)
- Connection to the World (details details details)
3. Rules :
- Know your rules well. Have the books/references on hand.
- Character creation rules :
- Stats, Available races/classes/feats/items note that some of the stuff in the advanced/3rd party books aren't that well balanced esp compared to the core classes and how the work together.
- Be very careful of overpowered player characters compared to others, 1 guy should carry the entire party that takes the fun out of it for the rest of the players.
- I prefer using point buy with lower points because lvl 1 characters shouldn't feel like heroes.
- Alignments (If you're new don't allow evil alignments, very hard to manage for you and the players. Chaotic neutral can also cause trouble if you have immature players. Evaluate your players.)
- Good - Evil Preservation of life (They value life or not)
- Lawful - Chaos You like things ordered and well defined and you like laws and rules - Or you don't and you want more free spirit
- How powerful do you want the player characters to be?
- Evil games can be very rewarding if you have mature and experienced players.
4. Packaging ( What the players need to know before we start) :
- Rules.
- Player backgrounds, so you can integrate them into the campaign and also making them care more for their characters.
- Maybe reward extra gold for every paragraph in the background to a max of X or offer them some magic items for their backgrounds if you need to provide some incentive.
5. Integrating players :
- People will usually come up with better things than you could of come up with for them.
- Saves you time for fleshing out the world when you integrate them.
- More freedom for backgrounds = Better.
- You may have to modify things in your first vision of the campaign to be able to integrate them.
- The sooner you get the backgrounds the better.
- Sidequests from backgrounds.
6. Designing :
- Towns :
- Geography of the area/town (have the towns fit into the geography)
- Size / Population ( population diversity as well)
- Wealth ( related to the resources and shops you can find there as well )
- Shops ( Owner, Items, you can also use random percentages lets say a shop has 25% chance to have a martial weapon or a magic item. You can also have certain services(upgrade normal to masterwork)/sidequests(buys monster heads or w/e) and stuff like that)
- Major Figures ( who is significant in the town. roleplaying opportunities etc)
- Flavor text to give a sense of how the town is right. You don't need it for each building in the town but the more the better.
- Dungeons :
- Hook
- Think about how this dungeon would be like if the adventurers would never be there. ( Helps describing the dungeon and building it)
- Variety :
- Skill checks ( the more variety the better. Acrobatics, Read magic, Knowledge )
- Traps
- Fighting ( special bosses, special moves, special encounters, different env to have encounters )
- Loot ( special loot with description, lets say an armor with + intimidation , doesn't have to be a huge item)
- Secrets (passages, doorways)
- Routes ( some are s8 forward, try having multiples routes to the same end or even better some dead ends where they have to backtrack)
- Flavor and Atmosphere ( try to anticipate some player questions in the flavor text ) "What am i seeing" "It's a room" booooring
- Lighting
- NPCs :
- Some NPCs don't need all their stats but some that players interact with should, esp the important ones, like the major characters in towns.
- Villains :
- Build them up, the first time the player fight them shouldn't be the first time they hear about it, etc.
- Have them have memorable minions that stand out. You could have a few adventures just combating this minion. (Lord of the ring Sauron main villain , Saruman memorable minion)
- Multiple escapes, the minions(or main villain) keep coming back, either raised from the dead or make an escape. Although it can frustrate the players it will make it all that more rewarding when they manage to defeat it.
- Build up to it, give it significance, make it motivating.
7. Pre-game :
- Make sure you've reviewed your notes.
- Material, make sure you got all your stuff ready.
- Go in with a positive attitude.
- Your players will be understanding.
8. After Session:
- What went well?
- How will your game change? What did the players or you introduce that was unplanned? Take that into consideration to make your world more dynamic, find a way to make your players feel like the impacted the world.
- What can you add, improve for the next time? What wasn't enough?
- Was it too easy or too hard?
- Try to start anticipating your players actions.
- Maybe provide some experience rewards for players writing somewhere( wink wink, cohhilition forum) a log or a journal or reflect on the last session. This is a way to keep the players thinking about their characters outside the session time. (This will help them get more immersed)
- It's also a good idea to ask the players what they liked / didn't like about the session.
Sorry for any grammatical or spelling mistakes. English is not my first language.