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Topic: DMFI discussion of how to DM a NWN campaign (Read 233 times) |
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Play Mate
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Excellent progress Carlo. Let me know when the document is finished, and I'll add it to the resource list at the top of the forum.
I've also added your DMFI 101 self-study tutorial to it.
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Bigbluepaw
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Hey Carlo... I remember trying to get to the disucssion and didn't have access. Do you need to be invited to the guild?
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Elbast
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Great idea, and best of luck with it. I'm sure many people take on, and then drop, campaigns as they're unsure of how much work is involved or how to go about it in manageable fashion.
I wish I had the time, freshness and energy to add input, but ironically I need to reserve that I have for my campaign which I'm re-starting this Sunday after a disasterous couple of months.
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Lazybones
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Carlo asked me to contribute a few ideas on running campaigns. Here's what I came up with (a few overlap with points already made on the Bioware guild forum):
- Have a plan. Although I don't release all of my modules on the Neverwinter Vault, I nonetheless prepare a "DM's Guide" to the module at the same time that I'm building in the Aurora Toolset. This guide always contains an overview of the default plot of the module, and a list of events/locations that are intended to advance that plot. The players don't always go along with the plot (and see the next point), but it's important to have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish. Likewise, before each session I prepare a short (maybe a paragraph or a bulleted list) overview of what I expect to occur during that game.
- Have a contingency plan. That said, the players will not always follow your carefully crafted plot (and in fact, if they did you would most likely have a pretty dull game). Be prepared for contingencies. One of the beauties of the campaign style is that you can make edits to the game in the breaks between sessions (usually a week, although some campaigns manage 2 or more sessions a week, while others play only once or twice a month). Some DMs even run campaigns entirely on the "improv" style, relying on a palette full of blank areas and generic NPCs that are populated in the midst of the game by the DM(s). I find this a bit too loose for my tastes, but I do try to keep a stable of various general-purpose NPCs and creatures in my palette that I can call upon in case I need to respond to player actions during the course of play.
- Integrate the players into the story. One of the best ways to ensure that players retain their interest in the game is to integrate them into the development of the story. Encourage your players to develop backgrounds for their players, and then use those backgrounds when writing your plot. Even a minor subplot involving a player character's long-lost brother, mentioned briefly in his/her background, can add a lot to the game for that player. Don't be afraid to consult with the player and work together in integrating this kind of content. In one of my campaigns, I had several player characters receive titles of nobility and a plot of land that several of them then developed in the toolset for integration into the next module in the campaign. Several of my players have noted that things like this really add to their sense of engagement and immersion in the game experience.
- Plan for attrition. No matter how awesome your game is, you'll have people coming and going. One of my campaigns, which started in September 2003, has gone through at least 25 players with only 2-3 of the original group still present. In order to reduce the jarring effect of characters dropping out and others joining in, try to develop strategies ahead of time for integrating new characters. I almost always handle new characters joining in-game, by talking to the new player and working out a way for the new character's arrival to fit into the plot.
- Make NPC copies of the player characters. Using the LETO utility, it's relatively easy to make a copy of a player character that you can import into your module, if you are using the Server Vault (i.e. if all your group's characters are stored on your machine). The advantages of this are multifold. First, if a player has to miss a session, and your group is deep within a dungeon, you can avoid the awkward "disappearing/reappearing character" syndrome. If you have the character in your module palette, you can just spawn him/her in and possess with the DM. Likewise, if the player has to leave the campaign, either temporarily or permanently, you can arrange for some sort of resolution for that character in-game as part of the plot. In the past, I've had departed players' characters retire, turn up dead (again, as part of the story), or even return later as villains (a particularly entertaining option, if it fits with your overall story).
- Keep good notes. This may seem obvious but it's really important. In order for you to have continuity, you need to recall what happened in prior sessions. Some people have an excellent recall for stuff like this, but if you're anything like me, you'll need to write stuff down. Players enjoy the depth added to a campaign when there are recurring threads in the game and actions that they took ten sessions ago have ongoing consequences within the game world. I personally don't like writing out a huge narrative after each session, but I find that a combination of a)the NWC "Print Party Record" function and b)the NWN game log function, give me a solid source of good information that I can reference throughout the game. I always print out my NWC Party Records and make notes on them throughout the game; bundled together with a binder clip this offers a ready source of information and a simple history of the campaign. Even something simple like noting the names of NPCs that the party meets in a session can help you keep things straight if it's been a while since you last played.
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Carlo One
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Thanks to Eliandi for the chat record (I was supposed to attend that NWCon session, but ended up going on R&R in Italy instead) and Lazybones for his cogent observations. It's clear we have an embarassment of riches regarding NWN campaign knowledge.
I plan on starting to draft the article on Sunday (January 9th), so I'd encourage people to post any additional thoughts on campaigns before then, so the article can draw on them. Gracias.
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Eliandi
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I've been reading the posts here and in the guild, and you are getting alot of good feedback. I just want to highlight is none of the experts has emphasized the building aspect much...because its not the heart of a good long term campaign. If you have good stories developing with and around the players, the players will roleplay in a basically empty map and enjoy it. Conversly, a poor story will drive away your players even if your maps are breathtakingly designed and scripted.
Its a common misconception I hear is that you have to be some sort of building guru to build for a campaign, or you have to spend hours and hours on building to do a ongoing campaign. I cannot speak for the others, but I spend maintain an approximate 1:1 ratio between buildtime and playtime, ie I spend about 3hrs a week in the toolset for my 3hr a week campaign game. I could probably reduce the time in the toolset if I wrote the stories totally outside the toolset, but I often find story inspiration when building (building with my campaign notes and a web-browser open).
So at least in my campaigns, I populate typical areas only with enough scenery (placeables, random NPCs, etc) to set the stage. I do spend more time developing key campaign areas and NPC, like the groups base of operations or other key locales you will be visiting often.
I do not script, but I do use scripts from the vault for needed automation (like the DMFI wands). I do not mess with scripts for fancy stuff like you see in modules on the vault. Using lots of scripts, or doing your own scripting, often requires extra time for testing and QA. Therefore I generally avoid it.
Building for a campaign is not difficult as many people make it out to be. Story and character are much more important than expert building in holding a campaign togather.
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Forrestwolf
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One comment regarding Lazybones's suggetion about copying PC's: the new DMFI Wands (1.07) include an option for storing players as campaign objects. I find this INVALUABLE in doing exactly what LB's saying - it really helps to test combat balance ahead of time or fill in for missing PC's.
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Lazybones
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on Jan 5, 2005, 0:36 AM, Forrestwolf wrote:| One comment regarding Lazybones's suggetion about copying PC's: the new DMFI Wands (1.07) include an option for storing players as campaign objects. I find this INVALUABLE in doing exactly what LB's saying - it really helps to test combat balance ahead of time or fill in for missing PC's. |
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I hope they've updated the settings on that function. It used to copy the player as an NPC with all their loot set to drop, which could be inconvenient to say the least if you're using a PC as a doppleganger, or a similar scenario.
You could use the NPC wand to adjust the death/loot drop settings, but that's cumbersome.
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TOJTS
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I was just thinking some on this topic. All above are great things to add, but there's another "way of campaigning". I was thinking back on, in my RPG book, the definition of a campaign: A set of connected adventures with a common theme and possible reoccuring characters (other than the PCs).
It's more than possible to take a few (normal, preferable DMFI) modules from NWVault and make to a campaign by providing links between them. This way you don't have to build at all (maybe?), but you just provide a "after this comes that" sorta. This fits easily with a common theme of "adventuring for the good of all", doing missions assigned to them etc.
So the connection between your "adventures" or your thread to follow from start to end is probably one of the most important things to consider.
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Lazybones
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I did something similar with my "Legends of the Sword Coast" campaign module, integrating material from my short modules "Castaways", "the Shrine of the Eth'barat," "Tome of Secrets," and even one of my PvP Team Challenge modules into a mini-campaign good for maybe 10 weeks of play. And given how much good stuff there is at the Vault, even a DM with almost no time to build/prepare should have enough material to put together a decent campaign.
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| « Last Edit: on: Jan 6, 2005, 2:49AM » |
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StarStuff
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We're trying this out at the moment - we've done a couple of weeks of the first Saltmarsh so far. Good to know from those that have been-there-seen-it-done-it that it actually works! (The motivation for trying it like this was so that we could swap DMs between adventures but keep the same characters throughout.)
--StarStuff
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silromen
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I've been absent for a long time, but Carlo asked me for my input, so here it is.
One of my goals running a campaign (or any adventure) is to create the impression that the characters are driving the events of the story. In my Cairn Dell campaign, I usually tried to plan two or more story arcs for the characters to traverse. The mix of characters and how they roleplay the scenarios is what decides which direction the story goes.
I'm a fan of moral ambiguity. I usually try to provide the players with two or more crappy choices. If you have good roleplayers, moral ambiguity will draw out their characters and spur a lot of really interesting discussion and arguments.
One of the most critical parts of a campaign is the interaction between players and their interactions with the NPCs. The huge advantage to DM'd games is that the NPCs can react to anything the players do in a realistic way. It's important that the DM has given some thought to the motivations of the NPCs. Since you can't plan for every player action, an understanding of what drives the NPCs will help them respond in a realistic way when your player does something totally unexpected.
Laying down ground rules for the players regarding in-fighting in the party is also critical. Immature players, or players who have differing opinions about what constitutes roleplaying, can quickly destroy a game. Agree Out-Of-Character what level of inter-player violence is acceptable. A high degree of conflict in the party can really add some flavour, but it's a very thin and fuzzy line.
My rule is always that players have to enjoy themselves. As soon as it stops being fun, something is wrong.
My campaign was really an accident. I wrote one adventure, then wrote a prequel, and then started a campaign. The first adventure had a bunch of scripts in it, and I just found that to be more trouble than it was worth. The more adventures I created, the less I relied on scripting.
If you have the time to devote to changing your adventure environment every week, you can run a really effective campaign that isn't constrained by previous design decisions. Had I had the time, this "Just-In-Time" campaign management would have been the direction I went in.
The tasks that seem to really require scripting also seem to be the same tasks that NWN handles poorly. Tactical combat involving the movement of numerous NPCs seems especially daunting. My suggestion is to save yourself the pain and avoid large scale combat if it involves much tactical complexity. You have CPU performance and network lag working against you anyway.
And if you are building your own world, think of everything. Players ask you a lot about history, religion, geographic details, etc. I also think having a player guide can be really helpful. In it you can explain your DM style, how you feel about certain in-game issues (death, rolling, roleplaying, PvP, etc). You can also include everything a perspective player might want to know about your campaign. This is great for new players and a handy resource for your existing crew.
I hope some of this is helpful for you Carlo.
Silromen
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Elbast
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on Jan 11, 2005, 5:33 AM, silromen wrote:
Laying down ground rules for the players regarding in-fighting in the party is also critical. Immature players, or players who have differing opinions about what constitutes roleplaying, can quickly destroy a game. Agree Out-Of-Character what level of inter-player violence is acceptable. A high degree of conflict in the party can really add some flavour, but it's a very thin and fuzzy line. |
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I'll bite here, but only briefly. There's more to this point than just what is stated above. Really, to have a successful campaign (for players and GM(s)) everyone needs to be working from the same script. That is to say that there should be some accepted Actual Play Goals to ensure that the players are acheiving what they wish to from the game, and are capable and willing to show behaviours/development/etc. that is rewarding to the GM. If the GM isn't having fun, then no-one is. Having an open discussion before play starts and making sure you get the right players is key.
| And if you are building your own world, think of everything. Players ask you a lot about history, religion, geographic details, etc. I also think having a player guide can be really helpful. |
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I couldn't disagree more here. I fall heavily into the opposite camp, which is to say that nothing is concrete and determined before it is required. This saves effort and time, rather than spending hours developing the minutiae and getting lost or bogged down in details that then never see the light of day. Keeping things amorphous before they are absolutely required is also a sure-fire way of making sure you can tie PC backgrounds and histories/contacts etc into the weavings of plot being spun. Essentially though, this comes down to "different strokes for different folks" - some people require being told absolutely everything about a setting, others are happier to be able to contribute their own ideas to what is then a constant work in progress (just like the campaign).
Edit: The other reason I mention this is that world-building can be a daunting task, and a possible reason why people may decide in the end not to bother attempting to build and run their own campaign.
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| « Last Edit: on: Jan 11, 2005, 9:15AM » |
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Carlo One
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Thanks for the comments, Silromen, I enjoyed your observations.
Re: Elbast's last comment, being a former player in Silromen's campaign, I can say that in practice he was quite flexible and worked in a lot, both in and out-of-game, that was personalized to my character but flowed out of the setting. I helped drive that by submitting some background and other info that played off of his campaign world and created some new "canon" in the process. I think it's less an issue of knowing literally everything about a campaign world--an impossible goal in both theory in practice--but really about having some logical answers to all of the obvious questions a reasonable person might have in-game.
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