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Topic: How to make a campaign? (Read 295 times) |
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Carlo One
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Heh, this could be a research paper, if not a master's thesis, in length. I'll offer a couple personal observations and opinions, since I recently started a campaign here. If you want, check out my campaign board, to get a feel for things that we've addressed relating to the campaign world:
http://www.neverwinterconnections.com/forums/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewthreads/id/388/.htm
-- Setting: pick something that you really want to DM and play in. You'll be spending a lot of time in it, so you'd better love it. Do you have a place or region you've really wanted to bring to life? Or are you looking more to do a campaign "type", such as a crusade against evil (or good!), political intrigue, or dungeon-based? If you have some overriding core ideas for a campaign, select a place that's suitable for them. I wanted to do a hard-core any-alignment campaign, so Westgate in the Forgotten Realms setting appealed to me.
-- NPCs: once you've come up with the areas you want to populate, make sure that each area has an appropriate "flavor" to it and unique NPCs. If you have a small village at the center of your campaign, perhaps almost all the NPCs can be unique. I mean unique in the sense of having at least a short background, a profession, and some sort of personal story or goal. I find the one or two-sentence style descriptions used in PnP mods to be effective for this sort of thing, you don't need very much background at all to give an NPC life. Even if you just have a few "smart" animals in otherwise empty wilderness areas that react to the PCs' presence, that helps your world come alive.
-- Main plot vs. subplots. First, you have to decide whether or not you want an open-ended campaign or a "story arc" campaign such as Parthenon or Penultima. If you run a story-arc style campaign, the main plot has to be compelling enough in-character to keep people on track over time. Subplots are excellent ways of giving different PCs a chance to roleplay their strengths and weaknesses, enhancing campaign depth. In an open-ended campaign, you should have multiple plotlines or options available all the time, so players can truly choose their own path. I run an open-ended campaign where choices are periodically presented in the context of the current plotline; PCs also could simply decide to go off and do something else. Having multiple plot hooks/ideas in reserve is never a bad thing, whatever style campaign you run.
For me, it boils down to making sure you pick something fun and compelling for yourself and ensuring your players have the same kind of experience.
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| « Last Edit: on: Mar 23, 2004, 5:05PM » |
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Bigbluepaw
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I think Carlo One has done a great job covering the topics here for an open-ended campaign. I am in the middle of creating a over-arcing one…and am more process centric…almost to a fault. So I’ll throw the process I am using to create a campaign.
1.) Outline your Core Plot and Major NPCs – Without picking a campaign setting, define roughly what happens along the core plot and which NPCs are involved. This is a bulleted list of the activities the PCs take along with the required NPCs they interact with.
Likewise, you’ll end up putting some constraints on the ‘environments’ needed for different parts of your core plot. For example, this could be the PCs need to interact with seek out an ancient Dwarven City to track down an ancient artifact…most likely found in mountains or potentially the Underdark.
In the end, you’ll have a overall list of what happens and who’s involved. Along with that, you’ll have some constraints for the campaign setting you need to match. And just do this in a document…make it simple at first.
2.) Match your Campaign Needs to a Campaign Setting – Once you know what you need based on the ‘environments’, NPCs and plot you defined above, find a match from existing settings.
For my campaign, it was easy to pick FR, but figuring out the exact location was much more difficult. The core plot I laid out had specific needs. As a result, I had to read long and hard in the source books to find just the right place.
3.) Layout Your Core Plot against your Areas – In an excel spreadsheet, I laid out my core plot’s ‘scenes’ in order with the NPCs involved. Next to that, enter the areas of the mod that the ‘scene’ should take place within. This basically tells who how many and what types of areas you need for your core plot. This goes back to a suggestion in this forum (can’t remember where)…build only what you need. This also helps you figure out how characters will get from one ‘scene’ to the next.
4.) Define Sidequests and Minor NPCs – Now that you have the core plot defined and supported by NPCs, the campaign setting and which areas you really need, you can add in the auxiliary stuff. Here you can add in the additional sidequests and minor NPCs. This is best done when looking at the spreadsheet to determine two things…where do the PCs meet the quest giver or minor NPC (as in which area)…what additional areas are needed or can existing ones be used to complete the sidequest.
5.) Create NPC Personalities – I go through one by one and figure out their agendas, quirks and habits. Given the context of the role the NPC plays in the core plot or the sidequest, it becomes pretty easy to flesh out the details.
6.) Build and Populate your Areas – For me, this is all about execution. You have the spreadsheet telling you…
* What type of areas to build…
* Which areas are connected to what…
* Which NPCs are in which areas….
* What the NPCs are there to talk to the PCs about…
* What the sidequests are and how to start them…
Basically, it’s your build plan. Obviously you can deviate from it once you get started, but I am finding it’s the best way to organize myself and get the most important stuff done first…and add other stuff later.
Well…that’s my 2 cents!
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Carlo One
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Man, is Bigbluepaw organized or what? *grins*
One caveat for an open-ended campaign: make sure it's set in a location with plenty to do. The players in mine are in a large city with an almost bewildering (even for the DM) array of places to go and minor plotlines available to pick up. A wilderness campaign with different areas chock-full of things to explore would achieve the same effect.
One of the benefits of a story-arc style campaign is that you don't have to have as many "full-service" style areas, since players usually have a defined goal in each area. A set of areas that would be death for an open-ended campaign can be perfect for a more linear module.
This is very educational for me, too. I hope other DMs, especially those who have long-running campaigns, will share their thoughts.
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| « Last Edit: on: Mar 23, 2004, 7:24PM » |
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Eliandi
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Carlo and bigBluepaw, what are you two doing on 4/16 at about 3:30-5pm CT? I've got this NWCon IRC panel on running long term campaigns I think you can help me with 
Awesome posts!
I agree with the previous posted about setting--its got to be something that is going to motivate you week-in and week-out.
However, I am not a big planner, at least at 1st. I begin by creating the starting situation of the campaign, and then get work with the players to create thier PCs and how they fit into the setting.
I then create and run the 1st few sessions. In these sessions, I will be learning the players likes, dislikes, and what "hooks them. In my 1st campaign, set in Middle Earth, the PC's totally got into a plot regarding the lost art of imparting magical power into runes, and the implications of using this art for evil. The plot started when I created the desciption of some +1 armor they found, and described it as having elaboratly carved runes. It was simply a bit of flourish, but turned into a long running plot eventually with multiple subplots.
Interspersed with the main plot I run PC-specific stories. These are developed from the PCs backgrounds or events from the campaign. Families, kids, spouses, previous professions, contacts, etc.
You mentioned NPCs, and they are critical. Give each a line or two, including basic personality and motivation. Also, you have to over-do personality to make them come across in NWN's text-based dialog.
As for building, i've done it two ways. The easier way is to start your campaign using a mod or a PW. At least then you have a base of areas to work from, and can use that as your hub to begin from and build out from there. This is what I did for my 1st campaign, as I learned the toolset. The ground-up method is much more work, especially pre-campaign. It does produce a world in exactly your vision.
I build week to week, creating areas and NPCs and items to fit the story needs. I use no scripting or dialogs, so I can turn out the work quickly.
I have found players in long term campaigns are very willing to use haks, and haks that add character to your campaign are really useful. For example, in my Westgate campaign, I use the Alleys&Galleons hak, and Lisa's clothes horse hak. Both add alot to the look and feel of the game.
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Arawen
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I've been lead DM of my freeform roleplay campaign, Castellar Chronicles, for a year now.
When I first started, I spent a lot of time planning the general plot arc, developing a base mod of standard scripts and tinkering with haks. I then built rough areas ahead for what I thought would take eight weeks.
The outline however was a very basic set of plot points along with the first few scenes. By episode three, Thaelson and I had already changed the plot in major ways and by episode six, the story took on a life of its own. Many of the early areas I had built ahead also turned out to be less than ideal, so we spent a fair amount of time rebuilding them, then discarded numerous prebuilt areas when the tileset haks initially did not work well with SoU.
Thanks to a great group of players and co-DM Gonesailing and former co-DM Thaelson, Castellar Chronicles has been a wonderful freeform roleplay experience. I prepare multiple plot paths in the toolset, numerous NPCs, and situations, write up DM notes, then set the players loose. The world is dynamic, with player actions making a difference so PCs often see the consequences of their actions.
Castellar Chronicles started off as an epic wilderness trek. Since then it has included three cities: a militaristic communist Ant City, a floating city of high magic and extraplanar creatures, and an intrigue filled human imperial capital. Castellar is an epic and at times zany character driven game, in which player roleplay shapes the story, from frontier swamps to the fiery plains of Hell.
Each chapter of Castellar Chronicles is planned ahead of time with a very simple outline of main plot points. I write fiction about Castellar as a hobby so that adds more world information as well. Mostly, the game is improvised in the toolset each session. I write a few notes between games, post them on the Chimera DM forum to discuss them with my co-DM, Gonesailing, then sit down with the toolset and improvise.
The first chapter of Castellar Chronicles ran twenty-six games and it was a low level campaign. The second chapter, a mid level game, is currently in progress, and the third chapter is intended to be for epic level characters.
After I design and build each episode, I write out DM notes, noting various plots and PC driven subplots as well as where to find key items in the chooser.
Also I try to create a set of recurring NPCs to give my players a sense of personal involvement in the world. Recurring characters are also a lot of fun to DM.
Each game session module of Castellar Chronicles usually has around 50 to 70 areas, including a city and related quest areas. I build each session from game to game for maximum flexibility. For server reasons, I have to keep overall module size down so I continually add and delete content each session. The entire game runs as an empty DM soundstage, with NPCs and critters spawned in entirely on the fly for maximum flexibility within my limited prep time.
When I started, I thought that the campaign would be over in two months. I've been blessed though with such great players and co-DMs though that creating the Castellar story with them during each game is truly an amazing experience.
Arawen
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| « Last Edit: on: Mar 24, 2004, 12:54AM » |
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Bigbluepaw
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Now that CEP is out, when was Demetrious going to release his prefab....I haven't seen a specific date from him. I would like to use it also.
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Eliandi
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One thing I forgot to mention, at least in my 2 campaigns, was my players love for "custom" items. This falls into 2 categories:
1. PC appearance items: Long term players really get into to thier PC's appearance, and are not going to want to be caught dead wearing the standard Bioware-look armors and clothes. My solution is to let players submit erf's for thier armor for you to import. Teach them how, and they will love it. One of my players took it a step further and designed up 50 or so additional items that I've used on npc's and is for sale at some of the merchants. With all the appearance stuff (clothes, armor, shields, weapons, etc) in CEP, you can take this several steps further. I know Arawen has a similiar attitude, because she let me send in an erf for a 1-shot game that helped me get into that PC
2. Players love custom loot. Items should fit the story and the setting. Important items should have history and relevance to the setting. Items can be used to convey or change story direction (sometimes in unexpected ways--see how my "rune-covered" description changed my campaign above). I'm not saying you can't use some generic +1 stuff, but the more custom items the better.
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Carlo One
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Trick for player-created custom items: have the player put them all in a custom chest in the toolset labeled with the player name, then export that chest to an erf. Voila, the DM only has to import the erf to the module, then use the Creator in-game to plunk the chest down for the player to retrieve his/her items when the PC shows up.
An easy way to subtract the gold value of custom equipment is to give the players full starting gold, but then have them buy equivalent equipment from a starting merchant and place it in a trash container. No accounting procedures needed by the DM, then. If you don't use a starting gold/merchant method, then nothing needed at all, heh.
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| « Last Edit: on: Mar 24, 2004, 5:43PM » |
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Garnak
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on Mar 23, 2004, 5:36 PM, Reisiger wrote:
There's one more question that came to me:- How do you work on creating areas for the module? (how many, how to plan ahead, maps of specific places [cities, ruins, e.t.c.], things to watch out for [do's and don'ts
 ], e.t.c.)
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You WILL create more than you use. However, I reccommend starting small, and building from there. Only if the story truly demands it from Session One should you try and build something like a 100-area city. Beleive me, building only what you need saves lots of headaches.
All the points by the posters above are wonderful. My two-cents would be for you to be flexible with your players. By this I mean do not force them to do anything they would not, at least not overtly.
*insert evil scheming DM cackle here*
Players want to feel like they have an impact upon their enviornment, and want the enviornment to be responsive to their actions. Sometimes, story will dicate otherwise - in such cases, you will need to force them to do something, but create the illusion that they indeed HAD a choice. For a long-term campaign to grow and be successful, the primary thing you need to do as a DM is work with the players to fulfill the visions they see of what their players will become. Sometimes, those visions change too (often through your input) - but that's what this game is all about. So, I say, be responsive, patient, and accomodating.
If you can, I highly reccommend you purchase the Dungeon Master's Guide, even the second edition one (it can probably be found on the cheap). The DMG has lots of tips on just how to set up and run a campaign.
Good luck!
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hoyasaxa
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OK, great stuff. Thank you much.
An old school pnp DM, I have created and am currently plann ing(in my head) a great campaign in the forgotten realms. I know I want the players to start and spend lots of time in a sprawling city- like waterdeep, for example. I have never dm'd online, though I have played NWN quite a bit.
So, I've got folks who want to play, a start date for the campaign of 4/21 and....nothing online. How does one start? I have little time to learn how to build and build much in advance, I am hoping to take a pre-existing module with a city and tweak it pre-game and then add all my story emenets, plot direction, etc...as the game goes, on the fly, depending on what the players do...the game will be heavy roleplay, non-linear, lots of factions and players operating at cross-purposes....
Can someone explain how to take modules, edit them in advance and on the fly?..I mean, the real technical steps-- sauch as first load nwn...etc.....i just need the steps more than anything else.
And then---what does one do to 'start' the game? meet at the game page, launch neverwinter nights and...then? Thanks so much and sorry for the long question i really appreciate in advance any assistance.
HOYASAXA
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). 
