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Eon
2009-08-13, 03:28 PM
Yeah... I'm a first time gm planning on getting a group started and I want to make a campaign but I don't know if there's a procedure/checklist to go by. I was bored so I started drawing a map and most likely I will try to finish my continent where it will take place and then what? it's DnD 4.0. I have the DMG, PHB and MM 1 & 2. Anything else I need? Any advice? any good ideas to put into it?

Yora
2009-08-13, 03:57 PM
The most important thing that you need is

a plan!

What is the story the campaign is about? I think there are two general ways how to approach it. The first one is to make up a villain and his goal, and then think about what plan he has to archieve his goal, and how the players can try to stop him. What really helps a lot in such campaigns, is when you have good reasons why the villain wants his goal, and you think about what things he has to do to archieve it. Think about what resources he has, like minions and strongholds. If a band of hobgoblins attack the heroes in a forest, it becomes much more beliveable if the players later find out that the vilian has send his hobgoblins to capture slaves for his iron mine.
The second one is to start with the player characters. Sit together with the players and ask them what characters they want to play and what the goals of these characters are. If the player say "we want to conquer a keep and become the lords of our own duchy", you could write up a single valley with an old dwarven keep inhabited by an orc tribe, and some bands of goblins and gnolls living in the surrounding forest, as well as one green dragon. And then it's up to the players how they conquer the valley.
If they say they "want to hunt dragons", let them start in a town gather some informations about where to find small dragons. If they want to "become powerful warrior", create some legendary weapons and magical places, that grant great power to those who defeat the guardians.

Once you know what the campaign is to be about, everything else becomes much easier.

Eon
2009-08-13, 06:32 PM
The most important thing that you need is

a plan!

What is the story the campaign is about? I think there are two general ways how to approach it. The first one is to make up a villain and his goal, and then think about what plan he has to archieve his goal, and how the players can try to stop him. What really helps a lot in such campaigns, is when you have good reasons why the villain wants his goal, and you think about what things he has to do to archieve it. Think about what resources he has, like minions and strongholds. If a band of hobgoblins attack the heroes in a forest, it becomes much more beliveable if the players later find out that the vilian has send his hobgoblins to capture slaves for his iron mine.
The second one is to start with the player characters. Sit together with the players and ask them what characters they want to play and what the goals of these characters are. If the player say "we want to conquer a keep and become the lords of our own duchy", you could write up a single valley with an old dwarven keep inhabited by an orc tribe, and some bands of goblins and gnolls living in the surrounding forest, as well as one green dragon. And then it's up to the players how they conquer the valley.
If they say they "want to hunt dragons", let them start in a town gather some informations about where to find small dragons. If they want to "become powerful warrior", create some legendary weapons and magical places, that grant great power to those who defeat the guardians.

Once you know what the campaign is to be about, everything else becomes much easier.


Thanks! I might need to use that. now to find players to ask them...

Alejandro
2009-08-13, 06:33 PM
Find and confirm players before you do anything else. You don't want to craft a detailed campaign and then not have players or worse, have bad ones.

Eon
2009-08-13, 06:35 PM
my older brother wants to try DnD...
one of my friends hs showed interest...
I might ask some of my friends when school starts.

Urist Ironblood
2009-08-14, 09:05 AM
Go read this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76474) on how to be a DM, and then start flipping through the archives of Encounter-A-Day (http://www.encounteraday.com/) to get some interesting encounter hooks, but don't let those hooks exist in a vacuum.

Consider starting your campaign with a character-building session where everyone uses the WoTC builder to make a lvl1 character. Have the characters agree on how they came together to be an adventuring party (if they care) or simply put them all outside the prison in a town as the city guards post a bounty for goblin ears or kobold skulls. Once you've got a party, run a no-strings-attached easy combat against a fistful of goblins or kobolds on some marginally interesting terrain to get everyone acclimated; let your players take mulligans and learn the rules.

Take a look at some other campaigns (here is one (http://groups.google.com/group/dnd4e-material/web/baerstun-campaign-baltimore-girl-gaming-group) that I'm building) to get a feel for what makes a good progression of encounters and stories. The DMG has much (much!) more info on DMing than it used to, but seems to focus on the idea of a DM running an off-the-shelf module rather than rolling his own.

Umael
2009-08-14, 12:16 PM
More than finding out what kind of characters your players want to play, find out what kind of a game your players want to play. Heavy in hack-n-slash combat? Lots of intrigue? Explore the world and mark their mark on it?

After figuring out what kind of game the players want, see about giving it a "theme", something that makes it memorable. For example, on a whim, I started a thread about the Seven Deadly Sins and what kind of BBEG would represent them. From that, I could easily imagine a campaign centered around these seven villains and how the PCs would defeat them... or not (keep that possibility in mind).

You don't have to go over-the-top either. I have another plan for a one-shot game in which the various encounters are set to particular songs. Part of the gaming experience would be actually listening to the songs, with the players given a copy of the verses. Of course, depending on the players and the kind of music selected, this game will either be a total success or a complete flop - which is why I mention the first part, knowing what your players want.