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View Full Version : How much planning do you think needs to be done before starting a campaign?



Almaseti
2012-03-13, 04:08 PM
I have a vague idea for a campaign that I've been thinking about running for some friends. The thing is, I've never DMed before, and actually haven't played for that long, so when I think about preparing for the game, I'm not sure where to start. To give you a rough idea, this is the concept for the game:

The campaign starts on a good-sized island off the coast of a larger nation, which is currently dealing with a mysterious plague, and quarantined from the outside world as a result. The players, either locals or stranded travelers, would need to

The island used to be physically a part of the larger nation, until a powerful magic user (haven't decided wiz/cleric/druid yet) split it off into the ocean, a la Kyoshi Island from AtLA, for similar reasons, now regarded as a some what Joan of Arc type of character. Most of its income comes from trade and fishing, with a lesser degree from farming and a school of magic, so the blockade is almost as bad as the plague. Politically, it's a bit of a mishmash, ruled by an alliance of guilds, somewhat more populist than the mainland monarchy. At first it's going to seem like it's the mainland formerly connected nation, but I'm thinking it'll actually be either an evil cult or a disgruntled former teacher at the wizard school being crazy evil.

The plague makes people weaker (Con damage) but also can cause random bouts of violent mania in the afflicted.

Attempts magically remove disease (when you can find someone to cast them) fail more often than they succeed. (caster level check)



So things I'm trying to figure out:

If I have a BBEG at say, level 10 (where it seems reasonable that they can do the damage they do) and the players start at level 2, how do I plan so that the players are at an appropriate level when the final showdown happens?

How much of the plot should be worked out before the game starts? Do I need to know who the BBEG is?

How well fleshed-out to towns and cities need to be to be playable? Do I need to make a map of the whole thing, or just some major landmarks, bars, law enforcement and anything I expect to have the players visit?

Gnoman
2012-03-13, 04:17 PM
In a word, Yes. In a another word, No.

There is no right answer to this sort of question. It all depends on the individual DM, and it takes a few campaigns to develop a style. I personally spend most of my time building an overview of a rich and dynamic world as best I can, and ad-lib a lot of the fine details (or simply use generators.) Others map out the smaller bits in detail and only connect them in the vaguest way. Some plan absolutly nothing and just wing it. All can be valid styles, depending on how well they're implenented. You'll have to try a variety of things to find what works for you.

tedthehunter
2012-03-13, 04:40 PM
It's just like Gnoman said in that there really is no cut and dry way to know when you're done preparing the campaign. My advice would be to talk to your players to see what they're expecting out of the campaign. If you've got some combat hungry PC's, you can roll up some encounters to start off with, and if you've got some players that want to interact with your setting in a less violent manner, you can make some fleshed out NPCs for them to hang around with.

Also, something I think would be extremely helpful would be to play a published adventure for your first attempt at being DM. This way, the module gives you all you need, so you know what you need to make up when you run your own. This will also just help in terms of general smoothness of play for the first few sessions.

Good luck being the DM! Lot's of fun if you're open about it, and if you practice, your players will have a great time too! :smallsmile:

Heatwizard
2012-03-13, 05:06 PM
While there are DMs who can pull off a completely improvised, seat-of-one's-pants campaign, I wouldn't recommend it to someone trying out the DM's chair for the first time. I figure, if you end up planning out the campaign but end up winging it most of the time, you can just shrug and say 'oh well'. But if you go in unprepared and it turns out you can't get much done without a plan, uh oh.

I'd recommend putting a character to your villain role, and then figuring out what sort of plot is going on. One thing I heard that sounded like a good idea is to figure out what would happen if the PCs didn't interfere, and the bad guy gets away with it, and give the bad guy some Plan Bs along the way for when the PCs do show up.

Once you have a vague idea of the plot, you can mark up where along the storyline the PCs ought to level. If they're behind schedule, you can just sneak some extra XP into the next few fights, or get generous with bonus XP out of combat until they're where you want 'em.

You can generally get away with mostly-undefined towns and cities because in general, the PCs are just visiting, and they won't deal with most of the details one might come up with. They'll hit up the highlights(a bed to crash in, a store to buy/sell stuff, and whatever branch of local government deals with crime), chase down local plot, and then get back on the road. If they take a liking to a specific location, you can flesh it out between sessions.

Kurgan
2012-03-13, 06:08 PM
How much planning is needed to run a campaign is really based on individual DMs and groups. Some can just wing entire campaigns, others need to plot it out piece by piece, and still others do a bit of a mix, and what works for some will not work out for others.

The plot of the campaign: While you don't need to figure out every little detail of the plot, you probably want at least a rough idea of what the plot you are going for is, and what would happen should the PCs fail.

One word of warning, you can overplan things at times. When I first tried my hand at DMing I basically had a large script in mind that had to be played exactly as is for what I wanted to happen. Just remember that sometimes, the players want a say in what is going on, and it will not always be exactly what you planned.

In terms of fleshing out towns, it depends. What I usually end up doing is keeping a list of town names, people names, and inn/tavern names, and when I need to make a name up real fast, just pull one from the list and make note of where I used it. Due to my love of making maps, I usually end up doing a rough sketch of the kingdom in question, plus the major cities, roads and rivers. Smaller towns, just make a note of where you place them as the campaign goes along.

I would also recommend going with a module or two before jumping right into the game. With a little work, many of them can be implemented right into the campaign world you plan to run anyways.

Sudain
2012-03-13, 06:44 PM
You need to have an idea of the large brush strokes.

What type of campaign do YOU(as the GM) want? Epic fighting? High magic? Low level nitty gritty?

What do your PLAYERS want out of the campaign? This is oh so important. Talk to them, find out. If they don't want a story and just want to screw around; you need to know that.

You need to know what your players are going to play. If you get 4 fighters; you need to know that for your prep.

Have an idea of what you want as an BBEG; and why he's the BBEG. Knowing what his plans are as the BBEG and how he'd go about them is awesome; but you can go a couple sessions before introducing them.

Then you need to know how you want to start the campaign. From there that should give you enough of a framework to fill in the details.

A word of advice: more details are good. But your players are like flashlights; they will only see what's in front and a bit to the side. Don't waste effort on things they are not going to see or care about. And when(not if) they swing wildly to the side to see something completely different and you didn't account for wing it. And then work it into the story as if you planned it.

Calzone
2012-03-13, 08:48 PM
As a first time DM, I would say sit down and have a talk with a DM you enjoy playing with about what works for them to get some pointers. If you are willing to, I recommend DM'ing a one-off pre-written adventure or so to get your head around the mechanics of running a plot and learn your style without being burdened by too much up front.

If you'd rather do your own campaign (I can't blame you :smallbiggrin:), the most important thing I could offer is don't box in your players.

What I mean is, don't prescript the entire adventure and expect them to roll on the rails you've laid. It isn't likely to work like you expect it, and your players might get angry at being controlled. I think a DM's big goal is to set the scene and then let the players drive the plot. It sounds like you already have an interesting setting and plot hook. I'd recommend coming up with some motivations for your big bad guy. Who is he? what does he want? Why does he want it? How does he plan to accomplish it?

If you can lay out a rough flowchart of his goals, then there's your adventure: Let the PCs mess this bad guy's plan up!

Give them an entry point - some way to know that there's something bad happening. Give them sets of 2-3 clues they can follow to discover different portions of his plans, and scatter them throughout the setting. Maybe he has a lieutenant he has sent off to further his plot. The lieutenant could have a map to other locations, might know important information, or might have an item necessary to the bad plot. Do the same thing for other clues in other places so the players can discover and disrupt the plan from multiple angles.

The strength of this is that once you get a basic idea of the bad guys plans, his resources, and enough clues/information for players to unravel his plot, you just let them decide where to go and what to do to stop the bad guy. As they cause problems for the bad guy, between sessions come up with ways he can react to stop them and get his plan back on track. Eventually, the bad guy will run out of resources, his plan will be foiled, or he'll get his butt whooped, and the good guys win. Come up with a couple of fun set piece encounters or battles to throw in along the way, and you have the framework for an interesting campaign.

Besides the preparation, DM'ing takes practice. Don't be afraid to make (and admit to!) mistakes. Don't be afraid to deviate from what you have planned if a player's idea will make things more fun. Lots of other good advice from other posters, so far, too.

Good luck and have fun!

Almaseti
2012-03-13, 11:00 PM
Running some kind of short module to get the party together before the actual outbreak of the plague sounds like a really good idea, actually.

Gnoman, you mentioned using a generator to make your towns, are there any good online ones you'd like to recommend? Something like that would be really useful to me.

Ozreth
2012-03-13, 11:06 PM
For what it's worth I think a lot of it has to do with not only the individual DM, but the edition he/she is running as well.

After going back to 2e and now Castles & Crusades I am relishing in the simplicity of running the game. During my 3e stretch I would have to plan out a lot of NPCs (feat progressions, skills, magic weapons etc) and their encounters. I'd also have to worry about Wealth By Level etc etc.

With earlier versions of the game, and their respective retro clones I find that all I need is a village or a cave and the monster manual in my hand. The rest of it can just fall out of place as I roll on wandering monster charts, quickly read the super easy stat blocks, and think up a reason for the PC's to get to the next town.

And this is all coming from a 3e lover. It really just isn't as easy to run as some other games. So I say get yourself a book full of ready to go NPC's and get to know the monster stat blocks well. Other than that do what some others said and run a short module. I think the Sunless Citadel is one of the bet damn beginner modules out there.

Runeward
2012-03-14, 01:09 AM
The best campaign I ever ran was almost entirely fleshed out before the first session. By no means does that mean the players were railroaded, it just means that the I (the DM) had a plan much like my villains had a plan. It reacted and adapted to the actions of the PCs.

The reason I think that was so important, though, is that it is impossible to presume that a campaign won't hit lulls. Often, those lulls are because people's enthusiasm is generally low. If you are designing adventures as you go, this will create a negative feedback loop. People's enthusiasm is low, so you put less effort into adventures, so they are worse, so enthusiasm keeps dropping.

When I had most adventures fleshed out, running a great session was the path of least resistance. That kept fighting against the enthusiasm drop and we got back to those really great sessions where everyone was firing on all cylinders.

Kurgan
2012-03-14, 01:55 AM
For what it's worth I think a lot of it has to do with not only the individual DM, but the edition he/she is running as well.

After going back to 2e and now Castles & Crusades I am relishing in the simplicity of running the game. During my 3e stretch I would have to plan out a lot of NPCs (feat progressions, skills, magic weapons etc) and their encounters. I'd also have to worry about Wealth By Level etc etc.

With earlier versions of the game, and their respective retro clones I find that all I need is a village or a cave and the monster manual in my hand. The rest of it can just fall out of place as I roll on wandering monster charts, quickly read the super easy stat blocks, and think up a reason for the PC's to get to the next town.

And this is all coming from a 3e lover. It really just isn't as easy to run as some other games. So I say get yourself a book full of ready to go NPC's and get to know the monster stat blocks well. Other than that do what some others said and run a short module. I think the Sunless Citadel is one of the bet damn beginner modules out there.

That raises a good question, what edition are you planning on playing? Your use of DM implies D&D, but not sure which version.

This here brings up a good point: Don't try to stat up each and every commoner in the world, it will drive you crazy. For fully statting out people, stick with important people in the location, or people you think the players will interact with a lot. And remember, you can always make stats up later for something too.

Joe the farmer, who you are simply buying supplies from, probably does not need a stat block. Sir Thuller, the corrupt captain of the guard who wrongfully arrests the characters on the order of the local crime boss might warrant a stat block.

Lastly, sometimes its easier to wing enemies than build statblocks constantly. For example, players end up attacking some random soldiers you didn't expect them to, just figure "X hp sounds about right, and maybe +X saves and +X attack".

If you really feel the need to stat every last thing up, do yourself a favor and go with say archetypes instead of individuals. Just go "Town Guard:" Stats, and maybe "Town Guard: Veteran:" Stats. There you go, you have a standard town guard to use, and if you just switch weapons and tactics now and then, you shouldn't need to alter that stat block much more.

Endarire
2012-03-14, 02:24 AM
The first adventure of any new campaign is meant to be the hook. Why should the players (and to a lesser extend, the characters) care about the world and what you have planned?

I like that you're starting the group on a small island, which breaks away from the traditional, "You start in a tavern in a town near a forest," cliche.

For my most recent campaign, I went "professional style," and planned out everything logical and some illogical things, just in case. I set up a lot of rumors and possibilities to get player interest and allow me flexibility in the future. I set the tone and gave the players an idea of the factions, pacing, and difficulty to expect.

The Metaphysical Revolution (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?614036-3-5-MODULE-The-Metaphysical-Revolution-%28Levels-1-3%29-Now-on-RPG-net!) is my example of how to start a campaign right.

Mind you, compiling those documents took 6-7 months, working nearly full time.

I've also discovered that if I don't have a solid idea of what's going on, the campaign falters due to lack of direction. The players are looking to you for inspiration and confidence. If you aren't, the campaign suffers. If you are, the campaign flourishes.

Gnoman
2012-03-14, 03:36 PM
Running some kind of short module to get the party together before the actual outbreak of the plague sounds like a really good idea, actually.

Gnoman, you mentioned using a generator to make your towns, are there any good online ones you'd like to recommend? Something like that would be really useful to me.

This is the one I use. It's 3.5 specific, and slightly clunky to use, but I'm comfortable with it.

http://www.mathemagician.net/town.html

bokodasu
2012-03-16, 11:06 AM
Just enough - neither too little nor too much. (Yeah, I know that's not helpful.) It's going to depend on your own temprament what the best way to do that is - some people like going top-down, figuring out the big things and filling in the details later, and others like putting a bunch of details together and then figuring out how that makes a coherent whole.

I like working both ends towards the middle - here's a land, here are some kingdoms, oh, in this kingdom there's Druid Fred, who can provide Quest X, and his favorite ice cream is strawberry. Ok, now here's a broad political situation, and a local issue, and something from one of the PC's backgrounds. You need the big picture to figure out where the details fit in, and you need details to make it seem fleshed out. One secret, though, is that if you have SOME really detailed details, your players will think you have a massively lifelike world, when really you're just making up a lot of it as you go.

Modular is good - if you have a great idea for a ruined temple, plan it out, and then introduce it whenever it seems like it would fit. (If the ruined temple is 12 miles south of Litttletown, and your players never go there, you've wasted all that planning AND your players are missing out on the fun of your ruined temple encounter.) If you get a really good idea for an NPC, sketch it out and then pop him in whenever your players want or need to meet that type of person.

Plot can work kind of the same way - don't introduce your BBEG too early. This could mean go ahead and introduce him right away - when he's only a little above where your PCs are, but he's got some really great means of escape. (And have a Plan B where really he's just the lackey of the REAL BBEG for when they kill him despite his escape plan.) Recurring villains can be fun, but can also be annoying if it's obvious to your players that they're not going to be able to pierce his plot armor until they're Arbitrary Level X.

You can also take the modular approach here - the players need to deal with a goblin attack. That's weird, why would goblins be attacking now? Oh, because they've been pushed out of their traditional homeland by the orcs. Wait, where did they come from? They're feeling crowded because the prey they usually hunt is being decimated by an influx of Predator Y's. Well, why are there so many of those all of a sudden? Secret breeding program implemented by BBEG. Within each chunk, there's a lot of room to tailor to your players' interests, and you only have to worry about the details of the current chunk, and keep an eye on the storyline to see when you should introduce the next one.

The more flexible you stay, the more you can let your players do your work for you - if they come up with a really cool plot point tying together two things you hadn't really thought of as connected, go with it and a) let them feel smart for figuring it out and b) take all the credit for coming up with said cool plot point. (Just don't overdo it or they'll catch on and start saying things like "I bet this is the guy who is the lone guard of the huge cache of powerful magic items that he doesn't know how to use!")

But yeah, don't worry too much. Have all the expected encounters (combat, social, and other) fully planned out for a given session, and no further ahead than that. Have an idea of where you're going with the whole shebang, and a couple of ideas for interesting side-quests. Stay open to new ideas as you're going along. If I had a dollar for every would-be DM whose super-detailed campaign is going to be ready "any day now" (and has been saying that for the last decade)...

smashbro
2012-03-19, 02:48 PM
Like a few other people have said, the amount of planning is up to the DM. I personally like to plan out a good chunk of the campaign, and then know what the end conditions/what would happen to end it.


But most importantly, don't be afraid to stray from your notes, and go where the players want. You should have at least some idea of the world, and how you want it to work. You don't need tons of details (if you want to it's fine) but have a good feel for what is happening in the world, and what would happen if players went off the beaten path.




Something that's really helped me is being able to create believeable backstories, and characters on the fly. Let's say there is a werewolf in town, and it's Zeke, but Xavier and Yolanda are supposed to look suspicious too.

Your players could think it is the owner of the hotel they are staying in, which wasn't ever mentioned/not supposed to be important. If you take too long to come up with something, "...Bob...who is a...gnome, sure..." then your players will know that it's not him. You want to be able to make the world seem seamless, so if you have time to make extra character sheets for random characters great, if not, know the general abilities you want them to have.

Yet Another Fantasy NAme Generator (http://dicelog.com/yafnag) is good to have up (I DM with my laptop open for music, keeping track of initiative & HP, etc.) Or just write down a list of cool sounding names you can look down to quickly, if you need to.

Ironvyper
2012-03-19, 07:02 PM
I'll skip the obligatory "everyone is different but......" comment. And just describe what works for me using my current campaign as an example.

I start with a map. Always a map. Maybe its just me but i find once i have a picture of the campaign area to look at it just naturally inspires me to fill in the details and helps guide those details.

So i start with definitive boundaries. a big dessert, oceans, super high mountains, whatever. Just make sure you have fairly clear geographic boundaries. Most real world countries and kingdoms worked that way anyway so its not going to bust your players sense of logic.

Then go with your fantasy tropes, why mess with them? Humans live in the areas near water where its easy to grow food and thats where their big cities are. Monsters live in mountains, deep forests, hard to reach places.

Now you can look at your map and place cities, roads, and monstrous no-go zones. Which means you have your encounter areas as well.

Take those zones and give them at least bare bones details. Who rules this and that city, mountain, island etc. Next. What do they want? Who are their friends? Who have they fought. Pick one city and start there. The rest will fill in itself as you go until you have a fully fleshed campaign world and history.

The trick is to keep asking yourself "why" about everything.

For instance my current game has a large coastline to the west, a range of coastal foothills, open plains and then Towering mountains. Its bordered on the north with very deep, mysterious woods and a glacier and the south with a dessert.

I want a lot of opportunity for human on human violence and intrigue but with a strong enough central authority that the characters cant just completely run amok without consequences they wont like. I also want to explore an over arching theme of lost gods/demons coming back to reassert power in the world but their still in the point of the plot where they have to be sneaky about it so its not obvious what they are up to at first.

Bearing those things in mind I decided a small empire recovering from a recent civil war is a good setting. Lots of intrigue between factions, wild areas that used to be safe before the war and of course the monsters on the edges are feeling emboldened by the humans internal strife and weakness.

So I have the lost gods figured out. They are working the humanoid tribes. Easy. Say they have some cultists among the human cities as well, bam more intrigue.

But what was the civil war about? I should probably decide that before play begins. So lets say theres various human tribes in the empire. They each have cities and dont always get along. But why are there so many different people in a smallish area???

Colonization. Some of the human tribes are descended from foreign conquerers and some from natives who lost and were forcibly incorporated into the old empire. Perfect, now i just need to decide which tribes are which and why they fought, and why the winners won. To further differentiate them the native descended tribes have names from old celtic lands like France or England and the new comers have names from mediterranean areas like Italy and Greece.

So a little thinking and they fought because the old empire became complacent and had a weak unpopular emperor. Which made some tribes think they could either break free or take over. Not the most original but good enough for several real empires so why not good enough for me?

Who won and why? The tribes fell basically (but not exactly) along the lines of native descendents and colonial descendants. The old order WAS toppled, but the natives couldnt take over or break free because a new order rose up ruled one of the colonial tribes. That tribe won because they had an edge. And that edge turned out to be magic. Foreign Elves and human magi groups that used to be small scattered covens or loyal to their tribes united as one wizards guild. And that guild backed the new tribe which let them win.

So now i have all my factions figured out along with their driving motives....

Internal feuding between tribes that continues even though the official war is over

Mages feuding in the shadows, and sometimes streets as the guild attempts to take control of all magic in the empire and other smaller magical orders fight back

Humanoids on the edges raiding and pillaging the fringes of an empire too beset by internal strife to effectively protect its outer edges.

Demonic cultists in the shadows playing their part in a much larger game to overthrow the current gods and religions of the entire world.

Oh and a nameless SOMETHING moving in the far north where the dwarves dwell. They wont say what it is to the common men they encounter but its well known that their ambassadors are closeted with the rulers of the various tribes much of the time discussing something that leaves the normally proud and boisterous dwarven warriors huddled over their ales and whispering to each other in their secret language while casting fearful glances at the shadows with every groan of the inn settling or the wind rattling the shutters.

And in come the PC's. Born in the lands of one of the Northern tribes who are descended from the original natives, but who sided with the New rulers in the civil war. They grew up in the shadow of the northern woods and the great glacier in a land of cold, windswept plains, vast ranches and lonely woods. Most of their tribal towns are widely separated and have greater dealings with the dwarves of the north then with most of the rest of the empire as they are separated from the other tribes by great rivers to the west and south, breeding a hardy, independent people who learned long ago that when you hear something in the barn at night you either duck your head and hope you have enough livestock left in the morning that your family survives the winter or you man up, get your sons and your axe and go out to defend whats yours. Because no one is coming to help.


And theres my campaign and world. Its the first time most of these players are playing in this world so I'm having everyone start as natives of the same isolated region. Later campaigns will be set in the same world but they'll be centered in more cosmopolitan areas of the empire so the players can choose whichever tribe they want to be from.

I have a good sandbox for the players to run around in. They can hear about various rumors, gossip, job offerings and holy quests and decide whats interesting to them and how they want to affect their tribes lands without breaking anything or flustering me because I have the solid framework of whats going on to work from and fall back on no matter what they want to do.

If i wanted a more structured campaign its just a matter of making of the NPC's into a BBEG. Everyones allies, enemies and motives are basically set so its easy to pick one thats likely to turn into a threat to the PC's or their area and build his master plan and how each stage works and it affects.

Heliomance
2012-03-20, 05:25 AM
Sigh. Madagascar always closes its borders early.

aldeayeah
2012-03-20, 07:42 AM
Depends on the kind of campaign and how comfortable you feel improvising.

For an open world kind of campaign, I'd say the bare minimum is to know where the PCs can go and what the motivations of the main NPCs (those who get the plot moving) in each area are.

In these cases, you don't want to plan ahead too much, at least not until the PCs grab one of the plot hooks you throw at them. Else there's a big risk that your time/effort is wasted, and a big temptation of railroading.

For example, you may want the characters to get involved in a war that's about to break out in their home country, but the players may choose to flee to a different country!

On the other hand, for a restricted location campaign (dungeon crawl, murder mystery, tournament, etc.), you should make more detailed plans and bring out predefined dirty tricks plot devices when convenient.

Almaseti
2012-03-20, 03:23 PM
I have a decent-ish handle on the setting itself, which makes me wonder if I should put together some sort of primer or reference guide to the setting for the players to read, refer to and help themselves build characters, but for the most part, they're going to be stuck on the island and need to deal with what's going on there in order to survive. I don't want to railroad anyone, but I do want to make sure they get all the clues they need in order to progress. I have seen the three clues rule, so I'll definitely try to use that. I'm reading some free modules I found online, to try to get an idea of how much planning should be done ahead of time.

valadil
2012-03-20, 04:01 PM
What you need to prep is something that will vary from GM to GM. I suggest you start by either writing down everything and whittling away what you find you can improvise, or writing nothing and then prepping those things you can't improvise.

I can improvise a dungeon. As long as I have a list of traps, obstacles, monsters, etc I can lay them out a week before game or right in front of the players. Either way the players can't tell the difference.

But I can't describe anything. I don't like taking up the spotlight and I'd rather have the players ask me about something and then I can respond with the detail. But the result of that is a bland, flat world. So if I have an image of a ruined castle, I have to write out that the east tower has fallen and succcumbed to the wilderness and a colony of owls has taken up residence in the keep. If that detail isn't written down in advance it doesn't make it into game.

So I'm not telling you to write down descriptions and leave dungeons for later, even though that's how I prep. You need to figure out what parts of the game you can improvise and then prep the rest.

Ironvyper
2012-03-20, 04:54 PM
I have a decent-ish handle on the setting itself, which makes me wonder if I should put together some sort of primer or reference guide to the setting for the players to read, refer to and help themselves build characters, but for the most part, they're going to be stuck on the island and need to deal with what's going on there in order to survive. I don't want to railroad anyone, but I do want to make sure they get all the clues they need in order to progress. I have seen the three clues rule, so I'll definitely try to use that. I'm reading some free modules I found online, to try to get an idea of how much planning should be done ahead of time.

Try starting a yahoo group for your campaign and having the players join. Then you can all coordinate everything from scheduling to rules discussions easily and make sure everyone is involved.

You can also post documents in an easily accessible section of your group so that you can put up setting info, maps, houserules, etc etc and everyone can see it.

Gnoman
2012-03-20, 05:20 PM
Or you could use wikia to create a campaign wiki.

Almaseti
2012-03-20, 07:11 PM
Try starting a yahoo group for your campaign and having the players join. Then you can all coordinate everything from scheduling to rules discussions easily and make sure everyone is involved.

You can also post documents in an easily accessible section of your group so that you can put up setting info, maps, houserules, etc etc and everyone can see it.

I guess I did forget to mention one thing: the campaign is going to be online, since I live in a sort of isolated area and most of the people I want to play with are far away. So I'd probably end up setting up groups or google docs or such anyway.

Ulysses WkAmil
2012-03-20, 09:44 PM
My opinion doesn't really matter, as I'm only a 6th month dungeon master, but I started a campaign and am still winging it, based on what the players do, where they go, and what they take interest in. It's turned into quite a quest, aside from a halfling burning down a town...Of course this might not even be considered a campaign, who knows.