Campaign Planning

[Proud Tortoise]

So, I was just wondering how other DMs go about planning their games.

Personally, I have a Great Big Master Plan that will probably apply to every single game I run in the next ten years. Then, for each individual campaign, I work out what is going to happen in that campaign as it relates to the GBMT. After that, I sort of plan out vague checkpoints for the campaign to go through and improvise heavily on a basic framework for the session that I plan beforehand.

How do you plan your games?

[ArcturusV]

Well... I kind of do it the opposite way. Instead of thinking up a plot, an adventure framing device, etc. I just focus on making a world. A place that makes sense, where there are lots of factions, conflicts, nations, causes, etc, etc, etc. Keep working from broad to narrow. Sometimes I'll get a theme that I think sounds neat and want to explore. But I don't design my campaign around it. Eventually I get to a point where I have enough whipped up I can show my players what I got and see if any concepts, themes, places, etc, jump up at them as interesting. If that fails I'll just go back to one of my themes and decide I want to have the game running off that. But I always want to make sure there is "sidequest fodder" in the game, and let the players go off plot if they want, follow whatever hooks interest them.

[Proud Tortoise]

I don't like railroading, especially not obvious railroading. More like giving the players a wide valley to explore, but with only one mountain pass out. :smallwink:

[Amidus Drexel]

I stat up a bunch of NPCs, and figure out what they're doing, and how they might interact with the PCs. Then I turn the PCs loose on the setting.

I normally have a short adventure planned for the first session or two (to get everyone used to their characters, and for them to learn some things about the setting), but that's about it. The plot moves forward based on how the PCs interact with the NPCs' goals. It makes things easy for me; the only things I have to plan for are what the players want to do in the first place.

But, then again, I like to improv. The campaign setting is a stage, and no one has a script. :smallamused:

[Jack of Spades]

I stat up a bunch of NPCs, and figure out what they're doing, and how they might interact with the PCs. Then I turn the PCs loose on the setting.

I normally have a short adventure planned for the first session or two (to get everyone used to their characters, and for them to learn some things about the setting), but that's about it. The plot moves forward based on how the PCs interact with the NPCs' goals. It makes things easy for me; the only things I have to plan for are what the players want to do in the first place.

But, then again, I like to improv. The campaign setting is a stage, and no one has a script. :smallamused:

This is what I do. Broad strokes of settings and characters, and then anything else gets thrown into the "figure it out when it comes up" basket.

This is influenced by the fact that not only do I enjoy improv, but I tend to play a lot of RPG's that aren't extremely numbers-heavy. Makes it a lot easier to BS things.

[prufock]

Step 1: Overarching plot.
Step 2: Major players, including the PCs.
Step 3: Session plot.
Step 4: Details.

Depending on the type of game I do varying amounts of planning, but I basically define "here's what the PCs have to deal with this game" and try to imagine how they might decide to deal with it. If they go off the rails I just improvise... this happens a lot.

[HC Rainbow]

I usually would sketch out the map of a dungeon (if it were to be a dungeon crawler) or sketch the scenary out, show the players what theyre seeing but make one specific thing stand out in the images. They usually take the bait, and if they dont, then I find a way to tweak the quest of the day that I made to fit where they were going. Unless they go halfway through it and bail, which is disappointing but I'm always game for the excitement of making a whole new quest for them on the spot.

Then there are days where I'm exceptionally lazy and hungover, so I just generate a dungeon online and let them start that one while I read over the monster manuals and find things I like, then give them a common goal.

[inexorabletruth]

That all depends on what stage of DM experience I'm at, and what format the game is in.

My first campaign was basically an interactive novel. I started with a concept, built a backstory, a character motive, a BBEG and a series of possible endings. Then I built 5 overview maps, 17 detailed maps, rolled up population stats and generated an encounter chart for every section of each map germaine to the story. Then I rolled up 36 important NPCs, then rolled up generic stats for a variety of NPCs that you might encounter in any settlement. Then I began calculating all possible scenarios/routes/strategies that Players might employ and researched rulesets/time charts and possible plot variations to handle those scenarios. If rules didn't exist for the X Factor, I planned out conditional house rules to handle those variations, all so the game could be streamlined and fun without constantly burying my nose in the books during sessions, and without railroading (or at least railroading too much). By the time I'd prepared for every conceivable contingency, I introduced my game idea to my friends and we started playing. By session 2, they'd derailed the game so hard that I basically had to start over.

Now I play by PbP, so I'm not sweating the details so much. I come up with a vague idea, drop the idea into the Recruitment thread and see if I get a bite. While 4 to 6 players are clamoring to roll up stats and beef up their backstories, I begin fleshing out my story. Part of my process is by reading the backstories of the PCs who want to join my game. While the main idea is mine, and the Players cultivate a backstory to accommodate my plot, I'm also shaping my story to compliment theirs, tying in family members, old rivals, seminole moments, lost loves, fears, and favored enemies. After that, I cut them lose in my world and watch them play, dropping about half a dozen plot hooks at a time and seeing if they spot one. If the group becomes stagnant too long (no one bites a hook) I prod them with a random encounter, or a particularly charismatic (or well funded, the other CHA score) NPC to get them moving along.