Low-level Campaign advice

[Crinias]

Hello there. I'm starting this thread in the hopes that I can get some proper feedback and advice on some ideas I have for a low-level campaign designed for my players.

I need to elaborate a bit on my group's general structure. We are a group of around 4-6 players on any given campaign. We alternate players often because many of us have other things to worry about from time to time. Our group's age is quite diverse as well - some of use have been playing D&D for decades. We tend to alternate DMs between our campaigns, often running brief one-shot adventures or longer campaigns. Of us all, I am probably the least experienced DM. I've run a couple of campaigns before, consisting mostly of some original stuff mixed with written adventures.

We tend to play around the mid-level range more than any other, but for this campaign I'm planning on starting at level 1, in some small location of an unspecified setting and building outwards as it goes on. I want the group to decide where the game will go, based on their actions and characters, not on any plot I impose upon them. So although I had a general idea of what the introduction of the campaign will be like, I'm mostly going to wing the rest of it, taking some scenarios and maps from written adventures.

Naturally, I have doubts about this - aside from things like adding houserules or encouraging certain classes, part of me feels that without proper direction the story's mood or format could get sidetracked. My group is generally light-hearted and silly; we tend to make fun of one another constantly and focus more on rollplaying rather than roleplaying, if you catch my drift. Between that and a general chaotic bend, I currently don't have any solid plans on what to do.

Thus, I'm currently brainstorming - whether to base this game on a particular pre-written campaign, set it around a hub area of sorts - that kind of thing. What would you advise in this situation, or how do you prefer to start level 1 campaigns? Whatever ideas or suggestions you have, I'd be very glad to hear them.

[SciChronic]

how long is it going to be before you DM this campaign?

if you have a lot of time, you should just spend it creating the sandbox that your players will be in. You job as the DM is going to be to create a campaign setting. and then you can just place them in it and let them roam.

otherwise you could jsut start them in a premade campaign setting like forgotten realms and just plop them in a random city such as waterdeep. your first session is going to be the most difficult, since you'll have to be prepared to do whatever the PCs want to do, so you should keep the session shorter than your usual gathering so you can get a sense of direction, and then write out stuff for the next session.

[jiriku]

Your game could benefit from a central unifying theme to help keep things on-task and on track. The theme can be anything that works for you, like "space pirates" or "post-apocalyptic survival horror" or "children of a prophecy gone wrong". You can even combine several themes (who could go wrong with "space pirate children of a prophecy gone wrong in post apocalyptic survival horror"? :smallbiggrin:).

That theme will help you define why the party adventures, what they generally should be accomplishing, and how to manage inclusion of new PCs down the road. It will also help you cook up memorable and interesting stories, and guide you in choosing which canned content you should or should not make use of (and how to modify it when you do use it).

[Hurnn]

I don't like starting at 1. It's to easy for 1 or 2 good (or bad) rolls to turn any 1 encounter into a TPK.
As for advice figure out your over all arch give the pc's a nudge in that direction and let them do what they want. Then just plan out say 5-10 encounters that you can fit in based on what you think the PC's will probably do. Wash, Rinse, Repeat.

[VoxRationis]

Why don't you have an adventure in a confined, no-one-leave-the-room sort of place, like a ship or an Agatha Christe-style isolated manor, but drop hints and adventure hooks for a number of different adventures and plots while they're there? That way, you only have to prepare one adventure, but you can see what they're interested in for next time.

[sideswipe]

level 1 is great. we normally play it. and in combat you really feel like at any moment you could be rolling a new character (yay i actually enjoy that)

but as to the campaign. i just ran an entire campaign on the fly, thinking about it for about 10 mins before hand, a couple notes on important things and a few encounters to slot in where i felt necessary.

have some sort of minor plot, one that can be ignored if need be. look up a few low level dungeons and have them in areas of a map you scrawl and if they go there they encounter them.

the most important thing on the fly i have found is your NPC's you need cool NPC's or the campaign seems boring and they will see it is all on the fly.

I threw in a depraved ex-adventurer cart driver that ferried my players around the place (different system) and they loved it. i played him well.

i had interesting NPC's the rest just fell into place.

[Crinias]

how long is it going to be before you DM this campaign?

if you have a lot of time, you should just spend it creating the sandbox that your players will be in. You job as the DM is going to be to create a campaign setting. and then you can just place them in it and let them roam.
I've several months at the least, so plenty of time to create a sandbox and whatnot. I'll probably go ahead with something like that - set up some plot hooks and maybe take some from the PCs themselves.


Your game could benefit from a central unifying theme to help keep things on-task and on track. The theme can be anything that works for you, like "space pirates" or "post-apocalyptic survival horror" or "children of a prophecy gone wrong". You can even combine several themes (who could go wrong with "space pirate children of a prophecy gone wrong in post apocalyptic survival horror"? :smallbiggrin:).

That theme will help you define why the party adventures, what they generally should be accomplishing, and how to manage inclusion of new PCs down the road. It will also help you cook up memorable and interesting stories, and guide you in choosing which canned content you should or should not make use of (and how to modify it when you do use it).
A central theme could be pretty neat in driving the story. The only question would be what exactly it would be, but I have plenty of time to figure that out. I'll probably take some hooks from some book as inspiration and work my way from there.


As for advice figure out your overall arc give the pc's a nudge in that direction and let them do what they want. Then just plan out say 5-10 encounters that you can fit in based on what you think the PC's will probably do. Wash, Rinse, Repeat.
Yeah, preparing several encounters just-in-case is a good bet. Most of my actual work will probably come after each session, figuring out where things will go.


Why don't you have an adventure in a confined, no-one-leave-the-room sort of place, like a ship or an Agatha Christie-style isolated manor, but drop hints and adventure hooks for a number of different adventures and plots while they're there? That way, you only have to prepare one adventure, but you can see what they're interested in for next time.
Hmm, I love murder-mysteries and closed circles, so there's a good chance I could implement something like that.


the most important thing on the fly i have found is your NPC's you need cool NPC's or the campaign seems boring and they will see it is all on the fly.

I threw in a depraved ex-adventurer cart driver that ferried my players around the place (different system) and they loved it. i played him well.
Yeah, creating memorable NPCs is going to be very important. I figure that if I can get my players hooked with someone they like, it'll go over smoother.