Is there a "form" of some kind to help me write down a campaign???

[Kerilstrasz]

Ok.. here is the issue.

For the past months i have managed to create a campaign, which includes fights, RP interactions, riddles etc etc..
it is for level 2 characters and gets them almost at level 18ish ..
it consist of 6 "Acts" & each Act is about 3-4 sessions.

What i want is a guide or some kind of a form, to type it & later print it and bind it.
All i have now is a 150 pg notebook filled with detailed encounters,riddles,hooks,detailed npcs,a long story full of mystery and multiple ways to keep the story in track.

Yes.. i can run the campaign by the notebook but i want to make it more.. "official" and have it in my bookself.

So.. anyone knows a guide that will help me write it down nicely , so any Dm who finds it can run it without having to "decipher" it first?

Thank you for your time :smallwink:

[Ramshack]

Ok.. here is the issue.

For the past months i have managed to create a campaign, which includes fights, RP interactions, riddles etc etc..
it is for level 2 characters and gets them almost at level 18ish ..
it consist of 6 "Acts" & each Act is about 3-4 sessions.

What i want is a guide or some kind of a form, to type it & later print it and bind it.
All i have now is a 150 pg notebook filled with detailed encounters,riddles,hooks,detailed npcs,a long story full of mystery and multiple ways to keep the story in track.

Yes.. i can run the campaign by the notebook but i want to make it more.. "official" and have it in my bookself.

So.. anyone knows a guide that will help me write it down nicely , so any Dm who finds it can run it without having to "decipher" it first?

Thank you for your time :smallwink:

I don't think there are any official guides are forms for this kind of thing. You'll probably have to type it all manually. Include gloassary and index, a bestiary in the back as well as a compedium for magic items found through the campaign (especially if their custom) You'll have to type and format each act and chapter. I'd then use any images you want, take it to kinkos and pay to have it printed and bound for you.

That being said, I'm in the middle of doing this exact thing myself for one of my campaigns. My plan was to have it look professional enough save it as a .pdf and release it for the playground to use and play if they so desired.

[Shining Wrath]

There is no form.

You can generate a form you use to record encounters - room size, monsters, traps, furniture, other features.

I suggest starting with the big finish climatic encounter with the BBEG, then the initial encounter that starts the party toward the big finish, and then fill in the middle.

[archaeo]

While you might find some adventure-writing guides online (a quick google shows several promising candidate pages), there's nothing codified.

One imagines that most adventure writers gained most of their expertise by reading a lot of other adventures. You can't really go wrong with mimicking the style of published adventures you've liked.

[Kerilstrasz]

Ok.. maybe i wasn't clear enough..

i'm not looking for a fillable premade form where you just fill the blanks.
neither i'm looking for campaign ideas. the campaign is ready. has everything. i just want to type it "correctly".

I need a simple but detailed guide to tell me:
You need to start with index
then a short sum of the story
then the PCs hooks
then PC creation infos
then...
then...
then glossary or bibliography or monsters tables
etc etc...

that is what i'm looking for..
the "correct/ optimal" order of providing the info.
after this any other addition (like how much info is needed etc etc) would be welcome.

[archaeo]

Ok.. maybe i wasn't clear enough..

No, I caught your drift. What I'm telling you is that there isn't like, an MLA/APA/Chicago-style format for these things, at least not one I could find via a quick search. A lot of the advice online is tilted toward storytelling tips; if you want advice on actually writing out an adventure for publication, the best way to do it is to shamelessly mimic the format of an already published adventure you already like.

[BW022]

When I was working with the Living Greyhawk campaign, WotC published official guides for writing modules. These included Word templates for modules -- different sections, styles, boxes around "box text", monster stat block requirements, etc. However, these were ridiculously specific and fussy -- we would spend weeks reviewing module submissions for even minor font issues, EL calculations, spelling, grammar, confusing text, etc. Finally, they would be sent to campaign organizers at the RPGA/WotC who would do that same thing. I might still have the templates, but I think they are copyrighted to the RPGA.

I never used these for my own campaigns. Way too fussy.

For my own campaigns, I always start them in Word to begin with an use a simple heading structure. I never bothered with box text (unless it was extremely specific, such as a letter/puzzle scrawl) or stat blocks (unless it was a detailed NPC or extremely complex monster).

Otherwise... I'm not really sure exactly what you are trying to do?

If you have them in paper-format, punch holes in them and put them in a three ring binder. If you are actually trying to do a publish them as a set of production qualify modules... (and presumably you have them in some type of electronic format)... then find a published module and make styles in Word to which roughly match this in the module. If you don't have the couple of hours to do this... you probably don't have the time producing anything which would be 'published' quality.

[Ramshack]

No, I caught your drift. What I'm telling you is that there isn't like, an MLA/APA/Chicago-style format for these things, at least not one I could find via a quick search. A lot of the advice online is tilted toward storytelling tips; if you want advice on actually writing out an adventure for publication, the best way to do it is to shamelessly mimic the format of an already published adventure you already like.


I agree what i've done so far is look at the LMoP and HotDQ adventures. Whenever I need to know how to present information I reference those and do my best to mimic the format. Obviously it's not perfect but the end product should be in an easy to use format.

You can also search the web for other player made campaigns that have been published and see what they've done.

[KevlarTheD]

I personally use a folder on Google Drive. I can update from anywhere, including from my phone. In that folder is

• A general campaign overview / 'notes' doc, which is what I start with and gets added to and edited the most, because it has EVERYTHING, briefly. Here are the half-sentence plot ideas and half-baked encounters.

• A doc for the intro, which in my campaigns tend to wax cinematic, and a doc for each 'act' of the campaign. I usually aim to have these acts about 2-4 hours long, so we can break them into conveniently playable sessions, but those estimates aren't always accurate. Each act generally features a mix of dungeoneering and socialising, though occasionally it will be all one or the other.

Most of my campaigns run between 4-6 acts, with a "the dark future" epilogue that leads into a new campaign if at all possible.

• I use the spreadsheets to make character sheets for my NPCs and often keep track of my PCs as well. If you're interested I can share a template with you.
I also keep a doc with a bunch of pretty blank NPCs - a race, a brief description, a name, and maybe a hook or skill. These are just to throw at the characters when they meet people I haven't necessarily thought to include in my plans.

• Finally, I keep a folder full of "sandbox elements", which are paragraph-long ideas for dungeon rooms, traps, encounters, town settings, and nasty plots. I try and focus more on the mechanics of what I want to do and worry about the full description when I plug the idea into the town/dungeon for that act.

[Yoroichi]

I think you have already completed the hard part, that is writing the campaign.

The rest you can also think by yourself i guess, you need to approach your structure as something completely new.

What will the DM need to see first in order to properly run the campaign, how will you group everything so that it can be found easily.

I don't think there could be a cheat sheet for this because everybody does things differently.

In my world, "proper" as you say directly connects to ease of use.

That is why i like 5E :P

[Somebloke]

I use a heavily modified version of the 'fronts' from Apocalpse world- actually, there is a free GM guide to it's sister game, Dungeon World, that provides an excellent example of how to set up a campaign notebook. Since I run 5e and Savage Worlds (both more crunchy than the *World settings) I have to expand. I divide my sheets into 'Fronts' or major threats (the lich king, the political strife in a single city) and one minor front (random encounters and the like, basically minor threats and interesting stuff to encounter).

The 'Front' sheet contains a description of the bad guy, e.g.the Lich)/problematic situation (e.g. the political strife). I will have 3-4 fronts for an adventure, so I can mix and match. For my 5e campaign, which was set in a frozen forest filled with evil creatures, as well as a town ruled by an ailing duke, I created the following major fronts:

- The Town of Holmbrow
- The Mad Lord
- The Goblin King
- The Dead King
- The minor front: Encounters in the Cold Forest

And for each front, expand on these (using the Mad Lord as an example):

Description: General summary (the Lord is mad, his knights are all werewolves, because his new wife is a wolf spirit who hates humans due to an ancient grudge).
Urge: What they want (In this case to invade the nearby town and inflict curses on it's inhabitants)
Countdown: A list of 4-5 things that will happen assuming the players do nothing. Naturally if the players get involved this will change rapidly but it's good for providing story hooks (the lord will begin extending his influence in the forest, the lady will place agents in the town, eventually leading to a massive raid on the town and the fall of the town under her influence).
Strategies: Any intesting things relevant to the plot, usually 2-4 lines of general bad guy strategies (The Lady's real wolf skin is hidden in the castle; if it is obtained, she will be forced to bargain, but will immediately plot revenge if her curse is lifted. If her husband is killed, she will flee to the town and attempt to ensorcel the duke or whomever else is in charge, allying with the false priest outlined in another front. If the players start killing off werewolf knights, they will begin to send out larger partrols, but will not stray far from their castle).
Players: The major characters involved. Usually I list 2-4 one line descriptions of their character as well as stats. I also list standard monsters (such as the werewolf knights) or interesting creatures (the grey ooze that guards the lower levels). Often I just refer to the monster manual where appropriate.
Settings: The list of dungeons. Usually really brief, just one line per room/area of descriptions and stats (the cursed castle, the lower dungeons, the nearby village, a guard tower).

Each front takes up about 3-4 pages each.

This enables me to be flexible (I like sandbox and emergent gameplay) and lets each area evolve with the player's actions. I'm currently about to run a Kerberos Club game using the same system with Savage Worlds as well.