Need advice for starting up a campaign.

[Dayaz]

So I'm considering starting up a campaign soon, but since it'll be the first one I've done that is larger than a 3 parter, I was hoping for some advice.

What are a lot of pitfalls that a new GM should be looking out for so that the game doesn't get ruined?

One suggestion I've been given is to use the first part of an adventure module to run people from level 1 to 4, to give the group time to decide their roles and to promote party bonding, so as to hopefully avoid a mid game betrayal. Thoughts?

[Crake]

One of the big things is having a regular schedule, and making sure people show up. As trivial as that sounds, it's a big one. Try to gauge interest and commitment levels in the players and don't bother with the ones who you think will likely flake after a few sessions. It may feel harsh, but games can fall apart from just one or two people leaving leading into a cascade.

The second big one is ensuring that expectations are clearly stated and that everyone is on board with the sort of game you want to play. And yes, you heard me right, the game that you want to play. That may sound selfish, but you're the one running the game, and so you have the right to run the sort of game you want to run. If you run a game for other people, you will quickly get frustrated, burn out, or just not be motivated. As such, it's important not to find a group that you can DM for, but rather players who want to play your game.

Finally, the last big one (at least from my experience) is to engage the players. Too often I've seen DMs with the mentality of "oh, this is cool, I'll put that in" and then it just becomes a story telling experience where the players are just watching all these "cool" things the DM thought up. I'll tell you what, the coolest thing for a player is to have impact, to feel like they actually matter, rather than just being a third party observer who's absense would not affect the story at all. A subset of this problem is of course railroading, where the character has an impact, but the player behind the character does not.

Those are what I have found, in that order, to be the most important aspects in running a long, successful campaign.

[jdizzlean]

in my exp,

always be prepared for when they do something you don't expect which will completely throw off whatever you had planned for the day/encounter. I made the mistake in the past of forcing the group to go where i wanted as I didn't know how to react when they didn't do what i had planned for them.

make up a few customizable encounters and stick them in the back of your folder just in case. save yourself a headache down the road.