Campaign Ideas cause I don't know how :V

[Storyl]

Hey, A bit of background information is that this is one of the first serious campaigns that I'm running.

I'm currently trying to make a home brew which sends the PC's on an epic adventure.

I believe I want the campaign to start in a city in which the characters are in some sort of tavern when the city gets attacked and then the plot folds out from there.

I don't know if I want that to be the idea though to start out with or now however. If anyone has any ideas about a plot, main opponent, or world and would like to share please do so.

Thanks.

[Willie the Duck]

Have you played any of the published adventures? No few of them have the basic structure of a epic quest. Everything from 'keep the evil dragon goddess from entering the mortal realm' to 'stop the mad jungle lich from stealing the souls of the dead.'

[Unoriginal]

Hey, A bit of background information is that this is one of the first serious campaigns that I'm running.

I'm currently trying to make a home brew which sends the PC's on an epic adventure.

I believe I want the campaign to start in a city in which the characters are in some sort of tavern when the city gets attacked and then the plot folds out from there.

I don't know if I want that to be the idea though to start out with or now however. If anyone has any ideas about a plot, main opponent, or world and would like to share please do so.

Thanks.

Is there any kind of monsters or bad guys you like?

[DMThac0]

Creating your campaign idea isn't quite as tough as you think. It just feels like it because there's this idea that the world has so much stuff going on that you have to juggle. To create a good adventure/campaign you really only need to answer 3 questions, and then repeat the process for as deep as you want the rabbit hole to go.

1: What is the goal that the Party and the Opposition both have in common?
2: What is the Opposition doing to stop the Party from obtaining that goal?
3: What is the result of success and what is the result of failure?

If you can answer those questions, and leave room for the players to manipulate how everything plays out, you have a successful adventure. Let's look at an example:

1: The Party needs to acquire a rare herb to heal the sick children of the town, the Opposition is using that rare herb for illicit narcotics.
2: The Opposition is going to protect the herbs with force, burn the crop if necessary.
3: Success: Children are cured, possibly defeat a criminal organization. Failure: Children potentially die, criminal organization puts a bounty on the party.

As you can see there's room to play with the 3 question inside the example to make it even more robust:

2-1: Opposition is going to burn the crop, Party must seize as much of the crop as possible without being overtaken by the Opposition or the crop being fully destroyed.
2-2: The opposition tries to drive the party away from the fields, even considering killing the party rather than escaping.
2-3: Success: The party defeats the opposition, stops the fire, head out with the crops. Failure: Party is killed and/or fire destroys crops. Partial success: Party obtains some crops, opposition is not defeated, remaining crops destroyed.

And this can go on and on, leading into any direction you feel like taking it.

[Innocent_bystan]

Hey, A bit of background information is that this is one of the first serious campaigns that I'm running.

I'm currently trying to make a home brew which sends the PC's on an epic adventure.

I believe I want the campaign to start in a city in which the characters are in some sort of tavern when the city gets attacked and then the plot folds out from there.

I don't know if I want that to be the idea though to start out with or now however. If anyone has any ideas about a plot, main opponent, or world and would like to share please do so.

Thanks.

Don't bog yourself down with the minutia of worldbuilding, or the details of the epic quest, for that matter. I read an excellent article (https://roleplayingtips.com/readissue.php?number=397#T1) on spiral world building and this method works for me.

I'd start with the tavern, add a couple of NPC's with sidequests and have the city be attacked about halfway the session. Let the breach of the walls happen in the district where the tavern is. Have one or more combat encounters, preferably with secondary objectives. Let the party stop the attack, for now, at the end of the session.

Remember those sidequests? You don't really need to flesh them out, since they won't happen right away. A general idea of what they entail is good enough. Listen to your players, they'll start speculating about what needs to be done. Prepare that for the next session. By the time the party is done with the fallout of the attack and some sidequests, you'll have plenty of ideas to flesh out your campaign with.

Edit: also, you only need to provide problems. The solutions to those problems is the player's responsibility.

[DMThac0]

Edit: also, you only need to provide problems. The solutions to those problems is the player's responsibility.

This type of line is misleading: How do you not have a solution in mind when you create the problem? Dragon is attacking town, people are being killed, livestock is being eaten, kingdom is terrified.

DM: I have no idea how you could handle this. I can't tell you that killing the dragon is an option, that's railroading. I can't tell you that you could ignore the situation, that's railroading. I can't tell you to feed the town to the dragon, steal the gold, and get out, that's railroading.

Instead, you leave the opportunity for alternate solutions to be just as successful or detrimental to the objective as the ones you envisioned when drawing up the scenario.
---

The rest of your post I agree with, it's a great way of building a game on the fly, improv DMs will flourish in that method. A structured DM, one who needs the notes, the paths, and the implicit directions may find that to be a daunting approach. The Spiral World Building approach looks like it could bridge the gap for a lot of DMs.

[Innocent_bystan]

This type of line is misleading: How do you not have a solution in mind when you create the problem? Dragon is attacking town, people are being killed, livestock is being eaten, kingdom is terrified.

DM: I have no idea how you could handle this. I can't tell you that killing the dragon is an option, that's railroading. I can't tell you that you could ignore the situation, that's railroading. I can't tell you to feed the town to the dragon, steal the gold, and get out, that's railroading.

Instead, you leave the opportunity for alternate solutions to be just as successful or detrimental to the objective as the ones you envisioned when drawing up the scenario.


Fair enough: You need to provide problems. The solutions to those problems is the player's responsibility. You also need to provide opportunities for them to do so.