Need DM advice.

[Throne12]

So I've been DMing for a few years and I have a problem with always switching campaigns. I would start a sci-fi theme play for about 5 to 10 sessions. Then get tell my players to make new characters we are playing a pirate theme campaign. Then again a Discover and explore a new world. Now I'm mostly a Bare minimal prep DM, and I'm pretty good at on the fly stuff. But the lack of not having a over arching plot makes it hard to still to a campaign. I want to break this habit because my players would like to get to know and play here characters.

So do yall got any tips, tricks and advice. On coming up with campaign ideas and plots, stories and and DM advice you want to give.

[Laserlight]

Sounds like you should do a Stargate kind of game. Five sessions exploring a ruin; a session at home base dealing with your mother in law, your boss, and those arrogant jerks on Gold team; then a couple of sessions on a pirate ship intercepting an enemy VIP's transport; then you have to deal with your sorceress and rogue both hitting on your fighter, because hey, you're away from "home" so much, who else is a romantic prospect?

[MarkVIIIMarc]

Sounds like you should do a Stargate kind of game. Five sessions exploring a ruin; a session at home base dealing with your mother in law, your boss, and those arrogant jerks on Gold team; then a couple of sessions on a pirate ship intercepting an enemy VIP's transport; then you have to deal with your sorceress and rogue both hitting on your fighter, because hey, you're away from "home" so much, who else is a romantic prospect?

Have that old NPC who runs the Yawning Portal put them in touch with some folks who need this or that every so often. At first a teleportation circle or NPC with teleport can get them around, eventually the players can do it themselves.

Heck, I even had the players teleport to 1960ish Earth and back after two sessions while chasing a Lich lol. I had them railroaded a bit once there with the pending destruction of the circle but luckily they enjoyed it and went along.

[Vessyra]

First, let your players know that you're planning to run a longer-than-usual campaign; this will incentivise them to create backstories. Then, come up with some idea for a villain or evil scheme. Once that's done, find some method of tying this villain into the player's backstories. Even if the players have sparse backstories, at least find some way to tie it in loosely. Once you have all of this, you can plan out what the villain needs to do. Don't make any elaborate, set-in-stone plans, (in session X, the villain will do Y and Z!); instead simply come up with a general goal for the villain, the resources s/he has, and how s/he can accomplish the goal. E.g. goal: summon elder evil, resource: cult, how to accomplish: sacrifice 13 sailors under a full moon during a 13-hour ritual. You'll be able to come up with the rest over the course of the campaign, as you discover the goals that the PCs have and let the main plot conflict with those goals.

the PCs are at the centre of the universe, and every adventure must allow them to somehow have an effect on the world. If you are creating a plot, it must somehow come into conflict with the PCs, so that they can actually do something. So if two rival kings are fighting, don't come up with the elaborate assassinations, tactics and countermoves the NPCs are using against each other; the PCs won't see or be able to do anything about all of that. Instead, only come up with what the PCs can do something about, such as rooting out a spy, or assassinating the other king. In a previous campaign, I had been creating a great adventure about mind flayers and duergar warring, until I had to throw it out because I realised that, on this grand scale of many enemies and many plots, the PCs would neither be able to sort out what was going on nor have any effect on this conflict. It would have been nothing more than me saying what a bunch of NPCs did.

The players are going to learn about the plot at some point. While an NPC can be useful for explaining everything, it can be very satisfying if the PCs are able to figure it out on there own. There are four main methods by which PCs can know things about the world:
#1: a friendly NPC. While the NPC may not divulge the entire plot for the PCs, the can still be useful for pieces of information, such as those ancient books the strange man was collecting, or the whispers of a cult in town.
#2: an interrogated NPC. A captured enemy can also be very useful for players searching for information, though it will be almost entirely up to the players deciding when they want something to happen.
#3: object. An ancient mural, a statue, a diary; all of these can be used to foreshadow information.
#4: backstories. Modifying player backstories to add information can be very useful. Since people rarely spill their life story to a bunch of strangers, though, you'll have to put in story reasons for the player to share this information with the rest of the party; for instance, the player sees a symbol of the cult that murdered his family, or she sees a replica of her father's sword.
Player's aren't geniuses, and won't notice or explore everything, so it's best to put in three methods by which the PCs might discover this information. Partial clues, or mostly ignored/misunderstood clues, can also make for great foreshadowing.

[Safety Sword]

The reason my players are interested in exploring my world and the hooks I throw out is because they are important to their characters.

The main plot always just happens along as part of an investigation into something they are already doing.

For instance, I'm running a highly modified Storm King's Thunder campaign and the way the characters got involved is that one of them was going to Nightstone to collect an inheritance. The relative they are looking for is missing from Nightstone and when they start trying to find them they hear about the giants attacking the town... cue the book...

Easy.

Backstories are the lifeblood of DM ideas. They are the things your players are telling you they want to explore in the game. Why wouldn't you use them?

[Bjarkmundur]

Alright, this got me thinking.


Scenario:
- I want to play a sandbox campaign.
- I want to base the story and plot largely on my PCs.
- I want the setup to be easy.

What I'm thinking:
- What if I create a world, and then give my PCs a list of questions that will define the rest of the hooks I include?

Example:
- World: Underdark campaign. A hundred years ago our community was thriving. We had resources and good trade with other underdark races. Then one by one the other races turned their back on us, resulting in less trade and less communication. There are two races left with good trade and communication. We don't know that Mind Flayers have taken over our region and the races that stopped trading. In the background the Mind Flayers are destroying the other communities, and will move on to ours next. This is not a main story line, just something that's happening while the PCs are doing their thing to make the world feel more alive, since it introduces problems and changes over time.
- Questions: Now I just have to create a small list of questions for the PCs that will shape their plot lines.


1. Trusted Contact: Who do you trust most in the world (PC or NPC)? Are you in good contact with that person, or have you lost contact for some reason? Is the person dead or far away, or do you meet that person regularly? Does that person have any special traits, such as a profession, background, class or race other than yours? Is the person influential in your society? Does that person have a goal? What is your dynamic? Does that person support you or challenge you?
2. Extreme View: Is there something you are fanatical about? Some political view, something you hate or love? What is your passion? If there's an uncomfortable silence, what do you always use as your back-up thing to talk about? If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
3. Extreme Ambition: You are a person with an ambition. There's something you want to do or see done before you die. What is it? Do you want something for yourself, such as wealth, recognition or change your every-day life to the better? Do you want to see your city become the greatest city in the underdark? Do you want to move to the surface or explore the world?
4. Recent Past: Something happened recently that effected one of the first three points. What was it? Did you gain or lose your trusted contact? Did something happened that gave or challenged your extreme view? Was there something that triggered your extreme ambitioun? If so, did it create it or enforce it? Did it give you no choice but to act on your ambition? Was it a great opportunity or did something force you to act on it now?

The idea is that with these things, you have enough to work with for a LONG time. I don't know if this helps, but your discussion inspired me, so this is where this post will be posted.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

I ask my players to write background.

It usually gives me a major villain a few minor ones, a starting town and a starting kingdom.

I use a random world map and ask the players where they are from.

I make sure they make the PCs compatible and start to run with it.

As long as the end goal is far away you will have a reason to continue.

After the end goal you can find something new or ask the players what the PCs are going to do.

A game can go for a few years that way.

[Bjarkmundur]

As far as tips and tricks goes:

- In my game We see time as chunks of 30 days.
- At the start of your 30 day you pick one downtime activity from my list (see sig). This is what you are doing in your non-adventuring time.
- Now here's a trick, at the start of your downtime you have to pay living expenses. I balanced the economy in my game to drive the players forward. They can earn a good amount of money for approaching a faction for quests (between 30-70gp per person) and use your downtime to work (60gp). This means your players are always doing something, and are not dependent on you for making things happen. They will let you know if they want to meet new people, perform a heist, cheat at gambling, do a quest for a benefactor for gold or rewards etc.
- You can also create 3 different cities with different markets, factions and available downtimes. This encourages your players to travel, which means you have more chances to make stuff happen.

Usually in dnd there's a formula of
1. The DM describes an event
2. The players describe their reactions
3. The DM resolves the interaction

But using the guidelines above you've changed it to

1. The players do something
2. The DM narrates how the world reacts to their actions.
3. repeat.

This puts the player as the initiator of events, meaning you can run a very sandboxy game that never ends. The only thing you have to do is provide your players with clear options, ideally on a handout, and then throw in some wrenches. A heist might be resolved in a couple of dice rolls, or you can RP and narrate the whole thing and turn it into a 2-4 hour session. The trick is to print out a list of options and then declare "You have to pick one of these options". It's almost a choose-your-own-adventure.