Fellow DMs share your methods

[Stubbed Tongue]

So...Fuzzie Fuzz(I hope you don't mind I mentioned you) and I were talking about how we craft campaigns. Would any other DMs on here please share their methods? We as DMs should be on the ever present quest for pointers and tricks to make the 'job' of DMing that much easier.

Thank you in advance.

[Katana_Geldar]

Allow me to introduce Mr Bond

[FoE]

I usually have a plan going into a session, but I never stick to it. I don't "force" players to go through all my carefully-scripted encounters, especially if it seems like they're starting to wear out a bit. (A problem in my campaigns, as they tend to be combat-heavy. I DM like I play: always looking for the next fight.)

As to designing campaigns, I've sadly never had the opportunity to do so (most of my adventures have been one-shots), but I have had ideas. Mostly, I like the idea of building around themes, like using an abberation-heavy campaign.

I find coming up with villains is the easiest. Developing the setting, now that's tricky. That's why I tend to do best with established settings like Eberron.

[Emmerask]

I read a lot of fantasy books and if I find something interesting and somewhat fitting for my current campaign I steal it shamelessly

[Swordgleam]

I start with something small, then build logically from there. The starting point is usually a cool idea, but it can be anything. I do the same thing with hooks I drop in - no point in fleshing them out if they're not getting followed.

A small example - the local blacksmith can't make a greatsword for the fighter because he's low on steel. This could just be because he has no money to buy more steel, but maybe bandits have been attacking caravans so steel can't get into town, or the king is demanding all steel be sent to him to equip his army. Maybe something's happening at the iron mines. It could be any or all of the above, and if the players never decide it's important, then it's not.

[Stubbed Tongue]

Swordgleam "and if the players never decide it's important, then it's not"
Words to live/create by. As DM I feel like I'm am their employee(not in a bad way, I just wish to make the best game possible).

Emmerask "if I find something interesting and somewhat fitting for my current campaign I steal it" yep me too. Creative laziness almost.

FoE "I don't "force" players to go through all my carefully-scripted encounters" sometimes you just have to ad lib on the fly. Stay fluid.

Katana_Geldar *reads other page.

Thanks people.

[DabblerWizard]

I have a campaign with a homebrew world. Back when I was a teenager, I started writing this fantasy story about elves, wizards, and such things, but I never finished it. So eventually, when the idea to DM came up, I just took the basic elements I had already written, or still had in my head, and went from there.

Now, what does that mean?

I haphazardly drew a large land mass on a blank sheet of paper. I made sure it had jagged edges and weird jettisons and such. Natural geography doesn't have very many clean lines.

From there I decided on the major races I wanted in my campaign world. I started drawing out where they might live. Soon borders pressed against each other, and I had to figure out how spatial proximity would effect relations between regions.

I decided, for one, that humans are a major race in the world, and so, they have more than one region in which they are dominant.

I took ideas having to do with socio-political comfort, and thought that not everyone would want to live in the main human region that was very militaristic and heavy handed. I figured some group of outcasts would want to leave the authoritarian region. Oh look, let's make an isolated area separated by a mountain range that can be a sort of "outcasts unite" kind of region. How would they survive, how would they react to others, what are their major philosophies, etc.

I did that process with all the regions. I figured out where their major cities would be, etc.

There's more to it I suppose, but I can't think of anything else at the moment.

Oh. By the way, Rich gives some really good campaign world tips that can be found here: http://www.giantitp.com/Gaming.html

His insights are superb.

[waterpenguin43]

I first brainstorm for a campaign setting and a plot, then I piece it together as appropriate, adding characters and encounters in, preparing alternatives in case the players to do something that wouldn't allow me to use one of my ideas, fix it up a bit and BOOM!! You've got an adventure.

As for railroading/not balance, I generally use a "path" metaphor; You can leave it, but you're going to get sucked back into the plot somehow eventually.

[Swordgleam]

waterpenguin's post reminded me: I try to make all my ideas portable. I have a cool idea for an encounter in a cave with lava monsters, and the players don't go into the cave? The next town has an arena, and wouldn't you know it, it's set up like a cave for this tourney and one of the challenges is fighting lava monsters.

[Radiun]

I generate three random adventures
I need to know the
Contractor's Type
Contractor's Social Status
Villain's Type
Subtype (Optional)
The Problem
Problem Accessories
The Environment

I form a general idea of how each quest would work out.
Then I make 1-3 generic battles that they'll face no matter the adventure they pick.
The party picks which ever quest they want, and we go from there. They wanted to stop an assassination? I need some rogues and a reason for someone to have contracted an assassination. They want to help the elves on the mountain? Well survival will be the name of the game. An Outsiders are raiding a city? They should have a mode of access, so a planar portal, and I don't need to think too hard to figure out what enemies the PCs will face.

Then again I'm lazy and like to procrastinate, so living in this sort of week-to-week way works for me.

[FoE]

I wouldn't call my adventures "carefully-scripted." I'm too lazy to write out dialogue; I just write some notes and improvise the rest.

[Ormur]

I made a world where certain things are going to happen that the campaign will be about but in what order or what the result will be I don't know. The world is pretty detailed so the players could end up most anywhere and find plot hooks. I don't know what every region looks like but I have enough information to be able to construct it on short notice, I even made a d100 table with forms of government. Aside from that I only plan the next session or two.

I still think I'm doing things too linearly and I've sometimes had to tell the players what to do but as the plot gets thicker and the world more detailed (I continue building on it as things unravel) I hope their choices will become greater and less dependant on quest-givers. The best thing would be to plant enough clues about what has to be done next for them to arrive at a course of action themselves and not necessarily the one you though up (in fact quite the opposite). The ideal campaign would be where the players came up with all the ideas on how to advance the plot themselves and where I'd be prepared enough to react to that. I'm certainly not there yet.

It's also important to remember that the NPC's are rational people that will react to the actions of the players in order to further their own goals. If it's a long campaign you might have to consider when the powerful NPC's become aware of the players if they aren't from the beginning.

[Bibliomancer]

Whenever possible, I try to link events in the world to the PCs (or their previous characters). For example, in the current campaign the PCs caught a ride on an airship piloted by a cleric that survived from 1st to 10th level in the last campaign.

Apart from that, I write down notes for the cultures/factions they are going to encounter and make things up from there. If you plan too far ahead, you're simply wasting your time.

That said, I do have ideas for a longer plot arc, and I'm planning to get the characters involved by linking the main plot to as many characters' backstories as possible to increase the odds that they won't get distracted mid-quest.

[HailDiscordia]

I plan the world with some degree of detail, I certainly know who the main players are and what they are looking for. The one thing that I never plan is the plot. That's the job of the PC's. I learned when I was younger that if you try to make the PC's go a certain direction then they never will. It is sort of rule #1 of DMing, at least I think so.

And I've always got a random encounter or two to throw at them and slow things down if they start to move in a direction that I was not expecting. That has saved my butt a bunch of times. Not repetitive encounters, but something of substance that ties into the PC's interests.

And I change things all the time before it reaches the PC's. Right now they are headed for the abandoned keep of a noble family in which the estranged daughter of the family has taken up the "Dark Arts". What are they dark arts? Got me. In my head they have been related to undead, demons, evil elementals, and corrupt wizards. I will usually just go with what seems to be working best at the moment.

[Radiun]

[...] family has taken up the "Dark Arts". What are they dark arts? Got me.[...]

Entropy

Their spells have caused their house to age horribly and become decrepit, as it will the PCs.

The fight won't have the potential of a TPK, most likely, as their spells age the PCs more and more, wither their limbs, steal their youth. But the nobles will only have 1 frail melee fight of their own. The Grandfather, whom they wanted to relive his glory days against foes who were on... more equal footing (also advanced in age)

[Katana_Geldar]

I use an established setting (Star Wars) so there is quite a lot that I can't do if I want to keep my players on the same page as me, going on their assumptions of things saves a lot of exposition.

All the same, I have bit by bit started to establish my own presence there. Started with a planet and the battle the PCs were in as well as a few species. Then there's a few NPCs I wanted to explore in different stages of their lives as I can play with time periods. One of my antagonists, a super-spy who has my players on a string and they don't know it, is around sixteen in my other campaign and still rather innocent. It's interesting to get both ends and make them meet in the middle.

The same goes for places.

[Stubbed Tongue]

DabblerWizard: "Back when I was a teenager...". you sound like me. A solid idea is just that, a solid idea. No reason to create more if you already have something nice and workable.

waterpenguin43: "but you're going to get sucked back into the plot somehow eventually."
Exactly. I try to hide it as best I can.

Swordgleam "and wouldn't you know it" almost every encounter is portable. Come to think of it I can't think of any encounter I've done that can't be move somewhere else topographically.

Radiun "The party picks which ever quest they want, and we go from there..." I would say I DM most like you.

FoE "...improvise..." Dialogue shouldn't be scripted. It feels artificial that way. At least to me.


Ormur: "The ideal campaign would be where the players came up with all the ideas on how to advance the plot themselves and where I'd be prepared enough to react to that" This, this ,yes, this is why I wanted input. Great.

And as for linear: I've had some players actually ask for that.


Bibliomancer: "If you plan too far ahead, you're simply wasting your time." Totally agree.
"I try to link events in the world to the PCs" It's awesome to see one of your player's face light up when you mention one of their other characters(different campaign) as having sacked a large city. The PCs are movers and shakers. Give them their due.

HailDiscordia & Radiun: That just flows. Love it. Might use your ideas in my game if you don't mind. You will of course get credit once the plot hook is over.

Katana_Geldar: I do that too. An established world with my own little slice to use. Currently it's Greyhawk.


Awesome. I don't know about you guys/gals but I'm having fun. The beer I'm drinking probably helps too, but hey.

[JaronK]

The most important point for me has always been that my job is to make the players have more fun, and that their fun is more important than my original story concept.

JaronK

[Emmerask]

If you plan too far ahead, you're simply wasting your time.

Depends my campaign world is not pc centric in any way for example:

I planned a murder mystery adventure for my players that came down to a vampire lord creating an extremely powerful artifact (raising the dead in a one mile radius and giving him immunity against a lot of things). Well this time they took the plot hook and saved the day.
But if they had not the events would have still happened and the vampire lord would have attacked their kingdom with his hundreds of thousands strong undead army. So while a bit of the work I put in there would have gone to "waste" (research could still reveal what had happened) there are parts of it that are salvageable still ^^

[Cyrion]

I tend to try to design worlds that will last for extended play. My last GURPS campaign lasted ~10 years IRL (partly due to sporadic play and partly because of the richness of the setting). To do that, I look for a hook for the world- what makes it an interesting place to play and spawn adventures that will engage the party.

My swashbuckling GURPS campaign was based on Europe with slight changes-
1) Columbus didn't come back- had repercussions religiously and politically
2) Magic was frowned upon by the Church, but it's real, upping the ante on witch hunts...
3) Non-humans (NPCs all) exist, and each represents one of the four elements.

From there I look at what the characters and players are likely to find as a good hook, and design adventures around those so that I rarely have to worry about the characters not going into my cave full of lava monsters. Then, as Swordgleam said- if they don't bite this time, I port a lot of the work to another adventure or context.

I also plan for some of the big events that will happen whether the PCs are involved or not- invasions, deaths of kings, etc. If the PCs are involved- great! If they're not, they change the tide of events- usually in a way that generates more adventures that the party would be interesting, and we're off and running again.

[valadil]

I always write down ideas whether or not I'm running a game or not. I have a personal wiki and a google doc I use to capture plot musings. Sometimes I'll read through those ideas and if enough of them have something in common I'll wrap them up and call it a game.

I basically run the game like a simulation. I have a list of NPCs and plots. Between sessions I go through each of them and update what happened to them that session. If nothing happened, they'll get bored and find something to do.

I don't own any plots. They're all parts of the NPCs. If the PCs don't react the way the plot expected, it's up to the NPC to react. This helps keep the game realistic and interesting. (Typing this over has reminded me that it's something I need to get back to doing in my current game. The intoductory sessions were a little too railroady as I attempted to set up the premise and I need to back off of that.)

I rarely plan more than a session in advance. PCs go where they like and trying to predict where they'll be in a month's time is wasted effort. I'm much too lazy to waste effort.

[Shinizak]

I don't create a plot, I create an environment. Since I can't tell what the PC's will do I just create a detailed map, a list of events leading up to the story at hand, the required NPCs (complete with personalities), and one or two plot hooks.

[bosssmiley]

Steal what you like the look of. File off the serial numbers. Exploit mercilessly.
Game blogs are gold for this.

[Ashiel]

Another post on the subject matter; as far as GMing goes. I'll probably try to write up an adventure/encounter guidebook next.

[valadil]

Steal what you like the look of. File off the serial numbers. Exploit mercilessly.
Game blogs are gold for this.

You can also come up with something original by stealing bits and pieces. Take a scene out of a movie. Put that in your game. The result will still be something unique though. The characters are entering the scene from a different direction and when they leave they'll be heading off somewhere else entirely. The combination of entrance * ripped off premise * exit is going to be unique.

[Traveler]

Set campaign world.
Set modual.
Make adjustment to fit world.
Adjust/scrap mod plot to fit the continuing plot.
Prepare for the PC's probable actions.

This usually works to a point. Take ideas for what you can and with without mercy or regret. Make encounters (and the over all game) fun. The player's in game goals are more important then the plot.

As to preparing for PC actions... I never ever seem to be able to prepare enough.

[Octopus Jack]

For a setting, I like to take time devoloping a complex detailed world, with places the PCs will probably never go to and plot hooks that probably won't be used, I like my worlds to feel complete.
I tend to give my PCs a sortof choice but nudge them along the right path. In my current campaign their choices start of limited but open up alot more as they progress.
Encounters are planned with notes but not scripted, and if I think the PCs have a very good chance of being TPKd I tend to tone down fights (the owlbear was an exception) and sometimes I just wing it

[Project_Mayhem]

Amusingly, this is what I'm doing right now - adapting York into a Neverwhere style Changeling setting. I started by brainstorming and writing down any cool ideas I could think of. Now I'm developing key npcs.

[Stubbed Tongue]

Wow, such good ideas on here. I can identify with most of you.

[KatfishKaos]

1. Beginning
2. Stuff goes down
3. ???
4. PROFIT!

Thats about it... My players tell me their characters I make basic world based off of that. I have one or two generic quests (that I use for most games, just changed a little depending on the setting) that let me get a feel of the characters... The rest of the world/quests are now based off of the characters... No notes, no pre-thought out ideas. But by the 4-6th session? I have pages upon pages of random NPCs that my players have met. You'll learn to love excel VERY quickly.

By the 10th session I like to know what the end will be, that by no means sets it in stone. Its just a good basis. Remember the world is their oyster, but my god... That oyster can be bashed, slashed, magicked, shot and whatever your players can think of. The oysters changes.

Never worry about running out of quests... You have, Family (most of my players purposely put wives, husbands, children into my campaigns) rules for family, they're there to be saved, hurt but saved. Make your players genuinely terrified for their family, and they'll love you for it. Make the situation hopeless, and their backgrounds will all be about orphanages.

Friends, your players are playing heroes. Their friends are going to be just as awesome. You can't pull the family trick with the friends. But what you can do is have the friends do something stupid, like take an evil item. Borrow money from the wrong guy. Friends can be a plot hook as epic as any other.

BBEG (A), tried and true. Some dude wants to do something the world (or just your party) don't agree with. You can deal with this in one of two ways, the quest is there rock'n'roll! Or... A BBEG (B) has done something (killing someone important usually does the trick) and the players now hunt him down. Whilst doing all of that your players are actually coming after BBEG (A). It adds depth.

The last one that my DM has used on me, something is going on in the world... Its their job to figure it out. For instance; A new drug hit the streets of London (nWoD), I was playing a agent to find out where it came from, seeming it was obviously supernatural. Epic ensued, as my character's morality degraded and he started killing vampires, changeling (WHILST balancing a family). Also, by the end of the campaign he became a changeling (became a Knight of a True Fae, broke the contract, lulz ensued).

My biggest tip would be NPCs, don't write off one because you found him/her/it, boring. My players have remembered and loved characters that I thought they had completely forgot about. These NPCs then became quite interesting parts of the campaign.

If you want more info on anything just ask. But my players have never complained about the games. And we've been playing since we were all about 12 (my first campaign was gloriously bad).