Experiences D&D Players of RPNation, what are some key tips for making a campaign, and making one fun?

[proiettile]

Hey! In my group, I've been elected to be the DM. (Which I don't mind, and it'd be my first time.) To the DMs, players, and spectators of D&D here: What are some key elements for making a campaign, making one interesting, and enjoyable. I really don't know what to do, so... please.

Thank you for anyone who responds in prior.


-Prometheus, the Jackal of All Trades

 

[still watching fma]

Have multiple big bads. They dont have to be a gradient system of power. But maybe your red dragon has an army of tucker's kobolds and your mind eater dudes have an arcane sanctum with many trapsm both mechanical and magic to keep players on their toes.

Always ask what your players are aiming for. Even if you think youve got this, just ask a second time to make sure. I didnt do this and one player got miffed that I made a weird situatio when they wanted a simple one.

Dont make a big scene they cant interact with. On rpn it may be okay, but your normie less dramatic dnd players will ignore you or get annoyed with seeing sauron killing swaths of soldiers but having no say in the matter.

Always have a skeleton of a plot. Basically if your players dont spontaneously decide they want to explore the dead marshes, have an idea of ehat you want to do next.

Dont be too heavy handed with story direction. Always leave things open to new solutions. You shouldnt think for your players or do too kuch for them.

Lastly, dont do an exp budget. Make an encounter you think is fun, but wont kill them. I'll put a shadow, 3 skeleton warriors and a sea hag against level 2 players if I think it will be fun but not kill them. The dm hand book would say i went over budget.

Lastly, just ask what they are looking for in the session 0.

 

[Grey]

I've written some general tips for this kind of thing you might find handy.

Tutorial - Techniques For Running An RP

I know the fashion of the time is to play in the RP you’ve created. Consider, however, the merits of more classic style GMing (Game Mastering) when you want to create and run a roleplay - rather than playing one or two characters, it makes you responsible for a whole slew of non-player...

www.rpnation.com

 

[laceanddoodles]

Something my DMs tend to do that I really appreciate is that they essentially don't write out a plot. They just thoroughly understand the setting and the people around, so that we can make our own dumb choices and drive the plot on our own.

I'm currently playing in four campaigns, three in person and one online, and this is the case for nearly all of them. The one that really breaks this rule is a pre-written module, so that's different. But still.

In one of my campaigns, my character and my character's identical twin learned that we were smuggled out of the capitol city at birth by our father, because we were the result of an affair and our aunt is a terrifying mafia boss with a de facto license to kill and wanted us dead before we ruined her plans. Now, at the age of 14, we're back in the capitol. Our DM didn't really have to lift a finger for my character's twin to IMMEDIATELY seek out our aunt (Voldel) and try to join the mafia. Which gave Voldel a moment to look at us twins, decide I was the more useful one, and blackmail me into also joining the mafia to keep my twin safe. We weren't really even guided in that direction, we easily could have just avoided it, but my twin's personality and motivations narrowed down the possibilities for us.

Let that happen with your players. Make sure everyone comes to the table with a character who wants something. Those goals and desires will keep them moving forward through the world, and will give you something to play off of. I'd also avoid allowing "oh my whole family and everyone who loves me is dead" as a backstory. You can kill their family and loved ones in campaign, that happened to the twins when the DM killed their father right in front of us, but having no links to the world at the beginning can make your job as a DM pretty difficult. Work with your players to make a cohesive party, and host a session 0.

Session 0s are a non-canon session where everyone introduces themselves in character, talks to the DM more about there character to get you on the same page as them, and maybe there are a few scenes of practice rp and/or practice combat to get a feel for how it will work.

 

[still watching fma]

Ehh, you can wing an entire campaign. But if that's all you're doing, then what's your role at the table(as the dm)? Surely anyone with a modicum of knowledge of the game could sit in your place and do the work for you. But if it's working for you, then more power to your group.

 

[laceanddoodles]

Ehh, you can wing an entire campaign. But if that's all you're doing, then what's your role at the table(as the dm)? Surely anyone with a modicum of knowledge of the game could sit in your place and do the work for you. But if it's working for you, then more power to your group.

Oh no, they're definitely not winging it. They have extensive preparation for settings, npcs, and potential scenes, they just let us the players make our own bad choices and determine where we go, who we talk to, and what trouble we walk into.

 

[still watching fma]

Oh no, they're definitely not winging it. They have extensive preparation for settings, npcs, and potential scenes, they just let us the players make our own bad choices and determine where we go, who we talk to, and what trouble we walk into.

lol, I highly doubt there isn't some plot involved if there's all these goodies prepared.

"yes I'm just going to make mordor and the all the fixings within, but there's not an ounce of planning as for what is going to happen when players explore it".

 

[laceanddoodles]

lol, I highly doubt there isn't some plot involved if there's all these goodies prepared.

"yes I'm just going to make mordor and the all the fixings within, but there's not an ounce of planning as for what is going to happen when players explore it".

Ehhh, I'm pretty much paraphrasing what my DM told me. But it certainly does help that my entire party is comprised of creative writing majors, theater majors, and psych majors. As a group, we all have a strong grasp on the fundamentals of storytelling and character, and we're all fully committed to the two campaigns we're playing together.

 

[still watching fma]

Ehhh, I'm pretty much paraphrasing what my DM told me. But it certainly does help that my entire party is comprised of creative writing majors, theater majors, and psych majors. As a group, we all have a strong grasp on the fundamentals of storytelling and character, and we're all fully committed to the two campaigns we're playing together.

Which I have trouble believing for a second(on the gm's part). You don't just tell a new gm that he doesn't need to do anything, because the players will do the work for him. None of my campaigns and non-dnd rps have ever gone the way I planned them. But I spent an extensive amount of time creating path ways and different encounters(npcs) and other plot catalysts to make something happen.

 

[Grey]

In my experience, what Lace is describing is accurate - high-context GMing where you know the setting very well and have defined it clearly., so while you may have a plot in mind, it's very flexible and evolves organically to support player choice. It helps to have, rather than a plot, a selection of events and motivations across the play area and factions within it which the players interact with. Ideally, in fact, anyone should be able to sit in your place and run the campaign well. It just won't be the same one you would have run.

Some people probably do the rigidly defined long term plot and it works for them, but at that point I'd as well write static fiction.

 

[still watching fma]

I'll just have to disagree then. We're both saying similar things, but we approach gming differently I guess. I truly think what he's describing is a combination of having self sufficient story tellers and winging it. As opposed to do anything that requires a gm.

 

[laceanddoodles]

(I don't know what's funnier, how blatantly my point is being misconstrued, how committed FMA is to repeatedly calling me out, or that the fact that they looked at me, RPN user "Laceanddoodles," with the tagline "Your run of the mill Victorian lady" and a literal drawing of a medieval queen as my pfp and decided to use he/him pronouns for me.)

 

[Grey]

I mean, isn't managing the world and context what a GM does? Is an emergent plot less valid than a pre-written one?

If that's not what the GM role is all about I have some awards to return.

 

[welian]

What are some key elements for making a campaign, making one interesting, and enjoyable.

There will come a point where everyone will stop posting, and no one will know what to do next.

When that happens, set an IRL deadline for a timeskip to the next scene. Tell your players "You have 96 hours to wrap up this scene, because after that I'm railroading the RP to the next part of the story."

You'll either enjoy a nice quiet break before the next flurry of activity, or you'll suddenly see a dozen posts as your players try to resolve some half-hearted romantic tension.

Disclaimer: This might not actually work for your group, but it sure is a fun threat to keep things moving!

 

[Grey]

My last long-running game, I did say 'okay, post freely until you feel you've resolved this epilogue/it is X irl date and then I'll start the next arc' or even 'everyone gets one wrap-up post before I move us on'.

 

[misajns]

Favourite thing my DM does is really integrate our backstories into the plot. It's awesome when you're doing a quest and suddenly you're faced with backstory.

 

[Beckoncall]

USE RANDOM GENERATORS.

They are not always the best, but don't take hours planning something a machine was already scripted to do in seconds.

here's a good link to some random generators (all kinds) : donjon; RPG Tools

here;s a good link to a page that generates names for different characters/races: Fantasy name generators. Names for all your fantasy characters.

That should give you a HINT of what's on the web if you look around.

From quick generating NPCs, the plot seeds, to dungeon maps, to whole story arcs -- there are generators for it. Take what you can get generated and put your personal touch on it and you can accomplish some great stuff with minimal effort.

 

[The Dreamer of the Lore]

Mmm well I am not sure, my DM has always worked hard in the plots he makes and I am extremely thankful for that because he seems to always have a plan for every foolish thing me and the party do, so is never dull, there's always something else to do.

 

[SpectrumCrow]

Personally, I feel it's very important to communicate with your players. You aren't going to get everything perfect right off the bat, so asking them for their opinions on how you handled certain things is crucial to improvement, plus it can give you an idea of what your different players are interested in!

 

[BlackoutThieving]

Just create a basic sandbox and basic key characters and have things happen that don't need the characters involvement. Have important people be assassinated, gangs smuggling Goblin children to perverted nobles, a cult devoted to the swamp god Ushrah slowly developing in the sewers, or whatever you may think would be interesting. It requires a lot of effort but just because there is a random dungeon out in the wilderness doesn't mean that the players are gonna interact with it. I'm pretty paranoid so I typically overprepare and generally prefer real-life DnD to online, as pulling random statblocks when needed on Roll20 is a hassle. Detailed maps aren't needed if you're good at describing things.

 

[GoldMoonWizard]

I recently ran a campaign with a new group of players, and I introduced the villain (without them knowing he was the villain) in session 1, and he hinted at the rebellion he was planning, just so they'd have something to explore, and instead of demanding information about it, they offered to join it. So I had to improvise and change it up and over the next few sessions, make it clear that this rebellion was the bad guy and if they stayed with it they'd have an even tougher final boss fight than they would otherwise. It was great in retrospect, but terrified me at first, and than what do my players do? They join an even bigger bad guy to protect them from this one.

 

[Cross]

I've been a player in serious games and a DM in more homebrew, casual games. I think it's important to give each character a moment to shine and let them feel like the cool, epic character they're playing. As a DM, I focused heavily on the backstories of the characters and tried to give them meaningful choices. The player characters drove the plot and I crafted the story around them.

As a player, I appreciate when the DM is flexible and lets me come at a situation in unorthodox way. I don't like when the DM is too overbearing or when I feel the DM is picking on my character. Your players will be able to sense if you don't like them or their character and that's no fun for anyone.

As a piece of advice, I would say that sometimes some of your players might not put any effort into the game and, if that happens, don't feel bad. You can't make someone have fun if they are determined not to. As a player, I've been in campaigns where several people barely contributed and a few people carried the game.

I would also advise to balance combat with role play and exploration. It's boring if there's no monster to fight and it's also boring if there's nothing but combat in a game.

Lastly, the smaller the group, the better the player teamwork and interaction tends to be.

 

[Sludge]

I recommend not to get too ambitious with your first campaign. Maybe ask your group if they are willing to try a couple one shots or a shorter campaign first. Short campaigns let you learn from your mistakes fast and the players will be more forgiving.

Besides, if all goes well you can just continue on from there.