Comments on: How much Campaign do you Plan before the Start?

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 07:07:18 +0000

I completely agree, David – and would point out that there is a difference between campaign planning and campaign prep, and that this factor also makes a difference – especially what activities people put into which category.

By: david ducker

david ducker — Wed, 02 Oct 2013 04:59:49 +0000

I think most people would say they are a 7. but different people have different definitions of that, and it can even fluctuate based on the campaign in question. My current game was a 7 when i started with 10 npc’s prepped, 10 factions and 4 regions total. The game i’m currently prepping is a 7 with 100 npc’s, 50 factions and 4 regions total. Part of that is experience and part is storyline. I know people who have a thousand npc’s prepped before they start, they are my definition of a 10 now. But at the time I’d say my current 7 was a 10. so it’s definitely a sliding scale.

By: Leonard Wilson

Leonard Wilson — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 04:48:08 +0000

@Loz: Absolutely — one size does not fit all, when it comes to GMing styles. We all have our priorities. But you’re inventing a problem that doesn’t exist when you look at mine. If I leave the premise open enough that a player could say, “I want to play a dragon rider,” and I okay it, I just won’t create a story arc where a dragon rider doesn’t fit. I use the PCs themselves as the springboard for the story. It’s just a different sequence of brainstorming than you use, and the one that’s happened to work best for me personally over the years.

By: Loz

Loz — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 22:30:05 +0000

re: leonard “I see it as my job to adapt the campaign to them, not vice versa,”.
I suspect we just have different degrees of willingnes to bend our campaigns to match the players players. I prefer to let players run up against dilemmas and either adapt their characters or the circumstances. I will adapt details to characters to provide more interesting encounters, but won’t dilute the concept/quality (and thus pleasure for *every*body at the table). Possibly we have differences in what we consider acceptable levels of “Artistic integrity vs desire to please a player”?
I definitely see this as a sliding-scale sort of thing. My campaigns generally have a theme (i.e. “Allegiances”) above and beyond the master story. Given this, I can judge if a Player’s Character concept will “mesh” with the flow of campaign or grate against the grain to everybody’s displeasure. Certainly the campaign will be adjusted somewhat in mid-flow according to the PC’s actions/player’s desires. But some PC concepts are just too “awkward” for it to work.
Real example of requiring prior knowledge of a master-story : A “Dragon-rider” sounds cool, but if your campaign involves extension teleportation networks / travel to Dragon-hating countries, the poor Dragon’s not going to be of any use to his rider very often… Better to warn the player before he spends more time on an unworkable concept.
Real example of requiring prior knowledge of the campaign theme : An utterly frivolous team-work-less Psionic has NO place in a serious “Super-heroic Resistance-fighters vs The Evil Super-villain Organisations who conquered the world twenty years ago” campaign. Lord, if only I’d seen that one coming in time….

Re: new players. Gotta love ’em, definitely want to encourage ’em (they’re the future of role-playong after all!) So “oh Yesyesyes!” They get special attention and preparation and leeway.

By: Leonard Wilson

Leonard Wilson — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 05:08:21 +0000

@Loz: To more specifically address your (rhetorical?) question, “… for Players asking ‘would such-and-such a type of Character be playable in this campaign?’ … How could I answer them wihout knowing the mastery-story concept at that stage?” I would say:

“How can I know what story concept would work for the campaign without knowing what characters I’ll have to make it playable for?” I see it as my job to adapt the campaign to them, not vice versa, as long as they’ll abide by the overall tone I want to set for the game.

By: Leonard Wilson

Leonard Wilson — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 01:59:46 +0000

@John: Anything I post here I’m just hoping someone will find it helpful, so feel free to use it. :)

@Loz: I hadn’t consciously thought about it before, but my PCs-over-story-arc priority is a tactic I developed for trying to bring new players into the RPG fold (more precisely, convincing girls to join our group during my college days).

When running a game for veteran role-playing addicts, you’ve got a certain amount of the captive-audience factor at work. In order to get their fix, most of us will put up with quite a bit, and we’ll certainly try to meet the GM halfway. When you’ve got brand new players who’re just a little curious, and are there for the company more than anything, it’s a different ball game. When you’re highly motivated to get those folks hooked, you find yourself jettisoning everything that doesn’t specifically focus on THEM and their needs.

At the time, I was enthralled with Fantasy Hero, which was the first fantasy RPG that didn’t force specific archetypes onto the player characters. Like Champions, the superhero RPG that spawned it, it just provided players with a long shopping list of character options that could be combined and recombined into endless variations. I loved all the plotting and planning and mathematical juggling involved, but what the girls loved was hearing, “We’ve got a world full of fantasy adventure to explore. What do you want to be?” I’d get answers like, “An elderly weather-witch with a siamese cat for a familiar,” and when we sat down to play, I’d hand them a character sheet, along with a verbal overview of their abilities.

Since then, I’ve always been very conscious of reaching out to my players and making the whole experience about them.

By: Johnn

Johnn — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 15:34:20 +0000

Thanks Loz.

To date, the best in-media res starts I’ve GM’d have:
* Jumped right to initiative rolls / combat
* Confused the heck out of the players
* Helped players get their bearings through clues and details as the encounter wore on.

It seems a combo of action and confusion hooks gamers right away. Much better than three hours of contemplative character creation.

By: Loz

Loz — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 09:34:27 +0000

Thinking back I *have* actually used this planning technique in the past (but not consciously/systematically…) and it has worked. Nice one!

P.S. Blanket authorisation : Any and all of my gaming words/thoughts that can help and encourage other gamers can be quoted by anybody (caveat : in-context and with attribution of authorship, of course)

By: Johnn

Johnn — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 01:21:03 +0000

@Loz and Leonard: those are great recipes. Mind if I put them in the e-zine?

@Leonard: “when I say I “sketch out” ideas, that can be literally true”

I agree. I used to wonder why I could remember my hand drawn maps much better than maps in modules. Then I read a few books and articles about the brain. ‘Course, it should have been obvious, but I’m slow that way. :)

@Loz: I’ve used in-media res a few times with great success. If you try it let us know how it goes.

By: Loz

Loz — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 22:56:52 +0000

[Cherry-picking, here…]
I like that concept of planning an action sequence first and back-filling to set it up. Especially the part about planning for the “mid-action” point. I’ll try that.
I’m a bit more doubtful about leaving the master-story until the players have finished the PC creation purpose. I often find that with a master-story 70-90% in mind (the other 10-30% being, yes, adapting to profit from the player-characters) I can suggest a few ideas to players that would be helpful to both them and open up new possibilities for the campaign. Sometimes if they’re reeaally stuick for Disadvantage points (to pay for all those Avantages they’ve fallen in love with) I can say “You could take a Secret Disadvantage worth [Large number of points], and it’ll help me introduce certain elements but even your character won’t know what it is until it appears…” My players generally bite the bait (they do love a challenge!). Everybody wins : they get their beloved Advantages, I get a cast-iron justification for inserting campaign enemies into the PCs lives….
This ties back into the campaign preparation question because without a master-story / concept already in mind and thus knowing which villains are waiting in the wings I wouldn’t be able to make them this kind of offer.
Ditto for Players asking “would such-and-such a type of Character be playable in this campaign?” (they’re thoughtful people as well…) How could I answer them wihout knowing the mastery-story concept at that stage?