Planning Your RPG Campaign - 3 Ways to Start
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ค. 2024
- You're keen to start a new roleplaying game but you're not sure where to even start. Do you design your own campaign, choose a pre-generated world to play your game in, or do you homebrew your own world? In today's video, I talk about the very first step in designing or building your world space which is where to start! We'll chat about the 3 common approaches to this step - the advantages and the disadvantages of each one and then allow you to make your decision. Where will you begin in creating your next TTRPG campaign?
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
02:56 Where do you start?
03:17 Campaign idea
05:44 Pre-made world
10:09 Homebrew
12:40 The negative aspects
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*Thanks for watching!* Let us know in the comments below where you start when you plan a new game or begin to design a new campaign?
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Take a look at the pre-order shop for The Practical Guide to Becoming a Great GM, where all of these concepts and so much more are contained! Find it here: bit.ly/3EDNbmK
Find each chapter of the video easily by clicking on the timestamps in the description.
I homebrew my own worlds. My entire drive to DM is from coming up with new worlds that are different than other worlds, and creating society around it.
You video on Tone was eye opening for me. I never thought about that as more than just my world my style of DMing. Thank you, this is beneficial.
I like to first ask my players well in advance what type of game they would like to play. Once that's established, I create much more confidently knowing they'll be into whatever I come up with
If you do it online like I do, you dont need to even ask, everyone's usually interested
I started with an idea for a villain: What if Shere Khan was a rakshasa? Which led me to start making adventure plots around other Disney movies! I ended up homebrewing a low magic world, then created my map, pantheon, and the worked with my players on a session zero to discuss backstories and such!
Now we’ve been playing for over a year, and I’m taking them from level one to 20!
That’s a great approach! One question: you’ve said you’re playing in a low magic world. I assume you’re playing 5E (or perhaps pathfinder) from the 1-20 comment. How do you square this with the incredible availability of magic in the playable classes/subclasses?
First: one-shot pre-made adventure, on a world/system that the group came to agree; Second: another one-shot pre-made adventure, linking with the first one, BUT in the next week - 2 weeks max; Third: if the players came to the sequel second session, and showed commitment and interest, THEN, and only then, I start planning a campaign. Otherwise, it's a waste of time, effort and energy, in my experience, of course. Love your work, Guy, for many years now! Keep up!
I started homebrewing at the very beginning because I had a hodge-podge of hand-me-down editions/modules/resources that I wanted to mashup all together. So I started by creating the parts that sewed the material together, and by the time 3.5 and Pathfinder came around I was just feeding ideas into the whatever-mechanics-we-like-the-best stew.
You consistently put out great content. I'm a GM with years of experience now and considered myself pretty skilled but I always find a valuable lesson or nugget to take away from your videos. As a father of 2 entrenched in work and family responsibilities I've had to be very picky with my time and have purged most of my TH-cam subscriptions and you were one of the very few survivors of that purge because I love the videos you make that much. Thank you Guy
Ditto all of this; thank you Guy for your channel. Father of 3 here; very much sympathizing with never having enough time! But I am so enjoying introducing my kids to the hobby and grateful for content like this to help me guide them as they enter into it!
-Dan
This is my first time as a GM decided to make 2 homebrews 💪🙈 One shorter campaign that focuses more on teaching the mechanics and getting the team dynamic going and one hopefully long-term campaign that takes place in a world completely different from the standard DnD world. It's certainly a challenge I must say but I'm enjoying the learning process a lot! ❤
I start with designing my world. Be it a city, province or whole world. Making an interesting world helps inspire me to make a story within the world. I find story and then trying to make a world around that makes world feel shallow. I might have a story concept that acts as a world seed however.
I love creating a world, so I start from that generally, even before finding my players, I usually have some base ideas from the world, the type of conflict there, etc... then I pitch the setting that I've homebrewed to my players (generally I start with the world map), give them a general direction in which this world would "facilitate" their adventuring path, but that's up to them to decide. I start with my pc INTO a quest, that they are solving. Once that is finished, I tend to have several hooks ready and let them decide what to do...
I rarely use standardish prebuilt fantasy worlds. Sure Faerun is a richly developed world with thousands of years of history and numerous major figures that I can pull into my game, but that’s (as you referenced) a lot of work to parse through for relatively little benefit to me, as I grew up on a steady diet of “standard” fantasy and can rattle off fantasy tropes without any real thought required on my part, and FR is insufficiently far removed from fantasy tropes to be worth the effort (for me). If I’m running “standard” high fantasy, I tend to just homebrew. What I have pulled established campaign settings for are things like Ravenloft, Planescape, or The Iron Kingdoms: settings that deviate significantly from the default settings of D&D.
How do I come up with a campaign idea? I start by finding a real world historical event or mythology and use that to determine the time period, technology level, general location and so on.
During session 0, I work with the players to develop NPCs, and ways that their characters fit into the world. I very much prefer to have the character backstories in the story setting. If you are a cleric or a paladin, you can bet you WILL spend time with your diety, if you're a Barbarian, you WILL spend time interacting with your tribe and so on. Once I have all the PC backstories figured out, and how they tie together, we get going.
As the campaign progresses, I use the PCs actions and decisions to shape where the campaign goes, and I explain that if the players want to leave and do something else beyond the main plot, that's fine but wheels in motion do not stop just because you leave, and it will continue unabated in the background.
First, I LOVE THIS SERIES.
Second, I’ve started in different ways.
My 5e campaign is set in a world which I was planning on running one type of campaign in (kind of a journey of ethics as they escorted a warlock who was working on getting freed from their pact), but then ended up setting a Hallmark-themed one shot in the world and one of the groups that played it just kept going (we’re about 14 months in at this point). That world had a TON of lore before we started and we’ve built it up.
My Basic Fantasy RPG campaign started with a single crawl, because I wanted to see if I liked running the system. I made a basic world maps,but really didn’t have any lore. That’s changed as the characters played, and the world has filled out (we’re 10 months in, I guess I like the system). BUT, I just ran a mini-campaign using this system set in the same world and built off the lore that the ongoing campaign has established, filled in some backstory, and fleshed out prat of a previously blank continent. So that was fun.
So, I guess my answer is, “I start games however it suits me at the time.”
I'm getting ready to GM my first game and have been binge watching the series in preparation. It's been really helpful, thank you
I believe this is the first video where the perfectly-waxed handlebar mustache appears... It looks great, Guy! Even with the vest, it doesn't seem affected at all, and that's damn impressive for a handlebar mustache on someone who was born after 1955. It looks like it *belongs.*
This series is indeed beneficial, I'll get far more out of the book than a series of talking head videos, but even so it's given me a lot of confidence when Guy covers something I've worked out on my own, and inspired me when he brings up something I never thought of or had no idea about.
Finally, 4:51... God bless Guy for not editing himself.
I keep forgetting to leave comments (my bad), but I am 100% getting benefit from this! I still need to apply some of it practically to be sure, but I definitely feel more confident in what being a GM actually entails; how to have fun with it, and how to make it work for me by considering my role, expectations, constraints, tone, etc. I'm taking notes in a journal! I feel like I'm taking a genuine class. Guy is an excellent teacher.
You're the reason I called myself a DM. You're the reason said i was a GM and tried different games.
You also gave me the foundation to know my own style of gaming.
So yeah all of your content is pretty helpful Guy! Always love your work and all you do thank you!
Love this series-I’m a big believer in this “trimmed down” GMing.
I have just found you today. I've only played rpg video games. I've never played any type of D&D game like you're talking about before. My bro-in-law & family have asked me to DM a game for them when school get's out for the summer in a few weeks. None of us have ever played. You have been a HUGE help for me & this is only the 2nd video of yours I've watched. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Well, two years later, how'd it go?
@@ShiftySetax We're on campaign 3 now. 😄
@@jewabeus LET'S GO BOI!!!
Always appreciate your stuff!
Helpful as always, thanks Guy!
your line of thinking feels right for me. You seem like a person that has studied a lot. this has a really cool and deep DND flavor
My first game, which I've runned last year started within in the Ghost of Saltmarsh-Setting. We started with "Sinister Secret" as a One-Shot as an introduction to a new player. Since he really liked to keep playing afterwards I started to put together a Campaign in that setting.
My second and current game is a full homebrew. I created a northern/subarctic region of a world, since this was what my players where asking for as a contrast to the very watery/swampy setting of our Saltmarsh-game. Since I want to keep homebrewing after this game I only made it the most northern region and not a full-scale world, so that I'm able to explore the rest of this world in future games.
I really like this video series and hope it continues. I ask my players what type of game they want to play and then homebrew a world and campaign that matches. I find that you have to ask the players a lot of questions up front to get a sense of what they want to play, and I tend to gather the players together for this so it becomes a group discussion rather than a series of one-on-ones.
I appreciate everything you and your goblin team does! Thank you so much!!
I’m a brand new GM and I decided to create my own world. I’m having an absolute blast creating and writing everything for my players and worldbuilding with them. We’re about 15 sessions in now and I’ve absolutely loved it.
Yes, this channel is very helpful. Keep it up!
Really dig your series of videos Guy. Thanks.
Love this content!! So helpful!!💕💕💕
Please continue making these videos they are helping me a lot. I am planning my 1st campaign and these videos and your book are really helping me to get my mind in order to make a good campaign.
I absolutely love this series. I look forward to it every week and it convinced me to back your kickstarter.
Absolutely loving this series so far! Really helpful for me, as I’m going to be beginning my GM journey soon
This series is so awesome! Thank you guy and team for all the info and making it easy to get into this hobby agan!
I have been benefiting quite a lot from the series thus far. It really gets my brain muscles pumping, and I think it helps me a lot with the way I think about building my campaign. keep up the outstanding work!
I love this series! Please continue!
These have been enjoyable videos with plenty to consider, that's for sure.
Thanks for all of the videos, I've loved watching your videos every day since my discovery of your channel.
These videos are wonderful! I have fallen off with them because of life/work/stress stuff but getting back to them is such a treat
Great series! Excellent work. I’m Signjng up for dungeon fog TODAY
For me, the desire to be a GM has started with an idea for a world. I am in the process of designing a world in which I can run the kind of game I would like to GM. So, for me, it's starting with the world. I'm having a blast creating a world, and throughout the creation process, I'm thinking constantly of the different kinds of campaigns that can be run within it. For me, it's the creative process of world building and then sharing this world with my friends as they play within it. I've been inspired by the creation of whole, complex and inherently consistent worlds by famous writers as well as TTRPG creators.
I always start with drawing the map, I became super fascinated with fantasy map drawing 10 years ago and dabbled with it here and there. It wasn't till 3 years ago that I thought about making a map to worldbuild in. Recently I started thinking of a campaign for in that world I created.
I am enjoying the videos. The way you explain concepts is unique and is a great fit for my learning style. Keep up the great work.
Oh I'm loving these! Starting a scifi setting in a few weeks and this is perfect
I used to always use a pre-made world: Marvel, Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, etc. I am now running one campaign and it is in a setting that I worked on for years and continue to expand. I really made it for my bestie so she could play in it, and she also helped create it (and still helps). I recommend starting out pre-gen but then diving in to a new world when you can. It's so freeing.
Currently I am getting ready to start my first Cyberpunk game. I have the Starter Box and the Data Pack, but I also have many ideas and characters I've pulled from books, movies, computer games, and stories that have begun to take shape in this world as I am imagining it.
At the beginning this will be a one on one campaign for a friend that we intend to bring others into. But it will allow us to explore the system and the environment easier between the two of us more easily. We may lean on the pre-created content at times, but mostly when it fits our journey and if it helps progress our game play.
My friend has written a backstory which I embellished with her approval, and it has allowed me to coalesce the beginnings of the story using the threads of her story and imagining which parts of the story might be explored or resolved soon and which threads might be long term character development.
For me, everything the player and I imagine are like details floating in a 3-D space, not yet connected amidst an undefined world. But as the story takes shape the space around these details becomes more defined and threads start to connect the various people, places and things. Like a seed germinating and growing as it reaches pockets of fertilizer, helping the story to grow bigger and stronger.
So for me, visualizing it in my mind, but not getting caught up in the details or trying to solidify anything too much before hand, let's the players and me breathe life into it organically.
I'm keeping track of XP - because why not - and it's been nice to get back into a reset mentality, especially with a new game starting for my table so very soon. Ever since the "death of plot" these talks have stepped out of their bookish ways that newer players might have mistaken as a curmudgeonly gatekeeping into a discussion that feel like a quiet Sunday afternoon game between close friends. This series has awakened since the threads loosened these past few month, and huzzah for this divergence into seamless storytelling.
I look forward to this series every Monday
Thank you Guy for your Chats 😀
Brand new DM here: working through a module to help me learn the game along with my friends who are also brand new to the game. I’m eager to see the rest of this video so I don’t get into a habit of relying on modules.
I homebrew a world or pull from one of my previous homebrewed world (I do world building in my spare time because I find it relaxing)
I like to start of my world-building with pre-made modules like, Keep on the Shadowfell or Lost Mines of Phandelver. It gives you a starting point with all the tools you need and it helps you come up with a campaign plot on why the kingdom is in a mess.
All you got do is make a map/find one or use the one with the starting set. That should give you time slowly build the world out with the help of players' backgrounds and the stories you tell at the table.
An awesome video like always and thank you for the hard work. :)
Thank you so much for your content! Because of your videos I was able to massively improve (I think) over the past year and a half while DMing my homebrew campaign.
Thank you very much for your videos. They have been very inspiring for me, who is planning to start a (better than before) gamemastering!
i have been hesitantly considering whether i want to dm, and your channel has been instrumental in helping me make an informed decision on that. many voices emphasize either the drudgery or the whimsy of being a dm, but it seems much more realistic to acknowledge and even embrace both, or don't bother dming, and i'm on a journey of discovering whether that is right for me.
Hi! New-ish DM here, and I have to say, with the levelheadedness you’re viewing this decision with, I’m confident you’ll make the choice that is right for you. Also, beware of falling into the mind trap of believing that you’ll be a forever DM. If you love it, you’ll want to keep doing it. If not, your friends, the players, should understand and support your decision. Good luck and roll for initiative!
Just out of curiosity, what’s your hesitation with becoming a DM?
I have been struggling to get started making a short campaign and this was so helpful!! Thank you!!
Haven’t watched a video in a while, been too busy to play lately. I have to say you’re lookin great! Like the new stache!
I go against the grain of the comments here and admit that my main game is an adventure path for Pathfinder, therefore I use a pre-made world. I just love the setting and it's great that I can use lore from Pathfinder 1E and 2E. I do change some stuff though, mostly because my players are asking me and I'm happy to oblige, the world is still ours to tinker and have fun with. I listen closely to my players though to just add homebrew stuff in it, eg. create new cities with their own ways of life (that sometimes go into the absurd without knowing the background to it) so I can run kinda crazy one-shot adventures for my players cause they want to.
Thanks again for that video, there is so much value and I benefit so much from watching them!
Please continue this series. I have found them highly valuable. I had been out of rpgs for many years. I got back into d&d because of the pandemic. I am looking to run my first campaign in over a decade next year. I have already ordered your new book and will use that, along with these videos, to create it. Thank you so much.
This serie of videos really helped me. Especially the part about "the GM is a player", it opened a new way of thinking. I tend to create a homebrew world but I really would like to play a pre generated world.
I started a campaign out of the Ghosts of Saltmarsh adventure module set in Greyhawk (but loosely defined because it’s all local stuff). I changed some details of the adventures and locations and tied the stories together with my own narrative and now that the players have in-character reasons to venture out further it’s kind of being expanded into my own custom homebrew world that’s very different from Greyhawk. Yay retcons!
I've started with "what I think is cool" then tried imagining what it would be like to "walk a few milestones in their shoes."
this usually helps build the setting around that one cool idea
then I can modify from that point forwards to suit the setting I plan on creating.
Great GM tips, and great personal style tips. You look great
First thing is to have ab idea for a theme/idea for the campaign, like „freedom, go where you want, do what you want“ - and give them the means to do so, like a ship. Leads to a seafarers campaign. Ok, next step, characters and backstories, be inspired by these, knit them together and have material for around 10 sessions at least after that. Then decide what is going on in the world right now, what is the threat, knit and connect it to the characters and make it personal.
Then have a very broad outline of the main events, never plan more than a session or two ahead, as every thing can change based on what the characters do.
Fill the campaign with interesting one shot adventures as you go, sprinkle fun stuff into it when you see it fit, enjoy every session and have fun. Once in a while correct the course toward the bbeg if needed and see what happens. Until you hit the endgame, then it is serious planning, comparing PCs against monsters, challenge rating, terrain, dramatic twists.
For me the last third of a campaign is the most work, as everything has to make sense that lead up to here and has to be outstanding in every aspect, not letting players down in their expectations.
That’s about it, my „plan“. So far it worked… 😅
As a new DM, I'm really enjoying this series!
I’m getting a great deal of inspiration from this series
I like the videos before even watching them bc I know they're all fire
Your videos are helping me get started on my first GM experience. I’ve chosen to start with a module in the Pathfinder world of Golarion.
Great series! I've bee watching and enjoying since the first episode.
I've used a mix of pregen and homebrew over the years. I suppose it just depends on my mood and what the group is into when I start out as to which I choose.
I like to make my own world, however coming up with a campaign idea helps you shape the world to fit the campaign. As you build the world it then gives you more to use in the campaign. It really goes hand in hand.
I wanted several things for a campaign which started late last year. I wanted Cosmic Horror, Dungeons, a Half-Elf crime boss, and somewhere there's a Dragon. Since Midgard is in my collection, I decided it was time to use it. I chose the Wasted West because it has elements needed already built in. With one small exception, everything has been homebrewed - the town, NPCs, the dungeons, etc. A published setting doesn't preclude homebrew. Despite some wonkiness with scheduling, the campaign is going well.
So far I have been working in pre-gen worlds but mostly with a home brew campaign or adventure. I have run a pre-gen module or adventure to try a setting and can like that, but I don’t like being just constrained by someone else’s plans. That said I like using pre-gen worlds since I haven’t done tons of game mastering and don’t feel extremely confident in building a world. Pre-gen settings give me potential NPCs, locations and lore. I thus like the 5e settings created without definitive answers like Fateforge or Vodari where there is no wrong answer. As I grow more confident I intend to combine the parts that please me and my group to make my own setting - as a result I try to hold back on purchasing new setting material! I’m good for some time now! That said I love this series and look forward to your new book as a toolkit to get me more confident to take that path! Thank you!
I homebrew pretty much every time. I give the players some choices of games I'm willing to run, discuss their choice to get some fiber details of genre figured out, and then write down more from there.
Wonderful! I have run pregen (modified) and mostly homebrewed setting based on a couple of pregens. Looking forward to running more homebrew soon hopefully!!
I typically dont use a whole lore as is, but i do like to make mash-up campaigns.
Street-level superheroes are confined to manhattan and as they catch villains doing stuff they start to learn about the T-virus just before and as the initial outbreak begins.
Terminator v alien v predator, the players are rebels from the future, and its a recursive time travel campaign that eventually gets to complicated to run. But it was fun for a while.
These were may favs
I have a homebrew world where I usually play in, and I took advices from this channel making it. Whem starting a new game I place my players in environment that suits their campaign
With very few exceptions I have always ran home brew. I’ve really liked this series so far!
Your videos are informative and i am getting inspired to make my own game.
I love the content. I find that I ‘bank’ episodes for a time I can properly pay attention though.
I normally, see a module, or adventure then i get excited, by some quarks or uniek things in these books, After this the world will build around this, an awesome campaign filled with idea's to work out when needed. these ideas from everywhere and will make a whole campaign world to play in!
Great stuff!
I am currently running two campaigns in my own homebrew world. I’ve ran the Stranger Things “module” before, and I’ve also taken a few one-shot adventures from WotC and placed them in my campaign world, making lots of modifications to names, lore, artwork, and even monsters. But I prefer operating in my homebrew world because my friends get to discover it with me (literally, 90% of the world has not been played in yet lol).
This series is definitely useful.
Well I started world building in my idle time, then found some friends that were willing to put up with some disjointed ideas, then stole modular adventures from other games and tweaked them to sync up with my would ideas.
So far it works. Not always smoothly, but well enough that we are having a good time.
First I tell my players a few concepts I might feel inspired to run. Once concept is chosen that often dictate the game system we will be playing. Usually I prefer a premade setting, such as Forgotten Realms for D&D, or the galaxy as it is during the First Empire if we run Star Wars. Then I find a few keys for what will be the overarching plot for the campaign. The BBEG, what he strives to do etc. Then I find a few key points where the players may interact directly with the overarching plot, but not many. Lastly, after players have made their characters, I make a few mini-story ideas that link into the background stories for their characters. Then I plan first session in more detail, and sketch what might become second session. And then we roll. I hardly ever plan anything in detail beyond the next one-two sessions. That way I may slot in side quests as well as find ways to have the players reach these interaction points with the overarching plot without anything feeling railroady.
So Helpful!
I am deriving benefit from this series.
We vary between official settings and homebrew, but the usual starting point is what we want to do - desert game, urban mystery, etc.
I always start with having a round table of the group and chatting what we would each like to play. But also I have almost always done homebrew worlds so I am actually wanting to stretch myself by running in some premade settings/games and seeing what I can learn from those!
-Dan
Love this series
I start with an idea for a story or a theme that I want to explore. Then I spend some time looking around to see if there are any systems or games I can adapt for said story or theme, that my prospective players would like to try. If I can't find anything, I homebrew it!
I’ve only GMed one game but I struggled with this so much
I looked through hundreds lf adventures and many modules and I couldn’t find a good place to begin
I ended up home brewing my own setting and while I definitely see the narrative failings I had as a GM I also realized how uniquely me it was. The setting really reflected me is what I mean.
i start out with an interresting villain for the first adventure, then work backwards, who are its minions, what is its goal, then i tie the first villain into the the real bbeg at the end, and youll find that everything in the middle will start falling into place
I am deriving benefit from these videos.
These are good videos. Keep going.
I got my current campaign idea from marvel and skyrim.
Esstenially dragons have returned in numbers to Faerun and its your quest to find out why.
A long the way to Phandalin (using starter set) the players are hired by an Elf Wizard who wants you to hunt down the black spider.
The players at this point do various quests and find out the black spider is working for an entity known as Abbadon.
When you return this information back to the female elf wizard, she tells the tale of Abbadon, the destroyer, who is a black dragon and who wanted all races to worhship the dragons as gods. The other dragons rebelled against him and sealed him away.
Eventually Abbadon makes his presence known to the players with a warning and revels that the wizard is in fact also a dragon, one of his sisters that sealed him away.
Eventually the players find the black spider and he destroys a gem that shatters reality, opening up the portal plane where abaddon was imprisoned for 1000 of years but not only this, creates the multiverse. Ebberon is also now connected to faerun, combining both fan favourite locations together.
With abaddon full plan in process its the player job stop him but not alone. The Lights hope initiative is made and heros all over faerun answer the call. The players are now teamed with character such as Drizzt etc.
So far im 3 months into the adventure and the players are really enjoying it
I tend to homebrew everything, starting with a world I create from scratch, or from an existing map of a lesser known world. There are a couple existing campaign worlds I enjoy running games in though.
I enjoy these videos very much thank you.
Too bad my gaming group is all around the place and we all are busy, so I haven't managed to play anything but Hero Quest lately :/
But fortunately TT RPG:in is a hobby that you can do just by searching new stuff and thinking about all the ideas they give.
my first campaign started with a downloaded free one shot called the `temple/tomb of the dragon knights` and then spiraled out from there into a whole world. My second campaign started with the ´Mines of Phandelver` and is spiraling at the moment.
I am currently in the process of creating a D&D campaign. I have a bunch of old Dungeon magazines with adventures i have wanted to run but not had the opportunity to. The main adventure I wanted to run starts with a fire that devastates a small city and involves the pc's helping the community recover in the aftermath. I have also wanted to use a Rakshasa as a master villain. This has evolved into a larger campaign idea of political intrigue and the threat of war.
When I design a new campaign I tend to approach it like how i pick out movies. Start a small list of themes that I want to explore. Then I create a small paragraph hook for the campaign. So for my current campaign, I wanted to explore an apocalyptic scenario but with celestial forces being the cause instead of zombies or demons. I also wanted to explore the concepts of fate/destiny vs choice. The players would travel to various realms and broker alliances to aid them. So my main themes are apocalypse, fate, choice, travel, sacrifice, and greed.
I start by getting to know what my player's characters are going to be, and creating a BBEG to get an idea of how I need to shape the would to fit the story.