His history of villainy is so well and widely known that he literally can’t find anybody willing to take thing a from him, because everyone assumes it’s part of some dastardly plot. Hordes of undead keep carrying artifacts of immense power out to various heroic strongholds, but are being driven back each time, still in possession of the artifact. Really, he’s just had a distant relation’s toddler delivered after said relation’s untimely demise, and he’s desperately trying to child-proof the lair!
I wish that this video had been made about 18 months ago, I'm deep into a long-term campaign and my Great Old One is about to make his first appearance. The upfront planning that you detail in this video is super helpful! PLEASE KEEP THEM COMING!!!
You always have the best advice at the perfect time. This video has inspired me to move my GMing from pre-generated adventure paths to creating something of my own. Thanks for the confidence boost showing me how Ito do this!
I find the game system hugely effects how I make campaigns. Example, in DnD I tend to make keypoints that I want to happen (aka Fight a Dragon, Climb a Mountain, Convert a Cultist, etc. . .) I then establish the details of each separately. Then I link them with a common theme (recurring person, ongoing "chase", similar "puzzle" items) and plug in the antagonist's goals. For Call of Cthlhu, I establish the antagonist's goals first. Next I work out the details of the setting and the timeline as without the investigators. I then work out the antagonist's reactions to disruption at different points in its plan. Last are the background characters and clues. For Car Wars, I establish the details of the surroundings first as they really help to determine what is present from cycle gangs to police forces to civilian armament. IE, a town with a popular arena will have well armed and skilled civilians while a ruined city has cycle gangs and not much police presence. A town which pumps and refines oil will have a strong police force but somewhat unskilled civilians and "circling" gangs. Once that is set, I use the resulting local forces to produce antagonists and an overarching storyline.
Personally, I like doing a session 0 where we all just hang out and create characters. That way, I get to know each of the characters, the thoughts that went behind them, and we all work together to create a cool backstory to each one. We also think about how they come together or what motivations they would have to work together. This is also how I plan out my first episode. I'm excited to start my campaign tomorrow and see if they actually succeed in accomplishing their intentions we came up with, and how they're going to deal with the curveballs I'm going to throw at them!
Notes for planning: Once you have your big campaign plot, break it down into subplots that affect smaller and smaller areas. At the start of a campaign, characters aren't going to worry about the fate of the world. But they might chase down a horde of kobolds that are attacking a town. Later on, they might be interested in why all these cave-dwelling creatures are attacking surface towns. Is something chasing them out of the underdark? Midgame concerns might have a threat that concerns the entire underdark, or have towns becoming abandoned near mines and caves where the players failed to help. Late game could have players facing against the incursion of the material plane by the far realm, through a rift in the depths of the underdark. If this rift isn't closed, the entire world will be consumed by chaos. Also, it can be worth developing multiple campaign plots. Perhaps the players aren't picking up on the threat in the underdark, despite the hints and hooks you drop. Thankfully you were also dropping hints that a group of dragons was attempting to ascend to godhood, or a cursed druid was trying to return the world to "its natural state". Having multiple plots running simultaneously avoids that immersion-breaking feeling of the DM forcing the plot into the players faces.
I just finished running through this process on one of the campaign threads I've got planned, and I found that as long as your villain is starting from a sufficiently modest base, the "getting stuff" and "building stuff" aspects tend to be suited to lower level parties just by their nature. Acquiring a magical relic to be used in a ritual, for instance, may just happen to be the magical relic fabled to be in this dungeon the party has decided to investigate. Since it's in a relatively low risk area, the villain may send his minor minions to collect it (and possibly be stopped by the party in a level-appropriate battle). Or the villain could have less resources available to him at this stage, which is why he needs a relatively minor relic. (I feel the use of the word artifact would be more appropriate, if not for the fact that DnD has specific meaning for that word that really exaggerates what the word actually means. IRL, a chipped rock is an artifact, if it's found in a stone-age settlement. It's relics that are supposedly imbued with supernatural power. Maybe they wanted to avoid the Catholic associations with that word? I have no idea how the Roman Catholic Church feels about relics now, or how they've felt about them for the last 600 years or so.)
So far as I know, the term in Dungeons and Dragons for 'Magical Item that isn't specifically a weapon' would be 'Wondrous Items', while Artifacts are sentient Magical Items, and I believe that Relics refer to items with a link to a God(and often requires worship of the associated God to make full use of it's special qualities). Of course, this information is based on DnD 3.5, and 'Relics' in that form may not exist in 5th, and I don't believe 4th edition even existed (or it shouldn't have). All in all, I think the best way to describe what you're talking about is a MacGuffin - an object which compels the plot to move forward. And the best part about a MacGuffin is that it doesn't even need to be a magical or important item. It can just be an incredibly valuable necklace, or a vague box that can't be opened - thus compelling people to imagine what's inside and want to know how to open it.
@TheAdarkerglow You're absolutely right that the MacGuffin is the dramatic term I was looking for - I'm still learning the jargon of storytelling, and hadn't learned it at the time. I still feel that using the word artifact as "a super powerful item of exceptional power and mystery" does a disservice to people not familiar with what the word actually means. I remember being the kid who was totally weirded out when I heard an archaeologist matter-of-factly talking about artifacts, having only seen the term previously in the Heroes of Might and Magic games (an old strategy series that uses the term "artifact" for what DnD would call a "magic item" - anything that provides a buff or debuff to the user's performance.)
@rashkavar yeah, it just goes to show how transferable and interchangeable the terms can be. In a group setting, it's mostly just important that everyone has the same operational definition when they discuss item classification, in a group or a conversation really. I've usually just called most things 'Magic Items', and given adjectives to imply the strength or quality of the items in question. I might call something an 'Ancient Artifact' or 'Forgotten Relic', but getting bogged down in what a game thinks those words should imply isn't the matter of importance, it's that people understand the message I'm intent to convey. ('It's not what I said, it's what I meant').
I went into this video wanting to improve my current story for my Standard 5e world and also looking for ideas for my Sci Fi campaign... I was thinking “well he’ll describe fantasy but generally the ideas should be adaptable” and then he says “science fiction” and I cried
In hindsight I made the big mistake of jumping in sort of a campaign head over heels. I had nothing more than a vague idea, without any structure. This leads to all sorts of problems now - logical gaps, pushing the plot to hard, still not really sure what is going on and multiple conflicting ideas how it should evolve... The funniest thing is, I didn't even realise where this problem stemmed from. Until now. But... I think not everything is lost. I'll sit down and work out the campaign now. Or to cite my late great-grandmother: "It's not a shame to know nothing - but to refusing to learn." So... Thanks for this great advise and keep up your work. You really helped me out here.
Hey, I have only just stumbled across your channels which I have swiftly fallen in-love with. I love your ability to create such unique and amazing adventures. The way you describe your worlds and characters really reveals your passion and love for the game and role-play elements. I came here hoping to be able to one day gm for my own group of friends though i have little to no knowledge of the game and no one i could call upon as my 'sensie' to teach me the ways of D&D face to face. So your videos have been a godsend. Not only all this but you yourself seem to be a very learned and interesting individual though i am sure it doesn't just take you to be able to put these videos and role-play videos together I would be very interested to be able to know a bit more about your interests in the written word. From whats behind you though it may be just games and manuals for your numerous games I wonder if you'd ever be able to do a book list? As an avid reader myself i would be very interested if there would be anything you yourself would suggest. Even if you were unable to do it as a video perhaps maybe adding a few choice titles to your amazon list as it would be great to see what if anything may have inspired your imagination and depth of creativity.
Love your videos! Thank you! By the way, Science Fiction (Starfinder) is my primary system. I still play / run High Fantasy (Pathfinder / Starfinder) but I am hoping to transition almost entirely to Starfinder in the next few years.
Human brains have a really cool quirk we can use to help tie stories together. We do it all the time online with fan theories and conspiracy theories. It really comes down to pattern recognition. If you make a few unrelated stories and they have anything at all in common, grab on to that and extrapolate "what could that mean?". You attacked an orc camp, you saved a maiden from a tower in a graveyard, and you plundered a kobold-infested castle ruin. ... but at each one, you noticed at least one shrine to an unknown deity. Or maybe each one showed signs that another party had recently passed through. Or maybe you saw a goblin flee from each scene just as you arrive. Boom, you've got dozens of possible plots. Why and how are these things connected? What could it mean? It makes no difference that they're all separate and potentially unrelated, as soon as we know there's a pattern, or even suspect there's a pattern, we'll start filling in the blanks on our own and ignoring the bits that don't add up to make it a better pattern that makes more sense to us. Since most theories of this nature work off the assumption that similar things must be related, and often coordinated by some figure or figures in the background, who pull all the strings, you've just developed a big bad, automatically. Or at least, you've convinced your party that there must be some kind of big bad. You can misdirect or pull from their theories as you like, at this point.
Absolutely true. In running a Call of Cthulhu campaign on more than one occasion the player's theories were far more interesting than what I had originally envisioned -- so I switched. Just as long as it stays internally consistent, its a win for all. Oh the horror!
Kind of a fun one I did, I made a campaign with a twist villain. The big bad was being framed for all of hit dastardly deeds by the King who sent the heroes on the quest to thwart his plans in the first place. In the very first session, I had them in a dungeon with writing on the wall in a different language. Curious group as they are, they cast comprehend languages to find that it said "Don't be on the wrong side." Well, they spent several minutes trying to figure out what that meant, and as the campaign went on, they forgot about it. Throughout the campaign though, I kept putting references to that phrase very subtly. Theycame across a gladiator arena and there was an NPC trying to make bets, announcing odds, and saying "don't bet on the wrong side!" Etc. Etc. When they were fighting the framed big baddie, he plead with them to see that he was wronged, and the players weren't having it until he said, "please, don't be on the wrong side!" I'm not gonna say it was genius-level or anything, but it made them start to really question what they were doing. Motif can add quite a bit
Thank you for all the videos man. I'm about to move back to my home state and I offered to GM for a couple friends and family members when i get back and your videos have help me a lot in planning everything and ideas to help me give them a better game play
I love your videos Constant inspiration and I aspire to be a game master as skilled as you. I tend towards being a sandbox style GM, DM, or story teller. I often build the environment and major players then let the player characters loose and see what they find out and what they do. The environment and major players react accordingly and or continue on with their agendas. They shape the story and drive it forward. I have the great pleasure of running motivated players who enjoy having their own goals and working to achieve them. Lately I have been running an interesting game. I have run many Vampire the Masquerade games and have at least ten notebooks with hand made cities. My players wanted an evil game so they are all playing Baali and have been running rampant kicking over all the sandcastles I’ve built. It’s been very fun having them run into NPCs and old characters alike and seeing the ingenuity with which they avoid detection and corrupt cities. Very fun game. I want to be a more organized and structured game master while still letting the players have a great deal of freedom and your videos are helping me find that balance. Thank you
I do a mix through. I create a simple meta arch then I I write a few adventures and see what the players get into and how they deal to begin to weave the tapestry.
Love your content, but I feel you have missed the most important aspect of plotting your campaign here, The Player Characters! I would never attempt to put much thought at all into plotting a campaign (a setting yes, questions like tone and themes, yes, but not the actual plot) until after Session 0, and the creation of the player characters. The players will, if you pay attention and encourage it, give you great gifts of inspiration in their backstories, relationships, contacts, factions, etc, that they create. Furthermore, until you know what kind of party you have, you can't really know what sort of plot they might care about. Perhaps you design a plot about blowing up the Death Star, but your players make a bunch of lowlife smugglers, that only care about the Rebellion in so far as the rebels will pay good money for black market weapons. They aren't going to be interested in that, and a good GM would set them up with something else. Perhaps a campaign involving some Crimelords. Perhaps the assassination of Jabba the Hutt has left a power vacuum in the criminal underworld, and multiple Big Bads are rushing to seize power. That would seem to be a much more appropriate campaign plot for those characters. That is why I would hold off on plotting a campaign, until I know my PCs.
He did incorporate the characters by basing an entire adventure in act one off of character backstory. And while I will agree that you don't know what sort of plot will interest your characters I believe that is one of the challenges of being a DM, making your players interested in your campaign. If you do some planning like the bare bones approach in this video it helps immensely in the long run, especially with creating the first few adventures. On a side note I personally take a long time to write campaigns. I don't like to force myself to sit there and write, I find the quality of my work much better when I write a little when I want to rather than a lot when I have to. There are many others that do things the same way I do, and for us writing a campaign after session zero isn't an option. Heck, the campaign i am currently working on has been in the works for about 6 months now and I am only just now getting around to actually planning adventures. Granted I did have to create a world, but still.
If you’re looking for sci-fi modules, rpg’s for the Warhammer 40,000 universe such as Dark Heresy, Deathwatch, and Only War are really fun and brutal. It also has a lot of fantasy elements such as magic (psychic powers rather), daemons, gods, and melee elements. And I highly recommend these RPGs for those who play the tabletop wargame
An important thing to find out first and foremost is what kind of campaign-runner one is. Like Mr. Great Game Master here said, there's nothing wrong with sticking to the episodic nature and the struggles with only having one shot to implement this big core concept can be an equal undertaking. With that said, one has to realize which of the 2 is best suited to you, as some minds are more built to better construct one style of campaign over the other. For example, I like making things episodic. I find myself too impatient and over-excited to hold onto to lingering plotlines and will just eventually gravitate to getting a move on with things. I compromise between the 2 styles, however, in a way that each episode's isolated concequences slowly build up and begin shaping the world. In the first session, the players stop this raving lunatic wizard in his power-trip, but because they killed him, they'll later be pursued by assassins and mercs, hired by the wizard's father. The players are hired to steal an artifact from the manor of a vampire for scientific study by this young scholar, only for him to eventually return, in catatonic shock from something, setting up a possible plotline that may also tie together with other plots previously used. Above all else though, this fact has to be properly conveyed to the players with clarity. The players need to be aware of what to expect, not just for the sake of adjusting their expectations, but also because that mindset can help them create characters better suited to the style in question. Some characters are just better fit to do random adventures here and there next to others, whom are better to develop gradually over a longer-running story.
Running a Dark Heresy game for some chucklefucks who have never Warhammered before. It's been... interesting. Most of my planning went totally out the window once the big giant spacecop literally mugged some poor sap for beer money in the name of the Inquisition as his very first action in the campaign.
VD913 My first Dark Heresy campaign had the party trying to mug a noble for his clothes instead of... you know... requisitioning clothing from the inquisitor to serve as disguises. The kicker was that he got beat up by the noble and slipped in a puddle of emperor-doesn’t-wanna-know-what, then proceeded to shout at the populace not to laugh at him while screaming that he’s in the inquisition.
Personally plotting the story for the campaign is my personal favourite part of making one. I love designing locations, characters, villains, monsters, and a theme. The current campaign I'm running with my friends is all about a few different groups of people after the same powerful artefact to gain control over a city, my players only being in a group of themselves and four others, easily the smallest. I made them the smallest group for the simple reason that they'd feel more confident with every larger group they overcome and defeat. There is one main villain, obviously, but he fills the role more of a final obstacle to test everything my players have come across and learnt through the campaign. If they succeed and get the artefact, it is shattered into three pieces in the final conflict, but each piece has just enough power left to still grant amazing abilities, but not enough to outright take over a large location like the one I've made for the campaign. Currently I've planned two main plot beats seeing as this is my first campaign, the first has three main dungeons with items the players need to obtain the artefact, one of which is already in the possession of another group against the players'. The second will have the artefact in play, raising the stakes much higher with the players now trying to get it while it's being used. Obviously there's also side-quests if my players want a break from groups and artefacts, a few of which coming from the other NPC members in their group, I'm hoping that will make my players more attached to them for later purposes in the story. Currently on our fourth session of the campaign and they're up to their second dungeon of the first major plot beat. Hoping all goes well and as planned.
I know im very damn late to this video but i just have to say how helpful this was. Im a new Dm and had no idea wtf i was supposed to do with my story or anything. Thank you very much
I'm confused at the acts part. Are they the 4 actions that the villain needs to do to accomplish? Therefore the number would change if the steps the villain would need to take to achieve their goal. For example the test fire works, but needs to replace some parts for the portal, adds in another act between 3 & 4. Or is it more similar to the 3 act structure in literature, with an added 'you lose' act if the players fail?
It could go any way and is up to the DM. The party could call for help and alert the planetary governor and PDF forces and the call for aid could go further and further out but time is still of the essence and the party will need to delay the BBEG from opening his portal before the fleet could arrive en mass. Yet again, that could be the BBEG's goal is to wait for the main fleet to arrive then annihilate them in one fell stroke! Or the party could be delaying the BBEG and at the same time help restore either some ancient warship or one that had fallen decades earlier in a prior big war and this is the motive behind the BBEG; revenge for his fallen comrades, his destroyed empire or to release them from the pocket dimension that they were forced into.
the first two minutes of this video are all storytelling in a nutshell. One of my favorite quotes from when I was still in the film business was Who's involved, what are they chasing, and who else gives a s**t. Perfect opening.
Thanks for this video, just from this video I've added a whole lot of extra PCs for the BBEG my players were fighting. The Ever-Chosen originally had only 4 Lieutenants, all super powerful (compared to the normal human), but it was really just them and some random normal soldiers with zero personality, now he has waaaaaaay more special people. I realized that I didn't have anyone to actually be the "Science" behind one of his big plots. So now we have a large, gun toting man accompanying a mad techpriest biologi (instead of just the gun toting man). After that I realized he didn't have any sort of true army/support system, (How is he jumping around the galaxy? Whose ship is it? etc) so now he has a small army of engineers, specialist soldiers, Navy men, and the Captain of said ship, as well as a Head Engineer.
there is one thing i hold above anything else when it come to dnd: if the players have freedom, then they will enjoy it. they can do whatever they like, things not even a video game can comprehend. that is why i have come up with "the rule of halves". i will only ever plan the first half of a campaign, and only ever plan the first half of a session.
i will often just describe a location unless there is a combat, in which case i will use an existing map and modify it slightly to fit. although we always have a break half way through the session, i normally do some quick prep then too
Plotting a Deathwatch RPG campaign where the players are super genetic engineered marines, they get chosen with five other teams of marines to go and plant demolition charges to break up a huge mass of discarded spacecraft that just emerged from space hell before it can release it's denizens into neighboring star systems, honestly with the setting there will be much Murder Hobo behavior, as most everything in the set universe is not very open to diplomacy, I do have ideas of how to let them do more than just get space bug innards coating their armor, though I am trying to get them more familiar with the setting and themes because the second I told them that material wealth means nothing to these marines, as it is in the canon universe, they certainly did seem disappointed, I partially blame Pathfinder for that, the adventure paths are greased in gold pieces which they have gotten quite used to receiving
Absolutely fantastic video. Please keep them coming. I just got back into D&D and I’m home brewing everything. These are super helpful. I would really like to see a video on plotting out an adventure.
I've been building a campaign using the new Elite Dangerous: RPG that involves the players trying to bring down a shadow organization... the twist is that organization is trying to prepare mankind for an inevitable alien invasion.
Thank u for the great tutorial, i finally stepped back from what i was doing looked back and started from scratch with my campaign plot. Now i have an awesome plot for my first homebrew 👍
Yay!! This was very helpful!! I need the next one on how to turn these acts into adventures/ episodes or whatever they are called. I'm a new GM so I have my bad guy wanting something badly, now I've got some shape and pacing with these 4 acts. Now I need details! Your awesome, keep it up!
Just starting my own sci fi campaign. Have only recently found your channel. And with 15 years experience. Ive never been so wrong with GMing. Youre proving so helpful. Thank you guy!
I'll just ask my previous question again, sorry to everyone who's seen this already To my understanding you have moved to Japan. How good is your Japanese? Or do you need it that much?
How to be a Great Game Master Thanks for the answer :) I suppose they speak English well enough in there. P.S Your videos have really helped me with DM'ing, thanks for that as well.
Did you move because of the land seizures? my apologies if you've answered this prior, but I'm thankful for your safety, S.A. isn't a country I plan on visiting any longer.
Im DMing a sci-fi campaign in Mass effect universe (100 years later ME3) the BBEG is a evil consciusness called Nacàsh who can influence (not control, he needs an avatar in place to do that) who is caught by fear or anger he sent 5 Villains to °create an Avatar for him °create an army of slaves/volunteers °dispose any superweapon or Apex race like the Leviatans (the first half of the campaign was the PC discover of an ancient superweapon to blow stars and destroy it(starfinder Dead suns adapted to 5e btw) , then one the Villains said to them "Hello there, well done my friends, we are evil btw and you made us a great favor" °enslave any important figure (like the council or the shadowbroker) now the PC have discovered who is the BBEG and much of theyr BG stuff and soon it will come the moment that the 5 villains open a dimensional rift to fully activate the Avatar and the PC maybe will stop them destroying the avatar but the BBEG will send an infinite armada through the rift, and they must jourey to the other dimension to kill Nacàsh for good. (yes I now maybe this part is too railroaded so I can make they close the rift but the BBGE enslaved 99,9999 of the universe so in time it will swarm the galaxy from any direction but at least is something and they bought time...maybe then they will find a way to can open a little rift and sneak in and do the attack to Nacàsh) what do you think?
This has been enormously helpful to me! My friends want an Indiana Jones themed campaign, but listening and writing these plot points alongside you I was able to translate them appropriately with relative ease. Thanks, and I can’t wait for next week!
One way I kept my players interested is one of my 'things'. The first dungeon, a prison meant to keep monsters locked out of the world, holds great treasures, and the town of bradshaw has tasked them with assassinating a particularly nasty Beholder who is attempting to break free. The players found out that every time they return to the prison, it changes, and it changes for a good purpose; To keep everyone in and lost, since the place is constantly changing, and it turns out all the guards are now enslaved by that nasty beholder, who is trying to figure out the pattern of the random changes, to figure it's way out. This, was just the first dungeon with a very simple and complex task. Kill the Beholder, however, don't get lost, as the rooms will constantly change position with one exception: The way out is always possible, though it can always be out of your immediate reach if you are not careful!
If the villain succeeds in launching the invasion, the heroes could then try to stop the invasion. Then the invading aliens could betray the original villain. The original villain then forms a truce with the heroes, to get revange. The heroes and original villain, then launch a counter-invasion on the aliens. Once the aliens have been defeated, the original villain double-crosses the heroes on the way home. The heroes either capture, kill, or throw overboard the original villain. The heroes then return home, to see the enemy retreating, allies starting reconstruction, and possibly earn metals at a ceremony 1-12 months later: once enough has been rebuilt.
Me too. My friends and me are working on a neat little universe since a few years now... Didn't play lately... but this video seems to get my creative gears working again :D How do your universe work?
My universe has sooooo much to it now. It is all taking place in the universe that I am working on with a good friend of mine. I actually just played my game yesterday with my friends. So far, all guns can use two different types of ammo. Bullets, or lazars. Lazars are good against energy shields. Each ammo type is divided and named for how much damage it does. Like, you can go to a gun store and by d6 rounds of bullets. That means you roll a d6 for damage when using those bullets. The weapon you use can be upgraded from a type-1(+1 to damage), up to a +5(+5 to damage). I may try and post a video on how it works after, or sometime during the next two weeks. I am testing it now with my D&D friends every Sunday Cool side note for my universe; it has almost anything you can think of. It has places like you can find in the average D&D game; it has laser guns, starships, dragons and even Ninja Werewolves! I have had all my life to think of these things :3 How is your universe?
It's more Space Opera than SciFi for starters. Imagine epic battleships of the royal houses the bridges fitted with steering wheels akin to the sea-vessels of olden times, the officers wearing classical uniforms (at least when we talk flag-ships or other vessels meant to impress). Imagine further gates allowing travels to the far parts of the galaxy, colonies, aliens and artifacts of ancient races and the damn biggest space station ever created by men, a conglomerate of original parts, additional container-modules, third-party-parts, up to whole welded on spaceships... Imagine ruthless pirates, greedy treasure hunters and fortune seekers. And now imagine yourself, grabing your stuff your trusty "Insight Industries Canis" SMG, sign on a freelance trader heading for the frontier worlds - where the riches lay buried just waiting for a brave adventurer to grab them. Go deep into ancient ruins, fight your way back through relic defence systems, strange creatures and some of your fellow-treasure hunters. And after a hard days work, drink a toast to all who didn't make it in some shady pirate harbor dive bar. I grew up to series like Galaxy Rangers, Saber Rider, Space Hawks and Star Trek TNG. I wanted to make a universe worth living in (unlike for example the Warhammer 40.000 universe, which is frankly not more than a cataclysm waiting to happen). It shouldn't be as realistic as possible. I wanted it to be "Pirates of the Carribean in Space", with feuding noble houses, colonies claiming their independence, mercenary armies, freelance traders, space stations and of course ancient treasures. So I started on my own, writing about my world - but without help input and a lot of work of my friends it never had gotten of ground. At the moment only the German version is online: and it is direly in need of artwork... But - here you go: torwelten.com/
Yeah... I am nearly at the point, where I just want to play this game again... make a campaign in my 'Torwelten'-universe... Alas I have a Call of Cthulhu campaign consuming my spare time. No... I shouldn't say alas - it is a great story with really great players.
This is an excellent video. I am actually preparing to run a Starfinder campaign, so this is perfect assistance for me to be able to get things laid out. My Big Bad is trying to forcibly terraform a planet so his people will be able to colonize it. Now working on my 4 acts, and this plot should allow some good options for action, scientific research stories, and political intrigue as the Big Bad is going to try to skew galactic opinion to allow him to do this. Your videos habe always been a great help to me, as a newer GM. Please keep it up!
Illithids, Aboleths or Drow could want to extinguish the Sun. Opening a rift for an alien invasion, well Planar rifts can happen too. Maybe a dissident from the Cult Of Dragons wants to let Tiamat manifest her true form on the Material Plane. Also, that's a little bit simplistic "the players need to stop the villain". One of the greatest adventures I've ever played had the villains fool us all and *win!* There's now an area slightly similar to Ravenloft but sitting inside the main continent of the world. By killing the main villain, we actually freed its lesser minions for pursuing their own agendas, thus creating the "Seven Deathless Autarchs" who are way more interested in our world than their immensely powerful master ever was and had, by direct divine intervention, to be put in check by sacrificing a huge part of the continent that has now become "The Mistlands": a place of horror but also slow and steady scheming, as the Autarchs have countless aeons ahead of them, they're not in a hurry. God's may perish and go forgotten before they do.
I love all the content you put out, but these “ For your consideration “ videos are my favorite. I really really enjoy your videos where you go into the different philosophies of classes and such. I think they are phenomenal. But your videos where you go through and build campaigns and plots from scratch are the most helpful things I have found so far on RUclips about RPG gaming. PLEASE CONTINUE THIS! I am about to start running a game as a dungeon master for the first time and there are so many useful videos on RUclips that help me prepare. I might just be unaware, but I haven’t came across anyone else doing these from scratch breakdowns about how to build campaigns and stories. I particularly loved the one about the kids in the nunnery and the zombies that you made. I hope you see my comment because it would be so great if you keep making videos like this. Nothing helps me more than these from scratch breakdowns. Thanks for all of these awesome videos! You are definitely giving the rpg community life! - someone aspiring to be a great game master
Those are the best videos really. The one about prepping the adventure of 40K was super interesting as well. I continuously struggle to come up with good ideas and cool stuff for the players to do, so this is great.
Loved this episode. I watched it whilst writing my next campaign's plot line. Mine runs quite similar, but as you said, one story, many tellings. An excellent frame work!
A friend and I are in the process of co-writing the plot for a campaign in which we are alternating as GMs. This video was so rich of good tips that we can use. Great video as always!
I also do in division, but based lvl. The lvl 0 to 4 major bad guy and disperse episodal bad guys throughout. The lvl 5 to 10 major bad guy and minor episodal bad guys throughout. The lvl 11 to 15 major bad guy + minor bad guys throughout. The lvl 16 to 20 major villain, they have been messing with the PCs since lvl 0 in the background and steadily more as the PCs become higher lvl.
Funny concept, I'm currently in a campaign with my girlfriend DMing, and I'm also DMing another group. We had an interesting idea where both parties exist in the same world, and if they happen to cross paths we will combine the groups for a special quest or event. They'll be perhaps leading towards the same BB but they'll achieve that in different ways. Perhaps one group will be attempting to reach BB via information and espionage, whereas one may then decide to try and push back or inhibit the BB's efforts by destroying/hiding artifacts, killing 'sidekicks' or anyone aiding them, etc. By this point they'll be confiding with each other and sending information but in the beginning they're merely two bands of wandering adventurers who will be seeing recurring NPC's, landmarks, and rumors. Especially rumors about the other band of adventurers that stick to NPCs they interact with as they pass through.
Right now I'm plotting my first Campaign for my friends, Its going to be Star Wars, themed thousand years after Darth Krayt, the force is a fringe fringe thing. Crime lords hold more sway than political parties of systems broken into their own alliances. "Core worlds" is a phrase smarmy rich corporate bastards use to describe their proverbial castles in the sky. The PCs will be a group of outlaws first hired to get a thing from a corporation whose doing a thing that's a twist and ooohhh noooo you all just helped a dick get richer. Ok? He just paid you all loads! This first campaign will be a one shot, designed to set us up for a lager narrative, and even see if the others enjoy it. Maybe our original DM comes back for the traditional plan...Maybe we keep both going. Maybe it's all rubbish. I'm excited either way! Your videos, along with those from Dungeon Dudes are helping me keep sense of my ambitions 😂 thanks lol
Have you ever run games for kids? What do you do differently? What have you found that worked and what epic fails did you experience, if any? Currently, I GM for my wife and sons. In the near future, I will be GMing for a small group of kids age 10+. Hello from ON, Canada and love your emphasis on telling a good story and having a fun.
In early 20th century Russian folklorist Vladimir Propp came up with the theory that every fairy tale (and most of other tales is general) boil down to 7 different abstract characters that are involved in 31 different 'functions' (actions, pieces of story) throughout each tale. For every one putting any story together it could be inspirational to check out Wiki for the details of this theory. Here is a quick quote: 'All the characters in tales could be resolved into 7 abstract character functions 1. The villain - an evil character that creates struggles for the hero. 2. The dispatcher - any character who illustrates the need for the hero's quest and sends the hero off. This often overlaps with the princess's father. 3. The helper - a typically magical entity that comes to help the hero in their quest. 4. The princess or prize, and often her father - the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her as a consequence of some evil or injustice, perhaps the work of the villain. The hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, which constitutes the villain's defeat. 5. The donor - a character that prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object, sometimes after testing them. 6. The hero - the character who reacts to the dispatcher and donor characters, thwarts the villain, resolves any lacking or wronghoods and weds the princess. 7. The false hero - a Miles Gloriosus figure who takes credit for the hero's actions or tries to marry the princess. These roles could sometimes be distributed among various characters, as the hero kills the villain dragon, and the dragon's sisters take on the villainous role of chasing him. Conversely, one character could engage in acts as more than one role, as a father could send his son on the quest and give him a sword, acting as both dispatcher and donor.' en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Propp
I’ve spent a few weeks world-building & starting to plot out a campaign, and I’m glad I stumbled on your channel. One critique I have is that this campaign design assumes the PCs will essentially be the defenders of the status quo. There isn’t anything wrong with that, but I’m interested in a campaign where the world is already bad, there’s an evil empire running almost everything, and the PCs want to make things better. This video still gave me the idea of inverting the structure with a Good Guy or Good Organization that’s gathering resources, building things, testing things, etc. That force for good might be a rebel group that needs to operate in strict secrecy. The PCs won’t be trusted with the master plan to defeat the empire until they’ve substantially helped that plan come to fruition.
Thx for this great video! I can't believe I hadn't found your book earlier. Just downloaded it and am really looking forward to reading it. The first pages are a blast already. Btw. I'd say your humor also has some Blackadder in it. :-) So great, thx!
yay. a 25 minute video on how to railroad your players into your "amazing" DM "story". "story" is an emergent property that comes out through play. if you're doing anything other than prepping locations and NPCs for your players to interact with, you suck as a DM. this is supposed to be a game, not a way for the DM to pitch his Great American Novel at a bunch of hostages.
Just found your channel. Starting a campaign soon (lots of Demand and not enough GMs) wish I had time to go through the whole year long campaign creation series but I do not. We will be starting with dawn of words and creating the world basics gms and players together and then a and campaign. Outside of this playlist are there any videos I should watch that would be helpful dawn of worlds will take about 3 sessions over about 3 weeks, so I do have time to hopefully learn. Would love suggestions.
Got a homebrew system SciFi cyberpunk game going. Players are aboard the SOSS Cerberus and are working for a corporation as bounty hunters. They just succeeded in their mission against the yakuza and have begun to uncover some of the slave trade in wild space. This will end up leading down many many rabbit holes to the main plot of a rogue deity making a pact with a demon to gather souls to become one strong demogod.
My Semi-Sci-Fi campaign right now is based around a futuristic alien faction from the future coming back in time to conquer Earth in it's fantasy world infancy. I plan on having the characters salvaging gear from the future at working with futuristic commandos to combat the enemy to keep the timeline damage to a minimum
my very first try to make any campain. my very first try on anything. DMS and masters of the knowledge need your help. (i've seen part 1 and part 2) since my friends don't really know how to play i will make a game for them to learn to think by themselves and choose their actions, ask questions and try to solve them by themselves. this is what i came up so far: the story is going to be Fantasy and the size continental i thought about the Theme: "restoring the gods power" and this is the reason: the player Goal is to Restore god's power on the continent to stop the miasma that is killing all life on land HOWEVER the GM Goal is to fool my players to summon a devil that will instead destroy the continent the procedure is where i have doubts. i'm thinking of giving them a "Npc companion" (controlled by me... and this is the part that i don't really like) that is going to help them navigate the world and give them clues. however part of those clues are going to be lies. the first part of the story is making them find some ancient tablets that contain the "will of the " my point is to make them find 2 diferent kinds of tablets one will contain the will of God and the other will contain the will of the void. if they follow me blindlessly they will only find the will of evil, however i'm not that bad of a person, i'll explain them they have total freedom to explore and i'll persuade them to do so telling them that they can make side quests to get better items (and they will not get that good items) the tablets will be codified and they will be easy to find.. the problem is to find the orbs containing the "knowledge of god" that will give them the code to descypher them if they choose to listen me the story is going to be way shorter, they do a few sidequests, save a few cities, destroy "accidentally" one or two cities however if they decide to translate BOTH tablets that will end up in a mini boss battle that will kill the npc and let them continue the god path. if they decide to not listen to me and try to descypher only God's tablet (totally unlikely, but a possibility) i'll just blatanly ask them for destroying thee tables that those tables would summon the evil. if they want to do so will syphoon the story to a miniboss and then complete the god's path what do you think about this?
"You don't have to be original. (...) It's how you tell it that makes it original." Can't put into words how much I love you for this, dude, thanks for pointing out the eternal truth
My new (and first) campaign is about a god named Mors who is trying to bring about the end of days (or in my world, Fine Dierrum) and is having trouble doing so because of universal laws. My plan is for him to violate these laws and corrupt an archmage, who will act as a puppet/undercover agent and have the PC's deliver the artifacts Mors needs to open a portal for him to flood the world with his undead horde straight to his feet and throw in a death knight as a pawn who dies in a mass combat to the PC's, who are then informed that the king is under assault by said archmage (who is now a lich) and he escapes on an airship and tries to summon Mors.
My campaign starts episodic. Literally being told just explore the world. But then slowly all the bad things happening in different areas become connected. Just might take a really long time to notice.
Omg thank you. I'm halfway through a homebrew, and the idea of having one of the PC's having a memory from the past, of something that the big bag needs, is just what I needed.
I am running a science-fiction campaign although most people would consider the Star Wars RPG a “science fantasy” genre. My campaign does possess fantastical concepts like the force but I also try to inject a lot of practical science into the technology aspect of the game. In other words I try to play closer to the spectrum on the science end and less on the spectrum on the fantasy end.
I'm working on a campaign based on an album by Unleash the Archers called Apex. A female sorcerer called the Matriarch arrives in a town and with her unmatched magic abilities she takes over the kingdom and now rules it with an iron fist. The story starts sometime later when she is awakening an Immortal being to help her find her four sons and bring them home so that she can sacrifice them and use their blood to make a potion of immortality so that she can rule forever. None of the sons know outright that they are children but when confronted by the Immortal and told they are to go home they somehow know what that means and will fight tooth and nail to not be taken to her. It'll be up to the party (one of which is a son of the Matriarch) to find the other sons and keep them safe from her so that she cannot achieve her goals. The reason she doesn't go to get her children is this potion requires a ritual that must be prepared and focused on for weeks beforehand so she woke the Immortal. If the players kill a son so that she can't get ahold of him she will know and will teleport to their location to fight them knowing that her ritual is useless now.
Wouldn't it be more interesting if our heroes first a hired to steal items by the big bad, not realizing he's the big bad? And if they don't realize it, they will continue up to the moment of the great betrayal, when the aliens come through. :)
i don´t gm but i think the gm should reward the players for preventing the theft in act 1. bassed on his exsampel it could be that sercurity is increased arunde the univers/system/close area
Im a noob DM in a warhamer 40k table, is very nice to play this kind of history, but there is a lot of massive battle and i was having a lot o trouble but i saw your video about and help me a LOT thank you
Idea, once way to introduce the big bad is to have the big bad hire the group or an underline of the big bad hire the group. then later have the group find out the plot of what the big bad intends on doing. Nice Video.
My villain is a guy who has everything he wants and is having trouble getting rid of it. Take that, status quo!!
So he wants [his stuff gone] and is having trouble getting [that to happen],
nope still fits the format
His history of villainy is so well and widely known that he literally can’t find anybody willing to take thing a from him, because everyone assumes it’s part of some dastardly plot. Hordes of undead keep carrying artifacts of immense power out to various heroic strongholds, but are being driven back each time, still in possession of the artifact.
Really, he’s just had a distant relation’s toddler delivered after said relation’s untimely demise, and he’s desperately trying to child-proof the lair!
@@Vessekx I love this Idea!
Reminds me of a Rick and Morty episode lol
Take my wife, PLEASE!
Actually, that sounds like the plot to Brewster's Millions. :D I love that movie.
You sir, are the David Attenborough of roleplaying games! Phenomenal videos overall with great value.
I'm sitting here thinking, I can use literally this exact same outline for cultists trying to summon an eldritch god
As GRRM would say, the only difference between fantasy and sci fi is furniture
BBEG is a museum owner using the guise of gathering artifacts for display to obtain the pieces needed to summon their patron/god
00:24 "I can't think about thinking" as a DM, every time I am running out of content.
It's also what a player imagines their PC is like when the intelligence is 8 and 9
@@raidedsalt7110 Travis playing Grog in Crit Role 😂
You're like the Uncle Iroh of ttrpgs
Vellan Elessar the question is: is he buff under the false belly?
I wish that this video had been made about 18 months ago, I'm deep into a long-term campaign and my Great Old One is about to make his first appearance. The upfront planning that you detail in this video is super helpful! PLEASE KEEP THEM COMING!!!
You always have the best advice at the perfect time. This video has inspired me to move my GMing from pre-generated adventure paths to creating something of my own. Thanks for the confidence boost showing me how Ito do this!
I find the game system hugely effects how I make campaigns. Example, in DnD I tend to make keypoints that I want to happen (aka Fight a Dragon, Climb a Mountain, Convert a Cultist, etc. . .) I then establish the details of each separately. Then I link them with a common theme (recurring person, ongoing "chase", similar "puzzle" items) and plug in the antagonist's goals.
For Call of Cthlhu, I establish the antagonist's goals first. Next I work out the details of the setting and the timeline as without the investigators. I then work out the antagonist's reactions to disruption at different points in its plan. Last are the background characters and clues.
For Car Wars, I establish the details of the surroundings first as they really help to determine what is present from cycle gangs to police forces to civilian armament. IE, a town with a popular arena will have well armed and skilled civilians while a ruined city has cycle gangs and not much police presence. A town which pumps and refines oil will have a strong police force but somewhat unskilled civilians and "circling" gangs. Once that is set, I use the resulting local forces to produce antagonists and an overarching storyline.
Harlan Kempf people still play car wars? You go, my dude!
Personally, I like doing a session 0 where we all just hang out and create characters. That way, I get to know each of the characters, the thoughts that went behind them, and we all work together to create a cool backstory to each one. We also think about how they come together or what motivations they would have to work together. This is also how I plan out my first episode. I'm excited to start my campaign tomorrow and see if they actually succeed in accomplishing their intentions we came up with, and how they're going to deal with the curveballs I'm going to throw at them!
This is very helpful for me as a new gm. Very important. very informative and useful. One of my favourite videos.
20:06 That sound in the video... It's really, really vicious!
Notes for planning:
Once you have your big campaign plot, break it down into subplots that affect smaller and smaller areas.
At the start of a campaign, characters aren't going to worry about the fate of the world. But they might chase down a horde of kobolds that are attacking a town.
Later on, they might be interested in why all these cave-dwelling creatures are attacking surface towns. Is something chasing them out of the underdark?
Midgame concerns might have a threat that concerns the entire underdark, or have towns becoming abandoned near mines and caves where the players failed to help.
Late game could have players facing against the incursion of the material plane by the far realm, through a rift in the depths of the underdark. If this rift isn't closed, the entire world will be consumed by chaos.
Also, it can be worth developing multiple campaign plots. Perhaps the players aren't picking up on the threat in the underdark, despite the hints and hooks you drop. Thankfully you were also dropping hints that a group of dragons was attempting to ascend to godhood, or a cursed druid was trying to return the world to "its natural state".
Having multiple plots running simultaneously avoids that immersion-breaking feeling of the DM forcing the plot into the players faces.
I just finished running through this process on one of the campaign threads I've got planned, and I found that as long as your villain is starting from a sufficiently modest base, the "getting stuff" and "building stuff" aspects tend to be suited to lower level parties just by their nature.
Acquiring a magical relic to be used in a ritual, for instance, may just happen to be the magical relic fabled to be in this dungeon the party has decided to investigate. Since it's in a relatively low risk area, the villain may send his minor minions to collect it (and possibly be stopped by the party in a level-appropriate battle). Or the villain could have less resources available to him at this stage, which is why he needs a relatively minor relic.
(I feel the use of the word artifact would be more appropriate, if not for the fact that DnD has specific meaning for that word that really exaggerates what the word actually means. IRL, a chipped rock is an artifact, if it's found in a stone-age settlement. It's relics that are supposedly imbued with supernatural power. Maybe they wanted to avoid the Catholic associations with that word? I have no idea how the Roman Catholic Church feels about relics now, or how they've felt about them for the last 600 years or so.)
when I plan a campaign, I always start from the BBEG. from there it's easier to devise subplots, at least for me
So far as I know, the term in Dungeons and Dragons for 'Magical Item that isn't specifically a weapon' would be 'Wondrous Items', while Artifacts are sentient Magical Items, and I believe that Relics refer to items with a link to a God(and often requires worship of the associated God to make full use of it's special qualities). Of course, this information is based on DnD 3.5, and 'Relics' in that form may not exist in 5th, and I don't believe 4th edition even existed (or it shouldn't have). All in all, I think the best way to describe what you're talking about is a MacGuffin - an object which compels the plot to move forward. And the best part about a MacGuffin is that it doesn't even need to be a magical or important item. It can just be an incredibly valuable necklace, or a vague box that can't be opened - thus compelling people to imagine what's inside and want to know how to open it.
@TheAdarkerglow You're absolutely right that the MacGuffin is the dramatic term I was looking for - I'm still learning the jargon of storytelling, and hadn't learned it at the time.
I still feel that using the word artifact as "a super powerful item of exceptional power and mystery" does a disservice to people not familiar with what the word actually means. I remember being the kid who was totally weirded out when I heard an archaeologist matter-of-factly talking about artifacts, having only seen the term previously in the Heroes of Might and Magic games (an old strategy series that uses the term "artifact" for what DnD would call a "magic item" - anything that provides a buff or debuff to the user's performance.)
@rashkavar yeah, it just goes to show how transferable and interchangeable the terms can be. In a group setting, it's mostly just important that everyone has the same operational definition when they discuss item classification, in a group or a conversation really. I've usually just called most things 'Magic Items', and given adjectives to imply the strength or quality of the items in question. I might call something an 'Ancient Artifact' or 'Forgotten Relic', but getting bogged down in what a game thinks those words should imply isn't the matter of importance, it's that people understand the message I'm intent to convey. ('It's not what I said, it's what I meant').
I went into this video wanting to improve my current story for my Standard 5e world and also looking for ideas for my Sci Fi campaign... I was thinking “well he’ll describe fantasy but generally the ideas should be adaptable” and then he says “science fiction” and I cried
Excellent video. Thanks!
that cape! the dice! so good
In hindsight I made the big mistake of jumping in sort of a campaign head over heels.
I had nothing more than a vague idea, without any structure.
This leads to all sorts of problems now - logical gaps, pushing the plot to hard, still not really sure what is going on and multiple conflicting ideas how it should evolve...
The funniest thing is, I didn't even realise where this problem stemmed from. Until now.
But... I think not everything is lost. I'll sit down and work out the campaign now.
Or to cite my late great-grandmother: "It's not a shame to know nothing - but to refusing to learn."
So... Thanks for this great advise and keep up your work. You really helped me out here.
10 minutes in and I’m already furiously typing extra notes into my campaign overview. Thank you, really helpful!
Hey, I have only just stumbled across your channels which I have swiftly fallen in-love with. I love your ability to create such unique and amazing adventures. The way you describe your worlds and characters really reveals your passion and love for the game and role-play elements. I came here hoping to be able to one day gm for my own group of friends though i have little to no knowledge of the game and no one i could call upon as my 'sensie' to teach me the ways of D&D face to face. So your videos have been a godsend.
Not only all this but you yourself seem to be a very learned and interesting individual though i am sure it doesn't just take you to be able to put these videos and role-play videos together I would be very interested to be able to know a bit more about your interests in the written word. From whats behind you though it may be just games and manuals for your numerous games I wonder if you'd ever be able to do a book list? As an avid reader myself i would be very interested if there would be anything you yourself would suggest.
Even if you were unable to do it as a video perhaps maybe adding a few choice titles to your amazon list as it would be great to see what if anything may have inspired your imagination and depth of creativity.
Love your videos! Thank you! By the way, Science Fiction (Starfinder) is my primary system. I still play / run High Fantasy (Pathfinder / Starfinder) but I am hoping to transition almost entirely to Starfinder in the next few years.
Human brains have a really cool quirk we can use to help tie stories together. We do it all the time online with fan theories and conspiracy theories. It really comes down to pattern recognition. If you make a few unrelated stories and they have anything at all in common, grab on to that and extrapolate "what could that mean?".
You attacked an orc camp, you saved a maiden from a tower in a graveyard, and you plundered a kobold-infested castle ruin. ... but at each one, you noticed at least one shrine to an unknown deity. Or maybe each one showed signs that another party had recently passed through. Or maybe you saw a goblin flee from each scene just as you arrive. Boom, you've got dozens of possible plots. Why and how are these things connected? What could it mean?
It makes no difference that they're all separate and potentially unrelated, as soon as we know there's a pattern, or even suspect there's a pattern, we'll start filling in the blanks on our own and ignoring the bits that don't add up to make it a better pattern that makes more sense to us. Since most theories of this nature work off the assumption that similar things must be related, and often coordinated by some figure or figures in the background, who pull all the strings, you've just developed a big bad, automatically. Or at least, you've convinced your party that there must be some kind of big bad. You can misdirect or pull from their theories as you like, at this point.
Roflmoo Moo - Downright diabolical. I've written my campaign into a corner, and I think you just found me a way out.
Awesome! If you can fill me in on what happens, I'd love to know!
Absolutely true. In running a Call of Cthulhu campaign on more than one occasion the player's theories were far more interesting than what I had originally envisioned -- so I switched. Just as long as it stays internally consistent, its a win for all. Oh the horror!
Kind of a fun one I did, I made a campaign with a twist villain. The big bad was being framed for all of hit dastardly deeds by the King who sent the heroes on the quest to thwart his plans in the first place. In the very first session, I had them in a dungeon with writing on the wall in a different language. Curious group as they are, they cast comprehend languages to find that it said "Don't be on the wrong side." Well, they spent several minutes trying to figure out what that meant, and as the campaign went on, they forgot about it. Throughout the campaign though, I kept putting references to that phrase very subtly. Theycame across a gladiator arena and there was an NPC trying to make bets, announcing odds, and saying "don't bet on the wrong side!" Etc. Etc.
When they were fighting the framed big baddie, he plead with them to see that he was wronged, and the players weren't having it until he said, "please, don't be on the wrong side!"
I'm not gonna say it was genius-level or anything, but it made them start to really question what they were doing. Motif can add quite a bit
You've outdone yourself with this one. Where can we see your notes?
Thank you for all the videos man. I'm about to move back to my home state and I offered to GM for a couple friends and family members when i get back and your videos have help me a lot in planning everything and ideas to help me give them a better game play
"Plotting a campaign"?! That's what I'm doing right now, plotting! Excellent!!
Thanks! i walked thru this with you. It really did help me significantly. Big fan!
Another brilliant and insightful video! I keep learning from each one, despite having been both a Player and a GM since 1980-ish.
I love your videos
Constant inspiration and I aspire to be a game master as skilled as you.
I tend towards being a sandbox style GM, DM, or story teller. I often build the environment and major players then let the player characters loose and see what they find out and what they do. The environment and major players react accordingly and or continue on with their agendas. They shape the story and drive it forward. I have the great pleasure of running motivated players who enjoy having their own goals and working to achieve them. Lately I have been running an interesting game. I have run many Vampire the Masquerade games and have at least ten notebooks with hand made cities. My players wanted an evil game so they are all playing Baali and have been running rampant kicking over all the sandcastles I’ve built. It’s been very fun having them run into NPCs and old characters alike and seeing the ingenuity with which they avoid detection and corrupt cities. Very fun game.
I want to be a more organized and structured game master while still letting the players have a great deal of freedom and your videos are helping me find that balance.
Thank you
I do a mix through. I create a simple meta arch then I I write a few adventures and see what the players get into and how they deal to begin to weave the tapestry.
Great video, lovely info for the dm. Bit of a long videk but definetly worth the time.
Guy, thank you for making these videos.
Love your content, but I feel you have missed the most important aspect of plotting your campaign here, The Player Characters! I would never attempt to put much thought at all into plotting a campaign (a setting yes, questions like tone and themes, yes, but not the actual plot) until after Session 0, and the creation of the player characters. The players will, if you pay attention and encourage it, give you great gifts of inspiration in their backstories, relationships, contacts, factions, etc, that they create.
Furthermore, until you know what kind of party you have, you can't really know what sort of plot they might care about. Perhaps you design a plot about blowing up the Death Star, but your players make a bunch of lowlife smugglers, that only care about the Rebellion in so far as the rebels will pay good money for black market weapons. They aren't going to be interested in that, and a good GM would set them up with something else. Perhaps a campaign involving some Crimelords. Perhaps the assassination of Jabba the Hutt has left a power vacuum in the criminal underworld, and multiple Big Bads are rushing to seize power. That would seem to be a much more appropriate campaign plot for those characters.
That is why I would hold off on plotting a campaign, until I know my PCs.
He did incorporate the characters by basing an entire adventure in act one off of character backstory. And while I will agree that you don't know what sort of plot will interest your characters I believe that is one of the challenges of being a DM, making your players interested in your campaign. If you do some planning like the bare bones approach in this video it helps immensely in the long run, especially with creating the first few adventures.
On a side note I personally take a long time to write campaigns. I don't like to force myself to sit there and write, I find the quality of my work much better when I write a little when I want to rather than a lot when I have to. There are many others that do things the same way I do, and for us writing a campaign after session zero isn't an option. Heck, the campaign i am currently working on has been in the works for about 6 months now and I am only just now getting around to actually planning adventures. Granted I did have to create a world, but still.
Um, are you describing Han Solo?
Great video, but I'm a little suspicious of whether that paper is really blank or not.
Thanks for doing Sci-Fi. I am working on a BattleTech campaign, and all the info on creating campaigns use D&D type stuff.
If you’re looking for sci-fi modules, rpg’s for the Warhammer 40,000 universe such as Dark Heresy, Deathwatch, and Only War are really fun and brutal. It also has a lot of fantasy elements such as magic (psychic powers rather), daemons, gods, and melee elements. And I highly recommend these RPGs for those who play the tabletop wargame
A campaign:
A sandbox with some link to the main goal in every episode.
Who the fuck are these 50 people that disliked this video?? This is pure gold, people!
An important thing to find out first and foremost is what kind of campaign-runner one is. Like Mr. Great Game Master here said, there's nothing wrong with sticking to the episodic nature and the struggles with only having one shot to implement this big core concept can be an equal undertaking. With that said, one has to realize which of the 2 is best suited to you, as some minds are more built to better construct one style of campaign over the other.
For example, I like making things episodic. I find myself too impatient and over-excited to hold onto to lingering plotlines and will just eventually gravitate to getting a move on with things. I compromise between the 2 styles, however, in a way that each episode's isolated concequences slowly build up and begin shaping the world. In the first session, the players stop this raving lunatic wizard in his power-trip, but because they killed him, they'll later be pursued by assassins and mercs, hired by the wizard's father. The players are hired to steal an artifact from the manor of a vampire for scientific study by this young scholar, only for him to eventually return, in catatonic shock from something, setting up a possible plotline that may also tie together with other plots previously used.
Above all else though, this fact has to be properly conveyed to the players with clarity. The players need to be aware of what to expect, not just for the sake of adjusting their expectations, but also because that mindset can help them create characters better suited to the style in question. Some characters are just better fit to do random adventures here and there next to others, whom are better to develop gradually over a longer-running story.
Have a Deathwatch (40K RPG) campaign that has a few of these themes in now, mostly down to your videos Guy :)
Mazer Rackham same. I made a Deathwatch campaign right after binging his videos
Hubby says it sounds like you are building a project plan for the villain :)
Running a Dark Heresy game for some chucklefucks who have never Warhammered before. It's been... interesting. Most of my planning went totally out the window once the big giant spacecop literally mugged some poor sap for beer money in the name of the Inquisition as his very first action in the campaign.
VD913 My first Dark Heresy campaign had the party trying to mug a noble for his clothes instead of... you know... requisitioning clothing from the inquisitor to serve as disguises. The kicker was that he got beat up by the noble and slipped in a puddle of emperor-doesn’t-wanna-know-what, then proceeded to shout at the populace not to laugh at him while screaming that he’s in the inquisition.
Did you have the sap's family contact the inquisition? :D
This is a great video, but i do have one question. Where did you get that cloak? It's amazing!
Personally plotting the story for the campaign is my personal favourite part of making one. I love designing locations, characters, villains, monsters, and a theme.
The current campaign I'm running with my friends is all about a few different groups of people after the same powerful artefact to gain control over a city, my players only being in a group of themselves and four others, easily the smallest. I made them the smallest group for the simple reason that they'd feel more confident with every larger group they overcome and defeat.
There is one main villain, obviously, but he fills the role more of a final obstacle to test everything my players have come across and learnt through the campaign.
If they succeed and get the artefact, it is shattered into three pieces in the final conflict, but each piece has just enough power left to still grant amazing abilities, but not enough to outright take over a large location like the one I've made for the campaign.
Currently I've planned two main plot beats seeing as this is my first campaign, the first has three main dungeons with items the players need to obtain the artefact, one of which is already in the possession of another group against the players'. The second will have the artefact in play, raising the stakes much higher with the players now trying to get it while it's being used.
Obviously there's also side-quests if my players want a break from groups and artefacts, a few of which coming from the other NPC members in their group, I'm hoping that will make my players more attached to them for later purposes in the story.
Currently on our fourth session of the campaign and they're up to their second dungeon of the first major plot beat. Hoping all goes well and as planned.
So its like lord of the rings but the ring survives
I can't find the random story generator in RPG Table Finder. Has it moved somewhere else?
I know im very damn late to this video but i just have to say how helpful this was. Im a new Dm and had no idea wtf i was supposed to do with my story or anything. Thank you very much
Star Trek Generations was amazing and I will die on this hill! 😝
I'm confused at the acts part.
Are they the 4 actions that the villain needs to do to accomplish? Therefore the number would change if the steps the villain would need to take to achieve their goal. For example the test fire works, but needs to replace some parts for the portal, adds in another act between 3 & 4.
Or is it more similar to the 3 act structure in literature, with an added 'you lose' act if the players fail?
It could go any way and is up to the DM. The party could call for help and alert the planetary governor and PDF forces and the call for aid could go further and further out but time is still of the essence and the party will need to delay the BBEG from opening his portal before the fleet could arrive en mass. Yet again, that could be the BBEG's goal is to wait for the main fleet to arrive then annihilate them in one fell stroke! Or the party could be delaying the BBEG and at the same time help restore either some ancient warship or one that had fallen decades earlier in a prior big war and this is the motive behind the BBEG; revenge for his fallen comrades, his destroyed empire or to release them from the pocket dimension that they were forced into.
the first two minutes of this video are all storytelling in a nutshell. One of my favorite quotes from when I was still in the film business was Who's involved, what are they chasing, and who else gives a s**t. Perfect opening.
A few of my friends and I played a campaign based in the video game world of Metro and it was amazing. I miss it.
Thanks for this video, just from this video I've added a whole lot of extra PCs for the BBEG my players were fighting. The Ever-Chosen originally had only 4 Lieutenants, all super powerful (compared to the normal human), but it was really just them and some random normal soldiers with zero personality, now he has waaaaaaay more special people. I realized that I didn't have anyone to actually be the "Science" behind one of his big plots. So now we have a large, gun toting man accompanying a mad techpriest biologi (instead of just the gun toting man). After that I realized he didn't have any sort of true army/support system, (How is he jumping around the galaxy? Whose ship is it? etc) so now he has a small army of engineers, specialist soldiers, Navy men, and the Captain of said ship, as well as a Head Engineer.
there is one thing i hold above anything else when it come to dnd: if the players have freedom, then they will enjoy it. they can do whatever they like, things not even a video game can comprehend. that is why i have come up with "the rule of halves". i will only ever plan the first half of a campaign, and only ever plan the first half of a session.
i will often just describe a location unless there is a combat, in which case i will use an existing map and modify it slightly to fit. although we always have a break half way through the session, i normally do some quick prep then too
You are a legend dude. Thanks for doing stuff like this. Amazing help
I've learned more from you in 30min than I have in a year of creative writing classes. thank you.
Plotting a Deathwatch RPG campaign where the players are super genetic engineered marines, they get chosen with five other teams of marines to go and plant demolition charges to break up a huge mass of discarded spacecraft that just emerged from space hell before it can release it's denizens into neighboring star systems, honestly with the setting there will be much Murder Hobo behavior, as most everything in the set universe is not very open to diplomacy, I do have ideas of how to let them do more than just get space bug innards coating their armor, though I am trying to get them more familiar with the setting and themes because the second I told them that material wealth means nothing to these marines, as it is in the canon universe, they certainly did seem disappointed, I partially blame Pathfinder for that, the adventure paths are greased in gold pieces which they have gotten quite used to receiving
SamuraiSyn319 Play around with the marines falling into chaos and stuff like that!
Absolutely fantastic video. Please keep them coming. I just got back into D&D and I’m home brewing everything. These are super helpful. I would really like to see a video on plotting out an adventure.
I've been building a campaign using the new Elite Dangerous: RPG that involves the players trying to bring down a shadow organization... the twist is that organization is trying to prepare mankind for an inevitable alien invasion.
Ah, they’re trying to bring down The Club? There’s an epic goal. How’d the campaign come out?
Thank u for the great tutorial, i finally stepped back from what i was doing looked back and started from scratch with my campaign plot. Now i have an awesome plot for my first homebrew 👍
I feel the exact same way!
Yay!! This was very helpful!! I need the next one on how to turn these acts into adventures/ episodes or whatever they are called. I'm a new GM so I have my bad guy wanting something badly, now I've got some shape and pacing with these 4 acts. Now I need details! Your awesome, keep it up!
Just starting my own sci fi campaign. Have only recently found your channel. And with 15 years experience. Ive never been so wrong with GMing. Youre proving so helpful. Thank you guy!
I can't find the campaign sentence generator on rpgtablefinder.com. Am I crazy or is it still there?
I am registered at rpgtablefinder. However, I can not find the marvelous plot generator. Woe is me! I must plot for myself.
This guy is the Alan Watts of D&D
I'll just ask my previous question again, sorry to everyone who's seen this already
To my understanding you have moved to Japan. How good is your Japanese? Or do you need it that much?
Yes I have moved to Japan. My Japanese is poor but getting better. In Tokyo you don't really need it.
How to be a Great Game Master
Thanks for the answer :) I suppose they speak English well enough in there.
P.S Your videos have really helped me with DM'ing, thanks for that as well.
Did you move because of the land seizures? my apologies if you've answered this prior, but I'm thankful for your safety, S.A. isn't a country I plan on visiting any longer.
Im DMing a sci-fi campaign in Mass effect universe (100 years later ME3)
the BBEG is a evil consciusness called Nacàsh who can influence (not control, he needs an avatar in place to do that) who is caught by fear or anger
he sent 5 Villains to
°create an Avatar for him
°create an army of slaves/volunteers
°dispose any superweapon or Apex race like the Leviatans (the first half of the campaign was the PC discover of an ancient superweapon to blow stars and destroy it(starfinder Dead suns adapted to 5e btw) , then one the Villains said to them "Hello there, well done my friends, we are evil btw and you made us a great favor"
°enslave any important figure (like the council or the shadowbroker)
now the PC have discovered who is the BBEG and much of theyr BG stuff
and soon it will come the moment that the 5 villains open a dimensional rift to fully activate the Avatar and the PC maybe will stop them destroying the avatar but the BBEG will send an infinite armada through the rift, and they must jourey to the other dimension to kill Nacàsh for good.
(yes I now maybe this part is too railroaded so I can make they close the rift but the BBGE enslaved 99,9999 of the universe so in time it will swarm the galaxy from any direction but at least is something and they bought time...maybe then they will find a way to can open a little rift and sneak in and do the attack to Nacàsh)
what do you think?
This has been enormously helpful to me! My friends want an Indiana Jones themed campaign, but listening and writing these plot points alongside you I was able to translate them appropriately with relative ease. Thanks, and I can’t wait for next week!
One way I kept my players interested is one of my 'things'. The first dungeon, a prison meant to keep monsters locked out of the world, holds great treasures, and the town of bradshaw has tasked them with assassinating a particularly nasty Beholder who is attempting to break free.
The players found out that every time they return to the prison, it changes, and it changes for a good purpose; To keep everyone in and lost, since the place is constantly changing, and it turns out all the guards are now enslaved by that nasty beholder, who is trying to figure out the pattern of the random changes, to figure it's way out. This, was just the first dungeon with a very simple and complex task.
Kill the Beholder, however, don't get lost, as the rooms will constantly change position with one exception: The way out is always possible, though it can always be out of your immediate reach if you are not careful!
If the villain succeeds in launching the invasion, the heroes could then try to stop the invasion.
Then the invading aliens could betray the original villain.
The original villain then forms a truce with the heroes, to get revange.
The heroes and original villain, then launch a counter-invasion on the aliens.
Once the aliens have been defeated, the original villain double-crosses the heroes on the way home.
The heroes either capture, kill, or throw overboard the original villain.
The heroes then return home, to see the enemy retreating, allies starting reconstruction, and possibly earn metals at a ceremony 1-12 months later: once enough has been rebuilt.
This is helpful. I am actually in the current process of designing my very own Sci-Fi rpg game. My own whole system.
Me too.
My friends and me are working on a neat little universe since a few years now... Didn't play lately... but this video seems to get my creative gears working again :D
How do your universe work?
My universe has sooooo much to it now. It is all taking place in the universe that I am working on with a good friend of mine. I actually just played my game yesterday with my friends. So far, all guns can use two different types of ammo. Bullets, or lazars. Lazars are good against energy shields. Each ammo type is divided and named for how much damage it does. Like, you can go to a gun store and by d6 rounds of bullets. That means you roll a d6 for damage when using those bullets. The weapon you use can be upgraded from a type-1(+1 to damage), up to a +5(+5 to damage).
I may try and post a video on how it works after, or sometime during the next two weeks. I am testing it now with my D&D friends every Sunday
Cool side note for my universe; it has almost anything you can think of. It has places like you can find in the average D&D game; it has laser guns, starships, dragons and even Ninja Werewolves!
I have had all my life to think of these things :3
How is your universe?
It's more Space Opera than SciFi for starters.
Imagine epic battleships of the royal houses the bridges fitted with steering wheels akin to the sea-vessels of olden times, the officers wearing classical uniforms (at least when we talk flag-ships or other vessels meant to impress).
Imagine further gates allowing travels to the far parts of the galaxy, colonies, aliens and artifacts of ancient races and the damn biggest space station ever created by men, a conglomerate of original parts, additional container-modules, third-party-parts, up to whole welded on spaceships...
Imagine ruthless pirates, greedy treasure hunters and fortune seekers.
And now imagine yourself, grabing your stuff your trusty "Insight Industries Canis" SMG, sign on a freelance trader heading for the frontier worlds - where the riches lay buried just waiting for a brave adventurer to grab them.
Go deep into ancient ruins, fight your way back through relic defence systems, strange creatures and some of your fellow-treasure hunters.
And after a hard days work, drink a toast to all who didn't make it in some shady pirate harbor dive bar.
I grew up to series like Galaxy Rangers, Saber Rider, Space Hawks and Star Trek TNG.
I wanted to make a universe worth living in (unlike for example the Warhammer 40.000 universe, which is frankly not more than a cataclysm waiting to happen).
It shouldn't be as realistic as possible. I wanted it to be "Pirates of the Carribean in Space", with feuding noble houses, colonies claiming their independence, mercenary armies, freelance traders, space stations and of course ancient treasures.
So I started on my own, writing about my world - but without help input and a lot of work of my friends it never had gotten of ground.
At the moment only the German version is online:
and it is direly in need of artwork...
But - here you go:
torwelten.com/
Robert Nett That sounds awesome! :D
Yeah... I am nearly at the point, where I just want to play this game again... make a campaign in my 'Torwelten'-universe...
Alas I have a Call of Cthulhu campaign consuming my spare time.
No... I shouldn't say alas - it is a great story with really great players.
This is an excellent video. I am actually preparing to run a Starfinder campaign, so this is perfect assistance for me to be able to get things laid out.
My Big Bad is trying to forcibly terraform a planet so his people will be able to colonize it. Now working on my 4 acts, and this plot should allow some good options for action, scientific research stories, and political intrigue as the Big Bad is going to try to skew galactic opinion to allow him to do this.
Your videos habe always been a great help to me, as a newer GM. Please keep it up!
Illithids, Aboleths or Drow could want to extinguish the Sun. Opening a rift for an alien invasion, well Planar rifts can happen too. Maybe a dissident from the Cult Of Dragons wants to let Tiamat manifest her true form on the Material Plane. Also, that's a little bit simplistic "the players need to stop the villain". One of the greatest adventures I've ever played had the villains fool us all and *win!* There's now an area slightly similar to Ravenloft but sitting inside the main continent of the world. By killing the main villain, we actually freed its lesser minions for pursuing their own agendas, thus creating the "Seven Deathless Autarchs" who are way more interested in our world than their immensely powerful master ever was and had, by direct divine intervention, to be put in check by sacrificing a huge part of the continent that has now become "The Mistlands": a place of horror but also slow and steady scheming, as the Autarchs have countless aeons ahead of them, they're not in a hurry. God's may perish and go forgotten before they do.
For making a campaign I absolutely LOVE your video on 6 GM tools! They help build up a campaign/world SO much!
I love all the content you put out, but these “ For your consideration “ videos are my favorite. I really really enjoy your videos where you go into the different philosophies of classes and such. I think they are phenomenal. But your videos where you go through and build campaigns and plots from scratch are the most helpful things I have found so far on RUclips about RPG gaming. PLEASE CONTINUE THIS! I am about to start running a game as a dungeon master for the first time and there are so many useful videos on RUclips that help me prepare. I might just be unaware, but I haven’t came across anyone else doing these from scratch breakdowns about how to build campaigns and stories. I particularly loved the one about the kids in the nunnery and the zombies that you made. I hope you see my comment because it would be so great if you keep making videos like this. Nothing helps me more than these from scratch breakdowns. Thanks for all of these awesome videos! You are definitely giving the rpg community life! - someone aspiring to be a great game master
Those are the best videos really. The one about prepping the adventure of 40K was super interesting as well. I continuously struggle to come up with good ideas and cool stuff for the players to do, so this is great.
Loved this episode. I watched it whilst writing my next campaign's plot line. Mine runs quite similar, but as you said, one story, many tellings. An excellent frame work!
A friend and I are in the process of co-writing the plot for a campaign in which we are alternating as GMs. This video was so rich of good tips that we can use. Great video as always!
I also do in division, but based lvl.
The lvl 0 to 4 major bad guy and disperse episodal bad guys throughout.
The lvl 5 to 10 major bad guy and minor episodal bad guys throughout.
The lvl 11 to 15 major bad guy + minor bad guys throughout.
The lvl 16 to 20 major villain, they have been messing with the PCs since lvl 0 in the background and steadily more as the PCs become higher lvl.
Funny concept, I'm currently in a campaign with my girlfriend DMing, and I'm also DMing another group. We had an interesting idea where both parties exist in the same world, and if they happen to cross paths we will combine the groups for a special quest or event. They'll be perhaps leading towards the same BB but they'll achieve that in different ways.
Perhaps one group will be attempting to reach BB via information and espionage, whereas one may then decide to try and push back or inhibit the BB's efforts by destroying/hiding artifacts, killing 'sidekicks' or anyone aiding them, etc.
By this point they'll be confiding with each other and sending information but in the beginning they're merely two bands of wandering adventurers who will be seeing recurring NPC's, landmarks, and rumors. Especially rumors about the other band of adventurers that stick to NPCs they interact with as they pass through.
Right now I'm plotting my first Campaign for my friends, Its going to be Star Wars, themed thousand years after Darth Krayt, the force is a fringe fringe thing. Crime lords hold more sway than political parties of systems broken into their own alliances. "Core worlds" is a phrase smarmy rich corporate bastards use to describe their proverbial castles in the sky.
The PCs will be a group of outlaws first hired to get a thing from a corporation whose doing a thing that's a twist and ooohhh noooo you all just helped a dick get richer. Ok? He just paid you all loads!
This first campaign will be a one shot, designed to set us up for a lager narrative, and even see if the others enjoy it. Maybe our original DM comes back for the traditional plan...Maybe we keep both going. Maybe it's all rubbish. I'm excited either way!
Your videos, along with those from Dungeon Dudes are helping me keep sense of my ambitions 😂 thanks lol
Have you ever run games for kids? What do you do differently? What have you found that worked and what epic fails did you experience, if any? Currently, I GM for my wife and sons. In the near future, I will be GMing for a small group of kids age 10+. Hello from ON, Canada and love your emphasis on telling a good story and having a fun.
In early 20th century Russian folklorist Vladimir Propp came up with the theory that every fairy tale (and most of other tales is general) boil down to 7 different abstract characters that are involved in 31 different 'functions' (actions, pieces of story) throughout each tale.
For every one putting any story together it could be inspirational to check out Wiki for the details of this theory.
Here is a quick quote:
'All the characters in tales could be resolved into 7 abstract character functions
1. The villain - an evil character that creates struggles for the hero.
2. The dispatcher - any character who illustrates the need for the hero's quest and sends the hero off. This often overlaps with the princess's father.
3. The helper - a typically magical entity that comes to help the hero in their quest.
4. The princess or prize, and often her father - the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her as a consequence of some evil or injustice, perhaps the work of the villain. The hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, which constitutes the villain's defeat.
5. The donor - a character that prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object, sometimes after testing them.
6. The hero - the character who reacts to the dispatcher and donor characters, thwarts the villain, resolves any lacking or wronghoods and weds the princess.
7. The false hero - a Miles Gloriosus figure who takes credit for the hero's actions or tries to marry the princess.
These roles could sometimes be distributed among various characters, as the hero kills the villain dragon, and the dragon's sisters take on the villainous role of chasing him. Conversely, one character could engage in acts as more than one role, as a father could send his son on the quest and give him a sword, acting as both dispatcher and donor.'
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Propp
I’ve spent a few weeks world-building & starting to plot out a campaign, and I’m glad I stumbled on your channel. One critique I have is that this campaign design assumes the PCs will essentially be the defenders of the status quo. There isn’t anything wrong with that, but I’m interested in a campaign where the world is already bad, there’s an evil empire running almost everything, and the PCs want to make things better.
This video still gave me the idea of inverting the structure with a Good Guy or Good Organization that’s gathering resources, building things, testing things, etc. That force for good might be a rebel group that needs to operate in strict secrecy. The PCs won’t be trusted with the master plan to defeat the empire until they’ve substantially helped that plan come to fruition.
Thx for this great video! I can't believe I hadn't found your book earlier. Just downloaded it and am really looking forward to reading it. The first pages are a blast already. Btw. I'd say your humor also has some Blackadder in it. :-) So great, thx!
yay. a 25 minute video on how to railroad your players into your "amazing" DM "story". "story" is an emergent property that comes out through play. if you're doing anything other than prepping locations and NPCs for your players to interact with, you suck as a DM. this is supposed to be a game, not a way for the DM to pitch his Great American Novel at a bunch of hostages.
Just found your channel. Starting a campaign soon (lots of Demand and not enough GMs) wish I had time to go through the whole year long campaign creation series but I do not. We will be starting with dawn of words and creating the world basics gms and players together and then a and campaign. Outside of this playlist are there any videos I should watch that would be helpful dawn of worlds will take about 3 sessions over about 3 weeks, so I do have time to hopefully learn. Would love suggestions.
Got a homebrew system SciFi cyberpunk game going. Players are aboard the SOSS Cerberus and are working for a corporation as bounty hunters. They just succeeded in their mission against the yakuza and have begun to uncover some of the slave trade in wild space. This will end up leading down many many rabbit holes to the main plot of a rogue deity making a pact with a demon to gather souls to become one strong demogod.
Just in time to help me with my Werewolf game ^_^
My Semi-Sci-Fi campaign right now is based around a futuristic alien faction from the future coming back in time to conquer Earth in it's fantasy world infancy. I plan on having the characters salvaging gear from the future at working with futuristic commandos to combat the enemy to keep the timeline damage to a minimum
my very first try to make any campain. my very first try on anything. DMS and masters of the knowledge need your help. (i've seen part 1 and part 2)
since my friends don't really know how to play i will make a game for them to learn to think by themselves and choose their actions, ask questions and try to solve them by themselves.
this is what i came up so far:
the story is going to be Fantasy and the size continental
i thought about the Theme: "restoring the gods power" and this is the reason: the player Goal is to Restore god's power on the continent to stop the miasma that is killing all life on land HOWEVER the GM Goal is to fool my players to summon a devil that will instead destroy the continent
the procedure is where i have doubts. i'm thinking of giving them a "Npc companion" (controlled by me... and this is the part that i don't really like) that is going to help them navigate the world and give them clues. however part of those clues are going to be lies.
the first part of the story is making them find some ancient tablets that contain the "will of the " my point is to make them find 2 diferent kinds of tablets one will contain the will of God and the other will contain the will of the void. if they follow me blindlessly they will only find the will of evil, however i'm not that bad of a person, i'll explain them they have total freedom to explore and i'll persuade them to do so telling them that they can make side quests to get better items (and they will not get that good items)
the tablets will be codified and they will be easy to find.. the problem is to find the orbs containing the "knowledge of god" that will give them the code to descypher them
if they choose to listen me the story is going to be way shorter, they do a few sidequests, save a few cities, destroy "accidentally" one or two cities
however if they decide to translate BOTH tablets that will end up in a mini boss battle that will kill the npc and let them continue the god path.
if they decide to not listen to me and try to descypher only God's tablet (totally unlikely, but a possibility) i'll just blatanly ask them for destroying thee tables that those tables would summon the evil. if they want to do so will syphoon the story to a miniboss and then complete the god's path
what do you think about this?
The basics: what, why, where, who, when! Those dastardly, co-con-spirators! :D Love this method of plotting with boxes.
"You don't have to be original. (...) It's how you tell it that makes it original."
Can't put into words how much I love you for this, dude, thanks for pointing out the eternal truth
My new (and first) campaign is about a god named Mors who is trying to bring about the end of days (or in my world, Fine Dierrum) and is having trouble doing so because of universal laws. My plan is for him to violate these laws and corrupt an archmage, who will act as a puppet/undercover agent and have the PC's deliver the artifacts Mors needs to open a portal for him to flood the world with his undead horde straight to his feet and throw in a death knight as a pawn who dies in a mass combat to the PC's, who are then informed that the king is under assault by said archmage (who is now a lich) and he escapes on an airship and tries to summon Mors.
My campaign starts episodic. Literally being told just explore the world. But then slowly all the bad things happening in different areas become connected. Just might take a really long time to notice.
Omg thank you. I'm halfway through a homebrew, and the idea of having one of the PC's having a memory from the past, of something that the big bag needs, is just what I needed.
I am running a science-fiction campaign although most people would consider the Star Wars RPG a “science fantasy” genre. My campaign does possess fantastical concepts like the force but I also try to inject a lot of practical science into the technology aspect of the game. In other words I try to play closer to the spectrum on the science end and less on the spectrum on the fantasy end.
I can't seem to find the random story generator. Any help appreciated.
I'm working on a campaign based on an album by Unleash the Archers called Apex. A female sorcerer called the Matriarch arrives in a town and with her unmatched magic abilities she takes over the kingdom and now rules it with an iron fist. The story starts sometime later when she is awakening an Immortal being to help her find her four sons and bring them home so that she can sacrifice them and use their blood to make a potion of immortality so that she can rule forever. None of the sons know outright that they are children but when confronted by the Immortal and told they are to go home they somehow know what that means and will fight tooth and nail to not be taken to her. It'll be up to the party (one of which is a son of the Matriarch) to find the other sons and keep them safe from her so that she cannot achieve her goals. The reason she doesn't go to get her children is this potion requires a ritual that must be prepared and focused on for weeks beforehand so she woke the Immortal. If the players kill a son so that she can't get ahold of him she will know and will teleport to their location to fight them knowing that her ritual is useless now.
Wouldn't it be more interesting if our heroes first a hired to steal items by the big bad, not realizing he's the big bad?
And if they don't realize it, they will continue up to the moment of the great betrayal, when the aliens come through. :)
i don´t gm but i think the gm should reward the players for preventing the theft in act 1. bassed on his exsampel it could be that sercurity is increased arunde the univers/system/close area
Hey, just saying, you'd make a knock out director. You should study acting, if you haven't before.
Im a noob DM in a warhamer 40k table, is very nice to play this kind of history, but there is a lot of massive battle and i was having a lot o trouble but i saw your video about and help me a LOT thank you
“Keep it smallish…so same planetary system.” Bruh, I’m struggling to write a campaign for a peninsula. Lol
This is the next episode about Creating Adventures:
ruclips.net/video/9i-klf9lBrQ/видео.html
Fluidic Space was never explored because voyager was just simply not a good show.
Idea, once way to introduce the big bad is to have the big bad hire the group or an underline of the big bad hire the group. then later have the group find out the plot of what the big bad intends on doing. Nice Video.