How do you write a story for a campaign? Seriously, how?
All the advice I've seen about just winging it never works. At least in my experience it's just caused people to flounder around desperately. >GM: "What do you guys do?" >"We look around for something interesting." >GM: "Uh... Er, I mean, where do you specifically go?" >"Where CAN we go?" >GM: "... There... There's a bar?" >"Okay, we go there. We order a drink and look around to see if there is anyone interesting around."
I can accept that some people are just naturally more creative than others. Fine, okay. But aren't there templates for this kind of thing? Anything? Please respond.
Different systems do well with different levels of preparation, for one. Also, winging it is much easier if you have players with a sense of agency and motivation. Not all players are like that.
At the same time, take a page from certain narrative-focused systems, and always start the players off with something to immediately react to. The cliche of starting in a tavern gets mocked for a reason. At least have it be on fire.
Luis Gutierrez
Just let the second or third place they end up going looking for shit be where it was supposed to end up all along.
Example: Party has to find secret hideout of local bandits
So they go to the tavern, no one knows anything. They go to the market square, no one knows anything. Then, they go to the inn, and bam, the imkeeper's son overheard someone complaining about a roadblock a few hours west of town demanding coin for safe passage. But the thing has to be, it could have been any one of those places.
That's what is meant by winging it, not just starting with no prep work and figuring it out
Blake James
Do away with the idea that the GM has to write the story. Have *everyone* write the story ahead of time. The whole table pitches in on the setting, the overarching plot, the specifics. Craft everything upon the hooks that are the PC's backstories, personalities, goals, desires, flaws.
Josiah Jackson
Always expect the players to pull the most inconvenient derailing out of character bullshit you can think of and you won't go far wrong
Samuel Morgan
Structure, man, what you need isn't a story, it's structure. Give the players something to do at the start of the game - give them anything at all to do, and let the story grow from there.
Just asking the players what they want to do is fruitless, especially if it's your own homebrew setting and the players have no reason to be invested in it.
Aiden Lewis
Okay, but how do you come up with something for them to do? Where does it go from there? I never see good advice or guides on these things.
Ryder Long
Just ask your players what kind of adventures they want beforehand and shove it in front of them. If they don't know, give them anything you think would be cool. If they ignore it, but won't suggest any alternative that would fit them it means that they don't know what they want themselves and you should just force them to do something interesting. I don't know, frame them for murder, kidnap them or instead of beginning the story with them already doing something interesting or having some quest to make from the start instead of just sitting in an inn. If they don't know what they want to do with themselves it's perfectly ok to at least partially railroad them into some interesting story and then it's much easier to continue from there.
Lincoln Nguyen
*or begin the story with them already doing something interesting
Robert Richardson
These sorts of questions aren't about your characters so much as they are about the players and you. Most campaigns typically begin with, "What do you guys want to play?"
This leads to "a heroic fantasy adventure where we have to slay an evil lich" or "A Space Opera setting where we're pirates and smugglers who end up doing the right thing when it comes down to it". The players say what they want, you contribute and compromise and you end up with the campaign pitch. You as the GM also want to do a heroic fantasy thing, but you were hoping for something set in sky-islands with magitech stuff. The players agree, but they want an airship! You go back and forth and end up with the campaign pitch. Then you follow up on it, you have your bad guy and you have the players. Who else is involves and why? Does the Bad guy have jealous servants trying to steal his power? Would they be willing to sell him out? Is the bad guy the head of the churches son? Is the bad guy trying to take over the realm to rule it? Does he just want to be left alone? You throw a bunch of stuff at the campaign and you see what sticks. How do the PCs fit into it? Are they the only ones willing to take a stand? Why are they taking the stand? Now you hand control over to the players.
The first session of any campaign is always a rough one, make no mistake user. There's never been a GM that has started a campaign with complete confidence and certainty and there never will be. You look at the characters your players have made and you panic immediately. Why would a Paladin be in a party with a rogue and a witch? Why is the Barbarian teaming up with a cleric? Typically, you as the GM have to force this interaction. If your players are godsends they'll have this planned out beforehand, be the characters childhood friends, family or related by backstory in some way. But typically you have to force it. >Cont
Carson Young
If the PCs are adventurers, there's an adventure that needs their unique skillset. But the players might have an airship, that's part of the campaign right? Someone needs transport and the players all have joint ownership of an airship that can provide said transport. Another classic is the players are arrested and framed for something they didn't do. This gets the party together and a means to follow up on the plot, who framed them and why? Will bringing this person to justice clear their name?
Typically as a GM, you'll want a secret little list. You'll fill it with generic names, some stat blocks, personality traits and place names. When the PCs want to go somewhere you check your list of place names and the players are going to the Frothy Tankard. It's got some Dwarves in there day-drinking, one is named, from your list, are Firstname A and Surname D, Ulric Stonebeard. And he doesn't know anything about the lead the players are chasing up, but the other dwarf, Firstname F and Surname B, Erik Goren says he's heard of the guy. He's been seen at another bar across the city, the Town Gate. And you go from there, none of the players need to know about the seams that barely hold your campaign together.
Dominic Cooper
Read The Lazy DM. The book gets floated around here a lot, and it details in specifics how to wing it as a DM and the work needed to put in to do so. Providing 3 general directions and let players move towards one, refluffing NPCs, tying backstories to the plot, etc.
Chase Anderson
adding to this: always imply stuff with your players. It will make them invent the story for you.
Currently my players are hunting an evil cultist, who was once the help of the town's adventurer shopkeeper. They believe him to be responsible for the supernatural illness that has taken the life of many townspeople.
Actually, that help was just intended to be lazy and therefore was missing when the shopkeeper called for him. My players immediately jumped to the conclussion that that guy had to be the true BBEG of the campaign, because after all, why should a non-BBEG not do his hardcoded NPC-job?
The minds of players are hillarious.
Asher Williams
>How do you write a story for a campaign? Seriously, how? As long as you have a good grasp on the setting, the story should flow naturally. Can't come up with your own setting? Steal other people's ideas. Read books, watch movies, pick what you like, mash stuff together if you have to.
some good ideas here as well 1d4chan.org/wiki/Storythread the best part being that unlike with books and movies your players won't be familiar with these.
Joseph Bell
Some tricks I use (though I don't use them in every campaign):
In the early stage of the campaign, the party should have something they all care about. They should be working for the same leader (someone they actually like, not just as hirelings,) or working to protect the same thing. Examples:
>they're all from the same village, and their home is under attack. >They're the crew of a ship, some of them adopted children of the old captain, and he sends them ashore to get the treasure while he minds the ship
Once the characters have grown into the setting, you give them a shared stake and a little more freedom. You saved the village together, and discovered a prophecy that you all seem to be a part of! The old captain passed on, and now you run the ship! You got rich and started a merchant trading house to get even richer! Now they have in-setting goals, and you don't have to have a quest-giver tell them where to go and what to do; you can ask them what they do next to pursue their goals.
Justin Clark
When GMing for Mutants and Masterminds I would literally just rip plots straight from my favorite comics and cartoons related to super heroes, it really isn't that hard to modify them to fit your group
Brody Smith
Not him, but you can also vary this technique by making the early game about something hunting them, specifically. Work together or die.
The first segment is usually some attempt to get to somewhere safe, at least temporarily. Then, after they do that, they'll usually want to strike back at whatever was hunting them.
Luke Hernandez
Make the setting into a story.
Jaxon Carter
>Ask your players what they want >"Okay, what kind of game do you guys want?" >"Oh, anything is fine, user!"
>Alternatively >Get extremely conflicting or stupid answers
Bentley Price
Get better players then
Joseph Scott
While the picture fits, you ask them to specify. You'll be investing a considerable amount of time into this game, it's only fair that they be up-front with you. If you get conflicting answers, tell them to sort it out between themselves or say which one you prefer. Incorporate themes from other ideas perhaps so that the player who wants to play CoC could still do some investigating and communicating with ancestral spirits in your wild western game.
Aiden Edwards
If your players are "We mill about town looking for someone to pay us to kill things" its perfectly reasonable to start them in a scenario.
"You are all in a prison for crimes against the Empire." They are forced to come up with something, and thats character defining, and presents them with a goal. (offer shyer players a hand.)
13th age is really good for firing up the imagination with its one unique thing. another tool Ive seen is tell your players to come up with 3 npcs directly related to the characters, two nice and one antagonistic. This will at least give you some story ideas and connective tissue. Just dont kill your players families or over use the kidnapping angle
Elijah Bailey
I always make a planner for a city: Think of all the even remotely possible places a party would want to go, think of what NPCs there are and where they are in the city. assign them into a sort of "town directory" and remember to make a list of rumours and gossip for when they party goes "Hurpdurp I ask this random joe if he knows anything"
It's a lot of extra work, but it sure as hell presents a better city than "Uh, uh, uh...you, you see a tavern?"
Jonathan Ramirez
Forget all this crap, user.
1: make your setting. Don't make it in huge detail, but sketch out a few places. Perhaps a few cities, a few countries, a couple of major religions.
2: make some factions relating to the size of your game. The merchant's guild, the church of the alm, the druids of the North, Barnaby and Gumption's Magical Potions.
3: Have the factions all go after their own goals, and make sure at least two other faction opposes that goal.
4: throw the factions at the players until the players either join up from the promise of fat loot, or attack them.
5: if the players joined the faction, BOOM. You've got a questgiver with a goal, and you've an enemy. If the players attacked that faction, BOOM. Get the enemies of those guys to help them out, then offer them more quests towards their own goals.
CAMPAIGN IS OFF THE GROUND.
after that do that for a few session, then depending on player actions/faction either make the faction join a bigger cause (kingdom goes to war or something), faction turns evil (they were the bad guys all along!) or the faction gets wiped out (they were getting too big thanks to the players, so their enemies banded together). You can add BBEG if you want.
YOU HAVE ALREADY GOT YOUR CAMPAIGN IN FULL SWING. FINISH IT HOW YOU WANT.
Noah Flores
>Get better players then Don't listen to this guy. Just get better as a GM.
Andrew Watson
This is good advice.
Asher King
If you have uncreative and possibly retarded players then I'd recommend you find some premade adventures for the system because that can help you get off the ground at least. You're guaranteed to have something to do for at least a session and that gives the players time to (hopefully) get more involved in their characters and they can figure out what their characters want and then you can have a base to build off of.
Or if your players are still just going wherever you push them to you can learn what the players themselves respond well to. If they enjoyed discussing something with an NPC then you know to maybe work in more RP or if they're murderhoboing it up you no know you just need to find an excuse to throw dungeons and monsters their way.
I can't give much advice for a whole story in itself, but stalling a huge narrative with a few adventures can help you get grounded in what the players and characters want. Or just keep throwing published material at them if they don't care. That could be easiest because then you just have to string them together.
Parker Watson
Structure is important. Unless you are going for open adventures, you need to setup hooks or plots that engage the player - and make sure players are on level with you. It will feel shit if they ignore the plot hook or whatever you setup for them and go instead murderhobo or something.
And remember to leave room for fudging, since players can surprise you. If you are gonna pre-write stuff, come up with locations, monsters/encounters you will use and characters, their personalities and motives. Not particular events that will happen to party - those will come by themselves.
Chase Ramirez
Create an interactive environment instead of a story.
It's all a matter of perspective. What sort of things incite YOUR interest as a player? What sorts of storytelling do you like from other DMs? Take a page from their books, and incorporate your personal interests as desired if you're into Magical Realm maybe not.
It pays to be on the same page as the players, of course--no matter what you do, players are how the story happens--but I think part of running a cool setting with a compelling story is because the DM is running the sort of game they'd want to play.
Luke Davis
Thanks user
Aaron Williams
This is the only valuable advice in my experience.
Nicholas Hernandez
If you want to wing a D&D game from scratch, you must first invent the universe
True, you can wing a game of D&D, but when every aspect of the story is made on the go, it will not take long for both yourself and your players to see the puppet strings. Either borrow, or create a setting of your own. Know it, be able to recall it at a moment's notice. Once you are able to do that it becomes much easier to think "What could happen here?" when creating a story for your players.
Take liberally from folk tales and old stories, recycle ideas, turn them into your own. Sometimes a troll under a bridge is a perfect way to start off an adventure, and just head out from there. Think of some strong evil (around lvl 7-10) that is just beginning to orchestrate it's plans, that way along their journeys small hints can be dropped that something is wrong in their realm but they're not sure what, just yet.
Only then do you really begin to create a campaign, as small adventures begin to build up you'll create ties and bonds, rivalries and enemies for the players that you can pull up at a moment's notice.
If after all that, you're still focused on the problem of how to create an adventure, follow these easy steps
1) Take a normal event for medieval life (farming, a festival, lumbering, a king's court)
2) What could ruin that? A monster? A betrayal? a spirit from beyond the grave?
3) What's something the players could do to prevent it? Kill it? Reason with it? Destroy the X that lets the monster/person/etc. do Y
You now have a basic adventure
Evan Collins
I recommend improv, even if you are struggling with it. It's a skill, and it needs practice like everything else.
I will admit it does more naturally than me for some, so I didn't need as much practice. But if I were to hazard a guess I would just right yourself notes. Little encounters that you could sprinkle throughout the session (ie: I want them to fight a werewolf this session. Then just try and squeeze that somewhere. Do they go to the woods? Great, the werewolf is a recluse axe maniac in a log cabin they stumble across. Do they wander through a town? Good, thee locals board out their doors and windows claiming a beast stalks their town at night.)
That and a lot of rpgs I have seen have example of story structure and a flowchart looks pretty cool. Write a short description of what you want from a session and two or three variations branching off based on what the party accomplishes. Then just keep building like that and you have a little campaign map. Then you'll have your stack of encounter note cards that you can sprinkle throughout the sessions.
It's also okay to have a few main plot beats (undead attacks city - local church asks for help - discover lich is behind attacks - find relic - research lich- find phylactery - kill lich) and find ways to have this happen regardless of where they go on your little map flowchart. Some may scream "RAILROAD" at this, but fuck them. However if your drastically turn the campaign South or do something else, then change the game to be about what they want to do. This is kind of how I organize my games but I just keep it in my head instead of writing it.
Or maybe you find all this advice trash. Experiment, do what works for you. What works for me may not work for you.
