Creating a Campaign

A campaign is a series of game sessions linked together over a long period of play, sometimes lasting weeks, months, years, or even decades. The conclusion of a campaign is a deeply satisfying accomplishment, creating memories that last for years. The first step in reaching that conclusion is preparation. Though it may seem like a challenge, forethought, planning, and flexibility will give players a satisfying campaign that will live on long after the game has ended.

Guiding Principles

Always Put the Players First: The primary goal should be to craft an experience that players enjoy. Creating 10,000 years of history or organizations with dozens of fully-fleshed out NPCs does no good if the result doesn’t directly contribute to the player experience. Similarly, if the players are excited about a classic dungeon crawl campaign, an intrigue-heavy game set in a magic academy might not be well-received.

Narrators Don’t Tell Stories: Though it may seem counterintuitive, Narrators don’t tell stories. Instead, they facilitate them. Level Up asks players to engage and make decisions that actively shape an emergent narrative. Instead of telling a story, a Narrator sets the stage, creates the background cast, and defines a scenario or conflict. The players create the main characters and then make decisions that produce results, mediated by dice. The story is the result of those elements coming together. Good campaigns create room for players to make decisions that affect outcomes. Great campaigns are the result of co-operative storytelling, with endings that often surprise Narrators and players alike. Don't overplan or decide the outcomes of encounters before they happen. Try to avoid scripted events that players are powerless to interfere with.

Developing a Premise

Before creating adventures or antagonists, establish a campaign’s premise. A premise is a basic statement that describes a campaign in broad terms. A good premise typically includes who the player characters are, what sorts of activities they will engage in, and where the campaign will occur. It also provides focus and informs nearly every aspect of the campaign, including the game's tone, pacing, and other details. 

Importantly, establishing a good premise creates shared expectations for the players. This helps to make sure that players are interested in the game and will help them to identify character concepts that fit the game.

To formulate a campaign’s premise, ask some questions. These questions help to clarify the game’s vision and create a general framework from which to build. 

What Type of Campaign?

There are many types of campaigns that encompass a variety of stories, but no single campaign can encompass them all without collapsing. The Narrator should begin with what’s exciting to them and what the players have expressed interest in. Dungeon crawls or games that are filled with thrilling combats? The court drama and shadow plays of political intrigue or the mystery of a vanished civilization?

Narrators that are just getting started or without any preferences might choose to instead work with a concept that includes a variety of different experiences without creating too many complications. For example, a rebellion offers a myriad of different gaming sessions (warfare on the field of battle or in the streets, politicking, sabotage, subterfuge, and more). 

Who Are the Adventurers?

Who are the adventurers? What is their role in the campaign? Are they larger-than-life heroes or normal people with mortal frailties? Are they destined to defeat a dark god or outcast misfits brought together by happenstance? Are they members of an organization? How are they connected? Where are they on the hero, anti-hero, and villain spectrum?

When asking these questions, avoid limiting character concepts and backgrounds. Adventurers come from all walks of life, and even an organization like a thieves guild leaves room for nearly any character type. A group of magic-hunting inquisitors may put insurmountable limitations on player choice however, so keep player choice in mind.

What Activities do the Adventurers Engage in?

Are the adventurers hunting down and exterminating a fell cult obsessed with summoning an elder evil? Are they just trying to make enough money to survive by hunting monsters? Are they pursuing a mystery that will lead them to a magical revelation that could transform the world?

In order to avoid narrative fatigue, make sure that the premise is broad enough to encompass a variety of different adventures or activities. Even dungeon-delving adventurers might get invited to a party. 

What are the Conflicts?

Conflicts are a vital part of any compelling story. Are the adventurers pitting themselves against unfathomable evil or are they struggling to survive the mundane dangers of a harsh wilderness? Are people the real monsters, or are monsters the real monsters? A great campaign encapsulates many conflicts, but a few will likely overshadow the rest.

What is the Scope?

How much time will the game cover? How much geography? How many levels will the adventurers achieve? How many NPCs will they meet and form relationships with? What is at stake? Will the party be fighting to save a village or the world? Games with high stakes might help to create focus, but such stakes can quickly create narrative fatigue or force the players to ignore side content or exploration. Why would reborn heroes help a farmer discover what’s eating his livestock when they’re in a race against time to stop an alien horror from rising?

Many Narrators have an urge to tell sweeping and epic tales, but often smaller and more intimate stories with personal stakes are just as if not more rewarding. The fate of a village on the edge of a crumbling empire might be more compelling than that of the empire itself because of the intimacy of the stakes. A smaller scope is also easier to manage, particularly for Narrators that are just starting out. When using high stakes do so sparingly—a group of adventurers can only save the world so many times before even that becomes stale.

What is the Tone?

Tone is an important characteristic in any narrative. Is the campaign a brood narrative of personal horror or a pulpy four-color action adventure? The tone of a campaign might shift over play, and may vary from session to session, but consider what each segment, act, or plot arc should convey. As with activities, varying the tone can help fight narrative fatigue.

Define the Premise

With this information in hand and defining the campaign’s premise, keep the focus on the adventurers. Use the examples below as a guide.

• Explorers and mercenaries looting a land devastated by a magical apocalypse.
• Members of a thieves guild struggling to survive in the shadows and overthrow a corrupt governor in an occupied city.
• Mythical heroes reincarnated to stop the rebirth of an evil god.
• Down-on-their luck adventurers hunting monsters on the periphery of a rapidly industrializing kingdom.

  With a premise, the Narrator can consider other questions about the structure and the flow of the campaign.

Plot Structure

At its core, a campaign is a collection of stories, or adventures, that are connected together by narrative threads.

In an episodic campaign, these threads are loose. Each adventure is self-contained, beginning when the players are involved and ending when they’ve completed it and often lasting no more than a couple sessions. The adventurers themselves may be the only threads that connect these episodes. This works well when the stakes are low or when covering a large period of time.

In a serialized campaign, the plot is a single long running story broken up over a series of chapters. Perhaps the whole campaign is focused on the acquisition of a powerful artifact or the defeat of an elder evil. While there will be other stories contained within, each plot and adventure builds toward a singular narrative. These campaigns tend to focus on an event with high stakes or a relatively short period of time.

Practically speaking, most games exist near the middle of the spectrum. There might be an overarching plot that the game builds towards, but that larger narrative is interspersed with other adventures that might not be directly related to it. Many long form television series use this structure. The adventurers may investigate a cult, a series of monster attacks, and a group of bandits, only to discover that some of them are related as the broader story transpires.

The plot structure might also shift at various points in the game based upon the players’ actions or as the campaign transitions from one act to the next as events unfold or new information is acquired.

Act Structure

It’s not necessary to have every single adventure of a campaign written, but sketching out a general idea of how it might end is an important step. It helps to conceptualize a campaign’s beginning, middle, and end, or Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3.

Act 1 is an opportunity to introduce characters, locations, factions, and plot threads. It is also an opportunity to foreshadow future events and build relationships or allegiances that will shape the campaign to come.

The second act is often the bulk of the campaign, and much of game’s conflict occurs here. The adventurers’ decisions should play a central role in shaping Act 3 (the conclusion). Use this as an opportunity to provide choices and events that the players can influence or decide.

Act 3 is usually the shortest segment and should be shaped by the previous acts. While there may be an urge to carefully plan Act 3 well in advance, , avoid planning too much if possible. Focus on the antagonist's motivations or plans and the broader events that serve as a backdrop, and allow the players to take part in writing the conclusion through their actions and choices in Acts 1 and 2.

Pacing

The pace of a campaign is an important factor and is dependent on the stakes. Unless there is a compelling reason for the adventurers to push themselves, periods of downtime create verisimilitude and opportunities to highlight relationships, communities, or other significant aspects of the setting without taking up too much table time. 

Campaign Zero

Another important piece of preparation prior to a campaign’s start is session zero. This invaluable tool should include discussing the campaign and establishing expectations. Important topics include but are not limited to:

• The campaign’ premise, the tone, and what players can generally expect from gameplay.
• House rules.
• A general overview of the campaign’s setting.
• Who the characters are, how powerful they are relative to the setting, and their general moral orientation.
• Expectations on intra party conflict.
• The use of safety tools.
• Logistical concerns.

Session zero can also provide the opportunity for characters to create background ties and what roles they’d like to play.

Many campaigns are undone by a lack of organization. Before the campaign begins, set up tools to help track characters, events, and locations. When the campaign focuses on a particular geographic area, a map can be a valuable tool as well (especially if the party can track their travels on it). 

Example

Sarah is creating a campaign for her players. She asks about their preferences and learns that they want roleplay and exploration, a fair amount of combat, and some politics. Sarah is a new Narrator, and she doesn’t want to overcomplicate things. She doesn’t want to run a “save the world” plot either, opting for something more intimate: exiles thrust into a life of adventure in a town at the edge of a crumbling empire. 

Sarah decides to use Act 1 to establish the setting, introduce NPCs and organizations, and foreshadow events in Act 2. She decides Act 1 will cover a year of game time, ending when a civil war erupts that marks the transition into Act 2. Not  wanting to inundate the players, Sarah plans a total of 6 planned adventures during that time, giving them the option for periods of downtime, wilderness exploration and ruins that she plans to seed, and hijinks. 

An episodic structure is the approach she opts for. The primary conflict of Act 2 will revolve around a trio of factions, the remnant of an imperial government, the heir to a hereditary throne, and a religious institution. They are all searching for an ancient repository of arcane technology, so she sketches out adventures that highlight each faction during Act 1. She wants to showcase the ancient civilization that will play a central role in Act 2 and Act 3 so she sketches an adventure that will take the party to a dungeon crawl in the ruins. Sarah also creates a list of strong characters with interesting motivations and backstories that her roleplay hungry players can delve into, then identifies where they can best be included in the setting and her adventures.

She rounds out Act 1 with a prepublished adventure that she plans to modify, hooks for several adventure sites, and a job board with small tasks and bounties. 

Sarah knows that Act 2 will begin with the start of a civil war that sparks a struggle for control among the factions she’s created. Each wants to harness the ancient power hidden in the ruins. She develops the general motivations of each faction, but she doesn’t want to plan too far ahead, instead waiting to see what her players do in Act 1. She expects the party to pick one and support it, but she knows that players often surprise Narrators. 

Act 3 is months away so she keeps the details vague. She knows that she wants an ancient threat to emerge—brought about by the misuse of their artifacts—but that’s months away and she doesn’t want to limit herself with too much planning. Ultimately, she knows that the secrets concealed nearby could affect the power dynamics of the whole region. 

She creates the outline for an introductory adventure that will introduce the players to each other, get them to town, and provide them with some choice as to where to go next. 

To prepare for her session zero, Sarah creates a list of topics and develops questions to help her players create characters that mesh well with the campaign and each other. Using that information, she refines her first adventure, makes some modifications, and prepares to run her campaign!