Planning a New Campaign? Do This First!

As game masters, dungeon masters, storytellers and narrators, we need to take a few things into account when planning our roleplaying game campaigns, and a few things before that too! These are the things that I believe you should be keeping in mind before you plan your next D&D, Star Wars or Pathfinder campaign.

Today we are talking about where our choices come from when we start to create our
actual campaign.

• Constraint 1: Rules
o Important to understand what the rules limit us to.
o Some things are possible, others are not.
o D&D = dragons, not Apache attacks helicopters.
o BountyHunter = Sci-fi bounties, not pixies on bluebells.

• Constraint 2: Outcomes
o What happens when PCs do things, response times, ramifications, laws, the
world space.
o We know the world space, so we know what should happen within that
space.
o Use your world space that you have created – what have you established for
yourself in that world and apply that to your campaign idea.

• Constraint 3: NPCs
o These will be making the plans of the campaign, not us.
o So, who are these NPCs?
o The NPCs are the ones reacting within the world space. So, yourNPCs need
to be solid.

• Constraint 4: Consequences
o We must consider that there will be HIDDEN consequences and outcomes
that we CANNOT know.
o The campaign should adapt and change as a result of the things that the PCs
are doing.

• NPCs come up with plans – GMs merely supervise them, consult with the NPCs, and
make sure things happen.

• Coincidence – you are the ONLY one who can make this happen.
o You MUST make this happen.
o Coincidence is something that story relies on.