Questions tagged [campaign-development]
For questions about writing, managing, and expanding campaigns.
326
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One of my PCs unknowingly slept with his sister [closed]
So some background: 3 sessions into the campaign, we arrived in Neverwinter and went to the nearest inn. At this inn, one of the barmaids started to flirt with our Paladin. Our paladin had sworn an ...
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How to keep track of the current situation in a setting?
When a GM creates his own setting (e.g. two neighboring kingdoms), he details it with important people, political relationships, events and so on. During a campaign, PCs' actions alter the setting's ...
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How to handle multiple main villains in your campaign [closed]
I was hoping to pick your collective brains in preparation for my new 5e Eberron campaign starting in a few months.
Most of the blogs/books etc I've looked through look at campaign design with one ...
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How can I keep surprising my co-GM when he's playing in my campaign?
I recently started a D&D 5e campaign with my gaming group and one of my friends has decided he wants to GM also. The setting we're playing in is a homebrew setting; I created the general outline ...
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Should I include Fate Core in my Fate world book?
If writing my own game/setting/world (product, for brevity's sake), Should I include the whole Fate Core game in my product, as with Apotheosis Drive X, or should I detail only the modifications to ...
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7
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How would I model a vast range of levels of power in Fate Core?
Let's say that I want to run a game in Fate Core where there are weak little critters, folk, heroes, legendary heroes, and gods, where the intent is that the players can go from folk all the way up to ...
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3
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0
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235
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How to test a Campaign Setting's Content? [closed]
I'm working on a pretty expansive campaign setting of my own right now, and I'd like to test it. The question is: How do I do it?
Notes & Details
This setting is generic, intended to be adapted ...
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I'm worried the PCs in my low-magic, low-gold campaign can't keep up with the increasing encounter challenge
I'm running a campaign and at the moment. The world in which they live is low-magic (and so the major way to have magic items is to create them), but also the amount of gold they get after each ...
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3
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Pathfinder equivalent of an "Explosive Leash"
As a GM creating a campaign I would like to know if there is a spell, item, or effect official for Pathfinder that can be used to force a badass to work for a group they are utterly opposed to but ...
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Is 'reversing' healing so that it actually does damage a legitimate mechanic for the DM? [closed]
Some time ago we were in a final battle with a end boss for a dungeon. The fight went pretty well in our favor but when the boss hit his bloodied value, our DM described that he emitted a dark shroud ...
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What should I keep in mind when running a game intended to subvert the players' expectations?
Many of my favorite works of fiction are either explicitly deconstructive in nature, or at least feature elements or scenes that unexpectedly subvert the audience's expectations. Often these are some ...
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How can I have mystery in a Fate plot?
I am going to run a session for a plot. This is going to be an introduction to RPGs, and what I'm trying to do is to add an element of mystery to the plot to keep the players hooked.
The plot goes ...
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1
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Will a C&C Forgotten Realms campaign without elves be unplayable?
I am a new DM. For my first campaign, I am going to kill off the entire race of non-Drow elves, except for the PCs who are the only survivors. Later on, I will be having them discover other ...
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0
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How much detail is enough to start a campaign? [duplicate]
As a new DM and new to the whole pen and paper genre, I am wondering how much detailed should my world be at the beginning of a campaign.
For example, if a player wants to create a cleric, I should ...
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6
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How to make large number of NPCs manageable to the GM?
I'm planning a game where there is about a dozen important NPC actors, with some more less important ones. "Important" means that even if they are not directly involved in current events, they play a ...
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10
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3
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Managing OOC player knowledge when using one-shot games as a prologue for a longer campaign
I have a situation where our group is a mix of people who are still at University and others have already graduated. Those of us who are finished all have jobs but live fairly close together and can ...
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0
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What are some good resources for designing maps (regional, provincial, dungeon, etc)? [closed]
Alright, I hope this question is narrow enough in scope that it's alright for RPG.SE. What I am asking for is a list of resources such as essays, books, blog posts, articles, how-to's, etc., that ...
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How do I tie episodic sessions together to make larger campaign arcs?
My D&D group only plays perhaps once a month and occasionally one of them won't be able to make it. I (the DM) home-brewed our last campaign and, whilst fun, the big story arcs and multiple NPCs ...
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2
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How Do I Bring PCs into Conflict with Druids? [closed]
My PCs are pursuing a major villain who deals with assorted plant-based monsters, who we'll just call the Queen. Being a manipulative sort, I think she would probably try to lead them towards ...
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Sword Coast weather and climate
To the point:
What is the climate of the Sword Coast like?
What real world climate region would it fit into best?
The more relevant the answer to the 5e FR, the better. If there's no 5e ...
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2
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1
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What can I use to give hints about forgotten memories without repeating myself? [closed]
I am building a campaign for my players. I want them to have been experimented on by some evil wizard/sorcerer, and have lost memories of what happened, only knowing that something major happened and ...
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What determines how much XP I reward each session?
I know that if characters role play toward their motivation they should get 5xp for it but generally are there any other guidelines for awarding xp regarding combat or story objectives?
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How can I make an overbearing government's unwelcome attention convincing without it dominating screen time?
My players are newly awakened mages (Mage: the Ascension 2nd edition) living in a near future in a metropolis in the European Union which is developing into a surveillance and military state union—a ...
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Way to manage world factions and events
Abstract
I have a loosely interconnected world where news travel slowly, but steadily so when a trader from a far off place comes visiting your place, what does he know? Whats his latest perspective ...
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How do you make an interesting game without boring players? [closed]
I just became a sort of DM in which I go through a fun world in all it's glory.
How do I make it so people won't get bored and just start killing things, yet also don't become fed up because the game ...
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Is 6 groups of fairly established individuals too much for early game? [closed]
I'm acting as the GM for a grimdark game called Pandemonio that a friend of mine discovered. I'm relatively new to being a GM and definitely new to being a GM of grimdark.
We've not yet had our ...
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1
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In Fate, how long should the break between the Worldbuilding Session and the next session be? [closed]
I'm going to run my first game in two days, and I'm going to spend the entire day with the two players I'll run it with.
I plan to have a brainstormy worldbuilding session first, to figure out what ...
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2
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1
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How do I get my PC's interested in the Hoard of the Dragon Queen? [closed]
I have Hoard of the Dragon Queen and I'm concerned my new PC's are going to be bored. What do you do as a GM to keep players interested?
Real players
Player charcters
(Unfortunately we just rolled ...
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37
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17
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How can I have a campaign where not everyone shows up to each session? [closed]
I'm starting a D&D (5e) club at my school. As most high schoolers don't show up to every club meeting, how can I account for this in creating parties? The club will likely have 20+ members, so ...
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How can I discover if players would react positively to a change of tone for a game without them knowing of the change?
I'm currently running a game of Cyberpunk 2020 for a couple of friends. Things are incredibly silly so far and the group seems to really like it. To get an idea of what I've run them through so far:
...
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5
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1
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"Empty" areas for me to add in an adventuring hub near the Sword Coast?
My setting is going to be near the 5e Sword Coast. My story is that the Sundering has brought back a creator race from Abeir, and I want them to have a presence south of what used to be Maztica on ...
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Campaigns are unsatisfying when made-up or slow when pre-written. How do we fix that? [closed]
We have tried to get started playing D&D three times and each have not worked out how we hoped.
Our first DM made up his own story and we played about 5 sessions. It was very fun, but the rewards ...
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Running a D&D game in the afterlife
No, I'm not referring to suggestions about playing D&D after I die.
I'm referring to playing a D&D campaign with a plot centered on the afterlife. Particularly, the concept of a petitioner in ...
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7
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What is a spell, curse, or illness that's long-lasting enough to drive a campaign?
Alright, so I want to make a villainous witch to be the villain that starts off the plot for a campaign. I want her to hex a beloved noble with either some format of permanent sleep, or impending ...
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How to run a campaign for intelligent players with idiot PCs?
I've just started a pathfinder campaign, and all of the players have taken intelligence as their dump stat. This is causing problems, because usually I depend on knowledge checks to determine what ...
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How viable is a party of only arcane casters?
I had a campaign story idea where the PCs were students at a prestigious magic university undergoing training to become guild-registered adventurers, with the caveat then that players could only ...
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What is the general pace of advancement in Monster of the Week?
I've picked up Monster of the Week (Revised edition), an Apocalypse World spin-off, and I'm excited about running it, but I'm concerned about how fast characters advance. It only takes 5 experience ...
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What's the best way to present a sandbox world to your players?
In my sessions, I let my players play in a sand-box world. There is a main story that I always plan that they could follow, and I have no problems with them doing so.
However, I would like my players ...
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Games with dynamic combat system [closed]
I'm building a campaign around CAPCOM Monster Hunter videogame, I only know 3 games, D&D (3.5e, 4e,5e), Roleage ( a spanish d100 game that has a duengeon siege progresion feeling), and Anima: ...
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How can I make a Pathfinder campaign like the Monster Hunter video game series? [closed]
I was thinking about how one would go about making a Monster Hunter (the video game) style campaign for Pathfinder, but I have a small number of problems.
Figuring out CR for "Monsters" to fight (Yes ...
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Are PCs supposed to start a game knowing each other, and if not, how should they meet?
I'm currently putting together a D&D game and I have most of it worked out. The only part about it that I'm still a little unclear on is whether or not the player characters should know each other ...
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Is there a "campaign background" story system or method?
microscope is a historical fractal story system that I've used successfully to generate background worlds for several campaigns, what it does it does very well.
What I'm looking for is something ...
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Ideal small town adventuring hub in Forgotten Realms
I will soon be starting a new 5e campaign. I am in need of a small to mid-size town to use as the hub for the entire campaign. My current plans are to use the Forgotten Realms setting. I would love ...
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How can I keep the Cthulhu mythos new and mysterious to experienced players?
I am currently preparing a Call of Cthulhu adventure, and I am hoping to be able to play the game on a regular basis in the future. But I am having concerns about keeping the mystery in the game from ...
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Cthulhu Campaign - How to create a more satisfying climax?
I'm in the midst of creating a campaign for my CoC group. By now, most of the material we played basically came down to these endings:
a) Run away and hope whatever it was doesn't follow you anywhere....
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How to effectively combine Ars Magica's Agent rules with Reign's Company rules?
This question was originally posed hypothetically in this Answer and ensuing comments.
I am attempting to do something very similar to this as seen in this Question. In that question I am looking ...
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How to build a flexible and scalable system for PCs' NPC organizations? [closed]
Background:
I am preparing to run a campaign using Dark Heresy Second Edition. Although this is nominally an investigative game, several key non-combat mechanical systems are either anemic or missing ...
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3
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How do I determine an NPC's skill levels?
When developing a new NPC, how do I ensure that they have close to the skill rankings that I would expect them to have, yet not make them more powerful than the PCs?
As an example, I want a noble ...
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What kind of people would I need to crew a trade caravan?
I need to know what kind of crew members I would need to crew a trade caravan. Like, how many gaurds would make sense, or would I need any important crew members? How many people do I need?
I am a GM ...
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What can happen in a month? [closed]
So at some point, my players decided that what was supposed to be a mostly nameless starting city for them to use a base of operations until they ventured out had to become their own personal fortress....
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