Easy Campaigns to Run for Beginner Pcs Pathfinder

The hardest part virtually writing these f$&%ing things week after week later week is figuring out how to starting time the damned things. I due south$&% you not. One time I go started, I can belt out v,000 words. 7,000 words. Whatever. But it's that showtime f$&%ing sentence that drives me crazy. Why practise you think you're getting such a crap opening paragraph?

Fortunately, at least that crap opening paragraph ties into the bodily field of study of this commodity. Come across, now that nosotros've covered the basic elements that lie at the heart of every campaign – the shape and the glue – it's time to answer the question anybody keeps asking me "how do I actually START a entrada?"

Well, sort of. I tin't do anything piece of cake, can I?

Here'southward the trouble. Campaigns actually have at least TWO starts. Sometimes, they can have THREE. Or even more than. But they very definitely have at least Two, and mine always accept 3 or 4.

Okay, okay, plainly, I'k splitting hairs. But I'k splitting hairs to brand a point. The bespeak is, you have to be really clear about what you mean by "showtime" or "beginning" when you enquire for advice. Exercise you hateful, for example, how to run that first game that introduces the whole campaign and brings anybody together? Or practice you hateful how to plan that first game? Or do y'all need to know how to program your entrada? Practise you want to know how to handle grapheme generation? And, for those of y'all real clever-clods out at that place who can already see this one coming, are y'all talking near PRE-PLANNING? Are yous talking about the so-called SESSION Cipher?

You lot come across what I mean? Which i of those things constitutes starting a entrada? The short answer is: all of them. And more if you practice what I similar to call a "delayed start" campaign.

Starting a campaign – fifty-fifty a simple campaign – is a big, complicated affair. And I can't cover it all today. So, I'm going to cover the most useful bit today. The flake I call the preplanning. That will atomic number 82 united states nicely into the topic of plotting out the entrada. Afterward that, we'll come up back and backfill some of the other $.25 of planning. Then we have to hash out some stuff about setting creation. Then, we tin talk about character generation. And FINALLY, we can talk about creating and running that beginning session.

Settle in kids. This is going to be a long series. Just earlier we practise ANY of that crap, I'thousand going to talk about how I generally outset off a campaign. And how you should too.

A Campaign is Built-in

Start, remember that a campaign is basically any ongoing at game with any sort of continuity. Past that definition, almost every game that is meant to last across ane unmarried adventure IS a campaign. If yous aren't sitting downwards to run a one-shot adventure (which might concluding just one session or span several sessions), you're going to run a campaign. At present, nigh GMs don't call back of it that manner. They just run an adventure. And later that adventure is over, if anybody wants to go together and play another adventure with the aforementioned characters, an impromptu campaign is born. In fact, that's the most common type of campaign in the entire world. That's the kickoff campaign about every GM runs.

At present, you're smart enough to recognize that equally a plate of meatballs campaign, correct? Just a loose collection of "adventures of the week." And you are besides smart enough, now, to recognize that those impromptu campaigns are defective an extremely of import element. They take no glue to bind them together. And that isn't practiced. That'southward request for the game to peter out someday.

That'southward why I always assume that every game that I don't specifically limit to a single take chances is going to exist a campaign. And I plan it accordingly. And you should do the same.

So, here's what happens. Starting time, I get this desire in my brain to run a campaign. I don't know where information technology comes from, only I suspect I have a tumor pressing on a key brain lobe that keeps making me forget that running games is a thankless, plain-in-the-a$& task that basically amounts to a full-time job without the paycheck.

Now, I might take inspiration for a story or I might not. That doesn't matter. Inspiration is bulls$&%. Merely it does happen. Sometimes, your brain says, "I'd like to run a game, allow the suffering commence." Other times, your brain says, "I have a groovy idea for a campaign nearly the kidnapping of the goddess of death and winter and the search for her truthful name, I need to run that."

If I have an idea for the campaign, I bang that together into what I phone call a PREMISE. If I don't have an idea beyond wanting to run a campaign, I still demand a PREMISE. The PREMISE is the first real step in developing a campaign. And it comes as a event of what I call PREPLANNING.

Apart from a PREMISE, the other things a campaign needs are PLAYERS. Sometimes, I will have a group lined up already. Other times, I won't. In other words, sometimes the PREMISE comes first so the PLAYERS come along. Other times, the PLAYERS come first and then the PREMISE happens.

Now, gathering players is something I volition cover in some other article. Just in that location's a very important point here. The PLAYERS will affect the PREMISE, equally you'll see. Then, if you don't have a PREMISE and you don't have PLAYERS, it'south usually better to get together your PLAYERS first and so figure out the PREMISE. If you have the PREMISE first, you use the PREMISE to gather PLAYERS. The PLAYERS accept to agree to the PREMISE. And the PREMISE has to be based on the PLAYERS.

Am I going in circles? Yep. Yes, I am. I'll try to spell it out simpler.

If you have a PREMISE, be up forepart with it when you're gathering players. Tell them outright, "this is the game I'm running. If you want in, you have to agree to this game." If you have no PREMISE, sit down with your players and accept a discussion with them about your desires and expectations AND theirs. After that discussion, you can come with a PREMISE. Offer that PREMISE to your PLAYERS. If they accept, the game goes forrard. If they don't – or some don't – you can decide whether to come up upward with a new PREMISE or seek new PLAYERS that are a better fit for your PREMISE.

Once you have a PREMISE and PLAYERS, the next step is the planning phase. That'south where you brand the large decisions. You choose the SETTING, plan whatever PLOT you have to, and decide on a STARTING Point. You also need to determine how to handle Character GENERATION. Now, SETTING, PLOT, and STARTING POINT are all what I consider role of the PLANNING PHASE.

Okay, so y'all take PREPLANNING which involves developing a PREMISE. In one case you have a group of PLAYERS that agree with the PREMISE, y'all start PLANNING. In PLANNING, you come up upward with details almost the SETTING, PLOT, and STARTING POINT. Follow all of that?

Now, meanwhile, the players have to create characters. That means Graphic symbol GENERATION has to happen. And that is going to happen erstwhile DURING the PLANNING. Why during? Well, the players need certain details to create their characters. At the very to the lowest degree, they need to have plenty SETTING details to create characters that fit the globe. Only depending on how you're treatment the PLOT and STARTING POINT, they may need details almost those as well. But, at the same time, to make decisions virtually the PLOT and STARTING POINT, y'all need details about the characters.

Long story curt, you lot start PLANNING. And you lot focus your efforts on the things the players need for CHARACTER GENERATION. Once those details are bachelor, you have CHARACTER GENERATION. And based on what happens during CHARACTER GENERATION, you finish PLANNING. Are good so far?

Now, the PLANNING phase can be simple or complicated. That depends heavily on the campaign you're running. Fortunately, the PREPLANNING will help y'all figure out how much PLANNING you demand. We'll cover that as well. Eventually.

At some signal in the PLANNING, yous will break off and develop your Outset Run a risk. And then you will run that. Note that that doesn't mean the PLANNING is over. Information technology can. For some campaigns, PLANNING ends when the Get-go Take chances begins. For other campaigns, PLANNING can proceed beyond the Commencement Gamble. In fact, the difference between PLANNING the campaign and RUNNING the entrada is very hazy and fuzzy. And the reason for that is that the campaign really exists as a planning tool for hereafter adventures. A campaign is only a roadmap for an ongoing game.

So, one more time, hither's the process. PREPLANNING leads to a PREMISE. Once you have PLAYERS that agree to the PREMISE, you begin PLANNING. During PLANNING, you determine the SETTING, you might program the PLOT, and figure out the STARTING Signal. One time y'all've washed enough PLANNING to allow it, you accept Graphic symbol GENERATION. Later CHARACTER GENERATION, you proceed PLANNING until you're ready to develop a FIRST ADVENTURE. And then you run the Kickoff ADVENTURE. At that indicate, yous're running a entrada, even if yous're still PLANNING.

Now, some people might think I overcomplicated a very elementary process. Others might think I may be grossly oversimplifying what is otherwise a complex process. Either style, y'all're right and wrong. The complication varies a lot from campaign to entrada. Yous can handle the entire process of "starting a campaign" in minutes if you decide to only run an "hazard of the calendar week" for a grouping of "mercenary adventurers" in the "core D&D setting." But if y'all decide to run a complex, multithread plot about five heroes with complex character arcs uniting to assistance shepherd a unique, homemade earth through the Day of Judgment and into a new era, that'due south going to take some fourth dimension.

What we're talking near today, though? At least for the rest of this commodity? We're talking almost PREPLANNING and PREMISES. We'll cover all the other details later.

Don't Tell Me About Your Story

Before we talk almost what goes into a premise, I want to make a very important indicate here: your story doesn't matter. I don't give a crap if y'all accept bright ideas for your setting and story. That isn't what your premise is about. Then, forget information technology. The dirty little underground is this: the campaign you will run is the campaign you are able to run, not the ane y'all want to run. Deplorable to burst your bubble.

Now, I'k not talking about that bulls&$% like "if yous tin can't go the players to agree to your premise, y'all won't be able to run the game." I hateful, that IS true, just that's not the biggest factor. If you're willing to shop effectually, betwixt game stores, real life friends, and the plethora of online games, you lot can usually find at least 3 players willing to go along with just about whatever campaign.

What I'm talking about is entirely practical. See, no matter game you lot desire to run, yous have to run it in the real world with real people. And you are too a real person. If you piece of work a part-time job and attend classes full-time at higher, no amount of dedication will give y'all the time you need to run a long-running, extremely complex campaign in a completely original world filled with unique monsters and races. If you only accept two weeks to get your campaign together considering everyone wants to start playing, your brilliantly complex setting isn't going to happen. Lamentable.

The biggest error virtually GMs make when starting campaigns is that they try to run the game they desire to run instead of the game they can run. That is, the game they tin manage to keep together and the game the players tin go along upward with.

Basically, as we hash out choosing your premise, we're going to focus on entirely practical concerns. And you probably aren't going to want to hear what I have to say. Tough. Running a good game is about recognizing what yous tin and can't do.

What Is a Premise?

So, what actually is a premise? A premise is a curt clarification of your intention for the entrada. Some folks similar to use the phrase "elevator pitch." If you've never heard that term, it comes from screenwriting. Imagine you're a screenwriter and you lot have a great idea for a moving-picture show. One die, you discover yourself riding in an lift with a major motion picture producer. Y'all have the length of that lift ride to tell the producer your idea and get him to produce your movie. Now, you plain can't go over every detail of the entire script. Instead, you take most a paragraph to describe your intentions and sell the motion-picture show.

While information technology is truthful that yous Volition be trying to sell your players on your premise, I don't like the term "elevator pitch." Run into, a premise isn't only a sales pitch. The sales pitch is a part of information technology. But the premise is as well a planning tool. It has to spell out sure things to be useful. At minimum, a premise MUST spell out the shape of the campaign and it must provide a sense of the mucilage that volition hold the campaign together.

My premises follow a pretty standard format. First, describe WHO the characters are and WHY they will come together. And then, explain WHAT they will practise during the entrada.

For example:

"The players are a group of unlikely heroes who come up together to save the globe. During the campaign, they fight the minions of the demon king and eventually defeat him."

Or:

"The players are a grouping of adventurers in a city of adventure who are all members of the social club of adventuring adventurers. During the entrada, they have adventures."

At present, you don't have to stop at WHO, WHY, and WHAT. Those just define the construction of the campaign and the glue that will hold information technology together. Y'all can also answer two other questions: WHERE does the campaign take place and WHY is your entrada crawly?

The where question refers to the setting. This isn't something you always have to accost in your premise. And even if you practice want to address it, yous don't have to come up up with besides much right off the bat. But nosotros'll discuss that more in a little while. As for the why question, the why question refers to something called the USP: the unique selling point. A unique selling point is a feature your entrada has that no other campaign tin can boast nigh. Once more, they aren't necessary, only they do assistance become people excited virtually your campaign. THAT'South where you do your salesmanship.

Now, let's look at how you might respond each of those five questions.

Who, Why, and What: Practically Speaking

Who are the heroes? Why are they together? What do they do? The answers to those three questions are going to grow directly out of two decisions: what shape will your campaign take and what is the glue that holds your entrada together. And this is where that tricky practicality thing comes in. Before you decide what shape and glue you Desire, you have to recall about which ones yous Tin can HAVE.

When it comes to shape and glue, the fact is that about campaigns suffer from limiting factors. And those factors almost e'er come downward to practical concerns about attendance, reliability, and effort.

In full general, the more your entrada relies on potent plot threads and the more of those plot threads y'all're going to have, the more attempt your campaign requires to run AND play in and the more disruptive whatsoever omnipresence issues will exist. The most farthermost instance is the plate of spaghetti campaign, the one that involves multiple, interwoven plot threads. Especially if those plot threads are grapheme driven threads. Those games require very regular sessions with curt time intervals and reliable attendance. If also much time passes from session to session, people lose track of the plot threads. If characters will exist dropping in and out due to unreliable attendance, that's going to derail the ongoing plot threads. And because you're going to accept to write all those adventures and go along track of all those plots and run very regular games, that'southward going to take a lot of piece of work. Hours of work for every session, probably.

If you take whatever doubts near the reliability of your players or the corporeality of effort you lot tin put into the game, yous want to stick with a plate of meatballs. If the players will by and large be reliable and you have some fourth dimension to spend, you tin get away with a sausage or noodle entrada. If you have very reliable players and you can put in a lot of effort, you can practise the plate of spaghetti.

Of grade, if your grouping is stable and y'all're willing to work, you tin can choose any shape you want. Merely you should too consider your own experience level and your tolerance for exhaustion. If you lot oasis't run a lot of campaigns before or you are prone to burnout, you also want to stick with meatball campaigns. Alternatively, if you're dauntless, try running an hazard path sort of noodle entrada.

If the group is stable and you're experienced, y'all can choose whatsoever shape yous want. But you might also consider discussing the game with your players to become an thought of what they might want. If the players are after a coincidental experience or they are focused on gamey challenges like killing monsters and gathering loot, they probably merely want a plate of meatballs. If they want to experience an epic quest, yous want to run a good noodle campaign. If they desire complex character building and the opportunity to pursue their own goals, that'southward a plate of spaghetti.

And if yous aren't sure, remember that you tin can always ADD plot threads later. A plate of meatballs game can transition to a noodle campaign, which can become a sausage campaign or a plate of spaghetti campaign. Information technology's much harder to REMOVE plot threads and convert a plate of spaghetti to a noodle campaign or a plate of meatballs.

Once you accept the shape of your entrada downwardly, y'all need to choose your glue. And, once again, this is based on entirely applied considerations. I don't give a f$&% what you want or what you experience. You must have the reality of the game you're running. And that comes down to a few considerations.

Commencement, the shape of your entrada itself has a lot to practise with the glue that holds your campaign together. A noodle or sausage campaign, by its nature, includes a single overarching goal. At that place'southward no reason non to brand that your gum. But that doesn't mean you can't strengthen it if you accept to.

On the other hand, meatball campaigns accept no overarching goals. Obviously, they demand glue. And they need strong glue. The reason they need strong glue is that whatever given take chances in a meatball campaign might be unimportant to some of the characters or might merely appeal to weak motivations for some characters. That'southward unavoidable. Every adventure tin't appeal strongly to every character all the fourth dimension. Trust me. Potent glue, in those campaigns, helps explicate why the characters don't only split up upwards and pursue their own goals rather than occasionally taking on adventures that don't pay off equally strongly for them.

And, as foreign as information technology may sound, spaghetti campaigns also demand very potent glue. By their nature, they are made upwards of multiple plot threads. And only as with meatball adventures, spaghetti plot-threads might vary in importance from character to grapheme. Strong gum explains why the characters don't separate every bit soon as a plot thread of lesser importance gets the focus of the story. At present, spaghetti campaigns can benefit from a common goal if one of the plot threads dominates the others in a sort of a-plot, b-plot setup. That is, if one of the threads is about saving the world, that's a goal anybody can get backside. The other threads come to the fore just when the saving the world plot calms downwardly a little bit.

But shape isn't the only consideration when it comes to picking the mucilage for your campaign. Stability and attendance is another issue. The more unstable your game is, the more than unreliable your attendance, the stronger the gum that'due south needed to continue the game together. Only, if your game is unstable or unreliable, there are some glues that simply don't work. Common goals don't work well for unstable groups or groups that go a long fourth dimension between adventures for the same reason that certain campaign shapes don't piece of work well. Instead, external glues work quite well.

Beyond stability and attendance, another gene rarely discussed by most GMs because nigh GMs don't think in practical terms like I practice considering I'm a f$&%ing genius – pitiful, an important cistron is group cohesion and player relationships. In general, groups that have been playing together for a long time tend to exist more cohesive. They tin tolerate weaker glues because they tend to supplement weaker glues by forming personal bonds between their characters that match their interpersonal bonds in real life. In fact, these are the just groups I would suggest relying solely on personal relationships or common means to hold the group together.

On the other cease of the spectrum are wildcard groups. Those are groups of consummate strangers, people who take never played together before. Because you never know what yous are getting into, strong glues are needed and external glues piece of work best. Employers and organizations can hold together any group of strangers that doesn't have a common goal.

Personally, I've reached the betoken at present that I pretty much rely on mutual goal games OR employers and organizations OR I invent some other external gum that ties the players together. And when I don't know the group well, I make sure to strengthen the gum. I'll ensure there are restrictions in place to forestall major conflicts (no evil, for example) and I'll add together actress types of gum. For example, in a save-the-world campaign, I might foreclose evil and I might also require each grapheme to take some sort of preexisting (only usually long lapsed) relationship. Childhood friends, reuniting for the outset time after 10 years is i of my favorites.

The shape and gum together answer the who and why. And that leaves yous to respond the what. And this is where the story comes in. The what part of the game is really an alibi for the who and why. Yeah, the story is an excuse for the structure. You heard me. Suck it up.

Patently, if the game includes a common goal and is based on noodles or sausages, the what function IS the goal. If the goal is to salvage the earth, the what question is "salvage the globe from what." On the other mitt, if the game is a meatballs campaign based on common means – adventurers each having ongoing adventures for their own goals – the what is much hazier. It'south basically but "have adventures." And if y'all find yourself having problem coming up with a skillful what, that might be a sign that your premise is weak.

Remember, the key is to tell the players who the characters are, what they will be doing in the game, and why. If yous can't answer those three questions, y'all aren't ready to go your players to want to play the game. Are y'all.

Either way, the what part is the story part. If you started this process with a good story idea, now is the fourth dimension to bring that in. If information technology fits. And if it doesn't, you either need to make it fit OR you need to discard information technology. For example, if you sit down and realize you lot have a group of unreliable strangers, limited time to spend on campaign work, and tin just guarantee two sessions every three months, your brilliant intrigue entrada with five interwoven plot threads with each character a member of a different noble house working toward their own goals is NOT GOING TO WORK. If you aren't willing to become a whole new batch of players, THROW IT THE F$&% OUT. Or, at least, salve it for later. But Practise Non attempt to strength a entrada you and your group CAN'T SUCCESSFULLY PLAY. Yous're just going to exist sad.

At this point, your premise is technically done. At to the lowest degree, it'south minimally washed. Yous know the shape of the campaign, you know what's holding information technology together, and you know vaguely what it'south about. That's enough to see if your players want to bite. Just, there's a few other questions to think about.

To Setting or Not to Setting

Now, even though you don't actually have to work out whatsoever setting details just yet, it IS worth thinking a niggling scrap about the setting. Specifically, you lot want to decide whether to use no setting, utilize a published setting, or build your ain setting. Nosotros'll talk more about these options when we discuss settings and setting building. But let's run through the basics.

First, there'southward the non-setting. Did you fifty-fifty realize this is an selection? Well, it is. The non-setting is the setting IMPLIED in the core rulebook of whatever game you're running. It'due south the one that follows the descriptions of the races and classes in the book, makes use of whatever gods and magical rules are already laid out in the cadre, that kind of thing. Most people think of this equally a specific setting. Just information technology isn't. Even if it has a name and even if it seems similar a setting.

For case, in D&D three.v, the default setting was based on the world of Greyhawk. And in Pathfinder, the default setting is based on the world of Glorantha. I think. Just running in the non-setting IS Non the same as running in Greyhawk or Glorantha. Those books don't provide enough information to run in bodily Glorantha or actual Greyhawk. They don't substantially depict whatsoever specific locations, they don't give you any real story threads, they don't become into detail about any NPCs, and the information y'all get about things like gods is pretty sparse.

The bespeak is, when you cull to run in the non-setting, what you're really doing is choosing a bare slate. You can conjure upward cities, towns, kingdoms, NPCs, backstories, story hooks, and anything else y'all need equally you need them. The non-setting is a sort of template. It spells out a hazy world that you tin detail as you need. And at that place'south enough spelled out that yous really don't have to exercise any work beforehand. The races, the classes, their roles in the earth, the gods, all that crap that players need to know is already spelled out.

As far as a homebrew game goes, the non-setting is the easiest, lowest effort startup you can get. And there is ZERO shame in it. My-go to campaign setting, which I take dubbed the Angryverse, actually started as the D&D 4th Edition not-setting.

Believe it or not, using a published setting – like the Forgotten Realms – is actually More than work than using the not-setting. The non-setting requires cypher on your role or on the part of your players to utilise. Just utilize the details from the book and add whatever other details y'all need. Published settings include a lot of details in improver to those already in the rules. Lots of extra gods, locations, NPCs, storylines, and lots of history. And published settings almost always include extra graphic symbol generation options and extra layers of particular for character generation. All of that adds complexity to the game. And it also adds to the cost. Later all, all those setting books have to be paid for.

The payoff, of course, is that published settings are loaded with ideas and hooks and published adventures and all sorts of detail you lot tin describe on. They provide easy sources of inspiration and fallbacks in instance you need an run a risk, an NPC, or some other particular on the wing. Only whatever you lot want to invent has to be worked in and information technology has to brand sense alongside all the other details.

The other thing that a published setting provides that the not-setting doesn't is a richly detailed world. If it is important to you and your players that the world feel vast and rich and deeply detailed and have an answer for absolutely everything right out of the gate, a published setting can't exist beat. If you lot desire to provide that kind of experience with your own setting, you need to do A LOT of upwardly front work. The cloak-and-dagger is, though, that it isn't THAT of import to have a richly detailed earth most of the time. Not upwardly front anyhow. And just by playing in the non-setting, you'll fill up it out every bit you need to.

My communication is this: unless you're telling a story that can simply be told in a setting OR yous and your players are specially passionate about a item setting, stick with the non-setting. It's easier on everyone and, even if you do detect yourself struggling to invent locations, NPCs, plot-lines, and adventures, you tin can always import them from a setting and only shave the serial numbers off.

Every bit for the third option, the homebrew setting, well… if you want or need the homebrew setting, you'll probably know it. A homebrew setting is a detailed setting, like a published setting, just it's one you've invented yourself. Information technology is distinct from the non-setting in that information technology deviates from the core rules from the book. It may involve custom races, custom classes, custom deities, or unique rules. We volition hash out developing your ain setting someday. But if your homebrew setting doesn't alter any of the details in the rulebooks – if it'southward but a world map – that's just the non-setting. Which is fine.

Remember though that this is only PREPLANNING. Yous don't have to make a whole lot of heavy decisions at this bespeak. Y'all but desire to think about whether y'all demand a specific setting or not and whether you programme to write that setting yourself. And you want that equally part of your PREPLANNING considering it will tell you lot how much work y'all have to practise before Character GENERATION can happen and it will too let the players know how much they might have to invest. The non-setting is like shooting fish in a barrel for players. A published setting is more complicated. A homebrew setting is a heavy investment for players.

Oh, and simply because yous choose a not-setting, that doesn't mean you lot can't make some tweaks. It'southward not unusual to remove a few options or even add together a few from other sources. And you can decide on those things when you outset PLANNING.

What Makes Your Idea So Corking?!

At this point, you've figured out the shape of your campaign and decided on the glue. You lot've worked those things in a very basic PREMISE that describes who the characters are, why they are together, and what they volition practise during the campaign. And you may have either decided not to decide on a setting or yous may take decided you demand a serious setting: published or invented. And if yous came into the entrada starting process with nothing, and so guess what? You're washed PREPLANNING. Take your PREMISE to your PLAYERS and see if they will bite.

Simply, maybe you came into this procedure with an Thought. Maybe you did take a story to tell or a setting to tell information technology in. Now, assuming your idea survived the process – that you didn't discard information technology equally impractical for you and your group – assuming your thought is still feasible, y'all have one more job to practice. And it's a doozy. In 1 or two sentences, you have to tell the players the coolest, nigh awesome affair virtually your campaign thought. The affair that will brand them want to play information technology more than annihilation else.

That's hard. I know it's difficult. Because your ideas are big and complicated and your players really need to hear everything to sympathise just how cool your entrada is going to exist. What y'all should actually do is type information technology all out in a three-page email and see if they similar information technology.

No! Bad! Stop! Wrong!

The point of the premise is not to give the players everything. It's just to get them interested enough to want to know more. And the betoken of preplanning is not to design your whole goddamned campaign. That's why information technology'southward PREplanning and not PLANNING. You can never be certain your campaign thought is going to wing. And you tin can never be sure that your players aren't going to drop a whammy. I once worked upwardly an unabridged treatment for a 2-yr epic but to have iii of my 5 players reveal they were all moving out of state inside the next half dozen months to 1 year. Plan RUINED.

No matter what you retrieve you know, yous don't. Don't assume you practise.

I can't give you any advice here. This is hard as f$&%. Trust me. I know. I don't write anything curt. I don't do brevity. But I'one thousand telling yous: find a way to say it short. You'll take time to fill in all the details later. For now, pick the about interesting thing and sell THAT.

For case, I ran a entrada a few years back where the players discovered they were the reincarnated spirits of dead adventurers from the long by who were plucked from time by a powerful mage and bound to an artifact that would keep resurrecting them every time they died so as to protect the mage'due south city from a prophesized cataclysm only and so the mage disappeared earlier she could explicate any of this and the huge city state was left in a state of political chaos as seven different magical guilds all tried to seize control and meanwhile history was changing because the mage had pulled the heroes from their proper place in time and the calamity they were meant to stop was just going to happen because it hadn't been stopped in the by by the heroes because they were all of a sudden pulled out of time and the whole world skewed into ii different worlds – a right i and a wrong ane – and the heroes had to decide whether which globe to preserve and whether to sacrifice themselves in the procedure assuming they even figured out this whole affair earlier shub niggurath woke upward and destroyed everything.

The pitch I sold the players was:

What if every time you died, a magical artifact brought you dorsum to life and you didn't know why? And what if vii magical guilds vying for control of a powerful city-country were all trying to utilize you to gain power and none of them were aware of a coming disaster only you could preclude?

There yous go. Done and done. The remainder could be explained later.

That isn't fifty-fifty the nigh complicated campaign I've ever run. Believe it or not.

My point is, you lot have to become through your big, assuming, awesome idea and pick out the one or ii really cool things no other game has ever done. And that is what you sell to your players.

But honestly, if you're non going into this process with large ideas, if yous merely want to run a game, you lot don't have to sweat the unique selling point. Virtually players are totally happy to hear "you're a agglomeration of mercenaries and freelancers who accept joined a group of exiles and refugees settling an unexplored frontier state. You lot'll work for the leaders of the settlement, exploring the wilderness, protecting the settlers, and establishing relationships or warring against newly discovered civilizations."

At least it tells them what to expect.

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Source: https://theangrygm.com/how-to-start-starting-a-campaign/

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