Campaign Creation

[chariot]

Set off by the Story as good as Villain thread...

 

Anyone have any good tools for Campaign Creation? Or just methods that they use to keep it all together?

 

I've been at this for a long time, but I have a new, young audience -- and frankly, they are probably the best group of role players I've ever had. I want to do my best by them. I want to reduce the flying by the seat of my pants that has gotten me through in the past, and really present them with some well thought out stories and subplots.

 

The old one-page Campaign checklist is a nice place too start, but there really is not enough there.. and there is soo much that goes into a good campaign (looking back at my longest running campaign, I wish I'd known at the beginning what I knew at the end).

 

Thoughts, tips, hints, advice and other bon mots appreciated (ok, the occaisional bit of derision will be accepted with good humor, too).

[MitchellS]

Re: Campaign Creation

 

The things I have found which make a game interesting is to make it personal. Creating sub-plots and adventures that link to the characters, both as heroes and people, are essential. Too many games seem to involve villain does/threatens something, players spend a session trying to find the villain, second session players storm villain base and take him down. That doesn't mean you can't have random encounters [they're great, and Villainy Amok is full of super ideas!] but making things personal is what really keeps the players interested.

 

Imagine the player's surprise when they learn that the leader of a local VIPER nest is one of their fathers. That their girlfriend's little brother is really the Monster. That their widowed Aunt June has started dating an older, distinguished German gentleman. That your twin brother is a member of IHA and is slowly climbing the ranks in the organization. That you were adopted and your father has just been revealed as an old supervillain and your sister is Photon. The more you tie situations to the player's personal lives the better the campaign begins. It's been Spider-man's secret to comic book success for over 40 years.

 

The more you make the players part of the story instead of reacting to the story the better the campaign gets, IMO.

[Theron]

Re: Campaign Creation

 

Make sure your organizations, villains, and NPCs all fit a niche or serve a purpose and don't let that niche get overcrowded.

[Agent X]

Re: Campaign Creation

 

I'd create a document on my computer organized something like the Champions Universe text:

 

1.0 History

2.0 Superpowers

3.0 Institutions and Superhumans

4.0 The World and Superhumans

5.0 In-Depth Look at Notable Superhumans and Superhuman Organizations

 

This will flesh itself out over time. As you add information from brainstorming and from the adventures you run.

 

This is especially easy if you use Champions Universe because then all you have to do is write up your modifications and addendum to the book.

 

I'd create another document that is essentially a journal of what has transpired.

[Hermit]

You probably already know this, but here goes

 

I'm too fly by the seat of my pants as well. I need to work on it.

 

I can tell you that sometimes the random generators you find in supplements like the Champions Genre book, or the old V&V Random Encounter Tables can get my brain going pretty well. I use them in advance, make notes, and put my brain on simmer and see what cooks up by the time the game starts. Put tweaks on them and personalize, that way they don't appear to be random.

 

There's no shame in asking your players what they hope to see in this campaign as well. If a player admits they hate mysteries, then you should probably scrap the mystery adventure you were considering, or at least mix it up with something that will keep that player happier. If they request something, make a note of it. It makes them feel like they have more input in the style of fun they will be having. Of course, their definitions might differ from yours, so you might want clarifications.

 

Special note: Make sure whatever they ask for, that it is also fun for YOU. If the GM bends too far to make it fun for the players to the point when it is no longer fun for himself, then the campaign will suffer. GMing ceases to become a craft, and turns instead into just a chore.

[Hermit]

Re: Campaign Creation

 

Couldn't agree with MitchelS more about making it personal btw.

[Agent X]

Re: Campaign Creation

 

A lot of stories will come to you when you place the NPCs in the universe in "motion". Think about what they would be doing whether the PCs were around or not. Tie as many NPCs into the PCs as you can handle but let the NPCs have other things to do as well. Put it in your journal so you know where they are. When you activate an NPC you haven't done anything with before, write down what you think they were doing before the encounter. You do this long enough and the campaign will almost tell its own story.

[Scifi_Toughguy]

Re: Campaign Creation

 

Great thread.

 

I wanted to mainly respond to those who are worried about flying too much by the seat of their pants. Its not always a bad thing. Sometimes thats just your style. I find very often that I delay games and get all worried about them because its not exactly what I'm looking for. Realize that most sessions are going to be a hook, then the players reactions and a lot of ad-libbing.

 

I'm not saying this because I think no one here knows this, just that they might be so focussed on "I need to stop ad-libbing so much" that they try to railroad the players or forget that ad-libing is one of the best skills a GM can have.

[MitchellS]

Re: Campaign Creation

 

Yep, very true. Sometimes you just need to run with things and see where they go. More than once I've had adventure A waiting to be run for the night, with B and C being set up, only to find when the game starts that the players want to escort Grond from the PRIMUS base all the way to Stronghold because they're afraid he might break loose. It's amazing how they discovered one of the Stronghold air-guards was really a VIPER Agent with instructions to take over the plane and bring Grond to them. I titled that adventure "Grond Air."

[schir1964]

Re: Campaign Creation

 

Anyone have any good tools for Campaign Creation? Or just methods that they use to keep it all together?

I have a Genesis Setting called the Crystal Room.

 

I've got it documented and GM tips and idea.

 

I can email it to you if you want.

 

- Christopher Mullins (schir1964 @ netzero.com)

[chariot]

Re: Campaign Creation

 

Great thread.

 

I wanted to mainly respond to those who are worried about flying too much by the seat of their pants. Its not always a bad thing. Sometimes thats just your style. I find very often that I delay games and get all worried about them because its not exactly what I'm looking for. Realize that most sessions are going to be a hook, then the players reactions and a lot of ad-libbing.

 

I'm not saying this because I think no one here knows this, just that they might be so focussed on "I need to stop ad-libbing so much" that they try to railroad the players or forget that ad-libing is one of the best skills a GM can have.

 

I agree that a good GM has absolutely got to be ABLE to fly by the seat of his pants, and preferably do it well enough that his players are unaware and all have a good time.

 

But I really feel I need some more structure, because I am not looking far enough ahead... I should have some idea where this big ship is going, that way if I need to take the wheel and wing it, I still know where the destination is; how I get there is not always as important.

[GoldenAge]

Re: Campaign Creation

 

Epic City (my campaign) is a living, breathing entity. Every time I try to write in-depth plans the players or even the inevitable actions perpetrated by NPCs thwart them.

 

I simply know my city... Where everything is, who everyone is, and what they're supposed to be doing. It's a push-pull exercise... A loose, short-term outline is all I find necessary or even manageable.

 

If the heroes take out a senior crime lord... well they've created a vacuum and someone (or many someone’s) will invariably rush in to fill the void. This stuff happens independently of the players and their direct influence. Such changes can totally alter my long-term plans... But, and this gives me great joy, they can also create fantastic campaign oportunities - oportunities that are directly linked to the actions of my PCs.

 

I never get everything right. But I know enough about the players and the field to adlib if necessary. As long as the players don't know I'm freaking out and making it up as I go it's OKAY! (Just be sure to write the adlibbed stuff down before you forget what lies you told)

 

If you're playing a serial campaign (where each week leads into the next and the past influences the future) you may find it difficult to plan too far in advance. The players will enjoy exercising free will and their influence on the campaign. However, if an episodic campaign is your bread and butter... Write away! The joy of an episodic campaign is that you’re simply creating tournament game after tournament game for your players to suffer through - - - and enjoy, of course.

[pinecone]

Re: Campaign Creation

 

One tool I've used for years is a big ugly flow chart of stuff that is going on....the hero go do what they do, but other stuf dosent wait on hold while they do it...it head off the old "how did Viper advance their master plan so far with out us knowing" whines...well in episode 8 I fore shadowed this in 10 this, in 11 this.... That way I can wing it bthe boat still has a chart to navigate with...

[Herolover]

Re: Campaign Creation

 

I really like the Champions Universe and my players know it pretty well so I of course start there.

 

Then I have the players sit down and before any character is created they come up with what kind of campaign they want, what kind of group they want, and why their still unmade characters know each other.

(4-color, Dark Champsions, DCTAS, loose group, official group, etc)

They then create their characters and we start the camapign.

 

I then use MS Word, only because I am very comfortable with it, to create:

 

Ideas doc (Just a sheet for jotting down very rough adventure ideas).

Cast List (Complete list of all characters and adventures introduced into the

campaign with simple notes on each)

Issue List (This is a bullet list of events that happen each adventure. I keep it simple, but enough that it can easily by understood and expanded on. If I wanted to I could go write it up a little further and make it into a full adventure writeup.)

GM Issue ListSame as the above, but this time I include notes I don't want the NPCs to see.

Campaign PlanThis is the sheet I use to order my future adventures and future plots.

 

Hope any of that helped. Of course, all of this takes a lot of time to work on.

[Agent X]

Re: Campaign Creation

 

Another good trick is news items. You can put out headlines with short descriptions of the articles. You can do a lot of foreshadowing this way. Stuff beyond what the characters are doing can still feel connected to the characters this way. And you don't necessarily have to have an idea about what is really going on behind the headlines. You can simply decide what it really means when it becomes useful to the campaign to do so.

[GoldenAge]

Re: Campaign Creation

 

Another good trick is news items. You can put out headlines with short descriptions of the articles. You can do a lot of foreshadowing this way. Stuff beyond what the characters are doing can still feel connected to the characters this way. And you don't necessarily have to have an idea about what is really going on behind the headlines. You can simply decide what it really means when it becomes useful to the campaign to do so.

 

YES!!!

Take a look at this thread I just published. It has a PDF of the paper I created for my campaign. I think you'll really like it.

 

Look here:

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32846

[Agent X]

Re: Campaign Creation

 

YES!!!

Take a look at this thread I just published. It has a PDF of the paper I created for my campaign. I think you'll really like it.

 

Look here:

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32846

That is tres mighty.

[Enforcer84]

Re: Campaign Creation

 

Villainy Amok!

[chariot]

Re: Campaign Creation

 

I have a Genesis Setting called the Crystal Room.

 

I've got it documented and GM tips and idea.

 

I can email it to you if you want.

 

- Christopher Mullins (schir1964 @ netzero.com)

 

Chris, I'd be interested in seeing it. Thanks for the offer.

 

you can email me at chariot @ cox.net

[Super Squirrel]

Re: Campaign Creation

 

Set off by the Story as good as Villain thread...

 

Anyone have any good tools for Campaign Creation? Or just methods that they use to keep it all together?

 

I've been at this for a long time, but I have a new, young audience -- and frankly, they are probably the best group of role players I've ever had. I want to do my best by them. I want to reduce the flying by the seat of my pants that has gotten me through in the past, and really present them with some well thought out stories and subplots.

 

The old one-page Campaign checklist is a nice place too start, but there really is not enough there.. and there is soo much that goes into a good campaign (looking back at my longest running campaign, I wish I'd known at the beginning what I knew at the end).

 

Thoughts, tips, hints, advice and other bon mots appreciated (ok, the occaisional bit of derision will be accepted with good humor, too).

If your running a city based campaign, the best advice I can give you is to sit down and come up with a good idea of what exists within that city. I found some old notes last night where I had detailed the number of banks, food joints, large mansions and estates, schools, federal buildings, and any notable landmarks including a Statue of Burt Reynolds (?!?).

 

I immediately saved these old notes as I had, instantly, the backbone of a campaign setting. This can really help later in campaigns when you are trying to figure out what the villains are going to do for that week or if the players declare they want to do something. You know what types of places exist in your setting.

[Trebuchet]

Re: Campaign Creation

 

I started a campaign newpaper, the Weekly Globe Enquirer, a couple of years ago (and oh how I wish I'd started it when I started the campaign in 1992!). With it I keep the players aware of world events, foreshadow upcoming adventures, and report (with highly variable accuracy) on the activities of the heroes in the game. (In our last issue, two superheroines beating up a street gang in Hudson City was wrongly reported as a fight between a vigilante and a supervillian.) All five of the GM's in our campaign contribute material to the WGE. (I'll attach the latest issue.)

[Trebuchet]

Re: Campaign Creation

 

I have a Genesis Setting called the Crystal Room.

What is a "genesis setting"? First appearance of supers?

[MitchellS]

Re: Campaign Creation

 

Chariot, there are also some Hudson City pdfs in the free stuff section that might help you plan things better. The calendar and a few other things might inspire you.

[MitchellS]

Re: Campaign Creation

 

I started a campaign newpaper' date=' the Weekly Globe Enquirer, a couple of years ago (and oh how I wish I'd started it when I started the campaign in 1992!). With it I keep the players aware of world events, foreshadow upcoming adventures, and report (with highly variable accuracy) on the activities of the heroes in the game. (In our last issue, two superheroines beating up a street gang in Hudson City was wrongly reported as a fight between a vigilante and a supervillian.) All five of the GM's in our campaign contribute material to the WGE. (I'll attach the latest issue.)[/quote']

Nice newspaper. I do something very similar when I'm GMing. Those things are excellent for foreshadowing, and also getting an idea of what's interesting to the players.

[GoldenAge]

Re: Campaign Creation

 

I started a campaign newpaper' date=' the Weekly Globe Enquirer, a couple of years ago (and oh how I wish I'd started it when I started the campaign in 1992!). With it I keep the players aware of world events, foreshadow upcoming adventures, and report (with highly variable accuracy) on the activities of the heroes in the game. (In our last issue, two superheroines beating up a street gang in Hudson City was wrongly reported as a fight between a vigilante and a supervillian.) All five of the GM's in our campaign contribute material to the WGE. (I'll attach the latest issue.)[/quote']

 

Nice Newspaper!

 

I should let you do the writing for my Sanguine News!