Campaign from scratch - how does one do it? :)

[bigdamnhero]

The two basic ways I have seen things done Ted is setting first, or players first.

I hadn't really thought much about how I do this, but I might describe it as "setting first, players always."

 

Come up with the broad idea of what the campaign is about, even if it's only a teaser paragraph. I actually have a list of several campaign ideas at any one time.

 

Discuss these with my players to see which one we'd most like to play, and try to pick the one that most appeals to the most players and to you as GM.

 

Then I go off and write up a campaign outline, fleshing out the paragraph into maybe a couple of pages. Typically this is just done in a Word document, heavy on bullet points and "what about ____?" Try and outline the campaign's beginning, middle & end in broad strokes, what themes I want to concentrate on, etc.

 

Sometimes, depending on the campaign, I've even done player surveys with questions like: "On a scale from 60s-TV Batman to Watchman, how silly-vs-gritty should this campaign be." And "Alternate universes: love `em or hate `em?"

 

From that, I develop campaign guidelines that gives the background, tone, character creation notes, house/optional rules, etc. From that, I ask the players to give me character concepts, using a list similar to the one QM posted. Not looking for game stats, but focused on who the PCs are, why they do what they do, who their "supporting cast" is, etc.

 

Then I go back to my initial campaign notes keeping the proposed PCs in mind looking for: what plot points I've thought of can be matched up with this PC? What other items jump out of that PC's background that I can tie into the plot? How does this PC's character arc fit in with the plot arc? How can I bring that Complication into play? Is anything the PCs proposed lilely to "break" my campaign, and if so how do I adjust the setting and/or the PC to deconflict?

 

Lather, rinse, repeat until you're ready to start rolling dice. And of course, the process continues throughout the campaign...

 

 

Edit: Also, a lot of my campaigns tend to be based on something - either a book/movie/show, or an RPG setting (adapted to Hero!) or whatever. In that case, a significant part of the process is going through the source material to figure out which parts I want to keep and which parts I want to ditch.

Edited November 27, 2014 by bigdamnhero

[bigdamnhero]

Since we're sharing, here's an example of the introductory notes for my current campaign, based on the Necessary Evil* setting but using Champions. It's basically divided into:

• Background & setting info
• Character creation guidelines
• Campaign guidelines (tone, etc.)
• Optional & house rules

* Short description: all the superheroes were killed off in an alien invasion. Now all that's left to oppose the aliens are the supervillains. So PCs are anti-heroes to say the least. Fun setting!

Necessary Evil Player Notes.doc

[bigdamnhero]

Here's the "Tell Me About Your Character Concept" questions I used for this game. Important point is I had the players fill this out months before our previous campaign wrapped, so I could write as much of the campaign as possible around the PCs.

 

1.      What are your powers (general description – don’t need specific builds yet)?

2.      How did you get your powers?

3.      What are your weaknesses? (physical, psychological, etc)

4.      How/why did you become a villain? Are you primarily a thief? A world-conqueror? An ideologue? Or just a thug with anger-management issues? 

5.      How long have you been a villain and how well-known were you before the conquest?

6.      What did you do during the invasion (if anything)?

7.      What have you been doing the last year since the invasion (if anything)?

8.      Why are you fighting the aliens? (Or why will you fight them, if you haven’t done so yet.) To atone for your past crimes? Because the world is YOURS to conquer, not theirs? Or just because you have Problems With Authority Figures, be they human or alien?

9.      What are the important relationships in your life (DNPCs, minions, rivals, nemesis, etc)

10.  When are you “at your best?”

11.  When are you “out of your element?”

12.  What is the line you won’t cross as a villain?

13.  Describe an “iconic moment” for your villain. (Think of a big entrance, or a typical crime or something along those lines.)

14.  To you as a player, why is this character cool to play?

[Christopher R Taylor]

I recommend the Campaign sheet I put into the Downloads section.  It gives you a fill in the blanks way of examining various aspects of your campaign for players to read.

[Lucius]

Character Questionaire (Thanks Nexus)

 

Question 1. Why does your character a Superhero?

 

QM

If you are using the word "superhero" as a verb, the article "a" is distracting and doesn't belong there. If "superhero" is a noun, your verb should be "is" not "does."

 

I'm also not sure if this questionnaire is meant to be read and answered "in character" or filled out  by the player about the character. Either way, it does look like it could be fun, useful, or both, but probably more useful if there were clarity on that point.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Why do I a palindromedary?

[TheQuestionMan]

You ask too much from a University drop out Sir.

 

Will Edit later.

 

QM

[mikeward2534]

QM, very nice posts, bookmarking this to help with planning any campaigns I want to run. As a new GM, I have found planning out large campaigns a tad rough, this should help a ton. Have you considered making that into a few page PDF to upload? 

 

BigDamnHero, you also have some good posts, your notes document will also be of some help, also that sounds like a fun campaign to run. Probably going to borrow a couple things from both you and QM for houserules.

 

Chris, thank you for uploading all the old papers. That Campaign Sheet will help keep me and the players on the same page.

[CaptnStrawberry]

I agree this thread has some great tools & ideas.  Would even love to see an official step-by-step campaign construction guide, in the spirit of but not the letter of Strike Force.

[TheQuestionMan]

Pick something and I will work it out. 

 

Or try anyway. 

 

QM

[Echo3Niner]

I think it depends a lot on how you think, and what makes sense to you.  There is no "right way" to do this; the one that works for you is "right" for you.  Though, you can learn a lot from other GM's, and "jump ahead" in the process by posting on forums like this and finding things to help you gain experience from others - so kudo's to you for asking.

 

I always start with the gameworld.  As a 35 year+ GM of a lot of different games, I need to understand the "rules" of the gameworld before I can put players into it.

 

What is it like living in this world?  What does the average Joe from this setting (city) know about what's going on?  How are the governments involved (or not)?  What about criminal organizations - organized crime, and more perhaps?  What's the history (or how is it different than our own)?

 

Once I have that, I try to think of a good campaign concept.  Sometimes (more often as I get older), the campaign concept comes first, and I make a world to set it in.

 

Campaign concept is like thinking of the outline of the story to be told.  It's the "what happens" in the game world.  I tend to think about and then lightly outline what is going to happen over the length of the campaign.  If the characters are not involved at all, and no one stops it, what are the villains going to do?  What are there plans?

 

Once I have these two things, I can put the players into the setting and storyline, then I can play off whatever they make up for characters and whatever they do; I will try to weave in any backstory they have for their characters as well, since I understand the world and story, this is added "flavor".  Because I understand the "rules" of how the world works, and what the opposition is trying to accomplish, the villains can adjust appropriately.  Having these two things presents a "logic" that makes the world and events believable; allowing the suspension of disbelief to remain in affect throughout the game session, which in the end, is the goal.

 

I will give the players guidelines on what the world is like, and what "type" (or style) of campaign it is, so they can make appropriate characters to fit.  For this, I usually make a "what your character knows" hand out.  It describes the gameworld "rules", usually in a some story driven "in-world" style, like a press release, to give the players a sense of "being there", but also to underscore the "tone" of the campaign.  (I have a post on here somewhere with the backstory for my latest Champions campaign setting and story.)

 

With this all done ahead of time, I'm usually able to deal with just about anything else on the fly.  I'll usually make up the stats of the upcoming villains, game-by-game; that way I can adjust as needed.

 

The "campaign villain" is usually more a story element (bio) than any stats, and sometimes I never stat them, because if they have no stats, they cannot be killed (or captured, etc.), and sometimes for story purposes, it's about thwarting the villains plans, not defeating them personally (if they should reasonably never be able to do so anyway - e.g. a "protected character").  If there is a faceoff in the end, I don't stat them until I'm close, so I can make them an appropriate challenge at that time, based on how the player characters have developed.

 

Anywho, there you go; my process in a nut shell.

[Spence]

I come up with a shell or loose frame for the campaign I wish to run.

 

The I get together with my players and we toss around the ball and they come up with their rough "I'd like to play this type of Hero" concepts.

 

Then I flesh out the world a little more and have a sit down with the players.  This is where we build the PC's.

 

Then I solidify my world with the PC's in mind. 

 

The we play.

 

I really don't make a final decision of what Villains I am using until I see the final Heroes.  Over the years I have so many pre-built villains (both from Hero products and my home-brew villains) that there is no problem plugging in the right ones with little need to adjust their writeup.  

 

The hardest part is getting on the same page with the players as far as campaign tone.   Very few people understand Superhero anymore.  They get blood-drenched anti-hero quite well, but the entire "Good Guys in White Hats" is pretty unknown these days......  Kind of like the series Gotham.  No one would want to play a Gordon.  They would all want to play Fish Moony and try to twist her into "the hero".