How to Start your own Campaign/World - part one

Not all of us have the luxury of having 20+ years of content and plot lines as a foundation for our stories and adventures. Then again, even Arcaylia was new once too. And I'm constantly updating and refining the world and its history as well, so sometimes it's very hard to pin down each individual thought.

Still, questions have been asked over and over again: how did you do it? Where did you start? How long? What's the right way? I thought it might be interesting to give a peak behind the curtain as an answer to some of these questions

Ultimately, creating a world involves only two major methods: "inside out" and "outside in". After I present these two ideas, I will fill in a bit of detail on what I do.

The Inside Out Method

This method is much faster to get started and frequently is the simplest way of creating a new campaign or world. You need only a short list of things to get started:

1. Player characters
2. Starting location
3. Adventure location

And that's really it. Without context it can still be a bit daunting so let's look a bit closer.

1 - Player Characters

Both the simplest and most frustrating for all storytellers/gms/dms... the players. They will be a constant source of unexpected questions and actions occasionally mixed with the frustratingly cliche moments we all know, love and expect.

Whether its a simple "what's my base attack bonus again?" Or the always half-expected "can I start with a magic weapon?" You will be fielding questions from your players likely the entire time you are designing the campaign. There are some who prefer designing worlds and stories in seclusion but I think they miss out on being able to really have the players feel like a part of the world.

Having someone design a level one human fighter is good, everybody needs a dps/tank right? But having someone design a level one human fighter named Marv who used to date the blacksmith's daughter until the nearby tribe of feral goblins ransacked the town and burned the smithy to the ground thus having Marv swear vengeance for his lost love... is far and away better.

Never be afraid to use a player's idea to shape your world. Worlds are big, a little help goes a long way.

2 - Starting Location

This can be something as cliche as the tavern the heroes just happen to be sitting in when the call for help comes or something as unique as the ancient order of heroes secluded from the world currently thawing the player characters from centuries of slumber because the world needs them again.

Things that come with this starting location are typically at least a crude local map, a couple of npcs and some landmarks. Npcs don't have to be complicated but having them display consistent traits or flaws is a great way for people to begin to care about or at least recognize and respect these npcs.

Subtlety and consistency really do go a long way. Make your innkeeper get really annoyed by the sound of a chair scraping across his floor and see how quickly a player catches on and either starts trying to annoy the innkeeper or stops others from annoying him. Both ways increase immersion and generally create better stories.

Nevertheless, the starting location, unless its something to flee upon campaign start, should matter to the npcs. Even if its only where they sell their loot and buy the good booze.

3 - Adventure Location

This is the part of the campaign everyone looks forward to. Whereas many players don't care for interaction with npcs, almost every player, including the diehard RPers, love seeing some action. And that is what you need to remember: this is the part of the story they are going to retell to others about how awesome their characters are.

But what is the location going to be? That's the real question isn't it? The answer can be as mundane or as complex as you can imagine but always needs to relate to that starting town and almost always is a threat to that starting point.

If the starting town is in the mountains, maybe a mine nearby has been infested with giant spiders. Or even just a mine collapse. Both of these, barring particularly aggressive arachnids, would endanger the town's livelihood, their economy. And in small rural areas that have limited resources and manpower, simple disruptions can lead to starvation or rebellion given very minute differences.

The average level of your players should also factor in here. Those spiders are great foes for a low level group. But even three level five PCs can handle most vermin with ease. But is a huge change necessary? Not really.

Add a crazy spider-loving wizard, have him call himself an arachnomancer and off you are to higher difficulty adventures. Ultimately, staying within the bounds of reality is important for an "Inside Out" build style. The benefit is you can tailor that reality to your players quite easily as long as they aren't constantly asking what's over the next hill or around that mountain.

That problem specifically in addressed by "The Outside In Method", which is where I will start in part two of this article.

Until then, good gaming everyone!

Eric, that dude the gamerdames have for a DM.