An EASY template for writing your FIRST CAMPAIGN
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- Опубліковано 11 лют 2023
- This is an easy template that you can follow to write your first TTRPG campaign! Writing a TTRPG or D&D campaign can be daunting task. This is an easy template that you can use as the structure for your campaign, that allows you to be able to break up your campaign into a series of smaller adventures, that are tied together with a single thread. This template is all about story, so it will work with any system including Dungeons and Dragons 5e (DnD), Pathfinder, Dungeon Crawl Classics, OSE. This idea isn't new, it has been used in TV, film, and many pre-written campaigns. But looking at it like a template, or story skeleton can be helpful in getting you started with writing your own campaign.
Since it relies on your players' backstories, you could run this campaign multiple times and it would be different every time!
Idk what I did to make my UA-cam consistently recommend me up and coming creators but I’m so glad it does. Otherwise I’d miss out on stuff like this. Thanks for your help king
Second this!
Yeah, not sure how I’m in on the ground floor with this channel. It’s really good
Same
It's a year later and I'm discovering this creator and watching his content for the very first time. Don't ever make the mistake, 'content creators' (the word is author, don't fall for corporate, non-consensual denegration), make your work as if it is a long-term text. And thank you, PWS, for making this and other videos. My players, and perhaps even readers, will never know directly that you helped. But you did.
Your mustache is incredible, brother.
Yes
And yes. This is a moustache that the Great God Tam-Sellek would be proud of, enough for him to consider you a potential Avatar of his power.
This was so perfectly timed in my journey. Just started making my first D&D 5e world and needed some reassurance and direction on making a campaign. Thank you for your work and clarity!
I'm so glad! I hope you have fun building it, and don't worry about making it perfect because you will learn a ton and your next one will be even better!
That last sentence came unexpected and filled me with joy and pride for being the DM of my group. Your channel randomly came up in my yt feed and I can't stop watching. You're great!
Your videos are SOOO useful and are very chill to follow. You’re 🫵🏻 my new favorite D&D creator now
For this kind of campaign, there are a few things that are well worth doing before it. If you're running it, you kind of need some basics of the world first to, somewhat, guide your players in character creation as well.
One example of this that I did was a more primitive setting than normal D&D that I ran back in 3.5. I kind of wanted a "Dawn of Civilization" type setup and went about going through the books that I had and seeing what fit the world I wanted and went from there. Starting with culling the class list down to ones that fit and ones that didn't, which meant that certain classes that a lot of people overlooked (or variants of others) could be very effective in it while more standard ones wouldn't make sense (Artificer/Wizard/Archivist doesn't really work in a setting where writing is barely something at all), and shifted things around (I actually found a use for the bit in the BoVD about bones being used as scrolls). The Arms & Equipment guide also helped a lot with the way lower tech worked there for gear...
But, essentially, it's setting up the world first, and making sure the players both know that and know that things may change (especially for new DMs), otherwise there can be a lot of havoc in what you get from your players.
But ontop of a campaign digging from the characters backstories, you can go with something simpler. One of the easiest setups that I did for a campaign was set it up around a traveling, nomadic caravan that the players had hired on with to get to a major destination, then had the players explain why they were joining it. It worked for about seven adventures and then six or seven more at the end of it where they ended up heading to. If you need ideas for that kind of thing, look for some things with Oregon Trail and slip that into the story as complications or events, it also gives you several characters you can keep with the group as NPCs tied to it while also opening up a lot of adventures with some easy conversion to fit what you want
I found your videos yesterday while looking at different mapmaking tools, then saw this one linked in the sidebar, and... THANK YOU. I've been tempted to dip my toe into the waters of being a DM, but have been intimidated by running my own campaign and just the "getting started" of it. This video is a GREAT place to start, and I really appreciate it! Thank you!
Bro, you're prolly the most helpful d&d youtuber out there
Thank you!
Really good template and advice. I really enjoyed hearing how you used it in your own campaign. Very helpful!
I am just fleshing out my first campaign and this is just pure gold. Thank you for your videos! I enjoy them very much.
Dude this is one of the best DnD channels out there. Randomly recommended to me yesterday and the algo NAILED it. Great stuff!
This is a great video, offering an example solution to this detail is pretty rare on youtube. Thank you!
Thank you!
Thanks for the advice!
I GM for Pathfinder 2E and I’ve been wanting to branch out and make my on adventures! You’re awesome!
"Orphan (comma) sad" --- I'm dying! Very funny, and oh yeah, great video and solid advice. Thanks!
Dang this video gave me two really rock-steady ideas for my pre-existing campaign (has had ~60 sessions) that has me really excited, thanks!
I'm so glad!
Great video! I just love the quality you put into these, your channel will definitely grow! And by the way, the tips you bring in this video sure will help me a lot, I was writing a campaign just now and saw how it could improve. Thanks a lot! Keep up with your great work!
Thank you, that means a lot! I hope you and your players have a ton of fun!
Great video! Very well organized, explained, and great examples to put it all in context.
Thank you!
Kelly, your content absolutely spectacular man. Ripper work mate
Thank you so much!
I'm gonna attempt to write a mini campaign for my family and this was very helpful! I've ony found your channel recently but your videos are amazing, informative and fun to watch!! Thank you :)
I found your channel yesterday and love it. The campaign you describe in this video is remarkably similar to the one I've been running for a year and a half. The BBEG is locked away and the PC's are looking for keys, but I have a minor BG trying to unlock and release the BBEG and the PC's are trying to find the keys first to keep it locked away. I wasn't planning to have them unlock it to confront the BBEG because it's almost god level powerful, but after this video I'm thinking about having it use the magic in the keys to release itself. I'm starting to plan a second campaign, kind of a sequel to this one, and I think I'll wrap up this campaign keeping the BBEG locked away, call the campaign season one, and have it come back late in season two. Thanks for that idea!
The D&D cookbook opened to a different page in each video is a very nice touch. Love everything you're doing here.
I love this chanel and I am shocked that it doesnt have more subs.
Power Word Mustache
Loving this channel. Keep it up!
Thank you so much, that means a lot!
Love your videos and how you present the info. Its really helpful for beginners like me 😊😊
Very nice video; worth to watch it twice and take notes.
Bro this is the best tabletop channel I swear
Absolutely brilliant video!
Even step 0 alone! I don't think I've ever considered what level I want the campaign to end at. That is wisdom!
Loved this video :3
(Also such a cool idea that the villain can cast spells through keys)
Ngl the most helpful dnd campaign guide iv watched
Aw man here I am 3 campaigns in already. Otherwise this would have been great for me!
Thanks for the content.
I subscribed because of the channel name and the mustache alone!
Really enjoying your videos, Keep up the good work. You should do a video on things that you can use to up the game night enjoyment. Such as, the beakers of dice you have on your table and even the table itself.
That's a good idea!
Strong work sir
I was just searching around on youtube for tips on making a better campaign, but I just wanna say cool mustache
Wow. I used to run pre-made campaigns or settings for a while now. I also did one or two campaigns in the past (WAY in the past). Right now, I got a skeleton down for a new campaign up to level 15. And then I saw your video. Glad to see, I kind of doing it right, I planned most of the things you describe the way you described them. It's not the re-assembly of an item, but they have to have several items to negate specific powers of the BEEG, so that's a thing, too. I haden't thought to anchor those items in my PCs backstories, though. That's a great idea. I'm still waiting for them to actually write their backstories. Only one player has decided on what he wants to play - we will be finishing another DMs campaign first, so mine will start mid 2024 or so ;-) Thanks for the tips.
That's awesome, I hope you have fun!
its so easy, i dont understand why a lot of people use chatgpt to write for them. Also... i like you stache game... top notch !
Thanks for the advice dad!
You're welcome my child.
Hi Kelley! That was super helpful! What is that "nonplayer characters" book you have on the side? I'd be interested in looking at it!
It's called The Game Master's Book of Non-Player Characters by Jeff Ashworth, it's excellent! Definitely recommend.
Great video man! I really enjoy all your videos, I cannot believe you only have 1000 subs!? One thing that I always struggle with is once I have created a campaign outline that works with my players backstories, I don't know how to proceed when one of the pcs die. Moving the mcguffin is one thing, but especially with multiple deaths in a party I struggle to find new and creative ways to introduce new characters to the party and story. Any advice?
Thank you! Yeah that can be tough for sure. I had a PC die whose backstory was really central to the plot, so they rolled a new character for the time being, but the party actually went on a quest to Valhalla to break them out of the afterlife and bring them back. So if the PC backstory is critical to the plot you've come up with, that's an option. But it becomes more difficult with multiple deaths. When introducing new characters I find it really helpful to give the new PC a piece of the plot puzzle that the party doesn't have yet, and then have the new PC not know something that the rest of your party does know. You can work with your player to come up with a backstory that gives them similar goals to your party. Then you can give your party a quest hook like 'go talk to this person in town to get this next piece of information you need', and that person is the new PC. Hope that all makes sense, and that it helps!
I love this dudes content. Sounds like he would be such a fun dm. Someone tell me he lives in Louisiana please lol
Amazing
Call possession mechanics bud... I love it!
Can you take a look at planning a campaign with notion, please?
Sounds fine for a campaign that resolves around external struggle, but since I prefer to run my games more centred around internal struggle of the character, I have not much use for the advise.
sounds like you're on your 4th campaign
The game masters guide to non player characters is a fun book I’m dming the adventures in it now
Yeah I've really enjoyed it! Lots of great stuff in there
@@powerwordspill the author also has a book on dungeons puzzles and traps there’s good stuff in too
Idk why but your template seemed to perfectly match the one from the balance arc in The Adventure Zone by the McElroys. Coincidence?
I haven't listened to the adventure zone, but I want to! It's been recommended to me many times
Is that a wood burning stove in the back? Very nice
It is! Very cozy in the winter but lots of work chopping wood
Would've bben nice if there was a pdf of this.
I start with 8 chapters (plot points) then i title them, from there i add more to each one. Later i add more gameplay.
I am making my players at the start of the campaign run from the BBEG (the dragon queen) and my DMPC has to cover his baby dragon's eyes because she(dragon) was scared.
if i know i have a powerful player who is very good and knows how to ruin a campaign how do I deal with them?
I guess it depends what you mean by ruin. If they are actively trying to derail the campaign and do things that are not fun for the rest of the party, then I would have a conversation with them outside of the game and let them know that by doing certain things, other people in the group aren't having as much fun. If they still are doing it, then you might have to ask them to leave the group. If they're just really good at figuring out puzzles and killing monsters, but everyone is still having fun, then just make everything harder. More monsters, multi layer puzzles. I also wouldn't build a campaign so that one victory or puzzle solve could resolve it. If they need to get ten pieces of a magic item to save the world, then they at least need to have ten little adventures. Even if they ace one, they can't skip straight to the end. I think I'd just put more steps between my players and the final solution. Hope that helps!
was thinking about writing a campaign and this just pops up. the feds are trying to communicate with me
They're on to us...abort! Abort!
Great advice: use your players' backstories in the campaign to drive the story forward. It also already get their buy-in!
It seems like this kind of template encourages a certain style of play that assummes that the players characters will simply not die. If one of the player characters dies then everything would fall apart. TTRPGs are not novels.
Sorry but sealed evil in a can is so done.
Such bad advise.
This is why the majority of campaigns suck.
how so?
@@SillySyrup
This is suppoed to be your first campaign, yet
STEP 0 : decide what level campaign you will run(end at).
No. This is bad, bad, bad advise for a first campaign.
Better advise would be
Run 3-5 levels.
This gives the DM and Players a beginning, middle and ending.
STEPS 1 - 4: Is why most campaigns fizzle. People are tired, so, so, so very tired of fetch quests. You realize TTRPGers have running Fetch Campaigns since the 1970s.
45 years.
Think about it.
@@SillySyrup Buy *Under Illefarn* it's 5$ Yes it's 1e, but it's not the stats you are needing it's everything else.