starting a campaign

[Magister]

I'm starting a new fantasy campaign, and thus giving some thought to what
to tell players (to persuade them to join, to dissuade them if they're
not a good match, and for the benefit of eventually playing). Past
campaigns have succeeded and failed more or less by chance, and I thought
that this time I would try planning a little more.

My first concern is telling players things that they should find out by
playing; discovery is part of the appeal of a new campaign. So there's
the problem of providing enough common knowledge that players can make
meaningful character creation choices, but not spoilers.

The second concern is to create some cohesion in purpose among the player
characters; I can't imagine a successful campaign where players aren't
on the same page.

The campaign is heroic fantasy, and not particularly exotic despite the use
of my own rules; the player characters are the good guys, both because it's
unpleasant to referee the bad guys and harder to motivate adventures.

Any advice or comments appreciated.

[Simon Smith]

Post by Magister
I'm starting a new fantasy campaign, and thus giving some thought to what
to tell players (to persuade them to join, to dissuade them if they're
not a good match, and for the benefit of eventually playing). Past
campaigns have succeeded and failed more or less by chance, and I thought
that this time I would try planning a little more.
My first concern is telling players things that they should find out by
playing; discovery is part of the appeal of a new campaign. So there's
the problem of providing enough common knowledge that players can make
meaningful character creation choices, but not spoilers.
The second concern is to create some cohesion in purpose among the player
characters; I can't imagine a successful campaign where players aren't
on the same page.
The campaign is heroic fantasy, and not particularly exotic despite the use
of my own rules; the player characters are the good guys, both because it's
unpleasant to referee the bad guys and harder to motivate adventures.
Any advice or comments appreciated.

First thought; the more you tell them, the more of a handle they will have
on what to expect, even if some of the things you tell them are actually red
herrings. And in addition, they won't necessarily remember the precise
details of whatever you tell them. This kind of material probably won't make
proper 'sense' to them until they have gotten into the game a bit, so you
can expect a few misunderstandings and misrememberings. To help players get
a handle on character creation, you might create a few sample NPCs - the
might well be reusable as mentors, rivals and the like so the effort
shouldn't be wasted.

These days I always try to start by tagging things with a 'handle' that uses
genre knowledge the players already have. For example, 'Start by thinking of
the Conan movies starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, but bear in mind that the
greatest heroes in this world have the wire-fu skills of Crouching Tiger
Hidden Dragon or Hero'. Something like that. 1-3 sentences that boil down
the essence of the world to the 2-3 books/films/animes/comics/historical
eras/earth cultures that it has most in common with. Then elaborate from
that basic framework. I do advise making sure one of the references is to a
film or even a TV series because that immediately introduces a rich - and,
importantly, /shared/ - visual 'vocabulary'. You could then start describing
a monster as 'like those gigantic war mammoths from Lord of the Rings, but
scaled back down to the size of a normal elephant' - things like that.

You say 'heroic fantasy' - so what's the intended tone? Lord of the Rings?
Xena? Arthurian? Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser? (I'm sure I spelled Fafhrd
wrong...) The tone in particular is a very useful hook to give the players.

As far as giving the characters common purpose, it's a very good idea to
require each character to have a connection with at least one other
player-character, and/or a suitable NPC of your choosing. Giving the
characters a pre-existing link saves them all having to meet in a tavern in
the time-honoured manner. By plumbing them into the world before the game
starts you speed things up in so many helpful ways, and give the players a
framework to put their back stories on.

There, obvious stuff, but a start.

[Magister]

Post by Simon Smith
First thought; the more you tell them, the more of a handle they will have
on what to expect, even if some of the things you tell them are actually red
herrings. And in addition, they won't necessarily remember the precise
details of whatever you tell them. This kind of material probably won't make
proper 'sense' to them until they have gotten into the game a bit, so you
can expect a few misunderstandings and misrememberings. To help players get
a handle on character creation, you might create a few sample NPCs - the
might well be reusable as mentors, rivals and the like so the effort
shouldn't be wasted.

A good plan; I am also leaning toward providing background information
that is
explicitly unreliable; "there are stories of ...", which is all
hearsay.

Post by Simon Smith
These days I always try to start by tagging things with a 'handle' that uses
genre knowledge the players already have. For example, 'Start by thinking of
the Conan movies starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, but bear in mind that the
greatest heroes in this world have the wire-fu skills of Crouching Tiger
Hidden Dragon or Hero'. Something like that. 1-3 sentences that boil down
the essence of the world to the 2-3 books/films/animes/comics/historical
eras/earth cultures that it has most in common with. Then elaborate from
that basic framework. I do advise making sure one of the references is to a
film or even a TV series because that immediately introduces a rich - and,
importantly, /shared/ - visual 'vocabulary'. You could then start describing
a monster as 'like those gigantic war mammoths from Lord of the Rings, but
scaled back down to the size of a normal elephant' - things like that.
You say 'heroic fantasy' - so what's the intended tone? Lord of the Rings?
Xena? Arthurian? Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser? (I'm sure I spelled Fafhrd
wrong...) The tone in particular is a very useful hook to give the players.

The closest I have come is along the lines of the Odyssey, Jason and
the
Argonauts, and similar Greek mythology. But that covers only a small
range of potential player characters; Greek heroes don't tend to be
mages, thieves and so on. And the world is rather different than
that;
the gods don't take such an active role in the stories.

This may be an indication that the campaign is not as well thought out
as I imagined.

Post by Simon Smith
As far as giving the characters common purpose, it's a very good idea to
require each character to have a connection with at least one other
player-character, and/or a suitable NPC of your choosing. Giving the
characters a pre-existing link saves them all having to meet in a tavern in
the time-honoured manner. By plumbing them into the world before the game
starts you speed things up in so many helpful ways, and give the players a
framework to put their back stories on.

I like the idea of connections to NPCs; it ties in well with the idea
of
creating some sample NPCs (both adventurers and non-adventurers).

Thanks!

--
Magister

[Simon Smith]

<snip>

Post by Magister

... try to start by tagging things with a 'handle' that uses genre
knowledge the players already have. For example, 'Start by thinking of
the Conan movies starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, but bear in mind that
the greatest heroes in this world have the wire-fu skills of Crouching
Tiger Hidden Dragon or Hero'.

<snip>

Post by Magister

You say 'heroic fantasy' - so what's the intended tone? Lord of the Rings?
Xena? Arthurian? Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser? (I'm sure I spelled Fafhrd
wrong...) The tone in particular is a very useful hook to give the players.

The closest I have come is along the lines of the Odyssey, Jason and
the
Argonauts, and similar Greek mythology. But that covers only a small
range of potential player characters; Greek heroes don't tend to be
mages, thieves and so on. And the world is rather different than
that;
the gods don't take such an active role in the stories.
This may be an indication that the campaign is not as well thought out
as I imagined.

What about the Sinbad movies? Rich visuals, a smattering of magic, less
proactive gods...

[Magister]

Post by Simon Smith

Post by Magister
The closest I have come is along the lines of the Odyssey, Jason and
the
Argonauts, and similar Greek mythology.  But that covers only a small
range of potential player characters; Greek heroes don't tend to be
mages, thieves and so on.  And the world is rather different than
that;
the gods don't take such an active role in the stories.
This may be an indication that the campaign is not as well thought out
as I imagined.

What about the Sinbad movies? Rich visuals, a smattering of magic, less
proactive gods...

OK; Sinbad movies, Thief of Bagdad (1940 version). Perhaps I am
converging to a
common theme--go places and meet unlikely challenges.

--
Magister

[John Geoffrey]

Post by Magister

Post by Simon Smith
First thought; the more you tell them, the more of a handle they
will have on what to expect, even if some of the things you tell
them are actually red herrings. And in addition, they won't
necessarily remember the precise details of whatever you tell them.
This kind of material probably won't make proper 'sense' to them
until they have gotten into the game a bit, so you can expect a few
misunderstandings and misrememberings. To help players get a handle
on character creation, you might create a few sample NPCs - the
might well be reusable as mentors, rivals and the like so the
effort shouldn't be wasted.

A good plan; I am also leaning toward providing background information
that is
explicitly unreliable; "there are stories of ...", which is all
hearsay.

I was trying to create good rumours for my campaign, but somehow ended
with a lot of them that went completely in the wrong direction.
One thing I got from an issue of KotDT though is the rumour bucket: at
the start of a session or at appropriate times in session the players
can draw snippets from a rumour bucket (pot, hat, whatever) which
symbolizes information and rumours they received in between sessions or
during tavern crawls. The players can decide to share this information
or keep it for themselves.
I am trying to integrate this with my own worldbuilding: the players
gain rumours and factoids that can both tell them something about the
world they live in, or about adventure opportunities, or current
political situations. This information doesn't need to be right
("yeah, dragons have been extinct for hundreds of years"), but it gives
them an overview of what some people think.