Running a homebrew campaign is HARD

[turnip]

Goodness...I never thought (stupid of me, I know) that setting up, fleshing out, and running a homebrew campaign would be this much work.

We play weekly, and it just about kills me to set up a good, solid three-hour game that is not only exciting as a single game but also furthers the plot of the main story arc.

Any suggestions or moral support? How do you guys do it?

 

[Scott DeWar]

moral support

go team go!

I have a home brew game here on enworld in the fledgling stasge. i am getting player input for ideas. it helps alot to keep them from feeling like they are being railroaded, i think and it is a labor of love by all.

 

[Sir Robilar]

I honestly feel very much the same. Right now I´m running the second campaign for which I created the world and the adventures. The first one was fun but failed in the eyes of some of my players since they had expected something different. The second one is running fine so far but we have only played for 3 months. Some things I did differently this time:

- from time to time I weave in a premade adventure if I can find one that fits.
- I plan the sessions by the formula of the three act structure
- We are playing in a very small part of the homebrew world and I leave a lot of room for the players to include their own ideas (going so far as to allow them to spontaneously invent their backgrounds and parts of the campaign world).
- Work out a VERY general campaign structure (like 3-4 sentences per story beat / adventure), then rely on a thoroughly developed sandbox area and strong antagonists. Never lay out too many roads, but two or three clear ones so there are some interesting decisions.


Although it´s a lot of fun right now I already see how much work it becomes. That´s why I´ll be eagerly following this thread as well...

 

[turnip]

So far, my experience has been positive, but pretty overwhelming. Especially considering that one of the players is a complete n00b (but of course he pulls out some pretty fresh ideas and surprising moves).

My main issue, I suppose, is that I have a wide, main story arc fleshed out, with smaller "major" events that pop up in different locations/times. However, I have a difficult time creating the connections to the dots...either how to get them from A to B, or if they go another route, how to interlace that with the story and provide them with a fun, meaningful game while I'm doing it.

With a fully fleshed-out world, it may be easier, I think...but I don't know how much work I'm willing to put in to detailing every mile of the terrain (and I also don't want to pre-solidify things and negate player input). Also, coming up with meaningful encounters can be difficult. I hate just throwing random creeps at the players, but statting up an entire encounter fit for every possible player choice is overwhelming. Luckily enough, we play 4E, which is loose enough on the DM's side that modifying enemies to fit the level is pretty easy (so that lv.1 encounter with thieves can be modified to a lv.3 encounter with orcs or something).

But, it's a lot of work, either way. I thought I was prepared, but I had no idea!

 

[Redshirt]

It helps if you can get your player's to do some of the work for you. I let player's flesh out area's of the world for bonus XP.

As far as the work goes I've found that re-fluffing has been a great time saver for me. Pick a monster with cool power's, re-fluff, and you have a hundred other creatures.

 

[kitsune9]

Focus only on the parts that are relevant to the campaign and what effort your players will put into the campaign themselves.

For example, there's no point in writing a five page history if you know that your players are going to rebel in reading it. When I write out material, I know my players have a tolerance to about two pages and I don't go beyond that limit.

Secondly, the more local you are in, the more detail you should create. If you expand out, then write less and less. For example, if you are basing your campaign in a small town or large village, you should have a map, some noted locations, a few NPCs, and some hooks for adventuring. But when you discuss the kingdom or region that the PC's are in, that should be a paragraph about the most. There's no point in statting out the good King when the PC's aren't going to be visiting him anytime soon.

Thirdly, if you run a railroad style campaign, make sure that you keep the campaign on the rails. If you run a sandbox style campaign, start with a small sandbox and then gradually expand the boundaries as the PC's discover new locations. Think of the model used in the Grand Theft Auto games. Several locations in the beginning of the game aren't available until the player has completed certain missions or progressed the story along at some point.

Lastly, prepare ahead of the campaign in general. Before you start your campaign, you should have some maps, NPC's, adventure hooks, and locations ready to go; however, if you don't, then go to RPGNow or various fan sites and download free maps, NPC's, locations, etc. Put them together and come up with something that ties it to your campaign.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Hmmmm, how much lead time are you allowing between statting the campaign and running?

For big events I like having a general outline - these things will happen whether or not the PCs are present. So, Chicago will burn, even if the players aren't visiting Mrs. O'Leary.

For lesser events I have some that are triggered by the players being present - so reports of a rampaging fire elemental in Chicago won't happen unless the PCs are there. The city will still burn, but who knew Mrs. O'Leary had a lantern of the efreet?

Some encounters only happen if the PCs go in one direction. In my homebrew the first adventure involves finding a missing Church pay wagon. The pay wagon is for mercenaries in the ongoing religious war. The notice is two hundred miles away from where they need to be. They can truck across the wilderness, or they can hire on as mercenaries with a merchant caravan.

The merchant caravan is under the command of the players' opposite number - the Church is not the only group with missing pay wagons, their enemy has also been robbed. As a result mercenaries on both sides are turning brigand. The merchant is the agent chosen by the Separatists - those faiths that have splintered from the once monolithic Church.

On the way the merchant will both find and commit atrocities - some of which the PCs are likely to find if they are traveling alone, and might be able to stop if the accompany him. (If they are traveling alone then some of the group is likely afoot. They will be behind the caravan.)

They will gain different information if they accompany him than they would if they travel alone. And if he finds out that they have hired on with the Church.... There is a war on, casualties happen.

If not, well the team will at least recognize Aerno Roosevelt and Ansel Greck when they encounter them again.

Going on their own the team will find burned villages, and murdered Church troops. They may also encounter a sign that things are going wrong on the supernatural front - an inn, the proprietor of which is a ghoul. If they survive they will find that the inn is a years old burnt ruin, and may learn that the owner was executed years ago for cannibalism.

Monsters that had nearly been driven from the world by the power of faith are now returning as that faith crumbles. And someone is deliberately manipulating events to make this happen....

The Auld Grump, Aerno is a dwarf, Ansel is an ogre... they have been together for years....

 

[aco175]

I wish I could write more of my world down instead of just trying to remember it. Focus on places the party will return and the details of those places. In the hometown of the party they know several people who come to have dinner and chat when they are in town. The bartender is the same and the Duke's son remembers them from when they rescued him from the yuan-ti. This leads in to having big events more planned out.

There was a whole last level with a few encounters at level 8 and 9 leading to level 10 final battle with the yuan-ti people stealing children from the sewers and escaping through the portal to their volcanoe lake home. A few key encounters were planned out a lot more than others. Plus this was the conclusion of Heroic Tier.

A minor point the players excused me on when they were traveling back down this desert trade road I had a wagon fight lead to trying to meet a bandit gang who was holding some friends. On the way back there was a well partway down the road where they were to hang a red shirt. There was never any well the first time down the road, but nobody cared since it lead the plot further. If they ever go down that road again though there will be the same well.

Last bit of advise is to keep most things like Earth and then the changes will be easier to notice. If you have a once a day power, it assumes something different than if you had days that are only 8 hours long instead of 24.

 

[Sanzuo]

No it isn't.

My role-playing group has almost exclusively only played/run what you call "homebrew" games. In my experience running pre-made or published adventures is a complete hassle - Not for the players, of course. The DM has to pretty much read the entire adventure in advance and know about all the encounters/combats and then be able to alter the entire damn thing when the players inevitably stray from the established course of the adventure, kill or ignore a major npc. Plus most of the adventures I've read are . Screw that.

Here's what we've almost always done; the players make the adventure. They go and do what they want. The DM just needs a setting and possibly some story hooks. If you really want a story arch, I just make a series of bullet points leading up to the inevitable conclusion. Here's a handy chart I found on Google image search:

Basically that's it. Let the players create the drama. The DM just creates the atmosphere and does the math bits. If you're doing a more character-centric game, make a list of characters and make a couple notes on their personalities/motiviations.

And after I've written down my notes, I really never even look at them again because I've made mental notes about what I want to happen. My notes for entire campain generally don't take up more than a page.

The more you plan ahead, the more your players will derail it and mess it up.

 

[The Shaman]

"It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great." - Jimmy Dugan