Introducing a New Campaign I've basically been running a new campaign each year. My players like and dislike this approach. The truth is, I keep creating new campaigns to test out certain mechanics, and to try and find a background that really captures my players attention. With regards to the latter I'm really starting to learn my players aren't to interested in grand scale themes - instead they just want to jump into each adventure and have fun (nothing wrong with that). But this leads me to an important point. If you go out and buy a campaign setting set of somesort you're presented with a ton of information. The problem with this approach of running a campaign is that really, all the players need to buy or at least borrow and read the books. I don't know about you, but my players have trouble shelling out a couple of bucks for chips and sodas, nevermind buying a new expansion set, and if you try lending out the books, plan on getting pieces of them back a year or so later after everyones read them (and of course at this point the guys who've read it first, have forgot all about it). Traditionally, the way I would present a campaign would be to provide a players map, of the immediate region. Accompanying the map, I would provide a number of pages discussing everything about the campaign setting, from specific locations, to important characters, to new dieties and unique monsters. This presentation is basically a small version of a commercial boxed set (probably similar to what most DM's present at the start of a new campaign). But really the underlying issue is how much information can you present? To be honest, most of the time, my players don't even bother absorbing the material of the few pages I've presented to them. If their characters have a name, a weapon, and a direction to go, they're set. Regardless, when creating and introducing a typical campaign setting, I detail the following aspects; Common History - This is the general history of the campaign setting as commonly understood by the inhabitants. Recent Developments - When a campaign is introduced that has immediate tie ins to adventure plots, some more general info is listed here. Detailing a number of recent developments allows the players to choose or hint at choosing what direction of the campaign they want to pursue. Towns - Here I detail all the campaign towns. I have a chart, which I can't seem to find at the moment, that breaks down population figures for different settlement sizes. The chart is purely fictional, as I haven't been able to compile accurate - real world medieval town and city population sizes. I also find that changing the base unit of money for a town, is a quick and fun way to add flavor to the campaign. Regions - Here details to the campaigns regions and terrains are presented. Physical descriptions as well as any relevant background and history are noted. It's always a good idea to introduce new, never before seen physical aspects to a campaign. I especially like to add these qualities to areas on the outskirts of the map - where the players won't reach for a few adventures. This allows the players to hear about the strange lands numerous times in game, and build a lot of suspense. When time is too short to create new terrains, changing one or two obvious characteristics of common terrains is a good substitute. For example, a river of red water, stones that are soft instead of hard etc... POI's or Points of Interest - No campaign would be complete without a number of unique specific areas of interest. These can literally be anything, just as long as they are interesting. Good POI's should be able to lead to numerous adventure plots, and if they tie into the underlying storyline of the campaign they are they much more interesting. People - Every campaign can use a few good NPCs, but a campaign which really sucks in the players needs something more. Creating specific re-ocurring characters is a great addition to the richness of any setting. It doesn't matter if these characters ever actually meet the pcs, as long as their presence is felt, the character becomes an influencing part of the campaign. The stronger the characters personality, the stronger and more likely alternate plots will develop. Legends - Another campaign detail which can open adventure plot doors are legends. The obvious choice for introducing legends in a campaign is through heros, and monsters, which can certainly work well. But there are many other more creative uses where legends can be tied into everything from terrains, to items. Gods - A strong pantheon is a basic addition to any strong campaign setting. For most of my campaigns I usually am pretty liberal allowing players to pull in gods from whatever real world religion they find interesting at the moment. However, I often detail one or two key gods to a campaign. Since religion and worship are somewhat subjective, it's fairly easy to port gods over from one campaign to the next. Symbols - Wether you have a bit of artistic talent, or are good at cutting and pasting in photoshop. Introducing reocurring symbols are another way to engross your players in the campaign and add flavor to the setting. Symbols are also great to use because they are great clue tools. If you present visual aids to your players, sneaking in a symbolic clue in the background is always rewarding. Campaign Calendar - One of the more commonly overlooked aspects of a campaign is the calendar. Taking the time to create a full calendar with attention to holidays, special events, and seasons is a great addition the campaign setting... but it is admittidly a lot of work. Without resorting to a full calendar, I often add a handful of important days or times of year to a campaign setting. Again, all supporting the flavor, uniqueness and possible adventure plot lines of the campaign. Artifacts - O.K. the last time I gave out an artifact was sometime in the early 80's. But like much of everything else we've been talking about, artifacts are a great tool in tying alot of the campaign elements together. Artifacts are unique, extremely powerful items that one may spend a lifetime in pursuit of... A lot of people think the most interesting artifacts are powerful weapons, I tend to think the opposite - the more mundane the item, the more interesting it is to find one with incredible power and abilities stored within. In the first campaign setting that I'm posting - Catalon - I took a different approach in introducing the campaign. Instead of presenting the players with the normal descriptions of the campaign, I decided to introduce a campaign map and a number of premade characters. Each of these characters was particualr to a certain area or aspect of the campaign, and had a history and background which revealed this association. I told the players, they needed to use one of the premades for the first adventure, but after that they would have the freedom of creating new characters as normal. My hope was for a wide party selection which would allow the players to reveal much about the campaign through the role playing of the characters. The players didn't take as much of an advantage of this system as they could have, but at least in a couple of situations it worked very well. At the time of posting this material, I took the time to write up some standard campaign details as described above. Both the premade characters and the general campaign background can be used to introduce the campaign.