For many DMs, there is nothing as exciting as figuring out what the next campaign they’re going to run will be like. Here are some tools.
I love the start of a new campaign. It’s full of potential. Full of limitless possibilities that could sprawl out in whatever direction the game ends up going. Even if you have a plan, there’s no guarantee you’re going to follow it. That’s why we keep coming back to D&D again and again.
But how do you keep it from feeling stale? What makes the juices bubble up in the best way? Well, here are five things you can try when planning your next campaign.
Drawing A Map
Sometimes the best way to find a seed of a campaign is to look at a map and figure out, “Oh, hey, actually that sounds cool.” This works whether you’re playing in a world that someone’s already built, or if you’re making your own. Either way, you draw up the “map of the campaign” – you take a slice of the world or draw a slice and figure out what’s interesting.
This is especially great if you are in the kind of D&D group where the storytelling is a little more collaborative. I like to open up the map to the players and say, “Hey, what’s over here?” It gets people invested, and it helps focus the campaign on a region.
Inspiration
Another way to start planning a campaign is to run with whatever has been inspiring you of late. Maybe you have just been playing a video game that has consumed your life, or you’ve just finished a new novel that you can’t stop thinking about. Sometimes that kind of inspiration bordering on obsession is a great way to plan a campaign.
You run with the passion and then figure out, “Okay, well if I’m doing my very own take on Boss Baby, how does this figure into D&D?”
Pinterest Board
Hey sometimes you gotta build from the vibes out. Honestly if you have never done this, it’s a powerful way to start a campaign. Find some images and/or music that really sets the tone for the kind of game you want to run. Make a board. Make a shared media group.
This is another great place to invite players into the campaign planning discussion. Get them to share whatever vibes and then you all sort of arrive at what the campaign should feel like, and from there it’s not too far of a jump from vision board-ing to planning the first session.
Villainous Intent
Not every campaign needs a big bad evil guy who is responsible for all of the woes of the world. But you know what, having a strong villain is a great way to plan a campaign. Look at Curse of Strahd, it’s all about his issues. But you have to know how the villain is going to fit in with everything, otherwise you end up with an Eye of Vecna type situation.
But yeah, sometimes figuring out the villain of the campaign is a great way to start unfurling the knot of what should happen. Maybe you know what your evil seer’s schemes are, and from there it’s a short hop to figuring out how her henchmen come into contact with the PCs while they’re doing some unrelated thing.
Genre-fication
And sometimes, all you need to really get a campaign going is to know that you’re mashing up some other fictional genre with D&D. Like D&D and Westerns. Or D&D and Cosmic Horror. Or famously, D&D and John Hughes movies, which kicked off the Dimension 20 empire. Pick a genre, figure out what that means for your campaign, and you’re off to the races.
Happy Adventuring!
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