User:Spazalicious Chaos/The Book of Splendid Performance (3.5e Sourcebook)/Introduction

This is a sourcebook intended for a variety of play styles, but with a very specific goal: how to create an engaging and involved campaign.

What Are Stories?

A good campaign tells a story, a series of connected events that lead up to a conclusion, during which the protagonists learn and grow as characters. The first part is an inevitable in D&D- the campaign often runs until everyone dies or becomes so powerful they forgot the world was weak for a second and destroyed it. Most campaigns fall between these two extremes. For example, the authors personal performance is the retirement scenario, when the players have finished their epic quest and decide that since they are tired and filthy rich, why not find some quite getaway to relax in? Agian, the first part of the above statement is an inevitable.

It's the second part that is the bitch. Yes, D&D is a level based system, and nearly every role playing game has a way to get stronger. But do the characters grow? Does your 20th level caster look back over the destruction he has wrought and the lives he has ruined? When the ancient wyrm who fathered the young black dragon your fighter killed 8 levels back crashes into your home, does he feel regret? Does your rogue ever think about all the barmaid he seduced and the legion of fatherless children he created, by seed or sword? My guess is no, that only a small fraction of the people reading this have ever even thought about this stuff, let alone played it out. Unfortunately for story based role playing, this is the killer. That is why nearly every single one of the D&D novels are so vomit worthy- the characters don't change. At the end of the novels, Tordek has a shiny new something and... that's it. He doesn't even reference past events in later novels, never has his shiny new something in the next book, and the character remains a dwarven fighter with no other discerning traits. And that makes some of us sad.

Dramatic Role Playing

Unlike a novel, a good story in a role playing game needs cooperation. Compromise and consideration are important, and every step is an involved process. This is easy to set up if you take the following steps:

• Bounce the Campaign: Before pencil and paper are even touched, bounce ideas for campaigns and character ideas. Make this a no holds barred debate and brain storm session, and coupled with the next step might take an entire session on it's own. The Game Master is chosen, he announces his grand scheme, the player voice their character ideas, and let it take shape from there. And be flexible! If everyone in the group wants to play diplomats and nobles in a political intrigue campaign, but one player wants to be a mercenary of low birth, fine! Make it fit. In fact, the above set up might result in something very close to the Sharpes series, or at minimum a "Prince and Pauper" story.
• Laying the foundation: You have the ideas, now make the rules show it. Here is where discussion of house and variant rules should take place. The Game Master starts to build the world and the campaign, and the players start building their characters. This is where fine details are vital, and thus this step will be discussed in the next two sections in detail. This step never really ends, as players gain in power and advance in levels, and the Game Master reacts to decisions made by the players and their actions taken in the world.
• Blade Work: As the story goes on, notes become more and more vital. Everyone should be taking notes of some kind: GM making adventure notes, one player could be keeping a journal, another could be keeping a treasury, one collecting maps, and so on. All of these help keep events fresh in the minds of everyone involved, and also help maintain consistency. Alongside the previous steps, this will help build a great story.

Players Guide to Drama

Building a dramatic and dynamic character is all about defining that character, making him more than a collection of numbers and abilities. The first step is talking with the GM about what kind of world he is building for what kind of campaign. While he may not restrict any race or class choices, they will be colored by the world and campaign. A rogue in a mercenary campaign will be very different from a rogue in a political campaign, or a religious campaign.

After that, it becomes all about you. A dynamic charcter must have very powerful ideas about what he is. "I'm a rogue" is terrible, and needs to be scraped. "I'm a banana" is a little better, if vague and retarded. "I'm one of the shalcushin, an elite sect of elven ninja, diposed by my retainer after a failed mission, and seeking to gain skill that I may yet again become his favored assassin" is perfect. The more detailed your starting idea, the more real, dynamic, and well played your character will become.

All that is really left to do is to make the rules reflect your character. The shalcushin character above will probably have maxed out stealth and observation skills, favor feats that enhance sneak attack, stealth and movement, and might even build toward a prestige class that give even better sneaking abilities, like shadow dancer or assassin. However, a growing character will also react to past events and grow from them. If the shalcushin discovers that her retainer is the lead campaign villain, she will have to choose whether to join his side and continue her build, or go against all that she knew, stick with her allies and reinvent herself, prehaps to more of pirate build to piss off her former trainers.

Game Masters Guide to Drama

It was once said that a writers job is harder than Gods, because God never has critics or a believability factor to worry about. The Game Master is the Writer of his campaign, but should write it as the ultimate "pick your own ending" novel. Anything less is railroading, and every real player hates being railroaded.

To make a campaign interesting, at minimum you should have a beginning and a climax in mind. This leaves much more room for adaptability. While the campaign should have an overriding goal, never feel guilty about side quests and subplots; anything less would be dull. However, these subplots should have the the following points in common:

• They must connect to the main plot. A stand alone side quest with no plot connections can quickly turn a well thought out campaign into a quick one shot. If the players must destroy the evil lich, but a farmer begs to be rescued from ogres, let the ogres connect in some way. Perhaps they were driven from their homes by the lich, or are one part of an army the lich is massing.
• Make them short and sweet. If a side quest takes the whole session, it is a side quest no more, but the beginning of a campaign. Side quests are pleasant (or unpleasant) distractions, nothing more. If you want a side mission to be more involved, then make it part of the main campaign.
• All things in stories are connected. Subplots are among the best ways to get foreshadowing into a game. If the player accept a side quest to hunt a beastie, let them notice how they are the only ones who stepped up, how most of the able bodied men are gone. As they hunt, let them find the occasional orc tracks in the wood, perhaps the remains of a slave camp. Then when the players find a orc raiding party in the village as they come back, they will understand what is going on, and maybe try to find out more.

The beginning should introduce the characters, give reasons for them to work together, and form a bond between the players. Ideas for how to set this up are endless, from Oceans 11 to any of the Final Fantasy games. Work with the players, and encourage pre-established reasons for them to know each other. If the fighter and the wizard want to be siblings, encourage it, especially if the cleric is the wizards old friend and the rogue wants to collect some bet money from the fighter, but the fighter is dating the rogues bardic sister and she would look down upon her brother ruffing up her love. Try to keep restrictions to a minimum, but declare them if they must be in place. If the clerics and druids are at war, try to prevent the party having both a cleric and a druid unless the campaign rides on splitting the party anyway.

The climax should be engaging and bring every player to the forefront. Make it exciting, but also make sure it is consistent with the previous events of the campaign. If the campaign rides on killing Sycorax the Red Wyrm as a climax, don't be afraid to change the circumstances of the climax as it goes on. If it was supposed to take place in her secret volcano lair but the players won't go, bring her out on a rampage, especially if they kill her favorite son, Caliban the Half Dragon Wizard. Let her pick up resources as she goes if the players are distant, slaughter armies as flies, and let the players fight her in a desolate ash-covered field... or in mid air over the ocean in a storm!!!

As something of a final bit of advice, do not end each session with "how did I do?" If you did poorly and are capable of listening to their critics, they will tell you. If you did well, they will tell you. Instead, end each session with "what are your plans?" Spend the final half hour or so with the players discussing what they should do in the next session. Once they agree on a plan of action, write the next adventure the moment they turn their backs. I mean it. The moment they are out the door and you hear "click", grab your notes and begin a brain dump, at the least. This way, you always have something prepared. Even if you had to work double shifts and overtime all week and could not build off of your brain dump before the players show, you can look at your notes and string something together.

Read This Before Continuing

All the above information are general guidlines for campaign building. These will work for any game, any system, any thing where cooperative storytelling is the primary goal.

Everything after this sentance is D&D specific. D&D as a game is poorly written with the goal of "be all, end all" despite the physical impossiblity of pleasing everyone. By now, you and your group have an established playing style. This is a fact, for if you hadn't you would not be snooping around the homebrew section in the first place. The rules past this chapter attempt to emulate stories and legends that the D&D writes claim to be their inspiration. If none of this appeals to you, stop reading now.

Finally, you have all rights to invoke rule 0, the unspoken rule of all rpgs that you may forget- have fun. If Fate just isn't your thing, don't use it. If Plot Points seem way out of whack and you think they ruin a story, ignore them or change them. If Narratives seem to strip you of your all powerful GM Throne, don't allow them.