My Five Step Campaign Creation Process

So, I'm a brand new GM. I never GM'd a long-term campaign at all. It's something I wanted to do for a long time, but I never really got the chance to do. Part of it was a lack of time. And part of it was a lack of confidence. Not about ideas.I always have those. I was more afraid that I couldn't get the characters to interact with the plot that I wanted.  I had always heard that players will inevitably marr the story that the GM wants to tell, so I decided to abandon this idea and work with my gaming group to develop a story that was based off of the characters wanted to make. These were the steps we followed, and I thought it has turned out smashingly well.  

STEP 1: Choose your gaming system. 

The gaming system is important. You want something that you know rather well and fits your GMing interests. For me, I was interested in playing a system similar to something I was already familiar with. My gaming group prefers cinematic gaming over tactical, and we gravitate towards the old, out-of-print Star Wars from West End Games. I knew that was my starting point. 

We already have a GM running Star Wars, though. Although Star Wars is fairly rules-light, I wanted something that was even more straightforward. I decided to go with the free (and excellent) Mini-Six, which was based off the Open-Gaming Licensed version of the West End rules, OpenD6. The combat runs pretty quickly, it's flexible to handle pretty much anything you want to throw at it, and it also has a great in-game currency in it's hero points.

In general, I prefer affordable, generic rules systems in which a bunch of different games can be run. If it is free, that's even better. There are several other options for this, too. RISUS is a good free choice, one that I'm considering running in the future. The source documents for both Fudge and Fate are available online for free. Tri-stat DX is also free, and seems to have a lot of flexibility. And, of course OpenD6 is available for free. 

If you prefer to purchase your rule settings in print, there's a pretty wide set of generic rules systems out there. Savage Worlds is a great system that you can get for $10. In my mind, the Deluxe Edition is one of the most clearly explained, easy to read gaming resources I've read. Basic Roleplaying from Chaosium is another good system. And if you want the option of a high amount of rules crunch, the old standby GURPS is a good choice, too, although you'll have to buy two core books for the latest edition.

STEP 2: Choose your Setting

Sometimes, this is a no brainer. Your group may have a standard, go-to game, so you may choose to default to that. For me, though, I prefer homebrew settings. 

Homebrew games are great because you can customize the world to your players' tastes. In fact, I give my players heavy input into the world's design. The reason for this is that they get heavily invested in the world. It's great to see the players get so excited for the setting.

Fortunately, there are some pretty awesome resources for coming up with worlds. The best ones are games in and of themselves. For my current campaign, the gaming group gathered to play Microscope. This particular game focuses on creating a overall large-scale view of the world history. It's more focused on the history of the world, but when played well, lots of geographic names and ideas come out. Also, the cool thing about this is you can choose to use the timeline as backstory, or you can pick to campaign in a particular era. 

I've seen other systems which take a different approach world creation. Both Universalis and Dawn of Worlds (FREE!) use a point-buy system. This can be advantageous if your group likes more structure than what Microscope offers.

STEP 3: Ask questions about the characters. 

I love characters that are complicated. They'll create the story for you. The best way to encourage your players to develop characters that are complicated is to ask them some creative prompts. My favorite resource for this is The 90 Day Novel: Unlock the Story Within by Alan Watt. At the back of the book, there's a fantastic set of prompts that writers are supposed to use for focused character development writing exercises. Some of the questions include: 

• My biggest regret was...
• What I have come to understand is...
• You would never never know this by looking at me, but... 
• My greatest accomplishment has been...
• The person I hate the most is...  

If explained properly, these prompts can give your players powerful ideas for character creation. One thing that I found was to give different players different prompts. It helped to read them out, rather than hand them a sheet. After I give each player a prompt, I allow them time to consider it, and then we discuss it. I then let them write down some notes that they can use during character creation. 

There are other really cool ways to do the same type of thing. Something I've used for games before is Ash's Guide to RPG Character Creation. It's a more detailed, chart-and-form type of the same thing. If your players are the more left-brain type, this would be a good method for them. It can produce a really detailed, encyclopedia-style background.

The Fake IMDB Page inspired by
our Fiasco session

Another approach to character development is to play the game Fiasco with your group. Playsets are widely available for the system, and it's pretty easy to come up with your own if you want something tailored to your setting. It's a great game for developing relationships between characters that drive the story. 

STEP 4: Create Campaign Mastercraft characters. 

The Campaign Mastercraft Method is really excellent for giving characters a quick definition. Essentially, the players write down a three-sentence background, three beliefs, and three goals. The GM then takes that information and develops scenarios that both affirm and challenge the character's beliefs and gives them steps to meet their goals.  These characters are really easy to jot off quickly, and can be very powerful. As an example of what a potential character using Campaign Mastercraft and Mini-Six would look like, I statted up Raymond St. Denis, a character I played in a particularly fruitful Fiasco session. 

One thing that is interesting in my current campaign is that the players chose to make characters which were very self-centered. Their beliefs and goals are constantly clashing. It feels less like an adventuring party and more like the cast of an HBO drama. For me, this is great. At the beginning of each session, I tell them what the opening scenario is, and then let them just totally bounce off each other. I have an opposing villain group planned out, but so far I haven't needed to use them at all because the group creates a lot of conflict that needs resolution amongst themselves.

STEP 5: The "Two-Session" Pilot

This is where the rubber hits the road. I stole the idea for this from Vincent Baker's excellent game, Apocalypse World. The first session, the GM takes each player to go through a slice-of-life scenario which is mostly character guided. This way, they can get a feel for how the character normally reacts to day-to-day occurrences in their world. Also, they can interact with each other to suss out how the characters' relationships will start.  

The next session, let the players establish what the characters are doing, then throw them into a horrible situation. In our game, our players were in a space shuttle, going to land on planet when they were attacked by a flying monster that managed to rip up a wing, causing them to go into a tailspin and crash. I had the players describe a montage of what dramatic things were happening during the actual crash. Two of the players decided to injure characters -- one chose an important NPC, and one chose to injure his own character. It completely changed how I intended the game to go, but it led to some amazing roleplaying as the characters had to immediately deal with these complications. At one moment, it got so tense, that I had to stop the game and ask the players if they were actually okay because they were all so deep into what was happening.

The Results

The results of this has been more amazing than I could've expected. My players have a huge emotional investment in the game. Not only in their own characters, but in the entire world. +Jeremy Ephraim said he's considering doing the same thing for his next Shadowrun campaign. +Stephanie Grove told me after last night's session that she counts this amongst the best game she's ever played (including board games, card games, and computer games). +Carlin Cook is a coworker of mine, and we regularly talk about the sessions at the office. 

It's really gratifying to hear this kind of thing from your players. This process is still in it's first stages. I'll probably refine and tweak it as I go along. but the play has been amazing, and I've learned enormously from the process. I plan to use it going forward as my main campaign set-up method.