Advice needed for new fantasy campaign

hal · 06-03-2011, 10:41 PM

One thing I'd offer as advice to any beginning GM is this:

You can always Add, but you can rarely take away.

Put another way? Suppose you start a campaign off with relatively low character points. Each success that the players gain, is a hard won affair - one that hopefully they will remember with fondness. On the other hand, if you give the players too many characters points up front, it is hard to take those character points away.

One thing I've found to be true with my gaming crew, is that once things get to be too easy, boredom begins to set in. Granted, the crew I have for face to face gaming have been together since 1981 in one case, 1984 in another, and I married the other one who joined in around 1986 - and you can see that we've been together for a fair bit ;)

In any event. There is nothing wrong with starting up a little on the low side. As GM, you can always award character points to players over time to help speed up development. Also, you can as GM, always place a few magic items where the players can have their characters get at and make use of. In my campaign world - you either pay for your magic items from those who make it, or you are lucky if you find a magic item readily at hand. One of the unfortunate side effects of magic items in GURPS, is the cost to make them is prohibitively high.

Now for the one thing that can be difficult to do, but is actually rather FUN to do. When you have spare time where you're not doing anything, role play in your mind's eye, what is happening during down time for your major NPCs. Perhaps the Villian of your campaign is trying to achieve a goal, and he's having problems of some sort. So role play in your head, the conversation that the Main Villian is having with his henchman. Or perhaps you have a regional Lord who discovers that he is about to become a father. Out of joy, he arranges to have a celebration, and he talks to the local priest, or perhaps the local merchants, or even hires a few members of the College of Heralds to spread the news far and wide, that he is throwing a festival in honor of his soon to be addition to the family. Or perhaps you wonder if the Queen discovers that her King is having an affair behind her back. You might have in your mind's eye, some self-role playing to engage upon to determine if she will accept the king's infidelity, or perhaps she turns to the church for guidance in what to do. Perhaps someone who hates the King, and Hates the Queen even more, is working to drive a wedge between the two, and he purchases a love potion that he slips into the King's private drinking stock.

When you do that, certain ideas spark your creative juices enough to begin to solidfy those details you need for your players. The Alchemist that the players purchase their healing potions from, informs them that he will be unavailable for the next 24 weeks (or so) due to a very important commission he's agreed to undertake. Later on, they might walk in on the Alchemist bemoaning his likely fate when he discovers that the King has had an affair and his wife the Queen has gone home to her mother - and father who happens to be hostile to the Kingdom over the shabby treatment of his daughter.

In short? Give lives to your NPCs, and you will find that your fantasy world's events begin to write themselves almost.

06-03-2011, 10:41 PM	#23
hal Join Date: Aug 2004	Re: Advice needed for new fantasy campaign One thing I'd offer as advice to any beginning GM is this: You can always Add, but you can rarely take away. Put another way? Suppose you start a campaign off with relatively low character points. Each success that the players gain, is a hard won affair - one that hopefully they will remember with fondness. On the other hand, if you give the players too many characters points up front, it is hard to take those character points away. One thing I've found to be true with my gaming crew, is that once things get to be too easy, boredom begins to set in. Granted, the crew I have for face to face gaming have been together since 1981 in one case, 1984 in another, and I married the other one who joined in around 1986 - and you can see that we've been together for a fair bit ;) In any event. There is nothing wrong with starting up a little on the low side. As GM, you can always award character points to players over time to help speed up development. Also, you can as GM, always place a few magic items where the players can have their characters get at and make use of. In my campaign world - you either pay for your magic items from those who make it, or you are lucky if you find a magic item readily at hand. One of the unfortunate side effects of magic items in GURPS, is the cost to make them is prohibitively high. Now for the one thing that can be difficult to do, but is actually rather FUN to do. When you have spare time where you're not doing anything, role play in your mind's eye, what is happening during down time for your major NPCs. Perhaps the Villian of your campaign is trying to achieve a goal, and he's having problems of some sort. So role play in your head, the conversation that the Main Villian is having with his henchman. Or perhaps you have a regional Lord who discovers that he is about to become a father. Out of joy, he arranges to have a celebration, and he talks to the local priest, or perhaps the local merchants, or even hires a few members of the College of Heralds to spread the news far and wide, that he is throwing a festival in honor of his soon to be addition to the family. Or perhaps you wonder if the Queen discovers that her King is having an affair behind her back. You might have in your mind's eye, some self-role playing to engage upon to determine if she will accept the king's infidelity, or perhaps she turns to the church for guidance in what to do. Perhaps someone who hates the King, and Hates the Queen even more, is working to drive a wedge between the two, and he purchases a love potion that he slips into the King's private drinking stock. When you do that, certain ideas spark your creative juices enough to begin to solidfy those details you need for your players. The Alchemist that the players purchase their healing potions from, informs them that he will be unavailable for the next 24 weeks (or so) due to a very important commission he's agreed to undertake. Later on, they might walk in on the Alchemist bemoaning his likely fate when he discovers that the King has had an affair and his wife the Queen has gone home to her mother - and father who happens to be hostile to the Kingdom over the shabby treatment of his daughter. In short? Give lives to your NPCs, and you will find that your fantasy world's events begin to write themselves almost.