My campaign planning woes

[RyanW]

So I've got this idea for a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk fantasy campaign in a setting populated by anthropomorphic animals all the standard fantasy races original races only humans. It's set in an analogue of Iron Age Renaissance Europe, and will use Fate GURPS Fate GURPS...

...help me...

[The Colonel]

For all the Babylon 5 fans out there, we've established what you want (sort of), so let's ask the other question: "who are you?" or, more accurately, who are your players (and what do they want?)?

Hopefully they actually care about your campaign world and won't try to murderhobo through it - also, presumably they are GURPS competent. Not being that RPG should reduce the pressure to turn the place into a zoo.
Now, what sort of things to they seem to like doing?

[ericthered]

When I'm dealing with this sort of question, I generally just make two campaigns and have my players vote on which one they want. Sometimes I'll let them choose the flavor of some wider material. That's how the banestorm game ended up being so roman-centric.


Do you know what the players are going to do? I find that until I have a campaign objective I'm just doodling.

[RyanW]

My problem is that sometimes I have trouble finding ideas. Then I get ambushed by several at once.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by RyanW

My problem is that sometimes I have trouble finding ideas. Then I get ambushed by several at once.

Are you looking for commiseration or advice?


I try to write down the ideas to develop later. The "Ideas are Easy" has a lot of ideas I've had and didn't have time to work out further. I've also got folder full of text documents of (mostly partially) worked ideas, and a text doc with about a dozen ideas I could work if am feeling uninspired.


Getting stuck on ideas does happen, and I find talking to other people about it really helps. Either they will come up with a good idea, you will grab onto some tangent of something they said, or everything they say will be completely wrong but you'll be able to add the opposite of what they said because you realize you haven't expressed the thought to keep people from being that wrong yet.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Are you looking for commiseration or advice?

Little of column A, little of column B.

Originally Posted by ericthered

Getting stuck on ideas does happen, and I find talking to other people about it really helps. Either they will come up with a good idea, you will grab onto some tangent of something they said, or everything they say will be completely wrong but you'll be able to add the opposite of what they said because you realize you haven't expressed the thought to keep people from being that wrong yet.

Yeah, I've got a fellow GURPS playing friend that can be a major help, when he isn't in "I'll play whatever you run" mode.

[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by RyanW

So I've got this idea for a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk fantasy campaign in a setting populated by anthropomorphic animals all the standard fantasy races original races only humans. It's set in an analogue of Iron Age Renaissance Europe, and will use Fate GURPS Fate GURPS...

...help me...

Q1: have you established your group's interest in this setting?
(this can be either by having a large base and asking "who''s in?" or, if a small base, asking, "Is this good for our next setting?"

Q2: Have you an established physical geographic region and its component cultural geographics and political geographics?

q2.1: if not, are you willing to share the load with your players?
q2.2: are your players willing to engage in that establishment?

Q3: how far off are you considering running it?

[King Leonidas]

you could have a 30 year war setting of religious war. where the PC are stuck in a HRE like Country

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by RyanW

My problem is that sometimes I have trouble finding ideas. Then I get ambushed by several at once.

I write up a prospectus that lists multiple campaign ideas, from half a dozen up to fifty. Then I invite my prospective players to rate them. That uses up my huge ability to think of ideas, and it directs my further efforts to an idea my player go for.

[DeadParrot]

Drop the characters(not really defined at this point) into a bar. As part of the day's game play, have several employment opportunities get offered. Ranging from shipping out on a starship(Traveller), assisting miners in dealing with an orc problem(Dungeon Fantasy), negotiating a settlement between humans and elves(GURPS, Fantasy Trip), assisting a nearby city in its fight against some high tech mercenaries(Cyberpunk, Traveller), more options here.

Once they pick something, the players can finish developing their characters and the GM can flesh out the desired campaign world. This way, everyone gets some playing time as part of the "Pick your next game." process.

Plus players being players, they may derail the process and create their own plot path.