Well, by the time I post this, I will have just finished my campaign. A long, winding, but ultimately satisfying learning experience with friends. And I thought there was an article in that, so here we are. An article about how to run a campaign as a gamesmaster. Enjoy.
The approach I took
My basic idea when running the campaign was to treat each gaming session as a single episode of a mecha anime, i.e. there's gonna be a fight, the role-playing is in the run up, and how they handle the fight. Initially, I attempted to map out multiple paths, but this never survives contact with actual players. The best you can do is present the scenario, and have clear behaviour/objectives for NPCs. It is not your job as a gamesmaster to present a script for the players to follow. As I learned, I went from being a particular world-builder to being an enabler. It is your job to present a good time. How you achieve this is up to you, but there are two points I like to keep in mind. The first is that you shouldn't protect people from reasonable consequences of their actions. If they go in unexpected directions, roll with it, but if they try anything overtly suicidal, warn them. The second thing, and the mirror of the above, if its awesome or funny, just let it happen. We're talking about giant robots here, don't be serious for its own sake.
So, enough philosophy, let's have some practical advice on how to run a campaign.
Creating the Setting
It's entirely fine to use the rulebook setting for your campaign. There's rich seams of conflict and political commentary to mine. If you don't? Well, you can just take a stock genre dynamic and build from there. That's what I did. I loosely based my antagonists on the infamous Titans group and SCP fiction, thus guaranteeing that I would have a proper bunch of bastards who could generate any amount of weirdness. I then created a regular military for them to patronise, The Militia. Then, because consistent tone is something that happens to other people, I then created a bunch of feline criminal stereotypes called the Neko Pirate Mafia. Yes, that was a joke that got away from me, and I regret nothing. Do up maybe two pages of notes, on three factions and their dynamics, but don't write to much. Just the starting point. It's up the players set the tone after all.
Creating NPCs
You will probably need 3 or 4 recurring non-player characters, not counting antagonists. Given the mecha genre, these will likely be some variety of mission control, mad scientists, and engineers. You don't need to stat these, but it helps to have something to hang a personality on. Pictures and accents can help the players fill in the gaps you feel that your acting can't fill. Recurring antagonists are slightly simpler in that they just have to survive contact with the party, and/or be smug. If in doubt, just copy a Gundam character, and claim its a reference.
Selecting Enemies
I've written about balancing fights before, but outside of major events like boss fights, you can afford to keep it simple. Have the HD of the enemies match the average party level, and aim for them to slightly outnumber the players. This allows for a fairly brief but effective encounter, where everyone will likely get to contribute without being murderised in the first round. Try to avoid taking too many different enemy types in the same encounter, as this can create additional work for you and the occasional unexpected mini-boss squad. Once the party reaches higher levels, you have to be creative, but by that point you should have an idea what you are doing.
Talking to your Party
It's generally a good idea to chat with your players to figure out what they like and make sure you are on the same page. I know this is basic social interaction, something I personally struggle with, but it's easy to miss someone when you have half a dozen giant robots stomping on stuff. Make a point if at least asking everyone privately what they might want from the sessions. It shows you care, and it could give you free material.
Planning the first few sessions
Now, its usually unwise to produce a detailed plan for a campaign several sessions in advance. Players will do unexpected things, and forget any clever foreshadowing you might have put in. At most, have an end point to end for, but not a path directly there. The start of a campaign is however a bit different, players will need a bit of time to find their feet, and learn how the game works. With this in mind, the first session can be scripted to a large extent. Make a point of ensuring each character can introduce themselves, and learn how the rules mechanics. Name drop the factions, and lay on the themes. Then, over the following two sessions ease then into the status quo. Which your party can break or otherwise place their mark on.
Writing an individual session
Generally, I would recommend trying to follow the style of mission presented in the Mission Manual book. Be as concise as you can, but always include a summary of NPCs, and a sheet featuring the stats of the enemy mecha. If using a stock mission, you don't need as much prep, but still have the statblocks to hand, and a covering sheet for stuff specific to your game.
Idea seeds and drop-in missions
There are times when things overrun, somebody drops out or otherwise things go a bit pear-shaped. Again, the Mission Manual is handy here, but if you've crafted a setting yourself, its material may need adapting. As an alternative, brainstorm some ideas for missions, real simple concepts, no more then two sentences long. Then put them in a list, with any rules you need, and break it out when you need it. Some of my better ideas started this way.
Wrapping things up
I don't claim to be any kind of expert on this stuff, but I do try to learn from experience. Hopefully, the above is of use for you, or at least entertaining. If you have anything to add, please comment below...
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