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The spark
To start a new campaign, I start with some kernel of an idea. This idea usually conveys the tone and an intro to the setting. It doesn’t have to be deep, or have a lot of detail or answers, but it’s enough to motivate me to want to spend the time building something.
For Shadows Over Siqram, the spark was something like this:
The rider mounts and flies off.
That spark blossomed into a million questions; What type of society has tamed dragons? What were the humans on the horizon doing? Why would anyone be patrolling a vast, harsh sea of sand dunes? Why would a city be settled there? And on and on it went.
After I had a spark, the next step was to gather interest from potential players.
Finding my players
Before I spend time really ironing out the details of my campaign, I want to gather interest from some potential players. I figure out how many PCs I want in this campaign (usually between 4 and 6), and I put together some loose expectations. This step is incredibly important.
In my initial expectations I’ll cover: tone of the campaign, style of play (ie, roleplay heavy, loot’n’shoot, dungeon delving, etc), character building expectations (alignment, background), scheduling expectations and expected length of the campaign. I’ll usually give a short overview of the setting as I’ve imagined it so far.
I cannot overstate how critical this step is; the entire success of the campaign hinges on it. If you are trying to plan a deep, roleplay heavy campaign with a nuanced setting and rich PCs, but your players just wanna dungeon delve while drinking beers, no one is going to be happy. I once tried to get my players more involved in the story mid-campaign and the effort failed miserably. They weren’t there for that, and hadn’t signed up for it in the first place.
Here’s what I sent to folks when I asked if they were interested in playing Shadows Over Siqram with me:
- I expect this to take six-to-eight sessions of four hours each. This does not include the Session Zero.
- I’d love to schedule these sessions in advance on a weekly cadence
- If a player can’t make a session, we’ll skip that session and add one to the end - I prefer this to playing without a character. Each session will be designed for all players present.
Character Development
- We’ll do milestone XP
- Your characters will advance two levels from 13 to 15. Use that info when planning your builds. Min/max characters are encouraged.
- I’d like characters to be deeply involved in the setting, with friends, family and a history as it relates to Siqram
Table Manners
- We all appreciate and enjoy the game more when everyone is fully present. Let's aim to keep distractions to a minimum. Whether you're using digital tools or traditional pen and paper, maintaining focus helps everyone stay immersed and ensures smooth gameplay.
- For RP, I hope that players will be able to immerse themselves and get their characters involved and invested in the environment
- For combat, I hope that players will be attentive and ready to act on their turn to keep combat flowing
Every player that said they were interested explicitly said they understood the expectations and were excited to play in the game. I ended up with four players.
Once I had players, I knew I had enough buy-in to focus on actually building out the setting.
Next up I talk through how I plan individual sessions! Check it out by clicking the button below.
