Campaign Building - A Single Novel, Or An Episodic Story?

Campaigns are how we describe our stories in RPGs. And while it's true that not every game you play is going to follow the level 1 to level 20 format, the idea of a story where characters gain resources, skills, abilities, and experience to become more formidable than they were until they hit the final confrontation and the story gets a crescendo is the basis of how most games work. However, there is a question that you, as a GM, should answer when you start putting the next game together.

Do you intend to run a game with a single throughline the way you'd read a novel, or are you going to run a segmented storyline that's more episodic in nature?

It's all connected!

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The Structure of Your Story

Whether you're writing your own adventure, or you're using a pre-written campaign like Storm King's Thunder or Kingmaker, the structure of the story you're telling still boils down to one of these two major styles. So I wanted to talk about them, and about the pros and cons, to try to get some of my fellow Game Masters actually thinking about these campaign styles, and why they use one or the other for a given campaign.

The Novel

From page 1, all the way to the end.

The novel is, essentially, when you have a long-running campaign that will have the same characters all the way through from the beginning to the end. However, the trademark of the novel is that characters are also involved in a single, cohesive story for the entire campaign. This is a lot harder to do than it sounds, particularly in games where you want your players to grind up their levels before you throw heavy stuff at them. However, there's two ways to maintain this single story cohesion all the way through.

1. Write a complex storyline that, from level 1, has your players hooked into the ongoing narrative and setting up the final endgame. For example, they act as a squad of mercenaries sent to deal with orcs attacking a borderland town. They defend the town, discovering members of a cult who were backing the orcs in their attacks. Through this, they find the town is actually safeguarding an ancient relic that had been forgotten. The party escorts the relic to the regional governor, and end up having to uncover a conspiracy where several nobles were members of the cult. This failure of the minions draws the eyes of the cult's leaders, who then begin attempting to take this item. The party has to find the rest of the relics in the set so they can finally end the undying lord of the Unseeing Eye for once and all.

The idea is that each segment of the campaign feeds into the next, with the plot growing in stakes and danger, and all of them are connected. Every aspect matters, and it is all part of the same story.

2. Start the game off at the power level you want for the "interesting" part of things. This is a far easier approach, and it often means you dispense with any filler or level-grinding parts of the game to get the PCs up to snuff for when the main plot starts really rolling. So there's no low-level quests like clearing out goblin caves, or dealing with bandits on the highway just to solidify the party and get some XP on their sheets... you just start at level 5, because that's when the main plot of an undead army attempting to claim the nation would have started to unfold.

This does, of course, mean that your game isn't going to run as long as it otherwise might. That is either a feature or a flaw, depending on your outlook, as some GMs (and players, too) might want a tighter game where they play for 6 months to a year and focus on the "good part" of the game, without all the faff and chaff of the unconnected side quests, monster hunting, and grind that can often show up in a game.

The Episodic Story

As we rejoin our adventurers...

An episodic story is, well, episodic. There are smaller stories that each have their own arcs, and these stories are added to over the length of a campaign to create a complete chronicle of the characters' adventures. While some of them might be connected, many of them won't be.

Perhaps the best comparison for this kind of campaign is reading a collection of short stories about classic sword and sorcery heroes like Conan or Solomon Kane. Because while the stories feature the same character, and there might even be a loose kind of timeline involved, the events of one story aren't necessarily going to impact the next except in references made, or perhaps in a call back somewhere in the text.

An episodic campaign might have an eventual end goal, but not all the parts of the campaign will be bent toward that singular goal. For example, level 1-3 might deal with the PCs routing out a bandit encampment, and bringing down their leader Three-Fingered Galt. Then level 4-7 might involve trying to find a buried relic in a recently-uncovered castle in the deep desert. Level 8-10 might involve them challenging the Warlock of Black Mountain, and ending the threat he poses. And then, once they've really hit their stride, they spend until level 17 getting involved in the struggle over the Aqualine Throne... will they choose a successor, topple the kingdom entirely, or will they become the rulers of the nation's next age?

Episodic stories give you a lot of freedom, but more importantly they offer you off-ramps. So if someone wants to switch characters to try something new for the next arc, or your table is getting kind of bored, you can end the game at the end of a given episode, and try something else. However, there is that question of whether or not you want to stick with the same characters for their entire journey, and just how interconnected that journey really was.

Consider Your Structure

There's no objectively superior campaign version. You can do a full 1-20 campaign with a single, interconnected plot. You could do short arcs put together. Hell, if you really want to you could run a bunch of individual one-shots and just have a game that feels almost like a TV show (which is, incidentally, sort of how pick up games of my RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic would run). But it's important that you ask what kind of story you're looking to tell, and what your players are interested in experiencing, before you start putting together the blueprint for your next campaign.

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Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

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Make NPCs Part of Your Story (It Makes Everything More Interesting)

"So, it is down to you, and it is down to me," Sa'Thirael said, standing from the throne of skulls he had been lounging in.

"Just us?" Shireen asked, raising one eyebrow.

As the sorceress entered the throne room, her companions entered behind her. The hulking giantkin Forufti, whose life she had spared in the Sky's Teeth mountains after Sa'Thrirael had tricked him into trying to kill her. The zipping blur of Black Morgana, the pseudodragon she'd freed from a cage in the lair of the assassin lord known only as the Red Spider. The dark-skinned minstrel Ariadne Asher leaned against the doorway, idly strumming her lute, a wicked gleam in her eyes as she took in every detail of the scene to be re-told once the battle had finished. The courtyard rang with the chant of the Thousand Swords, a company of allies that had flocked to Shireen's banner with every victory she'd won on her journey to the Throne of the False God.

"No," Shireen said, lightning beginning to spark from her fingers. "You are alone, Sa'Thirael. I am not."

And you will see why that was a mistake on your part.

The Friends You Make Along The Way

Every player has little tics, and one of mine is that I have a habit of stealing NPCs, and sucking them into my character's personal gravitational pull. Even in games where my character isn't a part of a larger organization, and hasn't taken the Leadership feat, I have this tendency to adopt NPCs who cross my path.

Because even if the NPCs aren't there to help the group mechanically (they're not fighting on the field, hauling our loot, or making us money), they still add to the story. Their interactions reveal things about the party's beliefs and histories, and they can add interesting support elements to the tale being told. And just because I'm the one who pulled the NPC in originally, that doesn't mean they're exclusively mine; they're a part of the story, and they may end up growing closer to someone else in the party over time, adding to their personal arc as things go forward.

All those little story points form a beautiful ring around the party after a while.

Something else I've found, though, is that when you include these extra elements that are attached to your character, it makes your character feel more like a part of the setting. It turns them into an organic element of the world, and that in turn makes everything in the story just flow better.

Which is why I recommend everyone try to either grab onto a few NPCs you meet along the way, or just pre-package your own as part of your backstory if possible.

How Do You Get NPCs To Add To Your Story?

As with most things in storytelling, the simple answer is, "You just say they're present, and bam, there they are!" However, since RPGs are a collaborative game (and sometimes it helps to have some useful prompts) these are some of the most effective situations I've found for adding support NPCs to a game in a "legitimate" way.

- The "I Know A Guy" Method: I talked about this back in The "I Know A Guy" Strategy For Adding NPCs To Your Game, but the short version is that when your group needs assistance, information, etc., ask who in the group knows a guy. Does the watch detective with the extremely high Knowledge (Local) check have a regular informant? Does the fighter who used to be a local champion have a fan that might get the party invitations to the duke's party? Stuff like this is the easiest way to draw in NPCs spun from the ether. A good way to tie these NPCs in is to make them part of your Small Legend, too, so if you're not familiar with that idea click through to read up on it.

- Hiring NPCs: Whether you take on a hireling to help carry loot, or a driver to mind the wagon, this is one of the easiest methods in the game to expand your roster. Because even if the character's purpose is to be your party's coachman, or valet, they still add to your party and can make for a fun expanded cast.

- Recruiting Defeated NPC: This one isn't just for video games, but it does require you to have a DM that will run NPCs who surrender, and whom Diplomacy can work on. Still, if you're in that sort of situation then it can be a ball to negotiate terms with former "villains" to earn their loyalty. Whether it's the orc raiders who just needed supplies who now operate as the guard staff of your party's captured castle, or the cleric of a dark god who reformed and found a new faith in order to redeem their past misdeeds, this can be a great way to continue the story, and ask what happened after. It also gives players a good reason to take NPCs alive, for any DMs out there.

- Class Features: The most common method of adding NPCs to your game is to do it via class features and in-game abilities. While some deride it as just looking for cheese, it is arguably the best way for a player to exercise some control over the narrative, and to have some characters that are entirely theirs to control.

If you take the Leadership feat, for example, you gain a cohort and a bevy of followers that can give you (and by extension the party) a wide reputation and a lot of support in small ways when you need it. Animal companions, familiars (especially improved familiars), and eidolons can also inject a lot of personality into a game, and act as ways for you to spiral out your character's story. Even something as simple as summoning monsters via spells can be a good way of injecting a little glimpse into the character's relationship with the cosmos beyond. While animals may not offer much in the way of story, the reaction of celestial and infernal creatures to the one who summoned them can offer fun details. Especially if you make it clear that you're summoning the same creatures again and again, implying they respect you, they fear you, or you have some power over them that can compel them to aid in your endeavors.

These are just some of the more common methods that I've found work in my games, so I thought I would pass them on to all the other players out there. However, as with anything else that happens at the table, you need to make sure your group (your DM included) is willing to embrace this kind of strategy. If they are, it can lead to a lot of great stories. If not, though, then you're going to end up fighting to try to bring in supporting characters to your narrative, and that can often lead to far more stress than it's worth.

Some Inspiration For Your NPCs

Whether you're a DM who wants NPCs on-hand for your players to interact with, or you're a player looking for some characters to implant into your backstories, the following supplements by yours truly may be just what you need to start the wheels turning!

- 100 NPCs You Might Meet at The Tavern
- 100 Random Bandits To Meet
- 100 Merchants to Encounter
- 100 Nobles to Encounter
- 100 Pirates to Encounter
- 100 Prisoners For a Fantasy Jail

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Fluff post! If you've used this in your games, share a story down in the comments!

For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my recent short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

The Fallen Hero

"That can't be him," Arabelle said, shaking her head.

"I'm telling you, that's him," Thoran said. "Look at the mark on his hand!"

The figure half-slumped against the bar didn't look like much. With a ragged coat and unkempt hair, and a growth of stubble just starting to turn into a beard, he looked like any of a dozen other surly drunks lost in their cups before the mid-day bells. There was no denying that the mark on the back of his left hand looked like a raven in flight, though upside down it was hard to tell. Thoran approached cautiously, sliding onto a stool a little ways down. If the man noticed, he gave no indication.

"Sir," Thoran asked quietly. "Is your name Benton?"

"S'what if is?" he asked, grunting as he poured another shot.

"Benton Ravenkill?" Thoran asked.

He stopped pouring, and frowned. While his gaze was still bleary, there was a spark in his dark eyes. A glimmer of something. He put the bottle down hard enough to make Thoran jump, and slugged back the whiskey.

"That man's dead," Benton said. "He died at the Battle of White Thrush. And I'm gonna drink to his memory until I forget him true."

Thoran had his mouth open to say something, when a big man shoved him out of the way. Three others rattled the boards behind him, heavy weapon belts criss-crossing their hips. Their buckles were worked with the bloody hawk of the Emberhearth.

"Couldn't help but overhear, friend," the leader said, baring his teeth. "But it sounds like you're the hero we've been looking for."

"I'm no hero," Benton said, taking the bottle by the neck. "Just a man, drinking alone."

The man grabbed Benton's shoulder, hauling him around. Though he looked half dead on the stool, Benton found his feet, smashing the edge of the bottle hard into captain's face. His nose cracked like frost-split stone, and a second blow drove the broken bone deeper. As he fell, Benton's whiskey-loosened fingers snatched the dead man's sword. The mark on his hand was darkling, drawing light from the room around him, casting the ragged drunk in a half shadow.

"You're looking for Ravenkill?" he snarled, wheeling on the soldiers and raising his stolen steel. "Congratulations, you found him!"

Don't push me... you won't like it when I push back.

The Fallen Hero

All too often we assume that our characters start off a game as blank slates. That whatever adventure we find them on is their first time out in the world, whether it's the farm boy hero trying to make a name for himself, or the duke's daughter fulfilling her obligation to protect her lands with spell and sword, first level characters haven't really done anything notable.

I laid out why that shouldn't necessarily be the case in Your Story Progression Doesn't Have To Be Linear (Even if Your Levels Are), but the Fallen Hero takes this idea a step further. Fallen Heroes used to be heroes... then something happened to them. Something knocked them off their pedestals, and they fell down hard enough that they haven't gotten back up. Until now, that is.

No one ever won by lying in the dirt.

 

The first step to putting this kind of character together is figuring out who you used to be. Were you a great war hero, such as a knight who defeated an enemy champion in single combat, saving the lives of everyone under your command to do it? Were you a powerful wizard, renowned for your skill and knowledge? Perhaps the leader of a gang of renegades who stole from the wealthy, and shared the take among the needy of the city? Some good places to look for background inspiration for some of these are 100 Random Mercenary Companies for the war heroes, 100 Random Bandits to Meet for scoundrels, and A Baker's Dozen of Noble Families if you're looking for a high-born kind of legend.

Once you know the hero you used to be, ask what knocked you down. This could be nearly anything, so feel free to get creative! For example, did you take a wound that nearly killed you, crippling your powerful sword arm and taking you out of the spotlight? Did the strain on your mind when using advanced magic send you into a fit, leaving you afraid to dip your fingers back into even simple spells for years afterwards? Did you swear an oath never to take the field again to a spouse or a parent, and you've tried to keep that promise even if they're no longer with you? Or for all the glory and honor heaped upon you, were you just tired of seeing your companions die around you needlessly?

Whatever happened, it caused you to stop. You put away the trappings, and went into forced retirement. Maybe you crawled inside a bottle, selling off everything you'd fought for to pay for one more round. Perhaps you tried to live a quiet life, telling yourself that all the bloodshed was behind you. You might have found yourself in an institution, or a prison cell, while the adventurer you once were grows ever more distant.

For folks who want to play a version of Thor from Avengers Endgame, this is the concept you're looking for. If that's the case, you might find How To Build Thor in the Pathfinder RPG a useful resource to start with.

The third stage, and the final one, is asking what brings you back. What lit that spark back up inside you, and gave you the courage to start the climb back to who and what you once were? Is it having the fight come to your doorstep, and feeling those old instincts come back? Is it the inability to stand by and watch others come to harm when you know you could do something about it? Or is it an old friend (or the child of an old friend) who comes to you to ask for help?

Somebody has to stop you from getting yourselves killed.

Who Do You Become?

The most important question with a Fallen Hero is asking what you become when you finally get back up. Do you become a version of the hero you used to be? Or do you try to become someone different?

If you used to be a flashing sword on the battlefield, hungry for glory, are you now more of a mentor figure? Does some of that old cunning you showed in your days as a master thief flash out from time to time when you're all planning a stealthy mission into the necromancer's fortress? Does your wizard, who barely speaks after the things she saw in the Void, slowly warm to the subject of ancient history, and helping educate her compatriots in the ways of spellcraft?

There are all sorts of options out there, and they're completely up to you!

Like, Follow, and Stay Tuned For More!

That's all for this installment of Unusual Character Concepts. Hopefully this one gave you something to chew over, whether you're a player, or a game master.

For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my alley cat noir novel Marked Territory, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my most recent collection of short stories The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Before You Start Your Campaign, Know Where You're Going

Being a DM is a lot like being a novelist. While a lot of the methods those of us behind the screen use may be similar, we each have our own process when it comes to how we make the magic. And, as long as the game that's being produced is enjoyable for both the DM and the players at the table, then whatever they're doing is clearly working.

With that said, writing a campaign is like writing a novel in another way. There comes a point where the story needs to reach a logical conclusion. And before anyone sits down at your table, you should have an idea of where that end point is... or at least which events precipitate it.

Then they awaken the sea giants... form a pirate fleet... and... ugh... become kings?

Story Planning Saves You A LOT of Headache

One of the common DM questions I see on forums, and occasionally get asked by readers, is what they should do to end their campaigns. Typically they've been going on for a long time, and the DM wants to wind things down, or is tired of running, or can't think of where else to take the story. And every time I ask, "What was the end goal of your campaign?" the answer is always a confused, "huh?"

A story is like a road trip. Sure, part of the fun is the journey itself. The roadside attractions you stopped at with your friends, the greasy spoon with the unforgettable pancakes, and that time you had to sleep in the car because you couldn't find a decent hotel for fifty miles. But the reason you all piled into the wagon in the first place was because you wanted to go to the far shore, and witness the great Battle of the Bands in the desert wastes among the Burning Men. That was the whole impetus of the trip, and why you're all out there in the first place.

Some of them were burning before the show... all of them were burning after it.

Your campaign needs that same, underlying structure. Yes, it should be about the PCs, and their specific achievements, but if all you're doing is following them around while they do whatever they feel like, it can be terribly unstructured and chaotic. And, unless you're a masterful DM and world builder, it can quickly lead to things falling apart, or getting ridiculous. The efforts of the PCs should be bent toward achieving some goal, or doing some great thing. Defeating the monster, finding the macguffin, solving the mystery, etc., etc. You need to be going somewhere with it, otherwise you're just driving on the highway until you run out of gas.

Smaller Arcs Build To Big Crescendos

A piece of advice I would give to DMs who have trouble picking up speed to hit a solid, definitive end is to build your campaign sort of like a Russian nesting doll. Pick a small arc that achieves something, and tells a definitive story. Like the classic, "Oh no, this town is about to be overrun by zombies!" scenario where a low-level party defeats the undead, and then slays the necromancer that summoned them. An arc that has a definite beginning and end, and whose purpose is to solidify the party, and to give them a big win.

Now, you could end the game there if people wanted to. That would be a really short campaign, but you could do it. If the players want to keep going, then you go into the next arc. Perhaps it turns out that necromancer was merely one member of a greater cult, who is now focused on the party for their part in disrupting a greater overall scheme. Now the party has to uncover who is in this cult, what they were doing, and stop the individual leaders. Once that arc is complete, the party will be mid-level, and will have achieved a greater victory. If the players want to continue, they now have to uncover the secrets the cult was attempting to glean from ancient ruins, facing a potent lich who has been trapped and bound for centuries in the blackness of his own, buried citadel. If the party succeeds, then the curse has been well and truly broken, and the land above can sleep easily.

And with a final cry, the ruins fell silent.

Now, seen from a bird's eye perspective, your ending point for this campaign is going toe-to-toe with the CR 17 lich. In order to get the party to that point organically, you provide them with self-contained arcs that act as stepping stones. Each one is a building block leading to that final point, like smaller books in an ongoing series.

Could you concoct another, even grander arc after the ancient lich for your party to face if they wanted to keep playing the same game, with the same characters? Yes, you could. However, you need to ask if you should. Do you have the necessary skill as a DM to handle a party with the resources of that level? Is there a story you want to tell that requires that amount of power? Are you engaged, as the DM? Because it's better to end a campaign on a high note, with the players wishing there was another chapter to go, then it is to just peter out, wandering from brawl to brawl with no real purpose in mind until enough people lose interest.

Or, put another way, flare up brilliantly, and end definitively. Don't fade away.

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday update. If you'd like to help support Improved Initiative, then Buy Me A Coffee, or for long-term support, go to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page. Every little bit helps, and even $1 a month gets you some sweet gaming swag as a thank you. If you'd like to see more stuff from yours truly, then check out my Vocal archive, or head over to the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Lastly, if you want to stay up-to-date on all my releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter.