How deeply should one plan campaign mysteries?


Homebrew and House Rules


I've been looking through the Pathfinder Chronicles books, and there are a lot of unanswered adventure hooks in there (as there should be).

I'm trying to make my own campaign world. How many adventure hooks should I really plan out? Should I answer every "mystery" my players could discover, or should I wait and only come up with answers when it looks like the players will take the hook? Do you think the Paizo writers already know the answer to every hinted problem listed and unanswered in the books?

Different religions--even in a world where you can flat-out ask the gods for their opinions--almost always have different creation myths. As campaign maker, should I decide what the *real* story of creation is, or should I only care about the creation myths that the religions tell their followers (and thus, that the characters know about)?

In this respect, how should I find the balance between details that give life to the world and details that are just unnecessary?


Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

As for me, I usually keep a written note of any unanswered hooks, and come up with a brief answer to exaggerate if the PCs want to explore it later.

When dealing with metagame, such as the actual creation of your world, don't explore it. Remember that each character and player is a different person with a different perception of your game world. Limit them in how they view it, but never force the limit. Don't blatantly tell them that the world was created by ONLY this god. Everything will feel better if left open to interpretation.

I run a my own campaign world, and in it, the characters know very little about the planes, which play a large role in the game. The only thing they know is that if the planes become disrupted, they're in trouble, and it works well to interpret that into any hooks.

In summation, I would take the time to get all your religions creation stories, but keep the true creation murky at best. If religion plays a large part in your world, and creation itself is a big part of the campaign, you've set yourself up for plenty of adventure.

Sovereign Court

Depends on your experience as a DM and preferred style.
For a full-on storytelling style, let the players decide the answers to the mysteries. If that's too purist for you, one suggestion was to pick the second theory the players come up with as the real answer. If the players get wise to this, then you might want to have a general idea about the answers but modify them if the players come up with any interesting ideas themselves.
Focus your efforts on things the players will interact with. You can dangle some plot threads and see what interests them, them expand on those. If you have a "big picture" view and the details start going in another direction, you can always modify it to fit the new facts. The players don't know that anything is changing. Any inconsistencies are just another mystery.
Do the Paizo writers know all the answers? - Unlikely, but they may have some ideas which generated the hook in the first place.
Creation myths? Do the gods even know what happened, or are they just spinning the facts?

Storytelling style see: Storytelling (wikipedia)


If it isn't answered ahead of time, it isn't a mystery because there is nothing to discover. The players aren't investigating - they are asking you to just make something up regarding what they are pointing at. It isn't the same thing.


Here's my take for my games - take from these examples what you want:

Mysteries - I have a vague idea on my campaign outline. For example:
1) Earthquake
a) Mishaps around the wall repairs: Goblin influence
b) crew to quarry near ruins gone missing: Aberrant sorcerer?

So when the party gets to town, post-earthquake they learn both points. Whichever they actually investigate or seem interested in, that's the one I flesh out. I might have a couple interchangable encounters just to fill in some blanks, but for the most part the PC's drive the action.

Creation myth - I have a homebrew world and to be totally honest, I have no idea how it got there. My players arent interested so I don't bother with it. Back in HS I had my first homebrew and we had the time/desire to deal with it, so in that instance I mocked up a godswar between the good gods and evil demons. Each of the PC's deities had a role to play in the war that helped define their portfolio; war and battle went to Marin, who martialled the righteous, trickery and darkness to the selfish hag who played both sides against the middle, etc. Of course there had been a massive explosion from the destruction of a previous universe and the gods/demons were the fragments of the past, but the party never needed to know that exactly so they just knew from the godswar on.

How much detail - This is one I struggle with a lot myself. I LOVE writing and designing, so I have reems of paper with detail of a pair of home cities that no party in their right mind will ever see or care about. In 3.0 for example I started designing the city of Netherdam. Did you know that there is an Inn there the Velvet Collar? No, it's not a brothel; its a hostel and grounds catering specifically to the many wizards and accompanying familiars that live/work in or frequent the city. You DIDN'T know that? well...neither do the 2 players in my game who've been adventuring in the area, off and on, for 5 years of realtime.

I have resolved, with the latest reboot of the game, to shift gears. To wit I have begun fleshing out a new part of the world, since the last game ended w/some earthshattering results...literally. In this new area I've designed A city and I've so far dutifully restricted myself to fleshing out only the detail needed for the party to have their adventures.

The city of Dunspar has 3 gods (I've got their churches/functions in outline form), there are "several" inns and taverns in the city; one of the ones frequented by adventurer types is called the Stagshead Pub run by a balding former guardsman named Brahms with a thick cockney accent. The sewers in town were fixed and expanded a few decades ago due to The Wilding, when plant life spontaneously exploded a centuries worth for every 10 years, leading to lots of roots, vines and nasty mold/fungi going crazy down there. This is important since the sewers play into their first adventures.

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