Alright, so this is the case.
Im starting my first large campaign as DM.
Ive got the BBEG the quest and princess to save everything is in place.
My problem is that i dont know how to structure it in a orderly manner.
The adventure is planned to end around 15 - 20th lvl so theres alot of stuff to keep track of.
Any advice is most appreciated and a sample adventure from a silverback dm would certainly help.
thanks in advance.
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In all honesty, this is a really tough thing to plan out, which is why so many of us buy them from Paizo.
However, I would start small and build.
Don't start with the BBEG, the quest or the princess as anything more than vague ideas at the back of your mind.
Start with the small problem that your players can solve in a few levels and build toward them learning more about the problems as they go.
I once ran a campaign which began with players jumping through a magical gate (I was taking over an old campaign that had gone screwy when the GM started flaking out, it needed a reboot).
They were all level 3 when I took over:
step 1 = once they had gone through the gate they arrived in a pristine wilderness and were attacked by some nature guardian types
step 2 = after they calmed the situation and got talking they discovered that others were tearing up the wilderness so went to kick them out
step 3 = but they discovered that it was a group of slaves being used to tear up the wilderness, so they had to keep the wildfolk calm and rescue the slaves
step 4 = the slaves were building a road to take a small army to an isolated old temple
step 5 = so then they had to rehouse/transport the slaves and check out this temple before an army arrived
step 6 = they searched the temple and discovered all kinds of craziness which they then had to keep away from an advancing army of evil
step 7 = which they infiltrated and discovered they had half of an ancient mega-weapon and were trying to get the other half, but half a mega-weapon was still immense power
step 8 = so they then had to sneak into a base of an evil kingdom and claim the second half of the weapon without losing their own half
step 9 = and then they had to defeat an evil army.
We could have started with an evil army on the border but they would have felt powerless and unremarkable.
Instead I kept on giving them small victories which led to the final triumph.
Though it is good advice, i might not have made clear exactly what i am looking for.
I actually have all of the information of most of the adventure.
Actually in pretty much the same fashion as you use above.
However i find it hard to structure it. I have a lot of side quests, npc info and enviromental notes. But its hard to control it all.
To just write lines in that categorize the main story is fairly simple:
#They see a strange person in the town squard
#They Follow him
#They find out his is really an assasin
#They save the king
But im really looking for a tool that or a guideline to make it possible to control more complex adventure.
I wanna create a really epic feel, and that just means a lot of information.
Think of a good computer game, say Baldurs Gate (Which i asume every one has played).
So much work that make it feel like a "Real" world, but how do i structure that kind of information. I would really like to see some one who have done it. Because i just lose track when i put it all in a word document.
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Well, I've never played Baldur's Gate but...
I don't really think you have to structure that kind of information:
You're not a computer, you can think, plan and adapt in sophisticated ways that a computer game won't.
So, you only need to prepare the things that you want your characters to meet, and whether they go left or right the firework shop will be in the middle of that street: you only need to pinpoint where things are after your players' first visit.
Same with people, you only need to pin NPCs down after the players have met them: before that they are just concepts floating in the GM's skull.
And, if the players do decide they need to find a shaman, it is way cooler to let them find some old crazy who can lead them through the swamps to the shaman's cave than it is to look in a notebook and say: "Sorry, no shaman."
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I would say though that you cannot guarantee that the PCs will follow the dodgy looking bloke. That's okay though, if the assassin suceeds that's just a different awesome adventure.
I have heard and seen it said that adventures should have 5 or 6 clues to find the BBEG's lair to ensure that your players actually follow 1 of them (and hey, if they find more then it just creates verisimilitude).
Generally, I favour planning situations for the players to deal with as they see fit: my example was based upon how things panned out but they could have been very different.
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The alexandrian is a good link there.
You need to structure your adventure to work even if the players do nothing that you expect them to do.
What if they don't follow the strange man?
What if they don't notice the clue that he is an assassin?
What if they don't save the king?
Give your assassin a motivation (money, politics, revenge) and give the people involved with him their own motivations. Then when the plan falls apart you can have the NPCs react based upon their motivation. An assassin who is trying to kill the king for a political point might be willing to risk capture and death just to kill the king during a big public event. One who is motivated by money might bide his time. One who is motivated by revenge....he might want the king's death to have a poetic justice to it.
Like Geraint's link says you want to create character's who exist independent of the plot. NPCs who can change their plans based upon character actions are much more interesting.
Now you might say "but I have planned for the king to be killed during a large party in his great hall. I have it all planned out. How do I prepare for an NPC that can attack anywhere?"
It is a little more work but not much more. The king does not change, his guards do not change, but the location might. So you might need to come up with a new location like the King's bedroom. The PCs might have to talk their way in so they can foil the assassin. It makes it more interesting.
Great advice to a rook;)
I really like the way you think.
Could someone give me an example of how to put my thoughts in paper form.
Just a cut out from one of your previous adventures.
Edit, didn't saw the "end at 15th" :D
So you plan a campaign.
First tip:
Documentation, write down anything, NPC names, Town names etc. Players will come up with things like "remember 10 adventures ago, the old man, he could help us here" and it's awesome to simply allow this, even if you didn't plan it. Player then thing "awesome he planned it the whole time and we figure it out!" (even if not^^)
Next Tip:
be flexible, if your player aren't intressedted in the "haunted kobold mine" but rather have a strong adversion vs. Bandits, no problem.
Use the mine map, give the "kobolds" normal sized weapons and "Bingo": you have your "Bandit Hideout", the players will never know.
Last but not least:
Be prepared for the craziest things players can do, prepare for the worst and excpect even sillyer ideas. :)
The key to manage such things is to be flexible and play the rules for the players. (The cleric who was swallowed by a giant fiendish shark and say "i cast "Bless Water"" let the shark spit out the character, just bedcause the idea was very nice)
Embrace your player to perform epic action by supporting them, you will see the game will be much more fun.
Great advice to a rook;)
I really like the way you think.
Could someone give me an example of how to put my thoughts in paper form.
Just a cut out from one of your previous adventures.
I think I see what you're asking for here and quite honestly, I think that you're putting in a lot of effort. Which isn't a bad thing, I applaud your passion and work ethic.
But as far as structuring your notes goes, I would say it depends on you and your group. If the party follows DM "carrots" like prize winning ponies, you can afford to heavily flesh out your NPCs, locales, monsters and combats with pages upon pages of narrative. If they are more likely to do the least expected thing, you're going to need to keep things vague and in a clear outline format so that you can modify and adjust on the fly, keeping your story rolling while your PCs think that they're driving the plot in a different direction. Personally, I think the best DMs let their players think that they have total control over the story while they're actually being herded like unsuspecting cattle.
The APs that Paizo is so well known for producing have a great format for how to write adventures in their entirety. Of course, these are professionals that can dedicate at least 8 hours a day over a series of months, working as a team with editors, artists, designers and writers to make a quality product. I DON'T suggest trying to write your own AP like that. It sounds like a painful way to kill yourself with stress.
But another option is the Campaign Workbook from Gamemastery. It's good to make notes ahead of time about what you want to have happen in a given session and then add notes about what did happen, keeping a good running log.
All that said, I normally go with a simple bullets list-style outline for my campaign planning. For complex connections between nations, people or adventure events, I'll use a web-style "thought map" to visually represent the connections and possible "flow" of information or time.
The key is adaptability, if you ask me. Even the most helpful group of players that is enjoying your story will make a call that you didn't expect from time to time. So, you can't be too structured and be ready to change as needed.
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If you want on the fly ideas for NPCs and locales, Your Whispering Homonculus is very handy.
Tryn is right: maps, town plans and major NPC statblocks can be planned out in advance.
Everything else should be made up as it comes and then noted down so that you can refer back later.
I would also cook up some treasures in advance so that you can reward your players without book-fidgeting. YWH has some good stuff on that and the Random Treasure Generator is a thing of beauty and a joy forever, especially if you get it to generate mundane items as well.
My plans tend to be spider diagrams, but if they were lists they would look something like this.
Dante
CN human bard (poisoner)
Was court poet, sweetheart died, fell into drug-use and now indebted to villain (Palanga)
Desperate to keep his secret, intends to poison Frederica because she has tried to blackmail him into a relationship.
Currently resident poet to petty, self-important lord. Palanga has promised to get him in with the royals again.
Loves: gambling, fine wine, esoteric poetry
Hates: Palanga, people who flaunt their romances
Palanga
Aristocrat/Rogue (arch villain)
Is trying to destabilise crown and nobility so that he is allowed to 'deal with' the kobolds on his border on his own: he wants to secure his family has rights to the mining, rather than the crown.
Will hire PCs who seem useful to either disrupt monarchy or clear kobolds.
Hates: the poor, weakness
Loves: his wife, fine food, his mistress, fine wine, his other mistress
etc.