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For the DM's: Ready,Set,Action!

© Frank Ross

What does it take to turn your weekly gaming session into an epic saga? Action, adventure,romance, drama, mystery, danger, true love, heroic feats, castles, dungeons, monsters, magic and villains. These are all elements found in many weekly gaming sessions. A truly talented DungeonMaster combines these elements and unlike the Alchemist of 18th and 19th century Europe he makes gold. For the next few weeks we will examine each of these elements and give you a few tips you can use to transform your game into a saga of epic proportions that your players will brag about being part of for years to come. When designing a campaign I start by choosing or creating a campaign setting. There are many prepackaged boxed sets that give a DM the information on terrain, maps, politics and more that is needed to run the setting. There are also online tools that can help a DM to create his own setting and maps. It is important to know where the pc’s are. At times the setting alone can play a vital part in the action of the game. Maps of the area can help the players to visualise exactly where their characters are and then make decisions based on their location. Some like to use miniatures and the settings for them such as the pieces made by Dwarven Forge. Maps and miniatures are not absolutely necessary but they can enhance the game.

Once I have a setting I choose or create a villain. I often have a recurring villain that works for the big boss and perhaps ends up plaguing the pc’s throughout the entire campaign. The primary villain need not be the big boss type though. When designing this villain I make him as though I were making a PC. It’s at this time that I create most of the history and background for the campaign. The history and background can be simple to start with. Bandits could be plaguing the roads. Then I come up with whom, what, when, where, how, and why.

Action, what exactly is action? Motion, movement, combat and activity are some of the synonyms you will find. Contemplation, inactivity and settlement are all antonyms of the word action, but how does this fit into a campaign? Dungeons and Dragons is an action role-playing game. Players need to feel like they are actually doing something. Investigating a mystery or exploring ancient castle ruins or perhaps investigating a mystery in the ancient castle ruins are all ideas for action. Many DM’s use random encounter tables to spice up simple roleplay and provide action. But the best encounter tables are designed for the campaign so that the battle with the kobolds ends up being more than just another random encounter. When designing random encounter tables for my campaign, I like to have more than monster stats and treasure list. It’s important to know why the encounter is taking place. Keeping track of these details can help a DM to work on a campaign that flows from one session to the next rather than stringing

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