I've been a lurker on this forum for a while and decided to sign up mainly because in a month or so I'll be running my own Deathwatch campaign.

What I want to know is if any of you have any trouble filling in the gaps?

I've worked out how my beginning starts, the DW team are called to an old, abandoned watch station on the fringe of Tau space when its proximity alarm goes off. Their mission is to find out who or what managed to get so deep into a DW base and why when the only note on the actual base is a single name. I've worked out the end game, the enemies and why the broke into the base I'm just stuck with the bits in between I'm struggling with, like I've got A and D sorted but only little bits of B and C, in one respect its like writers block.

I really just want to know how you guys over come something like this? or whether it just comes naturally as you progress.

Easy answer: There is no block. It’s all in your head.

Nothing is ever truly easy though so here are a few tips that have worked for me and others from time to time. It all varies for me so I end up using different strategies almost every time.

1) Distance yourself and get perspective on your material if you can afford the cost in time. Take a break and come back to look on it with fresh eyes.
2) Bounce ideas with someone if you are fortunate to have someone like that around (forums work as well).
3) Go with what feels natural. Keep your themes and moods for your campaign in the back of your mind.
4) BICHOK. Butt In Chair, Hands On Keyboard.

In movies and literature the part between the beginning and the end is where a number of things happen. The conflict/plot presented in the beginning deepens, become more complex. Sub-plots make themselves known. These could be individual character goals in your group, running into something unexpected, dealing with social situations, targets of opportunity and so on. Important is that the players don’t feel like the stuff in the middle are just annoying speed bumps for the main story. Make it interesting and make it stick to the mood and themes.

Thanks for a Speedy reply Chorus, its much appreciated.

I think what I'll do is take a break from the campaign, I've got exams in the next 4 weeks so it wiil be better to give it a rest, unfortunately though the one person I could bounce ideas off is taking part in my campaign so I dont really want to give away the story too much, i dont want to spoil it for him or give him the opportunity to meta game (although I doubt he would).

I think i'll just wait and see, any more advice is welcome and thank you again.

Sounds like your friend could be useful during the campaign though. To get constant feedback and to analyse things. You can do that without spoiling.

Planning a whole campaign before it starts is a great way to loose interest in in rapidly, in my experience. I tend not to even consider campaign ends until at least half-way through, because I want my campaign to react to the players, evolve, and give them what they want, rather than having them as actors simply playing out pre-determined roles in a predetermined story.

Good campaigns are reactive. You see what the player's motivations and desires are, and you change your plot to feed into that. If the players hate or love a minor walk-on NPC, then consider making him re-occurring. If the players are sick to death of Orks, then maybe they shouldn't be the big enemy of the campaign. It's much easier to involve players in your story if your story is dependant on them and inspired by their in-game actions.

Plan scenarios, rather than campaigns. Don't try to be a TV series that puts too much effort into metaplot at the cost of storylines (X-files, anyone?), but instead concentrate in making each episode as cool and exciting as possible. 80% of every scenario that you run should probably have no bearing on over-arcing plot, so that's where 80% of the work needs to go.

Thanks for the replies guys, its much appreciated.

Funny thing really, whilst on the train today a campaign hit me, one that has a good, intresting and hopefully challenging introduction and a nice little twist that will play on my PCs ethical centers once they achieve their Alpha primary objective. Also this new story line allows for so much extra depending on how my PC act.