Hey y'all, how do you write your campaigns? I mean like how does it actually look in your notes? I use bullet points but I end up putting far to much detail into it than is necessary. So I'm just curious to know how you write. Maybe an example or a tip? Thanks!

Extremely sorry for double post, trying to remove…

I tend to do what you do, bullet points with way too much specific information in them =P Hard habit to break.

I haven't been doing this long but one thing I've found is it's helpful to rip off books and movies, just steal the major plot points and build around them.

Amazing Larry said:

*and other games* fixed that for you video games can be a great source of inspiration, especially if they're the kind that have a decent story but terrible gameplay and your first thought is "this would be so much more fun if I could FREAKING CONTROL THE CHARACTERS…."

Soul Hunter said:

Could you give an example adventure you've made?

Absolutely! Here is a little excerpt from the campaign I'm currently working on:

I have a very tedious job, so I do most of the plotting for my campaign in my head at work. When I prepare for a specific game, I usually just write up the NPC stats and draw any tactical maps that I might need. If a game session will involve a complex bit of plotting, I write up a brief 'checklist' of plot points so I don't accidentally leave anything out.

I do pretty much the same as Adeptus-B…

Except I still forget things.

I do this as well but I try to think of cool one liners for people to say and good descriptions of events and place which I will write down so that I remember them for the session I end up using them in.

I am definately inspired by books, movies, tv shows etc but I try to keep the events unique to each campaign I have I really want our story to feel like our own original story.

I also don't use a linear story line whcih makes it extremely dificult to write ahead but I do my best.

I always allow my players to do what ever they want the only way I push them down certain paths is to have circumstances set up such that they have limited realistic options. Occaisonally hey have suprised me and pulled something off I really though they would die doing whihc is frustrating but also exciting since it keeps me geussing where my own story is going!

I also include alot of detail, if I create a world its almost never a "jungle world". It may be mostly jungle but parts of it will definately be desert or grassland as well. And any culture I create is always really well flushed out because I like to consider everything form political strugles, technological development, religious pratices, sexual practices and marrige customs.

Its the little details that allow players to become truly immersed in a world.

I also lie to my players alot.

In any fantasy or sci-fi rpg whenever you hear the phrase "according to legend…" you know what ever follows is true and possibly your main quest.

As a general rule the more ancient the legend the mosre important to the story line.

So I tell my player three legends for every real one out there or three different versions of events that are occuring.

I'm an improvisational, seat-of-my-pants GM, meaning I follow the five step session plan! Which is the plan I come up whilst walking the five steps before I sit down in the GM seat. I've tried my hand at more detailed planning in previous games but found the inherently chaotic behaviour of players meant such plans were usually deviated from pretty quickly.

When I was running Rogue Trader I essentially let my players take the helm on what they wanted to do and fleshed things out from there. Some reasonably creative and motivated players, tied with the game's "Go Anywhere! Do Anything!" premise, meant a lot of the time I was setting the background and details for the player's exploits whilst every so often throwing a wrench into their plans. Endevours were usually sketched out ahead in my mind, maybe extending to half a page of scribblings, with a stable of recurring allies, antagonists, and plot points to (attempt to) bring some overarching themes to the game. In truth it was more a series of things done by a bunch of eccentric misfits rather than a campaign but it was bookended by the Rogue Trader's search for his missing (and as they found out, horribly corrupted) father.

I could also usually count on the bickerings of Niles Crane the Navigator, and Skeletor the Kroot taking up a good half hour of each session which also cut down on the amount of planning I had to do.

Wonder Lemming said:

LMAO Skeletor the Kroot. Love it. I'm actually the same way at GMing, DMing, Narrating, Shadow Running, or however you want to word it. Anyhoot, what I have always done is ask the players what their charatcter ambitions are, what they as a player would like/not like to see in the game, and even sometimes some ideas on adventures. From there I sketch my stories, adding or take away as I thought necessary. I never really have just one up my sleeve, but more or less a few. This always helps for later down the road for when I can't think of anything, I already had an idea sketched for when I did.

Lets say I have a group of players. The RT says his PC's ambitions are to start a large colony in the name of Drusus, as a player he would like to see more ground combat, and thought it would be could to find a lost relic. The Explorator says he wants his own ship, would like to find some archeotech, and ideas around those last two points. The Void Master wants to show that he is the best pilot in the Expanse, would love to have more space fighter dogfights, and said "Battlestar Galactica!!" to any adventures that I asked him about…….. The Astropath wanted his own estate on a colony world he could retire to, dislike space combat because he felt he couldn't contribute allot to it (which he did), but couldn't think of an adventure. The Arch-Militant wanted her own army, would like more ground combat, and thought BFK Ground Warfare rules needing reworking but wanted to lay seige in an adventure. My Navigator wanted to make his house strong again, distrusted the Astropath (always good to have paranio start before the campaign begins), and wanted to find some Void Whales or Krakens.

So, from just listeing to my players, I either have a couple Mega Endeavor or a bunch of smaller ones. Jotting them down in bullet form has always been the best practice, leaving about a paragraph blank below them so I add to it, make notes, and elaborate on as needed. I always kept a couple sheets of paper on hand which said "Important NPCs" on one and "Important Events" on the other.

For a compiled list of endeavors that I have yoinked over the years, please refer to my link below. Listed under Rogue Trader, Endeavors, Endeavor.odt. And now that I have looked at it, I haven't added much of my players endeavors on there. Oh well, something to do later. Happy gaming people.

I gave my players a "storyline" mission with set-but-loose time goals (a new obligation for being provided a decent ship, since the Dynasty's last one is lost at void… of course, it was one whose ownership was disputed anyway, both the Dynasty and the Imperium had claimed it, so they just settled the dispute with a carrot), and intend to just kind of throw plot hooks at them when they hunt for them. I have a few half-done ideas I haven't introduced at all yet, I'm using a handful of the official Endeavors, and my storyline mission only has the shortest-term objective scripted out, with the mid-term objective rather open (convert, colonize, or conquer 80 planets to bring the Imperial Truth to worlds where it is silent or struggling in the Expanse) and the long-term objective having a time limit of 1000 years, with progress expected at least once per century.

It's very imortant to be flexible obviously as other on this forum have mentioned so always have a detailed plan for those more likely possibilities. If your logical and think on you feet you can adapt to unexpexte event the player will throw at you. Many times it can be entertaining to deal with something you didnt expect to hapen either due to dice roles or your players outsmarting you ahaha.

Keep an captains log of events it will hel you pull up useful plot points and minor details taht can be useful for wring further story.

In terms of long term writing you have to be caeful, be sure to only plan for event that you KNOW WITHOUT A SHADOW OF A DOUBT WILL HAPPEN. everything else shoulldn't be planned more than three to four game sessions in advance if you want your plyers to feel like their world is genuinely reacting to their choices. Its to much work to plan more then that if you ant a realistic turn out otherwise you will handwave and make stupid choices that dont make sense just so you can write further into the future.

I find that for Rogue Trader, it's best not to have a detailed "Plan" because it's much more a freeform game. As such, the new format I'm looking at is to split descriptions of systems into two parts- Moveable Objects and Stoppable Forces. Example:

Objects:

The Caraja System:

Ice World (small mining colony, pop 20k, exists to export exotic metals)

Rock World (No habitation. Some xenos ruins.)

Hive World (Pop 1b. Primarily there to process the ore, but prolonged exposure to it hardens the skin, making veteran factory workers prime targets for Guard tithes)

Small Space station, used by the shipping guilds for repairing, refueling, and loading the transports.

Stoppable Forces:

The Planetary Governor will want to protect his mining interests if players show interest in looting the place.

If players don't conflict with Gov, sudden appearance by Navigator-pirate Samael or Eldar Corsair Rtyre can provide an external threat.

Bam. This is just a really rough example that I wrote up solely for this post, but it's a good example of how I do it. You establish the "terrain" so to speak, and then pick out which recurring characters might show up to do interesting things in that environment, if the setting itself doesn't immediately catch their interest.

Agreed. Because of the Explorer's resources, come up with a setting (a system, an event, etc), in as much detail as you can face, which they could extract profit from, and some principle obstacles to doing so. How they're going to go about getting at that profit is what you want the explorers to figure out. Firstly, it keeps them more involved. Second, it helps flesh out the Dynasty's contacts, resources, etc. Thirdly it requires some brainpower on the part of the players, and fourthly...well...who doesn't like it when the player's write the adventure for you?

So, for example, the Korvos Belt - a rich asteroid belt around an otherwise lonely blue star. No planets exist, but countless chunks of ice and rock, rich in valuable minerals (particularly Adamantium precursors which the Mechanicus will pay hansomly for).

The mining is controlled by various spacebourne clans, who - despite their occasional internecine skirmishes - have maintained a united front to fend off the occasional incursion by chaos reavers, and to stop any of the Rogue Trader dynasties taking control of the system. Several different Dynasties (notably Armengard, Fel, and Chorda) have trading stations at the system's fringes, and won't take well to another competing buyer.

Of course, no faction trusts anyone else. It won't take much to set the entire system off into a massive war-zone, but the problem is that major fighting, especially if someone gets desperate, might well destroy the same industrial infrastructure that makes Korvos such a tempting investment...

Loose framework with focus on details like information to be extracted and puzzles that can be solved in more than one way. Otherwise, the only thing that stays rigid is the basic what, when, where, why and who. The how is always up to the players.

I try to think up what every character's motivations are, and then run through a scenario as if the PCs never arrived. It gives me a rough idea of who each character is, how they'd react and what they want out of things. Then I mostly let the PCs come in, start playing the way they want and have people react to them. I generally try to have the majority of my group's support contingent on what the PCs would do. There are only a few who would outright support or reject them, and otherwise they try to play catchup with how the Explorers mess things up.

Note: Assassination attempts are totally valid responses to my player's actions.

FLOWCHARTS!
DECISION TREES!

VARYING PRIZES! (including death for poorly done decisions)
HAHAHAHA

and a side notepad for descriptions and NPCs descriptions