Challenges for the DM	The Fine Art of Juggling	Designing the Adventure and the World	-	Dungeoneer's Survival Guide
WORLDS OF ADVENTURE:  THE IMPORTANCE OF SETTING	Basic Characteristics	-	-	-
PLOT AND COUNTERPLOT:  The Importance of the Story	The Story Structure	Multiple Story Lines	Story Elements	-
TECHNIQUES OF CAMPAIGN AND STORY DESIGN	The Linear Adventure	The Open Campaign	The Matrix Campaign	-
RUNNING THE GAME	Preparing for Play	The DM as Master Storyteller	-	-
HELP FROM THE PLAYERS	Rolling Up PCs	Providing Ideas for Adventures	Character Class Responsibilities	Controlling Henchmen, Hirelings, and Other NPCs

The ingredients of a successful campaign are myriad, and an
attempt to list them all is doomed to failure. Even the most experienced
DM, however, can benefit from the experiences of other
DMs and other campaigns. This section presents
some ideas for creating and running a successful campaign ideas
that have worked for many a referee.

The most important ingredient in any campaign is a skilled DM
who has the time && energy to carefully define and create his
world, and the talent to communicate his settings effectively. The
next most important ingredients are willing players who share
common goals with the DM. Players interested in hack-and-slash
adventures should not be matched a DM who is interested in
careful plot structuring and detailed mystery solving.

Most players fit into one of three general types: Adventurers,
Problem Solvers, or Role-Players. Each type of party enjoys the
game, but looks for certain characteristics that do not necessarily
appeal to other types of garners.

Adventurers: These are the bright-eyed, enthusiastic players
that most of us were when we first played the game. Many players
retain an interest in this type of game throughout their gaming
careers.

For Adventurers, the high points of a gaming session come
from physical challenges that their character abilities allow them
to overcome. These players enjoy combat above all other types
of gaming activities, and thus prefer adventures where the obstacles
are physical and dangerous, and must be overcome by
force.

Such players judge their characters more on how many magical
bonuses their characters can bring to bear in combat than on
any deep moral or philosophical concerns. Characters who are
slain can be replaced quickly, although players are undoubtedly
disappointed about losing all the fine magical items their slain
characters had accumulated.

This class of gamer is undoubtedly the easiest to DM for,
because their needs are so easily met. A few monsters of increasing
toughness, as long as most of them have hoarded enough
treasure to make the adventure worthwhile, are all it takes to
entertain this group for weeks on end. Their characters are usually
motivated to enter a dungeon simply by the prospect of treasure
to plunder, so the DM does not need to devise complicated
motivations and plot devices to compel them to go where he
wants.

Even experienced gamers who generally play adventures in
the other categories occasionally enjoy a return to the Adventurer
style of play. This type of play remains interesting and fresh if the
DM uses a little inventiveness. Use clever tactics for monsters,
and play them intelligently. Try new variations on existing monsters, <link: Mind of the Monster>
such as adding poison or magic use to creatures that the
PCs usually overcome easily. Monsters that have been wronged
should seek retribution.

Try to vary your approaches to hiding treasures, and limit the
number of magical items you allow in the campaign. Potent magical
items should have odd twists and restrictions, such as a limited
number of charges, or the ability to work only in a particular
environment (in bright sunlight or in total darkness, for example).
Ensure that PCs do not succeed at major encounters unless they
use careful planning, and make recovering slain characters difficult
By the same token, avoid instant death situations. Drama
and tension are increased if a character has several chances to
avoid a terrible fate.

Problem-Solvers: These players enjoy the game on a different
level than Adventurers. Problem-Solvers see the campaign as a great puzzle, and their purpose is to put all of the pieces
together.

For these characters, the story itself becomes very important.
The more twisted and convoluted the plot, the better. Battles are
interesting only from the standpoint of the tactical problems they
present. Problem-Solvers often go to great lengths to concoct
imaginative and occasionally workable plans to deal with every
eventuality.

Problem-Solvers also tend to be very creative with the rules of
the game, so a successful game requires a DM who is creative
and consistent. These players often try to devise new equipment
&& magical items. They are extremely enthusiastic about gaming
sessions that offer something unique and challenging, and
quickly tire of campaigns that become routine.

Problem-Solvers are tough to referee because they get bored
with anything that does not seem new. Since the party requires
mental challenge to remain interested in the game, the DM must
come up with appropriate adventures: hard enough to be challenging,
but easy enough to be solved with sufficient effort.

Don’t hesitate to borrow tricks, traps, and encounter ideas
from books and other sources. Provide your PCs with motivating
backgrounds, and let the players come up with their own objectives.
Use incidents such as random encounters to present mysteries
and clues to the players. Define your NPCs with care, and
provide them with motivations.

Problem-Solvers often relish nothing so much as a story line that presents a mystery to be solved.
They eagerly seek clues && assemble plot elements as if they are truly putting together a puzzle.
Players may spend much time debating various courses of action, and often these debates are great fun for all concerned.

Role-Players:

Many of us have fit into this category at some
point in our gaming careers. Role-Players really enjoy creating
every detail fo their character's lives, down to ancestry and minor
possessions. Role-Players are not satisfied with being told that
their party has acquired the necessary equipment for an xpedition
at the general store. Instead, these players want to role play
the whole shopping experience, and enjoy haggling over pennies with the poor shopkeeper (and his DM stand-in). <>

Role-Players view adventures as opportunities for their PCs to grow.
These characters may be developed to a
level of almost painful detail. Role-Players almost always include
one or more faults among their PCs’ characteristics, since this
adds to the characters’ believability.

Each PC’s personality is important. Players are interested in
their character’s motivations, and try to react to circumstances as
their characters would. Role-Players enjoy interaction, both with
NPCs and with other PCs. They often try to TALK their way out of
problems that other players might solve with brute force.

Since Role-Players view their PCs as the sole reason
for playing, the motivation for the adventure must be something
that is important to these characters. This is generally not
hard for the DM to devise. A character with very important family

ties, for example, can easily be encouraged to participate in an
adventure if the family name can be hoisted to greater glory by
his exploits--or, conversely, saved from a terrible dragging
through the mud.

Anything that affects things the characters value is enough to
send them into the dungeon. Characters who have been held
prisoner, scarred, or otherwise harmed, can easily be motivated
to participate in an adventure where vengeance is a motivation.
The old plot device of rescuing a kidnapped prince, princess,
etc., always draws these characters into an adventure if the victim
is someone close to them.

Challenges for the DM

It should not be difficult for a DM to determine where his players
fit among these three categories. While most players represent
a blend of the three types, with emphasis in one AREA, the
categories are useful for determining the general thrust of your
game. A successful campaign must provide challenges for all
three types of players.

The Fine Art of Juggling

Once you have determined what types of players you have, it
becomes your task to see that each type of player in your campaign
has fun. If all of the players are Adventurers, create a series
of challenging and exciting action encounters with appropriate
levels of reward. If all of the players are Role-Players, populate
your dungeons with interesting NPCs and provide opportunities
for interaction.

If your players include more than one of these basic types,
however, you need to do some juggling to make sure that each
player is entertained. The key to successful juggling is feedback.
Feedback is info you gain about your players by watching
&& listening to them. It is not hard to notice when a player is
bored or overly frustrated, simply by observing facial expressions.

These observations can be made while you are running
the adventure--and are an important part of a DM’s job.
If you notice that Adventurers are getting restless while the
Role-Players are thoroughly enjoying a chance meeting with a
group of pilgrims, perhaps it is time for a random encounter. You
could also challenge the Problem-Solvers in the party with the
same encounter--perhaps a group of bandits attack, and as the
last one expires he murmurs an obscure clue to a mystery that
the party has been working on. Alternatively, Problem-Solvers
might observe something unusual during the encounter, or discover
something significant through a SEARCH.

When running a game, try to make it a point to talk to each
player every few minutes. Listen carefully to their responses,
_______________________________
reading between the lines if necessary.
_______________________________
Any {time} a player sounds listless or bored, it is time to juggle something challenging into their path.

Through successful juggling, a campaign including players of
all three types can be run smoothly. The key is to reward players
for each style of play during an encounter. All the players will find
things to interest them in the campaign, and the variety of player
types and DM challenges should keep the game fresh and
inspired.

Designing the Adventure and the World

Determining the type of game that is best for your group is only
one of the challenges facing the DM. The other crucial ingredients
the DM must provide are the settings and story line for the
campaign.

Settings include all locations that the PCs are allowed to
adventure in. It also includes the NPCs and creatures that may be
encountered there, as well as info about the relationships
among the denizens of the dungeon. Not all of these items must
be presented in great detail at the beginning--it may be enough
to say “orcs live here” and work out the hows and whys at a later
date, presumably before the PCs decimate the orcs.

A story line should be roughly worked out ahead of time. A
good story can draw all types of players into a game.
In any case, the DM does not have to prepare either the story or
the setting entirely in advance. The following sections detail techniques
that can give players the semblance of a thoroughly
designed and well-thought-out world as they begin their campaign
experiences, but still allow the DM to create new and entertaining
features as the campaign develops and the PCs’
motivations and intentions become clear.

As in any role-playing campaign, the underground game benefits
from careful preparation by the DM. While it is not necessary
to outline the entire campaign in advance, the more time that the
DM spends in preparation, the better the result is likely to be. If
conflicts and locales are anticipated ahead of time, fewer on-the-spot
decisions need to be made. Thus, the players’ impression of
a consistent and reasonably believable fantasy world is maintained.

WORLDS OF ADVENTURE:
THE IMPORTANCE OF SETTING

A campaign world is a DM’s unique creation. It requires a lot of
work and can provide DM and players alike with a great deal of
enjoyment. Successful world design is a blend of many factors,
some of which are described here.

Basic Characteristics
 

Richness of Detail	Variety of Options	Consistency	Intelligent Races	Uniqueness
Worlds of Adventure	-	-	-	DSG

A few fundamental decisions must be made before the world
design can properly begin. The scope of the campaign must be
determined so that the DM knows what to define. An underground
campaign, for example, requires little detailing of continents,
seas, and nations on the surface of the world. A city, town,
or village location is probably still necessary if the PCs are themselves
surface dwellers--this provides them with a base of operations.
If the underground environment is made up of many dungeons,
connecting caverns, and underground realms, the DM must
make a general determination of the scope of these locales and
their relationships to each other. Do creatures from the underground
realms visit the dungeons? What types of civilizations
can be found deep within the earth? These questions need not
be answered in great detail, but they should be considered. Then
if characters in a dungeon capture one of the deep-dwellers, you
can at least give consistent answers as they interrogate him.

At first, it is not even necessary to determine facts such as “the
drow live over here, and the duergar down there.” As long as you
know what types of races live there, you can assign their exact
locations later. You can also add more races later as the game
develops. It is much more difficult to remove a race that you have
thoughtlessly located somewhere, so consider these placements
carefuIIy.

The general social structure of your campaign setting also
requires thought. Do you want to create societies of clearly
defined good and evil alignments and practices? While such
societies are admittedly unrealistic, they are easier and less time-consuming
to design, and allow players to identify friend and foe
with relative ease.

Would you prefer to have complex, realistic societies?
Good and evil can be in opposition within the same society, and players
need to carefully plan and implement their actions when interacting
with these societies.

Real-life sources are common and very useful aids to DMs who
are planning a world. The source can be a novel or series of novels
in a fantasy mode, a study of a medieval or ancient society, or
a game aid created specifically to help DMs with this problem. A
good source answers many questions about the world, freeing
the DM to concentrate on the specific details of the game.
The most important key to world design is variety. A good campaign
world has areas both known and unknown to the PCs.
Some locations are safe, and allow the characters a chance to
REST after an expedition, while others are known to be dangerous,
and offer myriad opportunities for adventure. Still others might
seem to be quite safe, yet could conceal deadly dangers that the
characters encounter at some opportune (or inopportune) time.
In no case should the players be able to predict all of the characteristics
of one location simply because “we saw a place just like
this a few months ago.”

Richness of Detail: The specific details of a world give it much
of its flavor and realism. Details regarding locations, people,
monsters, and cultures are all important. When you create a
detail for one part of your campaign, be sure to make a note of it
so that the detail remains consistent the next time it is encountered.
For example, if you plan to create a sect of evil clerics for your
PCs to encounter frequently during their travels, decide what
color robes these priests wear. They must have some kind of holy
(or unholy) symbol--what does it look like? How is it displayed?
Adding details to your world is something that takes time, and
you should not try to detail the entire world at the start of your
campaign. Provide details only for those areas that you anticipate
the PCs visiting in the near future. Once designed, details for a
specific AREA often give you important head starts on detailing
later areas. The evil clerical sect is a good example of this: those
clerics can be described to the PCs in careful detail every time
they are encountered thereafter. <see Appendix III of the DDG>

If you have time, try to invent a general historical timeline and a
collection of common lore for the world. Creating or drawing upon
an existing pantheon of deities is very helpful, especially for clerics.
Create a few long-standing mysteries of the world -- mysteries
that, sooner or later, the PCs may wish to solve. (Be
sure you have some explanation for the mystery ready by the
time the PCs investigate it!)

Variety of Options: This feature of world design is a double-edged
sword that and must be handled carefully. In most cases, <>
you have a specific course of action that you {wish} the PCs to follow.
This is the AREA you have detailed and the encounters you
have designed. If the characters take off in the opposite direction,
you not only have to invent off-the-cuff encounters to replace your
prepared masterpieces of design, but you have wasted many
hours of adventure preparation.

However, a skillful DM can channel characters into the settings
and encounters he has planned, while making the players think it
is their idea all along. This can be accomplished with a matrix of
possibilities that all lead to one conclusion.

For example, say your characters are hanging around the town
square of a small community, idly swapping stories with the old-timers.
You want them to explore a remote keep, high in the
mountains, that you have designed in painstaking detail. How do
you get the PCs there, without letting them know that this is
where you want them to go? Of course, most players cooperate if
you simply tell them that this is the AREA you have prepared for the
evening’s game session, but this is an inelegant and heavy-handed
method of motivating players.
Instead, create a variety of small encounters for the town
square, each of which could send the characters in a different
direction, but each of which also ties in to the eventual goal of the
mountaintop keep.

In addition, the world must have different types of locations. In
above-ground settings, important differences can be defined by
climate. Underworld settings do not have this readily defined criteria,
but still require variety.

Natural and artificial settings can provide a Source of variety.
The sizes, shapes, and physical features of each AREA should
have at least one or two unique characteristics. The inhabitants
of an AREA can provide another source of variety. An expedition
that encounters nothing but orcs && ogres becomes boring very
quickly unless the monsters display ingenuity and variety in their
tactics.

Although areas can contain similar mixes of monsters if your
underlying world structure allows, try to add variety by having a
few individualistic monsters. Perhaps an orc chieftain fancies
himself a skilled judge of fashion, and thus has outfitted his
troops in a particularly garish collection of costumes, while
another is so starved for news of the outside world that he lets his
captives live as long as they keep him entertained with stories
(fanciful or true) of their homelands. If you feel that your campaign
has grown too predictable and it has been a long {time} since
you surprised the characters, now is the ideal time to spring some
unusual setting or encounter on them. A sudden surprise can do
a lot to make up for a few weeks of stale adventuring.

It is also important to provide a variety of both dangerous and
safe places and encounters with creatures of good and evil. A
game where every encounter places the characters face to face
with a monster, forcing the PCs to kill or be killed, soon loses its
lustre for even the most bloodthirsty players. It is far better to drop
in a friendly or helpful NPC encounter now and then. Be sure to
include some realistic consequences should the PCs decide to
shoot first and ask questions later.

Some places should be presented as tranquil havens in which
the adventurers can REST && recover. Whether in a wilderness,
city, or underground locale, a brief period of R&R
for the PCs makes the periods of danger ahd adventure seem
that much more exciting. While you can certainly toss in an occasional
dangerous encounter when the players are in a place that
they consider a haven, do not make a regular practice of it. If players
cannot expect peace and quiet anywhere on the world,
adventurers often lose some of their basic motivations.

Consistency: By definition, a F.R.P.G. postulates
the existence of a fantastic location where the PCs can
live and have adventures. As such, the location is not real, nor
should it appear to be real.

However, any fantastic setting should be created with an
underlying idea of why it is there and how it functions. Very often,
these reasons have some basis in the past or present real world.
A feeling of familiarity about an AREA is more important than realism
to the success of the campaign. For example, everyone
knows that dragons are not, and never were, real. Yet the concept
of a huge reptilian creature with wings, breathing fire and devouring
people, is familiar to most people. Therefore, when player
characters encounter a dragon, the players have a sense of
familiarity with the creature, and by extrapolation, with the world
the dragon inhabits.

If you use a source of material for your world, then try to be consistent
with that source to the extent that this fits into your plans.
Do not slavishly devote yourself to re-creating the source world at
the expense of good gaming, however. Use those pieces that
augment and improve the game as a basic framework for your
world, and ignore the pieces that are not consistent with your
goals.

If a historical period and location such as medieval Europe is
the basis for your campaign (as indeed it is for the game itself!),
then certain aspects of that environment should be familiar to
your players. A castle, for example, has many well-known characteristics.
Non-player character roles are often familiar: blacksmiths, <>
serfs, merchants, etc.

Another important sense of familiarity should grow with the
game itself: the world must be founded upon a set of rules that all
creatures and civilizations live and die by. Once you establish
principles upon which the world operates, they should remain
consistent unless you have a very strong reason for changing
them. You may wish to establish simple laws of nature, such as
the changing seasons, mountaintops encased in snow and ice,
or regular tides. Once a determination is made for a world, it
should remain in effect for the duration of the campaign.

As PCs explore a new world, it becomes increasingly familiar to
them, and they begin to feel more at home. This does not mean
that they know what lies behind each tree, or that there is no mystery
they cannot solve--it is simply a natural growth of familiarity
that can contribute to the players’ enjoyment of the game.

Familiarity of social interactions is another AREA in which campaigns
are often based upon real-world analogies. Thus the consequences
of the player characters’ actions fit society’s
interpretation of those actions. A thief who is caught plundering
the village treasury should be required to pay a stiff penalty consistent
with the laws of the land. Since virtually all civilizations
develop some kind of structure (laws) to control the actions of its
members, these laws can logically be extended into a fantasy
world. In fact, without laws and their consequences, the role of a
thief becomes very dull.

Intelligent Races: The successful creation of intelligent races
is an AREA requiring a great deal of the DM’s attention and foresight.
Whereas the exact characteristics of a band of monsters
may be generated quickly and casually, attempts to quickly
design an intelligent race often blow up in the DM’s face.

If the race is completely original and unique to your world, the
task is extensive. If you are using a branch or variation of a known
race, including humans, you have a base of info to
expand upon. In any event, there are several points about the
race and how it fits into your campaign that you should consider.

What do its members look like?
This issue is central to the creation
of a new race. The answer should include a determinatibn
of the creatures’ game statistics for all applicable areas. Remember
that creatures generally look the way they do for a reason.
Consider any known races that may be related to the new creatures;
these can provide an initial framework for the new creatures’
appearance. The appearance and game stats of the
creatures should fit into the role you have planned for them in the
campaign: are these creatures supposed to challenge, terrify, or
befriend the PCs.

* How does the race live?

* What do its members eat and where do they get their food?

* How do they prevent other creatures from devouring them?
If the race has a specialized combat tactic, now is the time to plan it out.
If the creatures present a problem to neighboring races, decide on the nature of the problem.

* Do the creatures fight among themselves?

* Is the race civilized, and if so, to what extent?
Just because a
race is intelligent does not mean that it has achieved anything
like civilization. Hallmarks of civilization that can aid in defining
the level of a society’s advancement include literacy, ability to
work metals and build things, and knowledge of the world beyond
the race’s borders. The level of civilization often determines
how well the race fares in its conflicts with neighboring races. It
can also serve as a guideline for how much of the race’s history is
known, and whether such knowledge is documented or passed
along by word of mouth.

Civilization also determines what kind of settlement the creatures
live in. Generally, the more ADVANCED the civilization, the
larger the settlement. This does not mean that all members of an
intelligent race live in a large city if the race is civilized. Do the
members of the race live in manufactured dwellings or natural
shelters? If they are manufactured, what level of technology is
required to accomplish the construction?

* What are the race’s customs? Any intelligent race develops an
assortment of customs during its existence. Often, the reasons
for these customs are no longer apparent, and the customs have
attained the status of rituals, performed for time-honored but
now-forgotten reasons. Other customs have their basis in the
preservation of the society and its members. For example, the
showing of an empty palm or the corresponding gesture of a
handshake could well be outgrowths of an ancient custom for
showing another that you raise no weapon against him. Customs
can be very complicated and puzzling to outsiders.

It is not necessary to determine all of a race’s customs before
you introduce its members into your campaign. Often new customs
can be developed to further your story or explain actions of
the creatures that are necessary to advance your game. It is wise
to develop a few customs for each new race, however, since this
allows you to present the race in greater detail when it is first
encountered.

* What are the race’s limitations?

* Does it have any significant
weaknesses that the PCs can exploit?

* Are the leaders skilled?

* What types of weapons does it use, and how good is combat morale?

* Does it have any specific immunities or invulnerabilities?

* Finally, what are the race’s likes and dislikes?

Many of these
should be natural outgrowths of the other questions you have
asked yourself. If the race survives by slaughtering and devouring
the neighboring glocks, then it is a fair bet that they dislike the
glocks. If the situation is reversed, then the dislike is a certainty!
A race that makes a point of living in isolation probably dislikes
strangers, whereas one that survives by TRADE usually welcomes
newcomers. Keep in mind the importance of appearance and first
impressions when answering this question. Creatures naturally
feel friendlier toward other creatures that resemble them, and
may be completely horrified at the sight of creatures that look
very different.

Uniqueness: This characteristic is not difficult to achieve.
Every DM has his own style of play, and this makes each campaign
unique to a certain extent. However, you should also strive
for uniqueness within your world.

Even if you have based your campaign world upon a real-life
source, you should try to add your own creative elements as well.
Consider using unusual names to give your campaign a distinctive
touch, whether you are naming places, people, or even
objects. Create unusual or new forms of architecture and plant
life. Try to devise original ways of handling the typical problems of
city and village life. Unusual superstitions and practices also help
differentiate your world from everyone else’s.

There are times when you may not wish to add unique elements
to a campaign, however. If you are trying to re-create a
world that someone else has designed or created, you may strive
to be as true to the original creation as possible. A DM who based
his world on a fantasy book or series of books would probably
want to be as faithful to the spirit of the source as he possibly
could.

PLOT AND COUNTERPLOT:
THE IMPORTANCE OF STORY

The story you design for your players is just as important as the world setting you create.
In fact, the story line may be the most important element in your campaign.
In fact, the DM’s function may be viewed as that of a bard || storyteller who creates the stuff of heroic fantasy with the help of a few imaginative players.
In this capacity, many DMs leave considerable room for improvement.
The following suggestions are offered to rectify this.
If a DM is willing to USE them, his skill as a storyteller will improve, and both players and DM will have more fun with the adventure.

The Story Structure
 

Exposition	Development	-	Climax	Denouement
Plot and Counterplot	-	-	-	DSG

Standard story structure has changed little in the ages since writing was developed.
It must be assumed that the predecessors
of early writers--those storytellers who spun tales for spellbound
audiences gathered around the ancient hearth
--understood and exploited this structure as well. The wise DM
understands this time-honored technique and uses it in his campaign.

* The standard structure of a story begins with an exposition that
introduces the listener, reader, or player to the location and circumstances
of the story, and often provides hints about the
story’s main conflict. The exposition should arouse the curiosity
of the players, and motivate them to take part in the adventure.

* The story then develops for a variable span of time, until it
reaches its climax. Such story development allows the players to
gradually learn more about the plot. Tension increases as the
players realize that something big is at stake, or that danger is
imminent. A long story should have several climaxes along the
way.

* A climax is distinguished by a resolution of one or more of the
major conflicts in the story. In game terms, the climax is generally
a showdown between the PCs and whatever major source of evil
they faced throughout the adventure. In order to be satisfactory,
the climax must occur after the characters have overcome a
number of lesser challenges, each leading them closer to the
final encounter.

* Finally, the story closes with a denouement. This is a short period
of retrospection, during which the victors enjoy their spoils
and review their accomplishments, and the vanquished count
their losses and try to understand what happened. The denouement
is as important in a gaming session as it is in a written story.
It allows the PCs a chance to ask 'questions' of each other (and
perhaps the DM), and should be a pleasant period of basking in
glory before the next challenge arises.

All of these structural elements should be present in the story
created by a DM. As in any story, the exact timing && placement
of each part of the structure is left to the storyteller’s judgment.
The individual elements of the story are examined separately
below.

Exposition: This is an important feature of the story, since this
is where you must capture the players’ attention and motivate
them to discover the plot. A good exposition gets your story off to
a strong start.

A common mistake of DMs (and, alas, module designers) is to
have a NPC deliver a long, detailed speech to the <an>
PCs, who meanwhile are supposed to sit and listen and then
agree to do whatever the NPC suggests. Understandably, players
almost always find this boring, and the poor DM is off to a bad
start already.

While the plot and conflict of a story often demand that the
players be given a great deal of info ahead of time, this
can be accomplished without resorting to long, tiresome
speeches. Instead of reading an introduction, the DM can act out
an encounter with an important NPC, giving players an opportunity
to ask questions. You may also wish to distribute maps, charters,
documents, or other handouts to the players. If the PCs are
involved in the exposition, they will enjoy it much more than if
they were passively receiving the same information.
Another successful exposition technique is to prepare information
cards and distribute them to players at the start of the
game. The players then read their cards out loud, introducing
each other to the story and becoming a part of it themselves. Ideally,
the info given should fit the format of presentation.

For example, if the PCs are attending a parliament meeting (or
town council, or any similar assemblage), each player should
momentarily assume the role of one of the speakers while he
reads the information on the card. This adds an additional element
of role playing to the other advantages of the technique.
After they have presented the exposition, the players are allowed
to keep the cards, and thus have handy references to the information
needed to start the adventure.

Another time-honored technique DMs can use to introduce
players to a story is to engage the PCs in a combat encounter
immediately. This is especially effective with parties of
Adventurer-type players. A sudden combat encounter forces the
PCs to act as a team and gets them involved in the story immediately.
The attackers should reveal some vague clues as to their
purpose, either during the attack or through the confessions of
prisoners taken in the battle.

Following the combat encounter, the DM can afford to spend a
little more time on the exposition, since the players have already
had a taste of action. If you feel you must handle your exposition
by delivering a long speech, try to precede the speech with a
combat encounter. Usually players are more willing to listen at
this point than when they first sit down to the game.

Another popular exposition technique is useful if the players
and DM have a chance to communicate between gaming sessions.
To employ this technique, the DM provides pertinent
expository info to some or all of the players a few days
before the game begins. If the players have a chance to discuss
the adventure before meeting for the game, they can make plans
ahead of time rather than waiting for the first gaming session.

Development: The development of your story occupies more <not a word that Elminster likes>
game time than all of the other structural elements put together.
The story can develop in several ways, and ideally the DM will
employ more than one technique during the game.

Encounters or events can provide fine story development, if
the creatures encountered bear some relationship to the story’s
primary villain or adversary. When PCs battle the minions of their
foe, they cannot help but learn things about the opposition. Such
readily gained facts can include what type of creatures they are
up against, how enthusiastic those creatures are in the pursuit of
their cause, how well-trained and equipped they are, and what
motivates them to serve their current master.

Noncombat encounters can provide valuable story development
as well. Sages, seers, beggars, and other NPCs can be
used as gentle prods, providing information that should send the
PCs in the right direction. Puzzling notes, or maps concealed in
cipher can also provide clues for the adventurers.

Not all encounters in the developmental stage of the story need
to advance the plot, particularly when you are refereeing for players
of the Adventurer type. Random encounters, for example,
nearly always serve little purpose other than to create a sudden
or challenging problem for the characters, and often give them a
chance to engage in combat. If your story is ADVANCED primarily
by noncombat encounters, it may be particularly important for
you to throw in a few random encounters, if only to keep the players
interested. Some players, of course, become engrossed in
the story itself and do not need to be entertained by unexpected
combat encounters, so judge your feedback carefully to decide
when a combat encounter is necessary.

Eventually, combat encounters should serve to point the characters
toward whatever location || circumstance you have chosen
as the climax of your story. This climax need not be reached
in a single gaming session, of course, but you should try to
arrange a semi-climactic encounter for the final combat of the
evening. This allows the players to feel that they are making
headway toward reaching their overall objective, and can make
each gaming session a short story in its own right.

Climax:

The climactic encounter of your story should be carefully
planned, with game balance a primary requirement. While
you can easily adjust the balance during any encounter in which
the fight seems to be going too smoothly or too dangerously for
the players, the climax should be crafted carefully so that no fiddling
is necessary. The encounter should be balanced so that if
the PCs are run intelligently, they have a reasonable chance of
overcoming whatever obstacle you have chosen-and possibilities
for escape if they fail.

Ideally the climactic encounter of the story should involve more
than a straight sword-swinging, spell-casting melee. The players
should face mental as well as physical challenges. The climax
will seem most rewarding to them if it allows the PCs to face the
adversary who has controlled the evil forces throughout the story.
Typically, this adversary is encountered in its lair, but this does
not have to be the case.

A climactic encounter should include the possibility of claiming
one or more of the character’s lives, even if the party wins the battle.
Of course, it is not necessary for any characters to perish, but
a sufficient challenge generally requires a foe with deadly potential.
As you design the climactic encounter, consider the tactics that
the adversary is likely to use. Tailor these tactics to the intelligence
of the foe’s leaders, and remember that the fight should
seem every bit as important to them as to the PCs. Therefore,
allow the adversaries some special aid, such as magical items or
special defenses, particularly if the PCs are well
equipped with magic. Perhaps the primary foe should be given
an emergency escape route--the climax of a story does not
mean that either the villains or the heroes must necessarily die.
Some of the most enjoyable and long-running campaigns center
around PCs trying to finish off a powerful villain who always
seems to escape at the last minute.

Ideally, your climactic encounter should allow several potential
solutions to the problem. Be flexible--if your players come up
with a creative response that has not occurred to you, allow them
to try it. A given encounter should have more than one route to
success.

Consider also the staging of the climactic encounter. Where do <>
you want it to take place? If it is not in the creature’s lair, choose a
location. Try to include some dramatic visual effects, perilous terrain,
or portentous occasion. This is a common cinematic technique.
An evil temple or a bridge swaying high over a fiery chasm
is a much more dramatic setting for a climax than a randomly generated dungeon corridor.

Most importantly, when planning the climax of your story, make
it dramatic! The player characters should feel threatened by the
challenge you have created, and exhilarated if they overcome it.
The encounter should be tense, with its outcome in doubt to the
very end. Even if the PCs fail, they should feel that they have
accomplished something significant by pursuing the adventure
as far as they did. (Unless of course, they fail through poor play or
lack of cooperation, in which case you should point this out to
them.) The setting should add to the drama, not detract from it.
The key goal is that everybody has fun.

Denouement: The primary function of the denouement (pronounced <accent?>
day-new-MAH) is to tie up loose ends. If the PCs are victorious,
they should have a chance to peruse the AREA where they
located their foe (assuming this is appropriate), and perhaps gain
a choice magical item or two. Allow them to find clues that answer
many of their questions. Newly rescued, and very grateful, prisoners
are often a useful source, allowing PCs to address many
questions that might not otherwise be answered.
This should be a time of safety, since the major foe has been
overthrown. Generally, a minor encounter following the climax
cannot help but seem anticlimactic. Like all of the other suggestions
in this section, this one is not CAST in stone. If the PCs seem
a little too arrogant about their victory, a sudden surprise attack
can serve as a reminder of their own limitations.

Often, the denouement provides an important piece of info
leading the PCs to their next adventure. This is a fine tactic
for keeping the plot moving along, particularly if the adversary of
the new adventure is somehow related to this adventure’s vanquished
foe. It also avoids starting the next adventure with the
same old “You’re gathered together at the inn, and a mysterious
stranger. ...”

Multiple Story Lines

A good role-playing campaign usually relies on more than one
story at a time. The DM may tailor individual stories to the different
types of players in the gaming group. Often, a long-running
story provides a framework for all of the adventures in a campaign,
while each gaming session tells a story within itself. A
story line can be dropped temporarily while characters adventure
or perform other activities, and be resumed when characters
return to the original location.

Many a successful campaign is designed around a series of
stories that follow each other sequentially, all sharing the same
grand purpose. Such campaigns emulate the time-honored literary
form of the heroic epic.

An epic is a single story with many episodes. The characters in
the epic all pursue a fine and noble purpose, and each interrelated
adventure attempts to bring them closer to achieving this
purpose. Purposes suitable for epic stories must be truly broad in
scope, and include such things as saving a world or nation,
defending a god or religion, and exploring a vast and uncharted
realm.

The main characters in an epic are traditionally of good alignment,
although some variation is possible. In any event, the
grand purpose of an epic should be a cause sanctioned by good,
rather than evil, forces. The characters participating in the epic
are often changed--usually for the better--by their participation.
The purpose, if and when it is achieved, is gained at some cost to
the heroes.

Creating an epic is a fine way to enjoy a role-playing campaign.
The nature of the form provides an overriding conflict that can
last for many game sessions, perhaps covering years of play. The
isolated challenges that must be overcome make for ideal adventures
of one or several gaming sessions. PCs
advance in level during the course of the epic, becoming more
capable of dealing with the mighty forces of evil that create the
great conflict. If the epic is effectively presented, each small victory
along the road to the final confrontation serves as a reward to
the PCs, who no longer rely on gold && magical items as the sole
measure of their characters’ successes.

An epic must MOVE along, however, or the ultimate goal
becomes so distant to the characters that it seems virtually unattainable.
The objectives that the PCs accomplish along the way
should be challenging and dramatic, allowing plenty of the kind of
action your players prefer. Ideally, each gaming session should
end with some sort of plot climax, and a major objective should be
accomplished every three or four sessions. Of course, an alternative <3 or 4>
to ending the gaming session with a plot climax is to use a
cliffhanger ending, which places the PCs in a difficult and dangerous
predicament that is not resolved until the next session.
Players have a remarkably low tolerance for the cliffhanger ending,
however, so its use is recommended only rarely. As a rule, a
cliffhanger should only be used after a successful session climax.
Keep the game exciting with periodic changes. Create a new
epic every year or so. Include an occasional side encounter that
does not relate to the epic as a whole, but allows the characters to
earn a meaningful reward. Provide a clue, now and then, to show
that the far-off epic goal is gradually growing closer.

Story Elements
 

The Villains	Foreshadowing	-	Mystery	Challenge
-	-	DSG	-	-

A good story engrosses the players through a variety of elements,
many of which you can learn and improve upon. The following
suggestions should help the DM to create a story that
draws the players in and keeps them thoroughly entertained.

The Villains:

A key ingredient to any story is main characters’
adversary or antagonist. Although this includes any force that
seeks to block the PCs from accomplishing their goals, including
weather or other natural phenomena, most often the primary
antagonist in a story is a living being. This antagonist may be represented
by more than one creature, however. The successful
presentation of your PCs’ antagonist(s) is one key to creating an
enjoyable story.

The antagonist does not have to be an intelligent creature. A
marauding band of cave bears, for example, might make a worthy
opponent for your PCs for a short campaign. Such unintelligent
foes are best dealt with in stories comprising only a single
gaming session.

Most players find it more interesting and rewarding to challenge
a foe of at least minimal intelligence. Such antagonists
present many more tactical options, and can be used in stories of
considerable, even epic, length.

If the story is to be a long one, and especially if you attempt to
create an epic, you will need a hierarchy of villains. The PCs may
spend the first few adventures dealing with minor antagonists,
without even learning who is the primary force behind them. In
fact, learning the identity of the chief bad guy can often be a
rewarding objective for the early adventures in a story. If you do
have a hierarchy of villains, with various ranks of underlings who
eventually lead to the main antagonist, you need to pay attention
to all levels of the hierarchy--not just the top.

Try to make your villains unique NPCs in whatever ways you
can devise. If an orc chieftain is the ultimate cause of trouble in
your story, spend some time developing its character. Give it a
unique appearance-something other than “the biggest orc in
the dungeon.” Add some personality characteristics that set it
apart from the rest.

After you have created your villains, you must find some ways
to let your PCs become familiar with them. This does not require
face-to-face confrontation, although that is a common and effective
technique. Other tactics include having the villain’s hirelings
mention his name during combat or after being taken prisoner,
arranging for the PCs to discover a message from the villain that
reveals something of his nature, and hearing tales of terror and
woe from victims of the villain’s rampages.

By familiarizing your PCs with the villain or villains they face,
you add a personal touch to the story that makes the final confrontation
very exciting. Instead of miscellaneous monsters, the
heroes are seeking an individual, often for an extended period of
time. When the confrontation with this villain finally occurs, the
players relish the experience as the culmination of many hazardous
adventures.

The villains that your PCs confront during a story need not all
be menacing focuses of evil power. A bumbling buffoon can occasionally
serve as an effective low-ranking villain. The main antagonist,
however, should be chosen carefully. This villain should be
equal in power to the group of PCs taken together; or, if not this
powerful, should be protected by an extensive series of bodyguards,
traps, fortifications, or disguises. Remember, vanquishing
this villain should be a challenging and dangerous encounter
for the PCs.

Finally, the villain does not need to be destroyed or slain to be
vanquished. Particularly in an epic, but also as a general point of
campaign management, the adversary may get away at the last
moment, leaving his henchmen && holdings in shambles, but
promising to return at some future date-or he may even return
from the dead. You then have a ready-made structure for a future
story, and the PCs have a built-in motivation for confronting that
villain again. Of course, if the antagonist is an NPC who is absent
from the campaign for a time, be certain that upon his return, his
power has increased sufficiently to maintain the previous game
balance established between him and the PCs.

Foreshadowing: This is a storytelling technique that is commonly
used in literature and films, and needs to be used in gaming.
Foreshadowing simply means vague hints, portents,
dreams, or other clues to let the players that something is going
to happen. Foreshadowing builds suspense and increases mystery
as it familiarizes players with the obstacles that lie in their
path.

Foreshadowing can be used as a warning. For example, if you
have designed a dungeon that includes a very deadly trap, the
existence of this trap and some means of recognizing it should be
foreshadowed. For example, a message stating,
“Beware the chamber of the black hole”
may be scrawled in blood on the dungeon wall.
This message does not reveal the exact nature of the threat, and there may indeed be several rooms with black
holes inside the dungeon, but at least the PCs know to be on their
guard in such circumstances.

Foreshadowing is a particularly effective device if your players
are primarily Problem-Solvers, as it provides many opportunities
for creating challenging puzzles and riddles. Be sure to use variety
in the type of foreshadowing you employ; corridor after corridor
of bloody writing on the wall soon loses its impact. Often the
players themselves give you an opportunity to use foreshadowing:
the casting of an augury spell, for example, is an invitation to
the DM for a few clues about the future.

Dreams are an effective, albeit somewhat heavy-handed, tactic
of foreshadowing. Alternatively, the PCs could encounter a
fortune-teller who pronounces a dire warning, or receive an
anonymous message from some mysterious source. Rumors
picked up in town can also foreshadow events of the story.

Mystery: A story line can be much more {fascinating} to readers
or players when some of the facts are unknown. Curiosity is a
great motivator, so the wise DM attempts to work some mystery
into his story line. Discovering the answers to the mystery can be
a major and satisfying reward for all types of players.

This does not necessitate creating a who-done-it in the popular
sense of the word, although this story structure is often neglected
by DMs, and can be used quite successfully. In the larger sense,
mystery is simply the unknown. It inspires players to ask questions,
and the DM can plan his adventure around the characters’
search for meaningful answers.

It is not difficult to add mystery to an adventure. A simple technique
is to keep the antagonist’s identity secret for much of the
game. Every so often, however, a clue should be dropped, so that
clever players can eventually identify the foe. For example, a
group of players might be interested in entering a known vampire’s
lair and putting the undead monster’s depredations to an
end. This encounter can be much more effective if the characters
enter the dungeon seeking some unidentified evil creature that
has been snatching young people in the night. As the party
moves deeper underground, they encounter clues. Bats and
wolves attack. A slain character with a broken mirror and a
pouchful of garlic lies in the party’s path. Finally, they stumble
upon a room containing a fresh corpse marked with the distinctive
fang marks of his killer. The knowledge that the party faces a
vampire is much more chilling (and hence, enjoyable) if it is
gained in such a fashion.

Mystery can be an important feature of campaign life as well.
The character who does not know his parentage always has
something to wonder about. A party that returns home to find that
their community has completely vanished has a whole series of
questions to answer-questions that may keep them occupied
for many gaming sessions to come.

Long-standing questions, such as the anonymous parentage
situation, can lurk in the background of a campaign for a long
time. You do not need to have all the answers worked out,
although it helps if you have a general idea. Then, sometime
when you need a fresh plot to challenge your party and start off a
new story line, you can drop an intriguing hint. The players naturally
try to solve the mystery they have wondered about for so
long. For example, a ragged stranger could appear, battered and
bleeding, to gasp out a message: “Are you Eric of Calrede? I
have journeyed from distant Wellspar to bring a message from
your father! He ...g asp ...” (at which point the messenger dies). Of
course, if you are dealing with PCs who can speak with dead, you
will need to use a different technique.

Challenge: An adventure that does not challenge the players
is really no adventure at all. The level of challenge that you
should present is difficult to ascertain, however, since too much
of a challenge frustrates the players, while too little bores them.
Fortunately, DMs have a great deal of latitude when it comes to
challenging players.

The challenges in the game should be shaped to fit your players’
mental and physical interests and abilities. With a group of
Adventurers, it makes sense to rely primarily upon combat
encounters and other physical challenges such as steep climbs
and treacherous crossings. Even with these players, however, it
is wise to include an occasional mental problem such as a complicated
trap or riddle. The opposite applies to Problem-Solvers.
Role-Players often find negotiating sessions or conversations
with NPCs challenging. Pay attention to player feedback and
modify game challenges accordingly.

When arranging challenges for your players, pay attention to
game balance and the function that the challenge serves in your
story. If it is a randomly generated encounter or introductory trap,
you probably do not want to challenge the PCs too strongly. However,
a climactic encounter, or an obstacle that represents a
major milestone in the advancement of your story line should
challenge the players to their utmost limits. It takes experience
to learn how to establish the balance of an encounter, and DMs
can only gain this from play. Although a simple comparison of Hit
Dice and average damage inflicted by the PCs and their opponents
can give you some rough ideas of the encounter balance,
battles are generally decided by a very complicated combination
of factors. Party and monster tactics, relative positions, and luck
all play a part.

You can, however, plan encounters so that intelligent PC play is
sufficient to overcome the challenge. Be sure that logical solutions
developed by the players have a chance to succeed. In
addition, keep in mind that if you roll dice behind a screen, you
always have the option of changing any die roll that is particularly
devastating to the outcome of the encounter.

Reward
 

Magical Items	Wealth	Discoveries	Gratitude	Accomplishment
Experience Points	-	Moral	-	DSG

Just as the DM must challenge players to keep them interested
in the game, he must also reward them for meeting those challenges.
Rewards should be based on the level of the PCs’ accomplishments,
and you should keep track of the number of rewards
that you grant. Just as an excessively powerful monster can
destroy the balance of an encounter, characters with tremendous
wealth || power can destroy the balance of an entire campaign.
Rewards can take many different forms. Try to USE different
types of rewards for different types of accomplishments, and do
not neglect any one type in deference to the others. It is important
to remember that rewards should be handed out during the
adventure as well as at the end. Rewards can include key clues
that show the players they are on the right track, small treasures,
or equipment that is needed later. This helps maintain player
interest throughout the adventure.

Magical items: These are always welcomed by the players, <>
and can be one of the best forms of reward, if used sparingly. As a
general principle, try not to let any character gain more than one <1 or 2>
or two permanent magical items for each level of experience. You
can be a little more generous with disposable magical rewards
such as potions and scrolls. Of course, you cannot control
how the party divides up the loot after an adventure, but most parties
are fairly equitable about this. You can choose items that will be
best utilized by characters who seem particularly deserving,
either by giving items useable by only one character class (rods,
wands, and scrolls, for example) or items likely to be given to
members of certain classes. Magical leather armor usually ends
up with a thief, for example, while a mace + 3 is most often given
to a cleric.

The importance of keeping a lid on the amount of magical
items you distribute cannot be stressed too much. Nothing kills a
campaign, and a DM’s enthusiasm, faster than a group of midlevel
characters armed to the teeth with potent magic. Kingdoms
fall and monsters are decimated at a rate that precludes anyone
having much fun.

If possible, permanent magical items should be described in
detail by the DM or the players at some time. Magical swords, for
example, can be named. Often they are inscribed with a crest or
script that tells the PCs something about the sword’s past, or indicates
which character should rightfully carry it. If left untranslated,
the mystery involved in some archaic script can provide a
plot device to involve your characters in a future adventure.
    For example, the PCs could encounter an old sage whose eyes
    widen in awe at the sight of the sword. The sage might declare,
    “You carry the blade of Sathas Sundown! You are destined to
    bring down the evil of the Black Tower!” Of course, the character
    is not forced to journey to the Black Tower, but if he does not, the
    sword’s destiny might carry it to someone who is a little more
    cooperative.

An important method for maintaining balance is to assign limitations to every permanent item.
    For example, you might present
    a sword that glows brightly in the dark and only operates fully
    when fighting evil, or an animated wax statue that is very vulnerable
    to flame.

As illustrated here, try to make your magical items more than
just high-powered additions to the PC arsenal. They should
become a meaningful part of your story, serving not just to reward
successful play, but to advance your story and add to the detail of
your campaign world as well.

Wealth: Gold, silver, and other valuables represent a standard
category of reward. As with magical items, the DM must be careful
about the amount of wealth given to the players as rewards.
Unlike magical items, however, it is fairly easy to remove excess
wealth from the PCs without causing long-lasting hard feelings.
The amount of wealth that you allow the PCs to collect on their
adventures should be balanced by the amount of expense they
encounter in your campaign world. You can use taxes, thievery,
heavy tolls and outrageous prices for goods and supplies to
reduce the amount of cash characters carry around. Experience
points for wealth that is gained and then lost are granted normally,
and not lost with the money. Thus, DMs must retain a measure
of control, or characters will advance in level faster than is
good for them or the campaign.

One way to control this is to place monetary rewards in large
bulks of low-value coins, such as silver or, for low-level characters,
copper. Characters who carry their fortunes with them
become considerably encumbered. Gemstones and other small
but valuable items should be found only rarely until the characters
characters
have advanced a few levels.

The principle of variety applies to character wealth as well as to
the rest of pur campaign. If players occasionally have a chance
to spend money like it’s going out of style, it increases their enjoyment
of the game. You can retain control of your campaign by
arranging that those characters are cleaned out a week later and
are forced into adventuring just to pay for room and board.

Discoveries: Information can be an extremely effective
reward, particularly for characters who are interested in more
than the monster in the next room. Even in this case, however,
info about that particular monster can occasionally serve
as a meaningful reward. In other cases, info serves to
advance story lines, answer players’ questions, point out solutions
to problems that confront them, and warn them about particularly
nasty traps or encounters.

The more important the story is to your players, the more
meaningful information becomes as a reward. By creating story
details and thoroughly designing the PCs’ primary adversaries,
you generate a wealth of information for the players to uncover as
the adventure progresses. When the players successfully conclude
an encounter, you can provide them with clues from which
they can deduce bits and pieces of information about the story
and the world. The key to using information as a reward is that it
should not be completely defined for the players--rather, information
is most valuable when players must use clues to piece it
together themselves. Information gained this way adds to the
players’ enjoyment and increases their sense of familiarity with
the campaign.

Gratitude:

The friendship or gratitude of NPCs can be used to
reward PCs for certain accomplishments. It certainly does not
harm a character’s position if the high king owes him a debt of
gratitude! Situations in which this type of reward is appropriate
generally grow out of your story. If the PCs perform an act that
greatly benefits an NPC, that NPC is likely to feel grateful. Of
course, certain extremely jealous or mistrustful NPCs do not feel
any debt toward those who have aided them, but in most cases
gratitude is sincere.

The extent to which gratitude benefits the PCs must be determined
on a case-by-case basis. If a king has paid the characters
good money to rescue a princess, he may feel perfectly justified
in ruling that no debt is owed after payment has been made. If the
PCs perform acts of heroism without openly expecting monetary
rewards, however, the beneficiaries of their actions may reward
them, and still feel a debt of gratitude. Such cases are best
resolved by a careful evaluation of the NPCs’ motivations, as well
as the actions and attitudes of the player characters involved.
A debt of gratitude may be spelled out clearly for the players.
The king, for example, might say, “Anytime you need anything,
do not hesitate to call on me! I promise to do anything I can for
you.” This is a pretty clear-cut offer. If no such promise has been
made, the PCs may still approach the king with a request for a
favor, but he is less likely to automatically grant it. Of course,
even in the initial example, nothing guarantees that the king will
not change his mind at some point.

Debts of gratitude are not limited to high and mighty NPCs
such as kings and nobles. A beggar or barmaid who has been
spared some threat or indignity by the player characters is very
likely to return the favor if an opportunity presents itself. Keep the
PCs’ motivations in mind when determining the likelihood of this
type of reward; if the characters do something purely because
they hope to be rewarded, the debt is less binding than if their
motives are selfless.

Accomplishment: For good players, accomplishing a difficult
objective can become a reward in itself. This is particularly true in
a campaign with the Role-Player type of participants. If a Role-
Player’s character is a cleric who is sworn to the pursuit of good,
he should gain a sense of reward simply from performing good
deeds. This sort of intangible reward is usually best as an occasional
alternative to treasure and magical rewards.

A nice feature of this type of reward is that the DM does not
have to do anything other than run the adventure in order to
implement it. While accomplishment does not work as a reward
for all players, if you have players who respond to it, you should
use it. Your task is to create adventures that challenge the PCs to
perform acts that they perceive as valuable and worthwhile. The
success or failure of these acts should be immediately apparent
to the players.

XP:

These points represent a game mechanic
whose major function is to reward players. As the primary measure
of when a character is ready to advance in level, they are an
essential part of the game. Like all other types of reward, except
sense of accomplishment, their distribution requires careful DM
planning and adjudication.

The DMG gives a fairly detailed description of the amounts of
XP awarded for various accomplishments.
Remember, however, that you always have the option to adjust
the reward either up or down based on the level of play and the
accomplishments of the PCs.
    For example,
    * a fighter
    who single-handedly holds off a group of trolls so that the rest of
    his party can rescue captives, and then covers the retreat of the
    party, but fails to kill a single troll, should probably receive some
    XP for his heroism.
    * A group of characters who trigger
    a landslide that wipes out an entire village in order to slay a
    single thief resting at the village inn should not get XP for their actions,
    particularly if the characters profess to be
    of good alignment. You could even assign an XP penalty!

You may tentatively assign XP to potential PC
actions as you design an adventure, awarding them if the PCs
perform those actions. If the PCs have infiltrated a
pirate base on a mission to rescue prisoners, you might decide to
award them an additional 1,000 XP for each pirate ship they burn
while on the base. YOu should not tell the players about such
awards until after the adventure is over, since part of the reason
for granting XP is to reward their ingenuitiy in
thinking of the action in the first place.

In certain adventure situations where treasure-gathering and
monster-slaying are not the primary objectives, you may find it
appropriate to completely restructure the XP award
system, at least for that adventure. XP should be
used to award characters for the kinds of actions you wish to
encourage in the campaign setting. Reward good play!

Each DM should decide whether or not to award experience
points for magical items discovered, based on what is desirable
for that campaign. If experience points are awarded for magical
items that are found and used by the PCs, then they should not
be awarded for magical items that are found and sold.

Moral: This story ingredient is one that many DMs are
uncomfortable with, but using it can greatly strengthen a story
line. The exact nature of the moral is up to you. It is important to
realize that in your role as storyteller, you have an excellent
opportunity to share a meaningful lesson with your players. If you
are not heavy-handed about it, they will probably not even notice
you are doing it.

The moral of a story may be simply explained as the notion that
PCs’ actions should have proper consequences.
The PCs should not function in a vacuum in which their actions
are the only significant occurrences. The campaign is much more
gratifying to DM and players alike if the surrounding social structure
places some expectations on its members, and the characters
can choose how they will respond to that social structure.
This does not mean that your PCs must behave in a dignified,
proper, and respectful fashion at all times. It does mean that antisocial,
harmful, or objectionable behavior is met with some kind
of appropriate consequence.

The most important example of this is player cooperation
within the party. The party that is unable to agree on a course of
action expends more time and energy fighting each other than
fighting monsters. Either the players learn to cooperate, or the
monsters will have an easy time defeating them.

Other categories of moral consequences are more difficult to
judge. However, a cursory look at past and present societies can
help you determine appropriate consequences. For example, all
societies frown upon the taking of innocent lives--at least, if the
victims are members of that society or those it views as friends.
Most societies respond by attempting to exact revenge upon the
killers.

Players who kill must either face society’s wrath or try to avoid it
by fleeing. Killers may face jail terms or hanging. If they become
fugitives, they are likely to arouse the ire of the populace and gendarmerie,
which can complicate and even endanger the PCs’
lives. If they repeatedly commit murders, chances are that
sooner or later justice will catch up with the villains and they will
be punished.

Another common theme of an AD&D@ game session relates to
the interaction between challenge and reward. The moral that
most DMs try to impart is that accomplishment merits reward.
Unfortunately, this moral lesson can be quickly lost among the
mounting piles of treasure that are gained at little risk or cost to
the PCs.

Sometimes you may wish to create a story for the sake of its
moral, in order to show the players the consequences of a type of
activity. Select your message ahead of time and create a story to
prove the point. Possible morals for this type of story include “It’s
not wise to fool the king,” “A thief shouldn’t flaunt his wealth in
front of those he has robbed,” and “Things are not always as they
seem.”

TECHNIQUES OF CAMPAIGN AND STORY DESIGN

 

The Linear Adventure	The Open Campaign	The Matrix Campaign	-	-
Campaign Considerations	-	-	-	DSG

The story line a DM chooses affects the type of gaming environment
he creates. This section discusses three types of adventure
design, and shows how each is related to plot development.

The Linear Adventure

A linear adventure is one in which the story line advances
through a series of encounters that must be played in a certain
order. While the PCs handle each encounter as it arises, they are
given little or no choice as to where they go between encounters,
unless they want to stop or TURN back.

Linear design seriously limits choices. Dungeons work well as
settings for linear designs, since you can simply draw a map that
leaves only one possible route for the characters to follow. Each
encounter can be planned with the certain knowledge that the
PCs will have passed through a predetermined series of locations
beforehand. Outdoor linear adventures are more difficult to
control, although obstacles such as impenetrable walls of thorns
or impassable bodies of water occasionally suffice to limit PC
choice. Linear adventures have an advantage in that design time
is never wasted on areas that the PCs do not use.

Designing a linear adventure becomes more difficult as the
PCs increase in magical power. The assortment of spells available
to high-level mages and clerics can make even dungeon corridors
insufficient to keep characters from wandering off the path.
Linear adventures work well for tournament play, since all players
encounter the same series of challenges, but for less structured
play it is generally undesirable. Players become frustrated
by the absence of choice, and feel that the DM is railroading them
through the adventure. Occasionally, however, you may find a linear
adventure useful in a dungeon or other underground setting.
Directed play with the illusion of choice can succeed while actually
being linear, as players feel that they control their own destiny.

The Open Campaign

This type of game de-emphasizes the DM’s story, and instead
relies almost completely on player character choices to determine
the course of events. In an open campaign, it is the DM’s
responsibility to create an interesting world for the PCs to explore
and adventure in.

Obviously, an open campaign creates problems in terms of DM
preparation. Since you must be prepared for virtually anything, it
is necessary to create and detail the countryside all around the
PCs. You also have to seed the entire area with conflicts, so that
wherever the PCs go, they find something to challenge them.
Players can have a lot of fun with an open campaign style of
game, especially if they are of the Adventurer type. Such a game
can continue indefinitely as the PCs seek out and plunder
dungeons, stumble into wars, and discover new worlds. If the
players prefer Problem-Solving or Role-Playing to hack-and-slash
play, then your challenge is even greater. Designing a
steady and diverse diet of mental challenges for the Problem
Solvers, or new and unique NPCs to interact with the Role-
Players requires even more work than a wide variety of combat
encounters. You might consider including problems of a national
scope so that rumors and clues can be discovered wherever the
PCs go. NPCs, too, can be made nomadic so that they may be
encountered and re-encountered by the PCs in their travels.

Open campaigns require the DM to invest a great deal of
design time. If you have enough time, you may find that after a
number of adventures you have created and detailed an entire
world setting.

Although you can add story elements to many areas throughout
the campaign world, an open campaign makes it hard for the
DM to structure a story through exposition, development, and climax.
You may find that your players have a natural tendency to
develop a story structure themselves, especially if the clues you
present lead them to the places you expect. In this case, a very
strong story line can grow in the campaign. Other players, however,
take perverse delight in doing the exact opposite of what
they perceive you want them to do. Unless you are an expert at
reverse psychology, developing a coherent story for these players
in an open campaign requires exceptional inventiveness. Of
course, the story line may not be what these players enjoy about
the game anyway.

Events: One way you can allow your players to roam about the
world in open campaign play without having to create extra
encounters to challenge them is to employ encounters as events.
Events occur wherever the PCs are. If you want them to stumble
upon a dragon’s lair, then place the lair in their path when you
want the encounter to occur. Of course, you must exercise some
logic-the dragon’s lair obviously won’t be encountered in a city
or among a farmer’s fields. Sooner or later your players will journey
through some terrain that is suitable, however, and you can
arrange the encounter.

Another shortcut in DM time management is to ask the players
ahead of time what they feel like doing in the next few gaming
sessions. While this does limit spontaneity, it allows you to create
detailed and challenging encounters of the type the players seek.
The players may be very general in their answers, such as “a
dungeon adventure” or “we’d like to see if we can find anything
out about a dragon’s lair,” leaving you to add the details.
Even though the story element in an open campaign is subjugated
to the players’ whims, it is important for you to devise large-scale
background conflicts for the PCs to deal with in many
different locations. Wars accomplish this very well, particularly if
the PCs have a chance to meet the principals on each side. Major
natural disasters such as a winter that doesn’t end or a plague of
man-eating plants can be used as continuing threads throughout
the adventure.

The Matrix Campaign

The matrix campaign allows the DM to create a detailed story
with a developed plot, while still allowing the players to choose
where they go and how they deal with their challenges.
The key to a matrix campaign design is to create a goal or
series of goals that the PCs are motivated to accomplish. The
matrix campaign is a very effective style of design for creating an
epic or a string of connecting stories. In many ways it represents
a compromise between the linear and open campaign styles of play.

The PCs in a matrix campaign start out at a location chosen
either by you or by the players. You then provide them with a short
exposition and some clues that open a number of different
options. For example, the characters may discover that a sect of
evil clerics has been gradually gaining control of the land. They
may witness peasants being arrested by the clerics, or see
places of worship for good-aligned deities suffer raids and vandalism.

The next MOVE is up to the players, with a little bit of guidance
from you. Perhaps one PC remembers seeing a temple to the
north, emblazoned with the evil sect’s sign. To the east, recalls
another, is a great temple of good where the PCs could go for
information. Meanwhile, a group of peasants are hauled off into
slavery to the south, and one begs the characters for aid. All the
time, you know that the headquarters of the sect lies to the west,
but you bide your time in revealing this information to the players.

With this technique, the players become involved in the story,
yet are not railroaded into a specific task chosen by the DM. You
are prepared for a few courses of PC action: a raid on the temple
to the north, an interview with the sage to the east, or a prisoner
rescue mission to the south.

Depending on the length of the story you wish to create, you
might have clues in each of the three locations point directly
toward the heart of the problem (the evil sect’s headquarters to
the west), or you might continue to expand the matrix. The players
who rescue the prisoners might lead them as an army to
reclaim their homeland. If they visit the good temple, perhaps
they are sent on a quest to gain some item of great power from
the evil temple to the north. If that evil temple was their original
goal, they might gain the magical item on their own initiative.

The matrix can continue to expand for as long as you wish. All
of the different branches eventually steer the PCs toward the
headquarters of the sect, where the climax of the story takes
place. If you wish to move the plot along more quickly, you can
schedule events that occur wherever the PCs are. Events can be
encounters with significant NPCs, visions and dreams, social or
political changes, or quick scenes designed to show the PCs a
pertinent fact.

A matrix campaign must eventually meet a border, beyond
which the PCs are discouraged from passing. Borders can be
designed as either soft or hard.

A soft border is one that turns the PCs back into the story
through their own motivations. Players who resist any pursuit of
the evil sect, for example, might encounter a group of hapless
waifs whose parents are held prisoner. The children appeal to the
players’ sense of decency. In cases where this appeal is fruitless
(many DMs can predict this ahead of time), a mysterious stranger
might offer a reward of valuable gems for evidence of the sect’s
destruction. Judge your players carefully to decide what type of
persuasion motivates them best.

Players who fail to yield to any kind of motivation can be
allowed to occupy the story’s setting for as long as they like, even
if they don’t take part in it. If they attempt to leave the AREA, however,
they must encounter a hard boundary. This can be a physical
obstacle, such as a high cliff, stormy sea, or trackless desert.
Alternatively, it might be something like a huge army camped in
the PCs path, with a continually increasing series of encounters
with more and more troops. Quest or geas spells serve as hard
borders, but should be used only as a last resort.

The story matrix should contain several ways for the PCs to
approach the final encounter, and several means of dealing with
the challenge created there. Not all of these means must create
the same likelihood of success, but the PCs should not be
doomed to failure in the final encounter simply because they
made a wrong choice at some point in the adventure.

You should also prepare for the possibility that your players
may not have gained enough information about your story line to
figure out the next course of action. Despite a DM’s thorough and
detailed descriptions, an amazing number of players seem to
have no idea of what’s going on. If this happens in your campaign,
you need to gently but firmly show them the path.

NPCs can be particularly useful at such times.
Perhaps a henchman speaks up as all the PCs stand around
scratching their heads, and indicates your preferred course of
action. Or the party might encounter someone very wise, such as
an old sage, magic-user, or hermit. This NPC could provide
details on the next step of the adventure in language so plain that
all players should be able to understand it.

Foreshadowing can be effectively employed to show characters
whether or not they are on the right track. Ill omens and portents
of great danger do not always discourage players-after all,
these are some of the ingredients of good adventure--but they
can be presented in such a way that the PCs are able to figure out
whether they are going the right way or not.