I have many stories i plan to run in the future. The story were playing now is about stopping a cult from trying to rebel against the current government. After that I have many ideas to what next but i'm worried i may not be doing this properly. I have decided to set up the world then work on the details of future stories later. I know that there is going to be two stories that revolves around these two big bad guys, but under them are many other bad guys. There are some adventures which don't circulate around the to big bad but everything else is real them. there are also stories created by the players as their characters have stories which effect the world. So am I doing this right? Or are there to many stories?
In my opinion the only time there are too many stories is if you aren't enjoying yourself. So long as it's fun to create all these different characters then keep at it! Even if you don't use some of the content you come in with, it's good practice--and you can always repurpose a character later to fill in a gap later on when you need an idea quickly!
Be very comfortable with the knowledge that there are stories and hooks that you've written that will be missed out completely and never discovered. Be prepared to recycle them later, though. I've learned that having backup plans and improvising in the moment will often serve you a bit better than rigidly planning everything out.
In my last session there were two massive encounters/dungeons that the players totally missed because of either poor investigative rolls or simply deciding as a group to move on. You just shrug, smile, and move on.
I have 8 stories running concurrently in my Adventures of Loromir campaign. 3 of which are world related plots, 5 are character arcs, and I have tried to tie each one in so that they overlap at least one other story. This way I can say that there is, at some point in time, a plot hook for each and every story presented to the players. The 3 world arcs move along whether the players interact with them or not. The character arcs evolve as the players just do their thing, some require more active participation than others, but that's something that can be adjusted on the fly.
The biggest thing I've learned from running a game this way is that I cannot tie the stories to a particular location unless it is absolutely necessary. I have distilled each story into major and minor events that happen. The minor events generally happen with no concern as to whether the characters are aware of what's happening. The major events will be adapted to the current location and goals of the characters. I'll find a way to slide the event into the game in a seamless way so that they can encounter the event and choose to deal with it or be steadfast on their current goal.
Example: One of my players has been tasked with closing planar rifts that have begun to spring up all around the continent. The party started traveling across a great plains area, met a local Dragonborn tribe and continued on, the next day, heading to their home city. I had expected them to continue straight toward their city, which would include traveling through a large swamp, instead they detoured. In the swamp they were going to find another planar rift, have a huge fight against creatures that exist in the Elemental Plane of Water, and progress this character's story arc a bit more. I could have scrapped the idea entirely but, due to not making plot points location specific, I have the fight set up in a much different way. They'll pass a large lake which is located a few hours South of a Dwarven stronghold. I'll have them run into a rift there, the party will now have to fight creatures that are trying to batter down the massive doors to the Stronghold.
I have many stories i plan to run in the future. The story were playing now is about stopping a cult from trying to rebel against the current government. After that I have many ideas to what next but i'm worried i may not be doing this properly. I have decided to set up the world then work on the details of future stories later. I know that there is going to be two stories that revolves around these two big bad guys, but under them are many other bad guys. There are some adventures which don't circulate around the to big bad but everything else is real them. there are also stories created by the players as their characters have stories which effect the world. So am I doing this right? Or are there to many stories?
In my opinion the only time there are too many stories is if you aren't enjoying yourself. So long as it's fun to create all these different characters then keep at it! Even if you don't use some of the content you come in with, it's good practice--and you can always repurpose a character later to fill in a gap later on when you need an idea quickly!
Be very comfortable with the knowledge that there are stories and hooks that you've written that will be missed out completely and never discovered. Be prepared to recycle them later, though. I've learned that having backup plans and improvising in the moment will often serve you a bit better than rigidly planning everything out.
In my last session there were two massive encounters/dungeons that the players totally missed because of either poor investigative rolls or simply deciding as a group to move on. You just shrug, smile, and move on.
I have 8 stories running concurrently in my Adventures of Loromir campaign. 3 of which are world related plots, 5 are character arcs, and I have tried to tie each one in so that they overlap at least one other story. This way I can say that there is, at some point in time, a plot hook for each and every story presented to the players. The 3 world arcs move along whether the players interact with them or not. The character arcs evolve as the players just do their thing, some require more active participation than others, but that's something that can be adjusted on the fly.
The biggest thing I've learned from running a game this way is that I cannot tie the stories to a particular location unless it is absolutely necessary. I have distilled each story into major and minor events that happen. The minor events generally happen with no concern as to whether the characters are aware of what's happening. The major events will be adapted to the current location and goals of the characters. I'll find a way to slide the event into the game in a seamless way so that they can encounter the event and choose to deal with it or be steadfast on their current goal.
Example:
One of my players has been tasked with closing planar rifts that have begun to spring up all around the continent. The party started traveling across a great plains area, met a local Dragonborn tribe and continued on, the next day, heading to their home city. I had expected them to continue straight toward their city, which would include traveling through a large swamp, instead they detoured. In the swamp they were going to find another planar rift, have a huge fight against creatures that exist in the Elemental Plane of Water, and progress this character's story arc a bit more. I could have scrapped the idea entirely but, due to not making plot points location specific, I have the fight set up in a much different way. They'll pass a large lake which is located a few hours South of a Dwarven stronghold. I'll have them run into a rift there, the party will now have to fight creatures that are trying to batter down the massive doors to the Stronghold.