I am totally new to DM-ing but I have great ideas that would make an awesome campaign and I have friends who would want to play. The problem is, they need a theme to appropriately create and develop characters that fit into the world and I want to let them decide just as much as I do because I want them to have as much fun as I will. Any theme suggestions that have been really fun for your past campaigns, for both players and DM's alike?
Shouldn't the campaign determine the theme? You really don't want them to decide as much as you do, that's the difference between players and DM's. Be careful of getting too attached to your grand sweeping plans for a campaign. You can merely throw out the plot hooks, you should not force them to take those hooks. You determine the possible plot offerings, the players' actions determine the story itself.
Questions you should ask BEFORE session 0:
1) Overall "feel" of campaign? Epic Fantasy (LotR), Sword and Sorcery (Conan), Low, Standard, High Magic settings/world,
2) The scope of the campaign (save the town, duchy, kingdom, world, universe).
3) Saga or Episodic? (Star Wars or Star Trek)
4) What are the PC's? Chosen Champions, Reluctant Heroes, Anti-Heroes, Mercenary Company, Common Villagers who rise up to Rulers/Advisors/Demi-Gods
5) Individual Player goals, real life like what they like and don't like. This gets into "mature" or "philosophical" content discussion as well. On the most basic level it is "What do you think the ideal ratio of Role Play to Combat to Explore do you want?" With Role Play including friendly and hostile NPC interactions as well as in Party interactions, Combat is well Combat, and Explore including puzzles, mysteries, and traps, with or without elements of RP and Combat included in it.
Once you have that, you should be able to mold your initial ideas into a world (existing or created) with the proper "theme" for the campaign. You can then get the players a pitch sheet which includes brief details about the area the campaign will be in, rules of the world (homebrew, official content allowed/disallowed, any changes to allowed/disallowed races, classes, alignments), and some guidelines on the freedom of the character backstory. (so they can't change any established "facts" of the world, though the may have participated in/near them. any "favors" or "perks" should be minor if local to the starting region, can increase the further away the "perk" exists (no nobles of a ruling empire who are in good standing though).
Session 0 can now happen, where questions are answered, characters are created, and the campaign start is set-up.
If you have an idea for a campaign, it seems like you might have a theme, or I might be misunderstanding what you mean by that word
And remember to let the players make their characters. There needs to be give and take where you try to find ways to let them make what they want and find a way to slot that into the world you created. You can say no, but first try to find a way to work with them. Or make them do some work. For example, if you weren’t planning to have teiflings in your world, but a player really wants one, have them make up the lore (subject to your approval) to fit them in — they play what they want, and you get a richer world.
Yes, I also questioned whether you meant theme for the campaign, or theme for the characters. I’ve played once where all the party were clerics (there’s enough variations in domains that you can have tanks, support, and casters within one class. I’ve done another where all the PCs were genasi siblings. If you need a PC theme, maybe go with they all grew up in town together, are about the same age, and are now called upon to become the heroes of their hometown. Of course, now that I type it out, it looks like just as much a campaign theme.
I am totally new to DM-ing but I have great ideas that would make an awesome campaign and I have friends who would want to play. The problem is, they need a theme to appropriately create and develop characters that fit into the world and I want to let them decide just as much as I do because I want them to have as much fun as I will. Any theme suggestions that have been really fun for your past campaigns, for both players and DM's alike?
Shouldn't the campaign determine the theme? You really don't want them to decide as much as you do, that's the difference between players and DM's. Be careful of getting too attached to your grand sweeping plans for a campaign. You can merely throw out the plot hooks, you should not force them to take those hooks. You determine the possible plot offerings, the players' actions determine the story itself.
Questions you should ask BEFORE session 0:
1) Overall "feel" of campaign? Epic Fantasy (LotR), Sword and Sorcery (Conan), Low, Standard, High Magic settings/world,
2) The scope of the campaign (save the town, duchy, kingdom, world, universe).
3) Saga or Episodic? (Star Wars or Star Trek)
4) What are the PC's? Chosen Champions, Reluctant Heroes, Anti-Heroes, Mercenary Company, Common Villagers who rise up to Rulers/Advisors/Demi-Gods
5) Individual Player goals, real life like what they like and don't like. This gets into "mature" or "philosophical" content discussion as well. On the most basic level it is "What do you think the ideal ratio of Role Play to Combat to Explore do you want?" With Role Play including friendly and hostile NPC interactions as well as in Party interactions, Combat is well Combat, and Explore including puzzles, mysteries, and traps, with or without elements of RP and Combat included in it.
Once you have that, you should be able to mold your initial ideas into a world (existing or created) with the proper "theme" for the campaign. You can then get the players a pitch sheet which includes brief details about the area the campaign will be in, rules of the world (homebrew, official content allowed/disallowed, any changes to allowed/disallowed races, classes, alignments), and some guidelines on the freedom of the character backstory. (so they can't change any established "facts" of the world, though the may have participated in/near them. any "favors" or "perks" should be minor if local to the starting region, can increase the further away the "perk" exists (no nobles of a ruling empire who are in good standing though).
Session 0 can now happen, where questions are answered, characters are created, and the campaign start is set-up.
What do you mean by “theme?”
If you have an idea for a campaign, it seems like you might have a theme, or I might be misunderstanding what you mean by that word
And remember to let the players make their characters. There needs to be give and take where you try to find ways to let them make what they want and find a way to slot that into the world you created. You can say no, but first try to find a way to work with them. Or make them do some work. For example, if you weren’t planning to have teiflings in your world, but a player really wants one, have them make up the lore (subject to your approval) to fit them in — they play what they want, and you get a richer world.
Yes, I also questioned whether you meant theme for the campaign, or theme for the characters. I’ve played once where all the party were clerics (there’s enough variations in domains that you can have tanks, support, and casters within one class. I’ve done another where all the PCs were genasi siblings. If you need a PC theme, maybe go with they all grew up in town together, are about the same age, and are now called upon to become the heroes of their hometown. Of course, now that I type it out, it looks like just as much a campaign theme.
This has all been very helpful and somewhat entertaining, thank you for helping me figure out what I need to do for our group to get started!