The open world campaign is a difficult style to master as a DM. I've been practicing it for quite a while though and would like to share how I do it, and to encourage others to share how they do it.
The primary advantage of an open world is it gives the players maximum freedom. They can go where they want and do what they want and the world evolves around their actions. They are the stars of the story, with the game being about them and their adventures, not about Tiamat and her hoard and oh hey by the way these are the stooges that are going to try and stop her.
The primary drawback however is that it is more challenging to run as a DM needing to juggle everything in an open world, where highly immersive and detailed planned story telling like you would find in a module becomes much harder if not impossible.
So how do we kick off an open world campaign? The key in my opinion is the idea of competing plot hooks. Essentially what you do is load up your Players "quest log" with several quests right from the start, and now it is up to them which ones they want to address first. This gives some open world freedom because now the players are deciding what's worthy of their attention. They have options. Also it is important to remember not to treat this like a video game where the rest of the world is on pause while they finish a quest. The ones they DIDN'T do are just as important because they evolve into something more formidable as a bad guy makes some gains. Naturally this keeps the action going and leads to higher level content. You can introduce new hooks periodically, even pull one from a player's background.
You might be thinking, and rightfully so, how in the world am I going to be able to come up with that many quests?! Again that is one of the primary challenges, you will have to sacrifice some level of detail and story telling immersion like in a single quest module. What I find helpful is to get a spark of inspiration from somewhere. For me it is the website donjon. On donjon there is a random inn generator, that also produces random inn rumors. Let's take a look at one- "Bizarre monsters have been sighted in Gletcey Vale". Ok, now my world has a place named Gletcey Vale. Ill place it a few miles outside of the starting town. Bizarre monsters? Sounds like aberrations. Maybe there is a rip in the prime material plane exposing a rift to the far realm. The aberrations are coming through it. Maybe an uvuudaum is behind this. Hey that's a good villain, if the players ignore this an uvuudaum might get loose.
Now you just need to draw up a few maps, create a few encounters, add a little detail, the usual.
Finally, it is important to allow the players to do their own thing if they want. Encourage it. Let them ignore your hooks and go after their own goals and work with it. Just revolve the world around them. That uvuudaum is coming...
Anyways thanks for reading hope this helps. Please, leave your own tips about running an open world campaign. I would like to know.
1. Create a couple of encounters you can use anyway. Players can be ambushed by bandits on the road regardless of what they are up to. Some encounters like that might "save" you from time to time, getting you through that session, and giving you time to plan the next part of what's down the road before next session.
2. Take a 10 minute break when (not if...) the players suddenly do something you really don't know how to react to. That's completely OK, and can save you from some bad decisions on the fly.
I don't spend too much time planning my adventures in detail. I usually divide it into:
1. Hooks. What kind of hooks do I have to get the characters interested. Create enough hooks so you are sure the players will take the bait (or be ready to move on). There's no reason to "start" the adventure before the players are "hooked".
2. I try to write down a couple of things that might help the players to solve the players (helpers, mentors, knowledge, maps, items they can find etc), I also try to write down a couple of hindrances (terrain they have to travel, enemies that will try to hinder them etc). Try to sort them into what is "nice to have" and what's necessary to "solve" the adventure. I try to have most of "nice to haves" and keep an open mind if the players come up with other ideas as well.
3. As soon as the players have gathered enough of the "resources", they are ready to try to defeat the "boss"/final lair or what ever.
And yes, I try between sessions to "move the world along". If the players decide to not take a hook, it might not be there tomorrow. It might be solved by someone else, or it might come back as a bigger issue down the road.
A key thing for making open world work is asking the players at the end of every session about their plans for next session. That means you only need to come up with an initial bare bones skeleton for what is out there, and you can flesh it out once the players decide to head towards it.
If we had to look at it from a black and white perspective, as a player I think I'd actually prefer having a single story line that is deeper in detail.
As a DM I am preparing a campaign right now myself and I have a singular quest line I am working out with details and twists and whatnot. Luckily our group doesn't mind this type of play and maybe even prefers it. But even with that said I am going to make sure there is a town crier in each city they enter shouting the news of the world. I'm going to I have little side quests available and random things they will encounter on their travels (burning building on their walk through the woods and you can hear screams coming from inside) that I maybe have a paragraph written or so and if they take those up hopefully I can improvise some stuff and see where they go lol
I've done open world for years. I'll give you the basic gist/outline for how I do it.
First do you make your own maps? If so, this will be pretty easy, if not, a tad harder. In any case get a piece of grid paper, size of grid doesn't matter really. Now, go pretty ear the center, put a X in a square. This is where the party is, doesn't matter if the campaign has started or not really. But X is where they currently are in the campaign plot map. Now the rule is, the party can only leave any square by the side, no diagonals. So now we get to give the illusion of pure player agency, but yet guided with some rails... All you have to do is provide hooks for each direction, let the party choose which hook to bite on, and progress from there. So hypothetically:
X - Party "meets at a tavern", and gets offered a reward to "rescue somebody" from the "baddies" who are thought to be out by an old structure in some caves. They succeed, now from there, they might have found some hooks in the caves, the structure, the tavern, or the town. Let's look at where they lead:
North: This is our primary planned campaign adventure, let's just say it is DiA since that is "current". There are hooks to get the party into the adventure/campaign use them as is or modified. Anytime the party proceeds in the main campaign, they will be headed North. (The "side quests" would not be considered to not be continuing North) East: This will be a rotating Character Feature adventure. Use the hooks going this way to fulfill Character hooks/plots/desires/complications. Hopefully the players have provided backstories, if not, well it makes it harder to initially plan, but a good old "Item of Power" (aka magic weapon/shield/armour) tale/quest will get at least one player to bite. Observing the party will give clues to what else to do. Remember that merchant they scammed, yeah, East becomes a complication funded by the merchant. This will all be on you (or on you ripping off elements of existing modules/adventures to make it work for the character whilst keeping the rest of the party engaged. South: This will be our alternate campaign adventure. This one is more complicated, as it should be something that is continually "nagging" but doesn't have any real urgency of time. Good thing to introduce early, and then throw in the hook whenever the main campaign stalls or has/needs a break. West: This will be our main "Side Quest" area, where we can throw in stuff from TotYP or GoSM. Either to give a chance for levels/items or as a quick break, really good for if a player has to miss a couple of sessions and we know about it in advance.
Once the Party leaves X, you will need to keep track on the Plot Map which way they go, so there is some continuity. If they go N,N,E, when they come back W, they should end up at/near where they left the main campaign line, and not go on a West track. And unless you have some actual need to throw something in between the two, there is no reason to not simply "chutes/ladders" back to the original spot they were in. You simply need to know how far they are in any particular direction and what "level" of the multiple choice directions (East and West) they are if they do not conclude those side adventures before returning to one of the main plot lines. (This would be akin to the party being 3E on the Fighter's quest, 2E on the Cleric's line, and 0E on everyone else's line. If you wish to avoid this, always make sure there is "time urgency" to complete the adventure. "IF the relic is not returned before the next full moon, the temple will be desecrated and the well poisoned")
By doing this, you will have to put in the majority of your prep work before the second session. (First session is already predetermined by you.) You need to prepare for essentially the FOUR hook outcomes you introduce in the intro session's conclusion. Let the party choose, and then prepare for the next "square" along the path they choose, reviewing the other three, just in case they change their mind, get done early, etc.
You may never use a direction at all, or you may decide that the West adventure would be a better South or East, and then guess what, you make it so, cause the players didn't know what was "planned" in the first place. From their point of view, you are giving them choices, (and for the East direction, they may very well be giving themselves the choice) and they are making a decision and then experiencing the consequences of their decisions.
I transitioned to open world after my group completed LMOP. Using their backstories, I developed 6 over-arcing quests, and started laying hooks along the way for each of them. Then my party chose which one to pursue first. Initially, I just had the quest rough sketched. The idea. The villain. How to resolve it. Twists. Once they start to pursue it, I flesh it out with locations, maps, items, additional NPC's. I keep a notebook for each character, and put any developemnts in there, or any new ideas I may come up with at a given time. The front of the notebook is more structured, the back is almost more like a doodle page, where I just throw things down and see what sticks. I use the Forgotten Realms, rather than a Homebrew world, because it gives me so much more access to ready lore and locations, which greatly reduces my work. I also have completely unrelated mini quests that are more just plug and play type things. A rumour you hear in a tavern. A missions the villagers ask you to complete. Just other stuff to give the game a bit more breadth. We've been playing for about 2.5 years and have resolved 2 players backstories so far. I currently have 6 threads running. I know the math doesn't work. The party befriended a cursed pig, and one of my players subbed out and a new one joined, giving me a whole new backstory to play with.
I've done open world for years. I'll give you the basic gist/outline for how I do it.
First do you make your own maps? If so, this will be pretty easy, if not, a tad harder. In any case get a piece of grid paper, size of grid doesn't matter really. Now, go pretty ear the center, put a X in a square. This is where the party is, doesn't matter if the campaign has started or not really. But X is where they currently are in the campaign plot map. Now the rule is, the party can only leave any square by the side, no diagonals. So now we get to give the illusion of pure player agency, but yet guided with some rails... All you have to do is provide hooks for each direction, let the party choose which hook to bite on, and progress from there.
Now that you mention it, this is similar to how I do things. I call it the "Quadrant Crawler" where the players start in quadrant (0,0) (which is where you have the X on your starting square, essentially) now as they travel and reach the extreme N,S,E or W edge of the quadrant they are rolled over into quadrant (0,1) (0,-1) (1,0) or (-1,0), respectively.
I haven't thought of making each hook point them in a different direction, usually I'll just load up the starting quadrant with with a few quests leading to adventuring around the starting quadrant to buy some time to flesh out the surrounding 4. However the more I think about it the more I like your way, I could hide the hooks AROUND the starting quadrant, as part of a few short introductory quests and a low level dungeon to get the ball rolling.
As far as making maps, I make my own using RPG map editor software from computer games that I then screenshot to Word and either print for my table or upload to a page on a digital game like roll20 as a PNG, in the background layer. In fact I made a whole thread about this, check it out it is a good read.
Anyways thanks for the post, I appreciate it.
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The open world campaign is a difficult style to master as a DM. I've been practicing it for quite a while though and would like to share how I do it, and to encourage others to share how they do it.
The primary advantage of an open world is it gives the players maximum freedom. They can go where they want and do what they want and the world evolves around their actions. They are the stars of the story, with the game being about them and their adventures, not about Tiamat and her hoard and oh hey by the way these are the stooges that are going to try and stop her.
The primary drawback however is that it is more challenging to run as a DM needing to juggle everything in an open world, where highly immersive and detailed planned story telling like you would find in a module becomes much harder if not impossible.
So how do we kick off an open world campaign? The key in my opinion is the idea of competing plot hooks. Essentially what you do is load up your Players "quest log" with several quests right from the start, and now it is up to them which ones they want to address first. This gives some open world freedom because now the players are deciding what's worthy of their attention. They have options. Also it is important to remember not to treat this like a video game where the rest of the world is on pause while they finish a quest. The ones they DIDN'T do are just as important because they evolve into something more formidable as a bad guy makes some gains. Naturally this keeps the action going and leads to higher level content. You can introduce new hooks periodically, even pull one from a player's background.
You might be thinking, and rightfully so, how in the world am I going to be able to come up with that many quests?! Again that is one of the primary challenges, you will have to sacrifice some level of detail and story telling immersion like in a single quest module. What I find helpful is to get a spark of inspiration from somewhere. For me it is the website donjon. On donjon there is a random inn generator, that also produces random inn rumors. Let's take a look at one- "Bizarre monsters have been sighted in Gletcey Vale". Ok, now my world has a place named Gletcey Vale. Ill place it a few miles outside of the starting town. Bizarre monsters? Sounds like aberrations. Maybe there is a rip in the prime material plane exposing a rift to the far realm. The aberrations are coming through it. Maybe an uvuudaum is behind this. Hey that's a good villain, if the players ignore this an uvuudaum might get loose.
Now you just need to draw up a few maps, create a few encounters, add a little detail, the usual.
Finally, it is important to allow the players to do their own thing if they want. Encourage it. Let them ignore your hooks and go after their own goals and work with it. Just revolve the world around them. That uvuudaum is coming...
Anyways thanks for reading hope this helps. Please, leave your own tips about running an open world campaign. I would like to know.
1. Create a couple of encounters you can use anyway. Players can be ambushed by bandits on the road regardless of what they are up to. Some encounters like that might "save" you from time to time, getting you through that session, and giving you time to plan the next part of what's down the road before next session.
2. Take a 10 minute break when (not if...) the players suddenly do something you really don't know how to react to. That's completely OK, and can save you from some bad decisions on the fly.
I don't spend too much time planning my adventures in detail. I usually divide it into:
1. Hooks. What kind of hooks do I have to get the characters interested. Create enough hooks so you are sure the players will take the bait (or be ready to move on). There's no reason to "start" the adventure before the players are "hooked".
2. I try to write down a couple of things that might help the players to solve the players (helpers, mentors, knowledge, maps, items they can find etc), I also try to write down a couple of hindrances (terrain they have to travel, enemies that will try to hinder them etc). Try to sort them into what is "nice to have" and what's necessary to "solve" the adventure. I try to have most of "nice to haves" and keep an open mind if the players come up with other ideas as well.
3. As soon as the players have gathered enough of the "resources", they are ready to try to defeat the "boss"/final lair or what ever.
And yes, I try between sessions to "move the world along". If the players decide to not take a hook, it might not be there tomorrow. It might be solved by someone else, or it might come back as a bigger issue down the road.
Ludo ergo sum!
A key thing for making open world work is asking the players at the end of every session about their plans for next session. That means you only need to come up with an initial bare bones skeleton for what is out there, and you can flesh it out once the players decide to head towards it.
If we had to look at it from a black and white perspective, as a player I think I'd actually prefer having a single story line that is deeper in detail.
As a DM I am preparing a campaign right now myself and I have a singular quest line I am working out with details and twists and whatnot. Luckily our group doesn't mind this type of play and maybe even prefers it. But even with that said I am going to make sure there is a town crier in each city they enter shouting the news of the world. I'm going to I have little side quests available and random things they will encounter on their travels (burning building on their walk through the woods and you can hear screams coming from inside) that I maybe have a paragraph written or so and if they take those up hopefully I can improvise some stuff and see where they go lol
I've done open world for years. I'll give you the basic gist/outline for how I do it.
First do you make your own maps? If so, this will be pretty easy, if not, a tad harder. In any case get a piece of grid paper, size of grid doesn't matter really. Now, go pretty ear the center, put a X in a square. This is where the party is, doesn't matter if the campaign has started or not really. But X is where they currently are in the campaign plot map. Now the rule is, the party can only leave any square by the side, no diagonals. So now we get to give the illusion of pure player agency, but yet guided with some rails... All you have to do is provide hooks for each direction, let the party choose which hook to bite on, and progress from there. So hypothetically:
X - Party "meets at a tavern", and gets offered a reward to "rescue somebody" from the "baddies" who are thought to be out by an old structure in some caves. They succeed, now from there, they might have found some hooks in the caves, the structure, the tavern, or the town. Let's look at where they lead:
North: This is our primary planned campaign adventure, let's just say it is DiA since that is "current". There are hooks to get the party into the adventure/campaign use them as is or modified. Anytime the party proceeds in the main campaign, they will be headed North. (The "side quests" would not be considered to not be continuing North)
East: This will be a rotating Character Feature adventure. Use the hooks going this way to fulfill Character hooks/plots/desires/complications. Hopefully the players have provided backstories, if not, well it makes it harder to initially plan, but a good old "Item of Power" (aka magic weapon/shield/armour) tale/quest will get at least one player to bite. Observing the party will give clues to what else to do. Remember that merchant they scammed, yeah, East becomes a complication funded by the merchant. This will all be on you (or on you ripping off elements of existing modules/adventures to make it work for the character whilst keeping the rest of the party engaged.
South: This will be our alternate campaign adventure. This one is more complicated, as it should be something that is continually "nagging" but doesn't have any real urgency of time. Good thing to introduce early, and then throw in the hook whenever the main campaign stalls or has/needs a break.
West: This will be our main "Side Quest" area, where we can throw in stuff from TotYP or GoSM. Either to give a chance for levels/items or as a quick break, really good for if a player has to miss a couple of sessions and we know about it in advance.
Once the Party leaves X, you will need to keep track on the Plot Map which way they go, so there is some continuity. If they go N,N,E, when they come back W, they should end up at/near where they left the main campaign line, and not go on a West track. And unless you have some actual need to throw something in between the two, there is no reason to not simply "chutes/ladders" back to the original spot they were in. You simply need to know how far they are in any particular direction and what "level" of the multiple choice directions (East and West) they are if they do not conclude those side adventures before returning to one of the main plot lines. (This would be akin to the party being 3E on the Fighter's quest, 2E on the Cleric's line, and 0E on everyone else's line. If you wish to avoid this, always make sure there is "time urgency" to complete the adventure. "IF the relic is not returned before the next full moon, the temple will be desecrated and the well poisoned")
By doing this, you will have to put in the majority of your prep work before the second session. (First session is already predetermined by you.) You need to prepare for essentially the FOUR hook outcomes you introduce in the intro session's conclusion. Let the party choose, and then prepare for the next "square" along the path they choose, reviewing the other three, just in case they change their mind, get done early, etc.
You may never use a direction at all, or you may decide that the West adventure would be a better South or East, and then guess what, you make it so, cause the players didn't know what was "planned" in the first place. From their point of view, you are giving them choices, (and for the East direction, they may very well be giving themselves the choice) and they are making a decision and then experiencing the consequences of their decisions.
I transitioned to open world after my group completed LMOP. Using their backstories, I developed 6 over-arcing quests, and started laying hooks along the way for each of them. Then my party chose which one to pursue first.
Initially, I just had the quest rough sketched. The idea. The villain. How to resolve it. Twists. Once they start to pursue it, I flesh it out with locations, maps, items, additional NPC's.
I keep a notebook for each character, and put any developemnts in there, or any new ideas I may come up with at a given time. The front of the notebook is more structured, the back is almost more like a doodle page, where I just throw things down and see what sticks.
I use the Forgotten Realms, rather than a Homebrew world, because it gives me so much more access to ready lore and locations, which greatly reduces my work.
I also have completely unrelated mini quests that are more just plug and play type things. A rumour you hear in a tavern. A missions the villagers ask you to complete. Just other stuff to give the game a bit more breadth.
We've been playing for about 2.5 years and have resolved 2 players backstories so far. I currently have 6 threads running. I know the math doesn't work. The party befriended a cursed pig, and one of my players subbed out and a new one joined, giving me a whole new backstory to play with.
Now that you mention it, this is similar to how I do things. I call it the "Quadrant Crawler" where the players start in quadrant (0,0) (which is where you have the X on your starting square, essentially) now as they travel and reach the extreme N,S,E or W edge of the quadrant they are rolled over into quadrant (0,1) (0,-1) (1,0) or (-1,0), respectively.
I haven't thought of making each hook point them in a different direction, usually I'll just load up the starting quadrant with with a few quests leading to adventuring around the starting quadrant to buy some time to flesh out the surrounding 4. However the more I think about it the more I like your way, I could hide the hooks AROUND the starting quadrant, as part of a few short introductory quests and a low level dungeon to get the ball rolling.
As far as making maps, I make my own using RPG map editor software from computer games that I then screenshot to Word and either print for my table or upload to a page on a digital game like roll20 as a PNG, in the background layer. In fact I made a whole thread about this, check it out it is a good read.
Anyways thanks for the post, I appreciate it.