Writing your own campaign can be a rewarding experience for Dungeon Masters and players. Not only does it allow for ultimate creative freedom, but you can revel in the fruits of your labor as your party explores the story you’ve created.
While it may be intimidating, you don’t need to be a legendary DM like Matt Mercer or Brennan Lee Mulligan to create your own campaign. Today, we’re covering how anyone can go about writing a long-term adventure for Dungeons & Dragons!
- Start With an Idea
- Run a Session 0
- Determine What Type of Campaign You’ll Be Writing
- Flesh Out a Starting Area
- See Where Your Party’s Interests Lie
- Prepare to Your Comfort Level
- When Inspiration Strikes, Add to Your World
Writing a Campaign Versus Creating a Setting
Settings are cities, worlds, universes, or multiverses in which a campaign takes place.
If you’re writing your campaign from scratch, its creation will go hand-in-hand with developing your setting, which can add substantially more work to your plate.
If you haven’t planned a campaign before, it might be beneficial to choose a premade setting in which to run your adventure. There are endless settings available that have fleshed-out maps, NPCs, monsters, and lore.
This is especially beneficial if your players aren’t familiar with the setting. This way, if you don’t like something, you can easily change it to suit your vision.
7 Steps to Writing a D&D Campaign
Campaigns come in every shape and size. Your campaign may go from 1st to 20th level and take three years of weekly sessions to complete. Or it could be a smaller-scale adventure that’s completed by the time the party hits 10th level.
Campaigns differ from one-shots because they have time to let the story and players breathe: Backstories, lore, and the evolving dynamics within the party will be a focal point.
Beginning to write your own campaign is an intimidating endeavor. You might get a spark of inspiration for a storyline, then get bogged down in the socioeconomic structure of the realm’s political capital. Before you know it, you’ve hit creative exhaustion.
The most common reason campaigns don’t get off the ground is because DMs bite off more than they can chew, so here are some steps to make sure this doesn’t happen to your campaign:
1. Start With an Idea

So, you’ve been struck with inspiration for a campaign. The first step is to jot down everything that comes to mind, no matter how scattered or incomplete. These initial notes are the seeds from which your campaign will grow. They can be plot hooks, characters, settings, or even just a general vibe you want to explore.
For me, it was, “What if Halo happened in a fantasy setting, and magic and monsters replaced technology and aliens?” That one seed sprouted over a hundred sessions of fun and memories that my players and I still reminisce on.
You can even start putting together a mood board for your campaign. This could be images, books, TV shows, movies, or songs that evoke the essence of your campaign. These can serve as inspiration later on and be invaluable when introducing your party to your new campaign.
The Dungeon Master’s Guide also has a wealth of rollable tables to help you generate creative sparks for your adventure.
2. Run a Session 0
Session 0 is where you pitch your campaign idea to your party. It's a crucial step for aligning expectations, discussing the type of campaign everyone is interested in, and setting the ground rules for gameplay and interaction.
This is when you’ll show your party your campaign’s mood board if you have one. Maybe they’ve read some of the books or watched some of the media and can draw on their past experiences to get into character. If they haven’t interacted with any of the media previously, it’s an excellent chance for them to dive into the atmosphere of your campaign and start brainstorming ideas.
You can also use this opportunity to collaboratively create player characters and write their backstories. These backstories can be a tremendous source of inspiration for your campaign.
3. Determine What Type of Campaign You’ll Be Writing
Now that you and your party are sold on the adventure and have discussed the type of campaign you want to play, it’s time to think about structuring your campaign.
There are two general types of D&D campaigns, both of which require a different mindset when it comes to writing:
Story-Focused Campaign
Story-focused campaigns are usually less meandering than sandbox-style campaigns. The party is presented with an obvious task, and they go on a quest to fulfill their obligations.
These campaigns work well when you have a group of heroes with aligned interests and an immediate threat they must address. Some will refer to these campaigns as “railroaded,” but I find that this term has a negative connotation that implies a lack of player agency.
While these campaigns may seem more “on the rails” than a sandbox campaign, you can still allow the players to meaningfully impact the story and dictate how they solve problems, especially if you let your story be flexible and tailor the adventure to the player's interests.
These campaigns are written more like novels. The players are characters in the novel, and they react to the story that the Dungeon Master has crafted for them. The main difference is the DM will have to react to how the story changes based on the player’s actions.
Sandbox Campaign
In sandbox campaigns, the party is thrown into a world with NPCs and their motivations, but the party decides what is important and how it’ll get done.
These campaigns usually work out best when there isn’t impending doom that needs to be dealt with in a timely manner. Typically, there are events transpiring that can be affected by the party’s involvement. If the party doesn’t interact with these events, they could have lasting impacts on the setting.
In these campaigns, the emphasis is on exploration and character development. The world is your party’s oyster, and your job as a DM is to seed the pearls and let your party discover them.
When writing a party-focused campaign, you’ll need to take more of a macro perspective of the setting than a story-focused campaign: Who are the prominent factions, what are their motivations, and how do their plans impact the realm?
4. Flesh Out a Starting Area

To build a foundation for the world you’ll be playing in, it’s best to focus on the party’s introduction to the setting. This ensures you don’t get distracted filling in details that won’t matter for a dozen sessions.
Your starting area could be as small as a prison or as intricate as a capital city, and it will give your party a taste of things to come. This could include foreshadowing of important events, factions that will play a big part in the campaign, and NPCs that will influence the party’s path, but it doesn’t need to. All it needs is a problem. Then, you can throw the party at the problem and see how they address it.
When running the campaign you’re writing for players, you’ll see the biggest payoffs from the time spent laying out the challenges the party will encounter. Prepping specific things—like NPCs, combat, and environments—will lend you more help in your sessions than an exhaustive list of the deities in your setting.
5. See Where Your Party’s Interests Lie
Starting small allows you to accomplish another limiting factor in a campaign’s success: determining the players’ interests.
It’ll be a hard pill to swallow if your players want to follow the goblin that ran away into the Underdark instead of rescuing the princess of the city you spent 15 hours creating.
But, what makes D&D such a coveted experience is player agency. Embracing this unpredictability is key. Use these early diversions as opportunities to explore what truly engages your players.
Are they warriors drawn to the promise of battle and glory? Perhaps they're detectives at heart and like to delve into mysteries and conspiracies. Or maybe they're diplomats, eager to navigate the complex web of politics in your setting.
By paying attention to these cues and adapting your campaign to fit your party’s interests, they’ll become more immersed in the campaign, which will make writing your campaign a more satisfying experience.
6. Prepare to Your Comfort Level
Once you understand the direction your players are taking in the starting area, it’s time to get rolling. I usually try to have one to three sessions of prepared material, which includes encounters, NPCs, and environments.
You’ll hear, “You’re prepping too much!” or “You’re not prepping enough!” from conflicting sources, but only you will know how much or little you need to prep for each session.
I like to plan to the point where I get an intuitive feel of the setting. I’ll understand the NPCs and their motivations, so I don’t have to write down dialogue for every possibility. Then, I will prepare a storyline, similar to what you see in published adventures, of what I think the party's most likely path forward will be.
If a party does something surprising, I have enough of a foundation to improvise with their antics because I have a solid plan for how the story progresses.
If the party takes off into unplanned territory, I’ll use my knowledge of the world’s locations, NPCs, and monsters to improvise a session and note the people, places, and things they run into. Then, when it comes time for the next session, I’ll prepare more storyline beats from what I think will be the most likely actions the party will take based on this new direction.
7. When Inspiration Strikes, Add to Your World

While writing just enough to keep ahead of your party is an efficient way to be prepared for each session, sometimes you just want to flesh out your world.
Now that you’re prepared (or prepared to improvise) for your party’s actions in the short term, you can have some fun worldbuilding and look ahead to the long term. If you think the socioeconomic structure of your realm’s capital city will play into the campaign in the future, go ahead and flesh out its imports, exports, and tariff structure.
If you see something cool, read about a fun new monster, or stumble across an image that evokes a feeling of adventure, start painting with broad strokes to fill in your campaign.
And if you run into writer’s block for this cool, new idea, just put it down and let it marinate for a bit. Write down whatever good ideas you have now. Flesh out the rest when it becomes relevant.
This could also be when you start to map your campaign's setting. Not every setting needs a map, but it serves as an excellent tool to prepare future plots and ensure geography remains consistent across your sessions.
Set Forth and Weave Your Tale
The last and most important thing you need to remember is D&D is supposed to be fun. If you’re not having fun writing your adventure, take a break. Maybe run a one-shot. Maybe get one of your players to take over for a bit to run a mini-arc set in the distant past of your setting. Or, get away from your adventure and read a book, watch a movie, or play a different game.
You’d be surprised how inspiration can strike and how enjoyable writing your adventure can be once you step back and let writing become fun again.

Mike Bernier (@arcane_eye) is the founder of Arcane Eye, a site focused on providing useful tips and tricks to all those involved in the world of D&D. Outside of writing for Arcane Eye, Mike spends most of his time playing games, hiking with his partner, and tending the veritable jungle of houseplants that have invaded his house.
"It’ll be a hard pill to swallow if your players want to follow the goblin that ran away into the Underdark instead of rescuing the princess of the city you spent 15 hours creating."
Or, just move that princess to the Underdark! One of the lessons I learned after years of DM'ing is the subtle art of simply moving your planned encounter to the unplanned region your party just wandered into. They won't even know the difference!
Hahahah, so true, mate! I do the same 😅
Hard Disagree!
1 - I want and indeed far prefer DMing. I enjoy worldbuilding and always have. AI cannot even come close to the worldbuilding that I do, and it's disingenuous to say it can.
2 - I actually get to play as a DM. I get to roleplay recurring NPCs with actual stat blocks. I get to guest star in the story as the players explore the world.
3 - The reason so few people get into DMing is a D&D problem, not a TTRPG problem. Looking at other TTRPG systems shows just how lazy the writers involved with the D&D publications are...of course it could always be Hasbro/WotC directing from on high. Evil Hat Productions is a good example of a company doing GM support right. If D&D/WotC did better to provide usable and helpful resources for would be DMs then I firmly believe there wouldn't be such an imbalance.
This kind of lazy article (not your comment, but the article the comment was left on) is a case in point here. The information on Session Zero is just so lacklustre and massively unhelpful. Compare this article with something like Sly Flourish's DM Tips (The pdf of the original book for 4th is freely available) - and you can really see that the writer was either writing to a word limit, or just...well I can't think of any other reason why someone would let an article like this be published. My point here is that if we as a player base (and DMs are players too) really want to see a change in the undersupply of DMs, we need to be promoting things that actually help budding DMs.
Now despite, but criticism and dim view of this article - if it helps a budding DM out there - that's amazing and I hope it all goes wonderfully!
AI however, doesn't solve the problem of the undersupply. In fact it makes it worse. Unless we want to see DMs that are effectively a weird black box of stuff that we can't see into and analyse much like Youtube algorithms, then AI is not the answer - better support for would-be DMs is. That means a DMG that is written by a skilled team, support articles on DDB that are actually good, concise instructional guides, and generally supportive content. Like grammarly and it's ilk, all AI does is make us human beings as a species more lazy. We don't have to do that one little thing we find difficult any more. Over time, we stop even learning how to do it. 'Assistive' technologies just hurt us all. Far from the opening up that you hope for, it's far more likely to obliterate the hobby altogether, because functionally there would be little difference between a computer game and D&D. At least, that's my view on the matter.
The is a great article, really help narrow down the focal points of creating a campaign and establish (all be well know) a solid rubric for gauging success and direction.
Its from Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos.
Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos
Cool! This was very helpful.
My advice to aspiring DMs is to start small. Be less ambitious and execute well. Starting too big and going to broad is a surefire way to have the story and campaign get away from you, lose momentum, and eventually peter out.
I also always fall back on the maxim, "good writers borrow, great writers steal." When I need an idea for a new campaign, I just pick some pre-existing media and reskin it and tweak it into a D&D campaign. I once ran a campaign that combined the premise of the show Grimm with the premise of the show Reaper. Xfiles is another good one to pull from. It works with movies too. Pick a genre that interests you. Then pick a movie in that genre that you love and adapt it into an adventure.
You don't have to follow the source material beat for beat, but it provides a helpful skeleton to build on.
AI is a great tool for many things, including DM prep. It is, however, a tool and should be used as such. Images and location descriptions etc is a great way to use AI. I have, for example, made a ton of NPC portraits and they are both good looking and very useful for my games.
The reason for few people getting into DMing is definitely a workload problem. It is certainly not a D&D problem. Books has to be bought, worlds built, NPCs created, adventures written etc, no matter what system you play. That is why any help (like AI) is useful. Structuring your world building and DM prep are other areas that DMs benefit from.
When it comes to this article I think it is a short, but useful way to point those who are unsure of how to procced in the right direction. As such it is a great article. I'm a patreon of Sly Flourish and really like his stuff (I have all the books), but that doesn't make this artcle less useful. You have to learn to see things for what they are. Is this a comprehensive in-depth article? No, but it is intended for a beginner audience, so therefore it is useful.
Thank you for this! After running LMoP as a first time DM I would like to start my own homebrew world
Disclaimer: Haven't read the blog post yet.
I use the term campaign to be both the setting and the adventures/stories in that setting.
A mistake that new world building DMs make, in my opinion, is thinking that they have to have a campaign bible which mimics a setting book from a publisher. ;-) While that may be your aspiration, the vast majority of things you write for your campaign will only ever been seen by you, the DM. So focusing on the region in which your stories begin is most helpful. But if you get inspired to write about some knightly order that has no current relevance to your game, right it down anyway! Having that info can be helpful when your players ask an innocent question for which you were, at first glance, totally unprepared. "The armored figure mentioned some order they belong to, which knightly order is that? What do I know about it?" You can then pull from the knightly order you made those notes about.
Something important not mentioned here is to know the players beforehand
I have had SO many horror campaigns i had to rewrite because I got a party of goofballs, and vice versa! Talk to your players beforehand!!
As a DM of over 20 years (mostly on and off, but nearly exclusively the last three years), I have some advice.
Consider what kind of stories you are actually interested in. Do you like crime? Romance? Horror? Adventure? Knowing what you gravitate to will influence what kind of themes you might lean into. I have a lean on horror plots, and my players are all aware of it. Your world is easier to create if its something you enjoy.
Avoid making excessive maps! Make a handful of random encounter maps to have on hand, but stick to really dedicating time only to fights you are definitely going to have.
On that same line, get a playlist of music for settings, moods, and a different one for battle. Music can make the moment. I have entire main NPC motifs that play during their introduction to the party, or when they die.
USE IMAGES FOR LOCATIONS! Visuals for where players are when there's no need for a map is really helpful in setting the mood. Czepeku Scenes patreon is great for this as they have loads of variation for the higher tiers. Otherwise troll about on Google or if you can afford it, commission a custom landscape image (this can be VERY costly, so be sure to look for great artists in the style you are looking for and stick to your budget).
Support creators for extras to help offload the work. Patreon has a wealth of 3pcs that have huge catalogues of content to have at your fingertips. I highly recommend Cze and Peku for both their maps and scenes. For a small amount monthly, I can print off amazing maps to use and it saves you time and energy in making those items. Kickstarter has loads of projects for all ttrpgs to back and a lot of them have digital pdfs available for less than $20. These add flavour, variety, and nuance to your world. For example; Nord Games has an entire book dedicated to undead creatures to give you loads of options for skeletons, zombies, wisps, and more. No more bland undead encounters if you can shake things up!
Keep a finger on the pulse of your group. You need to check in and have an open door policy so players can feel free to speak up if they need to. Sometimes they just feel like their character isn't getting the spotlight, or you just need to change tone a bit. It sucks to hear at times, but a good DM needs to hear when they have to adjust things.
Always remember that it is NOT you vs. the players, but you AND the players. Because we control the monsters, it doesn't mean we are the sworn enemies of the players. Cheer them on when they kick butt! Also remember that the rule of cool means that you can adjust things to make your games less heavily reliant on the rules as is and better for your table (see alternative health potion use rules that many tables prefer).
If you struggle with creating things, dont be ashamed; know your limits and seek out aids. These can be many things from adapting an official adventure to plot in to your world (I've got an adapted witchlight carnival the players are at currently. Just the carnival though as I've cut out the whole Wilds Beyond part for my own uses), to 3rd party adventures/5e supplements that expand on existing material, patreon perk goodies to help with inspiration, or even give you quick idea generations. I personally am a huge fan of the Nord Games Oracle generation cards for storyline and characters (monsters is coming out after their Fey bestiary is shipped out to backers), but I also have The Story Engine story, world, and lore decks (pdf options are significantly cheaper than the actual decks, but it is super easy and fun to use the actual cards). TSE is still in the preorder stage of their upcoming Lore Master's deck sets so you only have access to the beta cards for digital or printing out to make them at home at this time. If you struggle with plots, get Story Engine. If you can't make locations, get Deck of Worlds. If lore like gods and background worldbuilding your weakness, Lore Master's has a bunch of options. You don't need to go at it alone and dread the parts you hate, just know where to look for assistance!
Ask other homebrew DMs! You are part of a community, so network. Ask advice, get ideas, learn about things to use from other DMs in your area or online. All of us started at the bottom once and only through lots of actual DMing did we learn and grow.
Don't compare yourself to Matt Mercer or Brennan because they are outliers rather than the rule. Most DMs don't have half their budget and don't have an entire production crew at their disposal, let alone are a group of professionals in various acting styles. You are you, and that is already more than enough as a DM.
But Fluid, you say, what about AI? I personally refuse to use AI for writing, image creation, or other things. I avoid backing projects with their use. I would rather pay an artist their value for custom works than use AI. I do not support them, so I don't have advice on that topic. If you use them, then you do you.
I agree. I can say that I am always happier in a game when I'm playing DM, and the stuff that AI would "do for me" would take away from my enjoyment of the game. I just think that it's an unfair assumption to say that no one wants to DM, as it's blatently inaccurate. I also have never heard of a DM feeling like they're being left out when everyone else is creating a character, if that's something you find occurs with you, no issue, that's a matter of opinion, but I again feel like it's inacurate to say that is a general, widespread issue needing AI to solve.
I also definetly agree with the sentiment martintheactor makes about AI as an assistive technology. It definetly does not improve us as creatives by using it, and it will make D&D just another computer game if thats the extent to which it's being taken. If you're going to replace the DM, why not replace the whole party too? Just you and five seperate algorithims simulating a real expeirience, with no coflicts that couldn't just be prompted out of the game. I know I, and everyone else I have talked to about AI would not enjoy that at all. If that sounds appealing to you, go for it, but don't try and say that AI DMing should replace real DMs (If that wasn't the intent of your comment I apologize for the misconception, but that's how it came across).
A Halo themed campaign setting is genius! Legend of Zelda campaign also sounds kinda cool
Me and my dad are writing a book this is pretty helpful
What should I do, if as an author, I want to write an original novel about D&D settings?
It's also the art on the Strixhaven MTG card: Mercurial Transformation