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How to start a campaign

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Sat, 2013-02-09 11:15
#1
baategu
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How to start a campaign

Hello there,

Imagine that you haven't read all the planescape books yet but is willing to become a planescape DM and start a campaign anyway. None of your players have ever played planescape or even heard about it. Your plan is to read the basic stuff in the campaign setting and start a campaign of, say, 30 adventures, and while advancing the campaign, read more and more about the subject, and present the world to the players slowly, with the help of images, for example.

My question is: how to start your campaign? just for starters: would you guys start it at Sigil or at some place in the outer planes?

sorry if I'm too crude...

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Sat, 2013-02-09 17:28
#2
Palomides
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Re: How to start a campaign

Personally, I think you have to consider things in terms of game play.

For example, you need somewhere as a "home base". Most Planescape material assumes this is Sigil but I imagine you could use anywhere from a good or neutral plane (e.g. a town on the Outlands, Arcadia, Bytopia, etc.) This would be relatively safe but could have just enough visual oddity to drive home to the PCs that they aren't just in another generic medieval kingdom.

After they get their bearings a little bit (personally, I recommend that the PCs never get to feel that they know everything about the secrets of the planes) then you can inject allies and antagonists. The factions often serve this role (and provide an early opponent that isn't as lethal as a horde of demons) but races unique to the planes can also fit this role while injecting a little "oddity" into the campaign

Past that initial set up, if you want to run a long-term campaign; I supposed you should come up with a few larger theme threads to which you can string a number of adventures. Since the planes are about ideas, these could be themes related to larger themes like good vs. evil, law vs. chaos, creativity (see Infinite Staircase module for an example of this). Or you could tie it to some unique feature of the planes (see the Great Modron March for an example of adventures tied around the theme of the modrons traveling from plane to plane)

If you are just looking for recommendations for specific products, let us know as there are a number of modules that are popular among most of the PS community

If you are looking for unoffical ideas for adventures, there are a number of threads on this site. I recently had one just for adventures set in or around Arcadia
/forum/single-plane-mini-campaign-arcadia

Sat, 2013-02-09 20:48
#3
baategu
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Re: How to start a campaign

thanks for the advice, that's what i was looking for.

i was thinking about a long-term campaign... something like placing the players in an "easy" place such the one you mentioned, Arcadia, to have them feel just a little taste of the oddities... and then promote them to Sigil, after something like 10 adventures. and then, at some point, make the players take part in interconnected adventures with a war as background (something like blood wars 2) which would take something like adventures 11 to 20... and then, from adventures 21 to 30 make them face really odd stuff, and include them in the politics of some place (at that point, probably they'll be exhausted from Sigil).

i'm looking forward to write my own adventures, maybe a little bit "inspired" by off-the-shelf products, so probably i'll be around the forum a lot writing and asking a lot...

i have the planescape pdf's but i'm buying every planescape material i can. i can't resist to those arts and big maps... and to that sweet dm screen. there are so many products to choose from, i must have them all.

so that's it, see you guys around and greetings from brazil

Sat, 2013-02-09 22:56
#4
Wicke
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Re: How to start a campaign

Definitely take a look around through the archives. There are some fantastic threads throughout the entire board covering a full range of topics.

I'd suggest that starting everybody off as native Ysgardians. They're brought to life every day if they've died (just so long as they remain on Ysgard that is), so you could throw huge monsters at your players without worrying about if you've gone too far. The place is filled with all sorts of adventuring opportunities (it's practically screaming for them). Plus, the environment is wonderfully planar, what with its floating rivers of rock and burning undersides. As an added bonus, the Norse gods are more hands on than a number of other pantheons, so the players might have a chance to see the powers at work.

By the time they got comfortable with how the plane worked, you could introduce them to Arborea, Limbo or Pandemonium, all of which give a different cast to the whole planar experience. Also, since Ysgard is the home plane to one of the major factions (The Fated), it could make for a good gateway into the Sigilian political scene.

Wed, 2013-02-20 14:38
#5
neuronphaser
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Re: How to start a campaign

I'm detailing Sigil as a big urban adventure environment here.

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Fri, 2013-02-22 08:09
#6
Munin
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Re: How to start a campaign

Since both you and the players are as clueless as primers, I'd start things off on a prime world you're familiar with. During the first session the players are transported to Sigil and then the real adventuring starts. I cant remember if its the campaign set or well of worlds that includes a few adventure hooks for starting your campaign like this.

The beauty of this approach is, that your players can learn about the setting at the same rate as their characters do and you can slowly introduce them to more and more of the setting, as you yourself get to know it.

A quick add on to Palomides recommendation that you pick some themes or threads for a long term campaign. You might want to take the Rule of Three and the Unity of Rings into account too, its easier to work them in subtly if you plan ahead.

Fri, 2013-02-22 14:34
#7
Unsung
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Re: How to start a campaign

Choose a few elements that you know and like, and explore them to the fullest extent possible. For instance, take Torment. Say that most of the game takes place in the Hive, Undersigil, Curst, and the mazes. You never even set foot in the Market Ward, Guildhall, or Lady's Ward (you catch a glimpse of it from down an alleyway). The Dustmen, Sensates, and Godsmen are the factions given the greatest development, and the vast majority of characters are humans, planetouched, fiends, modrons, and undead.

The planes being infinite, limiting your options can go a long way to establishing the diverse, otherworldly quality of the planes. You want the planes to feel overwhelming and strange, but at the same time, you don't want to constantly barrage the players with oddities. That way, when something familiar shows up, or when the party comes across something completely new and bizarre even by planar standards, it still has that impact.

Tue, 2013-02-26 07:33
#8
Rolro
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Re: How to start a campaign

Most important I think is to show that belief matters and it can affect reality. If your Pc's already have a specific personality trait let it do something.

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