How to Plan a Good D&D Campaign

Planning It All Out

• 1

  Games usually have three to five players.

• 2

  Decide what level you want the characters to be. Use the core rule book to help with this step. In D&D, low-level characters can die very easily, but higher levels can make the game too easy. Levels three or four is a good place to start out.

• 3

  Figure out what the goal of the game is. Is there an artifact of ancient and unimaginable power? Does a princess need rescuing? Hordes of barbarians about to destroy a town? You need to plan this out to give your players' characters a reason to stick together.

• 4

  Put together a good back-story for the plot. Why are the barbarians attacking? Why will the players want to find the artifact? Who kidnapped the princess, and why? Avoid needlessly complex stories your first time.

  You can plan out an entire political system with an in-depth plot as to how the princess's kidnapping will throw everything into chaos--but consider if it's really necessary for the characters you'll be dealing with.

• 5

  Familiarize yourself with the basics of game play. Keep the rule books around, just in case. Use a cheat sheet to keep some basic rules handy, such as what dice a player has to roll to attack.

• 6

  Create a few side plots to pull out if your players get bored.

• 7

  Your players probably won't follow the story exactly as you've planned, so alter the plot as they go through it.

• 8

  Take notes about what players have done during a game--most games are usually run once a week for several weeks or months. Always think of what consequences their past actions will have during future games.