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How deep do you go when building out your campaigns? (piefed.ca)

submitted 1 day ago by Gyangrene@piefed.ca to c/rpg@ttrpg.network

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Curious to know how other GMs go about designing and filling out their campaigns with different material like items, NPCs, locations, etc. I've traditionally gone very deep and sometimes even granular (much to my own detriment because I bite off more than I can chew sometimes), and try to build out enough material to establish the setting and make everyone feel "unique" to the campaign setting.

What do you find works best for you? How deep do you like to go when building out the setting and materials? Are there any specific elements you focus more on as opposed to others?

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[–] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago

I generally start small and personal. Let the characters explore one tiny corner of the world, get to know the NPCs and get a feel for the setting. I normally have some idea about the larger world and how this corner fits, but until something is canonized through play, nothing is set in stone. It's both a world tutorial and gives me a chance to adjust things in response to how the characters interact, their backgrounds, how engaged they are, etc.

How and what to tune is a whole other question, but it's a shared story and being open to ways to help players feel more invested means it's a huge waste of time to plan out a lot of things that players never care about or see.

On the other hand, I've started in campaigns where a DM spends months planning out a world in great depth and 30 minutes into play I know that it's all going to fall apart within 3 sessions. I've seen other DMs who literally just run group after group through the same world or even story every time, even when it's the same players, because that's what they spent months or even years building. It's dull as fuck and makes me feel like I'm just there to witness the greatness of the DM's world-building or unwritten novel. That being said, it's perfectly fine if you view it as a purely social event and don't get invested in having agency.