Themes, Plot, and Setting
Designing a campaign can be a daunting task. It might be difficult to know where to begin, or what questions to ask yourself as you outline your world.
In addition to memorable heroes, villains, and supporting characters, there are a few key elements that contribute to making a memorable campaign: Themes, Plot, and Setting.
Themes
The themes of your campaign can be thought of as the lifeblood of your story, the pulse around which heroes, villains, and plot elements occur. This is not to say that the themes of your campaign need to be in the foreground at all times. Quite the contrary; themes can usually be the unspoken backdrop against which the story takes place.
When considering the themes that you want your campaign to explore, it can be helpful to think of one or two dichotomies that interest you. Think about how these dichotomies can come up in the world, how they might manifest themselves in the actions of the heroes or villains, and how the setting might reflect these themes.
If you’re looking for a place to start, you can roll once or twice on the table below and see if the randomly selected themes spark your interest. Remember that this is YOUR game, so don’t feel tied to any specific themes you see on this table. These suggestions are just meant to get your ideas flowing!
| d20 | Dichotomy |
|---|---|
| 1 | Bravery/Cowardice |
| 2 | Honor/Shame |
| 3 | Integrity/Corruption |
| 4 | Selfishness/Selflessness |
| 5 | Embodiment/Spirit |
| 6 | Sleeping/Waking |
| 7 | Light/Dark |
| 8 | Life/Death |
| 9 | Security/Freedom |
| 10 | War/Peace |
| 11 | Individualism/Corporatism |
| 12 | Love/Hate/Apathy |
| 13 | Pride/Humility |
| 14 | Pessimism/Hope |
| 15 | Power/Meekness |
| 16 | Ignorance/Knowledge |
| 17 | Supersition/Fact |
| 18 | Justice/Forgiveness |
| 19 | Control/Faith |
| 20 | Destiny/Free Will |
Plot
When thinking about the overarching plot of your campaign, it is best not to get bogged down in specifics. Think about how you want your game to start, a few different endings that you think would be satisfying, and two or three mid- campaign milestones that can help orient you towards one or more dramatic endings.
Remember that while you facilitate the story, your players are the real heroes. They will likely take the story in directions that you did not originally intend, which is why it’s usually not constructive to plan out your entire campaign in meticulous detail.
Forcing your players to do exactly what you prepared for is colloquially called “railroading,” and is generally discouraged. If your players don’t particularly care and want you to just lead them through a fun journey, then it can be a fine method of gameplay, but players will typically want to have the agency to make their own decisions. So long as it is disguised as the veneer of choice, you can also lightly railroad your players with some narrative techniques such as only preparing what lies behind one door. Regardless of which door the players open, they find what you prepared for them. Again, this technique should be used sparingly, but it can be useful when you are caught by surprise or need to be sure that a specific plot point comes up.
Campaign Plots
Here are a few ideas that you might use to generate your campaign’s overarching storyline. These plot ideas can be mixed with one another or used individually. Note that MythCraft is designed with the intent that campaigns can span in-world decades, so you do not always have to immediately rush the heroes to their next mission. This can allow the world to develop more naturally and will help the players feel invested in all aspects of their heroes’ lives. You can also mix two or more types of campaign plots to create a more interesting overarching dynamic.
Adventure/Quest
The adventure or quest is the classic heroic journey. The adventurers have a destination that they must reach for one reason or another, and they meet enemies, setbacks, and allies along the way. All the while, they get to learn more and more about the wondrous world around them.
Change Status
Things in the world are not right, and your adventurers set out to bring about change. Perhaps this is overthrowing a corrupt regime or clearing the name of a wrongly charged convict.
Fishtank
In a fishtank campaign, the villain already gained unrivaled power, and the heroes live in the villain’s world whether they know it or not. The villain is the dominant authority around them. Perhaps the heroes’ employer is the villain and the players must uncover this secret, or perhaps they know they live in an cruel and unjust empire and take it upon themselves to start a revolt.
Hero vs. Environment
A hero vs environment campaign pits the heroes not against a specific villain, but against the larger environment. This might be a natural disaster that threatens a small town or a logging company trying to deforest the heroes’ home. Maybe the heroes are the only survivors of a merchant caravan and must find a way to endure a harsh winter in the open elements. The heroes must band together to overcome whatever environmental challenge faces them. Depending on the crisis, they may need to journey to various places, ask for aid, issue warnings, and complete quests to gain people’s trust.
Maintain Status
Sometimes, heroes need to change the status quo; other times, they need to maintain it. When villains stir and attempt to topple the world order, heroes might try to thwart the villains’ efforts, deal with monarchs and politicians, and try to maintain the balance of the powers that be.
Sandbox
In a sandbox campaign, there is no clear objective. The heroes get to construct their own path based on what they find the most interesting in the world that you present to them. There are likely several potential main villains, but it is wise not to plan out too much beyond the first few actions of the party. Instead, react to what seems to engage them most.
Campaign Plot Twists
These are a few ideas that you can use around the midpoint of a campaign, or at a significant milestone, to orient yourself and the adventurers towards the last few chapters of your story.
Changing Sides
As the campaign world unfolds, you may find that the adventurers, villains, or supporting characters no longer hold the same views that they did at the campaign’s outset. Having a significant character change sides in a conflict can be a very notable midpoint for a campaign and can radically change the direction of the remainder of the story.
Evil Questgiver
It’s a trope that can be overused, so be careful when implementing the Evil Questgiver. If the heroes have gone on a quest, and it turns out that it was all for their benefactor’s nefarious designs, this can be a meaningful plot twist, but should be used sparingly.
Moving the Goalposts
A common way to continually up the stakes in an adventure is to move the goalposts each time the heroes make an accomplishment. After defeating someone that they thought was the main villain, they find out that the real villain was his mother.
Like the Evil Questgiver, moving the goalposts either on what you need to complete a quest or on who the real villain is can quickly become a tired trope, so be careful when you implement this device. If you do use this plot twist, it can work very well with a character changing sides, becoming allies with the heroes as they explain who is really threatening the world.
The Real Treasure was...
Talk about tired tropes. We all know this adage. And yet, knowing how and when to implement this trope can lead to some very heartwarming moments. It can also deliver home the reason that specific heroes found themselves on a life of adventure. Why was it these specific heroes that ended up being the only ones that could succeed on this campaign? What is it about how they interact with each other, or how they bring new friends to their cause, that makes them succeed where others might fail?
Setting
While you don’t need to have the entire campaign’s plot planned out in detail before you begin a campaign, it can be beneficial to have a well established campaign setting.
At minimum, think about how the setting might reflect or interact with the themes that you want to explore. Consider how the physical world and the political landscape might challenge the heroes or direct them towards or away from certain actions.
To make the world feel real and lived in, consider what season you want to start the story in and the reasoning for that decision. Think about in-world holidays and traditions to ground the setting in believable customs that the inhabitants of your world observe.
When the heroes are in a settled area, be it a small village or a sprawling metropolis, think about the region’s social, criminal, political, economic, religious, and military practices to quickly sketch out how the area works and what beliefs might commonly be held. You can also think about this in the context of your world’s history and the major economic or political players in the region. A small village under the shadow of a tyrant’s castle will feel markedly different than a village of the same size that is in the middle of nowhere in the woods, answerable to no one but themselves.
History and Present Day
As you work on fleshing out your campaign setting, you can also consider how your world’s history affects your present day setting. Are nations generally friendly with one another, or are they on the brink or currently engaged in war? How much of a focus will this be in your adventurers’ lives?