How to Create a Campaign in a Few Hours

INTRODUCTION

The title may be bold, but it's actually possible. Of course, the number of hours highly varies on whether you have access to some resources, and whether you are used to create some of the particular content. But we'll go through it and make it as simple as possible. The final product will be PLAYABLE. But still the goal is to be MINIMALIST.

I decided to make this post because yesterday I had couple of hours at night left, and I made a whole campaign to play solo with my wife. I'm going to actually share everything here so that a. it can be used b. you see that I'm not joking. Some people will find my notes not enough, or too much; but at least it's a starting point.

It's important to understand that in this case, the goal was to pump up the campaign as fast as possible while making sure it's decent, and that it's a sandbox hexcrawl. If you want to make the best campaign ever, you'll most likely not going to use as much random generation as I did and make some difference. But in the end the goal is to play no ? It's not necessarily meant for very complex railroading storyline.

Also, I realized after making all of this, that there is a very similar thing on the net: Gygax 75 Challenge. Very good read. I didn't readjust my things to be consistent and transparent, but some points overlap since the source is almost the same. There are also other very good resources on the net and it can help you to do any portion of your prep (thanks Robert !). There are multiple very good methods that are simple. My method is based on what is present in the LBBs and therefore, expedient. To each his own.

The steps are as follow:

1. Meta Concept (product: a few sentences)
2. Region Map (product: a 5x5 or 10x10 hex map with no keys except for whatever is already in mind)
3. Factions (product: a few lines)
4. Main Town (product: a map, keys, rumours, some random tables)
5. Main Dungeon (product: three level worth of maps; it's actually all randomly generated)
6. Make Links Between Megadungeon and Outside World (product: a couple of lines)
7. Update Map with New Keys (product: hexmap)
8. Finalize Map Keys (product: new hex keys)
9. Done

Let's go through this.

[EDIT: Found also other interesting resources from Blood of Prokopius on sandbox and dungeons.]

1. META CONCEPT

• Needed: Nothing
• What you get: Overall concept of the campaign
• Product: A few lines
• What:

a. World

This is where you need to find first a catchy concept, and then expand on it. If you already are using a premade world, or a subset of an existing campaign of yours, it's easier. If not, first of all create a general concept for your world focused on a THEME, such as:

• Sword & Sorcery in a Bloodborne world
• Medieval Fantasy where social class is represented by fantasy races
• Antiquity post-apoc wasteland influenced by Jorodoswsky or Moebius
• etc.

Then you can scribble 1-2 lines about the world (or make a sketch), and pin point where you want the campaign. In my case, my setting for this campaign is this:

• Medieval fantasy where feodal relations are Covenants (Old Testament + Dark Souls)

You don't need to be original or whatever: this is for you. No copyright here. 

b. Campaign Region

Now you know what happens at large, which can inform your factions, your random encounter, and so on. Now you need a "campaign" per se. Answer the following questions:

• Terrain type predominance: forest, mountain, plains, etc. You can roll one at random if you want to. This will be important for the general dynamic of the region. 
• Regional hook/uniqueness: you need one word (or at max a sentence) that describes in your head what you want to be the "moving piece" for your players. For example, B2 Keep on the Borderland is about "a keep in a wilderness replete with monsters and a set of caverns of chaos with factions in it"
• Plot twist: find an oddity or special thing about your hook. For B2, it would be: "there's a traitor priest inside the keep"

So for my campaign, it's this: "Diablo 1". I don't need more, that's legit what I wanted to run since my wife never played the game. I'll flesh it out for the sake of the exercise: "The region was newly conquered by a lord of which his high priest fell into darkness after reading dark books deep within a monastery. He tried to bring back an ancient demon lord by using the king, which turn this man to madness. He stole the king's child to perform the ceremony. The kind went mad and attacked his people and was killed by his knights. The evil priest went deep into the monastery (megadungeon) where now he resides and send forth minions to the surface while resurecting the ancient demon lord. This has an impact on the whole region (less security which brings orcs and brigands) and the previous occupants of the region (giants) now try to reconquer their lost land."

I could probably have done it in less lines. 

2. REGION MAP

• Needed: Concept and terrain predominance
• What you get: Empty map of your region
• Product: A hex map
• What:

Here you can either generate a random map from the net or make your own. It is suggested to go small for now (5x5 or 10x10). I decided to make my own 10x12 (for the sake of it). Here is the result (forget all the keys and numbers for now). It should be based on your terrain predominance. 

If you already have some global ideas on your campaign, you can put them there. For example, I put Tristram (town on the right side) with the monastery at the base of a mountain (just north of Tristram). I also decided to put Leoric's tomb elsewhere to engage in the wilderness, so the castle center north is both his tomb and castle, a dungeon. 

3. FACTIONS

• Needed: Concept and map
• What you get: Some factions to populate your map
• Product: A concept for each faction
• What:

You can either invent factions from the get go, or get stuff from your concept (or both). To invent factions, you can just roll up some random monsters from the terrain type and make it into an actualy faction. In my case, I decided on the following:

• Tristram
• Evil Priest Lazarus/Diablo (doesn't really count, he's the BBEG and we all know what he wants)
• Orcs
• Giants
• Bandits
• Amazons*
• Barbarians*
• Paladins*

*For a little Diablo 2 vibe. 

You can create deep faction interaction, or go with a simpler method. For a short campaign, I suggest this perfectly fine and short method that I used also.

[FACTION] want(s) [MOTIVATION], but [OBSTACLE]. Therefore, [PLAN OR METHOD OF SURMOUNTING OBSTACLE].

For mine, I stayed pretty low in details and I'll change the rest as per the (only) player action:

• Tristram want TO BE AT PEACE, but THE MONASTERY IS EVIL. Therefore, THEY ATTRACT ADVENTURERS TO DEAL WITH IT. 
• 300 pop in town
• 300 pop in farms
• 25 guards
• Orcs want MONEY, but THEY HAVE TO FIGHT FOR LAND AND MONEY. Therefore, THEY PERFORM RAID ON HUMANS (BANDITS/PEASANTS) TO SELL THEM UP NORTH. 
• 300 (100 at camp, 50 going north to sell)
• Giants want to REGAIN THEIR KINGDOM, but HUMANOIDS CONTROL THE TERRITORY. Therefore, they MAKE ALLIANCE WITH MONSTERS (Minotaur, Centaur, etc.) TO PUSH BACK HUMANOIDS. 
• 16 (8 at camp)
• Amazons want to PROTECT THEIR LAND, but CREATURES ARE INVADING. Therefore, they MAKE ALLIANCE WITH VILLAGES AND HUMANOIDS. 
• 100 (50 at camp)
• Barbarians want to LIVE IN PEACE, but EVERYTHING SUCKS. Therefore, THEY TRY TO STAY LOW AND PROTECT THEIR LAND. 
• 200 pop/fighters
• 100 farmers
• Wandering Paladins want HOLYNESS, but EVERYTHING IS EVIL. Therefore, THEY PATROL THE LAND AND HACK EVIL. 
• 50
• Bandits want MONEY, but THEY HAVE TO FIGHT FOR LAND AND MONEY. Therefore, THEY RAID ALL OTHER FACTIONS TO CUT THEIR SUPPLY AND FORCE THEM OUT. 
• 150 (50 at camp)

This help you:

• Build rumours
• Build random encounter
• Determine reaction to PCs (for example, in Tristram, they will be VERY nice to the PC because they are afraid of the monastery and they don't want to sacrifice their own people (they already did))
• Hooks
• And so on

4. MAIN TOWN

• Needed: Concept, a map, factions
• What you get: Detailed town
• Product: A map, rumours, some tables 
• What:

Take up a map generator for the town. When it is to your liking, put some keys in it for major stuff and roll random NPCs from online generators. In my case I already had the NPCs from the game. This is the result:

Afterwards, write (in bullet point) the following for each NPCs:

• Name (class/career)
• One line description (including inclination to strangers and PCs)
• Personal goal
• Rumour table (1d6)

Rumours can be based on multitude of factor:

• Sub hook/quests
• Main campaign hook
• Factions
• Random encounters
• Keys in the world
• Anoter NPC

If you have no idea, you can literally put down one of each and it will give you 6 rumours. You could also put "triggers" for some rumours, where they will only speak about IF the PC did something first. Like Griswold don't trust strangers, so he won't give information about the Magic Stone prior to him going at least once in the Monastery to kill some monsters. 

I also personally created a table for hirelings possibility and so on. Hirelings are critical in this campaign since it's solo play, so it's up to you.

EDIT: I found this link elsewhere to an awesome resource to generate a town in a few steps. 

5. MAIN DUNGEON

• Needed: Concept, a map, factions, a starting town
• What you get: Three dungeon level
• Product: Dungeon map with keys
• What:

Open up donjon, AD&D, take your concept for your options, fire it iup three times (level 1, level 2, level 3). Download in HTML, open with notepad (or notepad++) to make minor modifications to include your hooks. Boom, finished. Next. 

6. MAKE LINKS BETWEEN MEGADUNGEON AND OUTSIDE WORLD

• Needed: Concept, a map, factions, a starting town, a megadungeon start
• What you get: New keys ideas
• Product: Couple of lines
• What:

This part is more "creative" and will depend on each. Write it down in one line for each. But here are a couple of things:

• Create some ruins in your campaign map that inform your megadungeon history and stuff
• Create some wandering NPC that can help in the megadungeon
• Have some locked door or stairs in the megadungeon that can only be opened with special keys found in other ruins/villages
• And so on

7. UPDATE MAP WITH NEW KEYS

• Needed: Concept, a map, factions, a starting town, a megadungeon start, couple of lines of ideas
• What you get: New keys
• Product: Updated map
• What:

Just put your keys ideas on your map. Use hex content generator to create the "padding" of it. 

8. FINALIZE MAP KEYS

• Needed: Concept, a map, factions, a starting town, a megadungeon start
• What you get: New keys
• Product: Updated map
• What:

If you have less than 25% of your map filed with stuff, now's the time to put random hex stuff: landmarks, mountains, new roads, new village, ruins, etc. Just go nuts to create a little more attraction. Now's a good time to put down where your factions have their camp, and how it's defended. You could use this tool to create it from the start if you so wished.

To finish: 

• Create random encounter table (one for each terrain type, with some unique encounter here and there)
• Give NPC leaders to each faction
• Anything else you can think of !

9. DONE

Well now you are done. The rest will be up to the players action, and you prepare accordingly. They go deeper in the dungeon ? Build more levels. They interact with a particular faction more ? Flesh it out, create subfactions, create lieutenants NPCs, etc. 

I hope this help some people starting their own campaign !