So, you’re looking to set the right tone, the one that will begin your epic, world-shaking, heartbreaking, history-making, legendary campaign? To introduce the people seated around your dining room table to the fantastical world that they are about to enter? To begin, as our own Universe did, with a Big Bang?
In our most recent episode on bringing RPG campaigns to life we delved into the tips and tricks we use to bring our campaigns to life – setting, descriptions, mechanics, etc. – in our inimitable 3WD style … We talked A LOT!
We provided some excellent tips and tricks that we’ve learned over the many years we’ve spent running games. However, I thought it would be very helpful to revisit some of the nuts and bolts to my evolving method of RPG Session Prep.
To do this, I’m going to show how my descriptions and scene setting changed over time and to provide some options for your own Session Prep, depending on your style, using Session Prep notes from some of my actual games: Rise of the Dragon King (my first Pathfinder campaign), the Slaver’s Bay campaign and our current Curse of Strahd campaign.
Start Strong
In the episode, I referenced DM Tony’s concept of “Lore Tolerance” when setting scenes and descriptions. You can think of it as “Monologue Tolerance.” Similarly, as your players are not necessarily as invested in the lore of your world, the same can be said for your scene setting, descriptions and monologues.
In the same way that you should allow your players to guide you in what lore is important to them and their companions, allow them to tell you what they want to know about the scene, environment and setting.
However, just as a fire doesn’t erupt out of thin air (even Fireball has to be cast with material components and a surge of will, right?) your players will need some fuel for their imaginations to take over. In this way, I advise you to put all of your biggest monologues, scene settings, lore, etc. right up front in the first game. The excitement is going to be at its highest point because everything is new. “Monologue Tolerance” is at its highest.
But how to approach that? Here are the beginning “monologues” for the three campaigns straight from my notebooks.
1. The Epic Railroad: Rise of the Dragon King
You have recently arrived in Sandpoint, a quaint, seaside settlement known as “The Light of the Lost Coast,” on the outskirts of Varisia. Having weathered several disasters over the last five decades, what the locals have taken to calling “The Late Unpleasantness,” Sandpoint has built itself up to be one of the more prosperous and growing towns within the larger region of Magnimar; with merchants, traders, craftsmen and shopkeepers creating a bustling economy. For some reason, the disasters that visit Sandpoint always seem to revolve around violence and mayhem, whether it be the murdering spree of the serial killer known only as “Chopper,” or the goblin raids and giant attacks – no one is quite sure why. But through the vaunted efforts of the Town Cleric, Father Abstalar Zantus, and the resident Mage, Ilsorai Gandethus, these attacks have ceased … until now. There is talk amongst the townsfolk of increasing goblin raids – raids that have created a palpable tension in the air that even the brilliance and heat of the midday sun cannot burn away. While the denizens of Sandpoint are busily going about their daily activities, the strain and fear can be felt as you walk along Main Street.
This is how I began our campaign within the Pathfinder world of Golarion – my first foray into my current gaming career. Reads well as a novelization of the campaign. Hits several descriptors to give the players a sense of being in a smaller coastal town. Introduces a home base as well as possible important NPC’s or patrons. Even provides some side quest fodder.
However, it also reads like a novelization. It doesn’t allow for as much eye contact and engagement with the players. It tries to fit in, possibly, too much history. Of course, depending on your group, they might want all of this and more.
But let’s see what this could look like in a more streamlined and adaptable format.
2. The Train to Freedom: Slaver’s Bay
Monologue Notes:
- The morning sun hurts your eyes
- The competition yesterday
- Your head always hurts after the Games. The sun makes it worse
- Your hand reaches to your neck
- Leather band
- Remember being sold to the Prefect, Quintus Caius Ebernus
- Remember leather strap fastened, locked, then the lock disappeared
- Morning routine, basic breakfast – Champion section is extravagant “Winning Brings Reward”
- Training area: Kord – one eye, hair in a top-knot, armored cuirass, leather fustanella, whip, massive staff
These were my beginning notes for my Slaver’s Bay campaign that we reference on the podcast. I wanted to set the tone of the players being in captivity, being owned as gladiators. An important point we made is that this incredibly heavy-handed and blunt mechanic of the slave collars only worked because of the buy-in of the players. I had pitched several campaigns and the majority wanted to play in Slaver’s Bay … so I locked them up!
I adjusted my approach by making bullet points that I could quickly reference as I described the opening scene. In this way, I could interact with the players more and see their responses – embellishing or cutting pieces as necessary in real-time. It still worked as a beginning monologue to set tone and provide a foundation, but became much more interactive and much more adaptable to the energy of the group.
This method accomplished what I needed: introduce the overall tone of the campaign (gladiators in the pits), the environment (the Keep, or training hall within a decidedly Roman-inspired setting) and two important NPC’s: Quintus Caius Ebernus, the Prefect, and Kord, the Weapons Master.
3. The Open World in a Dome: Curse of Strahd
With Curse of Strahd, I needed to bridge two completely different settings between two different session, as the players were to be led into Barovia through the Death House. Shout out here to YouTuber Lunch Break Heroes for his updates on the Death House (newly christened Durst Manor.) I continued with the bullet-point method to allow for embellishment or removal, depending on player engagement.
- The Crest & Crown – two-story inn in Fallcrest
- Bouncer: Lorax, large, silver dragonborn
- Amber-colored stained glass windows
- Cobblestone floor, open to ceiling, balcony
- Open floor plan, Althus the Bard playing on far stage
- Bar near stairs to second floor – Duli, owner/bartender, older dwarven woman
- Fireplace and torches, warm atmosphere
- Two dozen patrons scattered throughout
- Long wooden tables in center of floor – waited on by Trepp (halfling male) and Elkas (human male)
- Smaller tables along walls
- Arrigal, Errol Flynn-style extravagant Vistani, provides Burgomaster’s letter
This was where the players all met, having received a summons for work from one of the players (Little One, the gnome artificer). In my world, the town of Fallcrest within the lands of Fastormel is a “typical” fantasy-style region. With that, I wanted to create a sense of warmth and familiarity for the players prior to them entering the dread demiplane of Barovia later on. MU. HA. HA.
This occurred as they arrived at Durst Manor by, unknowingly, traveling through the Mists that had settled into an alleyway in Fallcrest. Durst Manor serves as a portal between the realms in my iteration of Curse of Strahd, as opposed to just being one residence in the Village of Barovia.
When the players escaped Durst Manor, after it attempted to kill them, I then reset the tone of the campaign into one of gothic horror. This was made a little easier as the players became a little gun-shy and skittish after their experiences in the Death House.
Monologue Notes:
- The Mist envelops the remains of Durst Manor
- Gravel road that stretches out into the wilderness
- The full moon lurking behind clouds
- Black pools of water in and around roadway
- Giant trees loom on either side
- Skeletal branches claw at the sky
- Howls of wolves pierce the silence
Again, the bullet points with key scenes and descriptors helps me to better interact and improv with the group, depending on how they are reacting in the moment.
Final Thoughts
Scene setting, descriptions and monologues are one of the most important skills of DMing. They create the fuel that the players will turn into a raging fire of creativity. The skeleton that they will build the Frankenstein’s monster of a memorable campaign upon.
There are no right or wrong ways to do this, only ways that work better for you as a DM and the players at your table. But for the storyteller minstrel DMs out there (like myself and DM Tony), it can help to have some of the key descriptors and scenes laid out beforehand, but not set in stone. Think of them as “Schrodinger’s Settings” The specific scenes and descriptors don’t exist until the players open the box.
Keep listening to other DMs, keep watching how others run their games. Keep experimenting. Keep growing.
Until next time, heroes … LIVE THE ADVENTURE!