The Caffee Rules

The last post focused on the rules for designing a campaign world or setting. This post is going to look at designing a campaign itself. A roleplaying campaign can be a tricky this to build from scratch, but these rules can help you not be terrible. Will you still get stuck? Yes. Will you paint yourself into a corner? Probably. Will you get frustrated and kick the players out of your house? It happens. However, your campaign will suck slightly less if you follow the rules. 1.  Know what you want. Are you designing a single epic quest? A series of unrelated dungeons? A game of political intrigue? Whatever you are doing, be clear about it before you start. You want to make a campaign where the adventurers find and explore various lost temples just for the lulz? That's way different than planning out an evolving story line with a main villain to beat at the end or a Game of Thrones style political drama. 2. Talk to the players. Better yet, listen to your players. If they are r...

This first post is something I have been working on to help those who wish to not suck at writing. No amount of helpful advice is going to make you into a great writer, but not being laughably terrible is a good start. I should not have to learn a fictional language to understand what the hell is going on in the novel / story / comic book / campaign setting. Per above, no more than one made-up word in the title. No calling your book The Glarzax of Noku Land. It just doesn’t cut it. I should not have to take an advanced history course at Geek University in order to know what the hell is going on in your made up little world. Who cares what happened 1,000 years before the story begins? Does it have a direct bearing on what the characters are doing right now? How could it? How often do you really think about what happened in the year 1015? You think the Spanish caliphate has anything to do with your daily life? Per above, you should be able to sum up the plot in a few ...