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This is how I organize things.

First I have the players make the characters. There have been two types of games I ran.

First is the free form where the players can make up any type of character they want. Then I work with them to fit their concept into the Wilderlands.

The Second is the themed campaign. I say to players ok lets everyone play City Guards, or Mages, or Elves, etc, etc. This requires prep work on the background so you have sheets to hand to the player outlining the options they have for character creation within the them.

Note: Don't be resistant to players that first come off with an odd choice. For example We agreed to run a thieves game where everyone is a member of the thieves guild. One player wanted to play a mage, just wouldn't play anything else. So I came up with the idea of hedge mages called foggers that are outlaw from regular mage society. Foggers provided mostly anti-divination support but also learn spells that provide firepower and concealment.

One advantage of running themed campaigns every so often is that they greatly flesh out an aspect of a campaign.


Second you now have the characters and with their background you should get a feel for what direction adventuring wise they will be going. To prepare for my adventures I divide my work into a couple of areas:

Plot
Events
NPCs
Settings
Campaign


Plot

This is the story behind the game you are about to run. You want to set it up like a travelog of highlights. A beginning, a dozen or so plot points, and the climax that ties it all together. Of course you have can middle climaxs that break the overall plot into distinct segment. One thing about a loose set of plot points is that you can reorder things when the players make interesting choices.

Note: One style I have used is Beginning, Clues to the Problem, Problem unvieled, Rising Action as the problem is dealt with, The big climax where the problem is laid to rest. The best version I seen of this is Babylon 5.



Events

Events are specific moments in time that effect the characters, setting, and npcs. Some may be used to reveal a plot point but their main point is to make your game seem more real. Because in real life things happen regardless of your actions. A ruler dies, a locust swarm hits a village, crops yields are up, you have a lot of choices.

Events are also fun when you are running concurrent games for two different groups. In college I still DMed for my friend back home. One of them graduated high school after me and decided to attend my college. It was fun to see him and the other relate their reaction to the events I had in my game.

NPCs

Start with the ones important to your plot. Detail their personalities and moviations. I also keep what i called a stable in a folder. The stable is similar to the NPC list in the back of 3.0 DM Guide. A series of character with stats that represent common archetypes in my world. Peddlers, guards, clerics, etc, etc. When I need stat for a some guy that the player just met I pull the sheet and make up a name and start role-playing.

Settings

These are closest to a traditional module I have in my game. Basically I map out a locale, decribe the locations, decide what items are to be placed, decide what monsters and what npcs from my folder are there.

Reuse

Settings and NPCS I continually reuse. I note whatever changes that occured because of the players and keep it on file for use in another game. It really makes a players day when he goes to a area that was visited in another campaign, see you pull the folder and when you describe thing it was obvious that the prior character had an impact.

One example was in a free form game back in 97 one of the players was a elven sociopath fire mage. After one too many time burning down a village his elven clan captured him and changed him to a donkey. he was sentanced to bear loads for the next 100 years at the gates of the Elven City.

Then in 2003 in a completely different game the players had to go the Elven City and there was the old character as donkey toiling in front of the gate. Everyone including the old player got a kick out of that.

Also keeping stuff around will help when players veer off in unexpected directions.

Campaign

This is the setting. One thing I do is define "What everyone knows" I don't start them in a blank hex. I have a player's map of the Wilderland (see home.earthlink.net/~wilde...rland.jpg) Note I don't have a little dots for the city. This represents the fact while players know where Viridstan generally is they don't exactly where as they never been to it.

I also give them a blank map that they can scribble on. (Like this for CSIO home.earthlink.net/~wilde...p_Key.jpg)

Maps like this home.earthlink.net/~wilde...lcsmap.jpg are used solely by myself.


Play
To me the key to play a wilderland style game is keep everything in the first person. You have the details let the player describe what they are going to do. You are going to be running into two broad types of players.

One will be likely be a vetren of your game and about immediately will start pushing his character's goal. You will have to craft your plot to hook into his goals so that you can push him into the story you prepared. This is why you want to be flexible about how you reach the end of the story.

The other will new or a passive player. Here you will need some kind of hook like a npc hiring them or event propelling to get them going. What you want to do is encourage (not be pushy) them to develop and pursue goals for their character.


Now if this a long running game what about previous knowledge. This is fine within limits. Face it if you were born in CSIO you would know a lot more than what most GMs have time to make up. But the player needs to be mature enough not to try to use knowlege that his current character wouldn't have. Also as a DM don't try to base plot that uses a lot of secret knowlege from the previous campaign if they are unrelated. For example the thieves game I ran came right after the mage game. I made sure that thieves campaign didn't really get into the mage politics or stuff. Also when mages were involved for some reason I made sure they were people that weren't really involved in the previous game.

Another trick is just set the next game in a different locale. Ok we were in City State last time now we are in Viridstan. This way by the time they get to the previous locale they will be so involved with their current character goals they don't want to mess with the previous stuff.

Note: Actually what happened the players feared the mages as they knew that I would use all the tricks they developed when they were mages against their thieves.

Hope this helps

Rob Conley