Focusing a Campaign Through Themes and Truths

We’ve selected the RPG and type of campaign we want to run, and now we want to plan the campaign itself. But before we jump in, lets focus our campaign! (And if you haven’t voted yet for the ENnies, this blog is nominated for Best Online Content! Voting closes at midnight Eastern on Sunday, July 21st: vote now! Thanks!)

The Benefits of Focus

A campaign can be a lot of fun when it is a kitchen sink, don’t get me wrong. I did this all through high school and college, throwing whatever came to mind into the campaign. Temple of Elemental Evil one month, Tomb of Horrors the next, followed by my “kill every kind of dragon” homebrew. But I also found those campaigns lost themselves. It wasn’t clear what the heroes were doing, why they did them (beyond leveling and finding treasure) or what my story was across the experiences.

Movies, TV, and novels do this sometimes. A TV series tries to be intrigue and action and drama and comedy… and they lose focus. The end result is a certain part of that experience really resonated, but lost us through other story arcs that took away from the focus. The same can be true for our campaigns.

Focusing Through Themes

We started this series on campaigns with ideas that interest us for our next campaign. And last time we discussed what our players will be drawn to, including themes. Themes are a perfect way to focus the experience of our campaign. 

Themes can represent types of fantasy stories: urban, intrigue, swashbuckling, gladiatorial, merchants, secrets, mystery, espionage, horror, factions, mass warfare, treasure hunting, romance, destiny and prophecy, wuxia, and so on. Themes can also be more traditional fiction themes, such as rags to riches, wrong place at the wrong time, underdogs, fate vs free will, nations at war, ideals vs corruption, or who are we really? We might also loosen the definition of themes further and consider gameplay options such as: sandbox, plot-driven, exploration, improvisation, miniatures and terrain.

For a homebrew or heavily modified campaign, we can tell ourselves out loud (I do this a lot, don’t mind me) the concepts of our campaign. “It’s a group of islands set off a continent’s coast. There are pirates, one island is filled with undead, one has a lost civilization, and a volcano could erupt.” Okay, so the themes are piracy, swashbuckling, exploration and lost treasures, and maybe undeath and fire as minor themes.

Or maybe we are running a published adventure. We can think about the highest-level themes. Running D&D 5E’s The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, the themes I think of are fables and fairy tales, fey, whimsy, trickery, bargains and deals, magical world.

As we think through our campaign’s stories and experiences, or work through plot arcs, we can make sure they keep that theme focus. It doesn’t have to be an absolute adherence, but we keep those themes in mind. For example, if we add a homebrew horror side-arc to our Witchlight campaign, making it fey horror – playing off of fairy tales and trickery – will likely connect to our core themes better than a horror experience that feels like it came from Alien. 

For the example of our pirate islands campaign, think about how well the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise does at sticking to themes. Whether we are fighting by a mill, exploring a lost ruin, dealing with magic and undead, visiting Asian lands, or even traveling to the edge of the world, the themes of swashbuckling, humor, and ne’er-do-well pirates are always there. We can do the same. Sure, there are undead… undead pirates connected to our main story of the broken pirate alliance. Yes, there is a volcano, and it creates the perfect dangerous and exciting scenery for swashbuckling battles! They can even be connected. The long-undead pirate king dared to capture a fire primordial and was forced to bury it when they lost control… and it is about to escape its prison deep within the mountain.

We don’t have to be the TV show that loses its path. We can tie our experiences to our themes so it all makes sense to our players and delivers on their broader expectations.

Themes as Truths

4^th edition D&D hit upon a great idea when it began to list the key aspects (or truths) of a setting. We can find this in the Eberron, Dark Sun, Neverwinter, and other campaign settings. A set of 5-10 hallmarks helps to guide play. This is similar to campaign aspects in Fate, but finer in detail and more numerous. Here are examples:

Eberron Player’s Guide:

1. If it exists in D&D, it has a place in Eberron. (This is a diverse setting, and anything can find a place here)
2. Tone and Attitude: Cinematic and swashbuckling, with a strong dose of mystery and scheming.
3. A World of Magic: magic has technologically changed the world.
4. A World of Adventure: action and adventure abound, with exotic locations and quests around every corner.
5. The Last War has ended, sort of: The remains of war is felt everywhere and peace is tenuous.
6. The Draconic Prophecy: This complex prophecy hints towards danger and transformation.
7. The Five Nations: Cyre was destroyed but four remain, evoking a time of legends and focus for factions and change.
8. A World of Intrigue: As nations rebuild from war, nations compete overtly and secretly.
9. Dragonmark Dynasties: These great families wield great influence, deriving power from magical hereditary arcane sigils manifesting in some members of the family. They are tied to the Draconic Prophecy.
10. Dragonshards: The world has three parts tied to three dragons, and each section produces crystals imbued with arcane power, furthering what dragonmarks and other magic can do. Rare and sought after.

Neverwinter Campaign Setting:

1. Low Level Play.
2. Character Themes: use the provided themes to tie characters to the setting, because factions and backstory matter.
3. Characters Make a Difference.
4. Frontier Feel: Neverwinter is recovering from cataclysm, with areas of the city still perilous.
5. Intrigue Abounds: as organizations within and without have schemes.
6. Myriad Possibilities: the plots develop with characters and organizations.
7. The Story Goes On: The world is in flux and events are about to play out, whether characters get involved or not – but if they do, it gets more interesting.
8. Adventure is Everywhere: wherever they decide to go, there is something happening that matters.
9. Neverwinter and Beyond: They won’t just stay in the city, as the city’s surroundings impact the city’s future.

We can write down our themes and use them to create our list of truths. This can be shared with our players, helping them to create appropriate characters with appropriate goals. Here are five truths we might select for our Pirate Isles campaign:

1. The world is small, but travel is dangerous: The islands are relatively small, but overland travel is perilous, involving dangerous lands and creatures. The sea is rough and the shores unforgiving, and pirates and sea creatures abound.
2. A Pirate’s Life: You need not be pirates, but most people in the area are involved in piracy. Some are nefarious, some claim to steal only from the rich, and trusting any of them is dangerous. There was once an alliance and a code, but something caused it to end.
3. An Exciting World: Cinematic and swashbuckling, with supernatural and elemental themes. Fortune favors the brave and bold.
4. Lost Treasures and Secrets: There is history in these islands, and many seek to find lost lore and treasure. The oldest places hide secrets, danger, and more.
5. Three islands: One holds the dead pirate king and his undead crew, another an empire lost to jungle, and the third a volcano belching smoke and increasingly fire.
6. The Mainland Threatens: The Merchants of Kar have sent expeditions. The pirates have held them at bay, for now. There is little trade here, and yet the Merchants come.

The list above deliberately tips our hat as to the kinds of play we will create. Players will smartly recognize this and create characters aligned with their expectations. They expect undead, they might expect to negotiate pirates and even to be able to bring back the pirate code and an alliance. They suspect the Merchants of Kar are up to no good. This is all great, because it means the players are buying into the campaign and becoming invested! We can deliver on these expectations and still have a few surprises.

Writing up our truths for players is helpful, because we can think through how this sounds to them and adjust the underlying themes. If a theme isn’t here, we either should cut it from our list or reinforce it more clearly. We don’t need every possible truth or theme to be here, just the most relevant and resonant.

Next time: player and character goals!