Campaign Tips

I’m a big proponent of the “Living World” method of campaign handling. I list all the major factions the PCs should have heard of(and significant NPC groups that player will have major interaction with), and flesh them out just enough detail (I’m also a proponent of “Just-in-time GMing” aka “Don’t do more campaign prep than you expect to need, plus a safety margin”) to be able to assign each one major “Fundamental objective” and three “project” goals. I deliberately set this up so groups and factions have conflicting goals (this makes the generation of rumours and NPCs even easier). Then the PCs start campaigning. They hear about conflicts between groups and factions: their actions, reactions, progress and failure. They hear about (or even get caught up in) events that are local, regional and/or national. This goes on even if they don’t choose to intervene. BUT (and this is the point) some of their actions *will* interfere with factions goals and change their plans (you need to note the change down : what, sho decided, date, what this makes them feel about the PCs…), thus the PCs hear “echos” of the consequences of their actions, which can inspire them to further action. These interactions show the players that they are influencing the world, which they appreciate greatly, and provide the GM with a easy supply of:
– campaign news/rumours and evolutions;
– scenario springboards;
– Ideas for scenarios;
– NPC conversational gambits;
– new rivalries and alliances;
… and so much more that the PCs can interact with!

I repeat : take notes of the changes of faction/group plans, and activities!

N.B. Some factions are never prepared more than a few paragraphs of flavor text, ressource parameters and names of significant members. That’s all it takes to kick this off. Except a coherent vision of your campaign world and a list of the factions in it, of course, but thats something for another day

Also to be found on
http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/pc-choices-and-consequences/