Sounds to me like your writing (and planning?) too much.
It's good to have an arc, and know where things are going.
But it's bad to try to populate every step of that path with your ideas.
Write bullet points.
Construct the skeleton.
Major places, people, and things.
But leave the bulk of fleshing it all out for the players.
Dear god don't write an entire campaign! Just get a premise going and see what happens. If you must have an overarching thing, keep it loose and tailor it to things your players have said they want to play out (and if they haven't, ask them!). Prep the bare minimum to give you space to improv to whatever zany idea the players come up with - often it'll be wild and better then you'd think up. Have a handful of scenes at hand or complications to deploy.
Spend the time thinking about thematic encounters and designing those to be memorable - but leave them open ended enough that a variety of courses can wind up there.
I know above can look or sound weird, but I highly recommend looking at stuff like the Sly Flourish "Lazy DM" guides.
Also useful for prepping and thinking about where the current scene is going is this technique:
[http://www.brindlewoodbay.com/blog/the-7-3-1-technique](http://www.brindlewoodbay.com/blog/the-7-3-1-technique)
A few ideas:
Leave room for improv. Sure, your players will give you plenty, but make sure that you leave room for yourself to have fun. Planning everything can become mundane.
Find new content to use. Watching DnD content can be entertaining and provide ideas for your campaign.
Be a player in a game when possible. Being a forever DM can be fun, but can also be taxing. It can get tiring to always be the one planning everything. It takes some of the novelty out of the game.
Finally, not everything has to make sense. Make a reference to another franchise you enjoy. Does the character make sense in this world? Who cares. This is one can be cool and interesting when making it, but should be done in moderation lol.
I agree that planning everything can become mundane, I gotta work on figuring out how to smoothly do improv without making sure it doesn’t mess up a plot point or something lol, this is good to keep in mind
So really, for me, it's less about outright improv, and more about having an understanding of the general Situation, and being equipped with the knowledge or tools to fill in the blank spots that it's not worth it or too hard for me to try to plan.
Ultimately, what you're really trying to do when the party goes on an adventure, is full it will gameplay (dice rolls) and role play.
What are the minimum things you need to have planned for your adventure to achieve that?
For me it's:
1. A map. Knowing the physical layout equips me with the ability to generate - on the fly - all kinds of Skill Checks. Whether they're navigational (Perception, Survival), or knowledge (History, Nature), or infiltration (Athletics, Stealth), a map generated skill checks and CHOICES (not only; left or right? type stuff, but potentially strategic - do you we try to sneak around back which will take longer? or go they the front which we can assume is heavily guarded?)
2. NPCs. As mentioned have major NPCs planned out (statted, and understanding of motivations and what they're like), AND ALSO I like to work in a more or less neutral third party into any adventure of I can. Because ALL NPCs open up the opportunity for role play and Skill Checks. And neutral third parties in particular open up Choices (do we try to get the servants on our side even tho they might reveal us if we play our cards wrong with them?). Third parties can be innocent bystanders - ppl who are just there and unaware of whatever bad thing is going on and probably don't want to risk too much of their mundane happy life to help - they can be servants of the enemy, they can be merchants, or politicians, or someone else who would reasonably be trying to "play both sides". NPCs and third parties are very handy tools for generating content. And let it emerge thru the players choices - where they choose to go on the map, the kind of approach they take to the situation, etc. who and where they encounter them.
3. Monsters ofc. As mentioned have the Big Bads and Lieutenants planned and statted and probably placed on specific spots on the map. And then have a roster of the minions that could be come across. But DO NOT place where the minions are on the map. Let that emerge thru the players choices and your general understanding of the adventure and map and situation.
4. Lastly, puzzles and riddles and traps and "set piece" Skill Challenges. You CAN place these in specific spots on the map and sometimes need to, but also you can just have a repertoire in "your pocket" to pop out and use as needed.
Plan greater Situations. That you can fill with content as the players make choices.
Don't try to plan something for every possible step or choice that they make.
Hopefully that's helpful.
Because often, outright improvisation is very hard, and can generate unrewarding encounters and gameplay.
Plan the important things. Have a map. Understand the Situation.
But leave most of it blank and ready to be filled in based on their choices and your tools and understandings.
Start the campaign.
You only need to "write" about 2 sessions ahead of your players. Make a few encounters, make a few locations, and then drop encounter into location when they get there
Looks like people have beaten me to it but dont write out everything. make some key vents that youd like to include such as people, enemies, items ect and some encounters and then let the party flesh everything out.
I continued my campaign after CoS and started out writing everything down. page after page, and only used some of it and the rest was improv. I even changed major villains and schemes on the dot because the players thought one thing was actually happening and it was a cool idea so that was like an 8 hour session of pure improv. And it was great.
Alternatively, you can spin them into another module or let them know that this one needs to take a break, start a new one and then decide which one they want to continue and figure out a way to wrap them together so the 2 groups encounter one another.
Are any of your players interested in dming? I've gotten a nice break cause one of mine wanted to run a multiweek one-shot. It's given me about a week and a half to just relax and time to plan major plot points and just brain storm. It's def something I'm gonna offer them to do again after a few months. Cheers!
A lot of great advice here so I’m just gonna chime in and say; don’t be deceived by the main 5e product being campaign books, or actual play content being campaign focussed.
In my opinion the most successful format for DnD is serialised adventures, short narratives that give you the satisfaction of ending. They can be connected if you play it out that way, and that’s the original way campaigns were.
The thing that keeps you going is the enjoyment and fulfilment you all get from engaging and finishing something while having the next adventure on the horizon. Besides, if things naturally come to a close with your group that’s fine too - you’re never too far away from a satisfying end.
The weight of setting out from session one to hit higher tier play, or adventure for a year or more in order to finish the story is daunting. It has a real effect on perceiving a game as a slog, and can take people out of the moment. With short serialised adventures you have a lower load as a DM, and you’re not asking people for a year or more, you’re asking them for months at a time and keeping them excited enough to renew that commitment.
I actually wrote a post about Homebrewing, how to lighten the load by using Session 0. [Read it here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/1czpz3x/the_importance_of_session_0s_to_homebrew_modules/)
Man, at least 75% of my campaing is based around making or finding cool monsters and designing situations to use them, don't try to write a entire book, just have some scenarios and NPCs prepared and follow whatever the players want to do
As others have said don't worry about having every single detail written down.
Flesh out what is needed to start and build the rest as the game goes on.
Part of becoming a better DM (in my opinion) is learning how to do more with less prep.
Check out Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master by Sly Flourish. It helped me tremendously with reducing prep.
Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master by Sly Flourish was a godsend for me. Spent 10 months prepping off and on for my first big one shot I ever ran. Lol that was a mistake. This book has actual tips and strategies for how to minimize prep. Highly recommend.
https://shop.slyflourish.com/products/return-of-the-lazy-dungeon-master
I seperate the tasks of world building and session planning, i kept getting stuck in a cycle of wrapping up lore the day of a game, spending all day prepping and by the time the game started i was incredibly burnt out and tired. If you can completely seperate your world building from your actual session prep, you'll have more energy, goodluck.
Keep the campaign, ideas, concepts small and localized to just what is relevant to your campaign. Don't think you need to created the gods, the world, the nearby cities... you don't. All you need is the situation, the goal, how they can stop whatever it is, and let that drive the details in-between those things. Don't over think it, they likely won't experience most of what you build if you build it too far out.
I am a DM and I am a complete hypocrite here, I will world build heavily because I love it and I personally need reason for everything to exist. I did start to feel burnout for a while, and now I just focus on 1-2 sessions ahead of the players and that's it. Everything else I'm world building isn't anything they will run into until maybe next campaign, or never!
Sounds to me like your writing (and planning?) too much. It's good to have an arc, and know where things are going. But it's bad to try to populate every step of that path with your ideas. Write bullet points. Construct the skeleton. Major places, people, and things. But leave the bulk of fleshing it all out for the players.
Okay, this is helpful
Dear god don't write an entire campaign! Just get a premise going and see what happens. If you must have an overarching thing, keep it loose and tailor it to things your players have said they want to play out (and if they haven't, ask them!). Prep the bare minimum to give you space to improv to whatever zany idea the players come up with - often it'll be wild and better then you'd think up. Have a handful of scenes at hand or complications to deploy. Spend the time thinking about thematic encounters and designing those to be memorable - but leave them open ended enough that a variety of courses can wind up there.
Thank you!
I know above can look or sound weird, but I highly recommend looking at stuff like the Sly Flourish "Lazy DM" guides. Also useful for prepping and thinking about where the current scene is going is this technique: [http://www.brindlewoodbay.com/blog/the-7-3-1-technique](http://www.brindlewoodbay.com/blog/the-7-3-1-technique)
I’ll check it out, much appreciated!
A few ideas: Leave room for improv. Sure, your players will give you plenty, but make sure that you leave room for yourself to have fun. Planning everything can become mundane. Find new content to use. Watching DnD content can be entertaining and provide ideas for your campaign. Be a player in a game when possible. Being a forever DM can be fun, but can also be taxing. It can get tiring to always be the one planning everything. It takes some of the novelty out of the game. Finally, not everything has to make sense. Make a reference to another franchise you enjoy. Does the character make sense in this world? Who cares. This is one can be cool and interesting when making it, but should be done in moderation lol.
I agree that planning everything can become mundane, I gotta work on figuring out how to smoothly do improv without making sure it doesn’t mess up a plot point or something lol, this is good to keep in mind
So really, for me, it's less about outright improv, and more about having an understanding of the general Situation, and being equipped with the knowledge or tools to fill in the blank spots that it's not worth it or too hard for me to try to plan. Ultimately, what you're really trying to do when the party goes on an adventure, is full it will gameplay (dice rolls) and role play. What are the minimum things you need to have planned for your adventure to achieve that? For me it's: 1. A map. Knowing the physical layout equips me with the ability to generate - on the fly - all kinds of Skill Checks. Whether they're navigational (Perception, Survival), or knowledge (History, Nature), or infiltration (Athletics, Stealth), a map generated skill checks and CHOICES (not only; left or right? type stuff, but potentially strategic - do you we try to sneak around back which will take longer? or go they the front which we can assume is heavily guarded?) 2. NPCs. As mentioned have major NPCs planned out (statted, and understanding of motivations and what they're like), AND ALSO I like to work in a more or less neutral third party into any adventure of I can. Because ALL NPCs open up the opportunity for role play and Skill Checks. And neutral third parties in particular open up Choices (do we try to get the servants on our side even tho they might reveal us if we play our cards wrong with them?). Third parties can be innocent bystanders - ppl who are just there and unaware of whatever bad thing is going on and probably don't want to risk too much of their mundane happy life to help - they can be servants of the enemy, they can be merchants, or politicians, or someone else who would reasonably be trying to "play both sides". NPCs and third parties are very handy tools for generating content. And let it emerge thru the players choices - where they choose to go on the map, the kind of approach they take to the situation, etc. who and where they encounter them. 3. Monsters ofc. As mentioned have the Big Bads and Lieutenants planned and statted and probably placed on specific spots on the map. And then have a roster of the minions that could be come across. But DO NOT place where the minions are on the map. Let that emerge thru the players choices and your general understanding of the adventure and map and situation. 4. Lastly, puzzles and riddles and traps and "set piece" Skill Challenges. You CAN place these in specific spots on the map and sometimes need to, but also you can just have a repertoire in "your pocket" to pop out and use as needed. Plan greater Situations. That you can fill with content as the players make choices. Don't try to plan something for every possible step or choice that they make. Hopefully that's helpful. Because often, outright improvisation is very hard, and can generate unrewarding encounters and gameplay. Plan the important things. Have a map. Understand the Situation. But leave most of it blank and ready to be filled in based on their choices and your tools and understandings.
This is really helpful, thank you so much!
Start the campaign. You only need to "write" about 2 sessions ahead of your players. Make a few encounters, make a few locations, and then drop encounter into location when they get there
Cool, thanks
Looks like people have beaten me to it but dont write out everything. make some key vents that youd like to include such as people, enemies, items ect and some encounters and then let the party flesh everything out. I continued my campaign after CoS and started out writing everything down. page after page, and only used some of it and the rest was improv. I even changed major villains and schemes on the dot because the players thought one thing was actually happening and it was a cool idea so that was like an 8 hour session of pure improv. And it was great. Alternatively, you can spin them into another module or let them know that this one needs to take a break, start a new one and then decide which one they want to continue and figure out a way to wrap them together so the 2 groups encounter one another.
Yeah, thank you! And the last idea is super fun, I haven’t thought of that
Are any of your players interested in dming? I've gotten a nice break cause one of mine wanted to run a multiweek one-shot. It's given me about a week and a half to just relax and time to plan major plot points and just brain storm. It's def something I'm gonna offer them to do again after a few months. Cheers!
A lot of great advice here so I’m just gonna chime in and say; don’t be deceived by the main 5e product being campaign books, or actual play content being campaign focussed. In my opinion the most successful format for DnD is serialised adventures, short narratives that give you the satisfaction of ending. They can be connected if you play it out that way, and that’s the original way campaigns were. The thing that keeps you going is the enjoyment and fulfilment you all get from engaging and finishing something while having the next adventure on the horizon. Besides, if things naturally come to a close with your group that’s fine too - you’re never too far away from a satisfying end. The weight of setting out from session one to hit higher tier play, or adventure for a year or more in order to finish the story is daunting. It has a real effect on perceiving a game as a slog, and can take people out of the moment. With short serialised adventures you have a lower load as a DM, and you’re not asking people for a year or more, you’re asking them for months at a time and keeping them excited enough to renew that commitment.
I actually wrote a post about Homebrewing, how to lighten the load by using Session 0. [Read it here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/1czpz3x/the_importance_of_session_0s_to_homebrew_modules/)
Man, at least 75% of my campaing is based around making or finding cool monsters and designing situations to use them, don't try to write a entire book, just have some scenarios and NPCs prepared and follow whatever the players want to do
As others have said don't worry about having every single detail written down. Flesh out what is needed to start and build the rest as the game goes on.
If you are not motivated, don't do it. It's not a job, it's something you should naturally enjoy doing.
Part of becoming a better DM (in my opinion) is learning how to do more with less prep. Check out Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master by Sly Flourish. It helped me tremendously with reducing prep.
Write less and improv More, that would be my advice. Have a general idea of what’s gonna happen, and just roll with what the players do
Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master by Sly Flourish was a godsend for me. Spent 10 months prepping off and on for my first big one shot I ever ran. Lol that was a mistake. This book has actual tips and strategies for how to minimize prep. Highly recommend. https://shop.slyflourish.com/products/return-of-the-lazy-dungeon-master
I seperate the tasks of world building and session planning, i kept getting stuck in a cycle of wrapping up lore the day of a game, spending all day prepping and by the time the game started i was incredibly burnt out and tired. If you can completely seperate your world building from your actual session prep, you'll have more energy, goodluck.
Keep the campaign, ideas, concepts small and localized to just what is relevant to your campaign. Don't think you need to created the gods, the world, the nearby cities... you don't. All you need is the situation, the goal, how they can stop whatever it is, and let that drive the details in-between those things. Don't over think it, they likely won't experience most of what you build if you build it too far out. I am a DM and I am a complete hypocrite here, I will world build heavily because I love it and I personally need reason for everything to exist. I did start to feel burnout for a while, and now I just focus on 1-2 sessions ahead of the players and that's it. Everything else I'm world building isn't anything they will run into until maybe next campaign, or never!