Campaign

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I am expected to start a campaign, but i am idealess, help?

 

Well, that is a pretty tall order. If you really have no idea what you want to do, a good bet is to buy an introductory adventure and use that. Many of us long ago and far away (in the early 80s, say) started out with simple adventures like "Keep on the Borderlands". There are similar products available today.

I assume you read the section of the DMG on creating a campaign and such? If starting from scratch, your best bet is to begin small. Design a village, a small barony, etc and introduce some adventure type problems while you get a handle on your players interests, etc. Just keep expanding from there: add the next village and its problems, etc until you are inspired to leap to bigger things.

Aloha
Vormaerin

 

Vormaerin has it exactly right - start small, and build on it. Might I ask what level you are gearing the campaign for? Character level has some major implications for designing a campaign, especially at the lower levels (1-3) and also at the higher levels (15-20).

Choice is also very important to making sure characters enjoy themselves: don't try to railroad them into a course of action, or even a series of actions. One useful way of handling this is to have a few ideas for some simple adventures, which the characters hear about through rumours. As a group, they can then choose which path to take.

Some general ideas that may help you out:

Abandoned mine/forgotten tomb/hidden ruins recently 'unearthed' as a result of earthquake, lanslide, etc. - turns out the mine/tomb/ruin has also been the site of a secret cult for decades, who are now angered that the party is playing around in their stomping grounds - this then moves the party into dealing with the cult, and so on...

Several years ago, a promising young mage set up shop in the local area - he ran a good business for quite awhile, and then disappeared a year ago - hints and rumours can be provided to the party about his possible whereabouts - turns out the mage went in search of a certain item/rare spell component he learned off, only to happen upon the lair of (insert terrible menace here) - party locates lair, eventually finding the mage (dead or alive, you pick, but alive makes it a little more interesting) - however, they now discover that(terrible menace) poses a threat to the local area, etc, etc...

There are countless things you could do, but it's generally best to keep things relatively simple (easier for you as the DM to keep track of, and for the players to keep tabs on what's going on) without being too predictable. Plot twists add a lot (the mage was an evil wizard who came to the area in the guise of a simple wizard, but was really searching for the item - he was then caught trying to steal if from X - but the party would have to learn all of these 'behind the scenes' stuff on their own as they go, and decide how to handle it). But that first rule always applies: start with something simple, and slowly introduce the players to the 'larger' story.

Hope this helps!

 

wow! guys, that really helps me a lot.
i think i might have the glimmering of a good idea that will give my players a lot of fun.
I am starting with, oh, level 3 characters say, mabye level one, so if the mage was evil, i would have him steal the item, and do a runner.

me again
wavenote

 

Other classic ideas for starting a campaign where most of the work is not done yet. Have the players start with no memories. They were capture and had they minds whipped by an evil mage/cleric. Why? What ever reason you want. Maybe they were in a ship wreck and were wasted up on shore this no memory of (who attacked their ship0 what happened. They are related to a noble who few out of favor. They had a quest to solve and the mage figured this was the best way to stop them. They are being pursued by some unknown foe who wants to kill them for some unknown reason. You came up with it as the game goes along. This is a nice back drop to any on going adventures.

Have them start as slaves or in the arena. This is always fun.

Your options are endless.