Create a Homebrew Campaign | #13: Writing the Campaign Arc
A homebrew campaign has two crucial components: the world and the story. At this point in the series, we’ve already built a beautiful, vibrant, living world that is populated with unique characters and filled with civilizations and stories waiting to be encountered. We’ve written one arc, the first arc of the campaign, and I’ve talked about one-shots. Now, however, it’s time to look at the most critical part of the story: the central arc, or the arc that covers the entirety of the campaign. Sure, there will be other stories and some detours along the way, but this is the trunk of the tree from which all of the branches extend. In fact, that’s how I want you to think of this session: we’re building the trunk of the tree.
Heck, maybe I’ll make a graphic that emphasizes that point. I think it’s a solid analogy.
What is the Campaign Arc
Your Campaign Arc will be broken down into several smaller arcs. The first arc, for example, which we’ve already written, is part of the campaign arc. Every character arc (which we’ll discuss in next week’s session) is part of the campaign arc. In each arc and in every session of that arc, you have the opportunity to build up the campaign arc just a little bit more, hinting at parts of it. No one, singular arc will encompass the entirety of the campaign arc, but one arc will bring an end to the campaign arc.
As such, when I talk about writing the campaign arc, you shouldn’t let it seem like this daunting, impossible monster! You aren’t being told to sit down and write out your entire campaign, beat by beat, right now. That isn’t even possible. Instead, I’m telling you to sit down and write a few paragraphs about the overall story of your campaign. When you know what the big story is and what challenge your players will be going up against by the time the campaign is brought to an end, writing the arcs that take place in-between are much easier and you can tie them together with less effort. Additionally, knowing how the story of your campaign will go makes it easier to leave trails, hints, and bits of foreshadowing as you play. Especially in the very early parts of the campaign (including your first arc), it can be fun to drop bits of information here and there that the players can recall months or even years down the road, showing that you have been alluding to the core story of your campaign right from the beginning!
Key Elements of the Campaign Arc
Your campaign arc is going to have a few key elements. These are what make the campaign arc what it is and will help you with drafting a plan for your arc. You probably won’t be surprised by any of these, especially if you’ve been playing tabletop campaigns for a long time and have ever been part of a long-form campaign. These arcs take a long time, often years! My first campaign was one year in length, but that was with weekly games that all lasted anywhere from eight to thirteen hours. Our finale was almost fifteen hours long! A more typical session would be closer to about four or five hours in length and would take place every couple of weeks, so the average campaign would go for several years. My current campaign is thankfully taking up less time and I expect to be about two and a half years in length.
The Threat
A crucial element of your campaign arc is the threat. This isn’t an individual (often referred to as the BBEG, or Big Bad Evil Guy) or group, as the BBEG is what presents the threat. More, the threat is what is posed by that individual or group. For example, in my first campaign, the BBEG was a lich called Zarthilx. Zarthilx was not the threat, however. The threat was the world he would create if he accomplished his goal of achieving divine power. Without a threat, there’s no reason for the players to care about your end-game foe. The foe exists, sure, but why should anyone care?
Associates
Another key element of the campaign arc is the people who are involved in the arc. Whatever side they’re on, the associates are people who play an important role in your campaign arc. They’ll likely be mentioned often and make frequent appearances throughout the campaign. Arcs may be centered around their character if they’re especially important. Associates who work in favor of the threat may try to thwart the plans of the players here and there. These are people that the party will come to know over the course of the campaign—people they’ll come to love or hate. Knowing who these important players are means you can draft character information for them early and drop them in on occasion, setting up future events that will involve these characters.
Breadcrumbs
The third and final element of the campaign arc is going to be breadcrumbs. These are small bits of information and foreshadowing that you present to the party throughout the campaign. These are things you’ll give to your players over time. The tidbits provided should increase in value as you get closer and closer to the end. You want to give your players pieces of the puzzle, one at a time. When you list your breadcrumbs, it really should be a list. Comprise a list of all the important parts of the campaign arc that your players need to know, then you can decide how and when to give them these pieces.
Writing the Campaign Arc
When I write my campaign arc, I write only a page or two of information, amounting to no more than one thousand words. I don’t want it to turn into a short story in its own right, because this is a tabletop roleplaying game and anything can change, including the trajectory of your arc. When I write this arc, I specifically focus on the threat: what is it, who is associated with it, how will it be brought about, and what events will take place to bring the threat to fruition.
Is the threat someone who wants to become a god? Okay, your campaign arc should include who it is, why they want to become a god, what they’ll do once they become a god, where they’re at in the process, what it will take to achieve godhood, and who is helping this individual with the process. The most critical part will be the list of steps necessary to achieve the goal, as these are things that will be happening throughout the campaign.
When you know what the BBEG needs to accomplish the goal and make the threat a reality, you can start writing arcs within your campaign that are set up to allow the BBEG to succeed, one step at a time. Note that your players don’t have to be part of every single step in the enemy’s plan! They may learn about what your big bad is up to after a particular goal has already been accomplished, or they may happen to cross paths with the enemy while doing something else. Perhaps the big bad is also affecting a character arc, or the party happens to kill one of the minions of the “final boss” and thus learns something about this imminent threat.
Breadcrumbing
As I mentioned earlier, breadcrumbs are a critical part of the campaign arc. It makes it compelling without drawing the attention of your players away from the current arc. It tells them that something big is coming—something beyond them—but they aren’t quite ready to understand it, yet. After I have the list of information that my players need, I begin to decide which pieces to hand out first. I find that in the first arc, it’s best to give the vaguest, simplest forms of the breadcrumbs to the party. Something seemingly meaningless or unimportant, that won’t make sense until they have enough pieces to start putting the puzzle together.
It’s a bit like giving someone a thousand-piece puzzle, one piece at a time, and starting with a piece that goes in the middle of the sky. Over time, you keep giving them pieces of the sky until, finally, one day… you give them a corner piece.
You may start by having the party find a ring that clearly has some form of significance, but the symbol on the ring is unrecognizable to them. They know it means something, but what? What does the symbol represent? Several sessions down the line, maybe they see the symbol again, perhaps on another ring or just painted above a door. Now they have a lead, finally… but even that lead won’t give them much.
And then you start giving them more important pieces, one at a time. As you get closer to the end of the campaign and the big reveal, you start handing out more pieces, showing the players more parts of your world, and then, one day… they have enough pieces to start putting the picture together. By the time you reach the final arc of your campaign, they finally understand what’s happening, all the pieces make sense, and your story is ready to see its ending.
Maybe they even remember that very first piece of the puzzle you gave them and praise you for your excellent foreshadowing. Bravo, my friend! Bravo.
Conclusion
That’s the campaign arc! This is the core arc of your campaign, upon which all other arcs are built. The campaign arc is the trunk of your tree, the branches are the individual arcs, and then each branch has twigs called sessions. Just like that handy graphic I made. I hope the analogy makes sense! If you plan your campaign arc right from the first session, you’ll be able to start giving out puzzle pieces and bits of foreshadowing from day one, which you can expound upon over time, from one session to the next, until you have a full, in-depth story that entices your players to learn more and gets them excited for each new piece of information you give to them.
Thanks for checking out this post, I hope that it helped you start drafting your campaign arc! Next week is the last storytelling session, where I’ll be talking about character arcs, a specific kind of arc that you should insert within your campaign. These, I find, are the most critical and fun sorts of story arcs to have in a tabletop campaign, so I’m excited to talk about them next week.
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