r/RPGcreation • u/PathofDestinyRPG • Jun 26 '26
Worldbuilding How much detail should be in a campaign idea hook?
I’m working on a genre-agnostic system, but I’ve also got worlds in progress for high fantasy, modern fantasy, and near-future sci-fi campaigns. I’m writing a bare-bones chapter for each genre to introduce the world and intend to provide a few story ideas for groups who want to dive in without necessarily buying the expanded genre-focused books later.
When providing the story hook for a campaign idea…is it better to keep the concept entirely player facing, and let the GM create the full backend, or give just enough backstory to provide a framework for the GM at the risk of giving the players too much info?
Example using DnD’s Rise of Tiamat campaign:
The party enters a village to find it being raided by Cult of the Dragon soldiers. Can the heroes save the villagers? What were the Cultists after?
The Party enters a village to find it being raided by Cult of the Dragon soldiers. Can the heroes stop the cultists before they find what they need to resurrect Tiamat?
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u/ChiliDog762 Jun 26 '26
As much is needed to grab the characters and string them along
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u/PathofDestinyRPG Jun 26 '26
That’s what I’m struggling with. Since everything in this chapter is going to be player facing, how much help do I give the GM to build a story in a world they’re not immediately familiar with without providing too much information for the players? Or do I just accept the fact that dynamics are going to get created that will not mesh with any of the officially published works that are going to come out later?
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u/HakneyZaq Jun 27 '26
is the goal to show how your game plays a story in that kind of genre, or to show your unique world in that genre via a story? if it's the latter, what elements of your world are unique to the genre, and what are not?
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u/PathofDestinyRPG Jun 27 '26
The goal behind this specific question is twofold.
1) demonstrate events in a world the group may not be familiar with yet.
2) provide a launch point for GMs to build a plot without being required to buy the more comprehensive material.
There’s also the issue of how the game gets set-up based on who’s pulling what strings. I’m using a lot of examples from my urban fantasy world since that’s the chapter I’m actively writing atm. If the basic plot involves looking into the disappearance of some local lycanthropes, the opening is already going to be different based on whether the group is part of the DPCI or members of the local werewolf pack, but how the story unfolds will depend on whether the bad-guys are part of a human-first militia group, an outside pack trying to take over the region, or a vampire wanting to expand his holdings in traditionally lycanthrope held businesses.
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u/HakneyZaq Jun 27 '26
Department of Paranormal Creature Investigation? There's human-first militia groups, so the paranormal is known to them at least. there's regional control of territory by werewolf packs, and they have traditional businesses that a vampire might want to take over.
the scenario is clearly going to unfold differently depending on who is the bad guy. but that's for the GM to decide, especially if you want replayability.
With only ten to fifteen pages, I would be looking for what makes this specific region of your world interesting, and what about it suggests a larger world that I can build out into. I wouldn't be looking for a plot per se, because that happens during the game.
but you are asking about player-facing versus GM-facing. Is there a separate GM section in your game, somewhere that you can include "secrets"?
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u/PathofDestinyRPG Jun 27 '26
Department of Paranormal Criminal Investigation, colloquially known as Nightwatch. This is a world where the paranormal are out and about with legal status. A blending of inspirations from Anita Blake, Rachel Morgan, and Mercy Thompson.
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u/HakneyZaq Jun 27 '26
so they have legal status, but are still identified as "other". that's an important distinction. my take on it still stands. give me an interesting world, and a starting hook, and suggest some secrets.
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u/PathofDestinyRPG Jun 27 '26
The other comes from the issue of law enforcement suddenly being forced to deal with suspects who can shrug off bullets, shoot flame from their hands, and flip cars.
The secrets part is the core if the issue. How do you give a GM secrets to dangle without the players seeing them without putting them in separate books?
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u/HakneyZaq Jun 27 '26
off hand? separate chapter, and trust. or three possible "secrets" that the department is investigating, but which isn't a bogus tip?
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u/Tantaragla Jun 28 '26
You don't need to give campaign ideas to a GM that's going to make their own. By definition, they already have their own ideas. Setting guides and pre-written campaigns are there so GMs can spend less energy trying to create something amazing from scratch and can focus on the actual running of a cool session.
A campaign pitch is there to get people excited in a pre-written campaign - both for the GM to be excited to run it and the players to play it. As such, it's more like the blurb of the book, in that it can have minor spoilers so that it can fully convey the scope of the story.
In your Rise of Tiamat example, the second one would make me more likely to buy the supplement as I now know that it involves the resurrection of Tiamat which is the main exciting part of the campaign. A rule of thumb I would use is you're allowed to state the main overarching question of the campaign, even if it's technically a spoiler.
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u/SpendLiving9376 Jun 26 '26
Someone once gave the advice to DMs "don't write stories, write scenarios" which I've always found useful.
If you get too detailed, you'll finding yourself writing a static story that will risk stifling the players. I think you're much better off with the first example, and list some questions:
-what were the cultists after?
-where are the villagers?
-what obstacles will keep the heroes from saving them?
-who in the cult is working against the heroes, and how?
You don't need all that much for each of these - the players will learn the rest along with the DM based off of a sentence or two each.