One-Page Campaign Form - Managing Expectations

Today, I want to show you some GM aids that reveal two completely different philosophies about running TTRPGs. We're going to talk about them, then we're going to talk about why using a GM aid like this important. First thing to note is that both of these documents are created by the GM / DM and are made available to the players.

Below is a link to a one-page Campaign Planning Form that is standard in GURPS. Open it up and read. Then come back.

https://www.sjgames.com/gurps/resources/CampaignPlanning.pdf

What did you notice? What does it emphasize?

Below is a link to a one-page My Campaign form by Matthew Coleville (of MCDM). Read it and come back.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZK5E4Qg3AnfZLj68v6_3sioGrPmrw4Be/view

What did you notice? What does it emphasize?

Comparison: Contract vs Syllabus

Let's compare and contrast these campaign forms as they are both the same tool, but they show different approaches to TTRPGs.

The GURPS campaign form is about defining the limitations of the game and the setting. It starts broadly with genre, realism vs cinematic, and theme. It defines the level of technologic development (stone/bronze/iron age, medieval, steam, modern, futuristic, etc.) and tells you what kind of political powers are in charge and how much control they use. Then it tells you what is allowed at character creation and what isn't, and what the setting thinks about some characters. Finally, it tells you which supplemental books are permitted because GURPS has a lot of them.

Meanwhile, the MCDM campaign form tells players what's in the setting. It's more of a checklist of cool and useful stuff. I'm not sure if its author intended it to be a GM only document, but it can definitely be a player aid. It helps you structure your setting by establishing the pieces of it so that players can do cool stuff and have fun adventures.

The GURPS form is a contract. The MCDM form is a syllabus.

Analysis

The GURPS form defines the scope of the game. It is the GM telling the players "here's the kind of game I'm running, and you need to create a character who fits." It's a constraint document that intentionally narrows the scope of the game. It prevents mismatched expectations. If you join the campaign, you agree to these terms.

The MCDM form, if used as a player aid, orients the players. It gives context. It assumes (high) fantasy genre already and it does only a little to modify the genre or tone. It tells you about one small location, it hints at the greater political system and cosmology, shows a few geographical features, and a few small enemy factions responsible for conflict. Here's what you know, here's who you talk to if you want to learn more. The "Here's what locals think about dwarves, hobbits, elves" section softly tells the players how these fantasy races are in this setting, framed as how they are perceived.

Both forms are useful. Both are smart. But one campaign form solves more problems than the other.

The GURPS form is better suited for managing expectations than the MCDM form. The MCDM form, while it has a space for you to detail how different fantasy races are like in his world, it does not restrict their use by players. The from does not detail what is allowed or disallowed: classes, races, backgrounds, race-class-background combinations, languages, feats, multi-classing, equipment, magic. It doesn't explicitly state what kind of style or tone to expect. It is still a kitchen-sink. Meanwhile, the GURPS form can directly, explicitly say it's a fantasy-sci-fi genre, elves and magic are not in this game, and here's what happens in this setting if you use Psi abilities.

Use the GURPS form if you want to tell your players what nonsense isn’t allowed. Use the MCDM form if you’re fine with whatever nonsense is allowed.

One of the problems with a social contract is that it's unspoken. This sort of campaign document is a snapshot of your specific game, and it should be standard in TTRPGs. Seriously. It's not just "oh, we're playing an Eberron campaign, and the big bad is a tarrasque". This also lets players know all the little particularities of your presentation of the Eberron setting. Your particularities are the highlight of the form because you're the GM and you need to let the players know what kind of game you can handle running, and what kind of game you can't. This should be completed and available when you pitch your game to prospective players.

My Form

After reading these two forms, I decided I wanted one that suited my game, Bright-Dark 3d6 Role-Playing Game. Below, I have provided a link to a one-page campaign document with the items that I think are valuable right now. Your needs / tastes may vary.

Link: Bright-Dark 3d6 Role-Playing Game Campaign Form

Leave a comment on this post. I would appreciate come feedback on this concept and on my form.

Optional / Add-Ons:

What else could be added that's valuable?

• Related Media: What books, movies, etc. that are similar to your game. This helps orient players fast. If you list Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind or Firefly, that might stop them from thinking about making a character who would suit The Fifth Element or Breaking Bad.
• Recommended Reading: Supplemental RPG books, documents, etc. Maybe you wrote a short story about characters in your world, or maybe you have a detailed setting document.
• Homebrew: Are you big on homebrew? What's your homebrew stuff, or what play-brew stuff is allowed?
• House Rules / Optional Rules: Every table has this. Make yours clear.
• All that Lovely, Lovely Session Zero stuff: You know, violence, gore, and whatever other weird no-go zone types of stuff. Player vs Player? Play-styles focus / emphasis, heavy roleplay or heavy bookkeeping, PC death, game balance, game fouls, etc., etc.
• Miscellaneous. More things in life need a misc. section than you think. 

Related

Hyper-Gratuitousness in Fiction and TTRPGs is an excellent post that you might find valuable for your TTRPGs if you want to include darker subject matter with care.

Also: Managing Expectations in TTRPGs - Discussing What We Do and Don't Like

And: Managing Expectations in TTRPGs - GM Expectations Framework

And how about: The DM Shortage - Why 5e Doesn't Have Enough

Stop Faking Horror in TTRPGs - Do It Right

Happy October. Let's talk how to do Horror in RPGs.

Genre vs Tone
First, let's talk about horror as a genre and horror as a tone. These are not the same.

• Genre means style or aesthetic. Horror as a genre can be spooky, creepy, or it can be gory.
• Horror as a tone means effect by creating circumstances that elicit or evoke a fear or disgust response out of the audience / participants.

Chances are if you want to do horror in a TTRPG, your intent is to make players feel actual fear.

Expectations
Second, know that there's no easy way to evoke fear, but you do have to get your players on board with the idea of doing horror because fear, like fun, is subjective, and expectations need to be managed.

For instance, there are people who fear getting sick and having to worry about money, and there are people who fear waking up in the middle of the night to a phone call from the police telling them their loved one was found in a gutter. These might be unwelcomed fears in escapist entertainment.

There are also people who are desensitized to things like slasher horror and even cosmic horror by now.

Desensitized people might be bored. Sensitive people might be disturbed. These aren't the reactions we want.

How to Evoke Fear
Let's ask ourselves how we feel fear in any typical RPG. The easiest answer is losing your beloved player character. However, emotion is important. If you're emotionally attached to your character, more fear. If you're emotionally detached from your character, less fear.

Therefore, invite your players to fall in love with their character concept before play. Seriously. Tell them to bring something they're proud of; Bring something they're already invested in. No disposable characters.

Players can't feel like they've signed up for a meatgrinder one-shot. The goal isn't to die in a thrilling way. You want the players to be nervous or afraid to make a bad choice in play that could get their character hurt.

Also consider that horror is about survivors and victims, not heroes. Therefore, D&D 5e might not be the best choice for a game system because D&D 5e characters are expected to feel powerful. You want vulnerable characters. If you use 5e, I suggest keeping the characters at low levels and throw high CR monsters at them.

Threaten Things the Players Like and Need

Create NPCs who represent security to the players. If the NPC dies, the players lose their security. If players develop a fondness for a non-player character and the opportunities, resources, or the story that the NPC represents, that NPC goes on the list of things you can hurt the players with. Sounds horribly manipulative, doesn't it? Well, that's good storytelling.

How to Run a Horror Game

First, tell players you're doing horror and get their buy-in. You need people to be willing participants in horror. They have to be willing to lower their emotional guards and be open to the emotional experience.

Second, mood enhances horror. Forbid jokes, side-conversations, cell phones, distractions, or forms of relief during the game. Turn your session into a crucible where only stressors are allowed.

Third, emotional investment - we already covered that. You start with an emotional investment in a character or outcome. Then hang the sword of Damocles over their heads (I know it's not a perfect metaphor, but I like the reference).

Fourth, choose the right game system. D&D 5e for instance is a game about balance. Horror is not about balance. Horror monsters are bigger, stronger, and faster than you. Their motives are simple (they're hungry or they want your soul) and they can't be reasoned with, so a charisma check won't work. They have powers you can't understand and secret weaknesses that a lore check won't reveal. Also, D&D 5e offers players too many spells or features that could spoil a challenge and therefore deflate the tension.

Try a system that keeps Hit Points low and keeps player character powers in a range where success isn't a certainty. I suggest Index Card RPG of all things because it's also pretty rules-lite and very flexible. You could also use Cairn or Liminal Horror RPG which is a horror reskin of Cairn.

Fifth, pacing. Horror needs room to breathe. Slow pacing builds dread; rushing kills it.

Sixth, player agency is important. The players choices must matter. Spontaneous bad outcomes with no clear causes feel cheap. Telegraph danger and give players the choice for how to engage with the situation, or to try and avoid it. The players should feel like bad things happen because of choices they made, even if they only had bad choices.

Telegraphing danger doesn't mean revealing the threat, it means revealing the stakes. This builds dread, tension, anticipation, and responsibility. A pool of blood under the door says the door is dangerous.

At the end of the game, don't tell them what would have happened if they chose something else; let them wonder.

This one is important. It is a cheap effect to roll a die and tell the players they're scared. Don't use a fear mechanic. The feeling of fear must come from the game organically.

The Unknown

Lastly, the unknown is scary. Do not use monsters from a monster catalog or book, or monsters they are familiar with (goblins cough cough). The monster or antagonist should be unfamiliar and strange. Do not tell the players the name of the monster, describe it instead, but delay that moment when they are actually face to face with it and can see it. Do not let them roll intelligence to see if they know what they're dealing with. Tell the players their characters have no idea. Make sure that monster feels unstoppable. Give the monster a secret weakness, tell the players the only way to stop it is to learn the secret weakness, and to kill the monster according to their secret weakness. For example, were-wolves and silver weapons or vampires and stakes to the heart or sunlight. Their swords don't work, their magic doesn't work, those things are only good for the minions. The monster must be seemingly undefeatable; its attacks can auto-kill, permanently maim, cause sickness, or curse the PCs just by touching it or looking at it.

Conclusion

Horror has power over you, not the other way around. Horror in TTRPGs isn’t about gore or darkness, it’s about tension, vulnerability, and the fear of losing something you care about. Build emotional stakes, control the mood, keep the unknown truly unknown.

Related: Hyper-Gratuitousness in Fiction and TTRPGs is a post about dark subject matter in art. You may find it valuable for your horror RPG.

Also: Seven Rules for Monsters in TTRPGs - Your Fun is Wrong

Worldbuidling: Geopolitical Hotspots = Human-Scale Conflict

When I see worldbuilding content on the internet, people don't start with the geopolitical hotspots, and that's a problem.

What is a geopolitical hotspot? It's a place where two or more cultures come into military, political, or economic tension. Often due to disputes or competition over territory and resources.

Geopolitical hotspots = conflict

Starting with the geopolitical hotspots is the shortcut you need to make your world map interesting. In fact, throw out the concept of the world map for a second and just focus on a regional map. Your campaign isn't global scale (yet). You only need one region where multiple cultures are fighting over the good stuff. That's what makes a good fantasy map.

What people tend to do is they get lost in the weeds of realistic world map or they want a map that's visually pretty or exciting. They ask, "do the mountains belong there?" and they get stuck. I'm not telling you that it's wrong to ask if the mountains would logically form there like that; That actually can serve to make your map more believable. What I'm advising is to make concessions on realism for the sake of forcing, even contriving a geopolitical hotspot into your world.

Serious man, just put it in!

Sample Region Map - The Celean

Here’s a simple example to show how a geopolitical hotspot turns a plain map into a story engine. Below is a region called The Celean. It's named after the central feature, the Celea Sea. It's a very simple map I cooked up in I don't know, half an hour?

Full disclosure: I traced it from another map found in this video by the YouTuber likealightart9414. I hope he doesn't mind. Then I named everything. In his video, likealightart9414 said he didn't like this map. *Scoffs* excuse me?

For this map, realism, scale, aesthetics, or ready-to-play-ness are not the intent or goal. It's here to teach. 

Cultures

Distinct cultures turn geography into a story. I want you to identify the four major kingdoms / nations: Adamia, Bethland, Erlina, and Gregoria. I know there's other stuff on this map, but these four areas are the main points. Arbitrarily, we're going to ascribe to them distinct cultural identities.

• Adamia: Militaristic, imperial. Value law and order. Lots of noble houses and bloodlines.
• Bethland: Famous for art and science. Value luxury. Perceived as soft. Meritocracy with a raising merchant class.
• Gregoria: Very religious, courageous, humanitarian. An unmatched naval power. A budding republic with a powerful symbolic monarch.
• Erlina: Stubbornly proud, tough, and wealthy. Famously use mercenaries and foreign armies to fight for them. They have resources and you can't take them away.

What's important (to me) is that the cultures are distinct. You can immediately evaluate the aspects of the culture like the colors and mascot of a team in a competition and pick the one you like.

Boundaries

Next, let's look at how geography shapes their relationships. Creating a few boundaries means you have an area where kingdoms may blend without losing their distinction, and where the contrast is most immediate. These are places where political, economic, or military tension is most apparent.  

River Nina separates Adamia and Bethland, and it also coincidentally marks a climate boundary. Which climates specifically? Well, scientifically speaking, Adamia is kind of cold, Bethland is kind of warm. There you go. These are now two distinct areas, and it adds variety to the cultures and political powers.

Gregoria is connected to Adamia by an impassible isthmus where The Stellas mountains are. The logistics of marching an army across are mindboggling, so there are no land invasions. 

Reina Mountains separate Bethland from Erlina. You could say there are a few mountain passes, but it's easier to travel by sea.

The Celea Sea has not one but two choke points: The Delilian Straight controlled by Gregoria and the Felixan Straight controlled by Erlina. If you want to get in and out of the Celea Sea, you have to be on good terms with at least one of these cultures. Naturally, Erlinda and Gregoria compete over Isle Levi which creates both straights.

The fact the Erlinda and Gregoria have a competition going, there isn't one single power who monopolizes passage in and out of the Celea Sea. This competition is important because it makes being on good terms with one nation or the other important.  

Celea Sea

This sea is the main artery connecting everything. That's what's the point of the sea, but why is there conflict here? Resources? Trade? Colonialism? War? Religious conflict? Bad blood? That's up to you, but it is important to define why these powers are in conflict. Try and come up with a few conflicts. Here's an example:

• Adamia and Bethland compete over control of the River Nina. It's an nutrient-rich, important waterway that can take you inland. Adamia claims that their snowcapped Adamant Mountains (just off the map) feed the Nina. 
• Erlina competes with Gregoria over control of the Isle Levi and both straights.
• Adamia competes with Gregoria over silver mines in The Stellas. Both nations are also competing for control of that northern coast.
• Erlinda and Bethland have territorial disputes and the various passages of the Reina Mountains as boundary is unclear. There are smaller cultures here too: Mountain people who make iron goods and practice war, and valley folk who farm goods for them.
• There are also small islands. The inlanders consider themselves part of the kingdom that controls them, but because they are isolated, they also consider themselves distinct from their continental peers and resent the continental conflicts.

Finale

Geopolitical hotspots matter because they give your setting human-scale, actionable content to engage in. It's not "We must take the ring to Mordor" content, it's "The British are Coming!" content. It's "Then the Fire Nation attacked" content.

Checklist

• Major powers with distinct cultures
• Vulnerable minor cultures in between
• Valuable resources
• Natural boundaries
• Choke points
• Territorial disputes
• Competing interests
• Climates, history, terrain, myth as flavor at the end

Use this checklist to turn any blank region into a living engine of story, politics, and adventure.

Related: How to Create a Fantasy Setting (Loria) shows you what to do from here.