Campaign Update #1: Scales of War AP
Our Scales of War campaign kicked off last Saturday. Everyone had a great time and my players are really enjoying their characters. I always allow three sessions to allow players to tweak their characters, if they want, because I know that a character may look great on paper but may not play well in the campaign. But after three sessions, your character is set in stone.
If you want a recap of what happened, I suggest clicking on the Campaign Wiki link at the top of the page. Just remember, though, that if you’re planning on playing through the Scales of War, you’ll be reading spoilers. 
For this campaign, I have been doing things I haven’t done before in campaigns and it seems to be paying off. Here are some examples.
Name tents. One of the things that annoys me about starting a new campaign is that no one knows other character’s names yet. For this campaign, I create name tents that sit in front of each player that has the name of their character on it and a picture of the character. It makes it a lot easier for a player to remember the character’s name.
Player Handout. I took a hint from a fantastic article from Dungeon magazine and created a player handout which you can see in the wiki. It gives basic information about the campaign; an overview of the campaign, a backstory, general rules, and information on important locations. I found it helped the player’s become more prepared for the campaign.
Fleshing out NPCs more. The campaign itself is lacking in information about NPCs in the starting city. Because of this, I took the liberty of fleshing out NPCs and giving them more detail and included pictures of them. This allows the players to feel that they know more about them and that the “faceless bar owner” is actually someone they know and may trust.
Make a campaign wiki. This has been the most important change to my campaign and the one that has really paid off the most. It not only allows my players to learn about the world around them, it also allows them to write up what their character does and sees as well as keeping track of important NPCs they meet, quests they are on, etc. If you are running a campaign, I highly recommend creating a wiki. There are a lot of free sites out there to host them, so don’t feel that you have to host it yourself.
All in all, these new additions have really helped me in keeping the players interested and making sure they have fun. I will continue to keep you posted on the campaign and let you know when I update the wiki so you can follow the progress of our intrepid heroes; Kalee Bowen, half-elf cleric, Kanchi, warforged rogue, Stein Blackmountain, dwarven fighter, Sylar Remiel, eladrin wizard, and Yan, half-elf monk.
reveal August 28th, 2008 at 11:36 AM
@Dire Wolf – The players in my Eberron PbP on CM put up their own wiki for the reasons you mentioned. http://eberron-circvs.wikidot.com/