I’m still in the midst of taking my many documents (both handwritten & typed) and getting everything together to launch my campaigns online through StartPlaying.games. With most of my GM experience being in-person, moving things to the digital realm is time-consuming and requires me to reconsider aspects of the world, including how to display & sort it.
The Campaigns
One of the first tasks is to create Campaign templates on the StartPlaying server. So far, I’ve set up 2 of the 3 main campaigns that I’m hoping to run. The info I put in there is great for front-page or introductory info on that portion of Quas. The info for both Raft Afloat & Surface Breaker is basically the same as the teasers I have on the website, although I did need to flesh out character creation information in a way that I had not codified. It’s important stuff, though, as these aspects will bleed over to the setting website as I digitize everything.
The Adventures
Shockingly, setting up what StartPlaying calls “Adventures” can be a little trickier. While commonly I see adventures as the specific bit we’re playing at the moment, StartPlaying runs them as the particular playing group or tables. So, if I have two different groups that started with Raft Afloat, they would be two separate adventures, each with multiple sessions (the campaign).
Sure, there’s the time & day of the week, which shouldn’t be too much of an issue, but you also have to leave the extra leeway time between sessions. The trickier part is that I need to put out the safety or trigger list. Due to the nature of D&D, the list is exceptionally long and may misrepresent the essence of the game itself. For example, I have to include “Character Death,” even though there is no guarantee that a player’s character may die. I need to include “Spiders,” “Snakes,” and “Insects” if they show up briefly (even if they’re not hostile).
Given that the world of Quas has the species all separated, should I include “Racism” as a possible trigger warning? There may be battle, so do I include “Violence?” What about “Genocide” or “Slavery” since the players may take it upon themselves to destroy or subjugate Goblins & Hobgoblins?
These are aspects of the games that I hadn’t previously considered, and highlighting them as content warnings is tricky.
Pre-generated Characters
One aspect of online GMing is the creation of pre-generated characters. Having some basic characters pre-rolled is great, and IRL, I could just pass a few sheets to a new player across the table and let them pick one with which to play. Via StartPlaying, I need to figure out how to digitize & distribute those sheets.
I’m using Discord for actual gameplay, and I have this website where I can host the sheets. I guess the question becomes whether I host as downloadable files or as individual pages. Do I link to them from the site itself, or do I only distribute the links via Discord? Which method will be better for my players, and for future endeavours?
There’s a lot to consider
There are a lot of different things that I need to take into consideration as I tool up for launch. Getting reviews from past players will be handy, as will laying out potential quests and cause/effect situations. Discovering where to promote the campaigns and using social media like Mastodon or X (formerly Twitter) effectively will be another tricky layer to navigate. How much information to share about the campaign world, or even the local areas, adds another layer to preparation.
While I’m still waiting on my first table to fill up, I need to get this preparation work rolled out so I can provide the kind of experience that potential players will expect. It’s a challenge, but I hope I can live up to it and make my passion into my job.