Intro to Solo TTRPGs (2/5): Creating Your Campaign

Now here comes my favorite part… creating your very own campaign!


This process can be as complex or as simple as YOU want it to be. 

Here are my main 3 steps:

1. Create your WORLD (but start small). You do NOT have to create the entire world (or universe) of the campaign. 

- Start small; start with a small region and add 3 main locations within in that region. Add a town, a village, and maybe a location of ancient ruins (or a forest, dungeon, etc.). 

- Then within the region, create 2 factions that are maybe rivals. They can be secret societies, cults, etc. Within one of the factions, you can create a villain! Think about his motives, flaws, weaknesses. Since you are adventuring in this alone, do not make the villain too hard.

- If you want to use the Monster stats from D&D, it is recommended to divide the stats by 3, since they are originally designed to be fought by a group of 3-4 characters. I personally have found that Monsters with CR's between 0-1/4 are good for lower level characters. The boss could have a CR 1/2 for a solo character at maybe level 5. It's honestly a lot of trial-and-error too. Give yourself some grace on this part! 

- You do not have to do this part, but you can either roll on an Adventure Tone Table to get the sense of the type of world your character is getting into or just create it yourself. Maybe a dark religious cult is trying to bring back an evil god back to life, maybe there are reports of mysterious kidnappings, maybe magic has become so dangerous that it has become banned, etc. Make the tone tie in with the villain and the factions.

2. Create the beginning, middle and end of the campaign. It's up to you if you want this to be a short one-shot campaign or a long one! 

- I ran a long campaign that probably took me about 2 months to complete, and I would play 2-3x a week and my sessions would be 1-1.5 hours long. 

- For the beginning, ask yourself WHY would your player care to go on this adventure? Is a family member involved? Is there a prophecy that must be fulfilled by only YOUR character? Was the character friends with the villain or an ally, before they turned evil? Is the villain threatening to destroy something that the character sees as sacred/holy? 

- For the middle, this is where your character's choices start to point toward the villain. The quests they go on, the rumors and stories they hear, etc. They will start to gain skills, experience, acquire cool loot, all to prepare for the finale... the BOSS BATTLE.

- For the end, this can be the BIG epic scene where they finally catch the villain and they fight! You can even go as far as post-combat and see how things are resolved once the villain has been defeated. 

3. Create NPCs/Encounters. Keep in mind that NPCs and encounters do not have to be combatant! Make sure to test other skills!

- You can most definitely create your own NPCs and encounters, or you can roll on a table (you can even create your OWN table). If you have a tavern, you would have a tavern keeper, maybe a drunk bard performing on stage, and even an odd stranger smoking a piper in the very back corner. 

- You can even create encounters that "distract" the character from the focusing on finding the villain. Maybe your character has a weakness for a pretty face, and is constantly trying to flirt with the bar tender! Whenever the player gets "distracted", you can roll on a Character Actions Table to see what the villain does next!


Hope this helps you understand the basics of creating your own campaign! Next, I will cover how to create your character!

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