1. Communicating Intentions
We began with a conversation. The players and I narrowed down our mutual interests for this long term DnD 5e campaign and landed on the following:
- Genre: Magical Mystery
- Setting: 1920s inspired fantasy city. Elements of steampunk, folklore, and political intrigue.
- Gameplay: Immersive world/society, less focus on combat in favor of mystery solving and story, less focus on mechanics in favor of rewarding roleplay.
We also created a boundary setting outline: Table Manners. In brief - we're all here to enjoy our free time and that means creating a safe space for each other! No 1920s era culture here, just windswept trench coats and jaunty cloches.
From these guidelines, I created the campaign concept:
In the world of the Stolen Isles, all magic originates from beings known as 'incarnate'. They're embodiments of concepts (death, reflection, knowledge, etc.) which appear as people, animals, places, and even items. Throughout history they've been both feared and revered, but little understood. As the age of industry rapidly advances, incarnate have become merely a resource or nuisance to most. Now, inexplicable disasters are on the rise and their magic seems to be the cause.
Investigators Inc. is a new detective agency specializing in the esoteric and arcane. They've set up shop in the world's first cosmopolis: Roaring Reach. Their goal? To bridge the ever expanding divide between humanity and incarnate with understanding, no matter how mind-bending the mysteries may get.
2. Setting Players Up for Success
My first design hurdle was to ensure synergy between the roleplay and co-operative investigation elements. Having PCs with only loosely aligned motives can easily create narrative issues if the party has no reason to stay together. With that in mind, I created a simple character creation prompt:
What's your character's relationship to incarnate/magic? Why have you applied to work at the agency or why are they trying to recruit you and what convinces you to join?
With the PCs motives intrinsically paralleled to the core gameplay conceit, players could rely on RPing to bolster the meta goals of the team and vice versa.
3. Execution
I met with players individually and adapted DnD 5e mechanics to their concepts. We paid particular attention to building characters who could succeed in the unique role of 'esoteric investigator'. Instead of balancing the team primarily for combat encounters, we covered a range of broadly applicable problem solving mechanics: arcane specialist, social espionage, medical expert, tinkerer, etc.
With the characters created, I built the world around them and their detective agency. The next challenge was designing the Open World Narrative for a mystery setting.