After a couple of months off, it’s time for my Friday Night group to begin a new Dungeons & Dragons campaign! At the end of the previous campaign, the 20th level characters stopped a war between Ket and Veluna – and banished Xan-Yae, goddess of the twilight, back to the Plane of Shadow.

Ten years later…

Most of my campaigns are set in the World of Greyhawk, but each one in a significantly different area of the map. This is the first campaign I’ll be starting in the exact same place the last one finished.

As a result, the old PCs are still around as potential mentors or allies of the new PCs. Well, those that didn’t leave the area. This gives rise to some interesting possibilities, especially of players role-playing their old character as it talks to a group of new characters. You can have some fun times there.

One of my players has already mentioned that his old character, Cedric the Amazing, a teenage cleric, is now a cult-like figure, and his new character may be there to debunk the cult.

In addition, there’s the geopolitical situation. Ket and Veluna were at war, it’s ten years later, but the tensions are still high. Ket is not particularly happy with what happened to Xan Yae. And having the cursed St Cuthbertians triumphant? Not so good.

To the east, the lands of Iuz and Furyondy have had a grinding war, which went well for neither side. This was provoked by the young King of Furyondy, who believed – upon being given the Lost Prince Thrommel’s sword – that it was a sign from the gods to eradicate evil from the land. It wasn’t.

The sword had been found, of course, by the PCs in my last campaign, but the King’s delusions were his own. Now in his 30s, the King is in poor health, the result of a war wound. Iuz’s forces are hurt, but who knows what the Old One is brewing?

For the first level characters of the new campaign, all that is background, and it is uncertain how much will affect play. It is very rare these days that I go into a game with a set plan. Rather, I have some initial elements and then watch how the players interact with them and how my own imagination is inspired.

Our first session will consist of character creation and – likely – the first adventure. In fact, I don’t know how much character creation there’ll be. My players may a;ready have the parameters of the characters they want to play already. Although there is a case to be made to plan with the others as to what roles they should fill, having an unbalanced party isn’t the end of the world.

It might, however, lead to a very short campaign!

I typically don’t choose adversaries based on party make-up. So, the initial foes would be the same regardless of what the players choose to play. And then the group will learn their strengths and weaknesses through play. It might be that some players choose to change what they play.

In some of my games, I allow players to have henchmen – basically, another character, using full D&D rules, except advancing at half rate and taking a cut of treasure. For this game, we should have six players, so that’s not necessary. Except will they need men-at-arms to help guard a squishy set of PCs?

I’ve asked each player to think of one character or organisation in town that is important to them. I also warned them that I might ignore their choices. Player input is great, but it’s less great when it doesn’t inspire the DM or the other players. If an element only interests one player, it’s not as useful as something that inspires everyone.

Characters are first level, which means they’ll advance quickly through the first couple of sessions. I do tend to run combat-heavy games, but some sessions surprise us with a lack of combat. I don’t think this will be one of those.

I am planning to run this campaign – at least in the early stages – using the Weekend Adventurers paradigm, which I’ve previously described. That is, each session typically covers just a day or two, and the characters have a week of downtime after each session in which to train, go to work, carouse, or perform other activities. I believe it helps ground them in the world.

The starting point for the first adventure? It’s going to be a giant bat, causing trouble at a local farm. The revelation of where it comes from will propel the early part of the campaign. Or, at least, I think it will. My players may have other ideas.

From humble beginnings, the campaign then grows. We’ll see how the backgrounds of the characters can interact, how the geopolitical situation can provide adventure opportunities, and discover whether the group will stay in their starting town for long.

After all, my plan for my last campaign with this group was to base the entire campaign around the City of Greyhawk, and they found themselves exiled after a handful of sessions, never to return!