Tag: Campaign

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Planning a Kick-Ass D&D Campaign with Minimal Effort

Planning a Dungeons & Dragons campaign can feel overwhelming, especially for Dungeon Masters who want to keep their preparation time manageable. However, by borrowing concepts from Dungeon World Fronts and embracing minimalist planning, you can create a dynamic, player-driven experience that feels rich and engaging without requiring hours of prep work. I use this methodology in many of my own campaigns and I can say from experience that it works a treat.

What Are Dungeon World Fronts?

Dungeon World, a narrative-driven RPG, uses Fronts as a way to organize campaign threats and storylines without rigid scripting. Instead of planning each session in detail, you create major factions, events, and dangers that will evolve naturally based on player actions. These Fronts act as living forces in the world, ensuring the story unfolds dynamically.

Step 1: Define Your Fronts

A Front is a significant force or conflict that drives the game’s narrative. Examples include:

  • A Rising Cult – A mysterious order gathers followers to summon an ancient deity.
  • A Warlord’s Ambition – A power-hungry warlord seeks to conquer the region.
  • A Failing Empire – The once-great kingdom crumbles due to internal corruption.
  • A Forgotten Curse – An ancient evil begins to stir beneath the land.

Each Front has:

  1. A Core Threat – The central danger or goal of the Front.
  2. Grim Portents – Steps showing how the Front advances if unchecked.
  3. Impending Doom – The final, catastrophic outcome if players fail to intervene.

It is best to have 2-3 Fronts in play. This creates interesting moral dilemmas for the players. Do we find the rising cults source of power, or stop the Warlords ambition in the border lands? Combatting one will leave the other unchecked for a time and closer to reaching it’s impending doom.

Example of Dungeon World fronts used for a Castle Ravenloft campaign

Step 2: Keep Session Prep Minimal

Instead of spending hours scripting intricate encounters, use situation-based preparation:

  • What’s Happening Right Now? – Consider what the antagonists are currently doing.
  • What Might Happen Next? – Think about the logical consequences of past events.
  • What Questions Need Answers? – Let player curiosity drive exploration.

This method of play does require getting comfortable with improvisation. For some tips on upping your improve game you can check out my previous article on the subject.

Step 3: Build NPCs and Factions, Not Plots

Rather than rigid story arcs, create motivated NPCs with clear goals. If you establish what each faction or villain wants, they will naturally push the world forward, reacting to the players’ choices.

This keeps the game very fluid and flexible. It will actually create intricate and compelling stories without the rigidity and time spent on creating these beforehand.

Step 4: Use Player Backstories for Hooks

Weave your players’ backgrounds into the campaign. A character’s lost sibling, old rival, or mysterious prophecy can become central elements of the story, creating organic engagement without extra planning.

Step 5: Let the World React

One of the best ways to keep a campaign like this engaging is to make the world feel alive. To do that use the following:

  • Actions Have Consequences – If players ignore a threat, it advances.
  • Factions and NPCs Adapt – Enemies respond to failures and successes.
  • The Story Evolves – The campaign unfolds based on player choices, not a fixed script.

Final Thoughts

By using Dungeon World Fronts, embracing minimal prep, and letting players drive the story, you can create a rich, immersive D&D campaign without hours of meticulous planning. While this type of campaign can seem too freewheeling, it does in fact take less effort while creating adventures that the players get fully engaged with. By focusing on dynamic factions, evolving conflicts, and player-driven narratives, and you’ll have an unforgettable game that practically runs itself.

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Launching the Promethium Wars: Designing a Narrative Kill Team Campaign

Those who have been reading this blog for a while will know that I love the idea of stories emerging from game play. While this is obvious in games like D&D, I’m also interested in trying to create similar emergent experiences with other game systems. I’m a member of a local wargaming club where we play games of Kill Team and 40K on a weekly basis. I think there’s something special about a wargaming campaign that tells a story. Not one written in advance, but one that emerges—slowly, chaotically, gloriously—from the dice rolls, the table banter, and the narrative fragments players build together. With that in mind I volunteered to run a narrative campaign for the group. As a result, Promethium Wars, a narrative Kill Team campaign, was born.

I wanted something simple enough to run with minimal admin, but rich enough to spark real engagement amongst the participants. Something where a quick game on a weeknight could feel like part of a bigger war. Games would no longer be transactional affairs, but rather threads forming a larger narrative. And with twelve players already signed up—divided evenly across the Imperial, Chaos, and Xenos factions—it’s clear the idea has struck a chord.

Design Principles

Narrative and Emergent Storytelling were at the core of the campaign design. I didn’t want to script the campaign’s twists and turns. Instead, each week’s outcomes will steer the story. Players can dive in as much (or as little) as they want—whether that means writing full-blown battle reports, communicating in character or just rolling dice and watching the story evolve.

To keep things light and playable for everyone, I leaned into the principle of Limited Admin. No complicated map-tracking or bookkeeping for the campaign manager (me) or the players. Just clear weekly themes, short prompts, and a shared space for storytelling. Every game counts, but you don’t need to log three hours on a spreadsheet for it to matter. The minimum admin for each participant is to log game results and send them to me. Of course, if the players get really into the game the Discord server should begin to grow with narrative reports and banter, but it is not a requirement.

Each faction has its own win condition, giving players a reason to show up and push their agenda forward. The Chaos and Imperial factions want control of Pyrothis V and must win the most number of games. The Xenos faction, who can fight for either side, wants to grind both enemies down to an ineffective stalemate, wins if the Chaos and Imperial sides are effectively tied (two points difference). Regardless of the game mission being played, there’s always a motive. The stakes are casual but meaningful—exactly the balance I was aiming for.

My Imperial Navy Breacher Team, ready to help rescue Pyrothis V.

Structure and Themes

The last principle was Short Campaign Length. I don’t want the campaign to fizzle out. Keeping it short ensures that the high energy at the start can be maintained. Short, sharp, explosive. I hope that this will keep the players coming back for more campaigns in the future.

Therefore, the campaign unfolds over four weeks, with a new theme each week to guide missions and inspire storytelling. These themes won’t constrain players—they’re meant to be narrative fuel. Players are encouraged to run games when and how they like, as long as it fits the week’s vibe. The four themes are:

  • Week 1: Infiltration and Sabotage
  • Week 2: Open Conflict
  • Week 3: Firestorms and Disaster
  • Week 4: Final Gambit

Once reports begin trickling in from the front lines, I’ll be putting together a short newsletter each week to highlight key developments, turning points, and of course, the faction scores.

For more detail on the background, win conditions and campaign set up, you can download the players pack below:

Kill Team Narrative Campaign_Promethium Wars_Player PackDownload

A Living, Breathing War

Perhaps the most exciting part of any narrative kill team campaign is the player energy. Already, folks are crafting characters, naming squads, and giving them relevant back stories. And while there’s no pressure to write stories, every player is invited to contribute. These tales—written, spoken, or just shared at the table—are what will give the campaign its true shape.

Ultimately, Promethium Wars is a story we’re writing together. And the pen happens to be shaped like a bolter.

Final Thoughts on Narrative Kill Team Campaign Design

The campaign is started mid April and will run to mid May. I’m aiming to learn from this experience to hone the opportunity for emergent narrative play and see what comes out. Depending on the actions of the players I’m considering running a multiplayer finale to cement the end of the campaign. But the fact that this is an emergent experience I guess I’ll have to wait and see how the whole thing pans out.

Once the campaign has finished, I’ll post the results along with any lessons learned from the experience.