Writing a One-Page Campaign Document

The one-page campaign document is a primer on what kind of world you’re running and what the next campaign is going to be like. High Medieval fantasy? Survival Horror? East Asian warlords? All Dwarves (and that one Hobbit?)

The Realms of Cyfandil

It helps players understand what they’re getting into and what characters will work better in the world. It will also give them a chance to feed back to you during your Session Zero.

Send this to the players before Session Zero. Or at least tell them that the several of you will be spending some time with one of these. When Session Zero arrives, read this to the players and then hand out the page.

Make sure that everything fits on one page. People won’t read more than that.

Each one-page campaign document will be different, but here is the template I like to use.

“One Sentence”

One sentence to tie the characters to the world and to each other. This limits options somewhat, but it ensures that the players have a good idea about making characters which fit with each other and with the world. 

For example, the one sentence for my Port setting  is, “Prince Jaroslav lays dying.” This sets the mood with an evocative and strongly cultural name, and with the sense that things are at least in transition, if not in decline.

“What Is New” 

Things that set the campaign world apart from others they have played. For folkstyle d, you would write about the problem-solving nature of the game, the nearness of death, the face-up play style, and the rulings, not rules.

Campaign Truths - “Things Everybody Knows” 

The next section of the document gives the players a few nuggets of common knowledge. These are things that both the players and the characters will know. They are not hints or secrets. They just help define the premise of the world. Do not write more than six of these. Fewer is okay. 

“Factions and Patrons”

give the players some background on the power centers, at least in the immediate area. 

I use seven (!!) factions in my Port setting, but players generally choose among four of them. (Reasons. Unusual settings sometimes require unusual solutions.) In your setting, I recommend at least three and maybe as many as five, but over five, and players’ eyes tend to glaze over. (I’ll use fewer in Cyfandil.)

It’s also quite possible that the players don’t care much for factions and politics at all; or they wish to travel the majestic wilderlands far and wide. Factions and patrons still gives the players two things:

1. a better feel for the construction of the world, so they can better mold their character concept, and

2. a place to get their starting quests. Much better than “you meet in a tavern” or in media res. 

Who knows? They may end up liking factions after all, since they provide powerful allies.

“Lines and Veils:”

Lines are hard lines about what sensitive topics will, and won’t, appear in the campaign. Veils are softer lines - a veiled idea might happen offstage rather than being played out. 

Tell the players which sensitive topics might come up, and which will come up. Ask each player if there is a topic or topics they would like to avoid. This establishes trust and boundaries. Sometimes these lines and veils will cross each other. It’s better to sort out what is out of bounds prior to session one. 

Here’s an example. In my Cyfandil campaign, there will be three distinct races of people, analogous to Nordic White, East Asian and North African. I don’t plan to broach controversial issues of race at all, but there is a real-world shade to the campaign where three different peoples make up Mankind. I also want to have traditional boy-girl romance and very little human-demi human race mixing, if any. 

By the standards of this decade, these are all controversial ideas. There were nonwhites in actual medieval Europe (in small numbers.) I will have a multiracial table including at least one mixed race child. I want my several players to be

able to choose a character that’s like themselves (without limiting them so.) I will explain the romance and mixing expectations as adhering to the genre. Certainly, your world will be much, much different. 

Additionally, ask the several players if there is something they absolutely want to try. And then try to find a way to make that possible. There are some concepts that simply won’t work with some settings, but do your best to make them work somehow. 

One important line to mention straightaway in folkstyle d is that your paper man will die, and that’s okay. You, the player, don’t lose when your character dies - his story ends. You just use another character and carry on playing with your friends. 

After Session Zero you should update the document based on your conversation and send it out or hand it out to everyone again. 

That's a lot!

Yes. Yes it is. That’s a lot for one page. Write small. Use two columns. But make sure it’s one page.

 

In the header, put the name of the campaign and the version number of the document.

In the footer, put your name, email and phone.

 

You can do this. I can do this. In fact, I’m going to do it for my Cyfandil campaign now.