Arrrgghh!!! I give up!

[goodmanje]

Still have nothing.... Months pass and I fail to put anything together.

[LordEntrails]

So where are you at? What have you put together or have in your mind? Just one thing

[goodmanje]

You meet in a tavern....... boredom ensues.

[JohnD]

Personally I find that this is something that can't be forced. Wait for the urge to hit and it will flow much easier.

[monkeyboy_9000]

Id concur with JohnD, Sometimes block is just block. It'll come back at you while you least expect it (always carry a notebook or simillar digital option!)

One thing that i have found useful in the past when experiencing this is to enlist the players into doing some of the heavy lifting. I have shamelessly ripped off the Beyond the Wall RPG's "starting town" generator. by travelling around the table, each player gets to add an NPC, a Town location, a location further away from town and a plot hook - treasure, ruin etc... . You then decide what is true, what is false and what is a bit of both and hey presto you have a starting sandbox with NPCs, locations and hooks in which the players already both know, and are invested in to run with for session 1.

Good luck matey

[lostsanityreturned]

You meet in a tavern....... boredom ensues.

I highly recommend using a simpler system and not planning so much. From what I read you lack experience/confidence and have fallen into a rut of looking for where things could fail or be bad rather than what would be fun for you.

My advice,

- pick up Numenera 2e (very rules lite, focused on improve, generally doesn't require battle maps)
- pick up explorers keys or weird discoveries. They have four page adventures that are intentionally written light and flexible. You can see just how lite and flexible they are by downloading the free preview chapters.

If you feel like you need a more structured experience

- Forbidden lands by fria ligan. Rules medium system and more of an old style sandbox approach with modern mechanics. You can easily run it with zero prep between sessions and just improve everything between. (you do need to read up in advance.

I would like to go on the record stating that I think Paizo while they do write enjoyable adventures, I don't think anything they write is good for new GMs or teaching GMs... They often have word or mechanic soup and it can be overwhelming for many.

But seriously, Numenera... If you feel like you need more help they even have decks of cards that can help. For NPCs, weird additions, devices and such; it would have to be my go to "teaching GMing to people" system.
The GM doesn't even roll dice, it leaves a lot of room for a GM to just do what they feel is right.

[ddavison]

There's nothing wrong with running prepackaged adventures as well. You can always start off with them to provide a framework and then keep an eye out for opportunities to deviate from that story. It's a lot easier than trying to design the story from the ground up. As you gain more experience with that, you can start deviating more and more until you finally feel comfortable enough to completely do your own thing.

Another option might be to see if there are any online or in-person (not likely at the moment) lessons in improv acting.

[ProfDogg]

Campaigns:

Starfinder - Against The Aeon Throne **FAILED
Pathfinder - Iron Gods **FAILED

OK, totally off-topic but I've got to ask... According to your message signature, how badly did you fail Aeon Throne and Iron Gods?

(seriously though, I'd love to hear the stories)

[MODERATOR: moved to a relevant thread]

[Blahness98]

At one point I was going to run this: Town Of Glory (would have linked the FGG store, but their site is getting revamped) with a group since it is a base for them to mess around in. Good for a few levels, if not more. Gives you the basis for building a town and having the PCs gaij resources for said town. Maybe take a look as it is only 2 bucks right now.

[Mytherus]

My 2 cents if they prove even worth that...i much prefer to dm than be a player because i just enjoy storytelling...but i never force it. Forcing creativity is like forcing romance...it just doesn't work that way.

I've written nothing for months because i had no inspiration. Thats step one for me...get inspired. Movies books heck I've gotten ideas from being a player in someone else's game. Aa i get ideas i simply jot them down. I keep a stack of paper in my office for such an occasion.

As others said dont get too detailed or locked in to an exact story with every controlling detail...writing a dnd campaign is not like writing a movie. You don't know what your players will do or where they'll take the story.

I think of what i do is write a framework with plot points that somehow lead to an overall goal. How the players get to each plot point i dont know thats the part i call playing dnd....

I generally write my end game first and work backwards btw....it just works for me.

Maps and npcs i create last.

Again weird for some but it works for me I've always created story this way.