It’s time to bring in the Mentor.

Everybody needs a reason to go on a dangerous Quest.  Your players will have more buy-in to the storyline if they feel like something is in it for them.  Of course, some players don’t engage much with the role-playing part of the story, and others are very reluctant heroes who need a good push out the door.

That’s where the Mentor comes in.  The classic mentor figures are guys like Obi-Wan Kenobi and Gandalf; wise old Wizards who can tell the young hero what he needs to do – and maybe train him a little bit, or give her the special item that’ll give a much-needed edge later on.

They don’t always have to be old wizards.  The Mentor could be the King, or a parent, or anybody with wisdom to share about the coming trial.  (The Ranger who last went to the Mountain of Shadows to get the Pearl Orchid.)  Even a bard with a good story could help out – give the heroes that last bit of advice and a shove of motivation to get them moving along.

The Mentor is your device to give the heroes a compelling reason to take up the dangerous quest; to change their minds if they refused the adventure, to give them advice and make sure they’re properly equipped for the trial to come.  The Campaign worlds we’ve created over the years have usually had plenty of Mentor figures built in; often the same Mentor would appear in different campaigns, giving a new band of heroes that extra nudge out the door.

Now, if all else fails, you can simply use an authority figure for the mentor – the aforementioned monarch, or a military leader, or one of the gods.  That’s your last resort to get the heroes moving – but it’ll work.

Now that they’ve accepted the quest, they’ll need to cross over into the adventure proper – I’ll cover that in Part Five.

The heroes answer ‘Why should we?”

The Gamemaster is thinking ‘because if you don’t, you’ll just sit here in the tavern all night?’ … but that won’t get the heroes motivated to take up your quest.  Don’t worry, you didn’t do anything wrong, they’re just being proper heroes.

Whether your realize it or not, most heroes in Western epic stories say ‘no’ when they’re first given the Quest, whatever it is.  Did Frodo jump at the chance to walk to Mordor with the Ring?  Did Luke forget all about his family and leap at the chance to run off with Ben Kenobi?    (Concidentally, this is why the boastful Beowulf feels wrong to a modern audience – back then, you had to brag about your reputation to people who didn’t know you.  Western storytelling has changed in 1,200 years)  Your players are just trying to play heroes the way they’ve seen them played on the big screen or in various splendid books.

So – you have to be ready for this.  All your players are really asking for is a REASON why they should care.  You could plan these things in advance – the Paladin, for example, could be engaged to the damsel in distress.  Now not only is he going, he’ll work to talk the other players into the adventure.  Or the Rogue could be in debt to the local crime lord, and desperate for both money and a way out of town.  If you haven’t planned these things in advance, you could spring them on the heroes after they’ve refused the quest.  Remember that every player is going to want his character to be hooked as an individual – everyone always sees themselves as the hero of their own story.  Play to that if you can.

Sometimes you won’t have prepared backstory for every character, or you’ll have players who don’t do that level of roleplaying development, or you’ll just want to shove the campaign along so you can get to slaughtering orcs for silver coins before midnight.  That’s when you bring in the Mentor – which I’ll address in Part Four.

D20 games occasionally allow you to randomly generate the treasures a given foe will have in their posession.  Though I believe generating the treasure on purpose is better – and giving it some history.

There’s nothing quite as absurd as an old Diablo II graphic, where your avatar slays a swarm of bugs – which promptly drop a chain shirt.  While this wasn’t bad loot, it was kind of an open question as to where the bugs were carrying a chain shirt.  Was each one carrying a single link?  It’s not like they have pockets.  How did they lift it?

Treasure in campaigns should be similar.  It wouldn’t make much sense for a giant octopus to have a few scrolls, for example (unless they were locked in a waterproof chest), or a fire elemental with a bunch of magical robes.

Some of the best loot I’ve ever created for my heroes was custom-made for that hero.  One Fighter in particular got a single sword from a tomb.  The sword had a name, and a history – it had belonged to a great champion from a century before.  The sword had a twin, which that Fighter began questing after for many adventures.  Once the pair was aquired – famous swords, that he’d worked to obtain – these swords were maintained by this hero for campaign after campaign, even after the point where they really weren’t quite powerful enough to be held on to.

In other games, I’ve worked out a backstory for the treasure of a particular monster or hero.  How did they get this loot?  Why have they kept it?  What’s it’s story?

Finally, I started doing one more thing – that probably wasn’t intended by the rules.  I started looking through the loot for things the creature owning it could actually use.  Assuming the foe in question was smart enough and could use it, why wouldn’t they use the +2 Flaming Sword that was in their ‘treasure’?  A PC certainly would.  There’s nothing like a mid-level foe suddenly attacking with an unexpectedly powerful magical weapon or armor – after all, it was in his treasure hoard.

A giant hook descends from the sky, siezes the Hero, and drops him someplace far more exciting.

Well … not literally.  Though that might work.

After the characters have been established in their normal, everyday world, it’s time to yank them out of it.  Ideally, you’ll have come up with a good enough catalyst to get your heroes moving, or at least introducing the idea of an adventure to them.

There’s several methods I’ve seen over the years to accomplish this.  Remember, your characters want a reason to get moving – they don’t want to be railroaded into following the storyline.

Part of Something Bigger:  The heroes could be part of a military outfit, religious order,  a corporation, or a street gang.  Regardless of what it is, all the heroes are included, and they all answer to someone who can just tell them what to do.

Family Ties:  The heroes are part of a family that obligates them to act.  This can be as simple as the patriarch requiring them to do a deed, or a kidnapped relative, or the tribal headman ordering his braves to go steal horses.

Reward:  The most common idea is appealing to greed – the players will be well paid for their labors.  This works quite well for some heroes, but others aren’t motivated by money, or are so wealthy they don’t see risking their lives for your cause (this happens a lot with veteran heroes).

Something Else:  Depending on the environment and the heroes that your players have built, they may have been kind enough to include their own hooks.  Revenge and vendetta are always fun.  Occasionally you’ll have romance or some other kind of quest.  These are always useful, because they motivate your heroes strongly to push the quest – which they might not do for mere money.

Now, there is a good chance your intrepid heroes will initially say no – that’s part of western heroic structure.  I’ll cover that in Part Three.

Want your campaign to feel epic without saving the world (again)?  Try the structure I’ll outline below the fold.

Most stories follow a kind of macro-pattern.  Guys like Joseph Cambell and Christopher Vogler have analyzed these stories and come up with an outline that most heroic tales follow.  I’m borrowing from their hard work to present a general pattern for an adventure.

Its my belief that a good story-based campaign can be played in about a dozen adventures.  It’s long enough to establish good characters, villains, and build up to a climactic ending – but not so long as to feel like you’ve seen and done everything there is to do.

I’ll be breaking this into parts, but not every part should be it’s own session (though it could be).  Three or four might be covered in a single session, or one phase might take several sessions to resolve.

The first thing in your campaign is an establishment of things as they are – what Vogler calls the Ordinary World.  All those characters your players just made – are they from the same small town where nothing ever happens?  Street kids in the world’s biggest city?  Mercenary brats?  Establishment of the way things are matters, because it gives the heroes something to contrast their later adventures with – and it gives their characters memory.

Another possible hook this establishes is a ‘home’ to return to at the end of the adventure.  All players want to feel like the hero – that’s part of why they’re playing.  Being able to have your character return to his starting point and demonstrate all the changes and improvements they’ve made while out having adventures is a nice reward.

Naturally you should configure this phase of things to the relative power of the characters.  If they are inexperienced kids just off the farm, then their world should reflect this.  If they’re already powerful heroes, they might exist in a more complex world with their own responsibilities and expectations.  Once you’ve established the way things are, you’ve primed the characters for phase two – the carefully prepared adventure hook.