How to Plan A D&D Campaign: The 3 Arc Structure - DM Academy 

This video is made from my personal experience. Obviously, I am not saying this is the only way to build a campaign. This method is simply the best way that I have planned my campaigns for levels 1 to 20.

Important sidenote I didn't see the Author go over: Don't be afraid to work with a player who is losing interest in their character. Work with them to find a satisfactory resolution to that character's story arc (or not, if they're REALLY done) and sunset that character either gracefully or dramatically as appropriate, then introduce the new one. This can always be done, and can mark some interesting turning points in the story, making for some memorable twists.

This is the ingredient I was missing. When I tried DMing, I never ran out of ideas and I found out I had a hidden talent at improv. No matter what happened, I could sheperd the players in an interesting direction. There was never a railroad. But after a while, it all started falling flat. Kind of like a fatigue that could be overcome less and less. My campaign eventually became disjointed and boring. Improv is the content. Structure is the container. I lacked the container, which is why it all ended up spilling and losing strength.

This is a really clear guide. I started D&D back in 1979, DM’d from around ‘82-‘90 all in AD&D. Things have evolved so much (and for the better IMO). I introduced my daughter to D&D when she was 8 (2004) and she started full on playing 5e at Uni and asked her old school Dad to ‘guest’ in her last campaign and then I DM’d a few AD&D sessions for them (they were horrified 😂😂😂). But it’s re-inspired me to get my DM boots back on and jump into 5e (research via 2 CR campaigns)… so this was a fantastic pre-campaign design revision/update for me. Thank you!

What a phenomenal guide. Many DMs say that "narrative and plot is evil" at least in circles I view. This is what I need. Thank you!!!

As a new DM crafting a world from scratch, this video saved my life lmao. Surprised this video isn’t more popular. It’s a really solid guide!

Excellent stuff! One suggestion (if you haven't already done this), dial down the volume of the background music or drop it. I found it very distracting in places and had to replay a few sections to understand what you were saying. Thanks for the content and keep cranking out stuff like this!

This is an incredibly underrated video, thanks a ton for this!

You gained yourself a subscriber with this one! I'm doing my first homebrew world and campaign I've written from scratch. I've been having the damnedest time trying to link ideas naturally and this has helped so much!

This was incredibly useful. Please DO make more videos like this one. Super clear, actionable stuff.

Legit dude, your videos contain the best DM advice on the platform. Both this video and your plot web videos contain some of the most useful DM advice I've ever seen, and I love how in the plot web videos, you just use Google docs and photoshop. When you demonstrate a way I could improve my DMing and storytelling, you do it in a way that I can also do at home right now without buying anything. It's insane to me that you just post your advice online for free, but I appreciate it a whole lot. No shade to other D&D creators btw, I like a lot of them! I'm just mad I didn't come across Enter the Dungeon sooner!

Thx for the tips me lads. I've dm a campaign for my friends that has been run for 10session, early on I improv the whole thing as I'm actually pretty good at it as it's an open-world/sandbox type of game. I though those kind off campaign just goes with the flow of the party. But slowly and this year I realize having a structure is actually very very nice. Now i'm rewritting everything, writing every city lore, the world lore, and give the player a plot hook which the immediate and narrative arcs. I usually just goes with immediate arc, but I realized having everything flesh out till how my sandbox campaign end is insanely nice for me. So it's easier for me to improv things as I already planned out how the whole world goes. Again thx for the tips

As a new player (2 months) who has just done his first session as a DM (last weekend), this is an amazing video. The theoretical approach to the various arcs really helped me get a grip on how I want to approach this. As another comment said, having a video that shows practical aspect as well would be an amazing addition to this.

This is great advice for writing. I am going to leave you a comment that I wrote originally for another channel, but much of it applies here. I do like your video and how you try to minimize the railroading. Here is the comment: In my opinion, DMs are not storytellers (and a roleplaying game is not best played as a storytelling game. If you want to play a storytelling game, there are games designed as storytelling games that do that much better). A GM places challenges in front of the players, the players try to solve the challenges, and after you are done playing, then you can tell the story (or stories) about what happened at the table. As a byproduct of play, a story may emerge. It occurred to me recently that, at some time in the past (maybe around 3rd edition of D&D?), professional writers took over the design and adventure making of D&D; as opposed to the original D&D material which was written by a shoe repairman and a security guard, and other wargaming hobbyists. Sometime around then the game became about telling stories (which is just what you would expect a writer to be interested in) rather than the exploration of maps by PCs and combat with fierce creatures to obtain treasure [in a hexcrawl or a dungeon delve]. Video game influences (which are much more linier and similar to chose your own adventures) also began to influence TTRPG design [for the worse in my opinion]. Modules began to be written as movement from plot point to plot point, rather than allowing characters to roam around in the sandbox pursuing their own ideas and motivations. It seems like this was around the time that the term "railroading" arose and was used as a derogatory term by those of us who had grown up playing the open world/sandbox type of campaign to describe these ‘plot driven’ 'straightjacket' type of adventures. The linked videos are a great example of this point of view (which I agree with): ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4c9BoqE-jeY.html and ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PIQpVNbLwuE.html The 'story' is what happens at [or away from] the table AFTER the GAME is finished for the evening, when tales are told of what happened during the game. When I hear GMs, game designers and players talking about the three-act structure, overlaid by the Shakespearian five act structure, and then talking about the 'realization moment' in screenplays [coming at approximately page 80], and the climax of the story, and [heaven help us] the denouement, etc., etc., I know that I am listening to someone who likely learned to play after the rise of the 'storytelling/video game' type of adventure. Back in 1974, when age 10 to 25 year old 'kids' were putting together their D&D worlds and building sandboxes for others to play in, we had little formal education about 'story structure' and the like [and wouldn't have thought about using it in the design of a 'dungeon' or wilderness adventure anyway], but we knew enough to create situations and challenges for players to overcome, which creates the environment for conflict (which is critical to drama), and with players having created motivated characters who were seeking fame and fortune, and were placed in such a sandbox environment, they organically created story through play. Look at things like the Judges Guild materials from the late 70s. They are filled with locations, creatures, NPCs, random tables and such and not plot points, a main narrative, etc. A DM is not a storyteller and RPGs are best used as role playing games (which creates an immersive experience), and not storytelling games.

Great content, just found your site. Television provides a great reinforcement of your premise. Individual Episodes (Immediate Arc), the Whole Season (Narrative Arcs), and Show Finale / Spin-Offs, (Campaign Arcs). Thanks for validating what makes a better GM and a better player experience.

Dwight D. Eisenhower once said "plans are useless, planning is essential" this quote applies to Table Top RPG's

Just from somthing that was mentioned at the start of this video ,My favourite tips for not railroading but putting them in the right direction 1. Dont give them the whole sandbox at once 2. Just because you planned something to happen somewhere untill it has happened it can be anywhere. 3. Tempt them to go places with a promise of something that benefits them. Like magic items a pc is trying to attain. That's how I got my party to go to leilon after lmop

I struggle to find RU-vid videos that can learn me something (i have been gming for 30 years). I mean, i might have been doing this for years, but this is is formalising and reflecting so well. Thanks - i learned something

thank you so much, i can't even put into words how much that helped, i'm a first time dm in a homebrew setting and this is like finding a goldmine

Great video, and more DMs of all experience levels need to watch this on repeat. There are so many truths within the words that could change a game for any group. SUB earned. Well done.

This is great! I have what I think will be an amazing long campaign. I have struggled to get it all together so I can fill in the gaps without “planning” the entire story. This is the method I needed. Thank you so very much.

This is so good, Thank you! really helped me wrap my ideas together into a starting narrative arc where I feel comfortable Dming. One thing I still feel uncomfortable with is the introduction/ bringing the party together. I would love to see a video describing how to plan for a first session!

This video helps me so much in my campaign planning. Much thanks!

Such a good video had to watch it twice to account for that one who won’t watch all the way through. Excellent t work and tremendous ideas that can be very useful /implemented

This is, by far, the most helpful video about DMing I've watched. I'm writing a campaign and this is so helpful! Thank you!

I am building my campaign with Theros as a base game and modify from there. Your videos are helping a lot. Thank you so much!

I really agree with a lot of what this vid stated (now subscribed, thank you). My original campaign arc was the elimination of slavery (taken from the book series “The Sleeping Dragon” by Joel Rosenberg). It was something that everyone was against and tons of crazy/scary moments. Kudos my friend.

Perfect. Thank you. Just what I was looking for :)

I’ve heard a few of these videos. Liked hearing your Flee Mortals review, and these videos re: plotting and webs have been a great reminder. Stuff I learned from reading Angry GM blogs, but re-contextualized here.

One thing I would consider is that not all campaign has to go to level 20 to be “successful”. Most campaigns “should” be at least one tier of play (in 5e that would be 1-5 level.)

This was amazingly helpful!

You should have way more subscribers! Excellent video!

Very well done, thanks for the video!

The only immediate arc that I "railroad" is the very first adventure. Mainly because the first adventure is the establishing adventure which leads to the campaign theme that I pitched to the players in the first place, so it would be illogical of them to make a character unwilling to go on that adventure. Aside from that, my usual method of campaign planning is to have a World erected around the characters to a certain distance with various Planned Events that will occur at a certain time. If the characters are in a position to influence those events when they happen, they can change the course of future-history. Else, future-history occurs as it is planned out in ways that may lead to all sorts of shenanigans up to and including the End of the World as we know it. I do give them hints and hooks to lead them to interfering with the villains plans, but if they decide they'd rather be dinosaur ranchers than fight the big bad guy, I let them do it. Ha ha ha...

I have rewatched this several times and will do so several times more. I want to burn it deep into my subconscious.

I loved this video and this approach to campaign design. I'm currently planning my next game and I've been thinking of a similar approach, 3 adventures with an overarching campaign - but you took it a step further by tying in individual sessions too. I'd love to see a further exploration of this idea, maybe with campaign and adventure examples - but more importantly I'd love to see an example of how you might actually plan a campaign like this. How you format your notes, your ideas, keep track of everything etc.

Damn, this video was fucking awesome! I can't believe I haven't heard about an arc structure for D&D planning, it makes so much sense!

From a story structure standpoint, this is really good, and I think it applies for other non-D&D rpgs

Thanks 👍 great work Sir

Great stuff. 10/10.

Way to bring the nebulous idea of "I want to start a campaign" down to manageable bite sized increments.. you've unblocked me sir! Thank you!

Great vid!

This is an amazing video and it's helped me out a lot! I will say though that I found the music to be a little too lound, not quite drowning out your voice, but almost on par with it. But its just a little nitpick, wonderful video!

This video is fantastic. I do have a question about how to connect two or more narrative arcs. In the video you used the example of the Necromancer and being a cog in a great machine. Would the next Narrative be another Necromancer? How would you make the 2nd Narrative arc distinct from the first? You gained a sub from me on this day. Thank you for the video.

This is a great video!!! The only difference I would make is to make 'Character Arcs' also. Character Arcs would be kind of in the same vein as Narrative Arcs. But yeah. Thanks!

this shit is so helpful. I think I already did this anyways, but putting a name to it really helps to know what I should do as a dm :)

Nice dude! Have a sub ❤

I want more please.

Necromancer raises a village's dead as an undead army, and marches off to war. Village hires heroes to get the bodies of their loved ones back.

Love the video dude! Learned a lot. Just a quick note (that is completely my opinion only), Music is kind of loud and is competing with your voice

Thanks for posting this! PeakContent

so how should i use this ? should i do immediate, narrative and then campaign arcs. or should they flow together? i’m a little confused

Will it be correct to say that during the campaign the players will concentrate on campaign arc more and more then on other arcs?

I'm much better at improv and my session notes can usually fit on one standard index card as a few important bullet points of what I expect to happen that session as big vauge ideas, info I need to make sure I deliver to them in some fashion, and names of npcs or monsters who's stat blocks I need on hand. The only thing I feel like needs careful planning is a dungeon or an event directly involving a major plot point.

Can there be a campaign that concludes in like 3 sessions? My friends are only casual players with mild interest in the game so it would be better to give them something where it doesn’t feel like they are getting drafted into a year long military deployment

We play from 7pm to 11pmonce a week but it feels like my pcs take an hour to do anything. If I present them with a cave they will look around the entrance for like 30 minutes despite nothing changing. They also role for need every time they do something like the scene is a pinatas and they just have to keep searching for something and rolling despite nothing changing. A magical sword or beast isn't gonna burrow out of the calm ground.

Out of curiosity how often do you level up your players characters in a 1-20 campaign? I've toyed around with different time frames and haven't found one I'm satisfied with

I used to be one of those GMs scared of being a "railroad" GM. Haha I still remember going up to my players a day after the first couple sessions being all like "Excuse me, but am I a bad GM? 🥺👉👈" I laugh about it now, but its honestly making me a bit sick how scared I was over nothing.

Very solid GM advice useful for every kind of ttrpg imho. Why not promote this as system agnostic?

Please tell me there is a template or outline for all the tips given in this video! 🙏🏾

Thanks for the content. Oh neat, 100th comment.

how long are your table's sessions? Mine are usually 3-3 1/2 hours, they probably couldn't clear a dungeon or a heist or simular arc every session

Hello, you said that these are quick solutions but they are bad? How so?

Whats the main difference between the Narrative Arc and the Campaign Arc? (A little confused there)

The fact I watched this and already formed the arches lol

Me want more

hey I know this vid is old and I like the content in it, but I do think the music is too loud compared to your voice, which makes it hard to follow at times.

Wait is the Devils losing the blood war that common of an arc?

this seems like a good video but the music is way too loud and its really distracting

Nice vid but the music is pretty distracting

I think this is good advice but not the best advice. I have a few comments. 1) The amount of guidance a group needs depends drastically on the specific players. It's a feel thing at the table as to whether the group needs you to offer more or back off and let them have their fun. 2) The story should happen at the table - not in the planning. I like most of your advice for the intermediate arcs but I wouldn't structure this as a linear story, instead make a network of NPCs that are in conflict with each other and give those NPCs motivations and world views it works best if the players could reasonably take more than one side. Leave out any planning that assumes the PCs should want to do anything in particular (*). I like to end each immediate arc with a question that creates a change that propagates the the web of NPCs and based on where that starts to take the story, other NPCs in the web will take moves that change the setting propagating more changes. (these changes will typically occur in the background of the next immediate arc you want the action to overlap. 3) Rather than having an overarching arc I would do two things. One establish themes, mood, vibe of the campaign to the players before anybody creates a character. Get everybody on the same page as to what sort of story this is. This helps create a level of coherence that generic D&D just does not have. Secondly use your knowledge of story structure to ramp up the cadence of action over time, building tension and releasing it but always ratcheting up the stakes. You don't need to have planned out a specific story arc to do this. (*) there is an exception to this rule and this is when the player comes to you and says that they want their character to go through a specific type of arc.

I very much misread “arc” as “act”

So when can I be a player in your campaign 😅

my friends refuse to play a module they want me to make a game. ive tried a few times, but they refuse to accept that i have no idea what goes into a game lol. i got lucky with a ew funny moments but thats about it

Your writing the adventure story for the players to experience before hand? The story is what the players characters do and experience not following a scripted story.

Good video but the music is far too loud.

Good work, but it would be helped by more specific examples. As it stands it's not really a guide on how to make a campaign, but more a philosophy on how to approach it.

The background music is _way_ too loud

Great video, but the audio is overpowering and sort of drowns the important information out

It's sensible to think in terms of structural 'arcs', but you seem to want them to be simple and non-overlapping. I think it's better to offer choice. In the real world, there are choices. You could explore the Orinoco or you could tackle cocaine gangs. Both of these, and many more, possibilities exist simultaneously. There might equally be more than one campaign arc. Following one arc might see a bad outcome from another. I would not waste time on solutions to problems. The players can do that on their own. There is an army of undead, I'd leave the reast to the PCs. By the way it's pronounced over-arch-ing. No over-ark-ing.

This is all fine, and your campaign can be perfectly planned to never run out of encounters, have plenty of options, etc. but players stop playing. Players move away. Play groups fall apart for all sorts of reasons, and the reason is never that GMs aren't prepared unless sessions are being cancelled too often for that reason. It can't always be the gamemaster's responsibility to keep the game going.

Cool video but the background music is super annoying

I am pretty sure that you should plan adventure this way. Creating new Player Characters. Becaus you are a killer Game Master this is nessasary. Kill a few low level monster's or the whole town because the Players Made revenge characters just because you killed off thier whole party the last four times you got together. Then you let them fight the big boss. The will probably die here, but if they don't you can give them a big catch of loot which should include fools gold, cursed items, poison potions and lots of deadly traps. Just remember it is you against them.

nice, the muzak is tiresome :) you do not need it

Some criticism to you improve here: The begginig of the video is tough. Please, stop using this background music, and be more straight (you don't need to repeat the same thing 3x in 3 minutes). Idk If you already do this now days, but i'm trying to watch this vídeo for the 3rd time, and always want to close It because of the music and repetition in the begginig.

Too much railroading. Set up situations and adjudicate the players’ interactions with them. You’re not writing a story, you’re creating a situation.

You do a great job of repeating yourself over and over...oh and then you repeat the same thing again. This video should have been 5 minutes long.