D&D: Five Ways to Get Your Campaign Unstuck
Is your campaign spinning its wheels? Here are five tricks you can use to try and get your campaign unstuck and running again.
We’ve all been there. The campaign you’ve been carefully working on seems to be stalling out. Maybe there’s been one too many shopping episodes (no such things) or maybe the players haven’t found the secret clue they need to unlock the next stage of the macguffin, or maybe the big bad evil guy’s plans are too impenetrable. Whatever the reason, you can feel it when the wheels are spinning. Every session you start looking for reasons to set off arguments about the rules or to pick out what snacks or dinner you want to have this time around.
Well fret not. It happens to everyone. And here are a few things you can try to get your campaign back on track.
Listen to the Players
First and foremost, if your campaign seems to be stalling out, listen to the players. They’re likely just as aware as you are. If you’re lucky, they’re in the middle of trying things to figure out where to go next. The worst possible outcome is when the players have given up trying things and you’ve given up figuring what might happen.
Before you get there, even if it’s something that you don’t think might work or is a waste of time, listen to what the players are thinking. Or maybe have an NPC ask them in game, prompt them to think about their plans, and to outline what they want to do next. This might be a good way to look for gaps in the player characters’ knowledge that an NPC or better yet, a skill check, might help fill in.
Let the Dice Do the Talking
Of course, if the problem is you just don’t know what to do next, it’s time to consult the oracle. The dice gods often know what kind of story they want to tell. And you can put this to the test by consulting those tabletop haruspex—random tables.
There are plenty of places to go looking for random tables. Mythic Role-Playing offers some great Oracles, as do both Ironsworn and Starforged. All you really need is some tables to roll on to try and figure out what comes next. Even if you don’t find the answer right away, learning what doesn’t feel right is just as valuable.
Something Big Happens
If the campaign seems to be fizzling out because nothing is happening, or because things are a little too predictable. Maybe the players figured out that you were secretly running them through a My Dinner With Andre themed Dungeon and now they’re rebelling. Or maybe the dice have been just absolutely throwing up roadblock after roadblock.
Well. Time to make something big happen in the world. For moving a campaign along, there’s nothing quite like a volcanic eruption or a meteor falling to earth. You can only really do this like once—maybe twice—a campaign, but a big earth-shaking event has a way of literally shaking up what the players are doing. It gives them something to respond to. A sudden earthquake near their home base might spur them to action to try and save their favorite NPCs. Or at least the stuff they want to keep.
Recap Recap Recap
Another good tactic to keep things moving, especially if people seem stuck on what to do next, is to recap what they know so far. Take a page out of a TV show and either do a pre-session summary that maybe highlights something interesting, or better yet, ask the players what’s happened so far. What do they know. What do they think they know, and what do they think they don’t know?
But before we get too lost into known unknowns and unknown unknowns, the point is, taking some time to look back on what you’ve done can often lead to figuring out where to go next. Maybe the players remember some detail you forgot about. Or maybe they talk about some plot point that wasn’t a big deal, but now that they’re circling it, interest is piquing. When that happens, you’re ready to move on.
Take a Break
Last but certainly not least, the value of taking a break cannot be overstated. Campaigns can be tough sometimes. You’re playing week in, week out (or whatever your schedule is) eventually you’ll hit a patch of calm wind and still seas. That’s just part of the rhythms of life.
When that happens and nothing seems to be working, maybe it’s time to take a little break? Play a one shot. Or a board game. Just take a little time away from the campaign, give all that lore and all those plot points a chance to marinate in the back of the brain.
Then, when you reconvene, you’ll be surprised at what has percolated up from that greyest of matter.
How do you get your campaign moving again after it’s been stuck?
