Initial Campaign Questionnaire

Pretty sure I've posted about my buddy Topher's pre-campaign questionnaire. I was first exposed to this document when we co-hosted some variation of "How to GM" at Origins back in 2007 (or so). My part focused on how to run a more frugal (less resource-intensive) game and IIRC Topher focused on some of the broader game/campaign management, hence the questionnaire.

Back in my earlier HackMaster days, when I was trying to get some local tournaments going, I repeatedly ran into HackMaster players that had been playing with the same group for decades, but had never left one of the player's basement....and they never intended to...which is a problem when you need a specific number of players before a HackMaster tournament is considered valid. Topher kind of had one of these groups, but they had no qualms about playing with others at tournaments. 

Actually, they were pretty much a well-oiled tournament machine that eventually became the group that writers specifically wrote against, which always rubbed me the wrong way...but that's for another time. One big thing they did is create characters as a group, ensuring to fill specific roles within the party, and often the party, and campaign, was themed. I can think of three examples, but will only give two: One campaign was essentially Hogwarts where every PC was some type of magic-user and every level was a year of the magical school. The other was a group of thieves adventuring during the fall of Constantinople.

Now I'm not Topher and I'm not sure that I can pull off his type of game/campaign, but then again I don't have his players. Not a dig on my players at all. We haven't played that type of game and likely never will, partly because of the nature of the group. I am the odd man out, living in another state, and I highly doubt we'll have a steady Monday night game.....but you never know.

Even so, I am totally stealing Topher's campaign questionnaire, but I tweaked it heavily for my own use. The questions are fairly generic though and I think others might get some good use out of it, so here it is. I actually have two versions,  the "plain" PDF and a rather quick & dirty PDF form. I am not a fan of the form because I'm not willing to spend too much time on it, and it's a bit... finicky. For the list boxes you have to use the up/down arrows and then click on the box to set the answer. 

Meh...ugly but it works. Just click on the appropriate picture to open the document in your browser, then download.

Blank Questionnaire

Questionnaire Form