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

How do you plan a full length D&D campaign? Many new DMs do not know where to begin. In this video I will walk you through the 3 arc structure and how you can use it to make your next epic dungeons and dragons campaign!

All of the advice in this video is based on my own subjective experience. If you are already a DM and use a different method, good for you. However, this advice has worked for me and my many DnD groups for years.

00:00 Intro
02:38 Immediate Arcs
04:00 Narrative Arcs
08:20 Handling Player Solutions
10:41 Plan Something, Anything!
11:21 Campaign Arcs
15:07 Have a Time Limit

[enterthedungeon]

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.

[teknobardthewanderer]

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.

[kickbackkid]

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!!!

[claude-alexandretrudeau]

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.

[JoelYoungnpa]

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!

[kookookapleksky]

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!

[elric]

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!

[eminercy]

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

[mikec]

This is the advice other channels really aren't covering (and I watch and appreciate a lot of them). Your plan really levels up the stakes and emotional involvement of the players and leads to a satisfying conclusion. I loved your advice on what to do if the players come up with an alternate solution to the narrative arc.

I realize this is 3 years old, but the advice is timeless. Thanks!

[joancornudella]

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

[dmytro.hrishanov]

I’m just planning to lead a campaign and I love this video, because it not only gives me a better vision, but also makes my mind think about my own ideas. Long story short thanks a lot for making such a great video

[waffleman]

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

[chefsg]

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.

[andymattina]

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!

[zerx]

Thank you. It feels like i knew all that all along but never had it "written down" in my brain. Now I know why I instinctively wanted to "divide" my big campaign into smaller ones.

[TheWordNrd]

Hi, I just want you to know that I have come back to this video multiple times bc it really helps me think through how I want plan things. Thank you!

[helenemenemu]

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

[connordempsey]

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

[Marcus-kien]

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.

[greystorm]

I struggle to find YouTube 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