There are certainly more than seven things you can advise another DM about when discussing successful campaign starts but, here are what I consider to be the seven most important.

Building your own campaign world can be the best part about DM'ing the game of Dungeons & Dragons. Everything is fresh and the future, along with its possibilities, are uncharted and unlimited. This world will be yours and reflective of your vision. You can do just about anything you want with it. This is also quite possibly the most important time in regard to making decisions that will determine how long your campaign world will last. To maintain a long-term campaign you will have to continually peak the interest of your players who in turn will then bring life to the concepts you have envisioned. To do so requires more than just an understanding of the rules. It requires a sense of how to develop interesting, believable people and places, mystery, a plot line and a structure of rules and adjudications that will be both consistent and comprehensible to your players.

My estimate after reviewing posts and corresponding with literally hundreds of Dungeon Masters over the last few years is that somewhere in the neighborhood of four out of five campaigns which are started, fade away within one year. Certainly many examples of long-term campaigns exist so what generally consistent traits do they and their DM's seem to share? I've put some of them together to form the following seven "keys" to successful campaign starts:

Key One: Don't lose control before you've begun. When supervising the creation of the player characters be initially conservative. An old expression says that is hard to get the toothpaste back in the tube. This is every bit as true in regard to giving out high level magic devices, special innate abilities or making exceptions to the standard game rules. Now with that said, feel free to do some of these things anyway if you want to. Just do so with the utmost caution and with respect to the tube of toothpaste theory.

Key Two: Don't give things away! Just like your grandpa used to say, "If you don't earn it you won't appreciate it." The harder your players work for what they receive the more they will tend to value it. Don't be "Ebenezer Scrooge" but don't be "Phil the Philanthropist" either. Finding just the right balance will keep your players slightly hungry but never starving.

Key Three: Start small. Don't expand your campaign faster than the players can absorb the complete picture you are presenting. Initially have your player characters interact with a small group of NPC's, such as a bartender, town official a few merchants, 1-2 mysterious characters or an enemy. Start with a single or limited number of cities or towns. Doing this will allow your players to get familiar with the places, people (Dwarves, Elves, whatever) and basic natural laws of your world. With your rich descriptions and good role-play of the personas and atmosphere, they will soon begin to "see" these things in their own minds. Once this "Vision" is substantially solid for your players they will begin to add substantially to the depth and quality of your world with their own written and verbal descriptions of people places and things. Once this begins it can have a snowball effect and soon other players will eventually be creating NPC's, castles, cities, even entire kingdoms over the coming years.

Key Four: Don't over-award experience points. Most players need to grow with their characters (especially spell casters) and if advanced too quickly are likely to do foolish things that will embarrass them or endanger the party. This can create an atmosphere were sarcasm and put-downs interfere with the parties teamwork and morale. The magic user who in ignorance casts his fireball in a confined area and kills one of his group should never have been advanced to a level which would allow him the spell until such time as he was conversant in it's uses. I personally require spell-casting characters to pass a verbal test demonstrating their mastery of the spells from previous levels before actually awarding them the ability to begin casting from a new level.

Key Five: Find your perfect game play mix. Every group (and actually almost every individual) has their own ideal mix of hack and slash, role play, problem solving, treasure hunting, world creation and the other aspects of game play that make AD&D a game that appeals to different people for different reasons. Find a balance that gives your game a variety of play options.

Key Six: With your new world spinning around in the maelstrom you call your brain, it's easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of your thoughts and forget that the plots and the over-all unfolding of your worlds history (like all good things) must be allowed to occur over time. Be patient and allow things to evolve in a natural way. Don't force the direction of the plot but instead guide it and allow the players, the die rolls and fate to create the results. Don't have your characters become great lords over night. They must eat hard tack and strain to find a way across a rapid stream before they can appreciate the days when they eat steak and use their "Ring of flying".

Key Seven: From the beginning, establish for yourself and your players what your role as Dungeon Master will be. You are the creator, the referee, the judge and jury. With this comes responsibility. Be consistent, credible and evenhanded. Keep yourself above petty squabbling. Listen to your players fairly and adjudicate carefully. Failure to do so will likely cause players to lose faith and eventually leave your game. Don't tolerate argument after a decision is made. It is usually best to give your players at chance to have their say but once you have ruled the subject is closed. If you feel it appropriate allow further conversation after the run or submitted in writing (this alone can separate the petty comments from the serious points). Few Dungeon Masters know every rule or have a ready-made interpretation for every possible situation. We prepare the adventures, set the scenario, place the NPC's and when the unexpected comes along we try to make the most educated rulings possible.

To some extent as a dungeon master you may be getting a glimpse of what one of the gods might actually feel. Knowing so much more than the mortals, yet unable to share this knowledge with anyone who it would matter to. The players must forever remain in the dark or at least gain their knowledge in bits and pieces. Occasionally you may feel it appropriate to allow yourself the luxury of sharing with your players how clever and well conceived the machinations of your world, it's NPC's or underlying structure are but by the very nature of this game we love, you must generally be satisfied sitting alone in the seat of omnipotence. Satisfaction comes when your players arrive each game expectant and eager to start. If that doesn't do it for you then you are in the wrong game my friend.

As always just MHO,

Thrandorian