The Campaign Builder's Guild

Thanks for the link Lord Vreeg!

Quote from: Steerpike

That's partially true, but it's not precisely what I meant.  Preparing a dungeon crawl can be a pretty big workload depending on its size and scope, and running location-based adventures like hexcrawls and the like can be demanding as well, especially if done in a full sandbox style. 

Sorry, but what is a Hexcrawl?

Quote from: Steerpike
Fair enough - if that works for your group, go for it.  If you want to get more adventurous with a system you might try checking out hobby shops or even bookstores to see if they have a few old gaming books sitting on the shelf gathering cobwebs - you might be able to pick up a few cheap rulebooks.  Or perhaps ebay, of course.

If we really get into it i think we'll try hunt down D&D 3.5 and our hobby shop just sells Magic Cards and comic books and Minis. ='( i havent thought to check old bookstores ill give that a shot!
Thanks for all your help guys I really appreciate it!

Oh wow that sounds like an easier start, I may just go with that.

Quote from: Steerpike
What made you decide to go for a percentage-based system rather than adopting one of the many free roleplaying systems available online, i.e. D&D 3.5, Pathfinder, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Labyrinth Lord, etc?

Well we're all pretty poor as a gaming group. no one owns a laptop, printer or very many dice(I'm using my work computer right now ha ha). We have a few sets of percentage dice and some d6's and 2 d20's. The original GM made up the system up and its easy enough to play, either you pass or you fail. everyone has 6 "Hits" they can take before they get knocked out. We're not doing permanent death since its our first one haha. 

So, I'm going to need to create different "stages" where the villians scheme is going the way they plan it, and have that affect the world somehow and those will be the situations where a party will want to jump in?

on a slightly unrelated note...

Quote from: Ghostman
"Lots of people are suddenly accusing you of random acts of theft, vandalism, insults, etc. Several eye witnesses testify to these crimes being committed by you at times and places when you where somewhere else." (Doppelgangers are posing as the PCs and causing havoc to get them in trouble. They may have to dodge the law while hunting down these impostors to clear their names.)

this would be an awesome quest to go through!

Greetings Everyone!
I'm A new user to this site and  new Game Master looking for tips and ideas, I'm hoping you guys here at CBG will be able to help me out.
I've roleplayed a few times and plan on running a campaign for my close circle of friends (theres 4 of us) and we're running a really basic system on percentages(Basically the GM rolls the dice and you roll to beat him, if you do your action passed if not it failed. items/weapons can boost up your roll etc.)
I have the "World" mapped out so far, it's pretty simple; I have elves, dwarves and humans who all have their own kingdoms in their own continents and then there is a city on a small island thats independent of the kingdoms called Union city where the characters will start the story.
I'm looking for outlining tips on how to make a story. I believe I have all the nuts and bolts down for the world, (town names, guilds, terrains and areas of interest) but I have no idea how to make an engaging story where the characters wonder "whats going to happen next" and they actually look forward to gaming every week. My friend tried to run a game before me and it fell apart when we couldnt figure out what to do next and he had to bring in NPC's to tell us what to do, eventually everyone lost interest and we started playing Magic again. Now that we've had a break from that they've asked me to take the reigns and be a Game Master, I'll admit I'm a little nervous. 
If you could please help and give me tips to build a good storyline i'd really appreciate it!
-Tiberius