If you watch my Sandbox Campaign Creation Process videos, you will note that I make a lot of lists.

Lists are one of my favorite game mastering tools for creating a campaign, preparing for an individual session, and running the game at the table.

I use lists to help with sandbox campaign planning

Planning is most obvious reason to make a list. We all make to-do lists, shopping lists, packing lists and more.

Writing out a list of things I need to prepare before I start a campaign is basic sense. Sandbox campaigns can be complicated. Having a list of things I need to get together is helpful to make sure I don’t forget something important and then show up for the first session missing a key piece of the game.

Help me focus

I have ADHD and anxiety issues.

I am easily distracted. I forget what I’m working on if I set it aside for a while. I get uptight when something doesn’t seem to be working the way I want.

A list of tasks I need to complete can help me to see where I left off and what I have left to do.

If a task seems too big and overwhelming, I create list of sub tasks that add up to the big thing. Rather than write down “Design Dungeon Level,” I’ll list

• Make a list of monsters
• Make a list of traps
• Make a list of NPCs

I can break each of those lists down further if I need to. Breaking the work of creating a thing down into smaller steps with their own list makes it more manageable when I get the knot in my gut that it is all just too much to handle.

I have a list of questions I ask about the major NPCs in my campaign.

• What does he want?
• Why can’t he have it?
• What is he doing about it?
• What resources does he have at his disposal?
• What does he look like?
• Who are his enemies?

This reduces the feeling of overwhelm I can get when I think about making a major NPC. One bite at a time.

Sandbox Campaign Brainstorming

Many of the lists I make are brainstorming lists. Each list will be specific to the step of the process that I’m working on.

In the beginning, I brainstorm a list of the most powerful entities, monsters, factions, and non-player characters that could be in my campaign. I pick the most interesting things I brainstormed from those lists and create a concept and outline for my campaign.

I can add or subtract later. Having a list gives me a place to start.

Lists help with campaign expansion

My brainstorming lists of adventures, factions, monsters, locations, and NPCs are what I use to develop my campaign before I start and once we start playing. As I go through each step, I pull the best ideas from the lists and turn them into what I need.

There are more ideas on each list than I need to get the campaign started. They are lists of things that exist in the campaign world but I haven’t written up. I may never write up some of them if I don’t need them.

As the players clear out one adventure site, I go back to the lists and pick ideas for a new one. As NPCs die, players travel to new parts of the campaign world, I go back to the list and develop more ideas. If I’m reading a book or watching a movie and see something I can use in my game, I add it to the list. If the list starts to get thin, I have another brainstorming session to refresh it.

Lists help with improvisation

Another benefit of having more ideas on the list than I can use at one time is that I can pull from them when I need to improvise an encounter or location.

My major factions and non-player characters get lists of resources. I include minions, allies, financial, political, and magical resources. I don’t do anything with the items on the list unless I anticipate a need to have them fully developed.

When players want to do something I didn’t expect I go to that list to see what the NPC has for a resource. If I’ve made a good list, I can use an idea or combination of ideas to improvise the encounter or come up with a reason why something is going the way it’s going.

I love lists

Random generators, published adventures, blank maps, collections of NPCs, and community resources from other bloggers are all useful tools I keep in my DMing box.

Lists happen to be one of the most powerful and useful tools I have found to make game mastering enjoyable.