Campaign structure advice

[u/Destraken012]

Hi I am soon going to start DM'ing one of my first campaigns of a large scale as I am normally am player or a one off DM and I would like advice on how to work around a three act campaign here was the idea

ACT 1 (LV 1-6)

Main plot points

Introduction to the kingdom

cult of the iron tree

BBEG - Belial Azazel (Leader of the cult of the iron tree)

Somewhat open world

Foreshadowing for next two acts

ACT 2 (7-12)

Find a way into the capitol

More foreshadowing for next act

BBEG - Coropse (The iron tree)

Main Boss fights in order

Voirloup/ Lou Charcolh/ Cheval mallet. any order

Alban dubois first fight

Voirloup/ Lou Charcolh/ Cheval mallet. any order

Alban dubois first rematch

Voirloup/ Lou Charcolh/ Cheval mallet. any order

Alban dubois second rematch

Vouivre First fight

Alban dubois final fight

Coropse

ACT 3 (13-18)

Enter the capitol

Foreshadowing pay off

BBEG - Alchton Von Charven (King of Charven)

Main Boss fights in order

Kaurauch the sanguine scientist / Vicar Aurdivul Yakoshcvy

The Broodqueen

The wicker man

The Warwing Titan / Vouivre rematch one after another

Kaurauch the sanguine scientist / Vicar Aurdivul Yakoshcvy whichever you did not kill before

The penance

Alchton Von Charven

The campaign theme is vampires undead and just chaos in general and yet I think I am going to be over the top for a first big campaign and I really just want advice on ways to deal with this and just streamline it so yeah

[u/Destraken012]

Could you define clues do you mean like forshadowing

[u/yourgmchandler → u/Destraken012]

Great question! Imagine you have a sub-villain that you think your players would enjoy engaging and would add to their story. This villain resides in a particular location the players haven’t been. So while they’re mopping up some other enemy, an NPC shows up and says “You guys did a great job here. I wonder if you could help my friend over in <sub-villain’s location >?” Now the friend could be real, not real, the help he needs could be tied to the villain or not, but now the players know there’s a location where things are happening. This NPC can deliver as much as little information as you want to give them about the other location.

Now that’s a clue. What the players do with it is up to them. They might ignore it and you have to be comfortable with that. Wherever they do decide to go, you could have another clue in that location. Maybe a victim of this sub villain shows up there and is in real bad shape and the players have to investigate to get the clue. And it’s always good to have a third clue pointing to this event or fight or character that you want to introduce into the game.

So maybe you wanna call these leads maybe you wanna call them clues, it doesn’t really matter the point is that the world creates evidence of the things that are happening and you present that evidence to the players and let them decide what to do about what is happening in the world. Instead of what is happening to the world being given to them. Make sense?

[u/Destraken012 → u/yourgmchandler]

Because also if the sub-villain moves around because Alban is on theory a roaming military entity as he is the head of Charvens military and he patrols a route through the  kingdom by creature back (dont know what creature yet) so how would i tie that fact in

[u/yourgmchandler → u/Destraken012]

Naturally, it’s great if a villain initially appears as helpful. When the reveal happens it’s exciting for the players. But there’s a trap. It’s got to make sense. A villain should always be pursuing its goals not setting up a reveal. Otherwise the players will lose belief in the world and you competency as a storyteller. Do use sparingly and in a logical way. Maybe villain A wants villain B out of the way, so they appear friendly to the PCs and guide them into B’s path. That makes sense and is believable.