There’s a lot to running a game of DnD, but unless you have a solid foundation or are a really good DM, it’s going to crash and burn. The second and most immediately important part of a good DnD game is the actual campaign. The campaign is the story – it is the lifeblood of your world, and it’s what the player characters will work through to its inevitable conclusion. Campaigns can be detailed or fairly loose, however one should always take into account who you are DMing for. It’s the players story as much as it is yours, and as a DM the golden rule is to make sure everyone at the table has fun.
While you may already have a detailed world to work in, the bones of a good campaign make the structure that will enable a fun and engaging game for your players. Your world could be the best thing since sliced bread, but without a goal your players will wander aimlessly and quickly become bored. That’s not to say you should force your players onto a specific path too much, because like too much agency, too little agency will also suck the life out of any campaign. Here the trick lies in directing your players without them feeling like you’re pushing them. Subtly manipulate them into thinking that it was their idea all along.
Making a campaign is an involved process, and can take a lot of time. However the steps are fairly straightforward as can be seen in this article describing the process in detail. This is almost exactly how I intend to go about creating and polishing the eventual campaign, however this summary has not accounted for the extra rules I will need to make to accommodate some aspects of the world unique to this setting. These rules, once made will be run past third parties to ensure their rigidity, and play testing will follow.
After all these steps are completed, this campaign should be ready to run for real.
Game Cultures 
Oh wow! I love that you’re doing this!
It’s actually such a fascinating process you’re stepping into. Not only are you putting on your writing gloves, you’re also having to be mindful of game mechanics, and then also player – or fun – facilitation!
I actually play DnD every fortnight, and I’m the kind of player that loves to bring in my own personality and sense of humour into the experience to make it completely unique.
On that note, I admire the approach your taking – “It’s the players story as much as it is yours, and as a DM the golden rule is to make sure everyone at the table has fun.” – Right on! It’s so important to be mindful of how every new player brings something new, and that as such, the campaign should reflect this awareness in it’s design. So its a game of balancing structure and open endedness, which it seems you’re already aware of.
Our DM was actually telling us that in the early days of DnD, the company were buying the best fan made campaigns. Perhaps you could aim for this with your design ambitions?
Best of luck, looking forward to hearing about your progress!
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The making of a DND campaign sounds so twisty and potentially problematic in the sense that I feel it would be easy to unintentionally write a paradox within the campaign, or even potentially make the story breakable because of how peoples characters may behave. I’ve never had any experience with DND myself but I’ve always been keen to get behind the dice and roll out a few quests! Have you had any issues coming across story paradox’s and problems with player/character behaviours? How vague or detailed does a DND story have to be to make it compelling? How much detail have you gone to make this story more immersive than DND already is?
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