The Red Thread in Campaigns

Every Campaign needs a Red Thread. Something the players can follow and makes the narrative much more than a trot from one encounter to the next. 

There are so many campaigns out there it sometimes feels daunting to choose which should be the next narrative I introduce to my players. Should I send my players deep into the Mines of Moria using the One Ring Role-Playing Game, let them fight Vecna in Vecna’s Eve of Ruin, or go Beyond the Rim in FFG’s Star Wars Role-Playing Game? Or perhaps I should write my own, using games like Age of Vikings or Daggerheart, both awesome games that are fun to play.

Once I have talked it through with my players and settled on a direction, I usually start poring over the pages of the chosen game, reading the modules, and trying to figure out how the narrative might unfold. I ask myself how the characters will interact with the story, what choices they’ll face, and—crucially—what I need to do to help them make the decisions the story needs in order to function.

That Insidious Red Thread

Recently I was playing a game with a group, and after being sent by the authorities to our third dungeon—without any reason beyond “because they told us to”—I finally asked: Why are we doing this again?

The room went quiet. Then one veteran gamer shrugged and said, “Because the story needs us to. If you’re not willing to submit to the story, you might as well be doing something else.”

I imagine a lot of gamers feel like that. After all, they’re there to play, and asking too many questions about the whys, whos, and whens can slow things down. But I want to ask those questions. I need my characters to be invested, to have something at stake, to care about the outcome and about the lives of their companions and the people around them.

And that is where the red thread comes in.

…So the Plot Thickens!

Yes, it’s a cliché, but like most clichés, there’s truth behind it. When you’re constantly moving from one dungeon crawl to the next, things can quickly become repetitive. But if the characters start finding clues—say the same shadowy employer hired the sewer kobolds who terrorized Goodville and the goblins who seized the silver mine—then suddenly everything becomes a lot more interesting.

When the party has a mystery to uncover, a red thread to follow, the GM doesn’t have to rely on authority figures to send them all over the map just to create encounters. Instead, the players have things to follow up on. They want to investigate, to connect dots, to pull on that thread.

The Steady Drop of Breadcrumbs

One of the most important things I’ve learned while running campaigns is the need for a steady drop of breadcrumbs. Not everything needs to tie directly into the main plot, but I try to make sure that something in every session relates to it. The party might take a quick smuggling job for the Hutts, but maybe on Nar Shaddaa they hear that the main antagonist passed through a few days earlier, selling strange alien technology.

Every breadcrumb keeps the narrative alive. It helps the players remember the whys, whos, and whens. It’s a technique used constantly in TV, film, and literature to keep viewers and readers invested. You want them thinking, What happens next?

And on a good red thread, there are no dead ends. When you commit to following it, you’re suspending disbelief just enough to keep moving forward—and that makes the story feel all the more compelling.

Being First Proactive, Then Reactive

For me, a GM should start by being proactive—setting out leads, understanding the whys, whos, and whens, and making sure the player characters have enough information to take action. After that, the GM must become reactive—responding to the choices the players make, adjusting the path, and ensuring that even if the party goes in an unexpected direction, they still find the clues they need.

If the red thread is in place, and the clues are timed well, the players will naturally drive the narrative forward with their decisions. You won’t need to bring in high priests, station managers, police chiefs, or other authoritative figures to push them along.

In the end, a good RPG narrative is always unraveled by the player characters themselves.