So I'm a semi new DM, mostly because the two previous campaigns I tried to run most of my players ended up moving away, or just not having the time. However, I've recently gotten back into it and have a semi large group, 6 players, all good friends and two of my siblings.

Well, this new campaign I've been planning is mixed between political shenanigans, two potential BBEGs, and a lot of ruins/unexplored world. The king of Grenndam goes missing, dissapearing from his throne in green flames and leaves an ominous message to his people. The other 3 kingdoms each send 2 delegates to Grenndam to help aide in the search, and to investigate if there was foul play, but things quickly go wrong.

As someone who loves story telling and world building, I knew I wanted to give my players a reason to be invested in it.

So, I told them that while working on character sheets to really start flushing out their backstories, whatever they wanted to do or be in their lore, I wanna know the details. I let them pick which kingdom to be from, then let them run wild with their personalities.

Once they all gave me a good chunk of knowledge of how they wanted their characters to work, I gave them each the opportunity to obtain secrets of different levels of importance, by rolling a D20 three times.

Most of them rolled fairly okay, one rolled a 16, and one rolled a nat 20.

Each secret pertains to the story and what their characters are interested in. We've got potential war brewing that hasn't been seen in over 300 years, dangers of these magical crystals being used in almost every home of one kingdom, people going missing with the mega church, and something lurking under the city of our main story setting. Missing family members, distrust and lying, secret society kinda stuff!

I told them that some of their secrets are related, but it could either help or hurt the party depending on what they revealed to one another. When I tell you, I have never seen a group of players get so excited about a campaign before, giving them secrets feels like one of the best choice I've made as a DM. They're asking about the different kingdoms, about the lore, about where they're meeting up and how their party is going to navigate the setting with so much to explore. Honestly? The plot, while I love it, doesn't matter as much to me as seeing what the players are going to do with the info they have and what kind of shenanigans are gonna happen.

So, 10/10, I recommend doing this with your players if you're worried about plot or story. Even without that, you're giving each player a reason to be invested, something that they personally like and want to know more about. It makes them feel important, and ensures that their character feels cared about.

We start the campaign in 2 weeks and I cannot contain my excitement. If anyone here has other cool things they've done as DM drop them here! I would love more ideas and things to implement for the players going forward!