You Arrive At A Tavern...
These are often the words that open any Dungeons & Dragons campaign, or in some kind of variation: you wake up in a prison cell, you rouse yourself from your sleep on the ship, et cetera et cetera. However, while those five words might initiate your campaign, where do you go from there? How do you build a campaign from that first one-shot or from that introductory sentence?
In September of 2009, Wizards of the Coast released the Dungeon Master's Guide 2 for 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons, one of the most criminally under-utilized sourcebooks of any edition in my mind. A great deal of this book was strictly dedicated to building, developing, and maintaining campaigns, as well as content like skill challenges and high-tier play for paragon (11th to 20th) level characters. However, what this book is focusing on is providing you tools on how to build and sustain your first D&D campaign.
- from the publisher's blurb