Future Campaigns
Whenever I’m not running a campaign of D&D, I’m preparing to run.
It’s just one of those things I do to pass the time and “just in case”.
Even when I’m running I’m making mental notes of what I will do again, what I should never have done, and what I should have done instead.
Now why would I go and start prepping a new campaign when one has just started? I’ve got two answers and their names are Jesse and Drew.
Jesse was supposed to join us when we restarted the group and he was supposed to run. But he never showed. I don’t know if it was a miscommunication or what, but we had four people there wanting a game of D&D. So I just ran a game on the fly and it surprisingly lasted 3 months (my “Valley” campaign).
Then there was Drew. He was running a good game, but Drew had to cancel on us, and then he was accepted into law school out of town. We never saw Drew again, except on that T-shirt Brian has with Drew’s just-woke-up face on it.
I believe after that I ran another “Valley” campaign…which lasted until the WLD came out.
So I’m not going to sit back and wait until it’s time for a new campaign to start before I prep for it.
Nor is Dale; he said in our last session that he’s prepping as well.
The randomness of life, as shown with Drew, means you could lose your DM with less than a week’s notice.
But with a 3 to 4 month gap coming up soon, and an unknown amount of time for the Cormyr campaign, both Dale and I should be pretty ready.
Now I have to cover the things I do and don’t want to do for the campaign.
The first consideration is the number of players.
What most people tell you is that the maximum number of players they want in front of the DM is 6. Any more than that and you’re asking for problems.
What I’ve found out is that a 4 person game in 3E is drastically different from a 6 person game. A 6 PC party can, on average, face an opponent that is 2 CR higher than a 4 PC party. But the big drawback is the amount of time it takes for a round to come back to each player. When there are only 4 players in a game, the combats run so much quicker it’s not funny.
Then there’s the role-playing versus party size. The most role-playing I’ve ever done is with a giant 2 PC party. We always were able to fit in the fighting of course, but man we did a lot of good character-building individual role-playing into the game.
With a 6 PC group, kiss any non-group role-playing goodbye. It’s just no fun waiting for the 5 other guys to get their 10 minutes of role-playing in. You’re sitting there waiting for 50 minutes to get your 10 minutes. Granted, it all won’t be one-on-one role-playing, as you’ll have some group role-playing in, but with all the other people playing too, it can get messy, especially if one player likes to be in the spot light all the time. Of course, your experiences may vary.
(I’ve been actively trying not to be in the spotlight constantly when I play in a game, though I do try to step in to get things moving. It’s a lot harder to not talk, but I don’t want to be “that guy” who always has to be the center of attention.)
My solution to reconcile the PC power vs. role-playing issues with a campaign is simple but not easy; I must prepare two campaigns.
If by the time we get around to running it and we have 2-4 players then I’ll run my “Valley” campaign for the fourth time and prepare for plenty of role-playing. But if we have 5 or 6 players, then I’ll run Rappan Athuk: Reloaded.
Either campaign would probably last no more than 4 months. And I’m ok with that.
The Valley campaign is meant to be a bit more like traditional AD&D. By the time the PC’s get to around level 8 the campaign will probably wind down.
Rappan Athuk: Reloaded has a higher potential for killing off PC’s, so at some point the players will be sick of making new ones.
Now what kind of things will I allow and disallow in the campaigns?
Classes:
Valley: Core stuff only with a few things sprinkled in. The nature of the Valley campaign prevents a lot of variety in choices with its limited population and all.
RARe: Core plus a few DM approved extras. While I like some of the new classes like the Scout and the Favored Soul, I do not like the Warlock as a PC class and think the Warmage is way too overpowered. It will be pretty much on a case-by-case basis, but nothing alien.
Starting PC level:
Valley: 1, nice and low
RARe: 4, the suggested starting level
Stats:
Valley: Eh, whatever. 4d6, drop the lowest, arrange as you want will probably be fine.
RARe: 25 point buy. If we do this, I want it to be as tough as it should be.
Alignment:
Both: Whatever you feel like, but no sociopaths or Wolverine wannabes. Playing an evil PC is a delicate thing, and being evil does not mean you’ll kill your group-mates just because you’re evil.
Feats and magic item creation:
Valley: Core only.
RARe: Open with DM approval so long as it doesn’t slow down the game, radically change how the game works, or give the players an unfair advantage against the monsters of the dungeon.
XP:
Valley: If you’re not there, no PC, no XP for you.
RARe: If you’re not there, no PC, half XP for you. You can also have back-up PC’s in the event a player can’t make it.
Treasure collection:
Valley: However the PC’s say they want to do it. Money is hard to come by in the Valley though.
RARe: However the PC’s say they want to do it, but every copper piece and other bit of treasure needs to be accounted for on PC’s. Scheming and backstabbing abound near Rappan Athuk. Otherwise there is plenty of treasure for the taking in the dungeon, so long as the party is willing to work for it.
Spells:
Both: As spells work as per the rules as written. Miracle must fit 100% with your deity’s ideals and domains; otherwise you’ll find yourself with an unanswered Miracle or 5000xp lighter. In other words a god of love will not allow you to use a Miracle to drop a fireball on the orphanage without paying the 5000xp.
Valley: Standard DM hatred of adventurers using ask-your-god divination spells (like Augury) will be in effect. Spell choices are limited to the core books.
RARe: Ask all you want with the divination spells. Spells from the other books will be allowed only if the group researches them or the DM drops them in as treasure.
Role-playing:
Valley: Plenty, if the player wishes to seek it. Player participation is pretty much required.
RARe: There are opportunities to role-play but is not as required to push the story forward as the party can just head to the dungeon.
Hack factor:
Valley: Up the PC’s actions. There are plenty of things to do and plenty of encounters in and out of the city.
RARe: Pretty high as the dungeon is just pretty much a collection of maps, traps, monsters, and treasure.
Adventuring:
Valley: The entirety of the Valley has much to offer for adventuring. The city has political intrigue, dark and light alliances, power hungry individuals, plenty of thieves, and even more secrets. The wild of the land offers many things to worry the PC’s.
RARe: The city itself is a place to rest and shop. The dungeon and the wilderness around it is the adventure.
Player input:
Valley: The goals and ambitions of the PC’s will do much to drive the direction of the campaign, so long as the player is willing to role-play and push that agenda.
RARe: The dungeon is the adventure. Hopefully the players would design their PC’s with that in mind.
DM preparation:
Valley: Pre-designed mini-adventures, in-depth knowledge of the campaign setting (I created it and all), and “winging it” should take care of most preparation.
RARe: The DM must read plenty. But the dungeon is set up to run one level in a session or two for a few levels. There is a chance that the PC’s could side-step a few levels, but in most cases the party would end up running back to where they came from.
DM style and story:
Valley: Whatever comes up on the fly with the PC choices will decide the story of the game. The general DM’ing style will be based on the mood of the day; in other words loose easy.
RARe: The story will be whatever happens in the dungeon, modified with any role-playing excuses I might add in. The DM’ing style will be loose, easy, with a heavy dose of murderous glee.
Game speed:
Both: My temper got the best of me towards the end of my last campaign due to a variety of things; constantly referring to the books for things that should have been known, sleeping players, random attendance, and so on. For the majority of it I’ll have to take the blame for those issues. My want for an epic game just didn’t pan out and I wasn’t giving all of the players a reason to be into the game. It degenerated into a slow-moving morass of pointless combats that didn’t add to the game.
Valley: Fewer players mean more individual involvement. Combat speed should go quickly enough to keep everyone’s attention. Role-playing opportunities will abound, but no one person will dominate. Less treasure means less “paperwork sessions”.
RARe: More players and the DM running out of 3 module books will slow the combats down to the speeds that were done in the WLD. Role-playing will come at random times both in and out of the dungeon. Constant PC death means the fighting style of the group as the whole will probably change frequently.
Basically I want to go back to running the loose and fun games that I ran prior to the WLD, using pretty much just the core rules. I think the players liked it better that way too.
That about covers what I have for now.
I’m sure I’ll fill in more during our time off, but no promises.
It’s just one of those things I do to pass the time and “just in case”.
Even when I’m running I’m making mental notes of what I will do again, what I should never have done, and what I should have done instead.
Now why would I go and start prepping a new campaign when one has just started? I’ve got two answers and their names are Jesse and Drew.
Jesse was supposed to join us when we restarted the group and he was supposed to run. But he never showed. I don’t know if it was a miscommunication or what, but we had four people there wanting a game of D&D. So I just ran a game on the fly and it surprisingly lasted 3 months (my “Valley” campaign).
Then there was Drew. He was running a good game, but Drew had to cancel on us, and then he was accepted into law school out of town. We never saw Drew again, except on that T-shirt Brian has with Drew’s just-woke-up face on it.
I believe after that I ran another “Valley” campaign…which lasted until the WLD came out.
So I’m not going to sit back and wait until it’s time for a new campaign to start before I prep for it.
Nor is Dale; he said in our last session that he’s prepping as well.
The randomness of life, as shown with Drew, means you could lose your DM with less than a week’s notice.
But with a 3 to 4 month gap coming up soon, and an unknown amount of time for the Cormyr campaign, both Dale and I should be pretty ready.
Now I have to cover the things I do and don’t want to do for the campaign.
The first consideration is the number of players.
What most people tell you is that the maximum number of players they want in front of the DM is 6. Any more than that and you’re asking for problems.
What I’ve found out is that a 4 person game in 3E is drastically different from a 6 person game. A 6 PC party can, on average, face an opponent that is 2 CR higher than a 4 PC party. But the big drawback is the amount of time it takes for a round to come back to each player. When there are only 4 players in a game, the combats run so much quicker it’s not funny.
Then there’s the role-playing versus party size. The most role-playing I’ve ever done is with a giant 2 PC party. We always were able to fit in the fighting of course, but man we did a lot of good character-building individual role-playing into the game.
With a 6 PC group, kiss any non-group role-playing goodbye. It’s just no fun waiting for the 5 other guys to get their 10 minutes of role-playing in. You’re sitting there waiting for 50 minutes to get your 10 minutes. Granted, it all won’t be one-on-one role-playing, as you’ll have some group role-playing in, but with all the other people playing too, it can get messy, especially if one player likes to be in the spot light all the time. Of course, your experiences may vary.
(I’ve been actively trying not to be in the spotlight constantly when I play in a game, though I do try to step in to get things moving. It’s a lot harder to not talk, but I don’t want to be “that guy” who always has to be the center of attention.)
My solution to reconcile the PC power vs. role-playing issues with a campaign is simple but not easy; I must prepare two campaigns.
If by the time we get around to running it and we have 2-4 players then I’ll run my “Valley” campaign for the fourth time and prepare for plenty of role-playing. But if we have 5 or 6 players, then I’ll run Rappan Athuk: Reloaded.
Either campaign would probably last no more than 4 months. And I’m ok with that.
The Valley campaign is meant to be a bit more like traditional AD&D. By the time the PC’s get to around level 8 the campaign will probably wind down.
Rappan Athuk: Reloaded has a higher potential for killing off PC’s, so at some point the players will be sick of making new ones.
Now what kind of things will I allow and disallow in the campaigns?
Classes:
Valley: Core stuff only with a few things sprinkled in. The nature of the Valley campaign prevents a lot of variety in choices with its limited population and all.
RARe: Core plus a few DM approved extras. While I like some of the new classes like the Scout and the Favored Soul, I do not like the Warlock as a PC class and think the Warmage is way too overpowered. It will be pretty much on a case-by-case basis, but nothing alien.
Starting PC level:
Valley: 1, nice and low
RARe: 4, the suggested starting level
Stats:
Valley: Eh, whatever. 4d6, drop the lowest, arrange as you want will probably be fine.
RARe: 25 point buy. If we do this, I want it to be as tough as it should be.
Alignment:
Both: Whatever you feel like, but no sociopaths or Wolverine wannabes. Playing an evil PC is a delicate thing, and being evil does not mean you’ll kill your group-mates just because you’re evil.
Feats and magic item creation:
Valley: Core only.
RARe: Open with DM approval so long as it doesn’t slow down the game, radically change how the game works, or give the players an unfair advantage against the monsters of the dungeon.
XP:
Valley: If you’re not there, no PC, no XP for you.
RARe: If you’re not there, no PC, half XP for you. You can also have back-up PC’s in the event a player can’t make it.
Treasure collection:
Valley: However the PC’s say they want to do it. Money is hard to come by in the Valley though.
RARe: However the PC’s say they want to do it, but every copper piece and other bit of treasure needs to be accounted for on PC’s. Scheming and backstabbing abound near Rappan Athuk. Otherwise there is plenty of treasure for the taking in the dungeon, so long as the party is willing to work for it.
Spells:
Both: As spells work as per the rules as written. Miracle must fit 100% with your deity’s ideals and domains; otherwise you’ll find yourself with an unanswered Miracle or 5000xp lighter. In other words a god of love will not allow you to use a Miracle to drop a fireball on the orphanage without paying the 5000xp.
Valley: Standard DM hatred of adventurers using ask-your-god divination spells (like Augury) will be in effect. Spell choices are limited to the core books.
RARe: Ask all you want with the divination spells. Spells from the other books will be allowed only if the group researches them or the DM drops them in as treasure.
Role-playing:
Valley: Plenty, if the player wishes to seek it. Player participation is pretty much required.
RARe: There are opportunities to role-play but is not as required to push the story forward as the party can just head to the dungeon.
Hack factor:
Valley: Up the PC’s actions. There are plenty of things to do and plenty of encounters in and out of the city.
RARe: Pretty high as the dungeon is just pretty much a collection of maps, traps, monsters, and treasure.
Adventuring:
Valley: The entirety of the Valley has much to offer for adventuring. The city has political intrigue, dark and light alliances, power hungry individuals, plenty of thieves, and even more secrets. The wild of the land offers many things to worry the PC’s.
RARe: The city itself is a place to rest and shop. The dungeon and the wilderness around it is the adventure.
Player input:
Valley: The goals and ambitions of the PC’s will do much to drive the direction of the campaign, so long as the player is willing to role-play and push that agenda.
RARe: The dungeon is the adventure. Hopefully the players would design their PC’s with that in mind.
DM preparation:
Valley: Pre-designed mini-adventures, in-depth knowledge of the campaign setting (I created it and all), and “winging it” should take care of most preparation.
RARe: The DM must read plenty. But the dungeon is set up to run one level in a session or two for a few levels. There is a chance that the PC’s could side-step a few levels, but in most cases the party would end up running back to where they came from.
DM style and story:
Valley: Whatever comes up on the fly with the PC choices will decide the story of the game. The general DM’ing style will be based on the mood of the day; in other words loose easy.
RARe: The story will be whatever happens in the dungeon, modified with any role-playing excuses I might add in. The DM’ing style will be loose, easy, with a heavy dose of murderous glee.
Game speed:
Both: My temper got the best of me towards the end of my last campaign due to a variety of things; constantly referring to the books for things that should have been known, sleeping players, random attendance, and so on. For the majority of it I’ll have to take the blame for those issues. My want for an epic game just didn’t pan out and I wasn’t giving all of the players a reason to be into the game. It degenerated into a slow-moving morass of pointless combats that didn’t add to the game.
Valley: Fewer players mean more individual involvement. Combat speed should go quickly enough to keep everyone’s attention. Role-playing opportunities will abound, but no one person will dominate. Less treasure means less “paperwork sessions”.
RARe: More players and the DM running out of 3 module books will slow the combats down to the speeds that were done in the WLD. Role-playing will come at random times both in and out of the dungeon. Constant PC death means the fighting style of the group as the whole will probably change frequently.
Basically I want to go back to running the loose and fun games that I ran prior to the WLD, using pretty much just the core rules. I think the players liked it better that way too.
That about covers what I have for now.
I’m sure I’ll fill in more during our time off, but no promises.
posted by BlueBlackRed at 7:14 AM
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