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Loooong Campaigns...How Do You Do It?
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<blockquote data-quote="Michael Silverbane" data-source="post: 3066188" data-attributes="member: 38016"><p>Not too long ago, I wrapped up a campaign that ran for ten years. And by wrapped up, I mean I told the players, "look, after you guys finish off the evil interplanar drug cartel, I'm not going to run this campaign for a while." There are, of course, still plenty of things that those characters are involved in and things that they want to accomplish, and folks that want them murdered, but I wanted to give that game a rest for a while and do something else. Something with lasers, maybe.</p><p></p><p>A couple of things that I have done that I think allowed me to run that game for so long are...</p><p></p><p>Make the player characters the story. Even when I started the campaign, I knew that I wanted the story to be about the characters, for the characters, and by the characters. I didn't come up with any plots or meta-events or even bad guys until my players had made their characters and I knew a little bit about what they were shooting for.</p><p></p><p>Mix it up. Instead of having one huge, overarching plots, I used smaller, bite sized plots, so that I could mix it up to keep the game interesting. The characters would deal with some Illithid machinations for a while, and then maybe they'd bump into some beholders doing something completely unrelated. And then maybe one of the characters' homelands would get shunted off into the Plane of Shadow for some mysterious reason. Or they'd somehow manage to piss off the Merchants Arcane and have to find some way to appease them. And then back to some Illithid bashing, which they quite enjoyed (or were terrified of, whichever).</p><p></p><p>Take a break. I did feel the urge to call the campaign quits a few times (often right after some super-cool supplement or setting or system came out). But, since my players were enjoying themselves so much, I thought that'd be a little rude of me... So instead of quitting altogether, I'd put together the occasional one-shot of something else. One day, for instance, I showed up at gaming at the proscribed place and time and said, "we're playing Assassin X today. Get ready for some murder and mayhem."</p><p></p><p>Give them something great. And then make them give it up. One thing that players hate is when you take their stuff away from them. Over the course of ten years... those characters accumulated just a butt-load of stuff. I didn't want to take it away from them, because they'd worked hard to earn it, and it didn't seem fair to just arbitrarily take it away. If... On the other hand, I could come up with a scenario where they felt like they needed to give up some of that stuff... They couldn't really blame me for their loss. After the first couple of years, this became something of a recurring theme. I'd load them up on treasure, magic items, favors, and so on... And then I'd throw something at them that'd make them have to use up a good deal of that treasure for no appreciable gain (except for whatever victory they managed to snatch from the claws of defeat). Granted, every time I did this, the players complained about what they were losing... But they always had a smile on their face while they did it.</p><p></p><p>I did have something of an advantage in having this campaign run so long... The guys that I play with are the same half a dozen (give or take) that I've been gaming with for the last fifteen years. So I'd already had five years of experience with these same guys. I had a pretty good idea about their likes and dislikes, what sort of play style they preferred, and so on. I knew that they weren't likely to up and abandon the campaign on me in the middle of something big. Although we did have to plan the game around a couple of guys going out of state to college and the like, it was a pretty stable group.</p><p></p><p>Later</p><p>silver</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Michael Silverbane, post: 3066188, member: 38016"] Not too long ago, I wrapped up a campaign that ran for ten years. And by wrapped up, I mean I told the players, "look, after you guys finish off the evil interplanar drug cartel, I'm not going to run this campaign for a while." There are, of course, still plenty of things that those characters are involved in and things that they want to accomplish, and folks that want them murdered, but I wanted to give that game a rest for a while and do something else. Something with lasers, maybe. A couple of things that I have done that I think allowed me to run that game for so long are... Make the player characters the story. Even when I started the campaign, I knew that I wanted the story to be about the characters, for the characters, and by the characters. I didn't come up with any plots or meta-events or even bad guys until my players had made their characters and I knew a little bit about what they were shooting for. Mix it up. Instead of having one huge, overarching plots, I used smaller, bite sized plots, so that I could mix it up to keep the game interesting. The characters would deal with some Illithid machinations for a while, and then maybe they'd bump into some beholders doing something completely unrelated. And then maybe one of the characters' homelands would get shunted off into the Plane of Shadow for some mysterious reason. Or they'd somehow manage to piss off the Merchants Arcane and have to find some way to appease them. And then back to some Illithid bashing, which they quite enjoyed (or were terrified of, whichever). Take a break. I did feel the urge to call the campaign quits a few times (often right after some super-cool supplement or setting or system came out). But, since my players were enjoying themselves so much, I thought that'd be a little rude of me... So instead of quitting altogether, I'd put together the occasional one-shot of something else. One day, for instance, I showed up at gaming at the proscribed place and time and said, "we're playing Assassin X today. Get ready for some murder and mayhem." Give them something great. And then make them give it up. One thing that players hate is when you take their stuff away from them. Over the course of ten years... those characters accumulated just a butt-load of stuff. I didn't want to take it away from them, because they'd worked hard to earn it, and it didn't seem fair to just arbitrarily take it away. If... On the other hand, I could come up with a scenario where they felt like they needed to give up some of that stuff... They couldn't really blame me for their loss. After the first couple of years, this became something of a recurring theme. I'd load them up on treasure, magic items, favors, and so on... And then I'd throw something at them that'd make them have to use up a good deal of that treasure for no appreciable gain (except for whatever victory they managed to snatch from the claws of defeat). Granted, every time I did this, the players complained about what they were losing... But they always had a smile on their face while they did it. I did have something of an advantage in having this campaign run so long... The guys that I play with are the same half a dozen (give or take) that I've been gaming with for the last fifteen years. So I'd already had five years of experience with these same guys. I had a pretty good idea about their likes and dislikes, what sort of play style they preferred, and so on. I knew that they weren't likely to up and abandon the campaign on me in the middle of something big. Although we did have to plan the game around a couple of guys going out of state to college and the like, it was a pretty stable group. Later silver [/QUOTE]
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