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<blockquote data-quote="Man in the Funny Hat" data-source="post: 3066448" data-attributes="member: 32740"><p>Every campaign I've ever run or played in has simply faded away - save one. The first campaign I ran using the 3rd Edition rules lasted probably 18 months, and it was the first ever campaign that I decided right at the outset would come to a definitive conclusion at or before the PC's reached 20th level. It was the best game of D&D I've ever run. Both myself and the players looked forward eagerly to every session.</p><p></p><p>Looking back at it, I have every confidence that one of the biggest reasons for its success is that the commitment on my part to ensuring a definitive end to it all gave it a momementum and a driving PURPOSE to sustain it when the fairly rapid pacing of in-game events started to slacken. The game events were partially guided by the contents of the original Adventure Path modules but the bulk of it wound up being created on the fly.</p><p></p><p>There were only two real difficulties involved in it. One was that I had developed a very "X-Files" sort of approach to exposition. Every question answered would only lead to two more questions. Were it not for the consistent efforts of one particular player in keeping notes I'd have gotten lost in the ever-deepening layers of my fascinating onion of plot. When the campaign started to get noticeably closer to the end than it was to the beginning I had problems keeping track of all the loose ends I'd provided the players with; problems in both remembering what they were in the first place and then in selecting the ones that need to be tied off in some fashion (and then further deciding just HOW that would be done.) The second was in not maintaining full control of the game all the way through. One of the players was especially enamored of what I'd been unravelling. When I had begun to express a certain amount of intimidation at making it all come back together for a satsifying end he offered to take over for a while. In particular, he'd been reading an entirely different world setting; a commmercial setting. But so much of its details seemed to fit PERFECTLY with where my own campaign was headed. He then offered to take over some DM duties, move the adventuring to this campaign world of his (which DID fit excellently with what I needed) and thus allow me to take a bit of a breather as a player while he moved game events for a while.</p><p></p><p>The problem was that he really didn't seem to be moving events much of anywhere. Our DMing styles are, I eventually realized, just too different and he'd failed to maintain the same pacing. It might have worked out okay if it could have played out for another 6 months of real-time but the campaign neeeded to be moving toward a conclusion, or at least a good initial climax of events. But we wound up feeling more like the game had lost direction. It had in fact, simply lost some of its focus for which you simply NEED to have one person in charge with a singular vision. It was too late in the game to start trying to merge visions of where to go and how to get there.</p><p></p><p>The game did ultimately conclude, but it was something of an unsatisfactory conclusion and that was partly due to my having let it get a little sloppy towards the end.</p><p></p><p>I would do it again in a heartbeat but with a few changes: <ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">I'd take MUCH better personal notes</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">I'd be a little more constrained in the onion-layer plotting. Once it gets going it's quite compelling but like the X-Files some questions DO need to be answered at the end.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">If I ever think that my own plots might be getting too big for me to handle I will NOT try to solve the problem by surrendering creative control. The time for co-DM's and collabaration is right at the outset, not the third act (as long as things are still going well from the players perspective.)</li> </ol></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Man in the Funny Hat, post: 3066448, member: 32740"] Every campaign I've ever run or played in has simply faded away - save one. The first campaign I ran using the 3rd Edition rules lasted probably 18 months, and it was the first ever campaign that I decided right at the outset would come to a definitive conclusion at or before the PC's reached 20th level. It was the best game of D&D I've ever run. Both myself and the players looked forward eagerly to every session. Looking back at it, I have every confidence that one of the biggest reasons for its success is that the commitment on my part to ensuring a definitive end to it all gave it a momementum and a driving PURPOSE to sustain it when the fairly rapid pacing of in-game events started to slacken. The game events were partially guided by the contents of the original Adventure Path modules but the bulk of it wound up being created on the fly. There were only two real difficulties involved in it. One was that I had developed a very "X-Files" sort of approach to exposition. Every question answered would only lead to two more questions. Were it not for the consistent efforts of one particular player in keeping notes I'd have gotten lost in the ever-deepening layers of my fascinating onion of plot. When the campaign started to get noticeably closer to the end than it was to the beginning I had problems keeping track of all the loose ends I'd provided the players with; problems in both remembering what they were in the first place and then in selecting the ones that need to be tied off in some fashion (and then further deciding just HOW that would be done.) The second was in not maintaining full control of the game all the way through. One of the players was especially enamored of what I'd been unravelling. When I had begun to express a certain amount of intimidation at making it all come back together for a satsifying end he offered to take over for a while. In particular, he'd been reading an entirely different world setting; a commmercial setting. But so much of its details seemed to fit PERFECTLY with where my own campaign was headed. He then offered to take over some DM duties, move the adventuring to this campaign world of his (which DID fit excellently with what I needed) and thus allow me to take a bit of a breather as a player while he moved game events for a while. The problem was that he really didn't seem to be moving events much of anywhere. Our DMing styles are, I eventually realized, just too different and he'd failed to maintain the same pacing. It might have worked out okay if it could have played out for another 6 months of real-time but the campaign neeeded to be moving toward a conclusion, or at least a good initial climax of events. But we wound up feeling more like the game had lost direction. It had in fact, simply lost some of its focus for which you simply NEED to have one person in charge with a singular vision. It was too late in the game to start trying to merge visions of where to go and how to get there. The game did ultimately conclude, but it was something of an unsatisfactory conclusion and that was partly due to my having let it get a little sloppy towards the end. I would do it again in a heartbeat but with a few changes:[list=1] [*]I'd take MUCH better personal notes [*]I'd be a little more constrained in the onion-layer plotting. Once it gets going it's quite compelling but like the X-Files some questions DO need to be answered at the end. [*]If I ever think that my own plots might be getting too big for me to handle I will NOT try to solve the problem by surrendering creative control. The time for co-DM's and collabaration is right at the outset, not the third act (as long as things are still going well from the players perspective.) [/list] [/QUOTE]
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