Tips on running a long-running campaign

[Baron Opal]

Know how you are going to handle character death. The last TPK I had completely derailed the campaign. (Why wouldn't they run?!) All of the finely crafted plotlines died in a tangled mess. Now, in my case I was lucky because one of the players made a sister to the fallen character, and I had a RBDM moment concerning the old characters. So, I was able to save some of my ideas.

Anyway, figure out how you are going to salvage your story arcs when players miscalculate or are unlucky. Do all of the characters come form the same clan? Do they have the same guild? Or, perhaps the're training is financed by the same mysterious benefactor. What can you do to bring the new characters into the fold. There won't be the same emotional investment as the more enduring characters, but they will come to be.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

Lots of the advice here is really good. The best advice I can give - and this comes from experience - is that I actively engage the players/characters in the plots. I ask them to create pretty good backgrounds (after a few sessions of play as they can naturally fall into a background) and begin to involve their life stories into the campaign. Do they come from meager families? Are they nobles? I think you can do a pretty good job with allowing the players/characters to drive some of the plot.

Intrigue and mysteries are great but make sure that you do not make things overly complex or create intrigues for the sake of it. If someone is trying to unseat the king what steps might they actually go through with or have in place? How might the characters stumble across this and react to it? How can they get involved and legitimately say 'we accidentally stumbled across it?'

Creating a long lasting, living and breathing campaign is no easy task, in my opinion. It takes some work and dedication and a group of players who are willing to participate a little more than just 'what dungeon do you have for us this week?'

 

[Dragonblade]

Wow, I disagree with the points I just listed here pretty much completely, and so I suspect would a lot of other people!

1) For me a metaplot is what drives a campaign - you don't have to be a railroad baron with it, but it gives a structure, and when the players tell war stories the metaplot is one of the things they will remember. It is what most of Midnight's fans like about the setting - telling someone to use or not to use metaplots is like telling them to like strawberry or not like chocolate, they will make their own decisions.

2) This assumes that Epic level development is to be desired. Frankly, I think that the rules for it stink and they will not be used in my campaigns, ever. Again a decision for the DM to make, not us.

6) Again, personal taste - I very rarely (but not never) use random plothooks, and then only when the PCs are off the map as it were, and need something to either bring them back to the plot that they were following, or just need a break from the major plots.

Of course you need overarching story arcs and continuity. And even meta-plots. But avoid meta-plots the define the very parameters of a setting. You can have a blast playing in worlds like Midnight or Dark Sun. But in a setting like Midnight, can the players ever achieve any lasting success? Can they ever liberate the world from the dark lord without completely changing the setting? No.

If your group likes to play in a world where they can never achieve any lasting success and where every single adventure features the same theme of hiding out from the dark lords minions in perpetuity, then more power to you. As a player I would find that tiresome. And as a DM I would feel that my creativity is shackled by the parameters of the meta-plot.

Per the standard D&D rules, I cannot see this campaign lasting a long time unless the DM completely houserules level advancement among other things. My advice is designed to allow a DM to be able to run a long term campaign using standard D&D rules and it stands.

For epic level rules, my advice also stands. If you don't like the epic level rules, thats fine. But you must be prepared to consider how you will handle character advancement in your game. Again, if you house rule everything, then all bets are off. My advice is for standard D&D rules. If you run a game with standard 3.5 level advancement, your game will break down if you aren't prepared for epic level DMing and the players reach those levels.

I think random plot hooks keep things interesting and fresh. However, let me clarify, when I say random, I don't mean completely random. When I say random, what I meant was that I throw in plot hooks that are not directly related to the main quest. Sometimes completely unrelated. All of the plot hooks I throw in are completely considered and not rolled off a chart or anything. They are a way of giving the party an "out" if they want to explore an alternate path, or do something different for a while.

 

[S'mon]

Of course you need overarching story arcs and continuity. And even meta-plots. But avoid meta-plots the define the very parameters of a setting. You can have a blast playing in worlds like Midnight or Dark Sun. But in a setting like Midnight, can the players ever achieve any lasting success? Can they ever liberate the world from the dark lord without completely changing the setting? No.

Well, in Midnight defeating Izrador would be the end of the long-term campaign, equivalent to the end of a long fantasy novel series - you can easily get 20-30 levels out of a Midnight campaign IMO. I completely disagree with the idea that all long-term campaigns have to be like Buffy with multiple BBEGs, rather than LOTR or Star Wars. If I were to run Midnight I would definitely run it with the idea that defeating Izrador - somehow - was possible; maybe only by Epic level PCs, but certainly possible. In Midnight canon Izrador was defeated 3 times previously so it's not unprecedented, either.

 

[Dragonblade]

Well, in Midnight defeating Izrador would be the end of the long-term campaign, equivalent to the end of a long fantasy novel series - you can easily get 20-30 levels out of a Midnight campaign IMO. I completely disagree with the idea that all long-term campaigns have to be like Buffy with multiple BBEGs, rather than LOTR or Star Wars. If I were to run Midnight I would definitely run it with the idea that defeating Izrador - somehow - was possible; maybe only by Epic level PCs, but certainly possible. In Midnight canon Izrador was defeated 3 times previously so it's not unprecedented, either.

That sounds like a great long term campaign, and one where you as a DM are obviously prepared to diverge from the setting when it suits your needs!

Perhaps my advice should be tweaked to say, don't necessarily avoid campaign defining meta-plots, but be willing to completely toss them aside in the name of fun and continuity. I have played in campaigns where the DM refused to diverge from the scope of the meta-plot as outlined in the published material he was running. As a result, as soon as he we did something that violated the core concept of the setting, he didn't want to run the game any more. I was incredibly frustrated to say the least, and vowed that in any game I ever run, my players will always have the freedom to diverge from established meta-plots whenever necessary.

 

[Harmon]

First things first- avoid the TPK. If your Players expect that their characters arn't gonna make it and start making up follow up characters ("this one is gonna die soon and I have this other idea-") discourage this line of thinking. You want your Players to know that they have a chance of making it through if they just play it smart. If they expect to be slaughtered because the EL was over them then you won't have Players that want to make it, you will have players that are thinking about their next character.

Insist on backgrounds and details. Can't play the character without two pages of background that I get to okay.

Make up NPCs that you can go to- the armor/black/weapon smith that lives in a nearby village that can make most anything, but might need the characters help to increase items above +2.

Ask your Players to help you make a campaign that is gonna make it to epic from 1st lvl. If they understand that then they will or rather should be more then willing to help you.

Give cool personalized weapons, gear, and armor that increase in strength and power every once in a while- "but I just identifed that amulet it was only a +1 now its a +2? Why did it do that?" "Its growing in power. The more powerful you get the more powerful it gets."

Last thing I can think of is- every few weekends- trade to a different system, play something else to avoid burn out.

 

[S'mon]

That sounds like a great long term campaign, and one where you as a DM are obviously prepared to diverge from the setting when it suits your needs!

Perhaps my advice should be tweaked to say, don't necessarily avoid campaign defining meta-plots, but be willing to completely toss them aside in the name of fun and continuity. I have played in campaigns where the DM refused to diverge from the scope of the meta-plot as outlined in the published material he was running. As a result, as soon as he we did something that violated the core concept of the setting, he didn't want to run the game any more. I was incredibly frustrated to say the least, and vowed that in any game I ever run, my players will always have the freedom to diverge from established meta-plots whenever necessary.

Ah, yes - I understand what you mean now. I agree that playing in any published world with a metaplot that has to be stuck to regardless, is unlikely to be fun for long-term play. A few settings like Star Wars have such enormous scope that you can have PCs having a big impact - saving planets etc - and still stick to established continuity, but settings like World of Darkness or Forgotten Realms definitely suffer from metaplotitis.
Certainly Midnight games that can't get beyond "Experience the state of being in a world where All Hope Is Lost" don't seem to last long. Luckily when I played Midnight it was under a good GM who worked hard to create a satisfying campaign. I see Midnight as the ideal setting for an epic darker-than-Tolkien high fantasy campaign like the Thomas Covenant series. Covenant actually is a great example of how to do this - in the first trilogy Foul is defeated; but Donaldson doesn't want to end his series/campaign so, rather than negating the result of the first trilogy skip forward a few thousand years to when the Land is again threatened - this approach would work perfectly with Midnight and similar settings with a campaign-defining BBEG. Maybe the PCs from the original campaign, now legendary heroes, are summoned down through time to face the renewed threat.

 

[S'mon]

First things first- avoid the TPK. If your Players expect that their characters arn't gonna make it and start making up follow up characters ("this one is gonna die soon and I have this other idea-") discourage this line of thinking. You want your Players to know that they have a chance of making it through if they just play it smart. If they expect to be slaughtered because the EL was over them then you won't have Players that want to make it, you will have players that are thinking about their next character.

Insist on backgrounds and details. Can't play the character without two pages of background that I get to okay.

Make up NPCs that you can go to- the armor/black/weapon smith that lives in a nearby village that can make most anything, but might need the characters help to increase items above +2.

Ask your Players to help you make a campaign that is gonna make it to epic from 1st lvl. If they understand that then they will or rather should be more then willing to help you.

Give cool personalized weapons, gear, and armor that increase in strength and power every once in a while- "but I just identifed that amulet it was only a +1 now its a +2? Why did it do that?" "Its growing in power. The more powerful you get the more powerful it gets."

Last thing I can think of is- every few weekends- trade to a different system, play something else to avoid burn out.

Lots of good advice there. I'd rephrase:

1. Minimise the likelihood of PC death. Not just TPKs. In an epic novel series, the death of a major character is a rare thing. Avoid siccing lethal encounters on the PCs. D&D is a difficult system for this because it uses the threat of PC death as a major component of play. Two possible approaches are (a) start the PCs out at high level, as powerful heroes, and ensure their battles are with lower CR foes; and/or (b) use a Fate Point system (see eg Conan RPG) where PCs can spend FPs to avoid death and can gain FPs for achievement of major goals. FPs are a particularly good idea if you're starting at low level and if you're using a "desperation" theme where PCs start out outmanned and outgunned as in Dragonlance or Midnight.

2. Characters with defined personality, yup. I wouldn't require 2 pages of background, but PCs need to be interesting & cool to both player & GM.

3.Stable continuing NPCs that aren't quickly outgrown are good. Again D&D system causes problems here. Tweaking the rules so eg the blacksmith can make magic weapons is a good idea. Don't make important NPCs too weak, and let them rise in power over time, but allow the PCs to gradually outstrip them. Eg when PCs are 1st level, the Lord they serve is 6th; wen they're 8th, he's 9th, but when they're 15th he's 12th.

4. Encouraging players to contribute to the setting with background details is good, yup.

5. "Covenant" items that grow in power with the PCs are a great idea. They greatly reduce the need for magical loot, and give a great high-fantasy flavour. Eg a weapon could be +1 per 3 PC levels and gain other powers at certain levels. The GM doesn't even need to define the powers in advance, tweak them to suit the PC.

6. Breaks from the campaign are good to avoid burnout. I find around 2 breaks/year at Christmas & summer is about right for me, but this will vary a lot by GM and by frequency & level of play - high-level play is much more likely to cause burnout IME.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Of course you need overarching story arcs and continuity. And even meta-plots. But avoid meta-plots the define the very parameters of a setting. You can have a blast playing in worlds like Midnight or Dark Sun. But in a setting like Midnight, can the players ever achieve any lasting success? Can they ever liberate the world from the dark lord without completely changing the setting? No.

If your group likes to play in a world where they can never achieve any lasting success and where every single adventure features the same theme of hiding out from the dark lords minions in perpetuity, then more power to you. As a player I would find that tiresome. And as a DM I would feel that my creativity is shackled by the parameters of the meta-plot.

Did I say that they can never achieve any lasting success? No, I did not. For a Midnight campaign I would aim at a multigenerational victory, with each generation building on the successes and failures of the ones before. For that matter FFG has stated several times that the Dark Lord is not invincible, he won this time, but has lost previously.

Per the standard D&D rules, I cannot see this campaign lasting a long time unless the DM completely houserules level advancement among other things. My advice is designed to allow a DM to be able to run a long term campaign using standard D&D rules and it stands.

Wha? I am sorry, but that makes no sense to me whatsoever.

For epic level rules, my advice also stands. If you don't like the epic level rules, thats fine. But you must be prepared to consider how you will handle character advancement in your game. Again, if you house rule everything, then all bets are off. My advice is for standard D&D rules. If you run a game with standard 3.5 level advancement, your game will break down if you aren't prepared for epic level DMing and the players reach those levels.

Simple, I tell them 'there will be no epic level characters in this game.' See I am prepared - I tell them 'no'. (Or more accurately NO! I really hate the epic rules. Fortunately so do my players.) Characters top off at level 20, so no house rules are needed. Because I do use an overarching campaign plot this is not an issue - they will reach the climax of the campaign before hitting level 21. (Most likely before hitting level 18, but I build in some flex.) I use a format similar to the one Strazinsky used in B5, every few adventures there is a BAM! episode, where the major plot(s) gets addressed. In the minor adventures I may or may not lay pipe for the major plotline(s).

I think random plot hooks keep things interesting and fresh. However, let me clarify, when I say random, I don't mean completely random. When I say random, what I meant was that I throw in plot hooks that are not directly related to the main quest. Sometimes completely unrelated. All of the plot hooks I throw in are completely considered and not rolled off a chart or anything. They are a way of giving the party an "out" if they want to explore an alternate path, or do something different for a while.

Which is what I think I said. However I have seen too many DMs mess up their campaigns with 'random plotlines' that were a tad too random. (A DM who had a tendency to get stoned before the game. There is a reason that I don't play in his games anymore.) Side plots? Oh yes. Random side plots? No. However it sounds like Random was simply a poor choice of words. Assuming that you mean 'side plots' then I have no complaints.

The Auld Grump

 

[Dragonblade]

Did I say that they can never achieve any lasting success? No, I did not. For a Midnight campaign I would aim at a multigenerational victory, with each generation building on the successes and failures of the ones before. For that matter FFG has stated several times that the Dark Lord is not invincible, he won this time, but has lost previously.

Ah, you are prepared to diverge from the established setting. Great! Sounds like a fun game!

Wha? I am sorry, but that makes no sense to me whatsoever.

What I meant was all else being equal and not diverging from standard rules, eventually characters will become so powerful that the BBEG and his minions will cease to be much of a threat. And thus the game would break down.

Simple, I tell them 'there will be no epic level characters in this game.' See I am prepared - I tell them 'no'. (Or more accurately NO! I really hate the epic rules. Fortunately so do my players.) Characters top off at level 20, so no house rules are needed. Because I do use an overarching campaign plot this is not an issue - they will reach the climax of the campaign before hitting level 21. (Most likely before hitting level 18, but I build in some flex.) I use a format similar to the one Strazinsky used in B5, every few adventures there is a BAM! episode, where the major plot(s) gets addressed. In the minor adventures I may or may not lay pipe for the major plotline(s).

You have already decided that all advancement and your adventures stop at level 20. That works. You avoid the epic level issue altogether. All I wanted to say was that the DM should decide in advance how he will handle such high level characters.

Although, as a player, I would be disappointed that I could not keep playing a character I loved on into epic levels. Most of my players feel the same way so I embraced the epic rules. They work wonderfully for me, especially since they are already factored into my world from the very beginning. But everyone has their own play style

Which is what I think I said. However I have seen too many DMs mess up their campaigns with 'random plotlines' that were a tad too random. (A DM who had a tendency to get stoned before the game. There is a reason that I don't play in his games anymore.) Side plots? Oh yes. Random side plots? No. However it sounds like Random was simply a poor choice of words. Assuming that you mean 'side plots' then I have no complaints.

Yes, 'side plot' perhaps may be a better choice of words.