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Define the term "campaign"
- Thread starter Bullgrit
- Start date
Raven Crowking
First Post
This.
I would also add that, to be the same campaign, the setting must be persistent. If I am running the Dungeon of Thale in California, and then I move to Toronto, it isn't the same campaign because I dust off the same setting after doing other things. Even if I somehow do so with the same players and PCs.
Moreover, if my friend Jesse runs his version of the Dungeon of Thale in California after I leave, that is a different campaign.
RC
Bullgrit
Adventurer
Looking at the names in the poll (rather than just the total numbers, because the un-named votes can be cheated):
65 posters understand “campaign” to mean a series of adventures undertaken by a group of PCs.
3 posters understand “campaign” to mean the world setting for a game.
15 posters understand “campaign” to mean something else – reading the “something else” explanations, most seem, to me, to split hairs right down the middle between the two definitions. Some even seem to be just subtle rewordings of the majority definition.
Now, we could all look at this and consider that when using the term, “campaign,” in this forum, if you don’t mean a series of adventures undertaken by a group of PCs, you probably should explain your different intent in your post. And when you read the term, “campaign,” in this forum, you probably should read it as a series of adventures undertaken by a group of PCs unless the poster specifically explained differently. Because this is how the vast majority of readers and posters here understand the term.
This doesn’t mean that the minority definition is wrong, or dumb, nor that it should be discarded and never used. It just means that there is a distinct definition that the vast majority of posters here understand for this term. Using the term for a different meaning, without explanation, is not conducive to understanding discourse.
Although, I have no illusion that there won’t be someone(s) who will insist on using and reading the term in their own preferred definition, without explanation, much to the confusion and consternation of other posters.
Bullgrit
65 posters understand “campaign” to mean a series of adventures undertaken by a group of PCs.
3 posters understand “campaign” to mean the world setting for a game.
15 posters understand “campaign” to mean something else – reading the “something else” explanations, most seem, to me, to split hairs right down the middle between the two definitions. Some even seem to be just subtle rewordings of the majority definition.
Now, we could all look at this and consider that when using the term, “campaign,” in this forum, if you don’t mean a series of adventures undertaken by a group of PCs, you probably should explain your different intent in your post. And when you read the term, “campaign,” in this forum, you probably should read it as a series of adventures undertaken by a group of PCs unless the poster specifically explained differently. Because this is how the vast majority of readers and posters here understand the term.
This doesn’t mean that the minority definition is wrong, or dumb, nor that it should be discarded and never used. It just means that there is a distinct definition that the vast majority of posters here understand for this term. Using the term for a different meaning, without explanation, is not conducive to understanding discourse.
Although, I have no illusion that there won’t be someone(s) who will insist on using and reading the term in their own preferred definition, without explanation, much to the confusion and consternation of other posters.
Bullgrit
Desdichado
Hero
I voted other, but only because I don't strictly insist that a campaign be made up of adventures per se. And it really isn't the linked adventures, i.e., The Age of Worms isn't a campaign. My group playing through the Age of Worms is the campaign. But for most purposes, that second option is close enough.
The first option? Never heard that in my life. That's bizarre, and IME, just plain wrong.
The first option? Never heard that in my life. That's bizarre, and IME, just plain wrong.
Aus_Snow
First Post
It's the thing I run for a bunch of players, over whatever length of time, until it's deemed done with. Simple, really!
Or, less often, it'll be the thing someone else runs, wherein I am one of a bunch of players, over whatever length of time, until it's deemed done with.
The only times I've encountered different definitions have been online. Go figure.
edit: Although I voted for the second option, that's only because it's the closest thing. It needn't be "a series of adventures", or even "a group of PCs", in fact. PCs can change. Heck, players might even change. So really, it's the DM's campaign (for the definiton of "campaign" -> see above.)
Or, less often, it'll be the thing someone else runs, wherein I am one of a bunch of players, over whatever length of time, until it's deemed done with.
The only times I've encountered different definitions have been online. Go figure.
edit: Although I voted for the second option, that's only because it's the closest thing. It needn't be "a series of adventures", or even "a group of PCs", in fact. PCs can change. Heck, players might even change. So really, it's the DM's campaign (for the definiton of "campaign" -> see above.)
I would base it there, simply due to history. For our purposes, the term came to us from that military use, into wargames, and then into D&D. We don't have to keep the definition exactly at the base, but it is a useful reference point.
In very broad general terms - a campaign is "a systematic course of aggressive activities for some specific purpose" (this works for the military, political, sales, and other uses).
The campaign is the set of activities, not the place in which the activities are undertaken - so, it isn't the world setting. We could quibble on how much we want to hold to the "some specific purpose", or we could say that's the player's purpose of having entertainment, and everyone might be satisfied.
A campaign can survive both changes in character roster and changes in player roster. I've had campaigns with over 100% change in characters and a couple of campaigns with 100% player change over a few years.
I'd define a campaign as the continuity of gameplay provided by the DM.
I'd define a campaign as the continuity of gameplay provided by the DM.
coyote6
Adventurer
Does game system matter? If I run D&D, GURPS, and M&M games, are they all part of the same campaign?
I'd suggest the continuity of play matters more than the system used on any individual session.
I've converted systems during campaign play (either between versions of rules inside a system like CHAMPIONs 2nd ed --> 3rd ed --> 4th ed, or Ars Magica 2nd ed --> 3rd ed) and between game systems when dissatified with the original choice. Additionally, I've had cross-over adventures where characters in system A where defined using system B for various planar adventures.
If the games are not connected, I'd typically say no.
If you're converting between games mid-stream, but with continuity of character, I'd say it is the same campaign. Say you're just moving from 2e to 3e, or you've got characters crossing between universes (D&D character stepping into Gamma World, for example), you can probably call it one campaign.
I once took the trouble to run a complex game set in two worlds, with two systems, and two different groups of players and characters, that happened to interact in certain ways. I'd call that a single campaign.
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