D&D 5E 101 campaign premises

[Reynard]

A few of these strike me more as adventure premises than campaign ones. I wonder my feeling that way is based on my view that campaigns are open ended things within a framework and adventures are things with plots. For example, I usually do not like Adventure Path style campaigns even though a long multi-part adventure fitting into a larger campaign is fine.

 

[The Grand User]

The presence of dragons is known to change the environment, but what was not known was the extent of it. And now, some force has been systematically slaying the dragons, and the world has been growing more dull, grey and static, though in smaller areas there are imbalances to the various extremes for a time. The players must find out who is doing this, and end the slaying of dragons, though they will also have to deal with a highly "agitated" uniting of all dragonkind.

 

[Halivar]

A few of these strike me more as adventure premises than campaign ones. I wonder my feeling that way is based on my view that campaigns are open ended things within a framework and adventures are things with plots. For example, I usually do not like Adventure Path style campaigns even though a long multi-part adventure fitting into a larger campaign is fine.

That's fair. My thinking now is that a good campaign starts with a sandbox, and the initial adventure just gets things started. Maybe there's an overarching theme, but its interface with the players is almost incidental. Let's call these "framing stories" rather than campaign premises.

 

[Sunseeker]

A few of these strike me more as adventure premises than campaign ones. I wonder my feeling that way is based on my view that campaigns are open ended things within a framework and adventures are things with plots. For example, I usually do not like Adventure Path style campaigns even though a long multi-part adventure fitting into a larger campaign is fine.

Maybe people just have different ideas of how big a campaign should be? I've been in short campaigns and I've been in long campaigns. When done well I don't think the fact that one takes a few months and another takes a few years is a big deal. That aside, I disagree with your fundamental dichotomy, I think the difference lies in scale and scope. You can run good, plotty campaigns, they're just BIG. There's much more to see and do and explore. You can run short, open-ended adventures, there's simply less and chances are the goals are more obvious.

EX: The Lord of Kingsville hires your group to go recover the Eye of Obsidian. This could be a campaign or an adventure. What's the difference? Well in a campaign this adventure leads to a series of other adventures, or requires a series of other adventures in order to complete it. In an adventure alone, all that is required is to travel to the given location, face the appropriate perils and return.

 

[77IM]

The PCs sell Dungeon Insurance to isolated points-of-light villages. When a village gets harassed by monsters, the victims file a claim, and the PCs go there and pay out. Actuarial tables are calculated such that the PCs just break even between collecting premiums and paying claims. The real money is in being the first adventurers alerted to the monster menace; the insurance thing is really just a way to identify active dungeons for the PCs to loot for treasure.