D&D General A pan-D&D Campaign

[Reynard]

Random, idle thought: a D&D campaign that includes an adventure (not necessarily a single session adventure, just a complete adventure) in each edition of D&D, in order.

How would you do it? Would you use published modules? One big module/AP? How would you handle characters between editions? Which versions of which editions would you use (ie Skills and Powers versus "straight" 2E)? What adjacent games would you include? Are there any editions you would NOT include?

 

[Reynard]

A first thought: I would make it a portal fantasy, where the PCs are real world players who have to keep returning to the D&D world but each time they end up in a different era/edition.

 

[Maxperson]

Random, idle thought: a D&D campaign that includes an adventure (not necessarily a single session adventure, just a complete adventure) in each edition of D&D, in order.

How would you do it? Would you use published modules? One big module/AP? How would you handle characters between editions? Which versions of which editions would you use (ie Skills and Powers versus "straight" 2E)? What adjacent games would you include? Are there any editions you would NOT include?

I would probably just go with modules, since that would be easiest and I'm waaaaay out of practice for editions 1 and 2. For 3e I would create my own adventure as I'm still very, very familiar with that system and have almost all of the books. I would skip 4e entirely as I never played it and wouldn't be comfortable running it. For 5e I would probably take an adventure out of one of the adventure compilation books. I tend to create longer campaign style adventures, so one offs are harder for me in this edition.

For handling characters I would convert if easily done or just have the players make make new characters patterned after the old one if conversion wasn't easy.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Random, idle thought: a D&D campaign that includes an adventure (not necessarily a single session adventure, just a complete adventure) in each edition of D&D, in order.

How would you do it? Would you use published modules? One big module/AP? How would you handle characters between editions? Which versions of which editions would you use (ie Skills and Powers versus "straight" 2E)? What adjacent games would you include? Are there any editions you would NOT include?

oh I pitched this once... based on an episode of the old JL cartoon and a line of dialog from a really adult show i can't remember the name of... a campaign where you take your concept, write your background... then make characters in each addition that have the same name and fluff (even if widely different mechanics) no chronomancers... but everyone has a special perk they know when someone is screwing with reality... but until high level (and maybe even then) there is nothing they can do about it.
I would then make a normalish campaign with sets of things for each edition... then each night you roll a random chart to see when you wake up what edition we are playing.

we never got it off the ground.

(the line was "Do yyou know how upsetting it is to be powerful enough to know time is being manipulated but not powerful enough to effect it")

Edit: the Magicans, and the episode of JLU was called the once and future thing and there are moments things change around teh characters including 1 GL becoming a whole different GL

 

[EzekielRaiden]

If I were to do this, I'd probably have the players talk out with me (and each other) their overall concepts and intents, so I could quickly bash together level-appropriate equivalent characters when an edition change is coming up. Player gets final say as to the shape of the character, but it needs to reasonably fit with the pattern they've demonstrated, e.g. a Wizard specializing in BIG BADA-BOOM can't suddenly become a conjurer specialized in summoned entities, a Fighter that focuses on archery might switch to Ranger in a new edition but can't suddenly be all about sword-and-board, etc.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

If I were to do this, I'd probably have the players talk out with me (and each other) their overall concepts and intents, so I could quickly bash together level-appropriate equivalent characters when an edition change is coming up. Player gets final say as to the shape of the character, but it needs to reasonably fit with the pattern they've demonstrated, e.g. a Wizard specializing in BIG BADA-BOOM can't suddenly become a conjurer specialized in summoned entities, a Fighter that focuses on archery might switch to Ranger in a new edition but can't suddenly be all about sword-and-board, etc.

yeah when I pitcht mine I made that clear too... so a basic Magic user a 2e wizard could be a 3e 4e and 5e warlock, but a basic fighter couldn't become a hexblade no matter how well you justify it. But you could multi class... in 5e I am a Hexblade might become a fighter/wizard in 2e

 

[delericho]

If I were doing such a thing, I would make sure to include every edition of the game (or, in many cases, a clone - I have copies of many, but not all, editions available), but no adjacent games. So 0e, B/X, BECMI, 1st, 2nd, 3.0e, 3.5e, 4e, 5e. I'd probably run core rules only, not least because I'd expect neither I nor my players to be hugely familiar with all the editions.

I'd probably treat it as a showcase for each edition in turn, so not worry about continuity of plots, or making it at all coherent. And I'd simply recreate the characters for each edition in turn. (I'd also probably go for published adventures, but probably strip each down to the absolute minimum - so skip the setup and travel to the dungeon, any lingering plot threads, and so on. Get in, get out, move on.)

 

[EzekielRaiden]

yeah when I pitcht mine I made that clear too... so a basic Magic user a 2e wizard could be a 3e 4e and 5e warlock, but a basic fighter couldn't become a hexblade no matter how well you justify it. But you could multi class... in 5e I am a Hexblade might become a fighter/wizard in 2e

Right. I would also allow for developed knowledge to pass forward--e.g., let's say a character starts off pure Fighter in 1e, a human, but starts digging into how to learn magic. In 2e, they Dual-Class, temporarily becoming pure Wizard until they reclaim their Fighter levels. In 3e, that could manifest a whole bunch of ways, but PrCs or ACFs would be plenty fitting. 4e, Swordmage, no question--they might not have started equal parts sword and spell before, but it makes sense to integrate them in 4e's environment. Then, in 5e, you'd have to preserve some part of that Fighter-ness, but it could take a bunch of different forms: Valor or Swords Bard, Blade Warlock, Bladesinger Wizard, Fighter/Sorcerer MC, etc.

 

[J.Quondam]

I tried to sell this sort of idea to my group pre-5e, based on a time-travel premise. It didn't fly, though.

One thought would be to do a Groundhog Day scenario: run the same adventure and the same characters over and over in different editions, (maybe with a Matrix-like glitch at a few crucial points to keep things interesting). Not really sure what the ultimate campaign goal might be, or what such a weird campaign would accomplish, but it could be a fun exercise, if only just to feel the differences between the editions. (That'd be a lot of work, though.)

 

[EzekielRaiden]

If I were doing such a thing, I would make sure to include every edition of the game (or, in many cases, a clone - I have copies of many, but not all, editions available), but no adjacent games. So 0e, B/X, BECMI, 1st, 2nd, 3.0e, 3.5e, 4e, 5e. I'd probably run core rules only, not least because I'd expect neither I nor my players to be hugely familiar with all the editions.

I'd probably treat it as a showcase for each edition in turn, so not worry about continuity of plots, or making it at all coherent. And I'd simply recreate the characters for each edition in turn. (I'd also probably go for published adventures, but probably strip each down to the absolute minimum - so skip the setup and travel to the dungeon, any lingering plot threads, and so on. Get in, get out, move on.)

Sounds like a time-travel heist plot would work wonders for this--no lingering connections because you never stay in the adventure timeline, and the "home" timeline keeps changing as a result of your adventures.

I remember a proposed 4e campaign concept, where each chunk was dedicated to reversing some horrible calamity in the past, e.g. level 1-5 reversed a local collapse, level 6-10 reversed the fall of Nerath, level 11-20 builds up to reversing the fall of Arkhosia and/or Bael Turath, and 21-30 involves fixing the problems of the Dawn War. But at each instance, the players return from their mission and are told, "Great job on your first trial run! Time for the real mission now." Because they're "returning" to a timeline that only exists because of their interference.