Campaigns where most of the original characters are gone.

[hailstop]

The campaign has been going for about 16 months now...with the PC's at level 15 (and about to start advancing faster than normal...). The campaign has been pretty much a series of separate adventures linked by character subplots and the Rod of 7 Parts (loosely...since they lost the first two pieces).

Here's the problem. Three of the six players want to bring in new characters next session. Only two of the PC's are from the original party...one who has had the longest association with his patron a dragon from the Chamber in Eberron, and one who just wants power (plus one who joined the party mostly by accident around level 10).

It's occuring to me that the original story arc may be losing it's umph...in that most of the PC's don't really hate the badguy (though they probably eventually will|). They don't really have any association with the 'mission' either.

I guess what I''m having problem with is why these adventurers would join the other two. About the only thing I can think of is to do the big set piece for the Paragon to Epic transition that would wrap up the one character's subplot and bring in the BBG?

 

[pawsplay]

I'm running an 18th level 3.5 campaign. One of the origional PCs has made it this far. Any time I start losing "oomph" I tend to either have a bad guy do something horrible, or else run a mostly unrelated scenario that reinforces the PCs role. Fro instance, I might have the bad guy burn down a village, or I migt have the PCs' NPC contact summon them to ask for their aid.

 

[Prism]

It's occuring to me that the original story arc may be losing it's umph...in that most of the PC's don't really hate the badguy (though they probably eventually will|). They don't really have any association with the 'mission' either.

Since you are allowing them to roll up new characters how about asking them to create their own background which explains why they want hate the badguy and continue with the current theme. You could give each new PC some interesting piece of information or hook about the campaign which they can share with the rest of the group as they wish. I have found that getting a player interested in a plot is often easier to do via their own created background than in actual play

 

[im_robertb]

Since you are allowing them to roll up new characters how about asking them to create their own background which explains why they want hate the badguy and continue with the current theme.

This is a good idea, if your PCs are the type to do their homework. If they are, count yourself blessed.

 

[Oryan77]

Since you are allowing them to roll up new characters how about asking them to create their own background which explains why they want hate the badguy and continue with the current theme.

I like this idea also. I'm in your situation too with the Dead Gods adventure I've been running for 3 years. It's already a big adventure and I wanted to make it more detailed so I threw in several side quests within it which turned it into a super duper mega humongous gigantic epic adventure. Problem was, I didn't think about player turnovers & character deaths. So it's been a struggle keeping players interested in this adventure (I think I've failed at it...I'm ready to end this adventure).

So if players want to make new characters for no other reason than that they want something new, have them help you deal with the extra work needed to include them in your adventure.

BTW, I have Rod of 7 Parts and have thought about running it. I don't know anything about it other than the PCs look for 7 parts of a Rod
What do you think of it? Care to share some stories related to the actual adventure in an attempt to convince me to run it?

 

[Mallus]

I guess what I''m having problem with is why these adventurers would join the other two.

Make it the players responsibility to explain why their characters joined.

About the only thing I can think of is to do the big set piece for the Paragon to Epic transition that would wrap up the one character's subplot and bring in the BBG?

Don't be afraid to change your metaplot. Also, don't be reluctant to ask your players what they want to do/where they want to go with their characters. There's no need to guess.

 

[pawsplay]

A couple of new characters added did, indeed, independently hate the bad guy for background reasons or had a close association with setting NPCs.