Define the term "campaign"

[Janx]

A campaign setting is the setting, a campaign is the adventures. Just because some people use words wrong on the internet doesn't mean we need polls for them!

Amen.

key world is SETTING, which means the big place all the games take place in.

If Campaign = Setting, that would be redundant.

Since we lack a word for all the adventurers a set of PCs go through, Campaign is the word used to describe that.

Anyone who disagrees should be banished to the Pulling Circle of Hell...

 

[jonesy]

Since we lack a word for all the adventurers a set of PCs go through...

Victims?

 

[IronWolf]

You must be defeated!

A campaign is a series of semi-related adventures that a party of characters goes through.

 

[MarkB]

I voted "Other". My definitions would be as follows:

Campaign Setting - A game-world or setting consisting of the geography, races, nations and organisations within which a campaign will be set.

Campaign - An over-arcing plot-line regarding events unfolding within the Campaign Setting, with which a small group of adventurers can interact readily to influence the course of events.

Campaign Arc - A series of adventures set against the background of the overall Campaign, designed to allow adventurers to learn about and, in due course, influence or even dictate the course of events occurring within the Campaign.


Using these definitions, the Campaign is an ongoing meta-plot which can unfold independently of the adventurers' actions across much of the Campaign Setting, becoming influenced by them only where and when they happen to interact with it. Ideally, they will play an increasingly pivotal part in it as they progress, but it's also possible that they will choose to remain peripheral to the major events, pursuing their own goals instead. This structure also allows for multiple campaign arcs separated temporally and/or geographically, potentially featuring different sets of adventurers in each arc.

 

[Gilladian]

I have run many campaigns in my campaign world. I have several settings within that world. The campaign world is Vishteer, the Campaign Setting I like best is that section known as Miraboria, and the campaigns I've run in that setting have involved at least six different groups of players over the last 25 years.

Campaign = a linked series of adventures, which, while occurring, seem to have a connection to each other, because of a major overlap of PCs, events, or themes (and usually at least 2 of these three elements).

Setting = a section of a campaign world which is suited to a particular campaign. It may be one nation, one continent, or one series of planes, but it is limited by some element, whether scope, time, or flavor.

World = everything the DM creates that can be accounted as "interconnected" or which he views as a unit. Multiple worlds, planes, times, and even a multiverse, can be part of one campaign "world", as long as the DM views them that way.

 

[Katana_Geldar]

I agree with the story. A campaign needs to be more than just loosely linked adventures, there needs to be a common theme or story running through them all.

Yet what this story is actually like depends on what game I am running. For Star Wars, I use the three-act formula and begin in space so I can give my players the feel of being in a Star Wars film.

Campaigns also need to have endings, as good stories have good endings.

 

[howandwhy99]

It's an odd reference to the playing of the game, one time, all the way through. In other words, it is a group of players who more or less retain the same members advancing from level one to the highest level in the game and then retiring, winning the game.

A person could be playing in the same published setting in another campaign, but no two campaign settings will be alike as they change due to the actions of the players playing the game. The person would be playing in two campaigns even though the rules, the initial campaign setting, and the adventure modules within it were identical.

 

[ExploderWizard]

The setting of adventures is just that-a setting. A campaign in D&D is extrapolated from the military campaign definition which is a time during which a military force conducts combat operations in a given area with the purpose of achieving a particular desired resolution of a military conflict as its strategic goal, usually within a clearly defined resource, geographic and time limited criteria.

Of course D&D expands this narrow scope to substitute party of adventurers for military force and general adventuring for combat operations, with the strategic goal varying widely from campaign to campaign depending on what was the focus of the campaign.

 

[radmod]

Good answer, EW! I'll go with that one.

(Grumble, grumble, wish I had thought of it.)

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Fwiw, here are some (D&D-centric) quotes. At least in modern parlance, a "campaign" seems to be defined as a series of adventures with more or less the same group of PCs. I don't have access to older editions to check their definitions, if any.

It’s important to distinguish between a campaign and a world since the terms often seem to be used interchangeably. A campaign composed of a series of adventures, the NPCs involved in those adventures, and the events surrounding everything that happens in those adventures. When you guide the players through aventures you have designed, and the players choose the paths for their characters within those adventures, you are running a campagin.

Just as a D&D adventure is a series of encounters strung together into an overarcing story,a campaign is a larger story that ties those adventures together.
When your ready to construct your own campagin, let this chapter be your guide. At its most fundamental level, a campaign is the story of the characters in your game.

When many adventures are strung together, often with the same characters in play, this is referred to as a campaign.

A campaign is a continuing storyline or set of adventures, typically involving the same characters.

The term "campaign" doesn't appear to be explicitly defined in OSRIC, and the term is hardly ever used at all in game/rp theory essays that I could find.