Episodic Campaigns - Your Experiences

[Retreater]

My group tends to forget what happens between each session (we average two games per month.) Despite sending detailed notes, most players don't read them. Carefully constructed plot (including the dramatic reveleation of a villian and the death of a major NPC) is lost on them.

When the players are there, they mostly pay attention and are engaged in the goings-on.

It seems like the perfect opportunity for an episodic campaign with mostly short adventures, NPCs who aren't recurring, etc.

Has anyone played in or GM'ed a successful episodic campaign? Are there any ideas you can share with a DM who is used to the Adventure Path mindset?

 

[Agamon]

"Living" games are episodic (D&D Encounters, Pathfinder Society, etc). I used to play Living Greyhawk back in the 3e days. It was fun getting together with friends, but it didn't really scratch the itch, honestly. I prefer a more continuous game.

 

[Hussar]

I'm a HUGE fan of the episodic campaign. It was the default of how we played for a long time. There are many advantages, many of which you hit on: ((Note, none of these are exclusive to episodic, they just happen to be, IMO, the strengths of episodic))

a. Less player buy in. Because each adventure is pretty much self contained, you only have to worry about what's in THIS adventure. Just like watching something like Star Trek TNG, you don't have to worry if you missed a few episodes, or even a season, you can just pick it up again.

b. Greater variety. Because you are running episodic games, you can really spread things out and try new stuff. Want to run a horror game? Go for it. Follow that up with a mystery and then round things off with a comedy game.

c. A lot less DM workload. It's episodic. You don't need a whole world, you only need the next adventure. The DM sets the initial parameters (or possibly the players might request something) and things proceed from there. No more fifteen page campaign setting hand outs because, well, who cares?

 

[Ahnehnois]

It's not necessarily an either/or proposition. I ran my last campaign with several continuous sessions, and then when RL imposed huge delays between sessions, I went more episodic, with each session containing huge narrative leaps and being somewhat stylistically self-contained. It held together, despite some nasty unplanned breaks in play.

There are a few things I'd suggest. One is writing down what happens in some organized form. I write reviews after every session and post them on our message boards. It gives players an opportunity to go back and revisit what happened, if they're engaged enough to do so (and it's an interesting excercise in and of itself). I see you did notes but maybe a more narrative form would be read by the players? I don't know them (nor do I know how readable your notes are) so I can't answer that.

The second is to plan a strong dramatic ending for each session. If it ends on a cliffhanger, it's easier to pick it back up and people are more likely to remember where you left off. (You do have to vary the style of session endings to avoid predictability).

The third is that if you are going to have recurring elements, revisit them in some form each session. Even if it's just a line of dialogue or something, reminding players of the existence of a character or the threat of a faraway nemesis helps them stay engaged.

***

Honestly, there are many great TV shows that run serialized plotlines with huge breaks in between episodes. It certainly can be done and done well if you embrace it.

That said, since you're thinking about a more episodic feel, I'd suggest watching a few shows that have mixed episodic and serialized styles successfully and learning from them.

Personally, I've learned a lot about plotting from Battlestar Galactica (and the commentaries).