Getting back into the game...

[Zustiur]

Hi everyone. Today's topic is reviving old campaigns.

I was running a campaign for my friends, and then life happened, so we haven't played for about 6 months.
We're not avid players to begin with, we generally play once a month or less.

We're at the point in the game where a small story arc had finished, and we're at the beginning of a new one. A transition point if you will. Two wars have just started, but the PC's aren't directly involved in anything at all.

My questions are:
1) How do you revive a campaign and keep it interesting?
2) How many of you have had to deal with long delays like this?
3) Would it be better (in your opinion) to start a fresh game instead?
4) What can be done to remind players of the campaign to date (without having to reread the entire story...)

Unfortunately, we rarely have every player available, so most games we are missing at least one person. This campaign isn't particularly exciting, but none of mine ever are.

Zustiur.

 

[dvvega]

Well the best way that I have found is reading the entire story

However I don't mean verbatim. You yourself can go through and summarise the events of each session into a 2-3 sentence blurb.

Stringing these together it can be verbally spoken.

Ahead of time - before the first session of your new story arc, print and hand out all of the session notes that are available. Let everyone read them in their own time.

Then at the first session, use the quick summary method.

Of course if they want to start new characters then "fast forward" to a time after the war for example ... where they adventure in the land that "is now" as opposed to "what was". They could hear tales of their old characters, and you could summarise the happenings of the old campaign through rumours and heresay, sprinkled with lies. For example, one of the old PCs may have been an honorable Paladin who never took advantage of a woman - after many years of pub rumours, he's become homosexual, or worship some devil who condone beastiality or some such (do not flame me for use those as examples - they are just completely "wrong" for a Paladin).

The new party then sets out to prove/disprove some of the rumours perhaps just to vindicate their old characters' names. This way they are slowly reintroduced to your world/campaign.

The best time I had reliving the past was by writing a short A4 script for different parts of the previous campaign and having everyone read out parts.

 

[caudor]

Unfortunately, we rarely have every player available, so most games we are missing at least one person. This campaign isn't particularly exciting, but none of mine ever are.

Zustiur.

Since your group doesn't play often, it might be a good idea to focus less on the overall campaign and more on individual adventures (or sessions). Then let the players themselves drive/flesh out your campaign. Or, you might consider using the campaign within a campaign approach. For example, many of the Necromancer games adventures are actually mini-campaigns that you might be able to drop into your overall story arch without too much trouble. Hamlet of Thumble is another good adventure I might suggest along these lines. Taking one of these and making it your own is a good, quick way to revive a campaign.

To create more pure excitment, you simply need to create conflict...and guide your players into the middle of that conflict. Like a good story, conflict is what drives interest and creates excitment.

Good luck!

 

[RPG_Tweaker]

With infrequent playtimes and sporadic players, I suggest you try a different campaign style…

Like a movie, break the story into three acts.
1) Introduction of the characters/basics of the plot.
2) A journey/descent into conflict.
3) Final confrontation/resolution.

Each act is an adventure session built to propel the story arc to the next act.

This allows the story to be more bite-sized, thus more memorable over time and allows the players to feel they are accomplishing something despite the long stretches between game sessions. And by injecting some theatrical zest to the plot and individual scenes, the players may even be inspired to play more often to continue the adventure to fruition.

When a story is over you could continue the campaign by making a “Part II” or start a new story with new characters. The new characters could even see the results of the previous characters (a great morale booster for players).