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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 9653292" data-attributes="member: 2629">The problem with these campaigns is that they've been around - and too often players have gained familiarity with them.  I've played in too many games where a PC walks into a room and says, "I look under the bed and behind the wardrobe" ... when the DM never mentioned the wardrobe ... and it just so happens that a magic ring is hidden in a box behind a wardrobe that is not visible from the doorway.  Go figure.You can twist a few things around, but if a player knows it, they know it.To that end: If I am going to run a published adventure I try to pick obscure ones and then I change the maps, monsters and every single name in the adventure to try to hide what I am running.  That buys some time, but most DMs know when a player knows the book.Fortunately, I have 5 campaigns intended to run from levels 1 to 20.Lost Empires: The first campaign I run with a new group, this is inspired by Babylon 5 but with some perspective shifts that make it hard to see the relationship until I point it out.  There is one major storyline, and then five smaller storylines running in the background.  PCs can engage in the storylines or let them resolve without them.  For example, in a recent run of the campaign, there is a political storyline about the governance of refugees.  The PCs did not get heavily involved and the entire community collapsed.  The campaign still works with that segment gone, but they could also have saved it and benefitted from having the community to back them up.A Megadungeon: This starts on an island with about 140 encounter locations - but take the PCs to the Shadowfell, Feywild and Ethereal versions of the location as well.  Towards the higher level the PCs start to venture to other places to bring things back to the dungeon.  This one is intended to feel more like 10 adventures taking place in the same location rather than a mega storyline - but they are tied together.Underdark: My Underdark is a Dyson Sphere like world that plays similar to Athas.  I have a campaign that was built as a challenge to 'fix' the Dark Sun modules - taking inspiration from them, but not making the same mistakes.  By the midway point I abandoned the inspiration and ended up with a very different central storyline that evolved naturally - but that has recurred each time I ran it for different groups.  This is clearly a series of modules that form a loose longer storyline.Dr Who: This campaign focuses on Waypath Manor, an extradimensional manor that can be used to carry players between worlds (similar to how Dr Who travels around).  One adventure is in Ravenloft, the next in Eberron, the next in Athas, and the next in Chicago.  The PCs seek the Rod of 7 Parts in the first 2/3 of the campaign and then have to deal with the impacts of the single most powerful artifact in my universe being assembled and sought by every Tyrant out there.  War: This campaign begins in a region where a war is breaking out.  The PCs have reasons not to trust both sides in the war, but can align with either side if they wish.  However, the main adventure involves discovering the truth behind why the war is really taking place and what is really at risk.  At around level 10 (can be much earlier) there is a rug pull when the PCs are able to see that this is a proxy war - and that much of the information they have gathered has double meanings.  This campaign is very hard to run because it will fall apart at the midway point unless you have 1.) That player that loves puzzles and gets excited by the rug pull, 2.) A lot of the information that the PCs gathered over the lower levels in a concentrated and accurate form, and 3.) Players open to the direction change.  The biggest fail here was a player that heavily invested their PC's beliefs into something that turned out to be very different ... and meant that some of the things the PC has done believing they were the right thing to do ... were actually really horrible.  I've been editing this one to incorporate lessons learned from real world US politics over thew past 5 years.  With these, I can run 10 years of games for a group, easily.  Often longer.</blockquote>

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