D&D 5E is a campaign setting necessary?

[pukunui]

Thanks for all the responses, guys.

One of the themes I've been pondering is a Sliders-like episodic campaign, where the PCs have some kind of device that shifts them seemingly randomly from one prime material world to another (and maybe sometimes to other planes). The idea is that they wouldn't ever go back to where they were before.

If they need a temple, it'll be dedicated to whatever god is the local one (if it's mentioned in the adventure I'm running, it'll be that one; if there is no temple in the adventure, I'll make one up or just tell them there isn't one nearby).

I guess in that respect, you could potentially say that the nebulous "multiverse" would be this campaign's setting.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

Hellz to the yeah! My current 5e campaign is now going on...hmmm, maybe 3 or 4 months? Anwyay, the "World of Genericka" ( https://world-of-genericka.obsidianportal.com/ ) is exactly what the name implies..."generic". It basically started as a totally open, free-form, lets just roll some dice, kill some monsters, and take their stuff!, style campaign. I'm using generic maps, generic adventures (re: not set in any particular setting, per se), and 'just' the stuff found in the PHB, MM and DMG. I did use a monster from 5th Edition Foes because there wasn't a "Skeleton Warrior" (from 1e FF) in the MM.

The "story" is what the PC's are doing. There is stuff going on in the background, but it's not really tied to any epic world event or anything of the sort. No world-spanning conspiracies or factions, for example. It's pretty much been a swamp-based wilderness game for the first 2 months, now it's a semi-mega-dungeon-bash (5 levels, but they are some rather big levels) of an ancient dwarven citadel that was destroyed by giants who were "hired" by the Evil North Queen over the mountains. I've been tying in stuff from the swamp adventure with this citadel's background and leaving enough loose threads open to tie it into whatever comes next. I have no idea what comes next. Really, I don't. The players get to decide whatever they want to do...I'll run with that and tie it in...loosely...to what is/has gone in. And by "tie in" I don't necessarily mean with plots, stories and NPC's; could be some particular item, book, monster, or location. Who knows?

All I know...I'm having a lot of fun just playing the game with some friends and not worrying about having to follow some pre-determined "adventure path" (or whatever WotC is calling their...uh... "brand experience" ... ).

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[pukunui]

All I know...I'm having a lot of fun just playing the game with some friends and not worrying about having to follow some pre-determined "adventure path" (or whatever WotC is calling their...uh... "brand experience" ... ).

After playing in Age of Worms (we're up to 18th level now) and running Tyranny of Dragons (still early days there), I'm getting a little tired of career-spanning adventures myself. Hence my desire for a more episodic approach. I've got a lot of shorter adventures, plus a heap of old Dungeon mags, and I'd love to make use of them. Just string them together as unrelated episodes in a D&D "tv show".

I think, ultimately, what I'm after is very similar to what the Adventurer's League does.

I also don't want to have to bother trying to rewrite a whole slew of modules in order to get them to fit into the same setting, be it a published one or one of my own creation.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Mate fill your boots (or your puku!) That is as long as the players don't need a world to feel invested in their PCs. I've played (well DM'd) a lot of campaigns like that, much handwavium was employed in between adventures. Things grew naturally (names of gods, for example) and I just made a note of them as we went along. It is a perfectly valid, and quite awesome, way to play the game ~ if the adventure, the fighting and the discovery are what your players' are after.

Particularly good for a DM, minimum prep. Play it like Dungeon World, play to find out!

 

[Jan van Leyden]

This can easily work as long as the players don't expect their characters to have in influence on the world beyond any specific adventure. They couldn't, e.g., establish good relations with the local baron and hope to get some payback from that in an adventure further down the line.

The old Dungeon adventures mostly work on a set of basic assumptions like wizards and temples offering services or monsters are monsters and are to be killed rather than helped. Stick to these assumptions and you're ready to go.

Apart from that, episodic campaigning is a very relaxed way of playing.

 

[pukunui]

This can easily work as long as the players don't expect their characters to have in influence on the world beyond any specific adventure. They couldn't, e.g., establish good relations with the local baron and hope to get some payback from that in an adventure further down the line.

Yeah. And I'd make sure they understood that going in.

 

[Psikerlord#]

Yeah I think episodic gaming works perfectly well, with or without a pre-defined setting. I do think you end up fleshing out your setting as a by product of playing however. It's unavoidable. And great fun.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

I think I spent most of the 80's and early 90's playing that way!

Us too! We went from module to module based on how cool the covers were with no idea what Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, or Greyhawk even meant.

 

[Bupp]

In one game my friend is running on and off, our "setting" is that we're hired help for a wizard, he then sends us on adventures though his magic portal. The adventures don't need to be on the same plane, the same time period or have anything in common with each other.

I really like this idea. I love world building, but could give that all up for such a simple premise.

 

[pukunui]

I really like this idea. I love world building, but could give that all up for such a simple premise.

Don't get me wrong. I love world-building too. 5e just really makes me want to go old school ...