Looking for some "open" campaign ideas...

[humble minion]

I ran into the same issue a while ago, and the solution my group settled on was a superhero game (M&M). Every PC had to explain in their background the 'other committments' they had that would occasionally be called away by, and the nicely episodic stucture of most superhero plots (particularly the more silver age-y Saturday morning type) fit in well with our intent to run single-session self-contained adventures.

Might not be everyone's cup of tea (we use it as a backup when not everyone can make it to our primary D&D campaign), but it's an idea that works ok for us.

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

I'd probably go with a bunch of mini-adventures that could all be one-shots in and of themselves, but try to tie them into a big plot for why they are happening towards the end of the campaign.

An example is that of a fantastic city which was built tens of thousands of years ago and within the city are these mysterious portals to other dangerous destinations (cities, caverns, forests, planes, etc...). The problem is that any time a group of adventurers enters one of the magical portals they are never heard from again. The group that you have could enter one per session with a bunch of encounters you have lined up ahead of time, they are the only ones who find their way back to the original city alive and continue on their journeys to figure out why these portals all lead to so many dangerous places and who originally made them, for which you could say it was a city made by ancient gods and the portals were "proving grounds" for their disciples or some such.

Feel that this leaves things open for you to do what you wanted with the sessions, but could all tie in together towards the end with a final portal being opened by defeating all the challenges in all the rest of the portals to fight the "champion of the gods" which you could toss in a tarrasque or primordial type of big baddie.

 

[Mercurius]

I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, as it isn't an actual idea for a type of campaign, but I think your best chances of success at an "open campaign" would be if everyone is flexible about PCs appearing and disappearing during different sessions. You're going to be hard-pressed to end every session neatly (back in town, at base camp, etc), so the most important factor here is that flexibility. I know it has a kind of unaesthetic quality for a character to simply disappear or "stay to tend the hearth" or "guard the last turn," but it is a small price to pay to enable game sessions at all amidst busy adult lives.

As for specific ideas, not much to add as you've gotten a wealth of good ideas flowing, but I would also throw out there the idea of an Adventurer's Guild of some kind - maybe the characters themselves have started a guild or a company, and they utilize different members to go out on specific missions. Think of the X-Men back in the early 90s with the "Blue" and "Gold" teams. This also allows players to have multiple characters to use, depending upon their mood. You could handle XP by having the entire company/guild receive a certain percentage of the XP awarded for an individual session.

To go further with this idea, you could use it in a variant of the mega-city ideas some folks have mentioned. Maybe the campaign is set in a massive city that is largely in ruins but is gradually being rebuilt and repopulated. Rival adventuring groups are killing off monsters, taking their stuff, and expanding the boundaries of the re-inhabited zones. Perhaps there are some artifacts lost in the city that are key in some way. Hmm...I like that idea - off to write up some notes!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

First, let me say I like the:

1. Caravan
2. Thieves' Guild/mercenary troop
3. Airship/Spelljammer
4. Dream Warriors (compete w/theme song by Dokken!!!)

Ideas. And from personal experience, I can say they're all solid.

However, if you're going to have long story arcs where the party doesn't end up back at base at the end if each session, though, only the Dream Warriors option truly allows your players to come and go as needed.

The other beauty of the Dream Warriors campaign is that it lets you bring in whatever you want- on either side of the screen- no worries about "There aren't any Thri-Kreen in Eberron!" You could even bring in archetypes from other genres if you've got a broad enough system. If your game was being run in 4Ed, for instance, you could probably bring in a Gamma World PC.

 

[VacuumJockey]

Weem,

check out Ben Robbins Western Marches for inspiration.

Ben describes a long-running sandbox game set up for conditions that sounds a lot like the ones you describe.

1) Yes, I think both sound good.

2) Lord Plotdevice was recently named Governor of the Uncharted Barbarian Lands and now he has finally established his estate in Nuevo Coastal Colony, the only civilized spot within a thousand miles. The PC's are various flunkies in his employ who are given dull and deadly but crap missions of exploration in this virgin land. Fortunately they have a lot of autonomy, and the smart ones could end up as landowners - if they play their cards right.

But really, almost any framing device works for a sandbox campaign.

 

[Scott DeWar]

dang you weem! I can't get this off my mind!

Thanks for stopping in! (would XP you, but I have recently already).

No one mentioned this one specifically, but it is what inspired me to consider the town at the edge of the known world as an idea. Have one location everyone operates out of etc - it's perfect for what I am looking for, though perhaps without the hex-ploration as my players aren't so much into that (rather, exploration of ruins, abandoned towers, and things down at that level being what they prefer). Those can be worked into a hex-to-hex style setting, but that's a little more sandbox'y than my players would like.

Thanks again Scott!

Ok, today is a rain out day as my muscles are twitching too much to work-can't hold on to any tools.

so first i make some whisky and 7 up to clear my mind and I can give this as an Idea:

Logistics can be a hassle in some campains, but if that is part of the expected planning then it sould be a very nice thought expirament/skill challenge.If at the end of a days gameing a goal to find a base camp is part of the to do list, then that base cam is where the gamers who are not there for the next game have been left.

A network of caches may need to be set up and that is where the non present players pc's are- helping in the set up of defensive camps in the logistics networks.

This should give some possible hooks to re-unit some of the scattered groups as there may be a siege of bugbears against one of the camps- some of the pcs are in the camp, some are out side of the siege causing trouble to the offending maurauders.

along the way there can be convienient 'finds ' of stone ruins- former sgtructers from some long lost civilization with heavy overgroth almost completely hiding the ruins.

My mind is raceing too fast with ideas right now, but i think I mhave given some furtile seeds of ideas for you to work with.

 

[Kaodi]

Players are the captive souls of a band of yugoloths or some other extraplanar beings. They are regularly switched in and out at the whims of their masters, who watch their moves. Maybe one of the subtexts of the game is to be eventually free themselves from bondage. Characters who are currently phased out are assumed to be doing other things, so this could perhaps be a means of introducing some goodies or important objects they obtained elsewhere when needed, as well as an explanation for why characters progress at the same rate regardless.

 

[NewJeffCT]

i am a little pressed for time to have read all of the posts above, but ai saw a base camp mentioned. Here is an idea that works off the same principle.

1) Kingmaker rules for exploration. You set what is on the grid for expected encounters. it is used in all three (if not more) of d and d, so I am not trying to start any edition war here.

2) if you have a first edition DMG you will find in it a table of randome terrain. it works quite well with the Kingmaker rules. It also may be in the OSRIC srd.

3) in the base camp/town there would be an Inn with a table that has carved in the terrain map of the surrounding area. Maybe start with the town hex and all hexes touching it. When ever you have a g4roup going out to fight the great evil, they always have this map of wood that can be refered too by any group going out.

3a) alternately, the duke of this area that has hired them has a room or rooms set aside for the group one of which is a map room with a cartographer as part of the duke's personell to keep the map updated.

I am sorry if womeone has already mentioned any of this, but like I said, I need to get out of the door!

I would agree with Scott - Kingmaker is good for that edge of civilization feeling. Plus, it's pretty sandboxy through much of the adventure. The PCs are tasked with exploring, taming & settling a wild land, and can do so at their own pace and taking encounters in the order they want instead of having to stick with a set path.

XP to Scott for the 1E DMG suggestion as well. I'll have to look it up, as I'm hoping to start Kingmaker fairly soon in my game. Though, I'll be running it with 4E rules.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Thanks for stopping in! (would XP you, but I have recently already).

No one mentioned this one specifically, but it is what inspired me to consider the town at the edge of the known world as an idea. Have one location everyone operates out of etc - it's perfect for what I am looking for, though perhaps without the hex-ploration as my players aren't so much into that (rather, exploration of ruins, abandoned towers, and things down at that level being what they prefer). Those can be worked into a hex-to-hex style setting, but that's a little more sandbox'y than my players would like.

Thanks again Scott!

I think Kingmaker does have the exploration of ruins, various monster lairs, etc. One of the early trips involves the players helping to restore an ancient ruined temple.

 

[Scott DeWar]

careful with the swpoilers! I am playing that game in the table top game here!

ok, I may be a bit ocb in what Zi just did. i just went through the Osric pdf twice looking for the chart i mentioned above. I did not find it. That pdf has over 400 pages. I should have reached into my desk dwarer and found it.

that chart is on page 173 of the dmg.

my eyes hurt.