My D&D Campaign, the Television Series

[Sound of Azure]

Since I'm rebuilding my campaign notes at the moment, I started wondering about the "Style" of game I would have. The ratio of delving : roleplay : treasure hunting : political stuff : other stuff and all that. Naturally a lot would depend on the players involved, but I felt it good methodology to have a basic plan, and lay the seeds for all opportunities. So now I have some decent ideas, and a lot better formed than the first time around.

One thing that came to me was that frequently, D&D campaigns are what I'd call "episodic", going from one location to another, adventure to adventure. So.. why not build the game around the idea of a serial television programme? There'd be a large campaign arc, with several stand-alone episodes along the way. Some "episodes" would focus on particular PCs and their motivations, while others focus on the team as a whole (and how they work together), or external problems. It wouldn't be tightly scripted (ie railroading), but have a basic idea behind the series, and an overall direction (a series canon / bible, if you will).

Am I insane to have this idea? Has it been done successfully by anyone here? Are there pitfalls to beware of? Tips? Anyhow, thanks for letting me ramble on once again...

 

[pogre]

Am I insane to have this idea? Has it been done successfully by anyone here? Are there pitfalls to beware of? Tips? Anyhow, thanks for letting me ramble on once again...

Exactly how I used to run my fantasy campaigns (both D&D and WFRP). It works great when you know some folks are going to have to miss some sessions. We played for between 3.5 and 4.5 hours and my goal was to get through an episode every session with the occasional "two-parter."

I recommend the format highly. It is a bit less immersive, but still a heck of lot of fun. Plus, it's pretty practical for most groups.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

This is a very popular theme:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=102706&page=2

For Urban Arcana or other Modern Fantasy setting, a reverse version of Dream Park or Westworld:

A "20th Century Waterdeep" setting, in which adventuring would be the new televised sports or reality shows- "Survivor: Myth Drannor," "The Great Race: Dragonspine Mountains," "Monday Night Dungeon-delving," "The Graveyard 500" and so forth. PCs would either be pros or amateurs, depending upon the setting. Think "Rollerball" on magical steroids.

(Post #61.)

It's also been done a couple of times as an RPG - R. Talsorian's Dream Park (based directly on the novels) and Pandahead Games' X-Crawl (now in association with Goodman Games).

Consider "Big Brother"- it would fit quite well- lock the PCs in a Dungeon and the survivor gets the prize.

Or a variant based on Deathrace 3000 could feature a cross-country race in which you're trying to rack up points base on your kills. (This one would require a little homework on the plotlines of this movie to get it right, but it would be fun!)

I personally think it would be a blast to play. Nearly all hack, but with a good socio-political aspect- "How can these games be moral when people routinely die playing them?" (Of course, inexpensive ressurections would ameliorate those concerns...)

In addition to cash prizes, there could even be magic items awarded...but there would also be all those nice trophies! MVPs, World Champion rings, etc.

Heck, if you have a little cash to spend, you could even acquire little plastic mockups for your players to keep. A little plastic ring for the player of the PC who won "World Champion" of the Dragonspine Mountain race could be found in almost any toy or hobby store...or for a little more cash, a mini trophy from a trophy shop for the MVP of the Dungeon Delving league.

I know it seems unlikely, but if your players are sitting at the table with their trophies, it WILL inspire other players to strive for that level of excellence!

In fact, you could even run the various TV shows & competitions as completely seperate! Every player could have a PC for each different show (you set the PC level)- survivors might even cross over into different leagues, like when your world's equivalent of Michael Jordan retires from your worlds version of basketball, only to take up a career in your world's version of baseball. Or like when Deion Sanders was a 2 sport athelete (football & baseball).

 

[Ian the Mad]

I run a roughly episodic Eberron game, but continuity-wise, it's far more in the serial drama (ala new Battlestar Galactica) style than the episodic-but-not-necessarily-temporally-contiguous style of your standard sitcom or what have you.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The soon-to-be-out-of-print Buffy the RPG book has advice on how to structure games exactly like this.

 

[00Machado]

Am I insane to have this idea? Has it been done successfully by anyone here? Are there pitfalls to beware of? Tips? Anyhow, thanks for letting me ramble on once again...

Robin Laws wrote a good article on modeling a campaign on the TV series format. It's in Dragon 293. I think the title is Run Emmy-Winning Games. Might be worth mining for ideas that would help in building yours along those lines.

 

[Sound of Azure]

Cheers!

This is a very popular theme:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=102706&page=2



(Post #61.)

It's also been done a couple of times as an RPG - R. Talsorian's Dream Park (based directly on the novels) and Pandahead Games' X-Crawl (now in association with Goodman Games).

Consider "Big Brother"- it would fit quite well- lock the PCs in a Dungeon and the survivor gets the prize.

Or a variant based on Deathrace 3000 could feature a cross-country race in which you're trying to rack up points base on your kills. (This one would require a little homework on the plotlines of this movie to get it right, but it would be fun!)

I personally think it would be a blast to play. Nearly all hack, but with a good socio-political aspect- "How can these games be moral when people routinely die playing them?" (Of course, inexpensive ressurections would ameliorate those concerns...)

In addition to cash prizes, there could even be magic items awarded...but there would also be all those nice trophies! MVPs, World Champion rings, etc.

Heck, if you have a little cash to spend, you could even acquire little plastic mockups for your players to keep. A little plastic ring for the player of the PC who won "World Champion" of the Dragonspine Mountain race could be found in almost any toy or hobby store...or for a little more cash, a mini trophy from a trophy shop for the MVP of the Dungeon Delving league.

I know it seems unlikely, but if your players are sitting at the table with their trophies, it WILL inspire other players to strive for that level of excellence!

In fact, you could even run the various TV shows & competitions as completely seperate! Every player could have a PC for each different show (you set the PC level)- survivors might even cross over into different leagues, like when your world's equivalent of Michael Jordan retires from your worlds version of basketball, only to take up a career in your world's version of baseball. Or like when Deion Sanders was a 2 sport athelete (football & baseball).

Wow, those would all be excellent mini-campaigns! I was considering something of a "Great Race" kind of theme about halfway through the game. Thank you very much!

On the other hand, they would all be an excellent idea for my half-baked idea of a game set in the Hex Coda universe (the Asylum), a D&D/ D20 Modern crossover.

I'm considering giving out a "best actor" bag of goodies (chocolates or something else snackish) once a month, but may expand into other categories (like coolest battle cry, an award for teamwork, perhaps the wooden spoon for worst pun or ooc comment )

The soon-to-be-out-of-print Buffy the RPG book has advice on how to structure games exactly like this.).

It makes sense that they would have advice like that. I'll see if they've still got it down at my FLGS.

I recommend the format highly. It is a bit less immersive, but still a heck of lot of fun. Plus, it's pretty practical for most groups.

Cool, I'm glad it worked out for you (and that I'm not crazy! ). As for immersiveness, do you think it would depend on how much the players "buy into" the game? I usually aim for relatively short sessions (3-4 hours, sometimes longer). Was that a good length for your group?

Robin Laws wrote a good article on modeling a campaign on the TV series format. It's in Dragon 293. I think the title is Run Emmy-Winning Games. Might be worth mining for ideas that would help in building yours along those lines.

Oh, wow! #293... whoah, that's about 4 - 5 years ago! Hmm, I'll see if someone I know has that issue, and check out the local markets for 2nd hand issues. Thanks for that, I had no idea!

--
My inital idea is to have a "Journey to the West" ( "Goku/ Monkey", from the '80s) type show, with the PCs protect (at least trying to) an important personage. So, it's kind of like a road movie as well, with exploration of new places the PCs may or not be familiar with. It would have a clear goal, but without a really strict timeline. They just have to get to the end... at the end of the series.

My concern is that the PCs may just want to get there really quickly and ignore all the plot hooks! Ah, well.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

As for immersiveness, do you think it would depend on how much the players "buy into" the game? I usually aim for relatively short sessions (3-4 hours, sometimes longer). Was that a good length for your group?

That depends upon what you mean for immersiveness...short sessions may even help the immersive feeling.

If you do a little prepwork, you can send out emails or handouts detailing how LARPing is the premier pro sport of this world... Drop names- how Gary Gygax was the Vince Lombardi of D&D...or the fearsome Tucker's Kobolds who rule the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field...

Early sessions could be like training camp. Think of the scenes in the early parts of the movie Gladiator.

Later game sessions could be more like Running Man or Westworld... Because its Competitive LARPing, perhaps these events are timed- the most victory (XP) points gained within the time alotted.

Eventually, if you use the multiple PC style of campaign, the 1-3 top finishers in each of the various competitions would be invited to the Winter Nationals...a big event in which there are many PCs and NPCs competing in several modular events, kind of like an Olympic Decathalon. Who will win the Minotaur Maze competition? Who will win in the combat trials? The skills competitions?

 

[AFGNCAAP]

Y'know, this is literally the campaign that my group's going through right now.

World's Largest Dungeon: Reality TV series with your host, the Dungeon Master.

The premise is that we're playing ourselves, who've been transported into WLD as part of a reality TV show. It's the brainchild of the Dungeon Master (from the D&D Cartoon), who attempted this years before, but only got a cartoon deal out of it (so the cartoon characters were real-world participants). Now he's at it again, this time maximizing on the reality TV craze.

I'm considering running a "spin-off" campaign for another group I DM for: World's Largest Adventure, hosted by the sorceress Zandorra (the female Dungeon Master-esque looking character from the cartoon). The PCs will be imaginary Earth folk (instead of being a statted-up version of real world people, since 2-3 players of the WLD group also play in the other game), transported to my homebrew setting & set about on various adventures (more along the lines of the original cartoon). The big goal (achieveable only after 20th lvl.+) is to get home (or rather, find & obtain an artifact that will enable them to get home), but there'll be plenty of adventures along the way, and stunning season surprises!

But, that's my (recent) experience with a TV-like campaign. The only thing I'd really recommend is to have character creation be a bit less random--have players provide a good background/reason why they're adventuring, and why they're adventuring with the people in the group in particular (i.e., why these guys, and not someone else?). Have the players make a framework to use, & then work with them as the "series" moves along, to add in new elements to the story & their character (like a featured NPC being revealed as a distant relative or family friend to one of the PCs, for example).

The only other thing is to be careful about players who want to take a starring role--e.g., it's not "The Blagney the Half-Orc Rogue Show," it's "The Chaotic Order". Now, if there is some irregular attendanceby some members, certain characters may be featured on the show more, but if that's the case, at least have `em be a Scotty, Uhura, Chekov, or Sulu to the other players' Kirk, Spock, & Bones, & not just some Ensign Redshirt.

 

[Old Drew Id]

My d20 Modern campaign (referenced in my sig) was structured this way. Some further notes:

We refered to the adventures as episodes, and went on hiatus after the "season finale". A typical episode lasted around 5 sessions.

At the beginning of each session, we had "the opening credits", where i would review what happened last week, announce the title of the current episode, and then have each player describe their "credits shot", which is the scene that you see while the TV would say "...and starring Jack Hannah as Tyler Dennesy...". The players would usually describe some iconic scene for their character, or replay a highlight from one of their previous adventures, all described in just one or two sentences.

We also picked out actors or actresses who would portray each PC and many of the main NPC's.