D&D 5E Troupe-Style Play in 5e (How would you make it work?)

[Paul Farquhar]

In another thread, @DrunkonDuty mention Troupe Style Play:



This got my imagination running!

How would you make Troupe Style Play work in 5e D&D? What kinds of campaigns would it be great for? What would be some of the challenges, and how would you overcome them?

We did this playing FASA Star Trek RPG. Each player had a senior and junior officer character. One would stay on the ship, whist the other was on the Away Team. But this was done out of necessity, because of the nature of storytelling associated with the IP. The action might be on the planet, or on the bridge, or both at the same time. To an extent, it was to avoid spoiling the plot by telling the players where the action would be.

On the whole, one of the strengths of D&D is the typical story structure does not require such contrivances, and I would avoid trying to force it in unless absolutely necessary.

Another situation you might use it would be in a Mission Impossible type game, where you are selecting highly specialised characters for a specific mission. But the 5e ruleset does not tend to produce highly specialised characters, and even the Mission Impossible TV series fell back on the same cast of regulars most of the time.

 

[BookTenTiger]

Another fun way to do this in a 5e Game might be a "Knights of the Round Table" Style game.

Everyone creates 8th Level Knights who are in some kind of order (or who sit around a table or some distinct shape).

Each adventure is one of the Knights' quests (such as for the holy grail, or to slay a dragon, or whatever). The other players have rolled up Squires (5th level) and Followers (3rd Level).

This style of game would allow a series of protagonist-driven stories in which one Knight at a time gets the spotlight. Could be interesting!

 

[pogre]

I love Ars Magica, but do not really have a group that would enjoy it long term. Anyway, I also like the concept of troupe play.

I kind of sneak some troupe play in my campaign.

IMC, PCs generally go into the background once they reach 18-20th levels. However, they remain an important part of the campaign world and sometimes are called into service for a special mission. This way, players can play some very high level D&D on occasion - that invariably has consequences for the current campaign characters. Usually it is indirect- something they hear about. Sometimes it is direct - my current campaign PCs are working for a monster hunting guild that was founded by a previous epic character.