D&D 5E What does "Campaign" mean to you?

[Mercule]

In my humble opinion, anytime the players and DM sit down at a table and decide "This is the story, this is where you start, and this is where you end/complete the story"... is not a 'campaign'. If it has an actual 'end'; as in after they defeat the final end bad guy behind the whole thing, the DM stops DM'ing that group of PC's and 'ends' that time line.

So, when I finally decided to close put my 25 year old setting to stay a new one, and, as part of that, reveal a few secrets top the players and let them finally take down the Sauron-type overlord that had been a major factor for 15 years, that wasn't a campaign? Even though it took four years to do so?



Sent from my iPhone using EN World mobile app

 

[Psikerlord#]

Campaign to me means same band of PCs doing various adventures. Same PCs (plus those replacing the dead) is mandatory. A series of one-shot adventures with different PCs is not a campaign, it's a series of one shots with different PCs

 

[SwivSnapshot]

The Oxford English Dictionary defines Campaign as a series of military operations intended to achieve a goal, confined to a particular area, or involving a specified type of fighting.

AP's are by definition campaigns. What have we all been doing???

 

[guachi]

My Saturday night game, The Delve, consists of a town, a dungeon, and a dark forest in between. Play consists of talking about downtime activities at the start of the session, then traveling through the forest, then delving the dungeon. Before the end of the session, the characters return to town. This cycle repeats every session. There are no "town adventures" - only what happens in the forest and in the dungeon.

There are 10 players and 20 characters. Only four players are permitted to play in any given session and each person has on average two characters, so the roster can change week to week depending on who plays and what characters they think are best to achieve their goals. Each session is 4 to 5 hours. We're on Week 15 of what is looking to be a 20-week game.

Is this a "campaign" by the definition put forth?

I would not consider this a campaign, no.

Though I imagine some of the definitions posted above that don't require a persistent PC group would mean your set of adventures was a campaign. They are a series of adventures in a persistent game world. And at least the group of players and characters isn't completely random.

 

[S'mon]

The Oxford English Dictionary defines Campaign as a series of military operations intended to achieve a goal, confined to a particular area, or involving a specified type of fighting.

AP's are by definition campaigns. What have we all been doing???

It's an odd truth that modern APs and such are much closer to the dictionary/military definition of "campaign" than is the older Gygax/Arneson persistent-setting/variable-PCs "campaign".

 

[pming]

Hiya!

So, when I finally decided to close put my 25 year old setting to stay a new one, and, as part of that, reveal a few secrets top the players and let them finally take down the Sauron-type overlord that had been a major factor for 15 years, that wasn't a campaign? Even though it took four years to do so?

A bit of a confusing post...but I think what you are saying is that after 25 years you are planning for a "big-ending" sort of adventure, and that because it is ending, that makes it 'not a campaign'?

No, it most definitely is/was a campaign. What I was saying was that if you had pre-planned this big ending out before the players even sat down to make characters...then it might not be a 'campaign'. I suppose that the time it takes to finish some "adventure path" storyline may qualify it as some sort of pseudo-campaign, I guess. *shrug* Anyhoo... I'm guessing you didn't "plan" this ending, or the 'core story' when you started it 15 years ago. That's the crux of the definition to me. If the DM and players go into a game knowing that they will be going from level 1 to level 20 in a sea-faring based adventure involving pirates and demons...then that isn't a "campaign" to me.

Campaigns end. But because they end that doesn't mean they weren't campaigns. Adventure Paths end...and because they already have a beginning, middle and end, they are not "campaigns". If the DM and players continue with the same PC's after the AP's end...then it can become part of a campaign.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[guachi]

I guess I never consciously thought that running an AP with a set beginning, middle, and end wouldn't be a campaign.

But when I was designing my current campaign (PCs at level two) I intentionally put some hooks in for a longer arc. Then I pulled back a bit and decided I didn't want that definite beginning and end. It didn't feel right.

Maybe I did it because it didn't feel like a campaign to me, just a really long adventure.

 

[Uchawi]

My definition is a DM that is willing to run a contiguous set of adventures for at least six months. Whether a specific character lasts that long is part of the story.

 

[Sunseeker]

I think beyond what people have already said, such as a series of strong-together adventures set in a world where there are a multitude of strung-together adventures where players change out infrequently, I think one important element that makes it a "campaign" and not an "adventure path" is the ability to not do the adventure. Sure, your DM may have little love for running your drunken escapades and may attempt to steer you towards the material he has put a lot of time and effort into creating, but that choice remains. And I think to really be adventurers in a persistent world, you need to be able to choose to say "no, we want to do this today."

I think that's what really makes that difference for me between an adventure path and a campaign. The choice not to do the adventure today. It may be difficult to do in whatever situation the players are in, they may be half-way through, on the run in the city of the enemy. But the choice exists, even if it's not a great choice, not an easy choice or risks certain death by simply walking into the nearest Drow tavern and ordering a beer! It's still there.

 

[guachi]

Adventure Paths didn't exist when I started playing. I'm not even sure when the first thing that might be considered an AP was released.

But now that you mention it, I think "choice" is a good indicator whether something is a campaign or not. An AP you can't divert from is really just one very long adventure and not a campaign.

In the recent games I've run I've found the players are willing to see whatever adventure they've chosen through to the end if only on the metagame assumption that the DM has actually prepared for it. At least, I know I ask the players what they plan to do next session so I can prepare something.