What Games are Best for Campaigning? Which are Not?

[Jack7]

This thread: How Many Campaigns have you Finished?

by Olaf got me to thinking.

What role playing games and/or wargames, in your opinion, are best suited to real Campaigning (as opposed to just adventuring) and what games are better suited to adventuring?

And if you think a game is well suited to real Campaigning, then why is that so? (List types and characteristics if you like.)


And if you think a game is well suited to adventuring, but not campaigning, then why is that so? (List types and characteristics if you like.)

 

[amerigoV]

F.A.T.A.L. By a mile.

 

[delericho]

I'm sorry, I don't understand the distinction. What do you mean by "real campaigning"? And "just adventuring"?

 

[Nagol]

Some systems are purpose-built to support single session/short adventure play.

Paranoia and Teenagers from Outer Space are two I'd place in this camp.

Basically anything with consistently high lethality (Chill 1st ed, Paranoia), that are high camp ( TfOS ), or specifically designed to emulate a movie genre (Slasher Flick) make better single scenario games than campaigns.

 

[Crothian]

Dread is also a game designed for one shots and not a campaign.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

A lot of it comes to play style -- a game that makes a great campaign in one group may be only good for episodic adventures with another. I'd put Call of Cthulhu in that category -- it takes a carefully managed game to pull off a long term campaign.

 

[S'mon]

Does 'adventuring' mean 'short term play' or 'long term player-directed play'?

Does Campaigning mean 'long term goal set by DM' or 'long term player-directed play'?

 

[Aramax]

A lot of it comes to play style -- a game that makes a great campaign in one group may be only good for episodic adventures with another. I'd put Call of Cthulhu in that category -- it takes a carefully managed game to pull off a long term campaign.

Could not agree more to this assesment of COC.
I feel it is best played in either 1 shots or short conected games.
It would be a travisty to turn it into a 'Monster of the Week'
another one that fits this catagory for me is GURPS.
Once the players get a lot of experiance they become to powerful in relation to thier would be opponents.
Ive only gotten GURPS long term in 2 genres
1)Star Trek(because no matter how powerful you get if your ship blows up......
2) Traveller Mercenary used at Platoon to Battallion level

 

[Jack7]

I'm sorry, I don't understand the distinction. What do you mean by "real campaigning"? And "just adventuring"?

Does 'adventuring' mean 'short term play' or 'long term player-directed play'?

Does Campaigning mean 'long term goal set by DM' or 'long term player-directed play'?

I thought about giving a very short, opened ended definition, or maybe a complicated and all-inclusive one. But I think instead I'll let you guys define it as you like and then decided why you think a particular game is a good Campaign Game, or not. So define it as you like.

To me a good Campaign Game (my personal definition) is a game that promotes big ideas and big events, settings, that would normally constitute a large, sophisticated, multi-objective campaign that could not easily be solved just by Adventuring through a few disconnected locales.

Campaigns to me have a coherence, and larger importance generally lacking in small, disconnected adventures or in single adventures. That isn't always the case, but generally speaking that's how I look at it.

And certain games are, in my opinion, constructed or structured in such a way as to promote campaigning and others are not.

But you define it as you wish and then tell why you think a game is that way, or not.

A lot of it comes to play style -- a game that makes a great campaign in one group may be only good for episodic adventures with another.

I think that is an absolutely true observation as well. A lot does come down to play style and the setting the group chooses. If you wanna discuss those factors, great. I'm talking about general game design, but take it in any direction you wish.

 

[Jack7]

By the way, if you wanna say how game designers could make games better suited to Campaigning (to being a better Campaign Game) or better suited to being an Adventure Game then talk about that as well. I'm easy.

Just soliciting thoughts and picking brains about my own game designs and inventions and how they might be improved.