D&D 5E What is a "Campaign" to you?

[Umbran]

For me, a "campaign" is a series of sessions with (usually, roughly) the same set of players/characters. This will typically all be done within one setting, using one ruleset.

I am about to wrap up a Deadlands campaign, and with the same people start up a short campaign (quote possibly Atomic Robo), and then enter into another long-term, open ended campaign after that (system TBD - the short campaign is to allow me time to do world-building but allow us to keep playing).

 

[Celebrim]

GM:

A "campaign" is the broadest and most inclusive possible term for an extended series of play sessions of D&D set nominally within the same environment.

It implies nothing about a deliberate ongoing storyline, the presence of reoccurring characters, or anything else although those things may and will usually occur regardless of the format of the campaign.

Someone made analogy to TV shows. I generally find analogies unuseful, because it gives you just something else to argue about, but the way I see it:

Episode = Session
Season = Adventure
Campaign = The entire TV series from the pilot to the final episode.

As with many TV shows, a campaign may be canceled even before the first season is up, or it may be a loosely linked series of episodes that are entertaining mainly in isolation without creating any larger meaning, or it may on rare occasions form an entire coherent narrative that fulfills the grand design of its director.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

A campaign is a world setting with a consistent timeline where people can see who, what, where, when and how something came about (or didn't) within the confines of that world setting. Having continuous adventure "paths" or the same characters are irrelevant. If a group of players have characters that bring down the Slave Lords and then Lloth herself on her home plane, then retire...that is a story. If all the players make new characters and continue on from that point...hearing about how the Company of the Red Belt took on the Slave Lords and destroyed their operation, then disappeared into the Abyss, only to return several years later. Then you can be sure you are in a "campaign". If all the players make new characters then do the whole Slavers' series again...you are not in a campaign; you are in a story you've already done.

I hope that make sense. I guess an analogy could be the whole of the Star Trek franchise. In ST the original series, it was a "story" about all the characters aboard the Star Ship Enterprise. After that series ended, a few years later we saw Star Trek: The Next Generation. All the stuff that happened in the original series was used as 'history', and we have another story line about this all new crew. Then we have Star Trek: Voyager. Another story line. Putting all three of those together, in chronological order, we end up with...a "campaign". But each one of those in and of itself was not "a campaign"; they were stories set within an actual campaign.

Did that help or make it worse?

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Sword of Spirit]

In my definition a campaign is a multi-session D&D play experience possessing continuity.

Continuity is Required and can be of one or more of the following:
a) Of characters (the same character doing any number of things in the world, together or apart)
b) Of party, where PCs may come and go but the party remains
c) Of a defining campaign element--perhaps it is based around an everchanging and unconnected roster of PCs and parties attempting to defeat the evil empire
d) Of NPCs, which may serve as patrons, villains, or other connections for various groups of PCs

It Often Has, but does not require:
a) A guiding or defining plot
b) A theme
c) A consistent setting

Now, my impression of what a campaign is when I hear the word involves:
1. Multi-year play. If it isn't at least 2 or 3 years I have a hard time conceptualizing it as a real campaign.
2. Significant chunk of the characters' lives. If it's just a single adventure, I also have a hard time seeing it as a campaign.
3. More than a single story. Again, if it's just one long story, it's more of a long adventure than a campaign to me. A meta-plot that runs throughout the campaign is fine though.

My preferred style of campaign involves:
1. Many years of play. While it's still something I'm looking forward to, I get a twinge of envy when I heard grognards talk about their campaigns that are still running after 20+ years.
2. The entire adventuring life of the characters. While you might start at a higher level than 1st, once it gets going I expect a campaign to take characters to retirement (whether that means becoming rulers or gods, or just becoming old and passing their swords on to their grandkids).
3. A "Sim Adventurer/Hero" feel. I want a campaign to feel less like an attempt to tell a story, and more like characters carving out their way in the world. That doesn't mean they can't be heroes, or that there can't be a defining meta-plot, or even that a literary quality story can't evolve naturally, but what it does mean is that they aren't beholden to it, and can do whatever they want in a world that feels like it exists beyond their own choices (which is why I almost always make extensive use of random tables--so that I can be surprised as the DM too!)

 

[Hand of Evil]

It is my book or canvas or story board, the back drop, it is the place where I take my players. Where they interact with the environment, characters and plots they find within. It is the adventure, the trip, the journey that they embark on.

 

[billd91]

Is a campaign defined by the PCs? The setting? The story? The real world participants? Is it limited in scope or broad? Does a campaign imply something specific about playstyle or structure?

I was going to say "Yes" to this set of questions all at once. Then this post popped up:

In my definition a campaign is a multi-session D&D play experience possessing continuity.

Continuity is Required and can be of one or more of the following:
a) Of characters (the same character doing any number of things in the world, together or apart)
b) Of party, where PCs may come and go but the party remains
c) Of a defining campaign element--perhaps it is based around an everchanging and unconnected roster of PCs and parties attempting to defeat the evil empire
d) Of NPCs, which may serve as patrons, villains, or other connections for various groups of PCs

It Often Has, but does not require:
a) A guiding or defining plot
b) A theme
c) A consistent setting

I largely agree with this, though I would promote a consistent setting from "often has" to "continuity required" and I would add f) Of Players and/or GM to the list of continuities.

Campaigns can be defined in so many ways around lots of different continuities - the important t thing is that the people around the table view it as a continuity and think it valuable to refer to it as a campaign.

 

[TarionzCousin]

A campaign is all three director's cut Lord of the Rings movies.

 

[Fanaelialae]

It's funny, last weekend I mentioned to my friends that I'd estimated we'd run about 90 campaigns over the 15 or so years we've been playing together. They didn't believe me, so we started compiling a list. The actual number came out to be 72 (although I'm certain there are several we're forgetting).

A fair number of those campaigns crashed and burned within the first few sessions, whether due to a TPK, or loss of interest on the part of the DM or players.

In one particular case (Bug World) we TPK'd three times in the first session. The DM took that as an omen.

There was a one-shot, based on the Brutal Legend video game that the DM ran for a player's birthday, which we had to count because the DM put so much effort into it. He homebrewed completely new classes and created real depth to the world, all for that one game. We actually wanted to play more sessions, but he didn't think it would work as a long term thing.

Some were mini-campaigns intended to only run a few weeks.

Then there were the ones that lasted several months or even more than a year. (I'd love to do a long term game that spans years of real time, but we've never managed one of those. We're always too eager to try the next new idea we've come up with.)

What is a campaign? I think that even a one-shot can be a campaign, if it's grand enough in scope. I suppose that's my definition. A scenario that's grand in potential, whether it runs for one session or years.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I am going to answer before I read past the 1st post...

This came up in the "Lazy GM" thread and I am curious what folks think.

In the context of playing D&D (or other RPGs, but let's focus on D&D, Pathfinder and similarly structured games) what does the term "Campaign" mean to you. If your buddy says, "I want to start a new Forgotten Realms/Eberron/Golarion/Homebrew campaign" what do you immediately assume he or she means?

a few years ago I would say it was just a new game... in the last few years (since about 4e) we have as a group started differentiating between campaigns and games... a game might turn into a campaign if it goes well, and a campaign might end up only being a few games if things go badly... in general a campaign to me means more then a dungeon, or single adventure... a series of linked adventures with the same characters and settings are a campaign...

Is a campaign defined by the PCs? The setting? The story? The real world participants?

All of the above, the DM gives a basic rundown with the setting, and most likely has a story in mind... the players modify the setting and story a bit until everything gels...

Is it limited in scope or broad?

Does
could go either way...

a campaign imply something specific about playstyle or structure? Adn with all that, what IS NOT a campaign or not expected in "campaign play" to you?

in my mind now (and again just a few years ago this would not be true) a campaign is one of 2 things... a long drawn out story consisting of multi adventures, or multi stories in the same setting with the same characters that may or may not be mulit adventures per story...


examples: I want to run a game where the PCs are the lone survivers of a necro spell that causes a magic "walking dead"

I want to run a campaign based on a mix of Zelda and He-man/she-ra where the dark lord (mix of hordak and gannon) is locked away and trying to have his minons free him, but said minons are not working togather, infact some are going against eachother...

There are no correct answers and we should avoid judging other people's answers too harshly, but I am curious how EN Worlders at large define "campaign."

now I go back to read others answers... lets see if that's true...

 

[dd.stevenson]

A campaign is an adventure or series of adventures that's continued long enough to exhibit an emergent plot arc.