Well that’s a relief. I’m already planning most of the suggestions for how to keep interest. In particular the plan involves:
1. A massive setting. It will include pretty much every campaign setting made for D&D. We may not visit them all, but the classic 2e settings, including Planescape and Spelljammer as glue will be there. I have a unique setting of my own, and will allow most setting ideas. I’m planning for each character to come from a different setting.
2. Dynamic world. Everything the characters do will potentially influence the evolution of the setting, and the setting will also evolve independent of the characters’ actions.
3. PC interaction. I’m hoping for everyone to create a strong character, both in concept and personality. I’m encouraging everyone to go with their own “avatar.” If there is a character you create again and again and again for video games or MMOs, a character who could be the star of his own storylines, that’s the one to pick. But since everyone is playing such a character the interaction between them makes the overall experience somewhat like the Justice League of America or the Avengers. Each character also needs a strong backstory. I want them to feel connected to their home or background in some ongoing way.
4. NPC interaction. Recurring friends, allies, villains—sometimes character that switch between those roles.
5. Sandbox freedom. With the multiverse at their disposal, they can play any sort of adventure we have in mind. Instead of needing a new campaign to express desires for a certain adventure or adventure path, we can toss it into this one easily enough.
6. Variety of adventures. Hack n’ slash dungeons crawls, wilderness (or planar) explanation, political intrigue, ruling lands (at higher levels), establishing their own mercantile endeavors, building a giant flying ship, whatever fits the character’s individual or collective goals.
7. Easy to apply “hooks.” I doubt any of my players will read this, so I can probably safely give away some minor spoilers. The characters are all going to be transported from their home at the beginning of the campaign to the same location, and at any particular time the entire party can (apparently randomly) be transported anywhere in the multiverse. This is intended to allow for a change of pace, as well as involving the ongoing plot.
8. Epic storyline. In addition to the sandbox freedom, an epic, multiverse shaking storyline is going to be running throughout the campaign. It will influence the entire campaign from beginning (the reason why they get transported) to the end, but its degree of influence at any particular time is based on the needs of the story. It will be very similar to many TV series that start out with unconnected episodes, as a greater threat gradually comes into awareness and the later episodes become more and more a serial focusing on that threat. The actors involved in this plot (and there are many) are also going to initiate things and move things in the background. Everything will not be connected with this plot—unrelated episodes will contain through most of the campaign, but there will be connections where one wouldn’t necessarily expect them. From the start the entire thing will be a mystery. Why are they getting transported from location to location? Eventually they will understand what is going on and have to figure out what to do about it as the protagonists.
9. Punctuated storylines. Related to that they will at times simply find themselves unable to do much about the major plot. Either they aren’t able to get anywhere that seems connected, or they have other important things to attend to. I expect to have some scenarios where we make some plans for our characters and then a session begins with, “Six months later...” As the characters increase in power their ability to resist the random transportations will also increase. It will eventually no longer prevent them from creating lasting connections and returning to the places they want to reach, although it will retain its usefulness both to the plot, and as something our crew can use to their advantage. Years or decades will pass in the setting, with all the potential growth and changes that entails.
10. Dual character action. One thing that has been planned for a long time is to have each player make a second character. In this case, it’s to be a higher-level, powerful, preferably monstrous character. The race (such as dragon or ilithid) is more important than the class. This will allow a change of pace and character relief. The characters that start at 1st level are the most important, but the high-level characters will also have a role to play in the evolving world and plot. No one is going to be forbidden from creating a new PC and abandoning an old one if they so choose.
11. Shared DMing. While I’m the only one that will know and control the major campaign storyline, there are plenty of other storylines that other DMs can choose to participate in or create. Or they can simply run one-shots or short adventures, or just play through some random wilderness—whatever they want to try their hand at. It’s a campaign that is very open in that aspect.
One of the things that I really want to nail is making sure everyone plays the character they are never going to get permanently sick of. Take a favorite food. For me it’s pizza. I’ve had an occasional situation of pizza overdose where I didn’t want any for a couple weeks to a month. But I can’t even conceive of permanently getting sick of pizza. Everyone should play the character that is their personal favorite character concept. Some players will have an easier time than others at this, and I see arriving at such concepts for those who aren’t already in possession of such a game avatar as a major challenge.
I hadn’t thought of the idea of including small incremental rewards. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, Starfox. I’m planning for level advancement to be quite slow, as I like a player to really get to know his/her character at each level. I want them to have cast most of the spells they know, test their abilities in a number of ways, and be an expert with their own character at each level. Then when they level up they really feel it, and the new capabilities are exciting. So providing constant rewards is going to take some work, but I think I’ll need to keep it in mind and figure out a way to do it, especially if I sense any sort of player boredom setting in.
Any other pointers or ideas of how to maintain player interest? I’ve been planning this campaign in some aspects for years, and will probably start it in mid to late 2015.
