As a DM once you have gotten a few campaigns under your belt, you might find that certain styles of campaign work better for you and/or your players than others.
So what is your favorite type of campaign?
For me I keep coming back to the "Guild Mission" paradigm. The party is a member of a guild or organization, and most adventures are missions for the guild. I also add in the "Q from James Bond angle". The party is often provided magic gear to help them on a given mission, however, any magic items they acquire are property of the guild and so it switches out mission to mission.
Why I like this model of campaign:
What is your favorite campaign paradigm?
So what is your favorite type of campaign?
For me I keep coming back to the "Guild Mission" paradigm. The party is a member of a guild or organization, and most adventures are missions for the guild. I also add in the "Q from James Bond angle". The party is often provided magic gear to help them on a given mission, however, any magic items they acquire are property of the guild and so it switches out mission to mission.
Why I like this model of campaign:
- You can justify a huge variety of adventures. One day we are at a baron's bday party, the next diving into the city's underground sewers. Its all easily justified as "that's the mission".
- Likewise, it gives you a nice built in justification for characters to go on adventures. Whether they have joined the guild for money, glory, or some other personal reason, they all have agreed to do the missions as an implicit part of the game.
- The guild house gives you a nice home base and a core cast of NPCs. The party can travel to far away places but always comes back to the guild, and this allows you to create some nice bonds with core npcs which allows for some good roleplaying. And of course if the guild is ever threatened it increases the PCs connection to the people there and raises the stakes.
- The "Q from James Bond" idea I find has a lot of benefit. It allows you to play with a lot of magic items you might otherwise be uncomfortable putting in a game. You want to give the party some crazy game breaking item, sure its only 1 adventure, then they give it back. Likewise you can have enemies with magic items without worrying that you are just piling on magic loot to the party, so this model solves that very common problem.
- It can help the players feel they are "a part of the world". On the one hand, if they engage in nasty actions....they are impacting the guild and may face consequences. But on the other, they can get in trouble and the guild will offer help and support. It creates a nice sense of connection to the world and the events.
What is your favorite campaign paradigm?