D&D General What is your favorite "campaign paradigm"

[aco175]

Weird gangs of New York are fighting.

All my campaigns have a metropolis with eccentricity dressed and themed gangs. And they are at war.

"It's the Warriors meets Underworld. Everytime" - One of my players.

• Football gang
• Other type of Football gang
• All female gang
• Orc Bikers
• Elf Mob
• Halfling Mafia
• Surface Dwarves Cartel
• Chaotic Criminal Cult
• Killer Klowns
• Corrupt City Guard
• Rich guy with powerful friends
• Legions of street urchins dressed in red
• Secretive Guild
• Vampire's spawn
• Dragon's Economic Base
• Awakened Immortals
• Pink Pimps
• I can't believe it's not Ninjas
• Top Hat Necromancers
• Halberd Harlots
• Hobgoblins in Togas
• Nekkid Werewolves.

Let's me see which ones my players end up hating so engaging them is easier. And I get to steal popular media. And I get to justify silly or cheesy tactics.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

My favorite is "Dragon Age 1" or Red Hand of Doom style.
- Bad stuff is going to happen at X spot in X time, you are the unlucky misfits who must gather a bunch of unlikely allies to prepare for the showdown.

 

[delericho]

Do you find that due to the nature of the game it’s tough to place characters and their motivations or goals into play?

Depends on the campaign.

If it's a campaign I'm creating myself, then ideally I'll know at least something of those characters and their motivations ahead of time, and can write the campaign around those things that the players are interested in.

If for whatever reason I don't know the characters ahead of time, or if we're playing through one of the pre-gen campaigns, I'll try to work with the player to tailor their motivations to the campaign. That's not my preference, as it feels like it's the wrong way around, but it does work okay.

 

[payn]

If for whatever reason I don't know the characters ahead of time, or if we're playing through one of the pre-gen campaigns, I'll try to work with the player to tailor their motivations to the campaign. That's not my preference, as it feels like it's the wrong way around, but it does work okay.

Players campaign guide!!!

 

[jmartkdr2]

If I had to pick one, guild is the best- it's easy, it's flexible, and "make a character who would join an adventurer's guild" lets you nip a lot of problem concepts in the bud.

 

[TheSword]

I like to have the single town or city campaign. Where the party keep being drawn back to the same urbanized area. They get to know the folks around there and build relationships and properly explore. Every adventure set there makes the setting more rich and provides more solutions and challenges. They might leave for individual adventures but always go back eventually.

It’s basically the opposite of the Lord of the Rings quest journey style campaign.

 

[Voadam]

I like to pick a themed adventure such as a Paizo adventure path or a strongly themed module for a one shot, tell the PCs the general theme so they can make characters tied into it and each other, then run the adventure with a fairly sandbox style and riffing on things that come up and the player inputs.

For my deepest Nyambe one shot everybody was into it and made characters like a pair of Amazon tribeswomen barbarian and fighter sisters, colonialist missionary priest cleric, great white hunter gunslinger, etc. The backstory was they had gone into a recently uncovered pyramid together, defeated a blue dragon mummy, and among the loot recovered a mysterious compass that pointed not North but South into a point in the jungles of Nyambe. This started them off as a group that worked together with a common goal tied into the module I was running.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Something Id like to try is a whole short campaign set in a single small location over a few days or even a single night, like in Resident Evil 0, 1, 7 and 8, or in the Amnesia series. Dont know how that would work, but I thing that could be cool.

 

[Odysseus]

I've ended up with my favorite being urban bounded sandbox , with a mission notice board at the start.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I like to have the single town or city campaign. Where the party keep being drawn back to the same urbanized area. They get to know the folks around there and build relationships and properly explore. Every adventure set there makes the setting more rich and provides more solutions and challenges. They might leave for individual adventures but always go back eventually.

It’s basically the opposite of the Lord of the Rings quest journey style campaign.

that is just a video game, one that was divisive to my knowledge.

I personally prefer campaign that lasts and most people know the roles of there characters also one where nither I nor anyone screw it up