What mods would I make to sustain a long-term campaign?

[aNenuphar]

I apologize if there is already a thread (or two) on this subject - if so, perhaps someone could direct me to it.

My group, having played a handful of test games with 3e is desirious of starting a long-term (5+ year) campaign. In the traditional of giving the woman the dirty work, I have been selected to DM.

What 'tweaks' (I'll be good and not call them house rules) should I make to sustain a campaign over that length of time?

So far, the only thing my group has suggested is to radically decrease the EP rewards.

Are there other 'flavour' twists that should be made? I'm looking strictly for mechanical changes, rather than play choices (e.g. don't have the group save the universe more often than once a fortnight, etc.)

Any ideas?

 

[Crothian]

I think the experience problem is going to be the biggest problem. THe biggest suggestion I have is to have the players develope their characters as much as they can. I've found that the more players put into their characters the more and the longer they get out of them.

 

[mkletch]

Slow down the XP gains. If the momentum is too high, the players can get a bit burned out. At least, that is my experience (NPI). Other than that, use whatever worked in your smaller campaigns. Any 'problems' should have shown up by now.

Making Tumble and Concentration (for avoiding AoOs) opposed skills as opposed to flat DCs is popular.

-Fletch!

 

[Umbran]

If you slow down the XP gain, I don't know that there's any other rules changes that need to be made to sustain a long campaign. There are some that you may choose to change for purposes of altering flavor, but that's a separate issue.

One rules decision you might want to make before you begin is what prestige prestige classes are available. It is often better to cement that beforehand, so the players know what's available, and what they can shoot for. You may also wnat to choose which ones you won't tell them about, as one alsways wants a few surprises

 

[rounser]

If you slow down the XP gain, I don't know that there's any other rules changes that need to be made to sustain a long campaign.

It sorta goes without saying, but if you slow down the XP gain, slowing down the treasure gain rate to match doesn't hurt.

 

[Deadguy]

Most everyone has so far sai slow down the experience point gain. I wanted to play Devil's Advocate and say that this is not actually necessary if:

1. you pay attention to the difficulty of the encounters. In other words, just because they met a gang of ogres at level 3 doesn't preclude them from meeting a similar group at level 10. The difference is that this time it's a walkover and they earn little experience for it. You don't need to make every encounter one that is near the party's level!
   
2. as the game develops make sure that there is plenty of role-play involved. My own experience has been that this naturally happens. As plots grow wider-ranging and deeper, the players will spend more time talking to each other and to NPCs, which naturally slows down the rate of experience point gain!
   [/list=1]
   I think that the best thing to do to ensure a longterm campaign is to design a good campaign setting. Even if you are using a published setting like Kalamar or Forgotten Realms make sure that you put your own stamp on it: your own places, plots and NPCs.
   
   Oh, and make plenty of notes that you re-examine occasionally. It's surprising how many loose ends you'll spot that make brilliant hooks for future adventures.
   
   One thing I haven't mentioned is deciding an overarching plot arc. If you are the sort of DM that can exploit that to structure a campaign, so much the better. It will produce a storyline that will wow your players. However, it can easily become an excuse to railroad them, and deny the players their own choices. That said, I have found in a number of my campaigns that what started out as just a linked series of adventures developed a story arc quite by accident! Using this made for some good RP sessions and a happy DM!

 

[Xeriar]

As a word of warning, standard XP gain, with RP awards (and, of course, assuming you aren't running hack'n'slash) can start out at a level a month (4 six hour sessions).

This slows down a bit, but there's no wall, really.

Cutting XP rewards in half isn't a bad idea, if you want to breach epic levels eventually.

For what it's worth, I think a day's worth of gaming per level is pretty rewarding as is. Even if the game time involved is ridiculous, you do feel like you've earned it.

And, most importantly, watch the treasure, one way or the other

 

[ced1106]

I wanted to play Devil's Advocate and say that this is not actually necessary if:

Another thought comes from the Record of Lodoss War manga series and Grendel comic books: Even though the **players** will be playing 5+ years, the **PCs** won't. You can use any number of ways to accomplish this:

* PCs retire, and their cohorts take up the adventuring. (boring)
* Scene changes to an unrelated set of PCs, who eventually meet up with the other PCs for a climactic scene.
* PCs are sent off on a quest and mysteriously disappear. A new set of PCs must find them. (Bonus points: The PCs are found -- and now they're evil.)
* Campaign takes place on multiple planes of existance: parallel worlds, different timelines, whatever. GM can mess around with the player's minds, since the PCs from different dimensions **do** share common memories -- that of the player.

Ars Magica uses a one player / multiple PC model. Each player has an all-power mage, and a number of less powerful henchmen. Each session, one player plays a mage, and the rest play his henchmen.


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^

 

[aNenuphar]

Thanks muchly.

What is the effect of limiting prestige classes? Are there certain classes that either imbalance or destroy parties?

With regards to limiting magic and treasure: should I pace the acquisition at the same fraction as EPs? Or would a 'very' low magic campaign be a better choice for long-term? (We're not very good with artifacts anyway - the last time we got ahold of the Wand of Orcus we annihilated the entire campaign world.... We apologized for it, of course....)

 

[Piratecat]

My campaign is 10 and a half years old, and the oldest PC is 19th level. Sagiro's campaign is six years old, and we're about 12th level. We play on average once every two weeks for about 4 hours a game. People go up about every 10-12 gaming sessions.

If you know that you want to go from 1st to 20th level in about 5 years, you want to award XP at about twice the rate I do. If you play every week, you want to shoot for the same advancement speed. Reduce XP and monetary treasure accordingly.

I strongly recommend you go read Sagiro's story hour on the story hour boards (and on his web site.) It starts at 1st level, and is the best example of a long term plot arc that I've ever seen!

Treasure should be tuned down a little *less* than xp; people spend cash on personal stuff during a long-term campaign.

I also recommend that you build in training time, or some way to help real time in the game pass. It strains credibility when the campaign is 3 years old in real life, and the characters haven't aged more than 9 months.

Anyways, your campaign sounds like it will be fun. Good gaming!