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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7816151" data-attributes="member: 29398">Essential elements for an iconic D&D campaign?<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Long.  As in open-ended designed-to-last-the-rest-of-your-life long.  It has enough available material to last as long as there's people willing to play it and a DM willing to DM it.  No pre-set end point or capstone level.  Slow to very slow character level advancement.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A stable and simple rules system, already playtested and kitbashed to suit.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Turnover:</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">- - Character turnover, be it by death, retirement, cycling, or whatever means; this includes multiple parties that mingle and interweave every now and then, and multiple PCs per player</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">- - Player turnover; not essential and not necessarily frequent, but new blood always changes things up</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">- - Setting turnover; by which I mean mix in some desert adventuring, arctic adventuring, maritime adventuring, dungeon-crawl banging, and so forth along the way</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">- - Storyline turnover; have multiple possibly-interweaving storylines either on the go or in the hopper waiting to develop, and also run some stand-alone adventures as a break from ongoing stories.  Allow players to set the tone and-or follow (or design!) red herrings if that's where the mood goes.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Medieval quasi-European fantasy setting without too much regard for real-world history if using historical culture equivalents; for example ancient Greeks and Romans, dark-ages Vikings, and Renaissance-era Spaniards can all be made to co-exist in the same game world.  And dinosuars, Neanderthals, and the occasional spaceship. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Opponents that last longer than one adventure, or that work in the background and-or are unassailable until the campaign is a long way in (think Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Giants, Dragons, Orcs, Beholders, and other iconic monsters as opponents; Humans, Dwarves, Elves, and Hobbits as PCs</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">PCs of a given class are mechanically very similar, with character differentiation coming via personality, alignment, characterization, background/history, and so forth.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Anything goes for PC alignment, characterization, etc.; and let the PCs sort out their differences in character regardless of what means and measures they use to so do.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Deadly traps and nasty surprises; the game world really is out to kill you.  This is war, not sport.  Levels, items, stats, limbs and lives can and will be lost</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Conversely, sometimes the game world really is out to reward you; levels, items and stats can and will be gained, sometimes above and beyond what the normal grind provides (think the beneficial cards in a Deck of Many Things)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Luck is a recognized and significant part of proceedings, from initial roll-up to final death.  Stats, hit points, etc. are rolled, not preset.</li> </ul>Howzat? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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