Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 bholdr_mage Feb 19, 2010 22:21:21	So my players decided to end the campaign and start playing shadowrun.  I can't say that I'm too disappointed since I'll actually be playing instead of running the show, but a part of me is bummed. We've been gaming on the same campaign since June, 08.  Almost made it 2 years!  Alas, there has been too many changes with life and players that I've pondered something, and was hoping for some suggestions and ideas from others. Here's my problem:  Originally, I had this HUGE campaign centered around the Lords of Dust freeing a Rajah.  Then at the end, the players would have to battle the newly freed rajah and trap it, since they couldn't kill it; and one of them would have to sacrifice themselves to be a "guardian for eternity."  I'm not going into details unless someone wants to hear them, that's not my prob.  My prob is that for 10 levels, I built up this awesome story line and was dropping clues like a pro - it was literally the best campaign I've ever run....then one player changes characters and two players quit.  So all of that foreshadowing, gone.  Over.  You get the idea. New players come into the fold, and I decide to change the story line since only one remaining character knew about the campaign so far.  Normally I wouldn't allow a player to change a character, but he did it for the benefit of the party, to provide a defender, then a leader.  The first few levels focused on combat since there were several new players to the edition.  I wanted to get rules down for 2-3 levels before exploring more plot.  However when that happened, the players seemed to not want to get involved in Dragonmarked House politics and "gave up" on the mission to "protect" a girl that manifested more than one mark - an elf girl with the mark of shadow AND an aberrant mark. Maybe it was because one of the players had been wanting to do shadowrun for some time.  Maybe I didn't feel as "into" the story with the second group...but, it did get me to thinking about what to do for my next campaign. The problem on running games is that players come and go.  Life happens.  And I have yet to "finish" a campaign because of this.  It's frustrating.  It's like writing the chorus to a song and not the verses.  It's like doing an underpainting for a masterpiece and sticking it in the closet, never to pull it out to complete it.  A solution?  Short stories. I don't know why I just thought of this.  Prior to the character builder, unless you had 4-5 players that LOVED building characters, it was difficult for the players to play other types of characters.  In essence, if a player played the same character for the character's life, every other week, through all the character levels in earlier editions - they may get to play 2-3 classes.  Tops.  Sure, campaigns are designed to be one of many things...but the most common thing is a long epic story, like lord of the rings or star wars (at least from what I hear).  I think a lot of players want this.  I think a lot of DM's want this.  The Adventure Path in Dungeon (Pre-DDI and current) does this.  Star wars did it.  Pathfinder from Paizo does it.  Even the H1 Keep on the Shadowfell was the origination of a continuous campaign.  It's designed for one purpose - to take the characters on an epic ride of level 1-30. (or 20 depending on the edition.) But...what if the characters played their characters for a few levels, completed a section of a story, then ended it.  Then, they play a different group of characters.  Maybe the "short stories" don't have much in connection; maybe they do.  Maybe, they can play both sides of the coin.  Without realizing it at first.  Maybe they can play 6 to 7 different characters during the course of a campaign with all the characters knowing each other. Or maybe, they can choose to continue playing the characters they originally had, just changing them (maybe by levelling a few levels or switching some background stuff so they are the same, but rebuilt, such as in a different world or demension.) I don't know.  I'm just rambling.  But hopefully this time off will create some interesting ideas, and hopefully I'll read something that will spark it. -out.
#2 yakman Feb 19, 2010 23:37:54	whatever works, run with it.
#3 DoctorBadWolf Feb 26, 2010 5:52:21	I like this. Personally I would love to play in such a campaign, since I love making and playing new characters. Some thoughts. Each time, make the new characters at the level, or one level above, what the previous party achieved. pretty obvious, but just throwing it out there. Create a large conflict with a broad reach, and many movers and shakers. In FR, I'd suggest growing tensions between Netheril, and all the people that don't like them. Have all, or most of the parties be involved in some way with this conflict, so that what is created is a sort of "short stories from the Second Fall Of Netheril" feel. This way, while the PCs of various parties may not connect directly, their stories are connected by a common general conflict, which gives the players that stick around for a while something to care about. Don't throw out used characters unless their player stops playing, and even then consider keeping them for potential NPCs. This way, former characters can either be played again, with possibly some vignettes catching up on what they've been doing since they were last played, or whatever is appropriate for the situation. The benifit here is that a player who is blanking on a new character can just grab an old one, and old sub-conflicts can be revisited, updated, whatever. You're story tools are greatly increased here, at minimal record keeping for you, since you only need to worry about those old characters when you want to use them. I may try to get someone in my group to run something like this. Hell, a multiple DM situation could be a perfect hit for this type of campaign. :P I hope some of that is helpful.