After years of playing one shots at cons, and a series of short unsatisfying campaigns which either fizzled out or exploded, I’ve been running a campaign since Feb.
Its worked marvelously, because I was upfront that I wanted it to have a beginning, a middle and an end rather than a game that just goes on and on. Its important to note this is not a ‘time-limited’ campaign, although I did state I didn’t see it going on further than a year at the begining which we a close to. We’ll play until we’ve finished the story,
The players already know the structure of the campaign and contributed much of the plot and setting ideas, since we have a strong commitment to running a very cooperative game. I deliberately chose a part of the setting (Black Horse County in Glorantha) which has minimal write up so we have lots of scope for creation as a group.
Since players have a stake in the creation of the setting this allows them to invest more in their characters and I’ve made it very clear that although I’ve got a outline for the game (beginning/middle/end) its all about their characters and any thing can happen!
So in short
- Campaign with defineite begining, middle and end.
- Framework for the campaign set up in full sight, input and agreement of players.
- Campaign centred/focused on PCs.
- Cooperative play and creation of setting.
If any of this looks familiar, its because its completely nicked from Burning Wheel/Burning Empires and various comments Luke Crane has made via podcasts (mainly the excellent Sons of Kyross).
Its making a very memorable game for everybody out of a setting and system that I was beginning to get a bit jaded of.
Its also worth mentioning we have had the occasional break for people being away, mainly me on Paternity leave, and also to have one shots adventures using other systems. Because we have the focus of the campaign structure, getting back to the game is aways easy. It also means that we can always have a break when the campaign is getting a bit heavy, which it does from time to time.
Also the big benefit for me of us making the setting up cooperatively as we go along, is unlike other Gloranthan campaigns I’ve run, I hardly have to do any prep between sessions!!