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View Full Version : Ideas for a constrained 4e campaign



jxk089
2010-07-20, 12:36 PM
I'm a novice DM attempting to create a 4e campaign for my group of 4 likewise novice players. Normally I'd go hogwild and just experiment, but we're operating under a few constraints:


We are a bunch of fairly active college students, so we'll probably only be able to get together once every two weeks or so.
Because of the aforementioned constraint we'll only be able to meet for 2-3 hours at a time.
Since we'll be scattering to parts unknown come spring, we're attempting to have a complete story arc finish by Christmas, meaning we're looking at 10-12 sessions.


I started creating an epic campaign where the PCs start as neophytes, grow strong, save the world, etc, but quickly realized that they may be a little ambitious for a first try under these circumstances.

All that having been said, does anyone have any advice for creating a 4e campaign in this situation? Any tips for what levels/tiers to play on? Any hints on how to structure adventures and quests with so little time for each play session? Any insight/advice/ideas you guys may have would be awesome.

Tiki Snakes
2010-07-20, 12:44 PM
I'd say break it up into three seperate parts, an early-career section, against-the-odds paragonish one, and an epic ass kicking final run.

Shortish adventures, strongly linked in terms of plot, but seperated by years of downtime between each of the three stages. (Preferably tying the first and last sessions together in an epic conclusion that they'd never have seen coming on day 1, but that by that point makes all the sense in the world.)

It should give you more or less the kind of feel you were going for, in the time allowed.

Lord Vampyre
2010-07-20, 02:41 PM
Under these constraints, you probably only be able to finish 3 to 5 actual adventures. Your best bet is to forget the normal XP accumulation rules and level the characters up 2 levels at the end of each session. I would probably start each character off with an epic level family heirloom from the beginning. This keeps you from having to introduce it latter in the game.

You'll just have to plan for your adventures around they're level progression. Start them off together and give them a purpose at the get go. With the 2 levels per session the characters will hit epic levels by the end of the campaign. Your probably going to want to limit your combats to 1 per session, as combats take up quite a bit of time. Just make them all tough battles with all of the loot from their next level.

The wealth by level ratio may be a little off, but by giving the heirloom in the beginning, it will more than make up for it.

jxk089
2010-07-20, 03:11 PM
Both of those ideas sound great. I've had an idea bouncing around in my mind where the PCs are following in the footsteps of a group of ancient heroes, so the epic heirlooms could be old possessions of the ancient heroes. As a finale, I was thinking of having the old heroes "possess" the new ones, in essence making the PCs epic level for a short while.

So I could see a beginning arc where the PCs realize danger and then quest for the heirlooms and more information about the ancient heroes, finishing off by using their newly gained equipment to temporarily eliminate the threat. That arc would probably span 2-3 adventures and levels 1-6 or so.

Then the threat would reemerge after a few years and the PCs would have to figure out a way to prep for the showdown with the BBEG by figuring out how to channel the ancient heroes. That would probably span 2 adventures plus a showdown and 3-4 levels in the paragon tier.