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View Full Version : [4e] Running an Episodic Campaign



drawingfreak
2010-12-14, 01:02 PM
I am about to begin an episodic campaign, allowing players to drop and return without "mysteriously disappearing" in the middle of a quest. What I want to do is have an overall plot involving the eventual invasion of Far Realm aberrations at the climax.

Have you ran an episodic campaign? How shall I go about foreshadowing the coming invasion?

Sipex
2010-12-14, 01:10 PM
How many episodes first?

You start out low, with something insignificant. Players going out to slay a clan of goblins.

Goblins leads to a bigger plot which lasts a few levels.

Bigger plot leads to the far realm plot maybe?

Dash each plot with hints of the biggest plot. Like, maybe the first one they find a room of deformed goblins who have turned feral with no further explanation.

In the end the plots are linked together and eventually open into each other.

Oracle_Hunter
2010-12-14, 01:10 PM
I'm a fan of the "Adventurer's Guild" method: each Player has one or more characters that are member of an Adventurer's Guild. Each session is a one-shot made up of whatever Players are available.

As for an overall plot - that's more difficult. It might be easier to just take an Acceptable Break From Reality and "phase out" PCs when their Players are away.

kyoryu
2010-12-14, 06:40 PM
I'm a fan of the "Adventurer's Guild" method: each Player has one or more characters that are member of an Adventurer's Guild. Each session is a one-shot made up of whatever Players are available.

As for an overall plot - that's more difficult. It might be easier to just take an Acceptable Break From Reality and "phase out" PCs when their Players are away.

Similarly, you can go with a more old-school sandbox feel. Each player can have multiple characters. If some players for a particular group aren't available, and that group is in a place where it makes little sense for people to come/go, then simple enough - just play different characters. When everyone's available, you can pick up the other group where they left off.

Any "overall plot" in a scenario like this will be more focused on the world and events in it, rather than a specific group of characters. You might have the War Between The Red And Blue, and groups of characters might do things that would impact this - but the overall war is greater than any single group of characters.

Yakk
2010-12-14, 07:32 PM
If you do the "multiple characters" route, an interesting thing would be to use communal XP.

When your adventurers go out, they add to the communal XP pot (divided by the number of adventurers).

They do not level up in the field. This keeps things somewhat simpler.

When they return, they recover and level up at a rate of 1 in-game week per level. Or, if you want to play with it, make real-life weeks equivalent to in-game weeks (except when a team is "out in the field").

If you want to be really evil, teams only contribute XP when they return. This really encourages parties to try to get home!

Teams "out in the field" who are abandoned maybe trickle in after a few in-game weeks -- or maybe they have to be rescued!

New characters start out with the "vanilla" magic items (+X weapon, +X armor, +X necklace, no properties) of less than their level (but no more than 1 per character level). All other magic items are found while adventuring. Magic items do, however, scale with your character. (each level, one magic item you own is upgraded if the upgrade is less than your level. These upgrades never change the "type" of the item -- just the level. So a +1 dwarven chain upgrades to +2 at level 7).

The goal of the above is to prevent the requirement of the DM pouring magic items at the PCs, or "spawning new PCs to spawn new loot" issues.

Thoughts?

(The above is inspired by "the west marches" campaign, which is worth reading.)