Campaign structure question

[hymer]

In a few months’ time, I should be launching a new campaign to take over for a current DM who wants a break. I’m trying to find a campaign structure that will accommodate the group’s needs. There may be something like six players (and possibly a few wild cards), but the average gaming session will only include three or four players for real world reasons. And it won’t be possible to predict which players, either. If we play only when everyone is in attendance, we won’t be able to play more than once every two or three months, probably.
The immediate solution to my mind was the sandbox-that-players-invite-each-other-to-play-in. I ran a West Marches (http://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/78/grand-experiments-west-marches/)-inspired campaign a few years ago, and it went pretty well. But it did come up with two major problems: Those who played less than most fell behind in XP (and eventually stopped showing up altogether). That could probably be solved by doling out levels by fiat rather than by XP. Worse, however, was that a lot of the time the players felt confused, because they were only there for some of the games. This led to them not knowing why they were going on a mission, other than to find adventure.

So, dear playgrounders, please share your experiences and thoughts. How to structure a campaign of this sort to the players’ satisfaction?

[Thomar_of_Uointer]

Award small RP bonuses to players who show up.

One option would be to let players who show up acquire NPC contacts with concrete things they can call in once per session. For example, a character who is friends a merchant can ask for a 20% discount on any purchase, ask get a piece of gear worth up to 50 gp for free, or have the merchant send a message or letter or package for free along his trade routes.

A simpler options would be to award action points to players who show up every session. Once campaign I was in did this through a campaign blog on Obsidian Portal, where we would get a random draw from a bag (action point, magic item, or use of a d30 on one roll) if we had posted anything on the blog.

You could also award consumable magic items as loot to players who show up. Being consumable, they won't affect character power nearly as much as permanent gear.

[hymer]

Thanks for the suggestion, but it's not the motivation that's the problem. These are people with demanding jobs, spouses and children, and there are limits to how often they can take a day out and play games. Especially, it's hard to find a day everyone can make it.
It's going to have to be inconsistent attendage (if that's a word) or no game at all. I'm hoping there's something to be done to alleviate the problems this causes.

[Kid Jake]

Make the campaign episodic with only a threadbare plot string connecting them. The PCs could be running their own adventurers guild or some such, and each session would be a new contract. That way it doesn't matter if you're brand new to the group or been there every week for a year, you're on the same page: Somebody just kidnapped Old Mrs Bagginson's cat and s***'s about to get bloody.

[hymer]

Thanks for the suggestion!
As long as you can actually finish the episodes with the session, it ought to do the trick. Unfortunately, it does seem to require a pretty strict adherence to the DM-created story.

[prufock]

Make the campaign episodic with only a threadbare plot string connecting them. The PCs could be running their own adventurers guild or some such, and each session would be a new contract.

This is also the advice I would give for such a campaign. With people dropping in and out each session, and no idea which, make sure each session starts the attending players together in the same general area. They don't need to be running the guild, but they could be following postings on a guild job board. They could also be town heroes, temple missionaries, town guards, army special ops, plane-jumping quantum leapers, or gofers for the mage's tower. Whoever shows up are just the ones available to adventure or assigned the job for the day.

You could use some short prepublished adventures pretty easily this way, and even have several one-session adventures planned so the party can take their pick from the job board.

If you're worried about the players going off the rails and therefore extending the plot of an adventure past 1 session, make the adventures time sensitive. They get distracted too long by Random NPC #6, they could fail the mission. Allow some wiggle room, but make sure they know they have a deadline.

If you're going to do flat levels rather than xp gain, figure out how you'll deal with item crafting and spells that cost xp. Maybe use a craft point variant and use action points, requiring 1 action point for every 1000 xp the spell uses (so 1 AP for up to 1000, 2 AP for 1001-2000, etc).

[hymer]

Good advice, prufock. Thanks! As for spending XP, it shouldn't be a problem. I doubt anyone will, but if they do, it'll be the 5gp for 1XP thing.

[DJroboninja]

I've run a similar campaign in the past, and it's all about being episodic, exciting, and easy to jump in. I was crazy busy with school stuff, so each session was just a different adventure from Dungeon Magazine, with the only reasoning most of the time being "because adventure!"

People got XP at the same rate - the way I saw it, if Mike can't make it because his sister needs him to help her move, Mike's character doesn't need to be twiddling his thumbs back at the guild hall. Instead, he's venturing into the Mistmarsh to slay the Lizard Queen.

Tons of fun and easy to work around people's schedules. Plus, it gives you an excuse to run adventures you probably would never get to run otherwise. For example, does anyone remember the Dungeon adventure where you had to fight your way through a gnoll fortress built on the back of a giant pack beast? That **** was awesome, and we probably never would have played it outside that campaign.

EDIT (it was called Beast of Burden, issue 100. I had to look it up)

[hymer]

Thank you! I hope I'll be able to sell it to my players.