Because I ran open table games I felt I should do adventures that basically consist of session units. The problem with having such contained scenarios is that when players drop out for a week or so and return they always start in a world that's a clean slate. Even if I contrive a link at the start of the game to bind last week's and this week's session, the actors enter a set that looks too hastily constructed.
Campaigns feel more real. When players stump you you have all this ammunition lying around from the world you've created. So I've recently been writing a campaign of one shots. An expedition into a mega-dungeon in chapters.
Mega-dungeons I think I favour over a world map for what I'm doing. There's no reason a dungeon can't break into open sky and involve the players in some politics amongst creatures that have populated the ruins. And new people coming to the table get a little of what they were expecting from a Dungeons and Dragons game: A good old fashioned death maze.
So far I've ran 2 episodes. This rolling world feels more lived in, the stakes are raised. Hopefully episode 3 will go down well today.
The South Wing
Elements for the campaign were set up in Scully and Crosby and Dungeon Expansion - which wasn't the best idea when I started with a table of players that weren't in those sessions. It's the spirit of the overlap that counts - players who've been before see something familiar to get them reacquainted with the world, new players get up to speed on prior events. This stuff is a bit messier than my previous offerings, you can see my writing style change and ret-cons slowly creep in. I also changed to the 4Bro-System for the number of players that everyone else seems to use. Mainly because it ties into the Challenge Ratings better.
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
...
This campaign I finished at a short 10 episodes, which I posted later on here.
