Short campaigns can be underrepresented when people think about 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons. Epic year spanning adventures aren't fit for every groupജ, and certainly not for people trying to get the feel for the game and the group they're playing with.
Dungeons & Dragons: 8 Villa🌄ins F𝓡rom Older Editions That Should Be In 5e
Don't call it a comeback; they've been here fℱor ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚyears.
A briefer game comes with its own issues and advantages. Scheduling commitments are easier if you don't need to book the same⛄ night off every week for aᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ year. At the same time, you need to have a strong grasp of the pacing to gauge how much content to prepare. Here are a few tips to keep it short and sweet.
Decide On A Game Length And Commit To It
A 'short campaign' can be ambiguous. When planning the game and pitching to players you want to have specific descriptors that will help both of you understand expectations and make time accordingly.
|
Duration |
Contents |
Player Expectations |
|---|---|---|
|
Two to four sessions |
One central plot is pursued over several games. |
No time for personal quests tied to player backstory. The focus will be on the narrative and🎃ཧ gameplay. |
|
Five to eight sessions |
Some red herrings and side plots can be worked in, but none are likely to take mo༒re than a session. |
There is enough tim☂e for the characters to go through simple arcs. |
|
Nine to twelve sessions |
The game is analogous to a season of television: Multiple narratives are happening at once, converging in the finale. |
Characters have the room fo🐭r growth expected of a longer campaign. |
The length can also determine what types of stories you can tell. If you only have a♈ few hours to tell the story, it becomes harder to slowly build up an emotionally complex villain. At the same time, several months is a long time to dedicate to a single murder mystery.
You can also have the time limit to be part of the setting. Not only do 🌃the players have only five weeks to comp𝓀lete the campaign, but the party has five days before the volcano erupts or the evil ritual is completed.
Focus On A Strong Start
Short campaigns can fit in a strange place narratively between single-s🅺ession gam❀es and longer campaigns.
- A one-shot can easily start with you reading out a title crawl explaining the mission and context of the game, and then jumping straight into action.
- A longer campaign can afford to take a slow pace, starting the narrative as the party walks into town and then roleplaying through the process of the players exploring and meeting characters who will later become important.
You want to have a strong concept of what the narrative and gameplay are going to be from the bꦗeginning, while not outright givꦐing everything away. There are a few things you can do that make unique use of the premise and duration of your game.
|
Technique |
Advantage |
Example |
|---|---|---|
|
Introduce The Final Boss Early |
This adventure doesn't span ten levels, so the party can fight this stronger adversary without dying instantly. Starting with a difficult fight sets the tone foꦰr the game and gives an achievable goal for the p🔥layers to conquer by the end. |
The party are routed by the local gang boss and needs to gather allie𓆏s over sev𝐆eral sessions to defeat them. |
|
Be Generous With Loot |
One-shots typically end before the players can use any magic items they can find, while longer campaigns need to worry about the risk of the party saving up every potion and then drinking all of them at once. Short campaigns fit the sweet spot of being able to experiment with exotic magics while not keeping them long enough to get stale. |
The players start with a Candle of Invocation, giving unlimited first-level spells for the duration of tꦡhe game. |
|
Use Experimental Content |
Short campaigns can be a great way to test out a new mechanic or homebrew class and see how it handles con𝐆tinuous use. Some come with campaign concepts attached. |
A campaign about renovating a bastion can have a chain of local quests that flow naturally while rewarding the𒀰 players with mechanic♚al benefits. |
Be Conscious Of Bottlenecks
If you're working to a schedule, issues can snowball if a puzzle or encounter takes longer than you accounted for in planning. Carefully consider where these bottlenecks can occur and how you can resolve them.
|
Bottleneck |
Example |
Solution |
Example Solution |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Combat |
A player cast a lightni꧂ng bolt on a shambling mound, healing it and ext෴ending the fight. |
Reduce the size of the next encounter or skip it e﷽ntirely if the plot ღdoesn't require it. |
The crash of ༺lightning s🔥cared away the wild dogs that were going to be in the next fight. |
|
Puzzle |
The party is stumped on how to open a🧔 magicꦫal door. |
Allow a brute-force solution or workaround that imposes a consequence. |
An NPC companion uses a spell to blast the door open but is too💖 exh🍰austed to help in the next fight. |
|
Red Herrings |
The party adamantly believes the bartender knows more thℱan he is letting on and is spending a long time trying to investigate him. |
Create prompts and scenarios that encourage the players to investigate other leads. |
The bartender is attackedไ by the actual culprit while the p✤arty is shadowing him. |
The same applies in reverse. Have some extra content you can improvise or slot in quickly if the players are moving 🍨faster than you expected.
Use A Linear Narrative
A linear narrative doesn't have to mean removing player agency, but that the e❀ncounters and contentꦕ are designed to be played in a specific order.
Each session should have a cꦿlear resolution that points towards the next session and ties into the overall plot for the campaign.
- The antagonist they defeat is carrying a letter from their master, giving the party a clear indication of where to go next.
- The bad guy escapes but leaves a trail that can be followed.
- The reputation the party gains puts them in contact with the next quest giver.
Having an order to the content is important because short campaigns will frequently have faster leveling and character progression. Gameplay balance and narrative pacing can get s𓄧kewed, and you'll have fewer opportunities toౠ recycle skipped encounters.
Dungeons & Dragons: W꧙hat Is A Sꦬupport Character?
Discover the rol🌳e of a Support Character in DND with our guide♏.
