Mulling Over a New Campaign

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For the past couple of weeks, I have been preparing for a new game. In recent years, I have found that running a campaign from the months of October through March or April generally yields good results. I only play in person and we live in a college-town, so there are usually a good number of folks available, looking for something fun to do during the months when the weather is less than pleasant.

My girlfriend and I like to make game nights a real social event. Our sessions tend to be more like a dinner party followed by some gaming. We both love to cook, so when we’re really on our game, we will go as far as to try to make themed dishes based on what happens to be going on with the game. If any of you play in person, do you have any special game night traditions? Do you have better luck finding players for winter games?

The current front-runner for my cold-weather sessions would be a fantasy game, as it would appeal to the broadest spectrum of my potential players. That said, I’m feeling a bit of a draw to go with Call of Cthulhu or Paranoia. Assuming fantasy wins, I’ll likely go with Old School Essentials.

Lately, I’ve been following David @ Streets & Spores, who has been sharing recaps of his group’s adventures through Castle Xyntillan. It sounds like they’re having a really good time. While I’ve never run a megadungeon, I’m starting to warm up to the thought of taking an almost West Marches approach to the affair. We would aim to have the party safely back in town at the end of each session. From there, any available players would continue to explore the dungeon each week.

My Campaign Cartographer doodles this week consist of a potential first level for a homebrewed megadungeon adventure tentatively titled “The Halls of Khared Ordus.” That said, I’m thinking I’ll let this simmer for a while. If I do go with the megadungeon route, I’m thinking I might just buy a published adventure and just have fun with it.

Closing

How about you? Do you lean towards writing your own adventures or prefer published modules or adventure paths? If you’ve experienced megadungeons before, do you have a favorite?

That’s all for now. No plot hooks this week, as my real-life job is using me as a chew toy. Thank you very much for stopping by. Have a great week and if you’re looking for more, here are some links:

For more maps & plot hooks, go here.

For some random tables, go here.

Finally, for a bit about me and some general stuff, this is the spot.

12 thoughts on “Mulling Over a New Campaign”

  2. I have played through Tomb of Horrors in my younger years. While not a true megadungeon, as in overall size,ToH is the grandfather of difficult, treacherous, sprawling dungeons.

    The current campaignI DM for my family group is a mix of published adventures from Tales from the Yawning Portal (Sunless Citadel and Forge of Fury), The DnD Next adventure Scourge of the Sword Coast, an adventure from Candlekeep Mysteries ?Sarah of Yellowcrest Manor) ans my own creations: fighting a necromancer trying to take advantage of the power vacuum around Scourge, a rival to the Daggerford crown (a continuation of Scourge) and an eventual battle with the fiend behind all these seemingly unrelated issues.

    So,I mix it up, using omepublished adventures but cramming them into an overall arc I’ve created

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    • Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to write. Yes. I’ve never properly run Tomb of Horrors but we used to use it at as a pick-up game to kill time at conventions when I was younger. It was brutal to the point of being silly at times.

      I missed out on Sunless Citadel & Forge of Fury when they originally came out (all of 3e actually) because I foolishly stepped away from the hobby from ~1996-2011ish. Of the 5e adventures, I’ve only tinkered with Tomb of Annihilation, kind of mashing it up in an arc of my own similar to what you describe. That seems to be the most common for me. I take a little here, create a little there.

      Having a family group sounds awesome. Who all do you run with, children, siblings? I’m lucky to have my gf as a willing participant. She’s not a diehard but she has a PhD in folklore, so there’s some crossover there. Plus she’s very social, so it’s a good reason for us to entertain. Cheers!

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      • Mostly it is wife, two kids, and a daughter-in-law. I run holiday gaming sessions with my nieces and nephews that are borderline silly, since they can be 11 or more players. wife plays to spend time wit hus, but really isn’t a gamer. Daughter is pretty die-hard, she DMs for a group of friends at college on top of playing in our family campaign.

        Id play daily if i could!

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  3. I don’t run seasonal games, but run long-form campaigns that last years – but yes, some parts of the year (particularly the summer and over the holidays when people travel more) means less frequent sessions. We tend to play every 3 to 5 weeks but have had to go as long as 8 weeks between sessions due to scheduling conflicts.

    I am currently running a new campaign based on ToEE (called “Primordial Evil”) the PCs are 2nd on the verge of 3rd level and our 8th session is scheduled for late October. It is a mix of the Goodman Games’ version of ToEE + modified adventures from old issues of Dungeon. So I guess my answer is, I use published adventures as the foundation for adapting creating my own versions to fit the game at hand. I used to write my own adventures more often (about 1/3 to 1/2 the time) but these days I use my spare time to paint minis and craft terrain and get my creative desires fulfilled by re-writing what others have written rather than from scratch.

    My plan was to do a series of articles on my site showing how I adapted adventures, but I have not had time/energy to continue after my first.

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    • Hello. Good to see you again. I tend to be like you and run games that go for years. However, lately I’ve found that it has been necessary to shorten things for my players.

      You know, I’ve never actually played or even read through ToEE. For being such a classic I’ll really need to do that. I’ve also heard that the Goodman Games version of the classic adventures are quite good.

      Would love to see how you’ve adapted your adventures. I know it can be difficult to find the time to post. I’ve been on a good streak here for a while but work has been challenging, so I never know. Hang in there ad thank you very much for taking the time to write.

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    • I’m lucky that she enjoys it. She’s not super into it but she enjoys the social aspect of it. Also, she works for a university, so she brings me new players on a regular basis.

      Yes, it sounds like you’re building toward having a reliable group with your kids for when you are older. I’m 53 now and seriously considering a giant campaign for my golden years. haha.

      Hey, I got your message and went ahead and linked up to your posts about your Castle Xyntillan game.

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  6. As a resident of a small college town, I can appreciate the relative ease of scheduling sessions when the semesters are under way. My primary campaign began in April 2020, when we all had nowhere to go and easy access to Zoom, though I’ve had to adapt to running games with less than a full party these days. A full table isn’t always possible, but it’s our trade-off for having 3 or 4 nights a month to play.

    One of my key strategies is to run a second campaign that’s much, much looser, using a more flexible ruleset that allows for last-minute changes and improvisation. Lately I’ve been very pleased with Whitehack, running a campaign that gives my players a distinct agency in helping create the world we interact with. I’ll pause as we reach a point of inquiry, and ask them what’s reasonable to expect. It’s not always what I’ve planned, and it’s refreshing. They’re a great group. Suffice to say, it’s as sandboxy as can be, and I have to be ready to make up an entire session on the fly if things take a strange turn. Light rules and trust among friends makes it possible.

    That said, the big campaign began with the Sunless Citadel, as I didn’t trust myself to start things from scratch after being away from D&D for more than 20 years. It didn’t take long before I realized that I knew less about the Forgotten Realms than everyone else (I still know next to nothing), so our version might as well be called something else. I occasionally pluck pieces from published adventures, but have yet to run one in its entirety. One of these days I’m going to scrounge up some old modules and put the crew through their paces…

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