As one of the most persistent and yet arguably worst GameMasters, this post seeks to address a problem that seems to arise frequently for me: how can you keep your campaign alive when you’ve lost the initial “bounce”?
The backstory of my own “Mortenburg Chronicles” campaign, set in the collaboratively-created world of Tikhon, is largely documented through this blog… but here’s a summary of the most pertinent points:
- We started with Castles & Crusades, seeking to run an OSR-style game in a sandbox setting.
- As a GM, I wanted to play to my improvisational strengths – basically, I’m better when I have minimal notes.
- The setting would arise from play, with maximum player input and the GM acting as “creative director”.
On the plus side, the campaign is still playing (albeit falteringly). The guys are (mostly) enjoying their characters and the setting.
On the downside, we’ve had a lot of player movement (we gained one player, then lost him and one other) and we’ve changed systems three times. As a GM, I’ve been struggling to maintain any kind of coherent notes and adequate prep… and consequently, I’ve lost momentum and enthusiasm.
The challenge question has been, “How can I rescue this campaign?”
Firstly, Why Bother?
The natural first question would be, “Why bother rescuing such a mess?”
Easy: my players want to keep playing with both the characters they have and in the setting they helped create. Inflicting my problems as GM on the group is not really fair.
Adding to that, however, is the fact that I also really like the setting and characters. It’s not the game itself that is the problem but rather the management of that game. It’s about keeping it together.
Enter “Odyssey: The Complete Game Master’s Guide to Campaign Management“. Although I was pretty cynical about this tome, given that my initial enthusiasm for the sister book “Never Unprepared” waned in the face of my inability to manage my own games, the overall benefit of reading through this guide has paid dividends in helping me figure out my next steps.
In short, I need to attempt a campaign re-boot.
Campaign Reboot
Engine Publishing’s “Odyssey” doesn’t seem to advise this. Well, not directly anyway. In short, however, what I mean is to re-start the campaign in the manner that I should have done in the first place.
Key critical steps that need addressing include:
- Create a shared vision for the campaign
- Create a campaign framework and stick to it
- Settle on a rule set
- Manage the story
- Codify the campaign setting
To be honest, there’s a lot more too… but these are the critical points that I need to address.
1. Shared Vision
Recent conversation about the campaign helped me realise that the guys are really enjoying the game when I let them. In other words, they come along excited to play and then discover that I’m the one struggling to be excited. My lack of management is the root of this problem… and, within that failure, the biggest problem is that I am not expecting the same things as they are.
In short, my vision for the game was to experiment with OSR-style gaming and collaboration. They just wanted to make some cool characters and experience a fun story. Sure, my players love the collaboration but they REALLY like turning up and rolling some dice too.
We have created a wonderful setting. It’s growing weekly too. They want to play in it. They also like their “main” characters – the ones they have evolved through play and three system changes. What they really want now is things to settle down into some actual play in the world we’ve already agreed is a cool place.
The truth is I’m quite happy with the status quo. Negotiation is required.
Enter the campaign framework.
2. Create a Campaign Framework
Following a sit-down with two of the three players (we have a problem with getting all three in the same place regularly, due to real-life) I was able to draft a “campaign framework” document, using the guidance in Odyssey.
Honestly, I was pretty cynical about this step… until I did it.
Firstly, it is a resource I can reference and point players at to answer basic questions. Secondly, and more usefully, it showed me where my own preferences were not being addressed. Draft two needs writing and proposing to the group – tweaks that will settle my own concerns as GM. Maybe they’ll accept it… maybe not. This is the value of the conversation.
The framework outlines:
- The core concept of the campaign – what it’s about.
- Basic facts about who is involved and where it’s all set.
- The in-use system and supplements.
- An outline of the setting.
- Notes on the tone of the campaign – in this case, “darker shade of Swords and Sorcery blended with some epic fantasy overtones.”
- Agreed limits within both the rules, setting, and what is taboo to roleplay.
- What is canon to the setting – in our case, I realised that I want to write a separate “Player’s Guide” as a reference.
It’s been really helpful to me… and it’s highlighted the one area that I need to settle.
Enter the rules.
3. Settling the Rules Set
We started with Castles and Crusades. That got house-ruled into a new homebrew ruleset called, “UbiquitousRPG“. We broke our home rules enough to make me jitter and shift to Hero System 6e.
Now I want to shift back to something simpler to manage. Probably D&D 5e.
Yes, I am the nightmare butterfly GM when it comes to rules. Nothing is ever quite right for me. I want to tinker and change the game… and this usually kills perfectly good campaigns.
If there is one thing that I have come to realise it’s that, as a GM, I need to play games in discreet short- to medium-term campaigns; I need to re-negotiate systems and settings between those campaigns. I can always return to an established setting (in fact, I’d prefer that), but the concept of the ongoing and eternal campaign has to die.
I’ll say it again: I cannot continue to try to run the ongoing and no-clearly-defined-endpoint campaigns. This doesn’t work.
Rules lay at the heart of my dissatisfaction. They are the biggest red-herring of my gaming. I need them to be stable but interesting and flexible enough to handle the setting we’re playing. I also need them to be low maintenance.
The players tell me that they can put up with almost any other changes that come, but they’d really like to play their characters in just one system. Obviously.
It’s time to make a choice. Stick to it. And manage it through to the endpoint.
Which brings us to…
4. Managing the Story
My biggest mistake has been to have a great beginning but no clear middle or end to the story of the game. Don’t get me wrong, I personally HATE the idea of a “narrative” which is railroading the heroes to an inevitable conclusion. I’m Old School enough to prefer that the story arises out of the game play. That said, I started with only a short sentence of planning:
“Who will rid me of this foul monster? Who will rid me of this pernicious bandit, Gerulf?”
Gerulf turned out to be an Orc bandit lord holed up in an abandoned cave complex in the mountains. This, in turn, turned out to be the location of a lost temple and, further inside, the place where an ancient Nexus Gate resides. The players let an ancient threat back in to the world but they are too weak to oppose it directly… yet. Since then, they’ve fled westwards and meandered.
The meandering is all my fault.
No planned middle. No clear goal for the end. Until now.
We’ve agreed that the ancient threat needs to be opposed and addressed, one way or the other. My job is to deliver on that agreement.
The only remaining barrier for the next session is that I’ve forgotten some of the details.
5. Codifying the Setting
I need to write more stuff down. I need to get back to using the tools I put in place but then stopped using because I conned myself into believing that I could “wing it” with a growing setting.
Idiot.
There are two elements that will allow me to do this:
- Using a campaign management tool to handle the nitty-gritty details that we create in-play: Realm Works.
- Creating a “Player’s Guide” book as the official canon guide to the setting: in our case, a Leanpub book called “Tikhon“.
I’ve sung the praises of Realm Works before. I just need to get back to using it because it’s not possible to remember the names and details of every NPC, place, plot, and idea that has ever graced your gaming table. Others might prefer a campaign folder, and I certainly enjoy written notes for the session, but for me the ultimate repository is Realm Works. It can link all my notes together in a way that I can’t easily do on paper.
Secondly, I need to unleash my desire to write and my love of the written word through the “writing up” of the setting for player consumption. The “Player’s Guide” approach appeals to me because it scratches the creative itch but also gives me a definite place to point player queries towards. Invaluable advice in Odyssey includes not trying to answer setting questions “off the cuff” but rather to point to the codified reference in your notes.
Quote to them. Keep it consistent and clear.
Where Will This Leave Us?
In short, I’ll be back in control of our campaign.
As I resolve the issues above, I also need to return to my prep (drawing on advice from “Never Unprepared“) and to read through the third tome, “Unframed: The Art of Improvisation“.
The best thing I’ve got to aid me in all of this is the fact that we don’t play again until August 1st… and even then, we don’t return to the main campaign properly until August 15th. We embarked on a “one-off” side trek using D&D 5e (as a taster) within the same setting but in a different place with new characters. That has bought me time, ironically, to prepare for a return to a promising campaign.
Yes, we’ve got our work cut out… or, at least, I have… but that’s the joy and agony of roleplaying.
Game on!
