Just Wondering...

[sacerd]

Do y'all tend to run your games more "long epic campaignesqe" complete with overarching storylines and detailed character backgrounds or more as self contained stories, that almost seem episodic with little or no reffrences to past games?

 

[Aelric]

I run mine as long epic campaign style.And they are currently entering a long forgotten citadel.

 

[mthomason]

Pretty much across every setting and system, I try to keep to epic campaigns. If a new player comes in I'll usually try and do the next session as a "one-off within the campaign", to get them integrated into the group without worrying about them having to ask me to explain past events or scaring them with a ten-volume set of background notes they need to read before we start . By the end of that session they've usually found their feet enough for the other players to help them either in or out of character.

 

[Mythos]

When I was running my game I tended to do a mix of both.
I'd have an outline for an epic storyline andf allow it to buld theough several one off stories. As the players reacted to the clues and hints I'd drop I could alter and plan additional details to the storyline till I had a concrete story tailored to highlight each of the players.

 

[Aelric]

I make it easy enough to have new players join in and keep in mind the different players and their style of play.Not eberything I have is hack and slash.

 

[Krushnak]

I started of with a basic campaign idea and just give the players these seemingly one-off or couple of gaming session long encounters but i continually shape the 'epic' campaign towards what they want to do or what they've done. Right now the Hyperborean soldier has declared that his goal is to become a conqueror of nations so thats generally gonna be the focus of the campaign for aslong as that character lives, it might even carry on in his name if he dies prematurely or after having acheived his goal.

 

[Aelric]

Thats pretty cool and I like the way you have it running

 

[Bregales]

Last time around ended up being a long campaign, but that was to accomodate the sorcerer and his power plays. I kept it easy for players & PCs to wander in and out.

Next time around I plan to keep the adventures more episodic like one-offs. I'd like to do an idea of each adventure taking place in a year of the lives of the characters (loosely based on Howard's episodic short stories, and also the King Arthur Pendragon game).

By the way, I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that many posters on these boards have written campaign journals for their groups. I tried to compile them all into a thread link obtainable on the conan.com sticky thread. I'd like to encourage you GMs (and players too, why not, your perspectives can be different from the GMs and may surprise them! :shock: ).

Check out the thread Conan blogs and campaign journals (also seen under the thread Conan.com under the section Sample Adventures submitted to this forum:

I'll try to keep my eye open on the boards, trying to re-familiarize myself with the game rules in prep for the new gaming group, so if you do start up a journal or blog, I'll add the link to it to the blogs/campaign journals thread. Or just pm me or whatever. I'lll try to update the conan.com list of threads as well, although a gentle nudge wouldn't hurt.

 

[Sutek]

I go with the intent to just run adventures at first, and then I try to pick up on what the players worry about most and make that the focus of the campaign (lol). Seriously, I wait until they decide who the bad guy is, and then either go with that but make him much worse, or I continue to set up "signs" that point that direction but that are all deceptive.

:twisted:

 

[Bregales]

LOL, hey Sutek, that's what happened in my last campaign, but in a wholly unintentional manner. The sorcerer was a Stygian, and he wanted to be "malevolent" so I set up the first introduction to introduce the whole group together and force them to cooperate (our group was notorious for backstabbing, conniving, et cetera) so I had his boss and all the priests of his compound get attacked at night and have to flee, then his boss and the surviving priests were mysteriously sundered asleep and so Akriphon fled, meeting the rest of the group, eventually rescuing them. But as I'd have his boss send him on missions, (the only way to get the begrudging Akriphon to do what the rest of the group was doing, aka that week's adventure), he decided he didn't like not being in charge, so I loosened the reigns. Eventually I had him meet up with his old nemesis, but deciding he didn't want to serve his boss any more, he surprised me (well, I'd considered the possibility but didn't think it likely) by offering to join up with his enemy against his master! Well, the player thought the enemy was more powerful, but didn't place metagaming that the bad guy was only 8th level whereas his master was 16th level, and a Lord of the Black Circle! Also, he didn't read about The Rule of the Master in the sorcery chapter of AE. So anyways, I suddenly had a NEW bad guy for the group to fear.

Aside from pre-pub adventures I ran, I'd make up adventures for the group to overcome, but would keep things open enough so that a random npc they meet could suddenly become the central point of the adventure, so I'd roll with their whims. Fun times. I'll probably keep things more loose and episodic in the next group though.

 

[Sutek]

I take bits of pre-pub adventures and integrate them, and some I run totally "as is". I did that with Tower of the Elephant and Terror. But I've also got to keep an open path, as it were, and if the players express a certian level of dread of something I hadn't intended, then I have to keep things open enough (or at least I feel that I'm obligated to) so that I can free-form and put those dreaded things in more often.

Ever since the group had one party member mauled by a lion, they hate animal encounters. I guess it's the random ferocity - I dont know - but lions, tigers and bears scre the crap out of them because of the damage they cah inflict in one shot.

 

[Halfbat]

I run a more long-term campaign based around Messantia and a trading company the characters formed (which was a useful accident as it saved me getting them involved with one) into which I can insert other scenarios as and when they are needed.

The campaign and underlying plot is used as a framework into which scenarios can be slotted, but there is no fixed endpoint. The background plot helps drive scenarios, interactions, "reasons to be" and similar. The merchant house with which they are associated asks them to do things from time to time which gives a good link into other locations, too.

 

[Bregales]

By the way, I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that many posters on these boards have written campaign journals for their groups. I tried to compile them all into a thread link obtainable on the conan.com sticky thread.

I just added this thread to the Conan blogs and campaign journals thread. Note that this thread is in the conan.com sticky thread.

 

[slaughterj]

For Conan, the games I run are basically episodic, though sequential and "relatively" recent from the previous session. E.g., in the current campaign, the PCs started in Koth, going into the southeastern mountains. Then there was some scheduling difficulties, so some of the party's next adventure was days later, in the mountains but closer to Zamora, while one PC had a separate adventure that was in the hills just into Zamora from Koth. Then they went a bit along the Road of Kings, re-met in an interesting fashion, and adventured into the hills in the direct south of Zamora. Next adventure, they will have made it to Arenjun, and will adventure there. After that, they will head south to eastern desert Shem most likely. These are basically wandering adventures, with a bit of motivation here and there for a given situation. But I don't run the BS days/weeks between adventuring, skipping the monotony and going straight for the action.