Planning out a massive, long-term 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons campaign can be daunting. You have to create story arcs, keep track of smaller plot threads, and build up to a dramatic conclusion. You always need the same players re꧃turning to play the same characters, which can be tricky to schedule. Luckily, there is an alternative way to run a campaign: Episodically.
Having a more casual one-shot dynamic for your campaign makes it far easier to develop simple, short adventures for the group. Your players can switch out what character they want to play, and you don't have to worry too much if someone misses a session. So, let's check a few suggestions for the framework you should be using.
8 Expl✃oring Ne♔w Lands
In this campaign, a new land has just been discovered, and many adventurers are joining forces to explore the island. To make this an episodic campaign, you can establish a home base on the coast, which acts as a main hub for the story. Each time you play, your players can decide which adventurers to play and then set off on a small quest to explore uncharted parts of the island. There might be a small goal in mind, and once they have accomplished the task, they'll head back to the settlement to inform the others.
The adventures do not even need to stick to the main island. Some sessions might take to the sea, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:battling sea beasts, and expl🐟oring nearby locations. This is a game primarily about discovery. There does not need to be a big overarching plot if you do not want one. You can just come up with fun short quests for a new group to go on each week.
7 Tavern Tales ☂
Taverns have always been a go-to place to visi🀅t in any D&amꦰp;D adventure, so why not make it a hub for an episodic campaign? The barkeep will have heard many tales from patrons over the years, which will act as prompts to begin a new adventure each session. Your players will take on the role of a different adventurer each we🎉ek to participate in the retelling of this tavern tale. Since it is framed as 🤡a story, you can jump to any setting, keeping your campaign incredibly varied for your players.
Some sessions could be set in the tavern itself, such as a tavern brawl or a heist on the pub late at night. You could even have your fཧriends play as regulars at the bar, interrupting the barkeep to "correct" them on story details to add unexpected twists to each adventure.
6 ꦓ Clones On Deadly Missions
If you'd like to stick with the same characters in an episodic campaign but still want lots of chaos and dramatic sacrifices, then this campaign idea is for you. Your players will take on the role of various clones and experiments created by a powerful wizard. In each session, a new batch of these clones is sent out on a new adventure, perhaps to find information for the wizard or collect a powerful artifact. These clones will not make it back safely in most sessions, but it is not a problem. The wizard will replace them with a fresh new clone at the start of the next session, ready to go on a completely unrelated adventure.
These episodic, deadly adventures could unknowingly build up to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:a final climatic ending, with their master revealing their evil scheme. Alternatively, you could keep having fun with unrelated stories f🐼or as long as you wish.
5 The Notice Board ღ
In 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:a small, humble town, your campaign revolves around a notice board rather than a particular set of characters. This notice board will be full of various quests the party could go on or even smaller-scale things, such as petty disputes among the townsfolk. Each week, your💟 players can pick an exciting notice from the board. They might play adventurers going to resolve theꦅ chosen quest, or perhaps they will instead take on the role of the people that posted the notice in the first place.
These adventures will always start in the town but will likely go in various directions each session. Sometimes plot points from previous sessions will return, but you'll usually dive into a new prompt each week. Your players could 168澳洲𝓡幸运5开奖网:devise their own prompts for side quests and put🍃 them on the notice board to inspire your ℱideas for future sessions.
4 ꦕMagic School
A magic school would make for a tremendous episodic campaign. From 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:big social gatherings to school trips to mysterious lands, there are plenty of fun stori💜es to explore with a different cast each time you play. Your playe🔜rs could be students or even members of staff. What wacky adventures might the teachers or the janitors get up to after the students leave?
If a player misses a session, it can easily be explained as they were off sick or skipping school. A setting like this can make for a laid-back, silly campaign focused on different lessons at this m🐼agical institution.
3 Ghosts On Vacation 𝓀
In this campaign setup, your players will take on the role of ghosts. They're stuck haunting the living and are, quite frankly, bored. They want to go on adventures again, but to do so, they must possess a party of living adventurers to take over their quest. The ghosts can only possess their targets for a limited time, so they must pick a new unrelated group next session.
This campaign idea allows you to jump in-media res to various adventures. You don't need to worry too much about setting up the quest or the journey. The ghosts can arrive at an opportune moment to take over and bumble through an adventure they do not know all the facts about. The players can 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:come up with new backstory ideas for each adventurer their ghost possesses and slowly dive into the ghost's previous life a little each week too.
2 ⛄ 💜 This Belongs In A Museum
In a dusty, anci🥃ent museum full of old💙 tomes and mysterious artifacts, there are plenty of adventures to be had. Your players can take on the role of museum curators taking care of the priceless artifacts kept here. In each session, the players can decide to interact with a new artifact or book, prompting an utterly unrelated adventure for them to go on.
The artifact might transport them somewhere, and they must find their way back. They could have to deliver the artifact to a dꦇifferent museum, protecting it along the way. Perhaps they learn about the journey that an artifact had to arrive at their museum and instead take on the role of the adventurers responsible for its safe arrival. A campaign like this aims to have many potential, unrelated plot hooks for your players to investigate. Each story is self-contained, and the museum actsܫ as the overall framing device to bookend each session.
1 The Crew
Your players are part of a large crew of adventures, heading off on epic quests aboard their spelljamming ship. They can play as the same crew members each session, but nothing stops them from taking on a different character from the crew to mix things up. In each session, a small team is sent out from the ship to explore a planet and return with as much loot as possible. This is a great setup to dive into 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:short spelljammer-themed quest ideas before headinꦅg to an entirely new world the following session.
Of course, they do not need to be traveling the stars. Instead, your players could be part of a pirate crew, traveling the seas and setting off on short adventures in faraway lands. The core episodic setup remains the same. You end each session with the c🔥rew sailing far away and begin the new one with a ne🌜w scenario ready to dive into.