Here's a bit of food for thought that I am hoping will help me in writing for my group.
What do you feel is the difference between Encounters, Adventures, and Campaigns?
I'm always concerned that I'm writing too much and getting bogged down in minutia and then bailing. Whereas, if I write small, it's easy, but I would love to have an over-arching narrative with themes and recurring characters, etc. I'm probably overthinking all this, but some of that is what makes D&D fun, I guess.
Encounters are clearly contained: they're literally about what happens when the party encounters something significant, and as soon as they've dealt with that the encounter's over.
The difference between adventure and campaign is less clear but I think most groups consider a specific story arc (which may contain sidestories, to an extent) an adventure, and all the adventures the same party (possibly with characters getting replaced with others) is involved in form a campaign. A group might play Dragon of Ice Spire Peak for instance and might do the follow-up adventures and maybe Rime of the Frost Maiden or another, high level adventure all with the same party after that - all of these are separate adventures, and all of them together make up that party's campaign.
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Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
An encounter is a single scene, a single set of actions defined by a limited time-frame. Frodo and the other hobbits running from the Black Riders is an encounter. Them meeting Strider and RPing with him is an encounter. Them fighting Black Riders on Weathertop is an encounter.
An adventure is a series of encounters that lead to a satisfying climax. The hobbits and Strider going from Crickhollow to Rivendell with the One Ring is an Adventure. The Fellowship going from Rivendell through Moria is an Adventure. Sam and Frodo going with Gollum from Emyn Muil to Minas Morgul is an Adventure.
A campaign is a series of adventures that are connected by some common thread. Most typically, the common thread is the player characters -- they remain the same, or mostly the same, throughout the campaign. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is a campaign like that, with the same basic characters throughout (though a couple die, and a few new ones join over time). Sometimes, the connection is the world. You have a bunch of different parties or PCs over a long period, all different, but all played in the same world. A West Marches game is like this.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
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Here's a bit of food for thought that I am hoping will help me in writing for my group.
What do you feel is the difference between Encounters, Adventures, and Campaigns?
I'm always concerned that I'm writing too much and getting bogged down in minutia and then bailing. Whereas, if I write small, it's easy, but I would love to have an over-arching narrative with themes and recurring characters, etc. I'm probably overthinking all this, but some of that is what makes D&D fun, I guess.
Encounters are clearly contained: they're literally about what happens when the party encounters something significant, and as soon as they've dealt with that the encounter's over.
The difference between adventure and campaign is less clear but I think most groups consider a specific story arc (which may contain sidestories, to an extent) an adventure, and all the adventures the same party (possibly with characters getting replaced with others) is involved in form a campaign. A group might play Dragon of Ice Spire Peak for instance and might do the follow-up adventures and maybe Rime of the Frost Maiden or another, high level adventure all with the same party after that - all of these are separate adventures, and all of them together make up that party's campaign.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
An encounter is a single scene, a single set of actions defined by a limited time-frame. Frodo and the other hobbits running from the Black Riders is an encounter. Them meeting Strider and RPing with him is an encounter. Them fighting Black Riders on Weathertop is an encounter.
An adventure is a series of encounters that lead to a satisfying climax. The hobbits and Strider going from Crickhollow to Rivendell with the One Ring is an Adventure. The Fellowship going from Rivendell through Moria is an Adventure. Sam and Frodo going with Gollum from Emyn Muil to Minas Morgul is an Adventure.
A campaign is a series of adventures that are connected by some common thread. Most typically, the common thread is the player characters -- they remain the same, or mostly the same, throughout the campaign. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is a campaign like that, with the same basic characters throughout (though a couple die, and a few new ones join over time). Sometimes, the connection is the world. You have a bunch of different parties or PCs over a long period, all different, but all played in the same world. A West Marches game is like this.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.