My friends and I are about to celebrate our three year campaign anniversary! I am the dungeon master for the group, and am curious what other dungeon masters and players have experienced in their own groups when you’ve come to an anniversary or a big moment in the campaign.
Do you have a huge battle? A memorable social event? Right now my party is in a major port city that is celebrating a weeklong festival to Lathander. A group of Warforged that have been tracking the party for weeks has finally found them so there’s the potential for a good fight. But the party also seems to really be enjoying the downtime and the festival.
I want this three year anniversary session to be memorable and enjoyable for the party, but I am conflicted as to whether or not I should have some big fight that they can overcome, or if I should just let them go about business as usual.
I‘d love to get some advice and input from dungeon, masters and players alike!
When we celebrated 10 years of gaming in 1991 (we forgot in the actual 10th year so did it in year 11), we had a special dinner brought in (Calzones, because of a longstanding group thing) and proceeded to to do a night of Recollection.
We pulled out our characters and regaled each other with the war stories (and voted on the best war story) and there was no "that never happened" thing -- it was the stuff we imagined that they did *after* the campaign that character had been in.
We've done that every ten years since (last was in 2021). No actual gaming, just remembering the good games and exercising our imaginations about characters we no longer play, and from those events we DMs among us have often turned stuff into myths, legends, and object lessons in our world lore that persists.
While I usually go with the reason for a Towel being in my equipment lists (with the note "you are now prepared") is something from Hitchhiker, the deeper connection is a wild tale about a spelljammer character that ended up forgetting their towel and not being prepared. That was 2001.
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Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
I like this. I have a player who wants to respec her character from a fighter to a warlock (it’s a long story, but she’s sort of a Warforge/Cerspa mix).
So ending the session with her being kidnapped or otherwise, incapacitated is something that she and I talked about as a means to facilitate her switching from a fighter to a warlock. I also played with the idea of having this three year anniversary session be the start of a war between two neighboring kingdoms.
The players have already overheard soldiers from a neighboring kingdom talking about an invasion, which is part of a larger plot from the big bad to destabilize the region.
That’s awesome! I feel like doing something big. I’m going to do RL festival food and have it be sort of like a celebration. I got decorations for the festival of Lathander (banners of Lathander’s symbol) that I’m going to put up, gifts for everyone… but IN session I want to have something big happen… just not sure what yanno? I think I’m going to land on a conflict between the warforged cult gunning for the party, coupled maybe with an invasion or raid from the neighboring kingdom.
I don’t want to do too much and have the players freak out with too much and I don’t want to kill any of them. But I want it to be like an up in stakes for their characters.
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My friends and I are about to celebrate our three year campaign anniversary! I am the dungeon master for the group, and am curious what other dungeon masters and players have experienced in their own groups when you’ve come to an anniversary or a big moment in the campaign.
Do you have a huge battle? A memorable social event? Right now my party is in a major port city that is celebrating a weeklong festival to Lathander. A group of Warforged that have been tracking the party for weeks has finally found them so there’s the potential for a good fight. But the party also seems to really be enjoying the downtime and the festival.
I want this three year anniversary session to be memorable and enjoyable for the party, but I am conflicted as to whether or not I should have some big fight that they can overcome, or if I should just let them go about business as usual.
I‘d love to get some advice and input from dungeon, masters and players alike!
When we celebrated 10 years of gaming in 1991 (we forgot in the actual 10th year so did it in year 11), we had a special dinner brought in (Calzones, because of a longstanding group thing) and proceeded to to do a night of Recollection.
We pulled out our characters and regaled each other with the war stories (and voted on the best war story) and there was no "that never happened" thing -- it was the stuff we imagined that they did *after* the campaign that character had been in.
We've done that every ten years since (last was in 2021). No actual gaming, just remembering the good games and exercising our imaginations about characters we no longer play, and from those events we DMs among us have often turned stuff into myths, legends, and object lessons in our world lore that persists.
While I usually go with the reason for a Towel being in my equipment lists (with the note "you are now prepared") is something from Hitchhiker, the deeper connection is a wild tale about a spelljammer character that ended up forgetting their towel and not being prepared. That was 2001.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
RL food really helps to make it memorable.
as for ingame have a celebration for one of the towns they frequent and love. Have the town give out gifts and prizes.
Then mid celebration cause chaos. this can be a dragon, or spiteful villain anything you want them to chase after, as the town starts to burn.
set up a nice dungeon where the villain awaits.
I didn’t see what you did there.
I like this. I have a player who wants to respec her character from a fighter to a warlock (it’s a long story, but she’s sort of a Warforge/Cerspa mix).
So ending the session with her being kidnapped or otherwise, incapacitated is something that she and I talked about as a means to facilitate her switching from a fighter to a warlock. I also played with the idea of having this three year anniversary session be the start of a war between two neighboring kingdoms.
The players have already overheard soldiers from a neighboring kingdom talking about an invasion, which is part of a larger plot from the big bad to destabilize the region.
I just don’t want anything to seem forced.
Hope it goes well for ya! We just celebrated 9 years on the same campaign with the same 5 players and dm.
I didn’t see what you did there.
That’s awesome! I feel like doing something big. I’m going to do RL festival food and have it be sort of like a celebration. I got decorations for the festival of Lathander (banners of Lathander’s symbol) that I’m going to put up, gifts for everyone… but IN session I want to have something big happen… just not sure what yanno? I think I’m going to land on a conflict between the warforged cult gunning for the party, coupled maybe with an invasion or raid from the neighboring kingdom.
I don’t want to do too much and have the players freak out with too much and I don’t want to kill any of them. But I want it to be like an up in stakes for their characters.