I have ran several modules for a group of players and we are now wanting to delve into a homebrew campaign with our own world. What we want to do is basically have 3 month intervals (12 sessions), where the party would gain 3 levels in that time, approximately 1 level every 4 sessions. After that 3 month mini campaign arc, we will jump 6 years into the future of the world, and the players can decide to stick with that character, or make a new character and continue on. They can also come back to other characters etc. Basically creating an ever growing roster as they characters age and have families and descendants, etc.
So this will make character age important. a 100 year old elf can be alive and eligible for 60 campaigns (15 years), where as a 30 year old human would only be alive for 10 campaigns (2.5 years), but would only need to play in 5 campaigns to get to level 20, since we are starting each new character at level 5. And even if they die from old age, we can always homebrew a particular spell or item that could revive them, without abusing that, but the purpose of this is to really focus on the world and history, but also have player impact govern how the world turns out.
I, the DM, won't be making any maps, settlements, towns, villains, until I get their backstories, then create towns near them that fit into their motivations and then continue to explore the world from there. The other thing I'd like advise on is how to have different level characters all fit together. I feel like a level 5 and a level 20 in the same party is not good. Should I try and keep them in the groupings? 5-10, 11-15, 16-20? Or would something like, 5-10 and 10-20? Just trying to think of the best ways to balance this, combat-wise.
The part I'm really having trouble with is trying to make sure I give my players opportunities to play their characters and get them to 20 while also being able to freely play other characters before dying lol obviously dwarf and elf characters I don't have to worry about, but the other races are where it is concerning. What are your guys' opinions on this. Would it be a fun idea as a player? Should we gain more/less levels in 3 months? Should it be more/less than 6 years per mini-campaign jump? I want to make sure they have an opportunity to explore the characters they want to explore. Has anyone ever done something like this? How did it turn out? An example of 10 campaigns (2.5 years of playing) and 3 characters is below:
Campaign 1 - Year: 0 (3 months of playing)
First Character: Human age 30, levels 5 (Active)
Campaign 2 - Year: 6 (6 months of playing)
First Character: Human age 36, Level 8
Second Character: Dragonborn age 20, level 5 (Active)
Campaign 3 - Year: 12 (9 months of playing)
First Character: Human age 42, level 8 (active)
Second Character: Dragonborn age 26, level 8
Campaign 4 - Year: 18 (1 year of playing)
First character: Human age 48, level 11 (active)
Second Character: Dragonborn age 32, level 8
Campaign 5 - Year 24 (1 year and 3 months of playing)
First Character: Human age 54, level 14
Second Character: Dragonborn age 38, level 8
Third Character: Dwarf age 157, level 5 (active)
Campaign 6 - Year 30 (1 year and 6 months of playing)
First Character: Human age 60, level 14
Second Character: Dragonborn age 44, level 8
Third Character: Dwarf age 163, level 8 (active)
Campaign 7 - Year 36 (1 year and 9 months of playing)
First Character: Human age 66, level 14 (active)
Second Character: Dragonborn age 50, level 8
Third Character: Dwarf age 169, level 11
Campaign 8 - Year 42 (2 years of playing)
First Character: Human age 72, level 17 (active)
Second Character: Dragonborn age 56, level 8
Third Character: Dwarf age 175, level 11
Campaign 9 - Year 48 (2 years and 3 months of playing)
First Character: Human age 78, Level 20
Second character: Dragonborn age 62, level 8 (active)
Third Character: Dwarf age 181, level 11
Campaign 10 - Year 54 (2 years and 6 months of playing)
First character: Human age 84, level 20 (active)
Second Character: Dragonborn age 68, level 11
Third Character: Dwarf age 187, level 11
Here is a chart if that makes it easier. The bold numbers are the "active" character.
Name
Human
Dragonborn
Dwarf
Info
Age
Level
Age
Level
Age
Level
Campaign 1
30
5
Campaign 2
36
8
20
5
Campaign 3
42
8
26
8
Campaign 4
48
11
32
8
Campaign 5
54
14
38
8
157
5
Campaign 6
60
14
44
8
163
8
Campaign 7
66
14
50
8
169
11
Campaign 8
72
17
56
8
175
11
Campaign 9
78
20
62
8
181
11
Campaign 10
84
20
68
11
187
11
Then at this point, since the human is near life expectancy, we could kill him in a heroic way, or have him retire and die peacefully by his family. In the future, he could be brought back by some high magic if we wanted to.
This is pretty similar to a Western Marches style campaign, just with longer time skips between adventures. I'd recommend checking them out if you haven't already! That style could give you some ideas how to better implement it in your own game. Seems like a cool idea though.
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Thank you! I haven't heard of Western Marches, but I will definitely look it up and see if it can give me some insight onto some further tweaks I want to make. We are wrapping up a Spelljammer campaign in August and then will run Curse of Strahd, and then this idea, so I just wanted to go ahead and try and perfect the idea as much as I can. But I've been playing with this group for many years now, a few others have sporadically come and gone for different reasons, but the core group has always been the same.
I have ran several modules for a group of players and we are now wanting to delve into a homebrew campaign with our own world. What we want to do is basically have 3 month intervals (12 sessions), where the party would gain 3 levels in that time, approximately 1 level every 4 sessions. After that 3 month mini campaign arc, we will jump 6 years into the future of the world, and the players can decide to stick with that character, or make a new character and continue on. They can also come back to other characters etc. Basically creating an ever growing roster as they characters age and have families and descendants, etc.
So this will make character age important. a 100 year old elf can be alive and eligible for 60 campaigns (15 years), where as a 30 year old human would only be alive for 10 campaigns (2.5 years), but would only need to play in 5 campaigns to get to level 20, since we are starting each new character at level 5. And even if they die from old age, we can always homebrew a particular spell or item that could revive them, without abusing that, but the purpose of this is to really focus on the world and history, but also have player impact govern how the world turns out.
I, the DM, won't be making any maps, settlements, towns, villains, until I get their backstories, then create towns near them that fit into their motivations and then continue to explore the world from there. The other thing I'd like advise on is how to have different level characters all fit together. I feel like a level 5 and a level 20 in the same party is not good. Should I try and keep them in the groupings? 5-10, 11-15, 16-20? Or would something like, 5-10 and 10-20? Just trying to think of the best ways to balance this, combat-wise.
The part I'm really having trouble with is trying to make sure I give my players opportunities to play their characters and get them to 20 while also being able to freely play other characters before dying lol obviously dwarf and elf characters I don't have to worry about, but the other races are where it is concerning. What are your guys' opinions on this. Would it be a fun idea as a player? Should we gain more/less levels in 3 months? Should it be more/less than 6 years per mini-campaign jump? I want to make sure they have an opportunity to explore the characters they want to explore. Has anyone ever done something like this? How did it turn out? An example of 10 campaigns (2.5 years of playing) and 3 characters is below:
Here is a chart if that makes it easier. The bold numbers are the "active" character.
Name
Human
Dragonborn
Dwarf
Info
Age
Level
Age
Level
Age
Level
Campaign 1
30
5
Campaign 2
36
8
20
5
Campaign 3
42
8
26
8
Campaign 4
48
11
32
8
Campaign 5
54
14
38
8
157
5
Campaign 6
60
14
44
8
163
8
Campaign 7
66
14
50
8
169
11
Campaign 8
72
17
56
8
175
11
Campaign 9
78
20
62
8
181
11
Campaign 10
84
20
68
11
187
11
Then at this point, since the human is near life expectancy, we could kill him in a heroic way, or have him retire and die peacefully by his family. In the future, he could be brought back by some high magic if we wanted to.
Published Subclasses
This is pretty similar to a Western Marches style campaign, just with longer time skips between adventures. I'd recommend checking them out if you haven't already! That style could give you some ideas how to better implement it in your own game. Seems like a cool idea though.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
Thank you! I haven't heard of Western Marches, but I will definitely look it up and see if it can give me some insight onto some further tweaks I want to make. We are wrapping up a Spelljammer campaign in August and then will run Curse of Strahd, and then this idea, so I just wanted to go ahead and try and perfect the idea as much as I can. But I've been playing with this group for many years now, a few others have sporadically come and gone for different reasons, but the core group has always been the same.
Published Subclasses