What's the best campaign or adventure you've ever run - and why? What makes it the best (did your players absolutely adore it, did you have a lot of fun running it, did it keep everyone on their toes and surprise them at the end, etc)?
Curious what you all have learned from the best games you've ever run, what youd do again, and possibly what you've learned to NOT do.
Back in the 4e days I ran a campaign where the party were lawful evil, all worshipers of an evil God who all believed if their God was in charge of everyone the world would be a better place. The whole campaign involved tracking down shards of crystal that, when reformed, created a magic crystal heart that made anyone adore whoever held it. So my team had to travel around, fighting the protectors of the shards, finding the remains of the heart, assembling it all together, and then giving it to their God. Once we got into the mindset that these were people who thought they were the heroes, willing to do almost anything for their cause, the way the group went about their mission was constantly challenging and inventive, and right at the end there was a pretty epic role playing confrontation as the group decided if handing over the heart was actually worth it or not. It was a super satisfying ending to a deep campaign!
I also have a bunch of one shots I really enjoy running because they have no real "answer" to the problems I present, and despite running some for half a dozen groups I've never seen the same response to the plot. I highly recommend creating encounters and not bothering to come up with a "correct" way to solve it, just help make whatever the players come up with work! Makes every game awesome!
I loved running B2: Keep on the Borderlands back in the day. I both played in it and ran it. The great thing about it was the adventure area, the Caves of Chaos, had a bunch of small sized cave networks that were lairs to various monsters, labeled something like A through N. A was kobolds, B was goblins, C was orcs, and so on up to Minotaurs and such. Back in the day everyone had the module because it came with the Basic set, so a DM would just pick a cave network or two and then customize it. We had a blast with that module.
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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.
I ran a Champions game for a few years in college. It was a blast, we all worked together to create a shared world, not just me as GM creating everything. The players would come up with evil organizations, possible villains and dramatic points.
In the mid 2000s I also ran a Temple of Elemental Evil game, I think that was 3.5 but don't remember. I reskinned a lot of it, but the party was evil/self-centered, and ended up playing politics in the Temple. They were all backstabbing traitorious characters, but it was fun playing it all out. That also made me never want to run a game where the party was evil though.
I also have a bunch of one shots I really enjoy running because they have no real "answer" to the problems I present
So that's a great piece of DMing advice. We don't need to know the answers, just let the players be creative and see what works. The players are almost always going to be more creative collectively than the DM, turn that into a strength, and reduce your own amount of prep :)
Oh, and as what NOT do to....
Be wary of letting your game grow to big. You and some friends (3-5) are having a great time, then one wants to add another, and you say "sure, what's one more", then another player wants to add another or two, because people love listening to stories about your game, cause your players are talking and having a great time. Next thing you know, there are 12-15 folks wanting to play. Aside from rare circumstances (battle royale teamups), games don't work well with large numbers. Avoid the temptation to keep adding players, sometimes you have to say no.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
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What's the best campaign or adventure you've ever run - and why? What makes it the best (did your players absolutely adore it, did you have a lot of fun running it, did it keep everyone on their toes and surprise them at the end, etc)?
Curious what you all have learned from the best games you've ever run, what youd do again, and possibly what you've learned to NOT do.
Edit: This question is system agnostic! (:
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InsiderBack in the 4e days I ran a campaign where the party were lawful evil, all worshipers of an evil God who all believed if their God was in charge of everyone the world would be a better place. The whole campaign involved tracking down shards of crystal that, when reformed, created a magic crystal heart that made anyone adore whoever held it. So my team had to travel around, fighting the protectors of the shards, finding the remains of the heart, assembling it all together, and then giving it to their God. Once we got into the mindset that these were people who thought they were the heroes, willing to do almost anything for their cause, the way the group went about their mission was constantly challenging and inventive, and right at the end there was a pretty epic role playing confrontation as the group decided if handing over the heart was actually worth it or not. It was a super satisfying ending to a deep campaign!
I also have a bunch of one shots I really enjoy running because they have no real "answer" to the problems I present, and despite running some for half a dozen groups I've never seen the same response to the plot. I highly recommend creating encounters and not bothering to come up with a "correct" way to solve it, just help make whatever the players come up with work! Makes every game awesome!
Find me on Twitter: @OboeLauren
I loved running B2: Keep on the Borderlands back in the day. I both played in it and ran it. The great thing about it was the adventure area, the Caves of Chaos, had a bunch of small sized cave networks that were lairs to various monsters, labeled something like A through N. A was kobolds, B was goblins, C was orcs, and so on up to Minotaurs and such. Back in the day everyone had the module because it came with the Basic set, so a DM would just pick a cave network or two and then customize it. We had a blast with that module.
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.
I ran a Champions game for a few years in college. It was a blast, we all worked together to create a shared world, not just me as GM creating everything. The players would come up with evil organizations, possible villains and dramatic points.
In the mid 2000s I also ran a Temple of Elemental Evil game, I think that was 3.5 but don't remember. I reskinned a lot of it, but the party was evil/self-centered, and ended up playing politics in the Temple. They were all backstabbing traitorious characters, but it was fun playing it all out. That also made me never want to run a game where the party was evil though.
So that's a great piece of DMing advice. We don't need to know the answers, just let the players be creative and see what works. The players are almost always going to be more creative collectively than the DM, turn that into a strength, and reduce your own amount of prep :)
Oh, and as what NOT do to....
Be wary of letting your game grow to big. You and some friends (3-5) are having a great time, then one wants to add another, and you say "sure, what's one more", then another player wants to add another or two, because people love listening to stories about your game, cause your players are talking and having a great time. Next thing you know, there are 12-15 folks wanting to play. Aside from rare circumstances (battle royale teamups), games don't work well with large numbers. Avoid the temptation to keep adding players, sometimes you have to say no.
"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"