You're all ready to introduce and launch a new campaign. You have a setting you like, a campaign theme, the initial prep just about complete...
...and suddenly you have a different idea grab your attention. You don't stop loving the first idea, but the second one is SO COOL and maybe you should do that instead... but what about the first one that captured your imagination?
ARGH. Just venting here, I'm sure a bunch of you here have faced an identical dilemma!
I constantly have cool (to me) ideas. If they are close enough to my ongoing campaign canon, I'll work them in right away. Otherwise, I flesh them out and put them off to the side, looking either for opportunities to bring them into the story later, or else opportunities to use them as a side adventure for the days when not all of my party can make it to the gaming table.
I would stick with your first campaign. That way you can flesh out your new campaign idea on the side. That way you have more time to fully develop your new campaign and really make it feel the way you want it too. I ended up having 4 completely different long campaigns and 10 shorter campaigns/scenarios written down in a few of my notebook because of the same issue and I'm sure most DM's end up having the same problem. The best thing to do with those is not just instantly jump over to your new idea cause if you think it will be fun and cool, then you should invest the time and really make it feel the way you have it in your head.
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Self Righteous Paladin: "That much power corrupts a man."
Random Bard: "Power is just a tool. How you use it doesn't change that fact. It just shows the purest form of your desires."
I second Tora's opinion... run your first campaign, and flesh out your second as you have time. Actually, I would encourage you to explicitly make time for that development. I can't count how many times I've said "I'll get to that later" and then later never happens. That won't do for campaign settings. Even if all you get completed are main story arc and the first three adventures for the second campaign, you will be ready when your first campaign finishes (unless your players would like a break).
Plus, you could construct some one-shot adventures in the new setting to run if the players want a break from the Gothic horror of the first campaign...
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ChaoticGoodPaladin2 (because 1 is never enough)
Famous Last words #27: "Of course I trust the thief, he's in our party" Famous Last Words #32: "The minotaur's got me in a bear hug? GREAT! I cast Flame Strike on it!"
I also have this problem at the moment. I like my current environment and quests but I can't decide about faction quests. Or how to devide quests between mainquest, sidequests and faction quests.
Possible versions:
- No factions
- 2 factions, players can decide to join one
- 2 factions, players must join one faction to complete main quest
- 4 factions, players can join one faction and fight against other 3.
- 2-4 factions but factions do not affect main quest
I would keep the factions tangential to the main quest (optional) but you can always decide that their interactions with a faction affect the main quest.
For instance
The players are questing to find four Elder Elemental Gems. Perhaps the connections they make with a thieves guild leads them to clues to one gem. Or while fighting with the royal guard, they steal back a gem from a foreign power.
Or they just find them anyway.
Your players won’t know the difference, but you will.
Lot of good points on finding a way to combine the ideas in some way, which works if they're not mutually exclusive.
I think the key question is whether you've already received buy-in from your players on the first idea. If you have, it's probably best to stick with it. If you haven't, they won't know the difference, so by all means pursue the campaign of your dreams!
Frankly, this is a sign that you are in the right seat as the DM. Having more ideas than you can put to use is a great problem to have and every good DM I've ever known shares your misery. You get a random idea and start tinkering with it and suddenly you have a whole new campaign idea and it's exciting and new and fun and you start taking down notes and then suddenly.... your existing campaign that you worked so hard for and enjoyed so much feels... less than.
Which is another part of being a great DM: Seeing things through. Not every campaign will see itself through to it's end, BUT you should do all you can as a DM to get it to a natural, fun end. Vs letting new ideas pull you away.
So the advice of others is critical. You need to strike with this idea while the iron is hot - so set aside a little "future campaign workshop" time and enjoy it. While keeping the live game(s) moving. I've got more parked campaigns than I can ever run. I've been working on a 5e Birthright setting game for over two years and that's the easy one. There's another that came to mind while I was at the intersection of D Avenue and Ravine Road in 1989. I still haven't found the right party for it yet. I may never. But it's fun to dust off the idea and tinker as an outlet.
That's normal :)
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You're all ready to introduce and launch a new campaign. You have a setting you like, a campaign theme, the initial prep just about complete...
...and suddenly you have a different idea grab your attention. You don't stop loving the first idea, but the second one is SO COOL and maybe you should do that instead... but what about the first one that captured your imagination?
ARGH. Just venting here, I'm sure a bunch of you here have faced an identical dilemma!
I constantly have cool (to me) ideas. If they are close enough to my ongoing campaign canon, I'll work them in right away. Otherwise, I flesh them out and put them off to the side, looking either for opportunities to bring them into the story later, or else opportunities to use them as a side adventure for the days when not all of my party can make it to the gaming table.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
In this case, it's just entirely different campaign concepts. Gothic horror vs a return to Chult, for example.
I mean, you could put vampires and golems and lycanthropes in the jungle, but it is a different feel, you know?
I would stick with your first campaign. That way you can flesh out your new campaign idea on the side. That way you have more time to fully develop your new campaign and really make it feel the way you want it too. I ended up having 4 completely different long campaigns and 10 shorter campaigns/scenarios written down in a few of my notebook because of the same issue and I'm sure most DM's end up having the same problem. The best thing to do with those is not just instantly jump over to your new idea cause if you think it will be fun and cool, then you should invest the time and really make it feel the way you have it in your head.
Self Righteous Paladin: "That much power corrupts a man."
Random Bard: "Power is just a tool. How you use it doesn't change that fact. It just shows the purest form of your desires."
I second Tora's opinion... run your first campaign, and flesh out your second as you have time. Actually, I would encourage you to explicitly make time for that development. I can't count how many times I've said "I'll get to that later" and then later never happens. That won't do for campaign settings. Even if all you get completed are main story arc and the first three adventures for the second campaign, you will be ready when your first campaign finishes (unless your players would like a break).
Plus, you could construct some one-shot adventures in the new setting to run if the players want a break from the Gothic horror of the first campaign...
ChaoticGoodPaladin2 (because 1 is never enough)
Famous Last words #27: "Of course I trust the thief, he's in our party"
Famous Last Words #32: "The minotaur's got me in a bear hug? GREAT! I cast Flame Strike on it!"
I also have this problem at the moment. I like my current environment and quests but I can't decide about faction quests. Or how to devide quests between mainquest, sidequests and faction quests.
Possible versions:
- No factions
- 2 factions, players can decide to join one
- 2 factions, players must join one faction to complete main quest
- 4 factions, players can join one faction and fight against other 3.
- 2-4 factions but factions do not affect main quest
I would keep the factions tangential to the main quest (optional) but you can always decide that their interactions with a faction affect the main quest.
For instance
The players are questing to find four Elder Elemental Gems. Perhaps the connections they make with a thieves guild leads them to clues to one gem. Or while fighting with the royal guard, they steal back a gem from a foreign power.
Or they just find them anyway.
Your players won’t know the difference, but you will.
Lot of good points on finding a way to combine the ideas in some way, which works if they're not mutually exclusive.
I think the key question is whether you've already received buy-in from your players on the first idea. If you have, it's probably best to stick with it. If you haven't, they won't know the difference, so by all means pursue the campaign of your dreams!
Frankly, this is a sign that you are in the right seat as the DM. Having more ideas than you can put to use is a great problem to have and every good DM I've ever known shares your misery. You get a random idea and start tinkering with it and suddenly you have a whole new campaign idea and it's exciting and new and fun and you start taking down notes and then suddenly.... your existing campaign that you worked so hard for and enjoyed so much feels... less than.
Which is another part of being a great DM: Seeing things through. Not every campaign will see itself through to it's end, BUT you should do all you can as a DM to get it to a natural, fun end. Vs letting new ideas pull you away.
So the advice of others is critical. You need to strike with this idea while the iron is hot - so set aside a little "future campaign workshop" time and enjoy it. While keeping the live game(s) moving. I've got more parked campaigns than I can ever run. I've been working on a 5e Birthright setting game for over two years and that's the easy one. There's another that came to mind while I was at the intersection of D Avenue and Ravine Road in 1989. I still haven't found the right party for it yet. I may never. But it's fun to dust off the idea and tinker as an outlet.
That's normal :)