Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
Sign in- Marketplace
Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
Sign in
I am curious, as to how my DM colleagues handling transitioning from one campaign to another.
We are currently 2/3 of the way through Tyranny of Dragons so I am beginning to think about what to do when we're done with this adventure. During the campaign, my players have all switched character as least once. Some of the current characters are incredible well crafted and we have together generated an amazing amount of background lore on these characters.
Personally, I feel there is a certain amount of "danger" in reusing a character as the is a huge risk of being disappointed with the new reincarnation when one envitably compares with the previous incarnation. But I may of course be mistaken.
I don't want to ban my players from a reincarnating a character concept they have fun with, but I want to hear what other DMs might have of opinions and experience with rerolling a character and essentially reusing this character in another campaign?
In relation to this, I am considering several official adventures for a new campaign.
Once, we're done with ToD, the characters will likely be around level 17. Advancing beyond this level is ... difficult as there isn't a lot of official material, and I don't have the time or energy to make my own. So, once ToD is done, we'll start on something new.
I'd like to start a new campaign based on e.g. Baldur's Gate: Descend into Avernus, but I also want to do Curse of Strahd. It would also be fun to something entirely different and do Wild Beyond the Witchlight. Waterdeep: Dragon Heist is also in the runnings.
The problem is, that all of these excellent adventures all start at level 1, and my group thrives best with long-running campaigns and characters that can develop beyond level 8-10. So, I have been thinking about merging two or more of these adventures into one long-running campaign. For context, I should add, that we typically play once every two weeks, typically for a 5-6 hour session.
So, what to do? I am a bit conflicted on how I best approach this conundrum.
Well, one published campaign, Vecna, Eve of Ruin, goes 10-20, so you can drop that in on the end of a campaign to level 10.
I can respect that you don't have time to make your own content, and can acknowledge that going beyond level 17 is hard, but I, personally, find it very gratifying to make my own stuff. Just putting it out there that it can feel very good.
He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones. Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
"When are we gonna take a snack break?"
Oh, I completely agree, I just don't have that creative spark any more. :(
Greetings TalindraSilvertongue,
For your Players that are finishing ToD, if they are interested, they could head to The Tomb of Horrors next. It was originally made for level 20 characters long ago, but was updated to 5e in the Tales from the Yawning Portal anthology book. The adventure doesn't have a level, but says it is for 'higher level players'.
For your players' next campaign, if you decide to run Curse of Strahd, you could then flow into Vecna: Eve of Ruin, which goes from level 10, where CoS leaves off, and goes all the way to level 20.
You could also run it after Baldur's Gate: Decent into Avernus, but there would be a little bit of overlap as BG:DiA goes to level 13.
Just some suggestions...
Cheers!
Breathe, dragons; sing of the First World, forged out of chaos and painted with beauty.
Sing of Bahamut, the Platinum, molding the shape of the mountains and rivers;
Sing too of Chromatic Tiamat, painting all over the infinite canvas.
Partnered, they woke in the darkness; partnered, they labored in acts of creation.
Thank you for great suggestions. I will certain take them into consideration. There are just so many great stories to tell :D
Regarding my original question, what are your thoughts on rerolling a beloved character for a new campaign?
If the player is happy rerolling their level 17 character for a new level 1 campaign, Id say they know best what they like.
I tend to build completely different charcters from completely different classes each campaign. Going back over my recent characters ive played: Artificer, warlock, ranger, cleric, paladin. Next campaigns will be a wizard for one and a bard for another.
But if someone wants to do something like a spiderman in the spiderverse and every charavter is a reboot of the same thing, as long aas theyre happy, why not let them?
They might even have some fun where they take something from their level17 background and have their level 1 reboot reveal it was a lie and the truth is they were the killer all along! Or whatevs.
Are you sure they want to reuse the characters? I’ve always seen people look to trying something new, as there’s a steady stream of new character options. I find most people have a lot of concepts they want to try.
I know you said you’re looking to stick with published campaigns and aren’t into homebrewing something, but how about just a little hybrid homebrew? As in, run the published campaign, but insert the old characters as powerful NPCs in the world. Just little references to them and what they did, and if you’re up for it changes to the world state. Like you run Dragon Heist, but have people mentioning those folks who saved the world from the dragon cult. And keep any other lore you’ve developed with this group to carry it over into the next.
Sometimes that can take the sting out of missing an old character as the players can see them living on.
Ah, thats a good idea too.
I have seen players level up through a campaign, and in the next campaign, the old character has retired from adventuring and the player has them work at their new character's bastion. Lets them reminisce once in a while.
I am not sure, but I do have a feeling that a few of my players may want to reuse their current character. And, let me say right away, I am not opposed to it, if that is what they want, then they can certainly do so. My personal experience is, though, that they may regret it, so I am just looking for other opinions on it :) I am almost certain though, that in any event they will not be reusing the character but rather the concept.
---
Regarding using the old PCs as NPCs is actually exactly what I intend to some extend.
Whatever official adventures we're going to run next, we're going to run in the same world, not just the same setting, but the same world. Just a few years or 5, maybe even 10 years later.
In Tyranny of Dragons one of the chapters take place in castle Naeytar in the Mere of Dead Men. Once the group had cleared the castle they took it over. After nicking a couple of dragon treasures including a fairly large one from a flying Cloud Giant castle, they were well enough off to start restoring the ruin.
So, my long-term idea is that that group will eventually found some kind of adventurer's guild, where young adventurers can come for training and so on. So the oiginal characters will actually be there! Living, present legends. At least one may even found a, I dunno, a church or spiritual order of some kind.