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Mine was named the thieves Campaign. We had three fulltime player and one off and on, all of the players were part thief (2nd ed) and we played a traveling thieves guild. We roll played everything from casing houses, to mugging people, to murder. We crossed a well established guild in a town, and ended up in a mini war. The DM did a great job keeping the actions of the players in story building. it was a whole for each action we took we had to deal with the reaction of those around us, be it a vengful brother, of other thieves pissed we did a job first. It was a very well rounded game which needed a ton of planning and team work from the players.
Just wanted to know what kind of games others enjoyed
George
I DMed a Ravenloft game about 5 years ago that I had a lot of fun with. Very low combat, low magic, high detective work... or unrelenting panic "being chased" kinds of things. We hit all different styles of play and my players had all their talents aimed at. None of it was pre-fab either, so I could easily tailor things to fit my group's unique abilities.
It all ended with a Helm of Opposite alignment and a character who, for months, was Neutral Evil with no one knowing any better. He eventually failed enough Powers Checks to become an NPC, and ultimately destroyed his former allies.
Mine was a campaign that I ran, rather than played in. (I'm the primary DM in my group of friends...)
It originally began because I moved to a new city and didn't have any gamers around. I convinced my roommate and my girlfriend to make characters and began running two interlaced storyarcs that resulted in them meeting up at 3rd level.
The drama! The high adventure! The ... ooh. The roommate died.
And so it began... the campaign lasted about three years before grinding to a halt because of RL getting in the way. It was a solid core of good roleplayers who didn't shy away from mature subject matter and yet didn't dwell on it.
By the end of it, the (now ex-)girlfriend was 17th level Hordebreaker/Frenzied Berserker/Barbarian type from the Black Lion Uthgardt. The roommate had gone through four characters (he had the /worst/ luck) and was working a 16th level Rakshasa Rogue from Sigil. The other roommate was a 16th level Halfling Fighter/Duelist from Sembia. The final member of the party was a 12th level Drow Necromancer/Cleric of Jergal/True Necromancer.
While the setup may sound twinky, the players earned it. Murder! War! Heroics! Orc-bashing! It was a great game.
*sniff*
My friend Jim Rupel's Ravenloft campaign ('92 to '96)...absolutely the best, scariest, most role-playingiest, angst ridden, neurotic, homebrew fueled campaign I ever had the priviledge to play in. One of the party members played a serial killer undetected under our noses for an entire year...another one managed to keep her vampirism hidden for almost the same amount of time....masterful DMing at its best.
The FR githyanki incursion campaign arc I ran a couple years ago was very memorable. Lots of large-scale warfare, even an assault on Tunarath itself and the Palace of Whispers. That campaign continues, and will be four years old in 2006.
My first real 2E DL campaign that included home-brewed modules, the Eye Tyrant series, Dargaard Keep, a brief stay in Ravenloft, Strahd's castle, The Rod of Seven Parts, and Return to the Tomb of Horrors holds great memories for me and many friends.
My first 2E FR campaign will always be special. I'm still gaming with those guys seven years later. I'm very lucky.
What I enjoyed the most, by far, was the DL Classics modules I had the good fortune to run back in 1997 (sophomore year of college). There was Raistlin, Caramon, Tasselhoff, and a cast of new characters created by other players that made up the new Heroes of the Lance. Xak Tsaroth was great. Skullcap was an amazing treat. Verminaard was an awesome villain. We made it as far as finishing both Silvanesti and Icewall (I split the group, like in the novels) before we disbanded due to various life choices, etc.
I hope to one day DM straight through the DL Classics modules at some point.
I ran a homemade campaign that centered around the party rescuing a med sized city that was under the control of the corrupt rebel army ( the instigators of a civil war in my campaign)
The party had to join up with the local ressistance group but they were missing their leader, an elf bard/rouge that had been captured and was being held by chains on the peak of 300ft tall tower
They got the leader and were discussing stratagies to retake the city but the players were drawing blanks as how to actually win. The ressistance was hopelessly outnumbered and I had decided to not put any "hooks" in to give the players the "key" to victory. (in fact I had no idea how they were going to win, It was all improvised from there) I have never been more pleased with my group.
They ran out into the surrounding countryside and "loaned" everysingle cow,goat,ram' they could possibly find Once they gathered enough livestock, .....and torches..... they staged an elaborate plan including the Sorcerer/Mind bender pulling a stealth op at night into the commanding officers chambers and "suggesting" to him that he was an advisor sent by the general to help him prepare for an incomming threat, This gave him a huge bonus on his already big bluff check. The sor leads him out to the balcony where off in the distance a huge mass of torches moves toward the city. (After seeing a signal sent up by the sor members of the resistance had caused a stampede of cattle with lit torches tied to their horns) The sor told him it was a band of minotaur mercenaries toting seige weapons to level the city and blame the slaughter on the rebels. "A full on charge is the only way to stop them before their catapaults come into range." Another succesful suggestion spell had the captain leading 90% of his men out through the main gate to combat the "threat". The commanders suggestion wore off right as the city gates closed behind him and ressistance members swarmed the walls armed with flaming arrows, vats of burning oil, ect.
The PC's moped up all the major threats left in the city and succsedded in defending it. Leading to the most ceative solution to a problem in my DM'ing history
Mine was a solo game centering around the life of my human rogue, Shy, and her efforts to climb the ladder of thieves' guild success while running from the demons in her past and trying (unsuccessfully) not to fall in love with her charming guild boss.
Good times, good times.
-Amber S.
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We did a Spelljammer campaign looonnnggg ago. It was great. We had a Smalljammer for our ship. We met Brandobaris, cruised around the Rock of Bral, and fought everything from zombies and gith pirates, to scro and neogi. We quested to reignite the sun of one crystal sphere in order to overthrow a powerful vampire (who ened up getting banished to Ravenloft). In pursuit of that quest we went to a sphere that was home to lots of Fey that lived on a giant tree. I was a drow fighter (Drizzt was an inspiration back then) who wielded (if I remember correctly) a long sword and short sword combo. All in all, it was a great campaign.
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Mine was a Vampire: Dark Ages game me and a friend Storytelled for 5 years with a group of friends that was together for 10 years. Sadly I joined the Air Force before the game was finished and afterwards the group that was together for 10 years split up. My friends still have not forgiven me :-p, and they keep asking when I am quitting. Man, where they upset when I reenlisted. Well they are going to have to wait until 2010.
This is definitely going to show my age but the best has got to be the first... AD&D Against the Giants and then Into the Depths chasing the depraved (and new and unknown at that time) Drow. Took us all the way to the Abyss and Lolth. The DM was brilliant and the group was tight. We played together from Junior High all the way through University.
The next though has got to be the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil we're playing in now. Only about 8 months into it but the potential is huge.
I played in a friend’s home-made campaign which became known as “Khi’s Quest”. The background was that nine continents, and most of the major races were at war because of new religious beliefs, and the world was slowly destroying itself. The main story was centred around my own character, a wizard named Khi, and was about a world wide journey (on foot, on horseback, on boat), from point A to point Z with all the stops in between, to find an ancient artefact which would either bring back the ancient gods or destroy the new ones.
Needless to say, my friend is an excellent story writer and was very intricate when it came to detailing the differences between the races and continents, or what made them fight one another. It was very realistic in that perspective. Which made it one of the best story lines I’ve ever witnessed in a campaing.
Ultradan
On another note, I once Dmed a game in which the overall story-arc was about the rise and fall of a Lich-King and his undead legions slowly overtaking kingdom after kingdom. This story-arc lasted well over five years, and it took nearly the two first years to introduce this Lich-King. He was a royal advisor/wizard in one of the kingdoms at the beginning. His king, who was power hungry and always wanted more, told his reluctant advisor/wizard to make a pact with Orcus for him to give him an unstoppable army to vanquish his foes, a neiboring kingdom on another continent. Orcus agreed, but for a terrible price, ten million souls had to be sacrificed on the same day.
So the king ordered the bulk of his troops to spread out to supposedly seek out the enemy. He also sent out a double-agent to tell his enemies of the relatively unprotected state of the kingdom. The enemy hit the kingdom with everything they had, killing many civilians in the process, he then ordered his troops to come back and defend what was left of the kingdom. The casualties of men from both armies AND the casualties suffered by the peasants and commoners breached the ten million cap, and Orcus delivered on his deal.
The dead corpses were raised as undead and a ten million strong army was created. But there was a turn of events that the king had not anticipated. Since the advisor/wizard was the one who actually made the deal, it was he who had control of this new army. The advisor killed the former king and became undead himself, known now as the Lich King.
The characters in this campaign had SOME doing in this plot… they were part of this kingdom’s army at one point. They were even summoned by the advisor/wizard to help put a stop to this tragedy in motion. But they were obviously too late.
The main plot after this was to find a way to stop this undead army, and destroy the Lich-King, and even put a stop to Orcus who was actually planning to turn the Prime Material Plane into the 667th layer of the Abyss.
Ultradan
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Mine was named the thieves Campaign. We had three fulltime player and one off and on, all of the players were part thief (2nd ed) and we played a traveling thieves guild. We roll played everything from casing houses, to mugging people, to murder. We crossed a well established guild in a town, and ended up in a mini war. The DM did a great job keeping the actions of the players in story building. it was a whole for each action we took we had to deal with the reaction of those around us, be it a vengful brother, of other thieves pissed we did a job first. It was a very well rounded game which needed a ton of planning and team work from the players.
Just wanted to know what kind of games others enjoyed
George
I played in a similar campaign once. In fact, I was the on and off player. It was pretty cool. If I remember correctly, I was a psionicist/thief.
I hope to one day DM straight through the DL Classics modules at some point.
Got to say I'm suprised. I thought the series was terrible with a couple of good encounters and great maps. Very very linier. You must go see the elves...if you try and do anything but go and see the elves you are attacked by an infinite number of hobgoblins (in small groups of course) until such time as you go and see the elves. Once you see the elves you will convonce them to [insert whatever was done in teh novels here]. You may never deviate from this path - your thoughts on teh subject are not wanted and don't effect anything anyway.
Admittedly once you were in the dungeon crawl you could mostly do as you please but every module had a start and an end and you were going to start at the start and end at the end. You'd travel the width and breadth of Ansalon - but this was a railroad shooter...your route around Ansalon has already been decided...don't bother trying to fight it...and infinite number of hobgoblins will keep you in line.
Yeah, but even linear railroad D&D modules are still more fun than railroad linear computer games....plus the linear plotline of the DL adventures can always be softened by a DM who's really motivated to run them.
I hope to one day DM straight through the DL Classics modules at some point.
Got to say I'm suprised. I thought the series was terrible with a couple of good encounters and great maps. Very very linier. You must go see the elves...if you try and do anything but go and see the elves you are attacked by an infinite number of hobgoblins (in small groups of course) until such time as you go and see the elves. Once you see the elves you will convonce them to [insert whatever was done in teh novels here]. You may never deviate from this path - your thoughts on teh subject are not wanted and don't effect anything anyway.
Admittedly once you were in the dungeon crawl you could mostly do as you please but every module had a start and an end and you were going to start at the start and end at the end. You'd travel the width and breadth of Ansalon - but this was a railroad shooter...your route around Ansalon has already been decided...don't bother trying to fight it...and infinite number of hobgoblins will keep you in line.
lol... I do remember that. You make some good points. They're classic to me, so maybe that's why I'd like to go on that ride again... and be able to do it right (or perhaps better) and actually finish it.
The one dilemma is that my current group has been weaned on FR for seven years. The transition might be difficult. It would be interesting converting those modules into FR somehow.
lol... I do remember that. You make some good points. They're classic to me, so maybe that's why I'd like to go on that ride again... and be able to do it right (or perhaps better) and actually finish it.The one dilemma is that my current group has been weaned on FR for seven years. The transition might be difficult. It would be interesting converting those modules into FR somehow.
Actually my current campaign came out of this line of thought. I'd played in the first couple of DL modules and did feel as if I was in a bit of a strait jacket. The campaign fell apart when the DM moved to the other side of Canada. At that point I picked up all the DL modules and read through them.
About 7 years ago I sat down and started trying to do this 'right' but I really think the whole thing is a pretty brutal straight jacket. I think its possible, maybe, to escape the straight jacket but its going to take a lot of work. What I eventually decided to do, in an attempt to get the epic feel, without putting a straight jacket on my players, was to design a whole campaign around the concepts of a great war between good and evil and then do a basic plot line of of what the players can do and how that effects the wider war.
Basically speaking this boils down to a system, in my case one done with random dice rolling. Every week of game time I roll dice (lots of them in my case) and this shows what happens as the evil tide advances. Villages are overrun or not based on the dice. When everything is said and done the players are basically playing a campaign with a time limit.
Essentially everything gets broken down into three things you have to take into consideration.
How does the armies of evil behave (work out a system or maybe a straight time line) and how does that impact the characters. Does it mean that they can or cannot take certian classes or races and what does it do to their pocket books etc. So in my campaign players could take a couple of flavours of halfling - one of which started with big bonus gold as they were the breadbasket of the Empire. When the Halfling cities where overrun I informed the players that this flavour of halfling was no longer available - they could take one that was a refugee but he would not be rich. Furthermore you have to decide if their is some kind of an end point - is their a point after which Evil will have won and the forces of good are vanquiched? In may campaign world if all three of the major metroplis in this part of teh world fall then good is defeated. Thats what makes it a time limit type campaign. Of course evil is going to take several years to pull that off so the players have some time to work with.
Next you need to decide how the PCs are to defeat this ultimate evil force. Essentially who or what is behind the evil and how are they controling the hordes. Pretty much this is the real plot line of the adventure - the war itself is more like the background setting.
Once you know how the evil forces are organized, what their goals are, how they are getting their troops etc. what they did to in the past to get to the point where they can make a bid to conquer the world you pretty much have the basis for a wide number of adventures.
Part three is work on the adventures and understand what they mean in terms of playing out. A big part of this is undertanding the forces of good. Who are the major players and societies and what are they doing in response to this rising tide of evil. Its a good idea to have good not start off acting in concert and wirking to their best advantage - because your players adventures can then change that.
Essentially all the adventures my players can go one break down into one of three catagories. They can perform and adventure that gets them closer to the heart of evil on terms of undertanding it and identifying its weakness. Since my evil forces are made up of a diverse set of protaganists some more important and powerful then others IDing these protaganists and defeating them is a good thing. Furthermore I need to know what defeating a protaganist does for the campaign as a whole. Since I've pretty much got the players on a time limit I pretty much make knocking out a protaganist and its minions help by slowing down the advance of evil. If, for example, one shows the Lizardmen leaders proof that they are being used for patsies then they will turn on their dark overlords. Net effect from my perspective is that evil is significantly delayed and I don't roll for the bad guys to see what tehy conquer for X number of weeks. If the bad guys are not conquering anything then they can't take the three main cities and they can't win. So the players hve bought themselves some time. Another variation on this is the adventure that tells the players about the major enemies. They might traval to an ancient library and here learn the secret pas word to get to the demi-plane where the final evil overlord can be defeated. They might not be able to use this info immediatly but they ultimatly needed it to defeat the bad guys.
Second type of adventure resolves around getting something that helps the good guys. If there is an ancient artifact of Aphrodite that will help the good guys at the bottom of some ruin the players can go and get it. The net effect of this might be to slow the bad guys down for X weeks or maybe it means that now the bad guys have to get better rolls to overrun certian stringholds of good.
Third type of adventure is on where the PCs either get allies or some how motivate good to work more effectivly. Are the Gnomish war clans nutreal? Well there might be a way to convince them to help. There has to be an adventure around this. Maybe the Gnomes are bound by an oath of nutreality until some prophesy is fulfilled or their king is being held hostage or some such. Just make some adventures that resolve around bringing them into play and work out what that means to the evil horde mechanic. Maybe this just slows the bad guys down - or maybe the arrival of the gnomes pushes the evil forces back over a certian distance and evil then has to make more rolls to regain lost territory etc.
I've boxed the adventures a little tightly here - sometimes an adventure can cover multiple angles - so if the players free the slaves from the bad guys weapon works they not only gain allies (in the form of all these freed slaves) but hinder evil (as they no longer have people making their weapons).
Couple of final notes on this. You probably really have to make an important first adventure. The key to this first adventure is to give the players a lot of clues (dealing with all the other adventures you have set up). You want them to come out of that first adventure with a lot of possible options that they can explore that will move them forward in their ultimate quest (and destiny really) of saving the world.
The other thing is that this whole set up involves a lot of adventures many of which the players might not actually perform. The lizard men don't have to be shown that they where tricked for the players to win. If that adventure never gets played out but the players do find the wand of uber bad guy destroying and figure out how to get at him they still win. I'd not bother actually making all these adventures. Just make their outline and know what happens if the players succeed in following this adventure up. Then only start working (frantically) on this adventure if the players indicate that this will be the way they are going to go in the next few sessions.
I guess I could have written a much shorter post if I simply said that whats really needed to do this is a mechanic or time line that sets out how the evil forces will behave and what all the options are for the players to influence that mechanic or time line.
Sorry about spelling errors and some lousy grammer in the above post - apparently I had exactly one hour in which to edit it and most of that hour was spent thinking and writing it - I was not allowed to edit it almost immediatly after it was posted.
My favorite was the first that I DMed. I knew almost nothing, having never been a player before that, and we misread rules at an amazing rate and didn't catch the errors for months. The world was under-developed (from my view), it was haphazard, but it was fun, probably because we'd never done anything like it before. Everything was new and exciting. I hope to try and top it (though I somewhat don't expect it) with my new attempt at AoW that should be starting up sometime this month.