D&D General 40 Year D&D Campaign

Mannahnin said:

I've slept in a breastplate, though not a full suit of plate. It's not horrible if you've got some padding to help support your head. Definitely going to be problematic if you try to roll over or onto your side in your sleep, but if you're exhausted and sleeping like the dead, you mostly need to make sure your joints (especially your neck) are reasonably supported. It'll be a recipe for illness/fungal stuff if you sleep in your wargear/wear it continually for an extended period, but a night or two in a desperate situation can work.

Sleeping in a mail hauberk is worse, because the links weigh down on your chest when you lie back, and constrict your breathing. At least a breastplate is self-supporting.

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I would think plate would be self supporting as well. As opposed to, say, brigandine studded leather which was metal plates riveted between layers if leather. Not the greatest option, but a stiff neck isn't the same as exhausted because you can't sleep at all.

Azzy said:

Sure you can—I've run several campaigns in Greyhawk. However, after a year or so I'd want to play in a different setting or even a different game system to do something different and so I don't get burned out.

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My point here is that you do not need to move settings or game systems to run something entirely different.

Here are three campaigns that ran from level 1 to 17+ - back to back - in my same setting.

1.) As low levels PCs, the group found the entire nation they were in overrun by an invading force and were amongst refugees that traveled to a mostly ruined land to resettle. From levels 5 to 11 it was essentially a hexploration game, followed by a political intrigue game that took them to the Hells, my Sigil, and the city of Brass. Following that, they had to lay siege to a great portal in the center of the Hells and defend it for a prolonged period while rituals were performed. Then, retirement.

2.) The low level PCs found a magic manor that could travel the planes. The owner of the house hired them to help him locate and recover the pieces of the Rod of 7 Parts (aka the Rod of Law), and then use it to repel an incursion from the Far Realm. This series of adventures took the PCs to many different places on my primary world, the moon, the Ethereal the Feywild, the Shadowfell, my Elemental Plane, etc... In the end, the Pcs had to fight, negotiate, explore and trick their way into collecting information and pieces of the Rod - before they had to use it as part of a very Cthulian storyline.

3.) The PCs started the campaign by doing a service for an ancient ship captain. As a reward, they received his pinnace. They took to the high seas and became pirates, then pirate bunters, then smugglers. Interspersed were water based adventures, exploring islands and ruins, etc...
Then they discovered a Spelljammer Helm, and took the ship thrugh a portal to the Astral Seas where their adventuring took on a 3rd dimension. Eventually they ran afoul of the Githyanki and ran a storyline that I stole from the Firefly movie (with a few tweaks). The campaign ended with a high level TPK as the grup decided to make a stand to buy time to stop an enemy army from reaching innocents before they could be evacuated.

Outside of basic D&D rules being used, these were all very different. Even though we used the same core rules, the change of PCs in each game resulted in very different feels to the game for the players, and different things to which I had to respond as a DM.

I've run the same setting for 40 years (with evolution to it), and it is never tiring or 'same old same old' to me.

That being said, I also enjoy running a Gurps Wild West Game, or a short super hero campaign in a low mechanic system. However, I do not want to do these things because I am tired of my D&D setting - I want to do them because I think they're also fun, like board games and video games are also fun.

jgsugden said:

My point here is that you do not need to move settings or game systems to run something entirely different.

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I'm not buying what you're selling.

jgsugden said:

Here are three campaigns that ran from level 1 to 17+ - back to back - in my same setting.

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That's all good, but I'd still get bored.

Azzy said:

I'm not buying what you're selling.

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jgsugden said:

Outside of basic D&D rules being used, these were all very different. Even though we used the same core rules, the change of PCs in each game resulted in very different feels to the game for the players, and different things to which I had to respond as a DM.

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Did each of these campaigns have the same lineup of players (as in, real people rather than PCs)?

I find changing up the players a bit can really make a difference to the feel of a campaign or party even if all other elements remain the same.

This DM's style definitely doesn't look like one I'd enjoy, but that's ok... I assume his players do enjoy it, otherwise how has he been running his game for 40 years?

That said, it's kind of strange how many players he has. It sounds like the game also isn't on a regular schedule. A little fishy and I wonder a bit whether this game is fun for players in small doses, but still who cares if the players are having fun.

Urriak Uruk said:

This DM's style definitely doesn't look like one I'd enjoy, but that's ok... I assume his players do enjoy it, otherwise how has he been running his game for 40 years?

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I promise you this is not a guarantee. Plenty of old school DMs kept games going not by being good at running the game but by running the only game in town...
for 20 years I have pushed even realitivly new players to try to DM a bit so that no one is ever in that bind.

GMforPowergamers said:

I promise you this is not a guarantee. Plenty of old school DMs kept games going not by being good at running the game but by running the only game in town...
for 20 years I have pushed even realitivly new players to try to DM a bit so that no one is ever in that bind.

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I don't doubt you, but it's surprising to read... I remember DMing my first game, that lasted a few months before falling apart (for multiple reasons, but one was it was my first read D&D game so I was making mistakes and still learning). I remember playing in another person's game later, as I felt burnt out on DMing. That player experience (which was BAD) immediately made me start up my own game again, thinking "I may not be a good DM, but I'm better than THAT guy."

I'll add, London Ontario isn't really a small town anymore. It's a big college town with more than 400,000 people. There are definitely other games being run there (maybe not in this guy's circle of friends), and I'm sure the place has a few game stores. I'm almost wondering if the guy has such a huge backlog of players ready to jump in due to his huge slew of minis and terrain becoming iconic in London's gaming world.

I'll add, although this game is marketed as one continuous campaign... I don't think it truly is, at least in the way you'd first assume. Although much of the world is set in "alternate history Earth," apparently he replaced South America with Hyborea from Conan, and Middle-Earth is can be reached by the sea. Plus Greyhawk, and even Menzoberranzan (from Forgotten Realms) exist in this world too.

Anyway, there are probably many campaigns that are technically part of the same world but don't have much to connect them as well.

This is also... really weird. You essentially are forced to play your dead character's descendants, and if you don't you can't play. If you don't have descendants, you have to play another player's descendants if you want to keep playing.

I'm not someone who like to "bad wrong fun" anything, but this looks just so awful.