How do I leave one shot hell?I've been running one shots once a week. I enjoy it, I like trying systems and modules. There's a ton of stuff I wanted to try running, there's still a lot more. But now I don't know how to run a proper campaign.My main issues is how to judge a good way to keep things interesting in the long run. I don't think I can make each session important while also saving stuff for the long run, but when I try to stretch it and just enjoy whatever happens in the session people end up getting bored and abandoning. When I do find players that seem to get into it I burn out super fast, I start dreading the sessions and not wanting to go on. And I'm sure it reflects in the quality of the games.Is there like a training regime I could do? Or a really good modules that will make everyting click in my head?I'm willing to lower myself to the level of watching a youtuber, but if you're gonna sugest that make it worth it.
When in doubt, have a man burst in the door with a gun in his hand.
>>96803217Just run a game.
>>96803217If you enjoy running one-shots and they have less problems with player engagement and burnouts, why do you call it "hell"?
>>96803217Make your campaign a series of discrete one shots. Let's say the players have any ultimate goal to find their enemy. First session, they have to assault a location where ones of the enemies lieutenants is holed up. He gives the players information on how to draw their enemy out by sabotaging one of his plans, the next session. That leads into the next thing, so on and so forth.It sounds like you're worrying about jumping right from running one shots to running something hyper complicated. Don't do that. Keep it simple.I have the opposite problem, I make everything immediately too complicated for my own good. I need to focus more on running one shots.
>>96803217Give an example of your one-shot and system you were running it in. Then I can take it apart and help you.....Unless you're lying and this is another bait thread
>>96803217You don't save anything. That's the whole trick. Put all your best ideas all into whatever you're doing right now. Trust that your brain will see that it's empty and will go to work cooking up new stuff for you. It might take a sleep or two, but this works shockingly well if you've never done it.
Theory:Arbiter of worlds by Alexander MacrisThe living campaign by John N mcgowanSystem:Adventurer Conqueror king system 2e, rules as written, no exceptions.Pre-made sandbox:"Capital of the Borderlands" (ACKS)+Lairs & EncountersYou can run an infinite number of sessions, the game will naturally progress on its own.
>>96806497I completely forgot Youtube: GFC'S DND "How to Hexcrawl (Dungeons & Dragons, OSR)"and his other videos.Getting that binder setup has been so good for my game.
>>96806497Terrible advice. ACKS is fucking boring and if his players aren't providing their own fun nothing OSR/NSR will work either. >>96803434Good advice. Treat it like Mission Impossible or James Bond: one shots but with points of connection and referential call backs. When generating a new adventure, take each major element and give it a 1-2 on a D6 of being something old rather than a new thing. So if you need a smuggler, 1/3 of the time he's a smuggler they used before or from an organisation they've previously seen or witnessed the events of a past mission or something. Or just eyeball it but I like to surprise myself.
>>96803314I don't like when I try to do something different and fail, it's like realizing you're trapped. There's clearly something/s I'm doing wrong and I'd like to improve.>>96803434I tried chaining oneshots when I was running MoSh. It kinda worked in the sense that players started forming relationships, they had to deal with the consequences of their actions and they had some clues about the bigger picture. But I could never implement the ideas I had for long play things, I wanted
>>96806611He's clearly just joking.>>96806497>rules as written, no exceptions.lol, that's how you end up with the worst combat, the worst everything really. Even the the actual chuds who play ACKS have to fix its awful RAW combat rules.
>>96806628>But I could never implement the ideas I had for long play things, I wantedWhat kind of ideas where you having trouble implementing?>>96806611This is good. The Alexandrian would say that any time you can reuse a prior element you probably should. An even better way would be to leave it up to the players. So, you introduce a smuggler in session 3, and in session 5 they need someone to run a blockade, hopefully one of the players will go "hey, what about that smuggler we met a few sessions ago!"
>>96806655I originally tried that, but found my players pointed out how small the world was. What are the odds that so many thugs used to work for ODIN, etc. I would also like to know about the ideas from >>96806628
>>96806655sorry had something to do and forgot to finish the post >>96806628 (cont)I wanted to do a Metamorphosis Alpha type scenario in reverse. Have an abandoned generational ship currently being repurposed as cheap appartments, with different factions wanting to either strip it from resources or turn it into their ideal land and fuck off, but turns out it's full of people who devolved into medieval peassants.
>>96806746I keep getting distracted and posting before finishing.The issue there was that it was a sort of open/rotating table. The people who had hooks didn't share them and/or skipped enough to forget they had them, and in general I was too bussy prepping/making a one shot to also prompt them to interact with the widder world. The closest they got was renting appartments in that ship.
>>96806642You've never tried playing rules as written
>>96806722>>96806746>>96806776Like I said earlier, it sounds like you're trying to do too much at once and overcomplicating things. If youve only mostly run one shots why are you immediately trying to jump into a big concept, open table game?
>>96806844it seemed like the best way to turn a chain of one shots into a campaign.I had bad luck when trying to get long term groups so something that could work with open tables lets me keep running stuff. I say bad luck because people flaked at the second session a couple times, but I'm also old enough that the people I've played with for a long time have kids and too much work and stuff that reasonably gets in the way from not only playing but any other activity.
>>96807015It sounds like it's less a problem of you being able to run a campaign and more a problem of your table being unsuited to anything long term.If you're going to run an open table, I think you need a very strong, basic concept, and you're going to have to do some kind of legwork to make sure the entire table gets the hooks that you want. Like, if you want to do your "explore a mega ship that's fallen into barbarity" idea, it should be just that. The player characters already have some kind of home base, they already that there characters are there to do a specific thing (explore a giant ship) and they already have one or two plot hooks. You need to start as late as possible, meaning that they already have the mission, they already have a reason to be there, they already have a place to stay. You don't start at the inn before they speak to the old man with the map to the dungeon, you start them at the front door to the dungeon, already having spoken to the old man.You also need some sort of mechanic to get them back their home base at the end of every session. There are osr systems that have a roll-to-return mechanic, though I am not personally connected to them.Basically, prepare the context, prepare a few adventure sites that they can go explore. If you want to add factions, don't go hog wild, add two or three that have a vested interest in exploring the sites. The Alexandrian also has a bunch of advice on running open tables, might be worth a read.
>>96803217>But now I don't know how to run a proper campaign.I feel you anonwhich system?could you run a hexcrawl/sandbox in it? that's what I didand so far it's working out great, you just focus on the next session and from time to time see some loose end you could tie in together with some different places/sessions to make coherent arcs [almost] on the flybut I started with a system very much tailored to running hexcrawl-sandboxes
>>96803217What one shots have you been running? There are a few different short-form campaign style games to ease into it but results will vary based on what you're already run and like, what your players are into, etc.
>>96803217I wish I had your problem, all my campaigns turn into epic multi year affairs sprawling across the world. I just want to run a short scenario with a definite end.
>>96803217It's actually simple. (BTW, none if this has to be player facing.) Draw a map, in the center put your main town, city, planet, or whatever. Throw down other things you think belong in your setting. Come up with inspiring names for these new locations and then do a quick note about who lives there and what they do. (this can be simple two or three words like Skull Tribe Human Sacrifice) Now look at your map and think about how these locations interact with each other. Now just give these groups leaders and do a quick note on what they are like.You now have the bones of your campaign. Run a series of one shots in this campaign with full context of how each adventure affects the map.
>>96803217If you go to write a book, you can't do it in one session. Same goes for DMing an epic. It'll take time, sometimes it'll be hard, but you can do this, I believe in you.
Did OP died? This was actually a decent thread, I want to know if any of this helped.
>>96820805I'm around, people gave some good advice and I went as specific as I'm willing to go so I don't have much to reply.Someone said earlier that part of issue is players not wanting a big campaign. It happened to the one where I was a player this year, two of us kept trying to push for it but we kept losing people on the way. Unlike wanting to play now you have to keep wanting to play over and over for months and months. It can be a big ask.>>96811723that pic always makes me chuckleI was trying Hull Breach, it's a compilation of one shots and tools to mix them together, for MoSh. I might have missed the boat for the right timing to switch from the one shot adventures to the 2-3shots tho.
>>96820836No real experience with Mothership but I'm under the impression its suited for short campaigns. If its still a thing your group likes and has had a few runs of you could try a module outside of the compilation. Gradient Descent looked interesting. There's a longer form seeming bit for it called Cloud Empress, more fantastical. Could carry on with the rules light indi theme and try a bit of Into the Odd or one of the nsr games with a single dungeon module generally sticking with that dungeon & town combination. It can stay focused on that module or can turn into a larger campaign if desired. Could do a short PBTA that's suited to a genre your group likes. They tend towards 5-10 sessions in my experience but there's a wack of them.
>>96803217no prep DMing.If you're playing a system that's too bloated for no preparation then there's nothing else you can do. You're always going to be beholden to your players.
