Are the campaigns you run/play in single location or area campaigns?

lachimba · 01-06-2015, 06:27 AM

Are the campaigns (and for that matter adventures) that you run or play in more based in a single location that the PCs dont really leave or area campaigns where the PCs travel to/between new locations?

Looking back I would say that overwhelminly every campaign I've been involved in has been an area campaign. Even many of the adventures that I've played have been entirely about travel between locations.

This is pretty much across all game systems and genres from DF through to Call of Cthulu. One of the big exceptions is the megadungeon and I've never played in one of those.

Even where locations in the setting have been very interesting (say Sigil in planescape) the campaign was still dominated by the interest in going to all the other locations.

Recently I've been watching a lot of 'quality' boxed set type tv series and I wonder if that's changing my taste. Theres a lot of interesting stories to be told where the characters dont ever leave the one (largish) location.

Now that I look back I really want my next campaign to play/run to be a campaign set in one area whatever the rationale is.

Im thinking the main types of point campaigns are

The MegaDungeon

The Mystery/Horror campaign where the action travels only foward in time (or backwards for flashbacks and reveals)

The local guardians campaign (probably the one I'm least interested in)

Any others?

Nymdok · 01-06-2015, 07:00 AM

Well I think the problem is that for a sufficiently large or small area (and accompanying detail level) almost any campaign can be thought of as either really.

Consider your setting to be a Kingdom the size of the U.K. Theres plenty of adventuring to be done there. You can explore the land, go underground, Into the mountains (they have mountains there right?), down into the bogs/swamps, explore runis, mediate politics between towns etc etc etc. All without leaving that U.K. Sized kingdom. Most (if not all) of the Aurthurian legends are set in and around that size of an area. Even if the land is FULLY EXPLORED, it evolves over time, bad guys come in, bad guys get thwarted, Crises arise and get resolved, Natural Disasters happen and the long rebuilding happens...

Consider instead, that the setting is grown to a multiplicity of kingdoms covering about the size of Europe, or maybe one Mega kingdom that is the size of Europe. The adventure options dont really change much, but the scope and scale do. Still all the same stuff, but instead of dealing with the towns and cities, you're much more likely to be dealing with the interplay of kingdoms.

Consider now the whole of a planet? Multiple Planets? Solar systems! ALL OF SPACE TIME. The scale changes, but the adventures are similar, its all in how you look at it.

Towards the other end of the spectrum, consider an area the size of a large city. They really are similar adventure options. Consider all the adventures to be had in Ankh-Morpork, Renisance Florence, Victorian London, Industrial Revolution New York, Prohibition Chicago, or another large city?

Just one Building? Can you have a series of adventures inside of just one building? Warehouse 13 did its best on several occasions. One room?

Just try to keep a couple of things in mind. If you expand the setting, you will either loose resolution or you will never get that area explored. This is the much decried 'X planet has N property with Z people' formula that get used so frequently in Science Fiction. Vulcan in the Star Trek universe may be a diverse expansive place rich with flora and fauna and sub races of Vulcans that we have never seen even with all the Books, Movies, Cartoons, and TV series we've had. We never see it. Instead we say Vulcan is a Hot Rocky world with Logical People. Kronos is a Hot Rocky world with warrior like people. Hoth is a desolate icy world with no sophisticated life. Tatooine is a desert world with moisture farmers and little law

Nymdok

thorr-kan · 01-06-2015, 09:30 AM

My 2ED Al-Qadim campaign is a mixture of both. They're based out of the city of Muluk, and a large percentage of their adventures take place there. But they also pursue adventure throughout Zakhara.

This has less to do with campaign preferences and more with what's available for resources. I own the entire AQ run, and the published box sets can easily be used in a campaign stretching from level 1 to level 20 without much orignal development. We've all got jobs and kids and no *TIME*.

That being said, I'm getting a real hankering to run an all-rogues campaign limited to one AQ city.

johndallman · 01-06-2015, 09:40 AM

Of the campaigns I run, one is set in the police force for a large city, and is thus naturally limited to that city and its immediate surroundings. However, the last adventure involved someone's prejudices resulting from a war two generations ago and in a neighbouring country.

My other campaign is set in the Infinite Worlds: most of it has been set in various versions of Great Britain and Italy, with diversions to France and South Africa. The Levant seems to be next.

Of the games I'm playing, one is world-hopping D&D without much long-distance travel within worlds, and two GURPS campaigns that travel all over their respective versions of Earth.

whswhs · 01-06-2015, 05:10 PM

I don't actually split the categories up quite that way. My take on it was in GURPS Fantasy: there are campaigns that focus on a single location, campaigns that move along a path, campaigns that expand into an area, and "base and mission" campaigns that go to discrete locations in a larger world, starting from a central point. I've run a number of campaigns that were confined to a relatively small set, but certainly not all and probably not the majority.

Agemegos · 01-06-2015, 05:33 PM

It does vary somewhat, and it depends to some extent on whether you accept that in an SF campaign an entire planet is a single location.

Sometimes I run campaigns in which the PCs are a firm of private eyes based in some particular city and who seldom go outside it, or are retainers of a particular lord and seldom adventure outside his domains unless to go to an international sporting meet. Other times I run campaigns in which the PCs are pulp academics based in a particular university town or secret operators based in a particular capital city but who go out on (or flash back to) expeditions or missions in exotic locales. Other times I run campaigns in which the PCs are Imperial officers who get stationed in one colony for long enough for me to run out of adventures based on discovering its peculiarities, and then get re-deplored somewhere even more bizarre. Sometimes I run campaigns in which the PCs are WWI soldiers or Victorian or 1920s pulp explorers transported to another world such as Lowellian Mars, swampy Venus, or Faerie: exploring and seeking a home and perhaps never to return. And sometimes I run campaigns in which the PCs live on an interstellar spaceship and visit a new planet every week.

Crzyraccoon · 01-06-2015, 05:36 PM

Most campaigns I've played where open world/space, but I plan to make a inFAMOUS inspired campaign that may take place in a huge and detailed city.

lachimba · 01-07-2015, 01:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nymdok

Well I think the problem is that for a sufficiently large or small area (and accompanying detail level) almost any campaign can be thought of as either really.

The difference is do you repeatedly visit the same locations? So that time and campaign events on the single location are more influentual to the campaign than a completely different location.

A mega dungeon is pretty much the most classic single point campaign you can get, even if there is a base and village over the hill,or the mega dungeon has 30 plus levels so that you can arguably target a different level every session. Being a mega dungeon rather than just 30 different single level dungeons is because often enough you will be passing through the same levels (even if this is only the path to the dungeons and finite number of entrances) and dealing with the changes (less loot, new enemies, destructible environment etc)

A base can be very important. In a base and mission campaign there is an element of both point and area. Where is majority of the action and plot? In the field or at home? Thats going to determine the scope.

If the campaign is set in the UK and you hit a diffefent city every week well its an area campaign. If your players love visiting London so much that you spend 20 sessions there and flesh out the changes, well the scope of the campaign is shifting.

DS9 is perhaps an example for a startrek campaign where they started with a single point or mission concept then realised they needed to add a bit of area.

Discworld has books that are very different sometimes the adventure/campaign is a mission,sometimes its a point campaign.

Quote:

Originally Posted by whswhs

I don't actually split the categories up quite that way. My take on it was in GURPS Fantasy: there are campaigns that focus on a single location, campaigns that move along a path, campaigns that expand into an area, and "base and mission" campaigns that go to discrete locations in a larger world, starting from a central point. I've run a number of campaigns that were confined to a relatively small set, but certainly not all and probably not the majority.

Yes, I remember that. I'd have to reread the session logs, but I feel that your THS Mysteries campaign was more a single point.

I feel that historically Ive been really influenced by the types of stories, movies and adventures that were available.

LOTR and The Hobbit were about the path. Call of Cthulu a new spot each session. Character and plot advancement is tied up with moving to the next location and NOT staying at home.

Id like to commit to a campaign where the events at the single point are the plot in the game.

whswhs · 01-07-2015, 07:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lachimba

Id like to commit to a campaign where the events at the single point are the plot in the game.

If you go to Jeff Wilson's page of my past campaign writeups (http://clueland.com/wstoddard/), nearly all the campaigns there are single point campaigns. I'd especially recommend Manse, I think, as an example of what can be done with the format.

sgtcallistan · 01-08-2015, 05:53 PM

I find the game tech level suggests what is a large area, so-

A game where the scope is many small kingdoms within a culture's lands is iron age;
a space game where it's easy to travel across a spiral arm means it's still only weeks to the border / rim in each.

A home base exists in both, in one it's one of two kingdoms, in space, it's any of several homeworlds, or their ship.

01-06-2015, 06:27 AM	#1
lachimba MIB Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Sydney	Are the campaigns you run/play in single location or area campaigns? Are the campaigns (and for that matter adventures) that you run or play in more based in a single location that the PCs dont really leave or area campaigns where the PCs travel to/between new locations? Looking back I would say that overwhelminly every campaign I've been involved in has been an area campaign. Even many of the adventures that I've played have been entirely about travel between locations. This is pretty much across all game systems and genres from DF through to Call of Cthulu. One of the big exceptions is the megadungeon and I've never played in one of those. Even where locations in the setting have been very interesting (say Sigil in planescape) the campaign was still dominated by the interest in going to all the other locations. Recently I've been watching a lot of 'quality' boxed set type tv series and I wonder if that's changing my taste. Theres a lot of interesting stories to be told where the characters dont ever leave the one (largish) location. Now that I look back I really want my next campaign to play/run to be a campaign set in one area whatever the rationale is. Im thinking the main types of point campaigns are The MegaDungeon The Mystery/Horror campaign where the action travels only foward in time (or backwards for flashbacks and reveals) The local guardians campaign (probably the one I'm least interested in) Any others? Last edited by lachimba; 01-06-2015 at 06:30 AM.

01-06-2015, 07:00 AM	#2
Nymdok Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Houston	Re: Are the campaigns you run/play in single location or area campaigns? Well I think the problem is that for a sufficiently large or small area (and accompanying detail level) almost any campaign can be thought of as either really. Consider your setting to be a Kingdom the size of the U.K. Theres plenty of adventuring to be done there. You can explore the land, go underground, Into the mountains (they have mountains there right?), down into the bogs/swamps, explore runis, mediate politics between towns etc etc etc. All without leaving that U.K. Sized kingdom. Most (if not all) of the Aurthurian legends are set in and around that size of an area. Even if the land is FULLY EXPLORED, it evolves over time, bad guys come in, bad guys get thwarted, Crises arise and get resolved, Natural Disasters happen and the long rebuilding happens... Consider instead, that the setting is grown to a multiplicity of kingdoms covering about the size of Europe, or maybe one Mega kingdom that is the size of Europe. The adventure options dont really change much, but the scope and scale do. Still all the same stuff, but instead of dealing with the towns and cities, you're much more likely to be dealing with the interplay of kingdoms. Consider now the whole of a planet? Multiple Planets? Solar systems! ALL OF SPACE TIME. The scale changes, but the adventures are similar, its all in how you look at it. Towards the other end of the spectrum, consider an area the size of a large city. They really are similar adventure options. Consider all the adventures to be had in Ankh-Morpork, Renisance Florence, Victorian London, Industrial Revolution New York, Prohibition Chicago, or another large city? Just one Building? Can you have a series of adventures inside of just one building? Warehouse 13 did its best on several occasions. One room? Just try to keep a couple of things in mind. If you expand the setting, you will either loose resolution or you will never get that area explored. This is the much decried 'X planet has N property with Z people' formula that get used so frequently in Science Fiction. Vulcan in the Star Trek universe may be a diverse expansive place rich with flora and fauna and sub races of Vulcans that we have never seen even with all the Books, Movies, Cartoons, and TV series we've had. We never see it. Instead we say Vulcan is a Hot Rocky world with Logical People. Kronos is a Hot Rocky world with warrior like people. Hoth is a desolate icy world with no sophisticated life. Tatooine is a desert world with moisture farmers and little law Nymdok

01-06-2015, 09:30 AM	#3
thorr-kan Join Date: Sep 2008	Re: Are the campaigns you run/play in single location or area campaigns? My 2ED Al-Qadim campaign is a mixture of both. They're based out of the city of Muluk, and a large percentage of their adventures take place there. But they also pursue adventure throughout Zakhara. This has less to do with campaign preferences and more with what's available for resources. I own the entire AQ run, and the published box sets can easily be used in a campaign stretching from level 1 to level 20 without much orignal development. We've all got jobs and kids and no TIME. That being said, I'm getting a real hankering to run an all-rogues campaign limited to one AQ city.

01-06-2015, 09:40 AM	#4
johndallman Night Watchman Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Cambridge, UK	Re: Are the campaigns you run/play in single location or area campaigns? Of the campaigns I run, one is set in the police force for a large city, and is thus naturally limited to that city and its immediate surroundings. However, the last adventure involved someone's prejudices resulting from a war two generations ago and in a neighbouring country. My other campaign is set in the Infinite Worlds: most of it has been set in various versions of Great Britain and Italy, with diversions to France and South Africa. The Levant seems to be next. Of the games I'm playing, one is world-hopping D&D without much long-distance travel within worlds, and two GURPS campaigns that travel all over their respective versions of Earth.

01-06-2015, 05:10 PM	#5
whswhs Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Lawrence, KS	Re: Are the campaigns you run/play in single location or area campaigns? I don't actually split the categories up quite that way. My take on it was in GURPS Fantasy: there are campaigns that focus on a single location, campaigns that move along a path, campaigns that expand into an area, and "base and mission" campaigns that go to discrete locations in a larger world, starting from a central point. I've run a number of campaigns that were confined to a relatively small set, but certainly not all and probably not the majority. __________________ Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more.

01-06-2015, 05:33 PM	#6
Agemegos Join Date: May 2005 Location: Oz	Re: Are the campaigns you run/play in single location or area campaigns? It does vary somewhat, and it depends to some extent on whether you accept that in an SF campaign an entire planet is a single location. Sometimes I run campaigns in which the PCs are a firm of private eyes based in some particular city and who seldom go outside it, or are retainers of a particular lord and seldom adventure outside his domains unless to go to an international sporting meet. Other times I run campaigns in which the PCs are pulp academics based in a particular university town or secret operators based in a particular capital city but who go out on (or flash back to) expeditions or missions in exotic locales. Other times I run campaigns in which the PCs are Imperial officers who get stationed in one colony for long enough for me to run out of adventures based on discovering its peculiarities, and then get re-deplored somewhere even more bizarre. Sometimes I run campaigns in which the PCs are WWI soldiers or Victorian or 1920s pulp explorers transported to another world such as Lowellian Mars, swampy Venus, or Faerie: exploring and seeking a home and perhaps never to return. And sometimes I run campaigns in which the PCs live on an interstellar spaceship and visit a new planet every week. __________________ Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat.

01-06-2015, 05:36 PM	#7
Crzyraccoon Join Date: Aug 2013	Re: Are the campaigns you run/play in single location or area campaigns? Most campaigns I've played where open world/space, but I plan to make a inFAMOUS inspired campaign that may take place in a huge and detailed city. __________________ I highly unrecommend choosing the following disadvantages; No Sense of Humor [-10]

01-08-2015, 05:53 PM	#10
sgtcallistan Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Chatham, Kent, England	Re: Are the campaigns you run/play in single location or area campaigns? I find the game tech level suggests what is a large area, so- A game where the scope is many small kingdoms within a culture's lands is iron age; a space game where it's easy to travel across a spiral arm means it's still only weeks to the border / rim in each. A home base exists in both, in one it's one of two kingdoms, in space, it's any of several homeworlds, or their ship.