Dungeon Mastering recently published a good article about the art of the short campaign. As someone working on both the theory and design of a long campaign I was excited to read a fresh take on the topic of campaign length: it reminded me of my successes and failures running long campaigns, and of the limited success I enjoyed with a short campaign. I have a few ideas for how you can adapt a game designed for sprawling campaigns (i.e., any edition of D&D) to a smaller group, shorter session length or more limited campaign scope, and the article particularly reminded me of some ideas I have about running “serial” campaigns.

One thesis of Yax’s article is that, given scheduling restraints and the challenge of pulling off a long campaign, your game can go rules-lite. This is an excellent option, especially for experienced gamers who can easily shift gears between rules-lite systems by virtue of their general role-playing ability, but I also think that almost any system can be adapted to “short play” by virtue of campaign design. Here are a few considerations for a short campaign played using a system most often associated with long campaigns:Limit your scope

A rogue-centric campaign in Waterdeep that plays like a half-season of The Sopranos is limited in scope but rich in storytelling opportunities. You won’t have to worry about melding the long-term goals of the Lawful Good Deva Paladin with those of the Tiefling Warlock; the DM can lean on the City of Splendors as a manageable (yet detailed) backdrop; and a built-in affiliation amongst the player characters gives them common cause right out of the gate.

Manage expectations

Specifically, you and your players should raise the bar with regards to how they use time in-game. Players who come into a D&D game without knowing that it’s limited in scope might linger a bit longer at the store or run back-and-forth between different locations to make sure they didn’t miss a clue. In a long-term campaign it’s a good sign that the players are chewing the scenery, but in a short campaign the play is the thing, not the bit players. It’s a fine line to walk, though: don’t be the pushy player who tells everyone to “Get a move on, the DM is obviously pointing us towards this mountain.”

Encounters should count

This is a cousin of previous tip and is directed more towards DMs. Use smaller “set designs” (e.g., dungeons, temples, aristocratic villas) and run less encounters, but make every one of those encounters central to your story: you don’t need cultists on the first floor and a cult leader on the third floor, with two traps and a puzzle in between combats: you need a really good puzzle, perhaps a skill challenge and a meaningful battle with the cult leader. A flexible approach to monster morale can keep you from getting bogged down at the tail end of a combat: “These two kobolds were so impressed by your display of power that they’ve decided to flee the cavern. The seal on the altar suddenly begins to glow….” It sounds elementary because when we’re doing our best campaign design every encounter should be special, but adopting an aggressive “cut-to-the-chase” approach in your short campaign will keep your story on a slick track.

Crowdsource

It’s 2010: soliciting player input and collaborating during both the design and play stages of your campaign isn’t just an idea anymore, it’s an expectation. Intense collaboration away from the table—in terms of setting and plot—can help you make the most out of a short campaign. If each of your players writes 100 words about a major setting element and publishes the information to a wiki (try Obsidian Portal) then you can focus on the story at hand; you can benefit from their ideas in generating your adventures; and the other players will have more skin in the game. More skin in the game means more soul in the game, and in a short campaign you need every bit of soul you can get your hands on before the dice hit the table.

A rules-lite game system is optimal for running a short, memorable campaign, but these tips can help tighten things up if a) your group is short on time and stuck on one system or b) you want to tell small stories within the context of a larger game setting which your group already knows. With regards to the latter, expect to see a personal sub-manifesto for DMs who want to run what I call “serial campaigns.” Stay tuned…