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Saturday, November 10, 2012

Rebooting a Campaign - With Benefits?

Rebooting may not be the right word. Let's say, ending one campaign and starting a new one, with a continuing core of old players and some new blood.

How do you reward those that have been there from the beginning without "shorting" those that are new to the group?

I was thinking same world, different area, move the timeline down - so either a political / family / historical connection or two or a passed down family heirloom for those that had played the first campaign.

I'm not totally sold on either, but I would want to reward those that have stuck with the group from the beginning.

This is all assuming that I do a reboot / restart / new start of the campaign. I might just pick up where it left off, but as that is getting further and further back in time as we playtest A&A (and we've missed 2 weeks to hangover / work on my end) I think it would be simpler and fairer to the now expanded group to start anew when we get back to playing a regular campaign.

How have you / would you handle this type of situation?




6 comments:

  1. Good question - I think for a new campaign, the family lineage approach sounds good, and a minor benefit for having a character that's a descendant (either minor magic item, extra money or status). It gives the old players a chance to incorporate some of the previous stories.

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  2. pendragon campaign of 3+ generations works well
    i also had old heroes appear as saints or ancestors
    on old item handed down to a new one is a nice touch
    accumulate family curses and relationships with supernatural
    big fun

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  3. Rewards? Say with diamonds, Erik.

    ReplyDelete
  4. My recommendation is, if you're using the same "same world, different area, move the timeline down" model, rather than designing one set benefit, pull an Animal House--give your returning players a quick freeze frame on their old player, and let them answer (within reason) "what happened to ___?" and give them a (minor) benefit based on that, or just let their answers color how the world has changed since the old campaign ended.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Include the actions and influence of the previous PCs into the background of this new campaign. This will give a nod to your old players that they've influence the story. Let your players know that. If the old players want to use that background, reward them with a contact link.

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  6. I have played in a campaign like this. Really, the best benefit we had was a safe base of operations, some place we could return to, rest, research and recover at.

    ReplyDelete

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