Campaign Help

[Cryndo]

It's been a few months since I've played any D&D and the bug bit me again to start a new game. I made plans to run Shackled City for some of my buddies only to find out they are going through it right now with another DM.

I need an idea for a campaign that is fun, readily available, and won't require a ton of tweaking to play. I like 3.5, PF, and 4E and my players each have different preferences, but they are all willing to play any of those systems.

I'd love a long campaign and one that will hopefully run me $50 or less. Willing to buy a used copy of a great campaign in a box.

Just FYI, I owned SCAP and Ptolus and would love to run a game like one of those, but Ptolus looks to be out of my price range and I'd rather play something the players don't already know.

Ideas?

 

[Jhaelen]

Ideas?

Sure! Did you notice the APs offered by ENWorld?
Personally, I feel 'War of the Burning Sky' is best AP I've seen so far since it offers lots of roleplaying opportunities and actual choices for the player, and IIRC its 50$ for the whole thing fitting your budget.
Have a look at the (free) Campaign Guide and the first adventure to help you decide if it might be for you.

Subscribing DDI for a single month will allow you to download their complete 4e AP, but reviews have been mixed.

You may also want to think about how likely it is that you will actually play the whole thing. Most campaigns fizzle out earlier. So one of the 'Deluxe adventures' may also be an option for you.

HERE is a thread showing how to create an AP consisting only of free adventures offered by WotC.

 

[kitsune9]

Try Zeitgeist, but if that's not your taste, pick up the Age of Worms AP. That was a lot of fun to run.

 

[Dordledum]

I really enjoyed DM-ing The Return to Castle Ravenloft 3.5 campaign.

As a side quest of a few sessions, I reccommend the 3.5 Tomb of Horrors remake for any campaign.

 

[OnlineDM]

I'm running War of the Burning Sky and really enjoying it, but I wouldn't say it fits your criteria since it does require tweaking. The older adventures use pre-Monster Manual 3 math (assuming we're talking about 4th Edition here), and you'll definitely want to tweak that. There are also several extraneous combat encounters in the earlier adventures that I'd recommend skipping.

ZEITGEIST, on the other hand, is good to go as written. I've only run the first adventure so far, but I'm loving it.

 

[Ranes]

Does it have to be an AP or a campaign in a box? You could design half a dozen NPCs, with a loose campaign idea for each one. There is no need for any two campaign or adventure seed ideas to be compatible. Just create an adventure around one of them, to kick off. Introduce some or all the other characters over the course of the first few sessions. Allow players to pick up hints of the adventure possibilities that lie with each and see which ones the players prefer. For NPCs, you could substitute geographies, rumours, histories, and so on.

The hook devices least favoured by the adventurers can be allowed to fade from memory, as you concentrate on developing the seed that gains the most traction, initially. If that vector starts to dry up or the players simply find themselves wanting a change of direction, you can re-introduce the one of the more popular NPCs/hooks from earlier, only this time you tweak your original idea, so that it tessellates with the adventure you and your group have arrived at. The players will think it was part of the campaign all along.

If the players were only given short-term goals to begin with and adventures are paced such that longer term goals only develop as ideas suggest themselves to you (possibly even as a result of your players' speculations and deliberations), you have the basis of a campaign that doesn't depend on players committing to an overarching, eighteen-level epic from the outset. Modules (even parts of APs) can be re-purposed if and when appropriate.

By suggesting this approach, I don't mean to presume that you haven't considered it. It simply didn't seem covered off in your original post, so I thought I'd throw it in. I believe that this kind of approach:

(a) doesn't necessarily involve more work than published APs (which you have to spend a lot of time digesting and preparing for your DMing style anyway), and

(b) has a lot to offer the DM, on the grounds that it's your creation and it's exciting to see it coming to life as you go, as opposed to knowing where it's all supposed to end in advance.

It's not easy but then neither is running an AP well. Whatever you decide, I hope you find the right campaign for you. Happy DMing.

 

[Quickleaf]

I'd love a long campaign and one that will hopefully run me $50 or less. Willing to buy a used copy of a great campaign in a box.

If you don't mind digital product, subscribing to ENWorld for $3/month gets you both War of the Burning Sky and Zeitgeist. For WotBS I suggest running 3.5e since that's what it was designed for. For Zeitgeist go with 4e since (most) of the adventures are designed with 4e. Seriously, if you're looking for value, two great campaigns for $36 paid over a year is about the best you'll find.

It does sound like you prefer more urban campaigns (at least that's how I think of SC and Ptolus). Green Ronin has some really interesting offerings there, though I think they're more adventure settings than campaigns. The only that springs to mind is Lynn Abbey's Thieves World (Green Ronin Online Store: Thieves' World Player's Manual).

 

[Cryndo]

Wow, thanks for all the help! There's a lot there to digest. To answer some questions, I don't have to run an AP, but it is my preferred option. Oh, and although I do enjoy a good urban themed adventure, I'm not tied to that theme - it's just that I at one time owned both SCAP and Ptolus and am enamored with both.

 

[DragonLancer]

Try Zeitgeist, but if that's not your taste, pick up the Age of Worms AP. That was a lot of fun to run.

I second using Age of Worms. AoW was probably the best published campaign I've ever run.