Dungeon Master's Guide Chapter 5

 

Chapter 5 is all about Campaigns. As all DMs know, a campaign is a connected series of adventures; sometimes those connections are very tenuous, sometimes they are as serial as a modern TV mini-series. You can create your own, or use a pre-published campaign; we'll be looking at the first such published campaign for 3e later this month.

Some games don't run as campaigns; they're just a series of adventures that have no connection except the players themselves; they might not even use the same characters from game to game. But most people do play in campaigns, even if it's a short-term deal. Campaigns need to be maintained by the DM, and input from the players can be very helpful in this regard. To run a well-organized campaign, you need consistency, calendars and timekeeping, and a reactive environment. These factors all keep the campaign running smoothly. You also want to build on the past; NPCs might be recurring characters, the PCs might form relationships with townsfolk, unresolved plot threads from prior adventures can resurface...there's lots that can be happening to maintain a good campaign.

One of the issues that arises in campaigns is the power level of the characters. This can be because of their high levels, or an abundance of powerful magic that they have either discovered in their adventures or created in their downtime. Character wealth is a part of this; the book gives guidelines about how much wealth characters should have based on their level. I'm not sure I like this, since wealth isn't always measured in gold or magic items. What if the character wants to own a castle at a lower level? A 10th-level character is supposed to have no more than 49,000 gp, but a castle is going to cost more than that. It's something the DM will have to work out.

The book also notes that all published adventures going forward will use the 'wealth by level' guideline as a means of balancing adventures. So forget finding that super-awesome dragon's hoard in a 9th-level adventure; it just isn't going to be there unless the DM puts it there himself.

NPCs are always an important part of a campaign. After all, everyone the characters meet is an NPC. NPCs can be villains and enemies, or they can be allies and cohorts. Some NPCs are hirelings, people who will work for the PCs on a short-term basis or on a specific job. Regardless, the DM is responsible for making the NPC work in the game. Make the important characters memorable, not just cardboard cutouts or two-dimensional nobodies. Give them personalities and notable traits so as to help them stick out in the player's memories. That way, if they run into the NPC again, there's a familiarity that will help broaden the campaign's believability. The book, of course, includes a random table with 100 different traits that can help the DM characterize NPCs. Don't use it all the time, or it will get repetitive. But it's handy for idea-mining.

I've noticed that there is a lot of random rolling in this edition, nearly as much as there was in the 1st edition. This is a good thing, as it brings back that old-school feel. But there are times when it feels like the game is more mechanical than intuitive, too. It's something to consider.

As the campaign expands, the characters will find themselves in need of some different equipment, such as ships to get around, castles to build and defend, and siege engines to defend them with. I'll simply note that my concern about castle prices for low-level characters is completely justified, as a simple keep costs 150,000 gp, which is the expected wealth for a 14th-level character, and that's if all they do is hoard gold to build a keep. No equipment, no magic, nothing. Just money. I'm not liking that very much.

Anyway, the DMG does include this additional equipment, so it can be used to expand the campaign beyond the simple town/dungeon startup setting. Higher-level characters will find this useful, I think, and I really love the idea of a campaign set at sea with ships and pirates and strange islands to explore. I'll have to consider that later on. But for now, let's just leave it here at the end of another chapter of the DMG. Next up: World-Building. Yum.