Thinking about managing the dismount makes running an episodic campaign far easier.
Other videos mentioned in this video:
You should run an episodic campaign
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Transcript:
00:00:00:06 - 00:00:22:02
Bennett Tomlin
I did a brief video recently about how much I love episodic campaigns in Dungeons and Dragons, and how they can help with scheduling issues. 1Lee asked me a really great question in the comment section in that video, where they said they would love to see another video about what to do if you can't reach a satisfying conclusion to the episodic adventure before the end of your game session.
00:00:22:04 - 00:00:44:13
Bennett Tomlin
Maybe it's an obvious answer, but what do you do to avoid having to end a session before the adventure is concluded? 1Lee I want you to know that I have thought about this question every single day since you have asked it, and I have devised a flowchart that I think can answer your question, which also probably gives away that I don't think it's obvious, you know, considering I had to make a whole ass flowchart.
00:00:44:15 - 00:00:46:17
Bennett Tomlin
The first question I think we should be asking
00:00:46:17 - 00:01:05:16
Bennett Tomlin
is the ending in doubt for this adventure? Sometimes you will not quite get to the end of an adventure, but it it'll still be clear that the party is going to be victorious. In these cases, it can be worth it to step away from the mechanics of the game and step a little more into the narrative.
00:01:05:18 - 00:01:37:05
Bennett Tomlin
Consider how your players would solve the remaining obstacles, and with your players consent, you can quickly describe how each of their characters would use their abilities to solve the remaining problems and finish the adventure without actually finishing it. You know, eventually your rogue will pick that luck. And even if there's a combat left, if you can trust your players and your players are good at this, you can even do a quick fake combat where you ask them each quickly what they would focus on doing after seeing whatever the enemy is.
00:01:37:07 - 00:01:43:19
Bennett Tomlin
Have the players marked down some resources, if appropriate, and describe how each of these things contribute to the ultimate victory.
00:01:43:19 - 00:01:59:22
Bennett Tomlin
Now this is not something you want to do often. The reason many people play the game is to play the game, and this is something much closer to a shared storytelling exercise than really playing the game. But it can still let you deliver the reveal of the episode while also staying on schedule,
00:01:59:22 - 00:02:05:02
Bennett Tomlin
Perhaps the ending is still in doubt, though, or your table doesn't like this type of technique.
00:02:05:04 - 00:02:31:08
Bennett Tomlin
The next question I would ask is can the players retreat? The five best mechanics where you get everything back on a long rest. Means my players love to try to retreat mid dungeon, get a long rest, retrace their steps and get back into it. This is not something they can always pull off, but when we get close to the end of a session and with scheduling issues potentially facing us down, I am far more likely to allow it.
00:02:31:10 - 00:02:55:19
Bennett Tomlin
Letting them retreat to camp means you have an opportunity for some characters to stay at camp. Head back to headquarters to investigate a clue. Reach out to a contact whatever and new characters to join the party to finish the dungeon. This works especially well if they are part of an organization where the leadership might be issuing new orders, even while they're still on a mission.
00:02:55:21 - 00:03:12:00
Bennett Tomlin
I tend to give my players at least one standing stone in the party, which reaches out to a lieutenant of the boss to help explain away some of these mechanics. Now you will be able to finish the adventure with a slightly different group of players who are still connected to the main campaign.
00:03:12:00 - 00:03:16:09
Bennett Tomlin
sometimes retreat is impossible. Which leads us to our next question.
00:03:16:11 - 00:03:20:00
Bennett Tomlin
Are you and your players okay with breaking continuity?
00:03:20:00 - 00:03:37:08
Bennett Tomlin
Again, this will depend on your table and how you view the game in the world. But at my table, especially when we were getting started, we were sometimes okay with breaking continuity in order to keep the adventure going. Of course, the cleric was always here. Why would they not be?
00:03:37:10 - 00:03:55:07
Bennett Tomlin
What? Rogue? We never had a rogue on this mission type of things. Where in between the adventures, you basically reset what you need to to make it make sense. As a DM, you can even kind of keep the missing player characters nearby in case you need or want to save things from a TPK.
00:03:55:07 - 00:04:04:02
Bennett Tomlin
If you and your players are okay with retconning and setting the narrative in that way, you can resume an adventure even with a different set of players.
00:04:04:04 - 00:04:24:18
Bennett Tomlin
But again, some players or DMs might not like breaking reality this casually. If you or your players are not okay with that type of shenanigans, there's still a couple options. Put a pin in that episode until you can get the group together again and ask yourself, are your players okay with creating new characters?
00:04:24:20 - 00:04:50:03
Bennett Tomlin
If they are, one of my favorite things to do is to have them roll up new characters lower level than they currently are, and have them play as recruits to the organization on their first mission. They're still connected to the same organization. You still get to reveal features of the world to the players. This adds new NPCs to your organization and potentially gives you allies or adversaries to play with as the campaign goes on.
00:04:50:05 - 00:05:18:11
Bennett Tomlin
Sure, you're basically running a one shot instead of advancing your main story, but because you're keeping it so connected and close, you're sort of advancing without advancing. However, if you or your players are not okay with this, then yeah, I'm sort of out of options. If none of these feel like a reasonable way to handle your story, then I think you're probably going to need to run a one shot or two until you're able to resolve those scheduling issues.
00:05:18:13 - 00:05:28:19
Bennett Tomlin
Hopefully, that helps answer your question when we linked the flowchart in the description, and I hope this helps some of you who might have had problems with episodic campaigns in the past.
