All DMs I know have begun their careers with simple games. The game begins with the adventuring party arriving the area where that night's adventure takes place. The scenario is played out for one or more nights, then the party divides up their treasure, tally up the experience points and are ready for the next adventure. Many people are happy to play this way, and for the DM it is the easiest and least time consuming method of play.
I had played D&D and then AD&D this way for almost eight years before I was in a position to allocate more time for preparation. It was then I discovered the Continuity Campaign. A campaign is a series of modules strung together, usually linked by a theme. It can be a simple campaign, with the party arriving somehow at the correct location of each linked adventure (by magical means or by the assumption that the party has conducted an "off screen" trek), much like the simple, stand alone game. In a continuity campaign journeys to adventuring sites are not taken as read, but can be exciting adventures in themselves. A continuity campaign puts more detail into the world around the party, and requires a great shift in attitude on behalf of the players. Unlike in a simple game or simple campaing, in a fully run continuity campaign the characters are not the centre of the universe. They interact with a living and breathing world, a world which acts independantly of the characters, and calls for an accounting of the characters' actions. The major link between each adventure for this type of campaign is the party and the world in which they live. Linked adventures such as hunting a major villian, quest for an artifact etc, are then a part of the continuity campaign, rather than the entire campaign. A continuity campaign can be as complex as the DM has time to allocate to its creation. There is no doubt the continuity campaign requires more time to prepare. This article aims to illustrate how such a campaign can be produced, and how it affects game play.
One of the first things that must be done for a continuity campaign, is decide which world the party is in. The first choice is whether to have them adventure in the DM's own world, or a pre-generated world. Making your own world can be extremely satisfying, but requires a large slab of your free time to generate and maintain. Pre-generated worlds, such as the Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun and Greyhawk for AD&D are mostly laid out for the DM, but still require time to read and understand, as well as the initial outlay in dollars.
To make things manageable the amount of detail in your own world should be small at first. Create the broad outline of a country, its basic geography, population type, government type, and capital city, but detail only one small town, its surroundings and major NPCs. It is also a good idea to detail problems faced by this community, bandits or a nearby hobgoblin tribe for example, possibly as reasons behind the party's initial adventures. This community will be the party's home base. To deal with aggressive and chaotic players of equal importance is the law enforcement capability of the community. Players must be shown from day one that there is an accounting for their actions. If they attack the local trader because they cannot get the price they want, the guilty player characters will pay for it. As the party wants to expand their horizons, the DM must create more of the world to accommodate them.
Similarly in a pre-generated world, begin in one of the areas which you want to be the party's home base, and buy the supplements for (or make up) the other regions as the party looks further afield. This need not be too expensive. For example, an entire continuity campaign could be run in one area of the Forgotten Realms, such as "The North", or the "Dalelands", or a number of others. If the party wants to expand into other areas of such an established world, they can either be created by the DM, or the other supplements can be bought by the DM alone or with a contribution from the players.
Once the world, or as much as the DM wants to use of it, is decided and established, the most important tool of the continuity campaign is the calender. Just as the real world turns on our perception of time, so too should a fantasy world. The calender can be based on the modern day gregorian (like the Forgotten Realms calender), use the more difficult Jewish or Muslim calender, or can be completely different. A year in the DM's world could have 200 days with twenty ten day weeks. A word of warning though, it is probably a good idea to keep it relatively simple, or the players will have trouble understanding it, and therefore the world will not seem as real to them.
On the calender the DM should list important natural events, like phases of the moon, and seasonal changes. Equally important are the human (using the term loosely) uses of the calender. This means such things as national and local festivals, holy days and other important anniversaries should be included. These events would be conducted by the inhabitants of the world, whether or not the party participates. Some of these special days will undoubtedly impact on the charactes. They may not be able to buy horses or supplies on a certain holy day for example.
To facilitate integration of PC's with the world it would be better for the DM to encourage the characters to participate in these anniversaries. As an illustration, in our old Forgotten Realms campaign every year a barbarian party member traveled to his homeland during the game month equivalent of September to attend a religious festival important to his culture. The rest of the party grumbled about his absensce, but they understood and put up with it. A paladin noble of our party made every effort to attend the annual jousting tournament held in his home city of Waterdeep during the midsummer festival. The rest of the party always tagged along to watch, and to participate in the other contests, such as wrestling and archery. For such events the potential exists for solo adventures, and more importantly for character development and role playing.
The weather is another good inclusion to make your world suit him/herself. Personally I use the system detailed in the weather appendix of the Wilderness Survival Guide, and plot it out at least a game month in advance. This system is reasonably realistic, but quite time consuming. A friend DM uses a simple table of his own devising using a d10, which he rolls as the party greets each morning. Having the party grumble as they try and sleep through a late night shower, or put off their planned expedition until the gale force winds abate, increases the ability of the players to suspend disbelief, making the world "real".
There are many other ways to use the calender to bring life to the characters' world. Astronomical data, such as the phases of the moon, may be important to cursed or lycanthropic characters, or as part of a story (the Great Conjunction approaches!). Seasons will be important to a ranger or beast rider with a hibernating bear companion. Ages of the characters can be marked with certainty (the character's birthday can be on the same day as that of the player). Weeks spent training takes on more importance using a calender, which shows valuable time slipping past, and the general importance of time in any adventure can be more critically felt, especially those adventures which use time as a major component of the plot.
Events are incidents which happen in the area, and may or may not have a direct or indirect effect on the party. Even if the party are affected, these events may not have anything to do with their adventures, or whatever activity with which the party is currently involved. For instance, a local event could be a thief tries to pickpocket a party member, a law enforcement official may interview the party, or a runaway horse and cart may threaten the party's safety. Major events have more chance of affecting the party, soldiers on the move during a war may cause the party to change their travel plans, the assassination of a government leader may close the city's gates, or a natural disaster can cause destruction, the steep rise of the price of all goods, and restriction of travel. Along with weather and festivals, events are a good way of showing the players that their world is not just a static backdrop.
Events tables can be yearly, monthly, daily or all three. The Oriental Adventures book (unfortunately no longer in print) provides a good start for annual and monthly events. This table could be modified for the DM's own campaign, and he or she could add a daily event table for more local events. It is a good rule of thumb to use such events to add to the campaign, working them into the party's current situation if possible. For example the above mentioned thief could be an agent of a recurring villian, or the prime foe, looking for something specific, or planting false evidence on a party member to set them up. If the DM cannot think of a way to integrate the events into the campaign, they should not significantly detract from the campaign, but is inserted just for nuisance value. An earthquake in an urban environment could result in a dramatic escalation of prices (food initially, and later building materials), a lack of clean water, an outbreak of disease (even plague), and/or a breakdown in law and order (characterised by widespread looting, for example). All these consequences would and should hinder the party on their quest in the affected town, but should not stop them. Consequences may follow the party in other towns ("Dont go near the Doombringers, they came from Swinetown where the plague started after the 'quake! They might be infected!").
Rumours are a very important way to impart information to the party throughout a campaign. Not all rumours need be true, and some should have truth mixed with untruth. Other rumours may have nothing to do with the party's current interests. If you adopt this method from the beginning, the players will more easily be able to get the best from the rumours. The DM should make it clear that it is up to the party to sort out what is true and relevant, and what is not. Rumours should be used to set background for events (the traveller informing the party about the earthquakes in a certain area), reflecting existing important events (the grumpy inkeeper complaining about all the violent mercenaries flooding into the city due to the coming war), impart cryptic information about a current foe (members of the Wizard's Guild pondering on Elwood's new nickname - "Elwood the Dozen"), as an introduction to NPC's (a mayor informing the party that the chief Lord of the area will be visiting the town soon), and many other situations.
In game mechanics, the method of delivery of the rumours is left to the DM. The DM could give one rumour every time "Rumour" comes up on their local daily event table, give the party one list of rumours heard in the area per calender month, or read out one rumour per day until all rumours have been heard.
Use the calender, weather tables, and events tables to bring life to your world. Your enjoyment and that of your players will be enhanced. In coming issues of the Role Player I intend to include the tables I use for annual events, which is a modified version of that found in the Oriental Adventures book, monthly events will be provided sometime after that, and lastly, daily events. Good luck!
Annual Events
Monthly Events
Daily Events