What Type of Campaign should you run and Misconceptions of Fantasy!

Welcome back to another post on the Enchanted Lore blog!

Today is a special just for our beloved Game Masters! Even if you aren’t one, it’ll be a fun and informative read.

Today’s discussion? What kind of campaign should you run? With a bonus discussion on a major misconception about the genre of fantasy!

As the GM, have you ever wondered what kind of campaign would be best to run? The answer may surprise you, but there’s no big secret. Just run what you want, haha!

While true, there’s also a bit more to it. As the GM for your campaign, you want to make sure to align with your players in the desired experiences for the campaign. How often will you be able to meet up? Do you want a serious tone to your adventure or a relaxed one? Let’s look at a few areas to think about.

Topic 1: one shot vs. long running campaign

Will you run a “Home brew” (making up your own story and adventure) or will you purchase a pre-written campaign module? A pre-written one will obviously be easier if this is your first time being a GM or if you don’t have a lot of time beforehand to get the campaign started.

What about how the frequency of your group getting together? A one-shot campaign is good for simple, introductory, and fun adventures – perfect for easy, low-stakes situations like once-a-month campaigning or one with beginners. On the other hand, there are long running campaigns which are best for complex storylines featuring more experienced players that can meet more often.

Topic 2: Know your setting and theme

The campaign’s setting is the world, the laws governing that world, and even the tone of the adventure. The theme is the message that is trying to be conveyed in the story (such as loyalty, courage, or even betrayal).

Familiar labels for settings include:

·        fantasy

·        high/low fantasy

·        dark fantasy

·        sword and sorcery (think, Conan the Barbarian)

When you’re deciding on the setting and theme for the campaign, make sure there isn’t cognitive dissonance between the desires of the players and your own desires for the game. For example, you don’t want to have spent all your effort building a dark and serious campaign while one of your players has spent all their time building a Beast Master who totes around his favorite pet shark in a wheelbarrow. Everyone needs to be on the same page!

Topic 3: a major misconception of fantasy

I wanted to bring attention to a big misconception of the fantasy genre that is held by some of the creative directors in the RP world.

Contrary to this statement, fantasy is

1.      a form of escapism

2.      a place of imagination, where the rules of our reality may not apply

3.      a place to explore different concepts and and worlds

My biggest problem with the above statement is that it demeans older works of art, considering them as not holding up to “today’s standards” and it undermines one of the core aspects of fantasy which is escapism.

Do you agree? Or do you think that fantasy should only be reflective of the actual world? Feel free to comment below or you can hop on our Discord channel ( https://discord.com/invite/g2NBTssuMh) for a deeper conversation.

Thanks for checking out our blog, and we’ll be back next week!