The Campaign: Danger And Opportunity Are Organic To Multi-Referee Campaigning

(Following from yesterday's post.)

A multi-Referee campaign, even though it is played by the rules exactly as written and with proper timekeeping, is bound to produce different experiences.

"How? Everyone's using the same machine in exactly the manner specified in the manual."

There are two things such objections miss:

1. The individual acting as Referee is a variable somehow not considered in such objections.
2. The manuals explicitly describe what the rules define as liminal spaces and why they exist.

Difference Brings Danger

The confluence of those two sets of variables by themselves provide plenty of variation in gameplay experiences without having to go outside the rules at all.

Different Referees have different approaches. Some love themselves some Weird Fiction, some want to go hard on Swords & Sorcery, some want to do (Not Very) Historical Fantasy, and that's just three common ones reported that Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition handles in its sleep.

Then there's variations of environment; what is commonplace in hot and humid seaside jungle regions will not be the case in cold and dry artic regions- especially high up a high or mountain, and neither will be the same as vast seas of grass that are open plains with moderate weather all around. Peoples, monsters, cultures, technologies, mythologies- all are going to be significantly different from region to region, even if they are part of a larger state.

Don't think so? I again point you to Rome, China, Persia, Russia, and the United States to show that this is in fact the case in real life- and thus moreso in fantasy.

At the table, what this means is that there's going to be variations in what is available to trade, play, and do as well as in how things get done. Places with poor iron deposits are not going to have every last minion running around in chain with sword and shield; they're going to use more plentiful materials generally, and reserve iron or steel for mission-critical applications or high-status users. (e.g. pre-Modern Japan)

You're also going to see flat-out substitutes employed depending on the confluence of Referee interest and regional environments (physical and political), such as using obsidian in favor of iron or steel for cutting tools and weapons (as we see in Aztec Mexico). You may think this matters, until your man ends up in a region where materials he needs to fix his gear, replace what is lost, or use for his magics does not exist and as a result he has to find workaround solutions until he is able to get those materials again.

And Opportunity

"That doesn't-"

Look, I have The Rock on speed-dial and the locker's right there.

I thought so.

As I was saying, these very real variables make a big difference in the experience of play. They also open up big opportunities. Just like in the real world, things that have novel or practical use far away from where it comes from can and do command premium prices.

If you think adventurers aren't willing to go engage in some arbitrage in goods and thus establish trade networks to fuel their greater ambitions you are (a) woefully ignorant of how the real things went down and (b) have no idea how to win at RPGs in general and D&D in particular. All that gold you need to spend to level up, pay for hirelings and Henchmen, do spell or item research, build structures, etc. has to come from somewhere and that isn't going to be just from monster lairs.

When the tourist realizes that they suck at D&D.

They Are The Essence Of Adventure

Entire campaigns of exploration, diplomacy, and settlement went on specifically to find new things to trade and thus get rich back home by finding something that would hit big and selling it dear to them. No, not just in the last few centuries, but time and again this is a pattern of behavior that ambitious peoples engage in when peace at home is better than war.

This is another way that campaignining can and does go down. There is no reason for why fantastic adventure gaming won't have the same things happen when the armies need to be put away for a while to rest, rearm, and reorganize- and, hopefully, avoid a lot of the criminality that incompetent discharging of veterans tends to produce.

Why avoid this? Nothing spurs people to play like finding out that there's mad fortunes to be had Over There, where fortunes mean Big XP gains and (for the skilled players) a hell of a lot more than just whatever coin and gems they haul back into town. Having multiple Referees each running their own regions means that you get dynamism between them, adding to the campaign play experience over time.

And that's before seriously weird stuff gets thrown into the mix, like giant magical robots or major figures who should not even exist being encountered.

Embrace the danger and opportunity. The rules as-written offer plenty of both, and the liminality allowed makes it impossible to avoid.