Quote from: two_fishes;524844Nah, great campaigns are all alike; every crappy campaign is crappy in its own way.

Tolstoy would have been a shit GM :-)

Consistency is a large part of what I appreciate in a solid campaign. And never losing sight of the players' importance, even over and against otherwise player-crushing worlds and world events.

Quote from: Windjammer;525309A campaign's kick off is a delicate thing, and certainly absolutely vital to have your players stick with the campaigns for at least a couple of sessions. However, what makes a campaign great has a lot more (perhaps: all) to do with what happens after the kick off, i.e. after the early sessions. To me the most important things here are:

1 - right amount of prep: neither too little (this tends to stall the flow of the game) nor too much (this tends to box in the players too much, not giving them enough freedom to interact with the campaign [world]). There's no recipe to hit that golden mean though.

2- responding to what's happening in the campaign once it's under way. Being adaptive to stuff that unfolds at the gametable, both during and inbetween sessions.

If (1) is a sort of rough framework condition for a campaign not falling apart, (2) is for me where a campaign really comes together and has me return as a player, or has players return to the campaigns I run.

All this is incredibly broad, but I strongly believe that things like theme, plot, conflict etc are entirely secondary to what makes a great campaign.

I normally agree with 90% of your posts, so it is unusual that I find myself in partial opposition.  
I'm a prep guy.  Part of what I enjoy about the hobby.  And since my silly campaign is 3 years younger than my wife (and she's in her third decade), I and my players enjoy the amont of background already in the setting, and I still prep like crazy for a new additional campaign in the setting.
I think it actually can make for a better game...as long as I am totally willing to let them go off into the sandbox and leave my prep in the dust.

Generally speaking, the more the players get involved in the world.

RPGPundit

Great campaigns come from ensuring you all play the same game around the table.

Focus and imagination- from everywhere.