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Author Topic: Unexpected reuse of old campaigns  (Read 489 times)

Mishihari

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Unexpected reuse of old campaigns
« on: August 05, 2022, 03:32:51 AM »
So, story time.  I started DMing at about 10 years old in the early '80s and had a campaign that went on for a decade and a bit, with 6 regular players and twenty or so folks that gamed part-time.  When I was 14 I wrote up a campaign bible with nations, cultures, history, gods of the land, and so forth.  It was about 100 pages typewritten, in the days before word processing was prevalent, mind you, and it was really useful for planning purposes.  I made copies for the players, some of them read it, and it was a neat thing to have.  I regard it now with mixed feelings.  There are parts which were obviously written by a teen, which is embarrassing, but overall it’s a pretty durn good effort for a 14 year old.

So, fast forward a bit.  I gave one of my old gaming buddies a call last month to catch up, and it turns out that his teenage son is running a D&D game for his friends.  My friend showed his son the old campaign book a few years ago, and he liked it enough that he has been using it for his game world.  I’m just delighted that someone liked my world enough to bring it back to life.

Has anyone had a similar experience?

Visitor Q

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Re: Unexpected reuse of old campaigns
« Reply #1 on: August 05, 2022, 07:51:41 AM »
So, story time.  I started DMing at about 10 years old in the early '80s and had a campaign that went on for a decade and a bit, with 6 regular players and twenty or so folks that gamed part-time.  When I was 14 I wrote up a campaign bible with nations, cultures, history, gods of the land, and so forth.  It was about 100 pages typewritten, in the days before word processing was prevalent, mind you, and it was really useful for planning purposes.  I made copies for the players, some of them read it, and it was a neat thing to have.  I regard it now with mixed feelings.  There are parts which were obviously written by a teen, which is embarrassing, but overall it’s a pretty durn good effort for a 14 year old.

So, fast forward a bit.  I gave one of my old gaming buddies a call last month to catch up, and it turns out that his teenage son is running a D&D game for his friends.  My friend showed his son the old campaign book a few years ago, and he liked it enough that he has been using it for his game world.  I’m just delighted that someone liked my world enough to bring it back to life.

Has anyone had a similar experience?

I typed up and bound my notes for a Deathwatch adventure (simple plastic comb binding) though added a bit of artwork. A couple of years later one of my players had enjoyed the scenario so much he offered to buy the notes off me to run with a new group. I would have given it to him for free but did take the cash on the basis that I can say I have offically sold some rpg work  ;D

Steven Mitchell

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Re: Unexpected reuse of old campaigns
« Reply #2 on: August 05, 2022, 08:17:10 AM »
Not exactly.  I've got a third generation example with me in the middle. 

When I started, it was with an adventure written by someone specifically to show me the game from the player angle but also teach me how to GM.  He handed all his notes over after the adventure was done, then we went through it.  I kept it for years.  Then eventually, I used it with some slight modifications to jump start another player hankering to try the GM chair.  Guess my version didn't work quite as well, because the third generation didn't take as a GM.

estar

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Re: Unexpected reuse of old campaigns
« Reply #3 on: August 05, 2022, 10:50:37 AM »
Has anyone had a similar experience?
When I first started publishing my stuff as Bat in the Attic I was happy people found my Majestic Wilderlands stuff useful enough to pay money for and it turned into a decent number of sales. Nothing to set the world on fire with but enough to make feel that the extra polishing for sharing and publication was worth it. That was based on a setting I have been running for three decades (by 2010) and with multiple systems (AD&D, GURPS, Fantasy Hero, OD&D, etc.).

I had feedback from my blog and download numbers from the files I posted for free which was encouraging but you never know until you try. A lot of the folks that commented turned out to be a lot younger than me.