Choosing the RPG for Your Next Campaign

What kind of campaign do we want to run? We may have many ideas for campaigns in our heads, making choosing the right one, and the RPG with which to run it, hard. Let’s create a process by which we can compare options and pare down to one great campaign.

Reviewing Our To-Do List

Last time we discussed how, as a campaign ends, we can keep a to-do list for our next campaign. These can be approaches we want to use again, concepts we want to improve upon, or ideas we never got to use and wish we had.

Reviewing this list is often telling. The ideas may align along an obvious concept, such as a plane-hopping heroic campaign with big surprises or a gritty campaign where the characters start small and slowly work to grow an organization to prominence. Or, maybe our ideas are all over the place, but we can see common elements such as a particular genre, an emphasis on exploration, or types of foes.

Our list hopefully fills us with lots of ideas, and perhaps points at some possibilities, but this is just one part of the equation.

RPGs and Settings

We may also have a list of RPGs we want to run, or settings within RPGs. I keep a document called “RPGs I want to Run,” containing an inexhaustible supply of campaigns I would like to run. I periodically revisit this list and try to order it, placing my favorites up top.

Sometimes, an RPG on the list is either one I want to try for the first time or one that I have tried a few times but never as a full campaign. I have played several one-shot Alien RPG sessions, but I’ve never run the RPG and the idea of a campaign lasting at least several sessions calls to me. I’ve never played Coriolis, but the idea of a deep sci-fi campaign calls to me. It’s been a while since I ran Deadlands, and I backed a Kickstarter with some cool campaigns. I have Invisible Sun on my shelf in that huge awesome box. Then there are playtest options, from Daggerheart to 13^th Age 2E.

Settings can be just as enticing. For all that I’ve run Dragonlance over the years, I still would like to run the recent 5E campaign with my own adjustments. Agents of the Empyre, by Ghostfire Gaming, melds 5E fantasy with the spy genre. I could run my own campaign, of course.

And then there is the call to run an old favorite, from a classic AD&D adventure series to Nights Black Agents to Star Wars SAGA. What to do?

Grouping and Comparing Our Options

When I take a look at the RPGs I want to run, I can find some groupings and simplify options. Sci-Fi, Western, Spy, Fantasy. I could potentially add Horror to the list, but I’m not a huge horror fan and even in a game of Aliens I would push the sci-fi aspect above the horror.

I also find it useful to list the key elements of campaigns and RPGs I am considering. Dragonlance is war, heroism, ancient history returning. I would lean into the heroes being the agents of that returning history. In a 13^th Age Campaign, I would lean heavily into factions and run a more open and improvisational campaign. Alien would be a short focused campaign, Coriolis a much longer campaign if I use the published adventure series. Deadlands would be heavy on Western tropes, which can be a ton of fun but may run out of steam (and that’s okay; I don’t mind wrapping up a campaign early).

Some RPGs or settings have options. We might be able to run a D&D campaign but start at 3^rd level instead of first. Nights Black Agents has four different modes of play to change up the feel, so being burned agents left (or hunted) by their organization is different than running in stakes mode (action-adventure monster hunting with agency support). We can also color campaigns through choices – Star Wars, but no Jedi or oops, all ewoks! Thinking through campaign options can really change that RPG’s appeal.

This analysis helps me resort my list of campaigns in order of preference. But… I’m not the only person at the table!

GM and Players – Who Chooses?

Should the GM choose what to run? Should the players have a say? I think both options are fine. First and foremost, we as GMs want to be super excited about our campaigns. My list of options contains only games I want to run, but as I analyze them some rank higher than others.

When I have a really clear top choice, I announce what I’m running and find players to fill that game. I don’t mind changing up which friends are in my campaigns from time to time, and I am totally okay with a player not wanting to play in a particular campaign.

If I have lots of possible campaigns I could run, then it can be great to send out a poll to potential players and ask them to rank their favorites. The more the players are interested in the campaign, the more I am likely to enjoy it as well.

Whatever we choose, in the end, I have to be happy with it or I will bring it to a close. Similarly, I will solicit feedback on the type of campaign as part of my session zero, but the options have to be ones that will excite me week after week to pour energy into the campaign.

Campaign Length

Even before I sketch out the exact campaign I want to run, I think through the possible length of the campaign. When I ran Tomb of Annihilation for D&D 5E, I planned to expand it a fair bit. As we were having so much fun, I expanded it greatly before I started to feel satisfied and ran the end. When I ran Acquisitions Incorporated for 5E, I ran it quickly so as to give my son and his friends a focused high-fun experience. Running Blade Runner now, I’m staying flexible, using the published content but breathing life into the scenes as needed. It will still be a short focused campaign.

A solid default choice with a published adventure is to stick close to the expected duration by shrinking or cutting sections we don’t love and expanding those we do. But we can modify length based on our overall interest in the RPG, setting, and campaign concept. If an RPG has a great campaign but isn’t my favorite system, I will shorten that campaign. If I am new to an RPG, I will probably shorten a campaign (I find that it’s better to have a short campaign when trying out an RPG and then later come back and run a second longer campaign building on what we learned). When in doubt, keep it short!

We have some ideas for our next campaign, including the RPG and type of campaign. What’s next? New RPGs intimidating? Let’s talk about that.