Campaign Structure
Pathfinder Gamemastery Guide (Second Edition), page 36
Each adventure presents one contained story, but your campaign tells a more expansive one. Think of each adventure like an episode or arc and the campaign as a whole series. Though each adventure might tell a vastly different story, they should all tie into the themes and characters that stretch across the whole campaign.
A campaign interweaves multiple stories: the events of each adventure, the personal triumphs and failures of each PC, and the stories of NPCs who appear throughout. That means a campaign can become more than the sum of its parts. When you start out, you’ll likely have a core structure in mind for your campaign, but through play it can—and should—grow and evolve.
In this section
- Basic Structures When building your campaign, you can use these structures as a starting point.
- Linking Adventures In a campaign that includes multiple adventures, a smooth transition from one adventure to the next ties the story together.
- Player Goals Ask what you and the other players enjoy and would like to see in the game. You can use these ideas as touchstones to build off of. When you get into the campaign itself, the PCs’ goals come to the forefront.
- Changing the World As the group moves through the campaign, the events of their adventures and downtime should change the world around them.
- Recurring Villains Consider including villains who can appear multiple times over the course of several adventures. They don’t necessarily need to be masterminds.
- Rewards The Core Rulebook explains (on page 507) three types of concrete rewards covered by the rules: Hero Points, Experience Points, and treasure.
- Ending the Campaign A campaign might have a well-planned, emotionally resonant ending that executes perfectly, or the group might die in a ridiculous fashion at the worst time possible.