How to Design and Run a Map Campaign

[chord]

Can somebody explain to me how to design and run a map campaign?  The GHB didn't give much help for somebody who has never played in one before.  Thanks

[TheOtherJosh]

What kind of questions do you have now that you've read about the map campaign that is in the GHB?

(Take a look over page 87. That is the example of a map campaign that they talked about on page 86.)

[Kramer]

I've designed a couple of campaigns years ago for warhammer and this summer my first for age of Sigmar. 

Some of the mistakes I made so that you can learn from them:

- only go as complicated as your group allows. (My current campaign is quite simple but still the map rules interacted a bit too much with battles for the two new players. So we had to scale that down)

- think about or discuss the number of turns/time span of the campaign and if every player needs to be there every time. (My first campaign needed about ten rounds for a winner. That would have taken 2 years ? So we scaled it down)

-don't only think about bonuses for the winner but also make sure the underdog has a decent chance of winning. (Prevents a player gaining an upper hand and never being really challenged. We play 1500 on average and currently have bonuses like: raising the hero limit by one, next battle 150 points extra)

- if you play escalation in points start very small! (Is a bit of a personal preference but I noticed people becoming more attached to the starting general that way and creating more stories)

- don't reinvent the wheel! (There are hundreds of sources for campaigns, the old summer campaigns like lustria are awesome,  also a couple fanmade ones on this site, for example check out mine through here. You don't have to copy any of them but for the first time... adapt an existing one which structure wise fits and learn from that experience, do that two or three times and you'll be experienced enough to create your own kick ass campaign!!! )

[chord]

10 hours ago, TheOtherJosh said:

What kind of questions do you have now that you've read about the map campaign that is in the GHB?

(Take a look over page 87. That is the example of a map campaign that they talked about on page 86.)

I did, but that wasn't helpful to somebody who has never seen any other map campaign.

Something super basic would be a great help

1.  Design a map (Done)

2.  ?

3. How do we determine what we play, etc?

 

Thanks

 

[TheOtherJosh]

In the GHB example no player "starts" at any of the locations on the map. (Though you could do a "roll-off" starting a campaign, and let people choose their starting territory.)

 

Each of the map locations in the GHB gives a bonus in play to the controlling player. (So for this kind of game, figure out the bonuses ... I would consider using the bonuses provided in the example.)

 

Players then choose which locations they want to fight over. (To gain the benefit.) but at the same time, they need to acquire more territory to win the game through total number of points gathered.

 

The map has locations, based on the recommendations in the GHB, they indicate ~2 locations on the map per player for this kind of campaign.

 

Items to keep an eye out for are the players who can play lots vs players who can't when dealing with victories and gaining territories.

 

Are you going to start out with a small number of units and grow bigger?

 

Here are things to think about with your campaign:

 

1. Create Map

2. Rules for benefits when you "own" or control a territory.

3. What are the "win" Conditions to control the territory.

4. How do you manage the players who can come in and play all the time ... vs those who have more limited time? (I.E. how do you dole out points for the wins and is there a cap on points earned in each "round"?)

5. Make (or use the rules from the example) on who determines what location you're fighting over and the battleplan that will be used.

6. Determine how many victor points is required to be "the winner"

7. Are you running the game as an increase in forces in each cycle/round? If so, how do you determine the number of units/points or what units or points are allowed? (E.g. Everyone starts with a start collecting box. Next round you add a unit with either X or Y as a keyword (or off of the "warband list")

8. is this adventure going to be managed with Pitched Battle points? Or is this narrative/open? Or a combination?

9. What is the story behind the campaign? Why are your armies fighting? (We know why destruction is fighting ... [emoji6] ) is there a goal? (Which grand alliance is best, perhaps?)

10. Is there a benefit to having painted models? (I.E. tabletop quality or better painted models get a reroll vs non-painted?) (Is this an excuse to encourage all aspects of the hobby or just the gaming part?)

 

That's my immediate list of things you may want to consider as you craft up your own campaign. But[mention=2453]Kramer[/mention] is right, don't reinvent the wheel! (Though the link that was provided doesn't work for me...)

 

[HobbyHammer]

Easiest way to do it is to have everyone start in their region, stronghold. Then they all play games against someone in different region, if they win they expand by D3 (Say hex tiles for ease), if they lose they still gain 1. Campaign lasts for 6 rounds, winner at end person with most region.

Everything else like Times of War, Triumphs, Battleplans etc are all added on top depending on your group. 

CI have done many map campaigns over years, some online ones too. Check out http://www.theriseofempires.com for inspiration if you like. 

Or The thread in Event section Rise of Empires for a 2 day event style one. 

 

[Kramer]

1 hour ago, TheOtherJosh said:

But[mention=2453]Kramer[/mention] is right, don't reinvent the wheel! (Though the link that was provided doesn't work for me...)

Thats strange. Works for me. Here's the full link:

 

[chord]

Thanks for all the feedback.  When a player claims a region if another player wants to fight for that region it's only against the player in control of it?

[TheOtherJosh]

Thats strange. Works for me. Here's the full link:

 

 

Might be an issue with Tapatalk and how it handles web links back to the forum and files on the forum. [emoji20]

 

Interestingly enough it doesn't keep the URL in the quote ...

[Kramer]

5 hours ago, chord said:

Thanks for all the feedback.  When a player claims a region if another player wants to fight for that region it's only against the player in control of it?

Usually so but that's all up to personal preference. Often it is so. 

But give us the backstory and we'll try to helped. How many people will be playing, how long have you been playin, open or matched, how often can you get together, do you have a narrative in mind or does the narrative not matter? 

[chord]

On ‎6‎/‎16‎/‎2017 at 6:47 PM, Kramer said:

Usually so but that's all up to personal preference. Often it is so. 

But give us the backstory and we'll try to helped. How many people will be playing, how long have you been playin, open or matched, how often can you get together, do you have a narrative in mind or does the narrative not matter? 

Currently I'm trying to get the various people who play AOS in my area to play together instead of just whomever is randomly in the store that day.  So I am working on a map of the local area made a little more high fantasy (we have lots of water and islands so it is pretty easy)

No backstory yet,  now that I have a better idea of how it works I'll start putting that together.  It will probably be more matched/narrative

[Kramer]

Good to know! So I think the biggest choice will be:

Do you set the play dates? And if so what happens if people can't be there?

Or do you allow people to organize there own games in which case I highly recommend the system in Ghb. ( you basically challenge somebody, decide over which territory you will fight. Roll d6 if undecided. Log the win. The person who won the most game in the territory may claim it for next month. And gains the bonus of that territory for all their games. After a set amount of time the player with the biggest territory wins). 

So ehat do you think would fit your group best?

[chord]

17 hours ago, Kramer said:

Good to know! So I think the biggest choice will be:

Do you set the play dates? And if so what happens if people can't be there?

Or do you allow people to organize there own games in which case I highly recommend the system in Ghb. ( you basically challenge somebody, decide over which territory you will fight. Roll d6 if undecided. Log the win. The person who won the most game in the territory may claim it for next month. And gains the bonus of that territory for all their games. After a set amount of time the player with the biggest territory wins). 

So ehat do you think would fit your group best?

Probably letting people pick the play times, and hopefully as people get to know each other more we can get more organized.

 

[Kramer]

Then I think the easiest set up is to use the map campaign system as discriped in the ghb. Use your own map and maybe enlarge it to about  2 maybe 3 locations per contender. 

Use the location bonuses as the basis and maybe add some new ones. 

And if you have a fluffy introduction all the better. ?

[BunkhouseBuster]

If you are giving each player different regions or territories to control, consider using those regions to give bonuses in some form.  Just be careful to not let the bonuses be too powerful or mess with the feel of the game.  I played in a Narrative campaign for 40K that had planets to control, and the GM had come up with rules for each type of world (Forge World, Fortress World, Death World, etc.).

Maybe each region has a Realmgate to another Realm, and that region is affected by that other Realm because of that Realmgate?  It's an idea to consider.

[Honcho]

I've got a lot of thoughts on the subject of map campaigns. I laid out most of them here.

[wayniac]

What I would think would be the most limiting factor in a map campaign is the logistics.  Very few people I have met want to futz around with moving pieces on a map or requisitioning troops or the like, they want to get stuck in and play.  So I think the best approach would be a simple one and not get too in depth with territories giving things or allowing you to forgo a turn to "reinforce".  Of course, this often removes a lot of the "map" part of a map campaign.