Preface to The FOREVER CAMPAIGN

The challenges encountered running a permanent world.

Timeline

• OSE - Aug 2024 to Dec 2024 — ARC I

• Hyperborea - Dec 2024 — ARC I

• Heroes & Hexes - Dec 2024 to Oct 2025 — ARC I

• D&D 3.5 - Oct 2025 to Dec 2025 — ARC I.V¹

• ACKS II - Dec 2025 to Now — ARC II

August 22nd, 2024 - The FOREVER CAMPAIGN is Formed

The idea came suddenly in the night. Why are we making one-off stories? Why are we always starting a new game with a new system? Why is there no consistency? Why is there no legacy? After 20 years of DMing, it was time to do it.

My friends had just gotten me the OSE Box-Set Kickstarter and I was excited to start learning and playing. I had also stumbled upon Arden Vul and decided that was the world I was going to use, Magae. There was so much land and lore placed in this Mega Dungeon. I learned the gods, the timeline, the major players and races. I established the languages and the setting.

I won’t go into the specifics yet, this is a time to just organize the world and make it clear how we progressed.

We Started with OSE - Decision Paralysis

I had the Carcass Crawler Zines to help flush out some of the rules. We used Bulk and enhanced the Fighter. The options were starting to pile up with four Core Books for the Players and 6 Zines. I also allowed them to use any B/X supplements they wanted, so one of the major problems of starting a new system reared it’s head: Decision Paralysis.

Players had too many options available, too many books to peal through, and too much lore to parse. I did my best to front and on-load players into the world. I provided PDFs, handouts, guidance — I pinned important Discord links and answered questions like I was an on-call IT support tech.

But eventually OSE ran its course as something that was both too simple and too overwhelming with choice, an oxymoron that comes from Player perspective with a system they haven’t had time to deal with. Especially when these Players are used to the Pathfinder and 5E splats filled with unique mechanics dictating what a class can do. It started a lot of philosophical arguments on how a game should present choice² to Players and thus stress within the group began to build.

Hyperborea - No More Races

I love Hyperborea. I dislike only two major things with it: descending AC and the lack of Races. I made a simple chart to replace the Armor chart in the book and Players³ still had issues understanding DAC conversion. The destruction of Races rubbed some Players the wrong way but now it was suddenly for Role-Play instead of mechanical benefit.

However something was boiling way in the background. One of my friends on Discord turned me on to this strange Homebrew Game by Scruffy-Grognard which he considered to be the 3rd Edition of AD&D if TSR never died. It had much of the simplicity of 5E and kept the stunted growth and lethality of AD&D. It had that mystic heart I was craving.

Heroes & Hexes - The Perfect System

I knew that changing systems again would just wear down on the Players. At this point, I was only awarding XP based on monster kills and Feats of Exploration. I needed a bigger carrot. So reading the rules of Heroes & Hexes (back before it was called that), I decided the party would get XP for all Monster Kills, Treasure Brought to Civilization, and Feats of Exploration. Effectively doubling the amount of XP they would get.

I took their sheets, I translated them all by hand, prepared everything prior to the session, and we start playing. It worked wonderfully. The system was going well, or so I thought. We kept that system for a long ass time. Managed to complete an entire story arc filled with thrills and adventure. One Player got up to 9th Level and retired as a political leader, a few others were around 5th Level. It was a good initial campaign. More deets once we enter ARC I.

Compromise — Never Compromise

Alright, here’s where I learned a hard lesson. A group of Players weren’t having fun. They said the magic system was dumb, that it didn’t make sense a mage couldn’t wear armor, that armor should provide DR (damage reduction) instead of AC.

So I started compromising, coming up with custom magic systems, adding Hyperborea’s armor DR system, etc. It wasn’t enough. The group finally broke⁴. So in a last ditch effort, I proposed 3.5 D&D. The group agreed. I said only use the Core Books, the group broke that and instantly starting pulling from Dragonlance, Eberron, Bullshit Book of Complete Combat, etc.

Now that decision paralysis of OSE was gone. Turns out all these players, they just… they just didn’t want to play OSR. They just wanted to play Modern D&D. They didn’t want wide open fields of possibilities. They wanted me to make a story and dictate it to them. They didn’t want actual character choice, they wanted prescribed bullshit you purchase off the shell.

Maybe I’m being harsh but this is my catharsis.

The first session we played of 3.5E, everything went amazing. Then I got a text from that group of players. They said it felt like I was targeting them as punishment for changing the system. They said they were done.

That blow lifted me off the ground and cracked my fucking skull against the asphalt.

Oh, so me trying to please you wasn’t enough? Me ignoring you using every book under the sun to munchkin a character wasn’t enough? It was me asking if you had a FUCKING FEAT⁵ that broke the camel’s back? Fuck me for not memorizing everything then.

Maybe I’m being too harsh but this is my catharsis.

So they broke off. I changed my game to be a different day to not conflict with any schedules. We continued playing. The dungeon was meant for Characters from maybe 3rd to 8th Level in the B/X tradition. These 3.5E Characters were chewing through everything.

They had powers for everything, specialized mechanics to manipulate the D20 structure 3.0 started. I eventually started putting myself into an arms race against the Players, making custom creatures and not knowing if it was too powerful or too weak⁶. The final boss was killed in 4 rounds with most of his powers being neutered.

So with that whole ARC I.V done, I took 3.5E outside, American History X’d it, and declared we are using a different system. No more compromises with my game.

Enter ACKS — Simple Complexity

I don’t remember how I stumbled onto ACKS but I started reading it and it clicked. Class Proficiencies being powers made them modular. General Proficiencies covered mundane dumb shit. The Domain Management made for cool, long-term goal. It had the AD&D feel with the B/X simplicity. I bought the books, I brought ‘em to the table, everyone enjoyed it. The crunchy dudes enjoyed how granular it could be, the guys who just wanted to play appreciated how simple it could be, and I could appreciate that I could ignore or expand out as much as I wanted.

There were some rocky bits. One Player wanted to make a Character for every situation. A Player wanted to focus on Domain Management to a literal microscopic level of dictating who was doing what on an hourly basis. Another Player wanted to spend all their time studying spells and researching. A different Player was waiting for the plot to stroll out and punch the Party in the face. And another Player wanted to manage all the retainers as if he was wargaming. The problems were about too much minutiae and micromanaging, and not enough abstraction. The solution was to simplify.

For the Character Stable problem, I just got rid of it. At first I told Players I wasn’t going to run downtime sessions offline for their stabled characters and those shitheads just don’t get anything. This led to Players trying to rotate Characters for each situation. So I axed the whole thing and had the Players pick their most important guy, then made the rest into hirelings. Pissed some Players off but I explained that the game could now focus on individuals being important and growing.

For Domain Management⁷, I stopped treating it as a spreadsheet and more like the character being a controlling dictator (which was great because I was tired of being an accountant in my off time). He was Level 3 and telling everyone what to do, managing their time, not letting the system just work via abstraction. So corruption was rife because it was easy to take advantage of a leader who didn’t trust anyone to do their job. He could be a Level 3 king of dirt (Level 9 is typically when Domain Management comes into play).

For studying and research, I didn’t really care as long as the Player understood they weren’t getting experience or money. They could have their guy be stuck in town all day renting a library room. If that was what was fun for them, so be it.

For the guy who wanted the plot to come to him, he eventually quit when he realized no one was going to ask a bunch of strange vagrants to solve the realms problems. He didn’t want to put in the leg work to find adventure or look for plot hooks. That’s fine too. Rule Number 1: There is no obligation to play.

Finally the Player who wanted to manage their retainers like a private army. I simply took control of them and gave them personality. I just started rolling everything for them, moving them around, making them attack and talk. The Player asked why I kept taking away their autonomy and I said, “These aren’t your Characters. They are mine you hired.” So now we split the difference. The Player makes all the rolls but I put the Hirelings where I want and move them where I want.

ACKS is Controversial?

I knew this was going to happen at some point, especially on the internet. Here’s the bottom line:

I don’t give a fuck.

The culture war is real and we are all divided into political sides whether we like it or not. I do not give a shit about the real world when it comes to having fun in my fantasy world. We read works written by fascists, racists, assholes, and shitheads all the time.

We change our spending habits hoping we can hurt billionaires who commit literal crimes and go unpunished. It is nice when good people make good things and are recognized for it but the truth is we are all fucked. Doesn’t matter if you can trace the money to a fascist or not, the money will always go to the bad guys.

So instead of getting pissy online, either accept the futility of this life and become happy, or go pull a Johnny Silverhand and burn it all down with you at the center. Don’t serve me half-measures⁸ and act like I’m the bad guy for buying some books to escape the horrors around us once a week.

What’s Next?

Well first, thank you for reading this. It is meant to be an inside look at the troubles I ran into trying to make a persistent world and hopefully gives some insight somewhere about something.

As I had said in a post before:

“The [Player],” said the Dean. “The [Player]. Think of that above all. He’s the one to live in the [world] you build. Your only purpose is to serve him. You must aspire to give the proper artistic expression to his wishes. Isn’t that all one can say on the subject?”

“Well, I could say that I must aspire to build for my [player] the most comfortable, most logical, the most beautiful [world] that can be built. I could say that I must try to sell him the best I have and also teach him to know the best. I could say it, but I won’t. Because I don’t intend to build in order to serve or help anyone. I don’t intend to build in order to have [players]. I intend to have [players] in order to build.”

“How do you propose to force your ideas on them?”

“I don’t propose to force or be forced. Those who want me will come to me.”

1. We had a mid-level arc, so I called it 1.5. But it was using Roman Numerals so… I.V…

2. The Paradox of Choice is what sparked this conversation. Basically, I argue that rules do not need to dictate what actions are available and codifying skills and actions removes autonomy. In other words, the less rules there are, the more freedom there is.

The opposing DM argued that without the structure of rules, the Players would not know how to play and would lack guidance for how to be effective. In other words, the more rules there are, the more empowered Players are.

This is the major crux of most of my writings, OSR vs Modern D&D. Do I need to have points assigned to blacksmithing and make a die roll, or can I just use my background?

3. Players will always have issues and fall into any crack left open. There will be those who plan their character’s entire life, those who never read the After Action Report (AAR) or Teasers put in Discord (I write little blurbs prior to game sometimes to add tension and mystery), and those who are dead to everything until they sit at the table.

Much of the issues here boil down to Expectations and Trust. As a DM, set your Player Expectations up front. Ask what their DM Expectations are.

Trust is more difficult. If a Player is dedicated to knowing the rules, they will have a rough time trusting the DM to run the game without them knowing every mechanic. If a Player is very antagonistic, they will see the DM as the enemy. Ultimately, Trust is supposed to allow play to happen even if a Player does not know how to mechanically play the game.

4. Is this an accurate retelling? For pacing purposes, sure. But in reality, I had felt like this group was slowly spiraling for a few months. After the complaints started, I suggested us splitting the group but they wanted to try anyways. That’s when I offered the olive branch of 3.5E.

5. Prior to the session starting, I posted in Discord that a Natural 1 is not an automatic fail and a Natural 20 is not an automatic success for Skill Checks. I was chastised for telling a fellow DM the basics of the game.

At the beginning of the session, I asked to see everyone’s character sheets to verify they were legal. Three players arrived early so I covered theirs easily enough. The others arrive on time so I did the review right when session began. They didn’t see me check the other sheets and thought I didn’t trust them, so I was only reviewing their sheet. This broke Rule Number 2: “If a line is crossed, we handle it together.”

Later, the Player in question was on a cart with a crossbow. I asked if they had Rapid Reload. They thought I doubted their character sheet’s validity by asking this. Once again, Rule Number 2.

Finally, the Player rolled a Natural 20 on a Skill Check saying they passed. I reminded them of the fucking thing I told them in Discord and asked what their final roll was.

(Dude, I need a footnote just for that Skill Check. The Player was obsessed with not being over weight because it would penalize their Climb Skill, which this was a climb heavy dungeon. I offered they just take off the backpack and thread it through the rope but instead they kept trying to push for a way to boost their stats to get rid of the penalty completely. I shot them down. When they rolled that Nat 20, their final roll was actually 16. The stupid DC was 5. It was a courtesy roll to foreshadow the danger of climbing and create tension. Not a stupid GOTCHA.)

It seems like these Players came expecting a fight and negativity, so they found it.

Maybe I’m being really fucking harsh but this is my goddamn catharsis.

6. You see, the issue with Modern D&D is you can make bad characters. So when two dudes are carrying the entire party, you are either making creatures that will kill the normies or get killed by the munchkins. There’s no real in between when everything is solved with a die roll. 3.5E literally sets a DC for swimming up a waterfall. How can a DM say no or have freedom when the numbers dictate what is and is not possible.

7. So the big idea here was to have Players run nations in the background. The micromanaging was a huge issue because it ate up all my fucking time and attention. The second problem was I had a plot element manifest and it was going to destroy a settlement. So I had to end it all pretty quick. The Player is still pissed, thinking I’m taking away all his toys. He can get over it though. Rules Number 1, 2, and 3.

8. In other words: Unless you are willing to go out there and actually put your convictions to the test, do not tell me how to live my life. I have my own problems and things to fight for. I don’t need some bullshit zealotry over spending habits and how its fueling oppression. If you really cared, you’d be out there getting bloody and betting your life on it.