Achievement Unlocked: Finished DMing a full campaign start to finish /u/KradDrol DnD: Roll for Initiative!

I’ve been playing D&D since about 1994, from the times of THAC0 and AD&D to now with 5e. I’ve played multiple times as both character and DM but anything outside of a one-shot or mini-campaign winds up unfulfilled as real life gets in the way and people either lose interest or move away.

Cue to about 3.5 years ago to when our DM at the time decided to end his campaign halfway through because he wasn’t feeling it anymore. After some time trying online games due to COVID, we decided to try again in person a bit later, with a couple of people from the old group and a couple more friends of friends that wanted to get in on things. I offered to DM, and a couple weeks later we started our campaign.

Guys, over the past 3.5 years, we might possibly have played the best D&D of my life. Everyone got together, everyone’s playstyle just gelled, and they were perfect players – invested in the story, generous in ceding time to let others take the spotlight, aware of their rules and the mechanics, and experienced enough to take cues and build their own when necessary. A few of us, including myself, either were or are actors, so we had some great, intense RP sessions that basically became improv, and the rest just upped their game to match.

Some of the highlights:

• We successfully ran a false hydra encounter – partially by laying clues as early as session 1 that went completely unnoticed until it came to a head 1.5 years later that one of the party members had been eaten, and which the party had no memory of. It wouldn’t have been possible if the players hadn’t leant into it, which they did.
• One of the players, who had specified in their backstory that they just “popped up on the road out of nowhere”, wound up having one of the biggest story arcs in the campaign as they eventually became the avatar of a living city.
• Another player picked up a cursed book at an early level that forced them to try and read it during critical and time-sensitive encounter. Thinking that he’d probably just pay to remove the curse at the next opportunity, this player decided to run with it for 6 months, which eventually led the party to remove it on their own – which then set off a chain of events as the restoration spell restored that party member’s memories of their missing companion.
• The party had a boss encounter with one of the BBEGs, while in a chamber that kept pulling their past selves into the world. The players were asked to create two other characters in addition to their current characters, and those other characters would sometimes get pulled in, replacing their current one. As the encounter went on, the party gained the ability to switch as will, turning the encounter into one where they now had access to one of three character’s abilities each turn. What resulted was one of the most epic fights I’ve ever seen orchestrated in D&D.
• The climax resulted in our character who was also a living city making a heroic sacrifice, only for his other companions to save him from certain death, resulting in a somewhat happy ending for everyone.

At the end of everything, we all just sat back in our chairs and there was a moment of silence as everyone was processing things. I think at that time, I became aware of what we had just achieved. With any other players, I’m not sure we could have done any of the above without complaint about the rules, or railroading, or player agency. We broke the guidelines sometimes, but everyone was onboard with it, and what resulted was, what I’ve been told, some of the best player experiences my group has ever had, and certainly some of the best DM experiences I’ve ever had.

We’re starting a new campaign in a few weeks, and I’ll be a player again as one of group takes the reins again. I’m looking forward to it, but I think I’m also realizing now, I’m never going to have another experience like this again, mostly because this is the first time we’ve ever finished something start to end.

I know that lots of people on here will say that no D&D is better than bad D&D. But I just wanted to put this out there for those who have had problem groups and who wonder why people play this game, that there’s also a converse proposition here: there’s nothing better than good D&D. And if you have a group willing to work together to play good D&D, you’re going to have one of the best experiences of your life.

I’ve been playing D&D since about 1994, from the times of THAC0 and AD&D to now with 5e. I’ve played multiple times as both character and DM but anything outside of a one-shot or mini-campaign winds up unfulfilled as real life gets in the way and people either lose interest or move away.

Cue to about 3.5 years ago to when our DM at the time decided to end his campaign halfway through because he wasn’t feeling it anymore. After some time trying online games due to COVID, we decided to try again in person a bit later, with a couple of people from the old group and a couple more friends of friends that wanted to get in on things. I offered to DM, and a couple weeks later we started our campaign.

Guys, over the past 3.5 years, we might possibly have played the best D&D of my life. Everyone got together, everyone’s playstyle just gelled, and they were perfect players – invested in the story, generous in ceding time to let others take the spotlight, aware of their rules and the mechanics, and experienced enough to take cues and build their own when necessary. A few of us, including myself, either were or are actors, so we had some great, intense RP sessions that basically became improv, and the rest just upped their game to match.

Some of the highlights:

• We successfully ran a false hydra encounter – partially by laying clues as early as session 1 that went completely unnoticed until it came to a head 1.5 years later that one of the party members had been eaten, and which the party had no memory of. It wouldn’t have been possible if the players hadn’t leant into it, which they did.
• One of the players, who had specified in their backstory that they just “popped up on the road out of nowhere”, wound up having one of the biggest story arcs in the campaign as they eventually became the avatar of a living city.
• Another player picked up a cursed book at an early level that forced them to try and read it during critical and time-sensitive encounter. Thinking that he’d probably just pay to remove the curse at the next opportunity, this player decided to run with it for 6 months, which eventually led the party to remove it on their own – which then set off a chain of events as the restoration spell restored that party member’s memories of their missing companion.
• The party had a boss encounter with one of the BBEGs, while in a chamber that kept pulling their past selves into the world. The players were asked to create two other characters in addition to their current characters, and those other characters would sometimes get pulled in, replacing their current one. As the encounter went on, the party gained the ability to switch as will, turning the encounter into one where they now had access to one of three character’s abilities each turn. What resulted was one of the most epic fights I’ve ever seen orchestrated in D&D.
• The climax resulted in our character who was also a living city making a heroic sacrifice, only for his other companions to save him from certain death, resulting in a somewhat happy ending for everyone.

At the end of everything, we all just sat back in our chairs and there was a moment of silence as everyone was processing things. I think at that time, I became aware of what we had just achieved. With any other players, I’m not sure we could have done any of the above without complaint about the rules, or railroading, or player agency. We broke the guidelines sometimes, but everyone was onboard with it, and what resulted was, what I’ve been told, some of the best player experiences my group has ever had, and certainly some of the best DM experiences I’ve ever had.

We’re starting a new campaign in a few weeks, and I’ll be a player again as one of group takes the reins again. I’m looking forward to it, but I think I’m also realizing now, I’m never going to have another experience like this again, mostly because this is the first time we’ve ever finished something start to end.

I know that lots of people on here will say that no D&D is better than bad D&D. But I just wanted to put this out there for those who have had problem groups and who wonder why people play this game, that there’s also a converse proposition here: there’s nothing better than good D&D. And if you have a group willing to work together to play good D&D, you’re going to have one of the best experiences of your life.