Day 21 - Classic Campaign

#RPGaDay2024

The first time I saw the term “campaign” was in the context of Traveller. That introduced the concept of having multiple adventures in the same setting which would establish a bit of continuity for the characters to experience, and allow them to grow and develop.

Two of the earliest Classic Campaigns are Traveller’s Fifth Frontier War and Masks of Nyarlathotep for Call of Cthulhu, with my all-time favourite campaign being H P Lovecraft’s Dreamlands. The Dreamlands were a place I wanted to visit, and I spent many a night seeking out the Door to Deeper Dream in any actual dream I experienced.

I think I encountered the Door once, and the alarm woke me before I could open it.

There was one which captivated me, mind you, around the start of the century. Picture this: White Wolf, as was, was seeing the end of its days. Its major Storytelling Game lines Vampire: the Masquerade all the way through to Demon: the Fallen were grinding to an apocalyptic halt. Every setting was closing down. Wraith: the Oblivion had already gone in 1999, and Hunter: the Reckoning had taken its place.

In the midst of all that turmoil, six little books came out which capitalised on the occult apocalypse of Wraith: the Oblivion, one which brought in the Skinlands (the world of the living) into a campaign which saw the lines between the lands of the living and the lands of the dead blurring, becoming practically non-existent.

That singular campaign, which lasted six months, was called Orpheus.

That campaign never looked back.