campaign advice

[sean_scanlon2000]

so i've been working on flushing out a set of rules for my gaming group to use for a continuous long term campaign. something that we can pick up and drop off as needed with out to much of a hassle. so im going to be building a star map with in a sector with planets moons space stations ect. the planets themselves will be fought using 40k rules as well as small games of kill team and several special senerios. there will be a space portion which will include gothic since we all have fleets and why not it adds depth to the campaign and will allow us to switch back and forth between different games keeping us all entertained.

what im looking for is adivice and tips as well as memorable campaigns you all have played in. id like to know what aspects you liked as well as which aspects you did not like. the rules for our campaign are not going to be permenant we've done a few campaigns now for 40k as well as fantasy. and have learned from them. so it will be more of an evolving entity until we can something that we all like and thats well flowing.

[Carlosophy]

In my experience massive grid-based campaigns require a *lot* of time and effort from everyone involved to be any fun.

If you're looking for a more 'pick up and play' system a series of narrative games based around 1 world is the way to go. Try to think of a reason all the races involved would be fighting each other and go from there, for example a few months ago a guy was after advice on running a Tyranid/Blood Angels/Guard/GK campaign and I suggested that a magos biologis was secretly trying to use the genestealer virus as a suppressant for the Black Rage and an accident unleashed BR-infected 'stealers into the populace. The GK are on cleanup, the BA on coverup and the Nids on reassimilation. Start off with smaller skirmishes and offer tangible bonuses for victories in future games to build cohesion (Capturing intelligence might offer reserve re-rolls in a larger game for example)

Offer personal briefings to each player and encourage them to get involved as much as possible. Creating their own general and banning non-upgrade characters ensures they build a personal story and attachment to their forces.
Let them also dictate the narrative to an extent to by launching suprise attacks on opponents. Maybe the 200pts kill team I send on a risky sabotage mission comes out of my next game's pts allowance, meaning if I fail I end up with a smaller army?

[Str10_hurts]

What Carlosophy said.
Take a look at my signature for ideas on campaigns and missions. You might also find more information in the rules development section.

Other campaign example for 1000pts for pickup and play with low maintenance and can be combined with my mission rule set in my sig:
Mission rounds each player plays X amount of rounds. 1st battle every unit gets deployed on the table by deepstrike, Second battle roll a D6 for each unit. On a 1 they get the Rage rule on a 6 they gain slow and purposeful. 3rd battle all cover gains a dangerous terrain rule and all open ground gives a 6+ coversave, etc.

Each battle round can give you 15 army experience.
Battles won give you 5 bonus experience.

With these points you can get upgrades.
20 points, 0-2: Shield generators 1 model gets a 6+ inv for each unit within 6'' against shooting (does not work when embarked)
30 points, 0-2: Booby traps 1 piece of terrain becomes dangerousterrain
30 points, 0-1: Tank traps 6'' wide 1'' deep terrain feature. Open terrain for any unit. Vehicles except walkers and skimmers treat this terrain as impassible terrain.
40 points, 0-1: Unit gains tank hunters.
40 points, 0-1: Unit gains fearless.
40 points, 0-1: Furious charge.
60 Points, 0-2: Gain an extra 50 points to spend on your army total.
etc.

[Chapters Unwritten]

I highly recommend adapting the map format used by the Vogen campaign from Cities of Death. Basically, players put a pin into a space on a map, and whenever they put their pin into a section controlled by another player, a game gets scheduled. They can also choose to reinforce their own spaces with their pin, adding +100 points to their army for each one (up to a max of 300 pts).

The interesting part about this setup is it can lead to team games, since the Vogen rules say that all of your spaces that have pins from you and your opponent count for your battle. So for example, I have a space on my map called Thermopylae Gate, which is a narrow pass leading into a city. The rules for that space say that since it is narrow you have to play on a 4x4 board instead of 6x4. Next to it is another space called the Killing Field, which is a large open area leading to the Imperial Palace. The rules for that space say you don't have any terrain within 12" of the center of the board.

So if player A attacks one of these spaces and player B attacks him back on the other, both sets of rules are in play for the mission, making a great and simple system that lets you play a battle which simulates and scales based on where and how the enemy attacks.

Highly recommend it.