Not Yo Mama’s Basement: The Summer Campaign

Last month we took a look at the International Campaign Day and the concept of a short day or weekend-long campaign. Today we are going to go a little more traditional and discuss larger scale campaigns. Specifically, we are going to scrutinize the good and bad of last year’s summer campaign ran by Mantic. Not a perfect example, mind you, but a successful one, nonetheless.

The Good:

First let’s examine what Mantic did right with their campaign in order to learn what things you might implement from their design into your own.

Campaign Specific Goals: The setup of the campaign was simple and elegant. There were several, specific locations over which the sides of good and evil were fighting. Players would play a game and then report their results depending on which area they were fighting for, whether that be the Twilight Glades, the Edge of the Abyss, or the Ardovikian Planes… except no real fighting happened in that last place… Players had clear goals that were easy to see and understand and that allowed them to track their progress and plan accordingly. It was simple, elegant, and made for some very narrative battles.

Tiered Reporting System: This was a really cool method for reporting battles. After finishing their game, players (either one or both) could log into the website for the campaign and could report said battle to the hive mind where it would be recorded, scored, and awarded based on the level of effort each player gave in reporting it. Players would give essential details, such as the points size of the battle, scenario played, armies involved, and which side won. Beyond these basics, however, players were further rewarded for uploading photos of their battle, and for writing a more detailed battle report. This meant that even if you lost, you could still score some points for your side if you did a good job of reporting said loss. Also, it rewarded more effort on the part of the players, which is always a good idea.

Regular Updates: While Mantic struggled in the opening days of the campaign, once things got going they did a pretty good job of keeping the website updated as data came in from players and their games. They had a status bar that kept track of each location on the map and how close to the good or evil side it was to being claimed. This was great as players had a clear objective and could see their progress regularly. I know I spent several hours worth of time on their website regularly refreshing and checking the status of each area in which I was fighting.

Excellent Follow Through: At the end of the campaign Mantic published the story results in their annual Clash of Kings supplement. This conclusion wrapped up the stories and summarized the events that happened nicely in each of the contested areas that were part of the campaign. This gave players the closure they deserved, even if they might not have liked all the outcomes.

The Bad:

False Starts: The campaign suffered from a rushed delivery and lots of bugs that actually forced the campaign to start without its website up and running. While not every campaign needs a website, it does need a central hub that the players can use to focus their energies and receive direction from the organizer(s) about what is happening in the campaign. For most campaigns this is substituted by the Game Manager (GM) who organizes the regular meetings and records the results of battles. Imagine now starting a campaign without a GM ready to take the reigns and with the players only vaguely knowing that they need to play battles and that they are fighting over specific areas on the map, and nothing else! This lack of organization on Mantic’s part cost the campaign a lot of its initial momentum and likely more than a few players didn’t participate because of this. It serves as an example of why adequate preparation is necessary to pull off a good campaign. If your players see you as unorganized or that your event is not adequately prepared, they will not invest the time to play in it. Make sure you are 100% ready to go in regard to the methods of communication with your players, especially with how they are to report their battles and interact with each other, on day 1 of the campaign!

Lack of Player Recognition: In the Summer Campaign there were several players in various factions who did a lot to keep things motivated and players involved with the campaign. There were also a lot of players who logged an impressive amount of game time in an effort to capture an area and Mantic did nothing to really acknowledge these players. This isn’t so much of a negative as much as a missed opportunity. Mantic had an opportunity to really encourage their players by showing off the exploits of those who were playing an active role in their campaign. It also is a great way for a GM to show that they are actively engaged with their players and that their actions matter. While it will always be impossible for a campaign the size of the Edge of the Abyss to recognize everyone’s contributions, there were practically no mentions of those who put forth a greater amount of investment to ensuring its success.

Lackluster Scenario Design: Part of the fun of campaigns can be designing custom scenarios, or characters, or whatever to help the players separate the campaign from just a regular gaming night. Mantic produced a “special” scenario for each of the areas that was designed to add flavor to each battle. These scenarios were basically just variations on the same “Kill” mission and didn’t really add anything to the campaign. Many players disregarded these scenarios as they were either rather boring, or worse, they offered heavy advantages to certain armies in the name of story. If you modify scenarios for a campaign you either need to take heavy account of who is playing in it (i.e., know your players personally) or make sure that the scenarios are at least somewhat balanced for all the potential factions involved. This doesn’t mean they have to be solid, tournament worthy scenarios, but they shouldn’t be an uphill slog for one side because they didn’t pick the right army for the theme of the scenario.

Final Verdict:

Mantic’s summer campaign was a lot of fun and it opened a lot of storytelling potential. Mantic used it to springboard their Nightstalker army line and it worked beautifully. Players felt invested in this new threat to the world and were rewarded with new models (that were already coming anyways) as well as new fluff to build their armies around. Ultimately, the campaign was a great success and a good example for future GMs to model their campaigns around in many ways.

A Final Announcement:

Now, with that being said. -/28 is going to start its own campaign that will run from August through the end of this year. During this time Not Yo Mama’s Basement will be going on hiatus as I will be working as the GM for this campaign. We hope that you will enjoy what we have to offer and welcome your criticism (positive and negative) as well as speculation regarding its execution.

Look for an introductory article(s) coming at the end of this month to prepare us for the coming slaughter!