In role-playing game

Role-playing game

A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...

s, a campaign is a continuing storyline or set of adventure

Adventure (role-playing games)

An adventure is either a published or otherwise written collection of plot, character, and location details used by a gamemaster to manage the plot or story in a role-playing game. Each adventure is based upon a particular gaming genre and is normally designed for use with a specific game or gaming...

s, typically involving the same characters. The purpose of the continuing storyline is to introduce a further aspect into the game: that of development, improvement, and growth (or degeneration) of the characters. In a campaign, a single session becomes a scene or an act within an overall story arc. At its inception, a campaign may or may not have a defined conclusion. A campaign by definition spans more than one session of play. Certain aspects of the game are nearly always constant throughout a campaign: the setting

Campaign setting

A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A campaign is a series of individual adventures, and a campaign setting is the world in which such adventures and campaigns take place...

, the players, and the gamemaster

Gamemaster

A gamemaster is a person who acts as an organizer, officiant for questions regarding rules, arbitrator, and moderator for a multiplayer game...

. The gamemaster for a campaign is said to run the campaign.

Aspects of a campaign

A campaign is characterized by the following aspects:

• The rules - What underlying game system is used? What changes, additions, or subtractions has the game master made to the rules? How will the game master interpret those rules?
• The game world or setting - Where do the adventures take place? What makes this world or place unique?
• Realism - Will the game attempt to closely simulate the real world? Or will unlikely or fantastic happenings be commonplace?
• Humor - Will the game be silly or comical? Or will it be serious and dark?
• An underlying storyline - Are the players a part of larger events occurring in the game world? Not all campaigns have such a storyline, but most at least have recurring characters.

Differing amounts of emphasis on any of these factors help set the flavor of the campaign.

Types of campaigns

• A hack and slash, kick in the door, or dungeon crawl campaign focuses on slaying monsters and finding treasure. This type of campaign is often very episodic. Many players of Dungeons & Dragons
  Dungeons & Dragons
  Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
  
   favor this type of campaign.
• A wargame campaign has a focus on military and political activities, generally involving the affairs of entire fictional states. Miniature wargaming
  Miniature wargaming
  Miniature wargaming is a form of wargaming that incorporates miniature figures, miniature armor and modeled terrain as the main components of play...
  
   overlaps and dovetails into role playing at this level. Games Workshop
  Games Workshop
  Games Workshop Group plc is a British game production and retailing company. Games Workshop has published the tabletop wargames Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000...
  
   started life as a roleplay company, but through an analogous process have transformed themselves into a miniatures manufacturing company with support material for entire fictional worlds - all to support their own role/miniature campaign concepts.
• A four color or superheroic campaign is similar in flavor to comic book
  Comic book
  A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
  
  s. The players are often given tasks, such as supervillains to stop, by their superiors.
• A detective campaign focuses on mysteries that must be solved by the players or that unfold as the game goes along. These may be ordinary crimes, or mysteries of the paranormal. Certain games, such as Call of Cthulhu
  Call of Cthulhu (role-playing game)
  Call of Cthulhu is a horror fiction role-playing game based on H. P. Lovecraft's story of the same name and the associated Cthulhu Mythos.The game, often abbreviated as CoC, is published by Chaosium.-Setting:...
  
  , are designed specifically with this type of campaign in mind.
• Various variants of the above campaigns are created by the players. The exact nature of these variations are usually exposed by providing a descriptive prefix to the word campaign. For example: a villain campaign where the players are the bad guys or a kiddie campaign where the players' characters are still children.

Alternate names

Some published games have deliberately used different terms for the same concept. For instance, White Wolf uses the word Chronicle for its World of Darkness

World of Darkness

"World of Darkness" is the name given to three related but distinct fictional universes created as settings for supernatural horror themed role-playing games. It is also the name of roleplaying games in the second and third settings...

 and Exalted

Exalted

Exalted is a role-playing game published by White Wolf Publishing. The game is classified as high fantasy, but may be more accurately described as "mythic fantasy", as the developer specifically avoided drawing on J. R. R. Tolkien, but rather turned to a mixture of world mythologies for inspiration...

games.