Years ago, I ran a campaign wherein my players were directed to kill off every member of the royal family and support team of one of the biggest cities in the known world. They completed two of the twenty contracts involved in the outlined story and turned on each other in a party split. I adjusted the story; it was now a conflict between palace guards and anarchists. In the end, the king was assassinated, and the city fell. It rose again as a democracy with an elected council, now a beacon of progressive politics on the continent. This was a big effect on the world; not only did one of the biggest cities lose its leadership and government, but it led to people in the world thinking about how to implement democratic ideals. So to create continuity in my world, all campaigns and one-shots that take place there are affected by what happened in this city. The city of Talon Gorge is reformed and small cities nearby begin to emulate its government. These changes make the campaign real and can create interesting storylines for players who now also have to contend with the actions of players before them (including their own, if they played with me before).
The effect of a campaign doesn't have to be simply fallout from player decisions. When I ran Listen Check years ago, the campaign was marked by interference from a few gods. One of these gods was an incarnation of Fharlanghn, and when the campaign was resolved by killing an avatar of Gruumsh, Fharlanghn rewarded the party with effects equivalent to a "Wish" spell (Gruumsh had offered a "Wish" spell as reward for a quest that he reneged on, which led Fharlanghn to counteract him with the rewards. The rewards were each quite different, but all the effects created lasting impressions on my gameworld. Dewey the monk took up with a pair of law enforcers to create systematic and genuinely helpful police forces across the continent, which means that as I play future games, most places will have this form of guard employed. Soren the ranger had fallen in love with an orc (I don't do half-orcs for a variety of reasons, so his love was an orc), someone with whom he could not have children. But Fharlanghn recognized that Soren wanted a family, and granted the ability for any humanoid to have children with any other humanoid. This has pretty wide-reaching effects, as my world now effectively has no barrier to romance, and this will change perceptions of race over time. Finally, there was Rupert the wizard, who became a dragon according to my custom dragon rules. Being a dragon means that Rupert is effectively immortalized in my gameworld, as he now constitutes one of the most important beings in existence. Future adventurers who dabble in dragons will likely meet him, and this is another lasting effect on my gameworld.
These campaign effects are all very consciously designed; I knew even from my outline for the palace guard campaign that the kingdom would permanently change, and the effects on Listen Check were something I had considered out-of-game for some time. But the natural end of a campaign can give rise to continuity as well if you're thoughtful about it. When I ran the Eastweald campaign, the story ended with a serious blow to the Dalton Church of Pelor, the arrival of goliaths on the shores of the continent, and the establishment of an Underdark community for the goliaths. Each of these ideas can carry forward. As the mystery campaign progresses, the players may hear about the disruption of the Dalton Church of Pelor or even witness its effects on the temple in town. News of the goliaths may reach the players, and rumors of the Underdark may make an appearance as well. It's okay if your campaign continuity effects are more like video game announcements regarding something the players have just accomplished, but I would push you to find ways to express the change through the world. For instance, I could have a public argument between Dalton Church of Pelor officials about the troubling news from the capital. I may have a goliath show up in town, looking for supplies to take back to the Underdark. The goliath may even ask the player characters for help in dealing with some issue there. As it happens, my mystery campaigners are the same players who played in the Eastweald, so it would be an extra special moment to return either of these ideas to the campaign. My players would be forced to understand that their actions have consequences that reach beyond the game.
So if you want to implement campaign continuity in your game, the steps are fairly simple. First, you take the major results from the previous campaign. Anything that stands out as having a larger effect than just the campaign itself should be noted. The final moments of the campaign will definitely be included, but also consider anything that the players may have done that would have a bigger effect. (I'm thinking, for example, about how the players in the mystery campaign are using a magical liquid multiplier to produce massive amounts of healing potions, which will have a massive impact on the way that healing is viewed and paid for in town and potentially beyond, depending on how much their business expands.) Essentially any action that the players take which make you say to yourself, "Whoa, that might have broken the game a bit" should spark your interest here.
Now that you have your effects, it's time to decide how they are expressed in the world. Let's stick with the healing potion example. The thing that makes this idea powerful is that it could make healing potions plentiful enough and cheap enough to be used by non-adventurers for more common ailments. This means that healers could be driven out of business, and it also means that the average person may become more reckless with their safety, knowing that a trusty healing potion is within reach. So Yamseth, the city where the mystery campaign takes place, could quickly become the site of increased chaos and perhaps even a willingness to challenge the powers that be. The city is dominated by a divide between rich and poor; these healing potions could have the effect of emboldening the poor and allowing for class warfare. This isn't even against the wishes of the party, per se; they want to return power to the common person. It may be that these effects take place during this campaign, but if there isn't room for it here, I can use these effects in a future campaign to reinforce the continuity between campaigns.
Then it's time to implement the effects. If your players are the same players whose actions you're extending, be as detailed as you can about the effect. They will be tickled to see their past actions taking effect in such a way. If the party is responding to the effects of another party, be a little more sparing. Not everyone enjoys having past party exploits recounted, and the new campaign is about the new players, so don't get carried away and make the story about your old players. Just provide the impetus for the effects and let the party react to it. There's a chance that they won't find much to do or say about the effects; that just means they're viewing it as a story event they can't connect to the story. Feel free to drop what you're doing with the previous campaign effects and focus again on your story--the goal of continuity is to make the storytelling more expansive, but if it works against your story, it's better to forego it.
The real sweet spot with campaign continuity is with return players. In Listen Check, Rupert was controlled by the head of the palace guard in the previous campaign. When Rupert heard about the effects on the fallen city, it was much more than Rupert hearing news; it was also the player recognizing a connection between his efforts in the game and the legacy his actions left. It was a magical moment for me as a GM; it was like he and I were back in the old campaign for a time, only now there was sign of a change his former character had made. Rupert ended up reading a few articles about the fall of the city. This was, upon reflection, a bit meta-gamey. Rupert had no established interest in politics or in that city in particular. But his player could not resist; discovering what the end results of his previous character's actions was such a thrilling idea that he looked into it. This will drive the average player, so if you're running with a return player or even a few, consider building a bit of continuity between your campaigns.
Having a hard time coming up with ideas about extending a campaign to affect your current game? Some campaigns lend themselves more to this idea than others. But every campaign can have an effect if you're creative. Even the classic "go fight the BBEG" type of story can have interesting effects. Perhaps the BBEG has a relative or student who has taken their defeat hard and wants to push their evil agenda even further, now with a new foe. Or the defeat of the BBEG creates a vacuum of power in the area, and now there are warring factions trying to take it over. Or the BBEG had a safeguard to protect their plan, and now part of their plan is taking place in a moderated way (people in the targeted area are made violent, but will not attack each other as planned). Or the BBEG's plans to obtain an artifact of power leads to the rise of a lich who owned the artifact; now the party must deal with the fallout from the BBEG's plan. Whatever you decide to do, just make your effects consistent and meaningful; if the effects cannot be reasonably predicted or responded to, or if the effects don't really change anything substantial, you probably want to rework the way the campaign carries forward.
Above all, remember that campaign continuity is about you as GM. No one gets the same bird's-eye-view of all your campaigns that you do. From your perspective, you can see dozens of players cause effects all over your world for future players. To you, your gameworld is a theater in which all sorts of stories are told, each realistically affecting the next. So draft the ways your old campaigns would have affected your world and get ready to tell a story bigger than any single campaign, a story about your world.
That's all for now. Coming soon: what details are worth roleplaying, how to avoid overpreparing, and how to describe setting. Until next time, happy gaming!
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