As a forever DM I've been trying to put myself in the players seats to understand what they like about playing the game and what makes games in general fun. After much thought and even more bong hits I've decided I want to develop a campaign that allows players to "win" D&D, which for this purpose means advancing a single character from level 1 to 20 by acquiring 355,000+ experience points.
My hope is that by incorporating this grand objective with their character motivations and my adventure plot hooks, players will blend the meta aspects of RPGs into the setting in a way that doesn't feel intrusive and game breaking. Players will always think in terms of hit points and other mechanical stats, so the characters might as well too.
The setting will be a sand boxy 5E Dark Sun and allow for groups with mixed character levels.
What else should I be focusing on to make sure this doesn't suck all the dicks?
>>44531996
Winning D&D is like winning football.
You cannot win the whole thing, no matter how good you are. All you can do is win a scenario (or match). There's no need to have an arbitrary end-goal, when D&D already consists of scenarios to win or lose.
>>44532058
Wait wait, don't be too hasty. I think this is a pretty interesting idea.
>>44531996
OP, how would you handle character death? Would you play out a revival arc or just have them roll a new character?
>>44531996
Your first major hurdle is going to be figuring out why characters know what their hit points and save bonuses are, and so on. Why are people capable of precisely measuring themselves mathematically?
It does lend to a good dystopian setup, though--lots of completely justified species-based discrimination.
>A playthrough of a living world based on the accruing of gold and EXP
Sounds fun! Count me in.
>>44531996
Once they hit a certain point they can reroll their character. The old character becomes an npc in the current or next game they have to work with/against.
>>44531996
Sounds good to me
>>44531996
>As a forever DM I've been trying to put myself in the players seats to understand what they like about playing the game and what makes games in general fun.
You're in the path of enlightenment my friend, keep at it.
>>44531996
That sounds pretty much like a perfect setup for a "stuck in a fantasy mmorpg" kind of setting
>>44534637
Maybe he means like a tabletop version of Erfworld
>>44535634
I always liked Ribbon and Rage: /tg/ Explained, I don't know why /tg/ hated it so much.
That said, this seems kinda dumb to me.
>>44532058
You can 100% win football. That's the whole point of the game, you idiot. If you really cannot win at football, why is anyone trying to score points?
Please explain this for me.
>>44537833
I think he was trying to say you can win a particular game of football, but you can't win football itself. It just keeps going. That being said, I don't think it's a good analogy.
>>44538071
You can't win 4chan. You can do well. You can be the effective MVP of a thread. But you can't win 4chan.
>>44531996
Getting to level 20 seems like an anticlimactic goal. Not only do you not get to use those level 20 abilities that no one ever gets to play with, but you don't really end a story on, "I have become stronger today."
I think having an end goal that they find out about along the way, like a celestial tournament of champions that is invite only, and winning makes you a god, so the the quest for lvl 20 is just the qualifying match, makes for a more compelling "win,"
>>44532058
It will never be finally decided who has won the football. There's everything to play for, and forever to play it in!
>>44540491
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF_uOgyBK1c
>>44531996
I thought you win dnd by finishing the campaign
>>44541626
you win dnd by having fun.
OP, I've been playing D&D for 3 years now and I'm still trying to figure out what I find fun about it. Your campaign sounds fun, just don't convolute it so much that DMing stops feeling natural, or you'll run out of juice to make it from 1 to 20.
I think Dark Sun might be a bad setting for this. For what you're going for I'd suggest something really standard like Greyhawk or Faerun.
Also keep in mind that once you get to high level you're going to need to watch out for player and monster powerlevels. Things are going to get stupid and you'll need to learn to be a quick thinker or have a shitload of contingency plans.
>>44531996
this is a shit idea an you should feel shity for thinking it up
>>44532058
While I agree with you, I do think you can create a sort of soft winstate for a particular roleplaying game.
While every possibility has the potential for multitudes of different characters and scenarios, most do have an underlying central theme that can be exhausted. I believe that if you can run this theme well enough you can satisfy the players enough to put the game away and move on to another one.
>>44534946
Hope you're looking forward to the final boss!
Spoilers: he's actually the weakest enemy in the campaign, with only one hit point and attacks that do 1 damage. It's basically just a reward for all your efforts!
![96c1ddf8b422a9485b8114b0c22b1eea[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/TQz2aU2.jpg "96c1ddf8b422a9485b8114b0c22b1eea[1].jpg")
>>44532058
>DnD is like football
>you cannot win the whole thing.
Well, I guess if you're a shit team that's true.
On topic: I've always entertained the idea of letting players compete to ascend to godhood, master of the universe. And then when they do, I'll hand them the DM screen and a character sheet that I want to use for their next campaign.
>>44543643
genuinely made me laugh.
