claude-config/skills/rpg/references/campaign.md

Campaign & Multi-Session Material

Tim will say when material is campaign-shaped rather than a convention one-shot. The GM-readability rules, clue discipline, and production standards all still apply; what changes is the shape of time.

What changes from the one-shot format

• Timing loosens. No 3h30 hard ceiling, no 2:45 rule. Keep per-session targets and checkpoints, but sessions may end mid-arc.
• Endings invert. Sessions should end on unresolved peril, an escalating bang (stakes suddenly transformed), or an earned quiet character beat — the cliffhanger types a one-shot must avoid. The arc still needs a written destination.
• Hooks must respect choice. Con players opted in by sitting down; campaign players resent coerced hooks. Offer situation-hooks the party can approach from any angle, and plant long-term hooks whose payoff is sessions away.
• Foreshadowing is a discipline. Before writing session N, re-read what is planned for N+1..N+3 and seed their elements now. Twists only land if the clues predate them.
• Carry-forward bookkeeping at the end of each session:
  • Undiscovered revelations roll into the next session's list.
  • Fronts advance a grim portent; clocks tick for everything ignored.
  • Log NPC status, faction posture, promises made, and loose player theories (player theories are free plot — steal the good ones).
  • Persist all of this to Graphiti so any machine can pick the campaign up.
• Structure by fronts, not acts. Bundle dangers into fronts, each with an impending doom and escalating portents. Prep situations per the Alexandrian; let acts emerge in play.
• Characters progress. Advancement, gear drift, and relationship maps need tracking; pregen audit rules from pregens.md apply to any handed-out PCs but expect player-authored characters here.

Session prep loop (Sly Flourish's 8 steps, house-adapted)

1. Review the characters (and last session's carry-forward log)
2. Create a strong start — in motion within 20 minutes
3. Outline potential scenes (brief, disposable)
4. List secrets and clues — ~10 one-liners, abstracted from location
5. Develop locations (immediate impression → interactables → hidden)
6. Outline NPCs (one-line essence + want)
7. Choose opposition
8. Select rewards

Convention scenario ↔ campaign reuse

A convention one-shot can seed a campaign: "The Tangent" section of every one-shot names the thread a future session would pull. Going the other way, compressing campaign material into a slot means cutting to one situation, one set-piece, one decision — and writing a real ending.