I've been thinking about this one for awhile and I'll try to commit it to writing. Here goes!
Assume we're playing D&D 4th Edition over the Internet(IRC.)
Generally, everyone will meet once a week and play. You have a DM and an average of four players. These five people tend to be the same for the full duration, particularly the DM and most of the players. They start the campaign and play until it ends or they all lose interest and typically it is a self-contained world/story. Even if the setting is picked up again, it's usually a prequel/sequel/different part of the world with only casual mention of stuff that has happened.
Let's also dictate that for the sake of this idea, you have a larger pool of people than you have actual players. You could have say, 20 available players, but due to scheduling, interest and taste, only 4-6 at a time will participate.
AnywaysSo the idea for my system is, let's assume that the character generation background is blindingly simple: you're hunters in a tribe of jungle-bound natives. You have the capability to learn technology and all that, but the most pressing concern is to go slay something to eat.
Starting from here, let's take myself as Doom(DM) on Monday Morning. I stomp into the IRC channel and shout LET'S DO A 4E ONE-SHOT IF YOU GOT 2-4 HOURS TO SPARE AND LOVE SOME PNP. I get Mook, Dope, Jerk and Assface to roll level one characters and they slay a dragon. The dragon's meat keeps the tribe alive for random-period-of-interest(generally whatever time passes without active play between DM and PCs until next session) and they get a perk, like crafting it's bones/claws into weapons. Mook, Dope, Jerk and Assface gen to level 2.
Wednesday Afternoon, Doom(DM) stomps into the IRC channel and shouts OK STOP CRYING 4E IS PRETTY GOOD LET'S GO ONE-SHOT I GOT TWO HOURS. Mook and Dope return with level 2 characters. Twitchy and Doritos join as level 1 characters. They hunt down a small pack of Blood Apes. Another meat-based benefit, the tribe is sustained further and maybe even saves a bit of food, to allow for a possibility of a later failed hunt or natural disaster. And Blood Apes are magical apes, so they skin them and you get some enchanted leather armor for 1-2 players that lets them grow a size catagory larger once per day. Neat. Twitchy and Doritos become Level 2, Mook and Dope get some experience but are still Level 2.
So, in Week 1, I have Groups 1 and 2, or 1-1 and 1-2. I have six players at Level 2, and the game is primarily episodic. I'll let all six of them know that they can perhaps enter in bids or interest for the assorted loot, so I might split four dragon-claw weapons and two blood-ape leather armors amongst the six. It's probably best here to provide more treasure than four people can take on average and assume some of it will not be desired and will be sold/disenchanted.
That's how we start.So entering Week 2, I might continue entering IRC, announcing one-shot time, and taking new or returning players. If the returning players get to be high enough level, I let new players gen at higher levels (Level 3 to Level 4-5, Level 10 to level 12-13, etc.) so we don't end up with Level 9 and Level 1 splits.
It's also possible that I may not always DM! If the original DM provides a stable idea of the setting and general location with room to expand, he can even sub in as a PC if others want to DM or he feels the itch to switch! All that matters is keeping track of the Community Base(in this case, the Tribe's health, food stores, available treasure and possible technology gains and territory) and the individual PC characters(That the PC will gladly do himself.)
Buuuut the sum of this idea and it's benefits are:A) It does not require a set, permanent group that gives up a set night a week. Although this is the traditional and "easiest" method, I've always hated that it can often be utterly destroyed by bad circumstance. Once a week games tend to die terrible deaths if Fate wills it. The DM's got a nasty headache this Friday, and then next Friday, Grandma's funeral. By the third Friday, half the players don't even show... ROOOBOOOOOT HOOOOOUSE!
B) It allows for one-shot, episodic gaming that may not necessarily have a direct, powerful over-arching plot, but gives everyone a bond that strengthens for their good fortune and that they work to defend and better. And even that can be the crux of the direct plot. The tribe encounters terrible foreigners and civilization! Maybe you begin hunting Men and their worn armor is today's addition to the loot pile... the consequences of which plot plot plot.
C) It allows gaming at any time, assuming that people are available when 1 DM + 3-5 players want to go. It provides easy enough access for flexible parties: higher levels and lower levels intermingle, the better hunters teaching the newer ones.. the hunters go together with who they have assembled, for the need to hunt exceeds the sometimes impractical balancing act of keeping the same PCs together for the entire campaign... and if you have enough players and DMs, you can even have simultaneous games going. Imagine if I go into the IRC channel and shout, and I get ten interested replies? Split into groups of five, two DMs, eight players... whenever both conclude, the treasure pool is twice as large! What progress!
As a community body, it just feels natural and makes sense that maybe people are subbed in and out and even multiple groups function. If it's not a tribe, imagine an army. One party (2-1) fortifies a pass against Goblin invaders as another separate party with separate DM(2-2) that same day go out scouting to find a magical item to help group 2-1. They're both fighting for their army/nation, but they can even intermingle later and it won't be weird. The item is found, the pass defended.. next week, you have group 3-1 made of members from both groups 2-1 and 2-2. They're all squad-mates at the same base. Natural.
D) There is room for long-term, once-a-week groups anyway! Assuming the player interest exists, there's no reason Doom can't DM for Mook, Jerk, Twitchy and Doritos every Monday at night if
they all agree to it until they conclude or lose interest, while Doom or Twitchy DM one-shots on non-Mondays. The groups, as always, contribute to a shared loot pile and are expected to maintain respectable level gaps with-in their own boundaries.
For example: Doom's-Every-Monday-Night group should strictly stick to characters that are around 6-8 and progress from there. But if Doom one-shots with Mook, either Mook's level 8 character fits in with the newbies(Doom might ask the newbies to gen at level 7), or Mook rolls a new character(everybody wants to do a level 3 game, so Mook rolls a level 3 with everyone else.)
This is strictly optional, of course, since the system originally exists to eliminate the need for Every-Monday-Night campaigns.
So: It removes the need to adhere to a strict time, it allows for one-shot episodic games that tie together, and it even allows gaming at any time with any people available.Presumably, the most important and only strictly necessary part is a home website with information on setting, available loot, trust-worthy DM and PC lists, and where to meet/hang out for the games. Post logs, post brief summaries of sessions, provide setting materials(maps, hand-outs, pictures, character bios, etc) in one easy to access site for all interested to catch up.Everything should be out in the open, wrapped in trust, and actions should be noted officially. Group 3-3 (Week 3, 3rd One-Shot Group that week, 18th level) slayed Driknyth the Foul, a necrotic White Drake. Driknyth's treasure is added to the loot pool and barring a good excuse, he does not appear again. A good reason might be that a new group decides to do level 10 game where they kill Driknyth in life, leading to him becoming necrotic. That'd be a flashback/retcon.
But above all, everything is open and official! Whoever runs the site looks at the bids for items, can calmly and maturely talk to players in case of over-competitiveness for an item and resolve the issue, and post an official judgement, so everyone knows that Mook gets the +3 Dragonfang Sword. The site-runner makes a note(removes the +3 Dragonfang sword from the available loot pile), Mook updates his sheet and it might even be listed on the site, and a small note of Mook's bidding/loot history is made, so that Mook does not consistently take +4 and +5 Dragonfang swords from future kills from Jerk, who has had a +1 Dragonfang sword for a month. Canon is kept the same: perhaps at some point in time, an inarguable action occurs(Earthquake wracks tribal land on 10-13-FantasyYear.) Games after that must account for it, games before can't mention it. Sensible Canon!
AND SO ON! There'd need to be a structured blue-print for actually building the site, but I'm hardly that far yet.
... So, what do you guys think? I've been hosting a good 3e game every Friday for 4 months now, but I sometimes want to host a few more than one a week and to have room to try out new things. I was thinking of trying this out with my next 4e campaign.