I’m clearly a sucker for a good campaign game. A new or interesting one shows up on crowdfunding, I am going to check it out. I have expectations, now, though, what these board games are going to look like. It can’t just be a lot of stuff in a box, I expect more than that.

Campaign Game Expectations

Branching Narrative

Let’s start out with story. I want a good narrative and I want a branching narrative in a game. Now, this doesn’t mean I need 10 different endings. Though I appreciate what Tainted Grail does, giving a lot of different end game moments. But I’m fine with just a story that gives me choices in what I do. The illusion of branching narrative.

What I mean by the illusion is that I can make a choice and that’ll change how something goes. It might make a few scenarios different. But the main story beats, I’m going to end up there no matter what. So do the decisions I make matter? Yes, for how the story is shaped and told to me, but where I’m going to end up not really. But there needs to be real, meaningful feeling decisions.

Tainted Grail does a good job of this, Stars of Akarios, you end up on a planet and can choose to go many ways. Gloomhaven, the story is much more linear throughout. In a few spots, it does branch but only changes stuff in a minor way. Sword and Sorcery, about once per box would you have a decision to make. Clearly there are other stuff that determine how much I like a game than just story. But now, I expect more from story because companies are doing more.

Storage Solution

I didn’t put these in any order, but this might be number one. I want a campaign game to come with a storage solution. And not just any storage solution. Sleeping Gods gives you baggies to save your game. That is not a storage solution that I’m talking about. Though, it’s better than not having the baggies.

What I am talking about is something that makes it easier to play and faster to the table. Gloomhaven I had to buy an insert for that. Sword and Sorcery it doesn’t have that at all. But Tainted Grail allows you to save characters and locations in an okay system. But when I look at good, I look at my Gloomhaven insert or Stars of Akarios.

I want to be able to pull out a whole tray of tokens and that that on the table. I don’t need to worry about getting them to the right spot or within reach. There is just a tray for that, and for the cards. And, ideally, you can have all your character stuff in a single spot. Make it easy as possible on me to get it back to the table. Yes, it is still a big game, but you can make it easier.

Scaling – Player Count and Difficulty

This one might not be the most obvious, but at times some games require you to play with four characters. Sleeping Gods you play with 9 characters plus the Captain, I believe. Now, you activate as the whole crew, but for a lot of people that is a lot. I always saw it just as a turn and knowing my abilities. But I totally get why it would be a lot.

And it isn’t just how many characters you control, it is how many monsters you control and how hard they are. Gloomhaven is a great example of this. The fewer players that you have, the fewer monsters there are on the board. But if a scenario is too easy or too hard, you can lower or raise the difficulty. That is great.

Now, sometimes games do need or expect four characters. So some games handle that in different ways. Oathsworn they are allies who activate on a simpler system in combat. That way you only need to think about a character or two. For Middara, they kind of slot in with another character. So think of lending health or stuff like that. Bad guys don’t change, but your heroes get stronger with fewer.

Interesting Mechanics

Interesting is a relative term. I think I mean that I want a mechanic that feels different or feels unique to the game. Stars of Akarios gave me unique tactical space dog fights. Gloomhaven has the dual use cards with the top and bottom. Tainted Grail leans into the exploration and survival, but also has the chaining combat system. Each of those feels different.

What I don’t really want is to only grab a handful of dice with an ability card and roll to see if I activate it. Now, something like Oathsworn has an element of that, you just grab dice and roll them. But it offers more than that, the card play and the battle flow system are unique. And the grabbing of dice is a push your luck element.

I hope it doesn’t come across that I don’t like rolling dice, rolling a handful of dice is satisfying. But if that is your mechanic, or main mechanic, that is old at this point. Sword and Sorcery, for example, mainly has your activating a card which tells you what dice to roll, and you can take actions to add dice. It’s why over time Sword and Sorcery has slipped so much for me.

Good Character Progression

Finally, I want good character progression. And this is also in two ways. Kind of like the scaling can be done in two ways. But I want good character progression where I get to know more about the character. This isn’t a must, but it is appreciated. Awaken Realms often has this as an add-on to their games. Echoes of the Past is that for Tainted Grail. You complete objectives, you get to read story about the horrible past your character has had.

It doesn’t need to be as blatantly obvious as that. But also in Tainted Grail, you find certain things that only a given character can do. Generally there are other ways to do them, but it’s easier for that character. And you find out more details about that characters past that way, or story, and it feels good to have something unique for that character.

But I also want to level up my characters fairly often. And leveling up can slow down as time goes on. But within the first few sessions I should get something new. I want to feel like my character is doing better and is stronger in the game. Generally this is more mechanical. For Gloomhaven, it’s less XP to level up early levels. For Tainted Grail, it’s chapters early on giving you things you’d normally spend XP for.

Final Thoughts

Now, this list probably isn’t everything that I want. Personally, I would love voice narration and app assistance for most any game. This goes back to the ease of play I talk about with an insert. That makes it easier to play and get to the table. But not flipping through a book also makes it easier and simpler to play.

So I want that for more games, but I don’t know that it is needed for every game. At least narration so I don’t have to read large swathes of text. But it’s also important that it’s done well. Don’t just have the designer of the game, or a random friend, read it, it needs to be well done. And same with the app, the app needs to be well designed as well, because a bad app can hurt ease of play if not careful.

What, to you are the important things to get you interested in a campaign game? What is often the biggest barrier for you to getting a campaign game to the table?

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