Campaign can be as simple or as complex as you like. Some can be played in a day, some can take years. It all depends on what you want out of your campaign and how much effort you want to put into planning and running it. Campaigns come in all different designs, but generally they fit into two broad types, narrative and map based campaigns.
Narrative campaigns are simply a collection of linked scenarios which are driven by a storyline. The simplest form of this is the Ladder campaign which is set of linked games where the outcome of a battle can effect the next battle, the campaign overall or both. The other version is a Tree campaign which are normally designed to run a few games where the results of the battle decided what scenario is played in the next battle.
Map based campaigns come in many different forms, all based on a map of some kind. The simplest type of map campaign is a territory campaign where sections on the map represent how well a player is doing in the campaign. Node campaigns are a very simplified map campaign where players battle over nodes that are interlinked, often superimposed over a normal map to give the campaign a narrative. Each new node taken represents the forces pushing the front line and the map shows the overall warzone without having to worry about army movements etc. Finally, the true map campaign, the most complicated of all campaigns, the map campaign gives the players control over their armies movement and battles giving them a whole new level of strategic gaming.
All these campaigns offer a new level to 40k but demand effort in return. For the simpler ones, these can easily be designed and run by friends, but for the more complicated map campaigns, it's better to have a dedicated games master who isn't playing in the campaign to co-ordinate things.
4 years ago
