Yam-Shaped Campaigns

This is not my idea; the term may have been created by Sly Flourish but I couldn't find the exact source. In any case, I think it is a concept worth discussing and spreading.

Many people discuss "railroad" campaigns and "sandbox" campaigns as if they are opposite choices. I don't think this is entirely accurate. In any case, there is a third alternative that is probably my favorite: the "Yam-Shaped Campaign."

A "Yam-Shaped Campaign" is "narrow at the beginning and end but wide in the middle". In other words, it has a clear beginning (possibly with clear goals) and one (or preferably, a few) explicit endings. However,  HOW and IF you'll get there is up to the PCs.

In 5e D&D, Tomb of Annihilation (ToA) and Curse of Strahd (CoS) are good examples. In B/X, my favorite is probably B10 Night's Dark Terror.

Instead of adding a picture of a yam to this post, let's try this.

The PCs start the game at point A, in an exact place and time. Although this might seem to be the case for all campaigns, it is not. For example, if you're running a random wilderness, the PCs might be in a world of quantum randomness.

Points B and C are two possible "endings": let's call them the good ending and the bad ending.

In this kind of campaign, the PCs will usually have, at the very least, a vague idea of B or C. Conversely, they might have a vague idea (or a few options) on where to go NEXT and they eventually find out about B or C as the campaign progresses.

The black lines represent the multiple paths the PCs can take. The grey lines represent possible paths that lead the PCs away from the proposed ending.

Let's try some concrete examples.

In Curse of Strahd, the PCs begin near the village of Barovia. They know one possible "bad ending": they get stuck in there forever. This is unlikely to actually happen, because both the PCs and the villain are unlikely to sit and wait. So they have a clear goal instead: get out of there.

With that in mind, they can wander around looking for an exit, and they'll eventually realize that the only way to do that is to face Strahd. This is "point B". When they face Strahd, they can defeat him, join him, replace him, etc. 

The book even contains a page describing what may happen next, but this is beyond the scope of the campaign. Having this is very common and useful, because you might want to continue playing after Strahd has been "resolved".

In the diagram above, I used "time" as an axis. This can be some type of "STRICT TIME RECORD" or something more abstract. Strahd has no clear timeline, but the confrontation gets closer and closer. Tomb of Annihilation has a strict time limit: if enough time is passed, the PCs simply fail and everyone is doomed (IIRC).

Both approaches are possible, but I think SOME time pressure is needed in this type of campaign or the PCs might wander around aimlessly.

In any case, there is at least two possible endings; probably more. I think of point B as some kind of "final showdown" that can result in victory or tragedy (C).

Even if the "endings" are clear, the GM might have to choose what to do if they are skipped. What happens if there is a TPK, for example (all PCs die?). Do they start again with new PCs? Turn back time? Find a new campaign? Or maybe advance the time line a few years, and create PCs that must serve/oppose the (now victorious) antagonist?

What if the PCs leave the continent or ignore the villain? Same thing. Most decent campaigns will at least give you an idea on what to do next, but you're mostly on your own.

When I wrote my own adventure, I didn't know this "Yam-Shaped Campaign" terminology. But I did include an "aftermath" section that I'll add here as an example, as it includes:

- Two possible "boss" endings.

- What happens if the adventurers just fail or leave.

- Ideas for more adventurers if they succeed.

These three possibilities are the bare minimum, I think, to include in a yam-shaped campaign. Here is how it looks:

Aftermath

Here is what happens after the end (or in the middle, in some cases) of the adventure.

If Malavor is slain, the bee-people will immediately destroy the remaining demons. The Queen (now free from mental slavery) will telepathically ask the adventures for death, but she will resurrect from its own carcass (as an ordinary bee) in less than one minute and fly away. The fortress will collapse within 1d6+6 days. The demons in the underground will be buried alive. Some might survive.

If the Queen dies, bee-people will disperse immediately. It will take Malavor 3d6 days to summon another avatar or come up with a new use for his fortress. His success is not guaranteed. He might try a different plan. In any case, the hive will still be a menace as long as Malavor lives.

If both the Queen and Malavor are still alive, the hive expands. In 2d4 weeks, the number of demons and bee-soldiers is doubled, and the hive’s defenses are reinforced. In another 1d6 weeks, Malavor manages to mutate himself into a bee-demon, half-insane, but with full control of the bee-people. The bloated and sick avatar dies after a while, but this no longer affects the bee-soldiers, that can now be cloned in the underground. Three months after the characters left, Malavor unleashes his army against the nearest village.

The underground is a different matter. The underground is currently running its own schemes. It supports Malavor but only because he lets them do their own stuff. If Malavor leaves the hive, they will quickly take it. They will seal all doors to the outside, leaving a couple of secret passages. They might demolish the towers to avoid getting attention from the outside, and cover the whole fortress in dirt to transform it into a mound. They are digging their own underground tunnels, leading to somewhere miles away… or miles below. There are more demons in the Abyss that spawned Malavor and the biomancers.

In addition, unless Zothaq and more than half the biomancers working underground are killed, the underground keeps expanding until it becomes some kind of megadungeon, full of demons and hybrid life forms. The forest around the ruins of the hive becomes progressively weirder, with mutant beasts prowling around. Fortunately, they have no plans of conquering neighboring towns right away (the idea here is that the characters find this out and come back after a while, hopefully when they are a bit stronger).

In conclusion, I have run multiple campaigns. Some could be described as "Railroads," others as "sandboxes," but lately, I have realized that Yam-Shaped Campaigns are my favorites. 

In my sandbox campaigns, I have noticed that the PCs (Player Characters) often get lost easily and have no clear direction. As a DM, I then have to decide abruptly where the game should end, or I let it fizzle out. Conversely, railroad campaigns feel terrible: it is like the PCs have no choice and I have the sole responsibility of taking the game to the end.

Yam-Shaped Campaigns give me the best of both worlds: the PCs are free to wander around and surprise me, but I always have an idea about what is going to happen next and we can even have an epic  - or tragic! - ending before moving on.

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