Campaign '26: Adventures in Waldesland
As we approach the cusp of a new year, a new RPG challenge rears its head. This time its the big one, taking the dungeons and hex maps of yesteryear and putting them into practice. Its Campaign 2026! Thought up by Press the Beast, the goal of the challenge is to run or play a game for as much of the upcoming year as possible, starting from February. Put down the theory-crafting and daydreaming, its time to sharpen schedules, focus, and commit to what this hobby is all about: play!
Campaign '26 has come at an auspicious time for me. One of its pillars is posting about the campaign (something something trees falling), generally on blogs like this one. I made the Waldish Gazette only a week ago, with the goal of recording my upcoming in-person Dungeon Crawl Classics campaign for the sake of consistency (to encourage commitment, and to solidify my on-the-fly decisions). I really enjoy session reports and campaign retrospectives, so getting an opportunity to combine that with this challenge makes for a happy coincidence.
My campaign, the hastily named 'Adventures in Waldesland', is intended to be a straightforward thing. A band of intrepid adventurers delving dungeons and getting into hijinks, running mostly by the book. Partly because other than the very first level 0 adventure, 'The Portal Under the Stars', I intend to run mostly original stuff. I need something reasonably familiar in rules and genre for me and my players. That said, I want to lean more into the fantastical and strange. I'm a history nerd, and without helping it, grubby politics and logistics weigh heavily on my campaigns. Having run a more whimsical two-shot recently, I'm chasing the freedom that comes with fairy-tale logic, a world more like Alice's Wonderland than stratified (if often no less weird!) medieval Europe. That won't stop me from pillaging liberally from history of course; I love amusing anachronisms and fun combinations of ill-fitting historical concepts.
Why DCC? The vibe is something that can be achieved with almost any system, but I believe that its swingy and loose systems lend themselves well to the exaggerated sword & sorcery I'm looking for, while also having enough to mechanical meat to enthrall 'modern' players. I intend to report back my thoughts and experiences with the rules.
And so the players will find themselves as the impoverished inhabitants of the village of Muddle in Konkers Valley. Their only hope of escape from a life of hard work and grudging mediocrity are the final words of a dying old man, speaking of treasure hidden in ancient mounds that can only be opened under the right stars; stars that are aligning once again after a 50 year hiatus. The dissatisfied and ambitious have gathered around the mounds, ready to improve their lot, or die trying. Those who survive might find they have a taste for a life of adventure...