The Big Idea: Chapter-Sized Stories
We’ve usually run one massive campaign that goes on for years. That’s given us sprawling worlds and deep characters — but it can also get overwhelming, and sometimes (always?) we fizzle out without a clear ending.
I’d like to try something different: a Chapters format.
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Each Chapter is a self-contained arc (about 8–12 sessions).
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It has a clear beginning, middle, and end.
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At the end of each Chapter, we pause, reflect, and decide together if we want to:
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Continue to the next Chapter in the same setting, OR
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Switch to a different world for a while, then return later.
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Think of it like seasons of a TV show: each has its own story, but they can build into a larger saga.
The Menu: Six Concepts
Here are six Chapter pitches, grouped by setting. Tentatively, we might rotate settings — one 2297AD, then one Argentum, then one 40K, then back around. Nothing is set in stone here — we could pick entirely different settings — but I think three settings is about as much as a rotation system can handle.
2297AD (Hard Sci-Fi, Gritty Frontier)
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Ghost Soldiers – Washed-out veterans offered a second chance by a secret benefactor. Off-the-books missions, deniable ops, survival without support.
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Legionnaires of the Frontier – Soldiers of the French Foreign Legion, stationed on the edge of human space. Official, but expendable. Camaraderie, hard soldiering, and danger in the dark.
Argentum (Dark Epic Fantasy, Myth & Memory)
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The Forgotten Truth – Ordinary people living ordinary lives… except they know something is wrong with the world. Strange dreams, glimpses of impossible things, and then an Incident that cracks reality wide open.
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Legends in the Making – Adventurers striving to forge their own legend, so the Silver City will recognize them as equals. Ambition, glory, and the price of being remembered forever.
Warhammer 40K / 30K (Grimdark, War & Betrayal)
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Broken Spears – Loyalist Space Marines stranded behind enemy lines after a failed relief effort. Forced to survive with limited resources and interact with ordinary humans they must inspire or recruit to their cause.
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Shattered Crusade – Expeditionary fleet in the later Great Crusade, cut off by vast warp storms. Paranoia spreads, loyalties strain, and not every ally is what they seem.
The Full Pitches
2297AD: Ghost Soldiers
You are all washed-out veterans — former soldiers, cops, or security operators who’ve been chewed up and spat out by the system. Maybe you were wounded, maybe you got court-martialed, maybe you just burned out. Either way, your careers are over… or so you thought.
Now, a secret benefactor reaches out. They have the resources to fix what’s broken — cybernetics, medical treatment, debts erased. They’ll pay you well, too. The catch? Your missions will be off the books. No official sanction, no backup, no rescue if things go wrong.
You’ll be a deniable asset, pushed into the dirtiest corners of human expansion in 2297. Maybe you’re investigating strange events on a frontier colony. Maybe you’re sabotaging a rival power’s black project. Maybe you’re protecting humanity from a threat nobody even wants to admit exists.
This is your second chance — but it comes at a price.
2297AD: Legionnaires of the Frontier
The French Foreign Legion in 2297 is more than a fighting force — it’s a place to disappear, to start over, or to bury the past. Nobody asks where you came from, or why you joined. Maybe you’re running from debts, from dishonor, from the law… or maybe you just wanted to test yourself alongside some of the hardest soldiers humanity has to offer.
Life in the Legion is brutal but simple: march, fight, survive. You’re shipped out to the edges of human space, where colonies teeter between survival and collapse, where rival powers circle like wolves, and where strange discoveries hint at dangers beyond politics.
Your orders are clear: do what the Legion tells you, go where they send you. But what happens when the mission shifts from hard soldiering to something darker — covert operations, shadow wars, or threats no briefing could prepare you for?
In the Legion, you’ll find brotherhood, danger, and no way back.
Argentum: The Forgotten Truth
You are ordinary folk in an ordinary land. Farmers, smiths, clerks, soldiers. Life is simple, predictable… almost too predictable.
And yet — you know something isn’t right. You dream of places you’ve never seen, but which feel achingly familiar. You catch glimpses of strange creatures in the woods, shadows in the corners of your vision. Sometimes you remember something vast and important — but it slips away the moment you reach for it.
Everyone else seems fine. They laugh at your unease, dismiss your visions, or treat them as madness. Maybe they’re right. Maybe you are going mad.
Then, there is the Incident. A disaster, a murder, a supernatural event that no one can ignore. Suddenly the fragile surface of your world cracks wide open. What lies beneath is darker, stranger, and far more dangerous than you ever imagined.
Argentum: Legends in the Making
In this world, everyone knows the truth:
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The Silver City is where the worthy ascend, their legends preserved for all time.
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The City of the Gods awaits only those whose deeds echo across the ages.
You are not content to live and die in obscurity. You dream of greatness. Of adventure, of battle, of sacrifice, of deeds so bright they cannot be forgotten. If you can forge your own legend, the masters of Argentum will welcome you as equals… and perhaps, one day, even the gods themselves will call you kin.
Your journey begins humbly — a band of would-be heroes seeking their first true tale. But what will you risk to make your mark? What will you sacrifice to etch your name in eternity?
And what if the truth is not what you’ve been told?
40K: Broken Spears
The war was supposed to be won. A relief fleet was sent to liberate a besieged Imperial world. But everything went wrong. The fleet shattered, the enemy entrenched, and the world burns.
Now you, a handful of loyalist Astartes — survivors from different Chapters — are trapped behind enemy lines. Cut off from support, low on resources, and forced to rely on the courage of ordinary humans, you must find a way to complete your missions: destroy enemy strongpoints, rally resistance, and hold out against impossible odds.
The Emperor’s angels are mighty, but here you are more than warriors — you are symbols of hope, leaders of men, and sometimes the only thing standing between survival and oblivion.
30K: Shattered Crusade
The Great Crusade rolls on. The stars burn bright with conquest as the Imperium unites world after world. You are part of an expeditionary fleet, proud to carry out the Emperor’s will at the edge of known space.
Then, disaster. Without warning, vast warp storms erupt, severing all contact with Terra. Your fleet is stranded, cut off, adrift in hostile regions. The dream of unity becomes isolation — and worse, something is wrong within the fleet itself. Whispered doubts spread, loyalties strain, and not all allies can be trusted.
Is this a test of faith? A cosmic accident? Or the first tremors of something greater stirring in the galaxy?
Here, at the edge of the Great Crusade, you must decide: hold true to your oaths, or carve out a new destiny in the chaos.
Final Thoughts
This is just meant to get the mind working. No immediate answer is required — just take a look, let it simmer, and share your thoughts when you’ve had time.
One neat possibility is that this approach could also let us revisit old, beloved campaigns. Instead of trying to fully restart something that fizzled (usually for a mix of reasons), we could return for a single Chapter or two — not necessarily right after where we left off, but at some narratively interesting point in the future. That way, we can enjoy the highlights of a world we love without being trapped by its old baggage.
I don’t have all the answers here. Maybe this will be fantastic and give us a new rhythm for our games. Maybe we’ll find that we really do prefer sticking with a single long-running story. Either way, I think it could be worth trying.
Feedback is very welcome.
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