RPGs That Feel Like True CAMPAIGNS

[Spike]

Hi Codex. I made a similar thread shortly after I first joined in April 2023 calling it something like "True RPG Experience" or something. But I want to see what kind of answers I get by changing the language to "campaign". What I am talking about is a game that has that epic "campaign" feeling of, say, (vanilla) WoW (so I hear) or Everquest, but is single-player. Some come to mind off the top of my head: Outward, Mount and Blade (Warband and Bannerlord). As a side note, are there any MnB mods that capture this well? I am aware of a few (Prophecy of Pendor? Brytenwalda?) but recommendations would be nice so I could narrow my search. I also remember being told Might and Magic 6-8 are like this. And some others.

To clarify, the amount of time and things you see in WoW over time, most of all the investment in your character, feels like a campaign. A campaign of one, ultimately: your toon and how you tackle the world and its many challenges. A modern (nu-male) word would be "content". What single-player games convey this? I know all RPGs to an extent capture this, and I sort of feel it playing Diablo 2 mods (Median and Project Diablo 2), but I am looking for anything I may have missed, or is some epic mod or obscure hidden gem or something. Tamriel Rebuilt is another good example of this.

Thanks fellas.

 

[Infinitron]

Aren't you just asking for RPGs that are very long?

 

[Spike]

Aren't you just asking for RPGs that are very long?

I suppose, but I am also looking for deep character investment too. No need for reddit reac

 

[Infinitron]

Aren't you just asking for RPGs that are very long?

I suppose, but I am also looking for deep character investment too. No need for reddit reac

I'd tell you to play Owlcat's Pathfinder RPGs, but from the examples you cited it sounds like you're primarily looking for a non-party-based, single character RPG with a heroic "one man against the world" narrative arc.

Maybe try playing one of the longer Neverwinter Nights fan modules?

 

[Spike]

Aren't you just asking for RPGs that are very long?

I suppose, but I am also looking for deep character investment too. No need for reddit reac

I'd tell you to play Owlcat's Pathfinder RPGs, but from the examples you cited it sounds like you're primarily looking for a non-party-based, single character RPG with a heroic "one man against the world" narrative arc.

Maybe try playing one of the longer Neverwinter Nights fan modules?

Pathfinder sounds cool, that's in the backlog. NWN fan modules sound good as well.

 

[Falksi]

Dragon Age Veilguard feels like a true camp-pain.

 

[Vincente]

As a side note, are there any MnB mods that capture this well?

Blood and Steel.

 

[Spike]

As a side note, are there any MnB mods that capture this well?

Blood and Steel.

This sounds phenomenal. What a recommendation

 

[Butter]

The answer is in series that allow you to import your parties from one entry to the next.

Wizardry 6
Wizardry 7
Wizardry 8

Pool of Radiance
Curse of the Azure Bonds
Secret of the Silver Blades
Pools of Darkness

 

[kangaxx]

Hitching to the Goldbox wagon, the Krynn games were great too.

 

[Odoryuk]

Neverwinter Nights +official addons

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Hi Codex. I made a similar thread shortly after I first joined in April 2023 calling it something like "True RPG Experience" or something. But I want to see what kind of answers I get by changing the language to "campaign".

Series in which characters can be imported from one game to the next, e.g.

The first three Wizardry games
The Bard's Tale Trilogy
The Gold Box quartet starting with Pool of Radiance
The Gold Box Krynn/Dragonlance trilogy
Eye of the Beholder Trilogy
Wizardry VI/VII/VIII

There are many pairs of games where party transfer is allowed (e.g. Dungeon Master → Chaos Strikes Back, Might & Magic I→2 and 4→5, Dark Sun 1→2)

Also games without party transfer where the plot continues in some sense from game to game, e.g. Ultima IV/V/VI, could also be considered a "campaign".

 

[Dark Souls II]

A Legionary's Life includes two literal campaigns. Scipio's campaign in Iberia & Africa during the 2nd Punic War, and Publius Sulpicius Galba's campaign during the 2nd Macedonian War. If you're looking for a meaningful sense of progress, the game has it.

Another obvious option is Baldur's Gate EET. You can play through all Baldur's Gate games and expansions seemlessly, starting at level 1 and finishing at level 40.

Crusader Kings III will probably tick that box too. The dynasty mechanics they introduced essentially make your entire dynasty an RPG character that you can level up and feel the progress that you make, as opposed to CKII, where whenever your character dies you start back at nothing.

 

[man_at_arms]

In terms of RPGs with a sense of geographical breadth and a lot of actions ("quests") undertaken by the player or party? Without repeating any mentioned above:

Since you mentioned Diablo 2, Titan Quest might be up your alley. It spans wide geographical area and is pretty darn long, especially with the expansions it got in more recent times. From Greece to Egypt to Mesopotamia to China to Hell to Norway and it keeps going. Grim Dawn might be a better game, but I haven't played Grim Dawn yet so I don't have an opinion about it.

Jagged Alliance 3 feels somewhat grand, but maybe not as far-reaching in scope and scale as Mount & Blade. I spent 50 hours in a single playthrough.

There's the X series, like X4. Space Mount & Blade made by Germans. Might not be your cup of tea; it's pretty heavy on the management aspect to the detriment of most other aspects.

Battle Brothers is another one of those Mount & Blade adjacent games that you're probably aware of.

Gothic 2 (with Night of the Raven). Ultimately the game world is not that big, but you do get the sense of exploration and discovery that Vanilla WoW gave. The zero-to-hero progression makes you feel like you've come a long way since starting the game, and the game world evolving between the various chapters of the game (in terms of new enemies appearing on the map, new dialogue and quests unlocking) contributes to a "campaign feeling". I would recommend ELEX for the same reasons. And if you really like ELEX, ELEX 2 is honestly pretty similar. A lot of people were disappointed in that game on release because it was "one step forward, one step back", rather than an iterative improvement over ELEX 1, like how Gothic 2 refined some aspects of Gothic 1.

Shadows of Forbidden Gods is a shoestring budget 1 man indie game that's similar to Crusader Kings 2, except you're a dark god bent on taking over the world.

Gedonia is another indie game, made as an open world RPG. The story is very basic and it's jank.

I guess I'll shill Kingdom Come Deliverance for having a good deal of content even if it doesn't capture the feeling of breadth that the word "campaign" evokes.

These recommendations are from my Steam library based on hours played and what fit the theme of a "campaign". I'm sure I missed something.

 

[Maxie]

Gothic 2 (with Night of the Raven). Ultimately the game world is not that big, but you do get the sense of exploration and discovery that Vanilla WoW gave. The zero-to-hero progression makes you feel like you've come a long way since starting the game, and the game world evolving between the various chapters of the game (in terms of new enemies appearing on the map, new dialogue and quests unlocking) contributes to a "campaign feeling". I would recommend ELEX for the same reasons. And if you really like ELEX, ELEX 2 is honestly pretty similar. A lot of people were disappointed in that game on release because it was "one step forward, one step back", rather than an iterative improvement over ELEX 1, like how Gothic 2 refined some aspects of Gothic 1.

Remove this and stop posting. PB games are cool because they are specifically *not* epic campaigns.

 

[man_at_arms]

Remove this and stop posting. PB games are cool because they are specifically *not* epic campaigns.

The progression of the character and the evolution of the story fits his description of "your toon and how you tackle the world and its many challenges", even if the world design is tight and vertical in nature rather than the vast, sprawling and often empty areas found in other open world games.

 

[Maxie]

Remove this and stop posting. PB games are cool because they are specifically *not* epic campaigns.

The progression of the character and the evolution of the story fits his description of "your toon and how you tackle the world and its many challenges", even if the world design is tight and vertical in nature rather than the vast, sprawling and often empty areas found in other open world games.

Gothic guy winds up in a shitty prison colony for no specific reason, steals a magic sword and kills a lesser demon heeded by a bunch of weed huffing lunatics. Of course your guy gets from zero to hero, it's an RPG. 'Epic' to me is defined by its stakes, with the most stereotypical example being Mask of the Betrayer, where hitting epic levels means you fight gods and your quests are mostly about metaphysics.

 

[rubinstein]

Neverwinter Nights +official addons

sotu and hotu is a decent combo, not gonna lie. theres even a fan-made bridge afair, but i cant comment on its quality really, as i havent played much of it.

 

[man_at_arms]

Of course your guy gets from zero to hero, it's an RPG.

This feeling is a lot less common than "all RPGs have it". In fact many RPGs feel like treading water due to how they are balanced. In the worst case, with level scaling like in Oblivion, but in better designed games, by throwing increasingly difficult enemies at you proportionally to your expected level or gear progression. I'm sure you are well aware of how Gothic 1 & 2 play, but for the benefit of any third party reading this, Gothic starts out with enemies of all kinds of difficulty level present in the map as soon as you start the game, so it really contributes to the "zero to hero, grand character progression" feeling when you are able to defeat them. This makes the game feel a lot more grand and impactful than Galaxy-spanning games like KoTOR.

There's also the chapter system of the Gothics, particularly Gothic 2, with the world evolving as the story progresses, which makes the journey through the game feel really impactful.

I think those elements contribute greatly to a sense of "campaign", even if the games are geographically limited.

 

[SixDead]

Vagrus - The Riven Realms. Long game, long questlines, takes years in-game, winning condition is to fullfill your character's livegoal - wealth, knowledge or fame.

 

[Spike]

Of course your guy gets from zero to hero, it's an RPG.

This feeling is a lot less common than "all RPGs have it". In fact many RPGs feel like treading water due to how they are balanced. In the worst case, with level scaling like in Oblivion, but in better designed games, by throwing increasingly difficult enemies at you proportionally to your expected level or gear progression. I'm sure you are well aware of how Gothic 1 & 2 play, but for the benefit of any third party reading this, Gothic starts out with enemies of all kinds of difficulty level present in the map as soon as you start the game, so it really contributes to the "zero to hero, grand character progression" feeling when you are able to defeat them. This makes the game feel a lot more grand and impactful than Galaxy-spanning games like KoTOR.

There's also the chapter system of the Gothics, particularly Gothic 2, with the world evolving as the story progresses, which makes the journey through the game feel really impactful.

I think those elements contribute greatly to a sense of "campaign", even if the games are geographically limited.

Gothic 1 and 2 are among my favorite games of all time for all the reasons you have listed (and more) and are two examples of what I was thinking. By "epic" I do not necessarily mean a story but as you said that sense of grand progression, with iterative challenges going on and on, with bonus end-game "bosses" if applicable (Outward has this). Another example is something like Life is Feudal. I have not played this but I have heard the progression is painstaking but truly "epic" when you finally get going somewhere and the gameplay stakes are high. I want an "epic" game in terms of gameplay, maybe I should clarify. I have Gedonia and am excited to play it. I know all the big names and obvious games. I am just looking for anything I may have missed, or want to know what to "keep in mind" for my backlog. That epic-feeling of an MMO in terms of what a massive task it is just appeals to me but I want to find that in a single-player game. Maybe it is mostly only something you can find in (vanilla) WoW or Everquest after all. But Gothic captured it too, and Outward. I just want this sense of needing to master challenge after challenge after challenge. Diablo 2 Median and Project Diablo 2 cover this, even though it gets tedious with grinding. I was not clear enough it seems but you understood me: the "campaign" feeling comes from the gameplay. Maybe I am getting too hung up on a turn of phrase but I really like this kind of thing. Maybe it's time I finally play WoW or Everquest.

 

[Pink Eye]

I didn't read this whole thread but three games come to my mind:

Dark Sun: Shattered Lands - it's quite epic in its story. You start off as a group of adventurers who then get captured and turned to slaves, forced to fight in a gladiator arena. After a few fights in the arena, you and your group do a revolt for freedom. Once you make it outside you get this big open world where you roam around helping villages with their problems. There's also an invasion that you repel to keep the villages safe. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, there's a nice dungeon in the sewers that you explore where you meet a mad sorcerer who does experiments on people. Shattered Lands has a great campaign that has you start as lowly slaves then scales to high level stuff.

Ravenloft: Stone Prophet - I love this game a lot, it features a huge open world that is a delight to explore. You have big dungeons. Riddles that you need to solve. Quests that have you traveling the open world. The game is great. Though Stone Prophet doesn't have a story in the traditional sense as you mostly just go from dungeon to dungeon whilst getting clues on how to stop Anhktepot's curse on Har'Akir. I think it fits the criteria because of how long the game is.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker - in terms of story: you start off as an adventurer who then becomes a ruler, who then becomes a defender of the world against extra terrestrial pranksters. Kingmaker instills that feeling of progression as you go from adventurer to monarch.