Campaigns vs Modules
Understanding Mimir’s two-level hierarchy for organizing your D&D games.
The Problem
When preparing a D&D campaign, you’re managing two different scopes:
- Campaign-level - The overarching story, recurring characters, world lore
- Adventure-level - Specific dungeons, encounters, session content
Mixing these creates chaos: Where do you put the goblin boss? Under the campaign? But he’s only in this dungeon. What about the recurring villain? She appears in multiple adventures.
Mimir’s Solution
Mimir separates these concerns:
Campaigns contain:
- World-building and lore
- Recurring NPCs
- Player characters
- The overarching story
Modules contain:
- Specific adventures
- Maps and encounters
- Location-specific monsters
- Session prep documents
Why This Works
Reusability
A module like “Goblin Cave” can be:
- Used in multiple campaigns
- Run for different groups
- Adapted and improved over time
Focus
When preparing for Tuesday’s session:
- Open the relevant module
- See only what you need
- Don’t wade through campaign-wide content
Organization
As your campaign grows:
- Add new modules without cluttering old ones
- Archive completed adventures
- Track progress by module
Practical Examples
A Published Adventure
Running “Lost Mine of Phandelver”:
- Campaign: “Phandelver Campaign”
- Module 1: “Goblin Arrows” (ambush + Cragmaw Hideout)
- Module 2: “Phandalin” (town exploration)
- Module 3: “Cragmaw Castle”
- Module 4: “Wave Echo Cave”
A Homebrew Campaign
Your original world:
- Campaign: “The Shattered Realms”
- Module 1: “The Haunted Mine” (first adventure)
- Module 2: “Festival of Shadows” (town event)
- Module 3: “Dragon’s Lair” (climax)
One-Shots
Even one-shots benefit:
- Campaign: “One-Shot Collection”
- Module 1: “Goblin Heist”
- Module 2: “Murder Mystery”
- Module 3: “Dragon Hunt”
When to Use Each
Put in the Campaign
- Setting information
- Recurring NPCs
- Player character assignments
- World maps
- Faction details
Put in the Module
- Dungeon maps
- Encounter monsters
- Location-specific NPCs
- Session prep documents
- Read-aloud text
The Boundary Cases
Some content could go either way:
Major villain - Campaign NPC, appears in multiple modules Dungeon boss - Module monster, only in that adventure Town shopkeeper - Could be either, depends on recurrence
When in doubt: If you’ll reference it in multiple modules, put it in the campaign. If it’s session-specific, put it in the module.
Benefits for Long Campaigns
As campaigns run for months or years:
- Modules act as “chapters” you can reference
- Old modules preserve their state
- New modules start fresh
- Campaign-level content evolves