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Campaign of the Month July 2026: Planejammer: Crisis on Infinite Oerths
“Behold, Planar Travelers of the Multiverse! July’s Campaign of the Month has appeared from the cosmic rifts of space and time, revealing “Planejammer: Crisis on Infinite Oerths” and her captain, the multi-award winning Dungeon_Master_Loki. As the intrepid crew of veteran players psychically sail through a culmination of campaigns — over 46 years of games built by a master of the artform — they traverse tales of adventure that go all the way back to the beginning of roleplaying games as we know them. Prepare your mental defenses for a campaign to end all others, unless of course the scattered heroes manage to save us all… again!”
~ Hail, Dungeon_Master_Loki! As a now 4-time winner of Obsidian Portal’s Campaign of the Month (and Campaign of the Year in 2011, and two Silver ENNIES, just to name a few), we have had the privilege of seeing your games unfold since basically the beginning of OP. And now we find ourselves here, at the finale, where surviving heroes of your other worlds cross planar spaces and timelines to join together and fight an all-encompassing evil that threatens all of existence. For those who haven’t had the chance to read all the adventure logs (or those young’uns who weren’t born yet when you started), can you briefly sum up the stories of your previous campaigns that have all lead to this grand convergence?
Each story arc was an individual subcampaign with successive generations of PCs. I’ve summed it up on the OP for Crisis pretty succinctly:
“The Lightbringers relit the sun of Greatspace saving the sphere from T’lann the Vampire Lord.
The Seven Stars managed to defeat Vecna’s bid for Godhood and take down the Engine Consummate before the Illithids could rewrite reality.
The Spelljoined retrieved the Dreamstone and put it out of reach of those who would abuse it.
The Misfits took over the Citadel of the Planes and evidence that Gith may have returned.
The Medicine Show stopped illithid agents surveilling Sigil.
The Parasol Patrol defended the crucial nexus points of Multiverse 19 and assembled the Shuttle of Skuld.
The Planewalker’s Guild gained firsthand knowledge of the Planebreaker and defeated the return of the Whispering Strangler.
Meanwhile in the far future on the other side of The Gap, The Drifters defeated the first appearance of Vecna cultists and Illithids in the Pact Worlds.”
Each of these events aided or foiled behind the scenes machinations of the illithidae leading to the current final act.
~ “Crisis on Infinite Oerths” seems like a massive undertaking. You’re combining multiple game systems, multiple gaming groups, different levels of technology, and what must amount to hundreds of previous storylines and characters. The rules laid out in your wiki seem to cover just about everything. How did you tackle this cosmic-level task and what advice would you give to those who want to do something similar?
Third Party Publishers are a vital rousource, hands down. There is a lot of work in our industry that is just as high a caliber as Paizo and WotC, often done by the same designers. In that ecosystem they can be more adventurous. The modern stuff I run, like Department 7, uses rules from the PF1 version of Bloodlines and Black Magic by Stormbunny Studios for instance. You can find solid stuff for whatever your weird little DMs heart could desire just by finding books you like and locating third party stuff from the same authors.
As to tackling the crazy amount of spatiotemporal detail, each campaign is a chapter with its own major and minor arcs and blood ties to the PCs in the other games. Each one has an increasing amount of source material to draw upon dictated by the actions of their predecessors.
Take notes or convince a player to take notes. Offer Bounties for Adventure Logs or other contributions from players, bonus points for art. Most of the art for this game is by one of my players (including a full tarot deck featuring present and past characters), Syreene (Kenari_Sanura on OP).
Most importantly, take notes. Use that wiki on OP to add stuff you make up on the fly. You can leave yourself notes in the GM section of any wiki page or character.
~ “Crisis” has been running now for about a year, it seems. Have there been any favorite, memorable moments so far?
I polled my players for this one. Here are some of the responses:
When Dinya flew all the way toward 2 different illithids, only to have them sniped by magic users, so Kenari teleported her right in front of a third so she could full attack. Dropped two mythic points to double the damage on the second crit and dealt a total of 156 slashing/cold/holy/warp/axiomatic damage in one turn. Pathfinder just has a lovely way with big-ass numbers.
… having to coup-de-grace the illithid everyone tried so hard to keep alive is a great honorable mention in a dramatic irony sort of way
When we found AU Superman in an illithid prison pod and it turns out he was a Deep-Cut Pelias (of Scarlet Citadel fame) reference
Dimension dooring into a kaiju’s eyeball
Kenari’s reunion with her lost lover Dassam.
Shooting out the beholder’s eye with a dragon pistol due to his anti magical field and then making him go away with a hostile gate.
Turning the whole evil marine tech army swimming in on us into a frozen Giger art with a Holy Ice wall
~ As a professional GM and long-time gamer (all the way back to Chainmail!), you’ve undoubtedly seen some fantastic characters come and go. You even got a chance to game with Nystul, of Magic Aura fame! Which characters were the real stand-outs for you — the ones that really made an impact in your memories and on your stories?
Oswald Lethbridge Smythe-Carruthers, a renegade giff played by Dudley Batchelor (who is no longer with us). Fabulously fun, laid back until it’s time to hit something, and eventually attained his goal of smacking a god when they prevented the ascension of Vecna in the Seven Stars game. A Strength of 22 so he was really good at hitting things.
Kenari Sanura the catfolk jaunter from the Spelljoined and currently at the table. Not only has the character been an endless source of fun but her artwork also has created the look and feel of the Planejammer Campaign. Played by Emily Vittori.
Captain D’artalon Rix played by Randy Eharb (also no longer with us). Fantastic role player who embraced the captaincy and made it truly his own. One of the few players to truly embrace the hero aspect rather than roguish or anti-heros types.
Etsuriko Chi-asson Toraneko the Shou monk, played by Rachel G. Primary cat herder of the party for over two decades. Now ascended and has become a celestial dragon after the player left the table.
And there are so many more after all these years of gaming I’d have to go on for pages.
~ What moments during these campaigns seemed to excite or resonate with your Players the most?
Obviously the big crazy combats, just as with many groups, but also when they put together pieces of the big picture. My plots are obviously complex and I love their glee and satisfaction when they figure parts of it out. This is especially gratifying as the pieces all come together.
~ We can’t wait to see the conclusion of this epic story. Without giving anything away to your players, can you give us any hints about what’s ahead or themes you’d love to explore further? What about campaigns beyond this one?
Crisis will unfold in different ways depending on two factors: Player Actions, and the Tarot Deck. We have a full tarot deck created specifically for the campaign (many of the cards can be seen throughout the wiki) and cards periodically get drawn influencing events so even I don’t know the exact final act.
There will be forays into other continuities including a return to the Weyland Yutani universe and possibly a visit to the United Federation of Planets in another. There will be at least one more visit to Gamma World. This is all known to the players. The rest is top secret for now.
There will be other games that share this omniverse, but they will be on a much smaller scale. I’ll also be playing around with other systems like Tales of the Valiant from Kobold Press, the upcoming Delve from Stephen Radney-McFarland, the upcoming Heretic system from Total PArty Kill Press, and a lot more X-Crawl from Goodman Games.
~ As an author, designer, and teacher, you have already given us many lessons through your campaign pages, your interviews on Obsidian Portal, and your work on various game books that we have had the pleasure to read and to run. When it comes to preparing and playing games, we’ve learned a great deal thanks to your efforts. As GM’s and players, we thank you for it. In lieu of asking for tips and tricks, we’d like to instead ask your opinion on this final question: what makes storytelling with games important?
TTRPGs are, in my opinion, at their best as collaborative storytelling. Stories have been part of life since the cavemen were sitting around fires trying to explain the world. They resonate with something primal in us, and giving players some freedom to help create and develop the world not only takes work off your shoulders but also makes them invested. This is why I love storytelling games the most out of all the options available.
“And with that, travelers, another chapter in an epic saga ends. Stay tuned to this campaign to see how the adventure concludes. Keep an eye on the stars for other gargantuan games and future Campaign of the Month winners. Don’t forget to nominate your favorites (yes, even your own) via our community forums. Happy Gaming!”
