Yes, i agree that one of the central things you need to do to prevent a campaign of this sort from turning into a series of might-as-well-be-one-shots is to have a home base, or home bases.
The multidimensional games I ran that didn't go well didn't have this. And the most successful multidimensional games I ran all did.  Amber has it by default (Amber is the home base, or the courts of chaos; those are the places you always come back to in the game).  But aside from that, my best D&D-style campaign I ever ran with a "multiverse" theme was my Port Blacksand campaign, where the city that was central to the game was at a vast multidimensional crossroad. 60% or more of the adventures all took place in the city itself, and the remainder involved short or long trips out to different planes.  It was a hugely successful model.

What I wonder is if you can also do another type of model, because we're assuming that the two possible models we're working with are the (unsuccessful) model of "constantly moving from universe to universe" or the (successful) model of "having a home base and taking short trips from there to different worlds".  Could there also be a model for, say, spending a certain length of time and detail in one place, and then moving on to the next world where you spend a certain length of time? Possibly returning to old haunts from time to time, so that you get a lot of different encounters and new experiences but there is some consistency?

I never ran a multiplanar game in that way; but now that I think about it that's basically how I ran my Mystara game. Over the course of the (very long) campaign, the player characters traveled like crazy, to almost every corner of the "known world" as well as more limited trips to the savage coast, the hollow world, etc.  And with the nations of the known world all being so different from one another, it was almost multi-planar in feeling, even though it was all happening on the same world. But it didn't become rootless, because the player characters would intersperse jumping around from place to place with long periods of staying a good while (several sessions) in a single area and getting to know the place and people in more depth.

RPGPundit

Quoteor the (successful) model of "having a home base and taking short trips from there to different worlds"

This is the formula most of the multiverse-themed games adhere to, as seen in Amber, Everway, Planescape, Infinite Worlds, etc. In the end, the multiverse seems to exist as an extension of the central hub´s conflicts. In fact, I dont know of a multiverse-themed game that dont adhere to this.

Quote from: silva;397349

Quoteor the (successful) model of "having a home base and taking short trips from there to different worlds"

This is the formula most of the multiverse-themed games adhere to, as seen in Amber, Everway, Planescape, Infinite Worlds, etc. In the end, the multiverse seems to exist as an extension of the central hub´s conflicts. In fact, I dont know of a multiverse-themed game that dont adhere to this.

BTRC's Timelords in it's default setting doesn't adhere to the 'Home Base' model, at least early on in the game.  It's alternate setting with a 'Dimensional Patrol' type of organization does.

Quote from: RPGPundit;396943As a parallel to the other thread, what are the ways that these kinds of universe-hopping campaigns can go wrong? What are the best ways to avoid common problems in these sorts of games?

RPGPundit

When campaigns take this course, I develop concerns similar to "saving the world" campaigns, wherein the players can potentially form a disconnect with the campaign once it returns to the standard fare of dungeon and wilderness exploration. Once you sail the planar seas, save the world, or engage in other adventures of "immortal" stature, the regular stuff can become a bit boring to the players, a sort of let down, or they might feel standard adventuring is beneath their super-heroic characters. I prefer to limit this sort of activity, or typically I reserve it for high level characters closing in on retirement age.

Quote from: RPGPundit;397278Yes, i agree that one of the central things you need to do to prevent a campaign of this sort from turning into a series of might-as-well-be-one-shots is to have a home base, or home bases.

**SNIP**

I never ran a multiplanar game in that way; but now that I think about it that's basically how I ran my Mystara game. Over the course of the (very long) campaign, the player characters traveled like crazy, to almost every corner of the "known world" as well as more limited trips to the savage coast, the hollow world, etc.  And with the nations of the known world all being so different from one another, it was almost multi-planar in feeling, even though it was all happening on the same world. But it didn't become rootless, because the player characters would intersperse jumping around from place to place with long periods of staying a good while (several sessions) in a single area and getting to know the place and people in more depth.

RPGPundit

I think it needs something to function as a home base, even if the mobile dimensional camp where they sleep on the cold ground is "home base" and it happens to be wherever the players are.  In this case, you can be far more arbitrary in where you send and what happens to them simply due to Chandler's Law.

A mystical pilgrimage through dangerous realms to Higher Mecca, a patrol from the Dimensional Pyramid through neighboring realms, a quest for the lost Grimoire of the Heavens - would actually be a cool premise.

Remember that everything is better with Samurai, also.

Lost!  In - Multispace!