The Children's campaign is where our players built their characters for the main arc of The Wizard, The Witch, and The Wild One. This is a beautiful campaign that lives only under the paywall for the patrons of Worlds Beyond Number.
I had just finished listening to it before starting the primary campaign, and it only took me five months to get here, but it was worth it!
Let's dive right into it!
The Ghibli Vibes
There's something about this entire first campaign that feels like a Ghibli movie. And at first, I did not know if that was correct because I only heard people say it. At some point, over the vast material of content out there, I heard Brennan mention one of his childhood favorite movies was My Neighbor Totoro. So I watched it and could see where the Ghibli vibes came from.
The swift actions of people, the fast magic, and the subject of children to complicated situations are staples of Ghibli Studios' films. And I think The Children's Campaign is a testament of love from the cast to those movies.
Story-Driven Character Creation
One thing I loved to see during this campaign was the character creation process. Brennan took the players through some story events, and after each of these events, he would allow them to roll their next ability score.
The campaign is only eight episodes long in which the players build their characters' ability scores, feats, and anything else they want to take into adulthood.
The Prequel to it all
Multiple times during this campaign, there's a mention of this being the beginning of a multi-year story. And I loved how listening to the first episode, you can already see the ripples of this campaign through the adult version of the characters.
This campaign also set the traditions at this table, like whether to use a dice that fell on the floor.
If you haven't started listening to the primary campaign - I highly recommend you start with this one first. We'll talk about that more below.
There's Still Darkness
These are children, so you'd think the world would be kinder to them. But no, just like a girl sees her parents transformed into pigs and is forced to work in Spirited Away, this campaign isn't "easy" on the children either.
In fact, some moments fully made me weep.
At the end of the day, there was always another step forward or some kind of growth from those situations. In fact, sometimes it seems like children are more hardy than we give them credit for.
The World is Rich In Opportunities
I think the one abundantly clear thing is how even though the campaign transpires only in one place and it's evident how small the world of children is, we viewers get a sense the world is rich and vibrant. Once we leave this place and get to the primary campaign, there's much to explore.
Whether it's the people we are introduced to or just the items we interact with, the world is vaster than it seems.
The Main Campaign Will Hit Different
I put off listening to the main podcast episodes until I finished the children's campaign. And it's July as of writing these words - it's been five months since Worlds Beyond Number launched. And it was totally worth the wait.
There were SO many tiny details I wouldn't have connected with had I not listened to that campaign.
This Campaign Only Lives on Patreon
This article is a review, not a recap, like I do for D20. And you may have noticed I did not include a spoiler warning at the beginning either. As a Patreon project that lives only under the paywall, I want to honor the cast's decision to only share this campaign with their patrons.
If you are interested in Worlds Beyond Number and the children's campaign, please visit their Patreon and give them some love.
What did you think about this mini story? Do you agree it makes the primary campaign hit differently? I'd love to chat with you in the comments about WBN all day!
