Emperor offers about four dozen single-player scenarios, grouped into a handful of dynasty-specific campaigns. Emperor players can begin any campaign and are not required to work sequentially through them as they had to in Pharaoh/Cleopatra. The campaigns are listed in chronological order so players can journey through the evolution of China's dynasties by playing the campaigns in sequence. Emperor also has "sandbox" modes as in Zeus/Poseidon so players can simply play without the need to attain objectives to end the game. Several multiplayer scenarios are also available for competitive or collaborative play, and Emperor will also ship with a campaign/scenario editor similar to the one which appeared in a post-release patch for Poseidon.