Filling In My Campaign One Pebble at a Time

For the past few days I've been developing small sites the players can find in my campaign.  I like to do this because the work up front isn't all that much, they are little surprises if the players find them and it helps me flavor the immediate area.  It doesn't take a lot to get the player's interest.  While I'm stopping short of "Squirrel!". it's pretty close.  I say this with confidence since I am mainly a player.

A couple of examples:
As the party hacks away as the undergrowth this section of the forest gets darker.  The canopy of leaves blocks out most of the sunlight.  One of you notice the slightest of trails.  It winds towards a thicket of trees.  Within the trees you spot a battered shack with a severed arm at the peek pointing toward the sky.

The road looks to have been cared for at one time.  Even in rough shape it is better than most of the main kingdom roads.  Along the eastern edge of the road is a shallow swamp.  Several dozen blacken stumps jut out of the dark water.  As you continue the swamp gets larger and the swamp noises increase.  It reaches a point where you have to shout to speak to the person beside you.  Its then you notice, a half buried obelisk stands tilted about fifty yards in. 

As a player, I'm checking both these places out.  Might be nothing.  Might be just a old thing along the way.  Might be the start of an adventure.  You don't know until you investigate.

Say I decide to make the shack the home of a witch.  All of sudden the nearby villages might have animals come up missing.  A child that wandered off into the woods has not returned.  I'm about to say something corny, forgive me, but its like throwing a pebble into the pond and watch it effect the surrounding area.  Then again, it may be nothing.  And having sites like this that are mundane are very important.  Not every cabin in the woods should be an event.  Same with the obelisk, maybe its just an old decoration left over from a sunken building and that building is all but gone. 

Anyway, that's what I've been working on.  To help ease the work load I've been using maps that I've drawn, +matt jackson, +Dyson Logos, +Simon Forster, and +Rob Conley.  I've been using various gaming products too numerous to name here, but I will in a later post.  Give some shout outs to those who made my campaign better.  And I'm also plugging in a few pre-made adventures by others because I liked them a lot.

Okay, time to go throw another pebble.