Recently I’ve been developing the newb campaign. They are in a frontier village. It was formed because of the large silver mine in the area. Over the past year there has been a large migration of adventurers due to the recent discovery of a massive burial ground (BurrowMaze) and the amount of treasure being found. To the south, there is the outskirt of a now dead kingdom that has been reclaimed by the forest over the years. The border is patrolled by guards regularly. It is illegal to enter this area without a writ, provided by the nobility. They want to settle the area, expand the kingdom, but by the right people. This is where I will be using the Kingmaker adventure path.
There also several small lairs of critters about. The party recently wiped out tribe of goblins. There is another tribe of goblins, much larger and a lair of ogres that will come into play later. And there is an intense little temple adventure of my own making a little farther out. So there is a lot for them to choose from.
In the village there will be some good role-playing opportunities, different guilds and races and other organizations with agendas. It is run by a very tolerant baron. He doesn’t get too worked up as long as no one is murdering people in the streets or setting fires to the businesses. Right now this is what I am focusing on. I have the map and the basic descriptions of buildings, but need to a little more detailing for the NPCs.
I am also going to start using a billboard. This is something I’ve always loved to use and something I wrote about long ago. This is always a fun thing of the players to interact with and an excellent place to plant adventure leads.
This week I will be giving them their own set of dice. That is if I get them on time. I ordered them online and I've been tracking their movement every night.
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So, you're giving them a sandbox-type adventure path and a megadungeon to jump back and forth? Sounds like fun.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of a real physical prop to grab their attention rather than just a list of what the DM feels is relevant spoon fed to the PCs. And how it focuses things to start in the Realworld. Very cool.
http://houndofculain.blogspot.com/
Wow. I never had a DM give me my own set of dice. I wanna come play in YOUR campaign....
ReplyDeleteAnd I have to admit when I read the sentence " It is run by a very tolerant baron" my brain read "bacon" instead of "baron." My initial thought wasn't "That makes no sense. Bacon running a town?!?" Instead it was "What's 'tolerant bacon' mean?"
I suppose that means it's lunchtime.
It sounds like there's a lot going on and very good fun - if you decide to open it up to another party or parties online, to add even more dynamism, I'd be interested in playing someone or something.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great campaign so far.. for newbs and non-newbs both!! Do you do any role playing with the players offline or outside of the session. I recently did this with my group and it was kind of fun.It was all non combat based interaction with various NPCs trying to raise money to build a base of operations.
ReplyDeleteI've just recently found courtesy of Bard. Being very new to RPGs I've enjoyed looking around. You've got alot of great resources. I've also been enjoying reading about your newb campaign. I hope my first face to face RPG experience will have such a dedicated DM. I look forward to reading more.
ReplyDeleteMike Yeah, I'm setting a small sandbox and allow them to go in what direction they choose. They were smart enough last time to realize one of the choices was beyond their ability.
ReplyDeleteBoric G I'm super DM! None of them have dice and I thought it would be very cool if they all had their own set. And bacon does sound good.
Porky Speaking of bacon. I think I'll stick to one party at a time for now. More you make my head explode.
The Dave No role playing outside our game. These are all people at work. Once in a while I will call them by their character name by the copier, but that's all that further it goes.
Dan Thanks for taking a look around. I hope some of all the stuff I prattle on about is useful.
Tim.. We talk shop at work all the time, its funny how many nerds come out of the closet when they hear us chatting about AC and character classes.
ReplyDeleteI like that idea of the billboard. I've always just told the players about signs put on a board at the inn, if I did anything like that at all. A physical object would seem to be a useful addition to the game.
ReplyDeleteI think that original billboard post was before my entry into the blogosphere -- that's a super idea.
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