Making AL-legal Open World

So my players are wrapping up Season 1 and I've got a rather ambitious plan for them. Upon finishing 1-14, I intend to have them decide whether they want to free Phlan or not. If they do, then they can try the fight against the Vorgansharax. If they defeat him, they continue on to the PHLAN 1-1/2/3 modules. If not, they will end up in a boat in the middle of the Moonsea.

At that point, I want to open up a world map and tell them they can go anywhere. Basically have Chapter 3 of SKT, but tie in every storyline from Season 1/2/3/5 (screw Barovia). So if they want to follow the Phlan refugees to Mulmaster I'll pick up with Season 2 T2 modules. If they want to go explore the Sword Coast, I'll describe rumors of Dragon attacks occurring all along the area, with Giants rampaging through the central lands and the frozen north, etc. Perhaps their travels go through the Desserin Valley where there is a large sinkhole in Red Larch.

So, has anyone else done something like this before? If you have, any tips/tricks? I want to create for players a homebrew "living world" feel, while sticking within the rules of AL. AL permits jumping between seasons/modules/hard covers, so I'm covered there. I'm working behind the scenes to try and remember which characters are relevant and when, to create some roughly cohesive storyline for at least the Moonsea region (some Season 1 NPCs that never appear against got replaced by more frequent appearances of Fat Mar, Alyed, etc.).

No but that sounds like a wonderful idea. I do think there may be a chapter at a time requirement? I'd have to check.

Sounds awesome from a players POV, but I can't imagine trying to DM something that open and stay ahead of the PCs prep-wise. Good luck!

Any recommendations on how to keep track? Has anyone ever taken a group from Season 1 expeditions (or any other season) straight into the next season and tried to keep a coherent storyline?

I am doing something similar, but my PCs are starting as prisoners of the drow in OotA.

When they will flee the underdark, I will open the world to them with SKT, RoT and PotA.

I will place the AL adventures too if I can, probably Durlag's Tower and Tomb (Baldur's Gate player here) and The Corruption of Kryptgarden, but I don't know how to expand play toward the Moonsea area.

I am thinking about making play various secondary PCs to the players and set the adventures of said PCs in the Moonsea (with the AL adventures), giving clues that lead to the Sword Coast. When the secondary PCs will follow the clue, they will cross the path of the primary PCs and the players will decide how to reform the party.

But it is a gargantuan work

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So the party finished Season 1 unwilling (really unable to be honest as they had taken quite a beating) to go fight Vorgansharax. As such, they barely escaped with their trusty boatman and now ply the Moonsea. After hearing about rumors (and thanks to the Cults of the Moonsea book they acquired in a previous adventure) of Elemental and Demon cults terrorizing the southern regions, as well as Giants pushing down from the North, the party decided to pursue the greater threat of Demons.


As such, the party is now going into Season 3 as a T2 party. Is there a writeup anywhere of the overarching storyline for Season 3? I've played through and DM'd all of it several times, but not as much as Season 1. Looking for reoccurring/major characters (besides the obvious big reveal at the end) that I can sub in for NPCs that only appear in one mod, etc. Trying to give more consistency to the world.

I've definitely stolen some ideas from Jaspers thread (printed out copies of the Madness/Faz chart) but any other suggestions for Season 3?

RulesJD said:

Is there a writeup anywhere of the overarching storyline for Season 3?

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Not that I'm aware of. There is a State of Hillsfar document that notes Hillsfar and the surrounding environs situation at the start of Season 3, but there's nothing akin to the Season 1 and Season 2 spoilerrific recaps that helped DMs understand what had 'officially' happened as a result of AL play.

It's a bit disappointing that we don't get these recaps anymore, especially since, as in Season 5, there are numerous interwoven plotlines and it's not always clear prior to the release of a 'follow-up' style adventure what the 'canon' outcome would be to a previous adventure, yet especially at higher tiers, players have access to the kinds of resources that would let them revisit old haunts and make use of near-forgotten resources to help solve current problems.

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Pauper

I just saw something of a recap posted. I think.

Pauper said:

Not that I'm aware of. There is a State of Hillsfar document that notes Hillsfar and the surrounding environs situation at the start of Season 3, but there's nothing akin to the Season 1 and Season 2 spoilerrific recaps that helped DMs understand what had 'officially' happened as a result of AL play.

It's a bit disappointing that we don't get these recaps anymore, especially since, as in Season 5, there are numerous interwoven plotlines and it's not always clear prior to the release of a 'follow-up' style adventure what the 'canon' outcome would be to a previous adventure, yet especially at higher tiers, players have access to the kinds of resources that would let them revisit old haunts and make use of near-forgotten resources to help solve current problems.

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Pauper

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Damn, was hoping there would be more. I know we requested them a while back but no responses. I prefer not to ask on FB as several of my players use that medium.

Any idea where you saw the recap Darjr?

Try this: http://www.dmsguild.com/product/171...tive&filters=45470_0_0_0_0_0_0_0&test_epoch=0