jdrakeh
Front Range Warlock
So. . . I've lost my mind.
I posted about this elsewhere, but I figured that having a thread dedicated to the campaign here might be useful for the purposes of feedback (after all, ENWorld is the undisputed home of all things d20 online).
I'm setting up my forthcoming World's Largest Dungeon campaign on the Hidden Coast (presented in the free WotC adventure module, The Secret of the Windswept Wall) with a few changes in geography, as follow:
I plan on using the free A Dark and Stormy Knight adventure from WotC to kick things off, with the ruined tower in that module representing Beacon Tor (see above). Rather than end that adventure with the battle versus the zombie hobgoblin (as fun as that sounds), I'll be replacing the crypt with encounter Z1 from the World's Largest Dungeon.
For the purposes of campaign setup, I've altered the ecology of the Hidden Coast, makign it a largeyly moster-free region of a new continent recently settled by humans from the Old World (to the West). The native elves, whose collective racial memory reaches far into the past, cannot recall there every being a surplus of monsters on the mainland.
[Note: The term "monsters", as used here, does not include sentient goblinoid races -- though rare, these races do exist in small pockets on the Hidden Coast.]
I've also made some changed to the WLD -- most notably, it isn't the dethtrap gauntlet that AEG designed it to be. PCs can leave the same way that they came in, but so can the dungeon's other denizens once the PCs open the doors (they stay open). Here's the skinny. . .
Untold aeons ago, the gods gathered all of the monsters and many humanoid criminals on this continent and crammed them into the WLD. Over the years, the dungeon was forgotten. So far, so good. Unfortunately, poor maintenance has its pitfalls. . . over the years, small numbers of monsters have escaped the dungeon and made their way back into the world.
Now, when the PCs open the front doors to the WLD, they effectively open the floodgates, freeing the dungeon's denizens to re-enter the world at will (if they discover that the doors have been opened, of course). They have essentially taken what was a rather peaceful world by D&D standards, and turned it into your typical D&D setting (i.e., a world crawling with monsters).
Now, the PCs can either try to re-cork the proverbial bottle, or they can roll with it and take the dungeon for everything that it's worth. Obviously, I'm hoping for the latter. That said, a poll that I ran on ENWorld indicated that most WLD campaigns never get finished due to the "roach trap" factor (i.e., PCs being trapped in the dungeon until they play through the whole thing). This being the case. . .
I set up a series of above ground adventures that the PCs can pursue when and/or if they feel they need a break from the dungeon. Most of these adventures have been culled from the free WotC adventure archive. although I'm also using some 3.0 D&D material, as well (e.g., Thieves in the Forest, The Mortality of Green, etc). Point is, I'm making diversions from the dungeon an option, just in case.
Finally, the other thing that seemed to kill WLD campaigns before they bloomed was the repetitious nature of encounters in Regions A and B of the dungeon. To shake things up a bit here, I've replaced some of the numerous Darkmantle and Rat Swarm encounters with more goblinoid encounters, which allows me to introduce the main plots of both regions more quickly.
Here's hoping that all of this works as planned. We meet for our first session tonight, but I think that we'll just be making characters and going over the finer points of the setting (currency, customs, etc), as well as the basic True20 rules (I printed out copies of the Quick Start rules for all of the players yesterday).
I'll post updates when time permits.
[P.S. If interested, you can download the Player's Campaign Primer that I've put together for my actual play group by clicking here.]
[P.P.S. I'm also toying with the idea of introducing Diablo II-like "way points" in the dungeon, although I'm not entirely commited to this idea just yet. We'll see what my players think.]
I posted about this elsewhere, but I figured that having a thread dedicated to the campaign here might be useful for the purposes of feedback (after all, ENWorld is the undisputed home of all things d20 online).
I'm setting up my forthcoming World's Largest Dungeon campaign on the Hidden Coast (presented in the free WotC adventure module, The Secret of the Windswept Wall) with a few changes in geography, as follow:
- The Hidden Coast now forms the Western edge of a land mass.
- Sharn (The City of Towers) replaces the village of Poisson on the map.
- Poisson replaces the oddly displaced Drunk Duck Inn on the map.
- A second isle (and lighthouse) was added to the map in order to ward Poisson.
- Beacon Tor was added to the map, Northwest of Holden's Wood.
I plan on using the free A Dark and Stormy Knight adventure from WotC to kick things off, with the ruined tower in that module representing Beacon Tor (see above). Rather than end that adventure with the battle versus the zombie hobgoblin (as fun as that sounds), I'll be replacing the crypt with encounter Z1 from the World's Largest Dungeon.
For the purposes of campaign setup, I've altered the ecology of the Hidden Coast, makign it a largeyly moster-free region of a new continent recently settled by humans from the Old World (to the West). The native elves, whose collective racial memory reaches far into the past, cannot recall there every being a surplus of monsters on the mainland.
[Note: The term "monsters", as used here, does not include sentient goblinoid races -- though rare, these races do exist in small pockets on the Hidden Coast.]
I've also made some changed to the WLD -- most notably, it isn't the dethtrap gauntlet that AEG designed it to be. PCs can leave the same way that they came in, but so can the dungeon's other denizens once the PCs open the doors (they stay open). Here's the skinny. . .
Untold aeons ago, the gods gathered all of the monsters and many humanoid criminals on this continent and crammed them into the WLD. Over the years, the dungeon was forgotten. So far, so good. Unfortunately, poor maintenance has its pitfalls. . . over the years, small numbers of monsters have escaped the dungeon and made their way back into the world.
Now, when the PCs open the front doors to the WLD, they effectively open the floodgates, freeing the dungeon's denizens to re-enter the world at will (if they discover that the doors have been opened, of course). They have essentially taken what was a rather peaceful world by D&D standards, and turned it into your typical D&D setting (i.e., a world crawling with monsters).
Now, the PCs can either try to re-cork the proverbial bottle, or they can roll with it and take the dungeon for everything that it's worth. Obviously, I'm hoping for the latter. That said, a poll that I ran on ENWorld indicated that most WLD campaigns never get finished due to the "roach trap" factor (i.e., PCs being trapped in the dungeon until they play through the whole thing). This being the case. . .
I set up a series of above ground adventures that the PCs can pursue when and/or if they feel they need a break from the dungeon. Most of these adventures have been culled from the free WotC adventure archive. although I'm also using some 3.0 D&D material, as well (e.g., Thieves in the Forest, The Mortality of Green, etc). Point is, I'm making diversions from the dungeon an option, just in case.
Finally, the other thing that seemed to kill WLD campaigns before they bloomed was the repetitious nature of encounters in Regions A and B of the dungeon. To shake things up a bit here, I've replaced some of the numerous Darkmantle and Rat Swarm encounters with more goblinoid encounters, which allows me to introduce the main plots of both regions more quickly.
Here's hoping that all of this works as planned. We meet for our first session tonight, but I think that we'll just be making characters and going over the finer points of the setting (currency, customs, etc), as well as the basic True20 rules (I printed out copies of the Quick Start rules for all of the players yesterday).
I'll post updates when time permits.
[P.S. If interested, you can download the Player's Campaign Primer that I've put together for my actual play group by clicking here.]
[P.P.S. I'm also toying with the idea of introducing Diablo II-like "way points" in the dungeon, although I'm not entirely commited to this idea just yet. We'll see what my players think.]
