Spoiler alert: don't read this if you are going to play as a player in Reavers of Harkenworld or Madness at Gardmore abbey:
I am planning to run a campaign, using two premade modules as inspiration: Reavers of Harkenworld (level 2-4) and Madness at Gardmore abbey (level 6-8). The setting will be 4e's point of light setting with Fallcrest at the center, with the Dwarven city of Hammerfest to the east, Harkenworld to the south-east and Winterhaven to the North-west.
I want the characters to get attached to the area and take partial control of it. The main cast so far is a paladin-sorcerer of noble blood who is going to try to get either Winterhaven, Fallcrest or maybe Harkenworld under his control. There is also the half-orc ruffian (Rogue) who wants to take over the underworld. In addition there's a Bard and Druid who have less personal ambition, but especially the Bard might try to set himself up as someone with the real power, behind a puppet NPC or another PC.
I do feel that with so much of the campaign being centred on one area it does need a bit more details than your typical go-fight-the-kobolds campaign. One thing is the important NPC's, but here the two modules actually have some interesting characters and motivations. What I do feel is missing is what are these towns living of. What are they eating, whom are they trading with and what are they trading?
Here is my take on it, what I am hoping for is for some more ideas:
Harkenworld is relatively easy - it's a farming community. Lots of fields growing stuff. The typical trade is for some luxury items and maybe some imports of weapons and armor from the dwarves at Hammerfast.
I am not so sure what to do with Fallcrest. It was once a trading hub, but it's now just a shadow of it's former glory, but still, some trading would still be done? I think that trading with some larger cities down the river would be logical, but except for food, what could they trade? Timber?
Winterhaven is probably a farming community, but with some mines? It's probably less well off than Harkenworld when it comes to food, but might do ok due to the mining.
The dwarves at Hammerfast are probably doing more mining and less growing than the Winterhaven, and probably imports quite a lot of grain and such from Harkenworld.
There are some tribes of elves (and goblins) in the Harken Forrest and several barbarian tribes in the Winterbole forrest. These mostly live of the animals they hunt and kill, trading furs at Fallcrest or in Winterhaven.
The story
The first module, Reavers of Harkenworld, has the Iron Circle mercenaries from the city of Sarthel taking over and trying to subdue Harkenworld. Why are they doing this? I am thinking they want to have some hold over the Dwarves of Hammerfast, something they get if they cut of part of their food supply. Maybe they get better prices for weapons and armor? Maybe they weaken them for a direct take over?
The second module, Reavers of Gardmoore Abbey, has a bunch of Orcs taking control of the ruins at Gardmoore Abbey. It's nearly directly on the road between Winterhaven and Fallcrest. Now, the module doesn't mention anything about what they are living of, and doesn't say anything about them taking control of the road and plundering the travelers on it. I do find that a bit weird. In addition, the place has a Red Dragon. How does this fit into the picture? I am a bit stuck here, so any suggestions to what the Orc's are doing here and why the dragon isn't terrorizing the area, eating whatever's around beats me.
I am also wondering a bit about the Orc hords that once came out of Stonemarch about a hundred years ago, wiping out most of Nentir Valley. What are they living of up in the Stonemarch? From the description of the terrain, it sounds like only goats would thrive up there, but you need a lot of goats for an Orc horde.
Summary
... I could probably just have ran the modules as-is and not bothered about how the society works, but it gets a bit easier to create a long-term story for the area if what happens makes a bit more sense than a Red Dragon just slacking 30 miles from a large town. I do think the Reavers of Harkenworld part works pretty well, but the Madness at Gardmoore Abbey has so far stretched my imagination to see how this works out.
I am planning to run a campaign, using two premade modules as inspiration: Reavers of Harkenworld (level 2-4) and Madness at Gardmore abbey (level 6-8). The setting will be 4e's point of light setting with Fallcrest at the center, with the Dwarven city of Hammerfest to the east, Harkenworld to the south-east and Winterhaven to the North-west.
I want the characters to get attached to the area and take partial control of it. The main cast so far is a paladin-sorcerer of noble blood who is going to try to get either Winterhaven, Fallcrest or maybe Harkenworld under his control. There is also the half-orc ruffian (Rogue) who wants to take over the underworld. In addition there's a Bard and Druid who have less personal ambition, but especially the Bard might try to set himself up as someone with the real power, behind a puppet NPC or another PC.
I do feel that with so much of the campaign being centred on one area it does need a bit more details than your typical go-fight-the-kobolds campaign. One thing is the important NPC's, but here the two modules actually have some interesting characters and motivations. What I do feel is missing is what are these towns living of. What are they eating, whom are they trading with and what are they trading?
Here is my take on it, what I am hoping for is for some more ideas:
Harkenworld is relatively easy - it's a farming community. Lots of fields growing stuff. The typical trade is for some luxury items and maybe some imports of weapons and armor from the dwarves at Hammerfast.
I am not so sure what to do with Fallcrest. It was once a trading hub, but it's now just a shadow of it's former glory, but still, some trading would still be done? I think that trading with some larger cities down the river would be logical, but except for food, what could they trade? Timber?
Winterhaven is probably a farming community, but with some mines? It's probably less well off than Harkenworld when it comes to food, but might do ok due to the mining.
The dwarves at Hammerfast are probably doing more mining and less growing than the Winterhaven, and probably imports quite a lot of grain and such from Harkenworld.
There are some tribes of elves (and goblins) in the Harken Forrest and several barbarian tribes in the Winterbole forrest. These mostly live of the animals they hunt and kill, trading furs at Fallcrest or in Winterhaven.
The story
The first module, Reavers of Harkenworld, has the Iron Circle mercenaries from the city of Sarthel taking over and trying to subdue Harkenworld. Why are they doing this? I am thinking they want to have some hold over the Dwarves of Hammerfast, something they get if they cut of part of their food supply. Maybe they get better prices for weapons and armor? Maybe they weaken them for a direct take over?
The second module, Reavers of Gardmoore Abbey, has a bunch of Orcs taking control of the ruins at Gardmoore Abbey. It's nearly directly on the road between Winterhaven and Fallcrest. Now, the module doesn't mention anything about what they are living of, and doesn't say anything about them taking control of the road and plundering the travelers on it. I do find that a bit weird. In addition, the place has a Red Dragon. How does this fit into the picture? I am a bit stuck here, so any suggestions to what the Orc's are doing here and why the dragon isn't terrorizing the area, eating whatever's around beats me.
I am also wondering a bit about the Orc hords that once came out of Stonemarch about a hundred years ago, wiping out most of Nentir Valley. What are they living of up in the Stonemarch? From the description of the terrain, it sounds like only goats would thrive up there, but you need a lot of goats for an Orc horde.
Summary
... I could probably just have ran the modules as-is and not bothered about how the society works, but it gets a bit easier to create a long-term story for the area if what happens makes a bit more sense than a Red Dragon just slacking 30 miles from a large town. I do think the Reavers of Harkenworld part works pretty well, but the Madness at Gardmoore Abbey has so far stretched my imagination to see how this works out.
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