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General Tabletop Discussion
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Campaign structure: combining the sandbox and adventure path
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<blockquote data-quote="Inchoroi" data-source="post: 7151773" data-attributes="member: 6752135"><p>This is, in a way, how I run all my campaigns. Generally, they'll be sized differently, but they all follow the same idea. That idea is:</p><p></p><p>1. The party has some sort of Hook to draw them into adventuring in general. As part of my planning, I make a general "Hook", something that starts off the adventure, and I will make 3-5 "Character Hooks". Character Hooks are by far the more difficult, because it requires some planning on the various things that happen in the sandbox you're planning. It makes it quite interesting, however, because not only is there a "big hook", as it were, there are little hooks that tie to various other story threads. These enable the players to make characters that are directly tied to the setting--this makes the sandbox the <em>player's</em> story, not my campaign. One of my favorite quotes is, "The Setting drives the Characters that drives the Plot." This is paramount in how I make campaigns.</p><p></p><p>2. The Setting is alive; I'll have set-piece sidequests that can be abandoned or picked up as they go along adventuring, as well as a larger sort of "meta-plot" that they can explore, always remembering that this meta-plot, for want of a better term, must allow them to engage it in their own way; to tell their own story, in other words. My upcoming campaign (oh, god, it starts on July 19th, I'm dying) features a map that is something like 1 million square miles of which I've detailed, well, pretty much everything. But, it's important to remember that the Setting needs to be a living thing; it's not a static piece of terrain. Instead, take a page from Skyrim; NPCs will act according to their personality traits and resources. If this means the bad guys win because the PCs don't involve themselves with the plot, well, that's how it is, sometimes (generally I'll try to help them along by making the main "Hook" lead to the bad guys, so they'll have a chance to stop them before the world ends). </p><p></p><p></p><p>That all being said, perhaps some practical examples would be useful: take a look at, well, almost any of the modules and adventures produced by Necromancer Games and Frog God Games. They all follow the above pretty well; for some specific, look at The Grey Citadel, Shades of Grey, and Sword of Air. Unfortunately, they're all for 3.5 and Swords & Wizardry, so if you want to run them for another system, you'll have to convert them like I did...</p><p></p><p>Sometimes I wonder about my sanity.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Inchoroi, post: 7151773, member: 6752135"] This is, in a way, how I run all my campaigns. Generally, they'll be sized differently, but they all follow the same idea. That idea is: 1. The party has some sort of Hook to draw them into adventuring in general. As part of my planning, I make a general "Hook", something that starts off the adventure, and I will make 3-5 "Character Hooks". Character Hooks are by far the more difficult, because it requires some planning on the various things that happen in the sandbox you're planning. It makes it quite interesting, however, because not only is there a "big hook", as it were, there are little hooks that tie to various other story threads. These enable the players to make characters that are directly tied to the setting--this makes the sandbox the [I]player's[/I] story, not my campaign. One of my favorite quotes is, "The Setting drives the Characters that drives the Plot." This is paramount in how I make campaigns. 2. The Setting is alive; I'll have set-piece sidequests that can be abandoned or picked up as they go along adventuring, as well as a larger sort of "meta-plot" that they can explore, always remembering that this meta-plot, for want of a better term, must allow them to engage it in their own way; to tell their own story, in other words. My upcoming campaign (oh, god, it starts on July 19th, I'm dying) features a map that is something like 1 million square miles of which I've detailed, well, pretty much everything. But, it's important to remember that the Setting needs to be a living thing; it's not a static piece of terrain. Instead, take a page from Skyrim; NPCs will act according to their personality traits and resources. If this means the bad guys win because the PCs don't involve themselves with the plot, well, that's how it is, sometimes (generally I'll try to help them along by making the main "Hook" lead to the bad guys, so they'll have a chance to stop them before the world ends). That all being said, perhaps some practical examples would be useful: take a look at, well, almost any of the modules and adventures produced by Necromancer Games and Frog God Games. They all follow the above pretty well; for some specific, look at The Grey Citadel, Shades of Grey, and Sword of Air. Unfortunately, they're all for 3.5 and Swords & Wizardry, so if you want to run them for another system, you'll have to convert them like I did... Sometimes I wonder about my sanity. [/QUOTE]
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