D&D General Setting a campaign on a river

[Hussar]

At the end of the day, the river is a means to get to places

That link is dead. But this one isn't.

Thank you. Just kind of whipped it out and didn't check. I've not run these adventures and only skimmed them, but, it does seem like a really cool idea. Might try to sell it to my group for the next campaign.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Different river types depending on the geology can make for a wild river network.

If the campaign is in a long-civilized region, or an area of a former empire, consider a widespread network of canals spiderwebbing across the countryside outward from the river.

The Mississippi river between Wisconsin/Minnesota/Iowa is vasty different than the river to the south. This section of the Upper Mississippi fills the floodplain with a braided river system that regularly changes with spring floods, there isn’t just one wide channel of the river, but instead can be dozens. Maybe making it easy for river pirates to hide in back channels, but then have hideouts in the bluffs at the edge of the flood plain.

 

[Eltab]

Colorado River / Grand Canyon region:
An absolute barrier to travel across the river.
Very difficult to get upstream.
White-water rafting takes you downstream "for free".
I would put this up a tributary, not on the main river. Because it becomes the only travel story tell-able in that area.

Unusual encounter:
Based on IRL Zebulon Pike's expedition to explore the Louisiana Purchase. After ascending the Arkansas River (and discovering Pike's Peak), the expedition was supposed to find a source-stream of the Red River and return to the Mississippi River. By accident or on purpose, Pike actually crossed into the headwaters of the Rio Grande - in the Spanish province of New Mexico. When he came downstream, an international incident ensued.
The PCs on their boat might be met by Somebody Else's expedition of discovery (or "discovery"), stepping on PC-Nation turf.

 

[Yora]

I am having a problem with the layout for my river and could use some opinions:

Currently, there are three largish cities right on the coast, and a fourth medium sized city 100 miles upstream, which is the main base for explorers. From there, towns become increasingly less frequent and smaller for the next 500 miles, and after that it's fully unexplored.
Now the question is if I should had another full size city further up the river? I do quite like the idea of reaching a new city deep in the wilderness, but with there only being one straight route towards that city, I am uncertain if it's presence would make the whole river between the Base Camp City an the Final City stop feeling like real wilderness, even if it takes three weeks of paddling to get there. I feel it would simply push the start of the real wilderness further up the river, and make the section between the two cities feel like an established traffic route.
In reality, the isolation of paddling up a river without seeing any people for days could still make it feel pretty wild, but that's an element you don't really get in an RPG. I think the players' knowledge of what lies ahead or not becomes the dominating factor in this medium.

I really want to have that one city in the wilderness, but it seems to me that it would conflict with the structure of the campaign concept and as such hurt the game. Do any of you have any counter-arguments why having a major civilized settlement in the wilderness would contribute positively to an experience of going into the unknown and rediscovering a forgotten past?

 

[GuyBoy]

Personally, I’d go for a ruined city from a previous civilisation, sections of which ( particularly the jetty area) are a rugged encampment of adventurers, hunters etc, who also trade with various tribal societies, human or otherwise, and then transport exotic goods to the base camp city.

 

[Yora]

That's also a cool idea.

For the curious, this is my plan for the Lower River, which is the Frontier Area.

Mile 0 - The Blue City (pop 20,000) Main market for treasure and salvage.
Mile 10 - First Outpost (1200) Unremarkable market town for rice farmers.
Mile 30 - Second Outpost (5000) Major town with many services and good alternative home base.
Mile 60 - Third Outpost (640) Large inn and a big black market. +50% prices.
Mile 100 - Fourth Outpost (2500) Last major settlement on the river. +50% prices.
Mile 150 - Fifth Outpost (80) Moon Temple.
Mile 180 - Fork to the forests of the Wood Elves with two more towns (2500, 1200) further up.
Mile 210 - Sixth Outpost (320) Village harvesting giant bee honey. +100% prices.
Mile 280 - Seventh Outpost (40) +100% prices.
Mile 320 - Fork to the Slave-Mines of the Salt Men (500).
Mile 360 - Eight Outpost (160) Maybe a ruined city with an intact dock? +150% prices.
Mile 450 - Ninth Outpost (20) A shabby inn in the wilderness. +150% prices.
Mile 550 - Final Outpost (10) Small fortified trade post. +200% prices.

There would be plenty of small rice farming villages in the first 200 miles, but they have no stores and services and can only provide a roof and some food.
Going from the Blue City to the Final Outpost in a canoe would take a full month, sailing in a fast dhow would still take 10 days. In my procedures, 30 days means 120 random encounter checks on a d6, so 20 encounters on average. With 8 stops along the way. That is a pretty big journey and get the feeling of wilderness across long before the reach the final outpost even if they beeline straight up there and ignore any opportunities to check out stuff that is visible from the river.

 

[Marc_C]

You must watch Deliverance by John Boorman if you have not already. The plot is the river.

 

[slobster]

Personally, I’d go for a ruined city from a previous civilisation, sections of which ( particularly the jetty area) are a rugged encampment of adventurers, hunters etc, who also trade with various tribal societies, human or otherwise, and then transport exotic goods to the base camp city.

That sounds cool! You could also make it a trading fort or something similar, a place where adventurers and others from the coastal civilization huddle together behind fortifications, rarely venturing far out except for the boldest. Attacks on the walls by monsters or bandits might be common. Nomadic tribes indigenous to the wilderness come by to barter their exotic goods, but don't stay long. People don't come to the city to start a family or a life, they come at best to run a business or serve a term, with the intention of returning to the coastal cities eventually with the fortune they've hopefully made. Of course, plenty of people don't come back at all, and it's a constant struggle to keep the jungle from reclaiming the outpost.

 

[GuyBoy]

The trading fort in the ancient ruins would definitely allow for a “Mos Eisley cantina” situation. Also, the palisades wall that separates the settled part from the much larger ruinous area could be crucial to keep out the “things” that inhabit the dark spaces beneath the ancient temple, as well as the denizens of the surrounding forest/jungle.
And what caused the ancient civilisation to fall......?

 

[Undrave]

I got a vague idea for a campaign that is set entirely around a single great river in an ancient forest. Something on the scale of the Volga, Mekong, or Columbia.

You might want to look at the Saint-Lawrence as well. It not only has a much MUCH wider mouth than those rivers, but it also includes, in its system, multiple types of rivers, including the fjord like Saguenay (which is itself named after a legendary kingdom) and large lakes and large islands. Whales can be spotted near the mouth of the Saguenay river too and Greenland Sharks have been found in its estuary!

Also, I’ve been watching/reading about China’s life along the Yangtze, and the extensive dam works one of the early emperors undertook to mitigate floods and help the local communities stabilize so they could grow. Extensive damming or other manipulation of the river can also have some serious side effects on communities downstream - imagine an upriver kingdom that has created an extensive series of lochs to force downstream regions to pay tribute to get the vital waters, silt and wildlife they need to survive from the upriver kingdoms.

That's kinda how the Pharaohs became rulers in Egypt, as they were able to control the flooding of the Nile.

Instead of merchant caravans, there would be river merchants. And equally river pirates, hiding their lairs in small side branches just big enough for their dhows, but too large for big cargo junks.

OOH! Don't forget log drivers! Log driving - Wikipedia

In Quebec, at least, when winter came and farming became impossible, men would hire themselves out as lumberjack and go spend the winter months uprivers in isolated camps where they would cut down trees. When the thaw came, they would dump the logs in the river and have teams just build rafts and life on their, guiding the logs down the river and making sure they don't get stuck. It was a dangerous life! When log jams got too tight, they would use dynamite to break them free!

That's an activity that can totally fit with your campaign world.