Ry
Explorer
So it's finally come to this: I really need some advice on DMing. The next 2 paragraphs describe how I got into this situation, and the third presents the problem.
For 10 years, I've successfully run linear, epic adventures - to great success. About a year ago, I realized I wanted to move on, try something different - and at the same time, I knew I wanted to get back to basics, and run a game that would be accessible to other players.
Thus was born, my small, dense, non-linear, dynamic setting of Staunwark Island. The concept was to do D&D in miniature, with a setting hardly 100 miles across. So far, the game has been very successful - the more players have a chance to play on the island, the more addicted they get to it, and to their characters. My NPCs are well-loved, and its status as a perpetual campaign setting appears well-enshrined among all my players. (Further, some rules mods I've made keep the setting dynamic; with a level cap of 6, there's no need to always be moving the players towards a bigger and badder confrontation, just to give them a challenge.)
The problem: Compared to my linear campaigns, the amount of notes required for this setting is getting out of hand. Between the adventures I'm adapting into the setting (like the Vault of Larin Karr and the old Fighter's Challenge), the 3 seperate adventuring parties that have gone through the land, and the PBeM games that I'm currently running in the same setting, there's a lot to keep track of. How can I keep track of the NPCs, plots, factions, villages, monsters, and items? How can I make the relevant history consistent - as, for example, when a particular gem has passed through several NPCs hands, and they themselves have moved or been involved in other plotlines?
Really, this is my first dynamic setting, and I love it. But how do you keep this kind of setting organized?
For 10 years, I've successfully run linear, epic adventures - to great success. About a year ago, I realized I wanted to move on, try something different - and at the same time, I knew I wanted to get back to basics, and run a game that would be accessible to other players.
Thus was born, my small, dense, non-linear, dynamic setting of Staunwark Island. The concept was to do D&D in miniature, with a setting hardly 100 miles across. So far, the game has been very successful - the more players have a chance to play on the island, the more addicted they get to it, and to their characters. My NPCs are well-loved, and its status as a perpetual campaign setting appears well-enshrined among all my players. (Further, some rules mods I've made keep the setting dynamic; with a level cap of 6, there's no need to always be moving the players towards a bigger and badder confrontation, just to give them a challenge.)
The problem: Compared to my linear campaigns, the amount of notes required for this setting is getting out of hand. Between the adventures I'm adapting into the setting (like the Vault of Larin Karr and the old Fighter's Challenge), the 3 seperate adventuring parties that have gone through the land, and the PBeM games that I'm currently running in the same setting, there's a lot to keep track of. How can I keep track of the NPCs, plots, factions, villages, monsters, and items? How can I make the relevant history consistent - as, for example, when a particular gem has passed through several NPCs hands, and they themselves have moved or been involved in other plotlines?
Really, this is my first dynamic setting, and I love it. But how do you keep this kind of setting organized?
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