Herobizkit
Adventurer
Once again, my player has come up with innovative ways to improve the campaign at large... ways that I'm simply not prepared to handle.
We are playing a solo Gestalt 'heroic "evil" humanoid' campaign; the main PC is playing a CG Drow Sorcerer/FavSoul, and is teamed with a LE Duergar Monk/PsyWar, a CN Gnoll Barbarian/Rogue and a CN Goblin Druid/Warlock.
The setting is from the Complete Campaigns box set Ruins of the Dragon Lord by Mongoose Publishing. It is a wasteland inhabited by illiterate, testy barbarians, goblins, and orcs with a bastion of "normal" civilaztion just on the outskirts. Dragons are an uncommon wilderness encounter, and tales of the Dragon Lord draw adventurers to Mount Moru, the focus of the campaign.
My player, otoh, has decided that cultural and territorial development is now his character's chief concern.
The village of Meadowvale is your standard medieval-style starter village; the highest level NPC in the town (I believe) is a 9th-level Cleric who is head of the church of a campaign-specific deity, and the next highest are on the town council (Com9 and Exp6). My player (and co.) has just hit level 7 and is by far and away the most powerful force in the village. As such, he has decided that he is going to improve upon the village and, by doing so, earn a place of power on the council.
His concept on how to do this is very involved and very specific. Some examples:
* creating and using a pair of skill-boosting lyres of building to turn every building in town into a 2-story stone structure, produce stone walls around the village, create mines for mining, and creating arable farmland;
* creating a host of Tree feather tokens over a campaign year (with help) to generate a near-instant forest when complete;
* organizing a "trade school" to teach the villagers trades, magic, and to educate the barbarian tribes on literature and the arts.
To finance these endeavours, he plans on continuing the campaign by entering Mount Moru, gutting it level by level, and bringing the wealth he finds back to the village.
Now, to be fair, there IS a complete setting included in the box set, but I haven't read it at large and I know that I should. I should also note that, in addition to the aforementioned humanoids, there is a Dwarven stronghold present near the Mount (whose inhabitants intend to reclaim the Mount once it is safe to do so) and, by my own invention, an encroaching Gnoll army some distance away. Meadowvale is literally caught between a rock and a hard place.
My player is very eager to have his plans come to fruition, and I know that he is dreading anything I might do to prevent, slow, or make life inconvenient for his PC. Also, I have introduced a rival adventuring group that has already taken a level of the Mount away from him (in my defence, the level was a 'filler' level in-between plot arcs, the PC had already attained the necessary levels to advance, and the treasure was minimal with the most powerful item being a +1 battleaxe).
Now, in summary, what was once a standard D&D campaign has become more like a live version of SimCity. I am at a complete loss as to the means of tracking time progression and determining daily/monthly events (I do have the 1ed Oriental Adventures - it's close, but not quite what I want). I have access to lots of outside source material (including the highly praised A Magical Medieval Society), some of which does not mesh well. I really don't want to handwave each project; the RP potential of such endeavours would be completely wasted if I did, and that's not fun for either of us.
And so, I put it to you worthy EnWorlders. I realize that I have to do a lot of homework to make this campaign more alive, and I want some insight as to the means to manage everything my players wants to do. I'd even take advice from Diaglo if he's reading... this kind of advice is edition-less, after all.
We are playing a solo Gestalt 'heroic "evil" humanoid' campaign; the main PC is playing a CG Drow Sorcerer/FavSoul, and is teamed with a LE Duergar Monk/PsyWar, a CN Gnoll Barbarian/Rogue and a CN Goblin Druid/Warlock.
The setting is from the Complete Campaigns box set Ruins of the Dragon Lord by Mongoose Publishing. It is a wasteland inhabited by illiterate, testy barbarians, goblins, and orcs with a bastion of "normal" civilaztion just on the outskirts. Dragons are an uncommon wilderness encounter, and tales of the Dragon Lord draw adventurers to Mount Moru, the focus of the campaign.
My player, otoh, has decided that cultural and territorial development is now his character's chief concern.
The village of Meadowvale is your standard medieval-style starter village; the highest level NPC in the town (I believe) is a 9th-level Cleric who is head of the church of a campaign-specific deity, and the next highest are on the town council (Com9 and Exp6). My player (and co.) has just hit level 7 and is by far and away the most powerful force in the village. As such, he has decided that he is going to improve upon the village and, by doing so, earn a place of power on the council.
His concept on how to do this is very involved and very specific. Some examples:
* creating and using a pair of skill-boosting lyres of building to turn every building in town into a 2-story stone structure, produce stone walls around the village, create mines for mining, and creating arable farmland;
* creating a host of Tree feather tokens over a campaign year (with help) to generate a near-instant forest when complete;
* organizing a "trade school" to teach the villagers trades, magic, and to educate the barbarian tribes on literature and the arts.
To finance these endeavours, he plans on continuing the campaign by entering Mount Moru, gutting it level by level, and bringing the wealth he finds back to the village.
Now, to be fair, there IS a complete setting included in the box set, but I haven't read it at large and I know that I should. I should also note that, in addition to the aforementioned humanoids, there is a Dwarven stronghold present near the Mount (whose inhabitants intend to reclaim the Mount once it is safe to do so) and, by my own invention, an encroaching Gnoll army some distance away. Meadowvale is literally caught between a rock and a hard place.
My player is very eager to have his plans come to fruition, and I know that he is dreading anything I might do to prevent, slow, or make life inconvenient for his PC. Also, I have introduced a rival adventuring group that has already taken a level of the Mount away from him (in my defence, the level was a 'filler' level in-between plot arcs, the PC had already attained the necessary levels to advance, and the treasure was minimal with the most powerful item being a +1 battleaxe).
Now, in summary, what was once a standard D&D campaign has become more like a live version of SimCity. I am at a complete loss as to the means of tracking time progression and determining daily/monthly events (I do have the 1ed Oriental Adventures - it's close, but not quite what I want). I have access to lots of outside source material (including the highly praised A Magical Medieval Society), some of which does not mesh well. I really don't want to handwave each project; the RP potential of such endeavours would be completely wasted if I did, and that's not fun for either of us.
And so, I put it to you worthy EnWorlders. I realize that I have to do a lot of homework to make this campaign more alive, and I want some insight as to the means to manage everything my players wants to do. I'd even take advice from Diaglo if he's reading... this kind of advice is edition-less, after all.
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