Designing a Campaign.

[xigbar]

Okay, so.....To start off, We have two cities, each founded by a different brother, taking place centuries ago. They get along great, and prosper, benefitting form eachother's trade. 4 or 5 generations later....One brothers descendants has been cutting off trade for years, and is trying to take over the other half of the continent, where the other city is. He runs his half of the continent with an iron grip, and often kidnaps citizens from the other city for slave labor to mine precious ores in vast mining cave complex under the city. The "good" city is launching a covert military strike, and will start by sneaking in to the mines to lead a revolt, using the increased numbers of their forces when they free the slaves. I can give more specifics, if anyone wants, but my problem is this. Assuming a typical four person gaming group, I want to have two of the players part of the military operation, and two as prisoners. I'd have them meet at 3rd or 4th level, 5th at the latest, but my question is, how do I DM to sets of PCs in different locations. By the way, the slaves were already planning an escape, which is why the other PCs come in.

 

[kitcik]

Okay, so.....To start off, We have two cities, each founded by a different brother, taking place centuries ago. They get along great, and prosper, benefitting form eachother's trade. 4 or 5 generations later....One brothers descendants has been cutting off trade for years, and is trying to take over the other half of the continent, where the other city is. He runs his half of the continent with an iron grip, and often kidnaps citizens from the other city for slave labor to mine precious ores in vast mining cave complex under the city. The "good" city is launching a covert military strike, and will start by sneaking in to the mines to lead a revolt, using the increased numbers of their forces when they free the slaves. I can give more specifics, if anyone wants, but my problem is this. Assuming a typical four person gaming group, I want to have two of the players part of the military operation, and two as prisoners. I'd have them meet at 3rd or 4th level, 5th at the latest, but my question is, how do I DM to sets of PCs in different locations. By the way, the slaves were already planning an escape, which is why the other PCs come in.

Since they also shouldn't know what is going on with the other group, I woud suggest running it as two separate campaigns until they meet. Therefore, I would try to blow through those first few levels as quickly as possible. Maybe, instead of a normal gaming session, you could run one full day session for each group to egt them to the meeting point, then start regular sessions with everyone.

 

[xigbar]

I thought about doing that, but I don't think I'd be able to do 2-4 level ups in a single session. Although I could divide it up, but that would require quite a few sessions.

 

[Herobizkit]

You could just start them at 3rd, so long as they're not complete newbies.

 

[kitcik]

You could just start them at 3rd, so long as they're not complete newbies.

This is a good idea. Start them at 2 levels lower than you want them to be when they meet, then do a single double-level-up session with each group.

 

[xigbar]

You could just start them at 3rd, so long as they're not complete newbies.

Eh....Another possibily, and I like designing campaigns that can be altered for any use, but I like the idea of having two groups in the same campaign at different areas, trying to get to a meeting point of sorts.

 

[Herobizkit]

You can still have them start in different locations. They're just 3rd level. The onus would be on the players to explain what they've done and who they've met on the journey to 3rd. Now the players have done all kinds of backstory work for you to feed off and grow stronger.

If two are jailers and two are prisoners, what happens if the jailers "win"/the PCs don't escape?

 

[Belzbet]

You can ask another player to Dm a couple sessions for you. You can make the adventures and arrangments and tell the player; she could then run the adventure in another room while you run yours. A player may get some enjoyment out of this and you wouldnt have to arrange different play sessions for different people, etc.

 

[Hunter99]

Since D&D is designed for a 4 person party, you could have the events of the prison break as part of the backstory.

 

[xigbar]

But the whole point of doing the campaign is having the jailbreak be part of the campaign. What's wrong with starting them at 1st level? They'll have NPCs with them, if difficulty is an issue.