Hi! I'm gearing up for my next campaign, hoping it doesn't fall apart before we get the chance to enjoy it.
Anyways, I'm concerned that, what I have decided to do with the campaign, I may have vastly limited my options when it comes to adventures and characters.
The campaign in a nutshell is this: A new, uncharted continent, the first established colony disappearing a year after it was founded. So, the only thing there Right Now are the Natives (and whatever past civilizations may have been wiped out, etc etc). The PCs are part of an expedition to find out what happened so a colony may be re-established, etc.
The problem with this is that it feels as though I only have the option of: Explore Beyond Starting Area (Lots of dungeon crawling in the Wilderness, encountering rare sites of geography, etc), Deal with the Environment (weather/disease), and Fighting the Natives (Different humanoids and monstrous predators).
Sure, the new colony will slowly grow, but it doesn't seem that there is a lot of room for Variety of plots/adventures, convenient ways to play with characters backgrounds* (since they're so far away from home), deal with rivalry with other humans that speak their language, etc. For instance, with there being no other colonies, there's no reason pirates would be here, so far from civilization, no threats from other cities, etc.
Another problem I find is that since everything is UnCharted, there's no way to really point at sites of interest; the Pcs just have to wander around the map until they find them. So this makes local Legends, mapping, etc unable to really work ahead of time. You can't say 'Well here is a treasure map to a cave with a lost trove of fancy stuff over here' because, well, who made the treasure map and who told them this when no one's charted it?
Granted, there is a little variety. They have to Get there, deal with being stranded, find the colony, clean out the inhabitants of the colony, find out why the old colony disappeared... THEN Making nice with the Nice natives, repelling excursions of Humanoids Wanting to Wipe Out the Colony, and wandering over the landscape, but I'm afraid after that's repeated several times, the PCs are going to get bored. How do I tackle this?
Another problem is Character Choice. Sure, the PCs can point at the map and say "Let's go in that direction", but beyond that, where is the freedom for them to establish goals and move onwards? What options can I Give them?
One idea I had was to have PCs go into a tomb/etc, trip a trap, and basically be put in stasis for about twenty years. So when they come awake, they find that the colony has grown in size, neighboring countries have set up their own little places, and now it's a lot more like a town on the frontier, lawless, and it can be played like the French and Indian Wars. But that seems a little ham-fisted.
Perhaps this is a lot of unnecessary kvitching. But as I gather materials together, looking (for instance) at the Isle of Dread and Sasserine, I see lots of stuff fleshed out before PCs get there so they have options immediately off the boat. I'm afraid of Railroading.
*Well, two players actually have set their background to be in one of the Houses that financed the original Colony. Said House I intend to be one of the ones putting the expedition together, so I could bring in people who know these two PCs. Even so, that's not too much background to play with.
Anyways, I'm concerned that, what I have decided to do with the campaign, I may have vastly limited my options when it comes to adventures and characters.
The campaign in a nutshell is this: A new, uncharted continent, the first established colony disappearing a year after it was founded. So, the only thing there Right Now are the Natives (and whatever past civilizations may have been wiped out, etc etc). The PCs are part of an expedition to find out what happened so a colony may be re-established, etc.
The problem with this is that it feels as though I only have the option of: Explore Beyond Starting Area (Lots of dungeon crawling in the Wilderness, encountering rare sites of geography, etc), Deal with the Environment (weather/disease), and Fighting the Natives (Different humanoids and monstrous predators).
Sure, the new colony will slowly grow, but it doesn't seem that there is a lot of room for Variety of plots/adventures, convenient ways to play with characters backgrounds* (since they're so far away from home), deal with rivalry with other humans that speak their language, etc. For instance, with there being no other colonies, there's no reason pirates would be here, so far from civilization, no threats from other cities, etc.
Another problem I find is that since everything is UnCharted, there's no way to really point at sites of interest; the Pcs just have to wander around the map until they find them. So this makes local Legends, mapping, etc unable to really work ahead of time. You can't say 'Well here is a treasure map to a cave with a lost trove of fancy stuff over here' because, well, who made the treasure map and who told them this when no one's charted it?
Granted, there is a little variety. They have to Get there, deal with being stranded, find the colony, clean out the inhabitants of the colony, find out why the old colony disappeared... THEN Making nice with the Nice natives, repelling excursions of Humanoids Wanting to Wipe Out the Colony, and wandering over the landscape, but I'm afraid after that's repeated several times, the PCs are going to get bored. How do I tackle this?
Another problem is Character Choice. Sure, the PCs can point at the map and say "Let's go in that direction", but beyond that, where is the freedom for them to establish goals and move onwards? What options can I Give them?
One idea I had was to have PCs go into a tomb/etc, trip a trap, and basically be put in stasis for about twenty years. So when they come awake, they find that the colony has grown in size, neighboring countries have set up their own little places, and now it's a lot more like a town on the frontier, lawless, and it can be played like the French and Indian Wars. But that seems a little ham-fisted.
Perhaps this is a lot of unnecessary kvitching. But as I gather materials together, looking (for instance) at the Isle of Dread and Sasserine, I see lots of stuff fleshed out before PCs get there so they have options immediately off the boat. I'm afraid of Railroading.
*Well, two players actually have set their background to be in one of the Houses that financed the original Colony. Said House I intend to be one of the ones putting the expedition together, so I could bring in people who know these two PCs. Even so, that's not too much background to play with.
