What I am trying to do, in a nutshell:
If money is no object, but your short on time, can you draft a basic D&D 3E campaign arc that covers levels 7 though 20 over the course of 280 to 360 hours of gameplay, whose setting accepts retread characters from previous campaigns/editions (while keeping some background context), and based almost entirely on setting and adventure products available currently or in the very near future?
Any suggestions for settings/adventures that can be used in this fashion are appreciated!
--------------------
My situation, in detail (feel free to skip this
):
I'm starting a new D&D 3E campaign for some old friends, and have some odd challenges to deal with this time around. First off, we're older gamers and a few of my players are suffering "new character burn-out". They'd prefer to be able to bring in a character they've already created and played previously, even if that means 1st or 2nd edition conversion. A couple of these guys have a veritable library of characters, going back eons.
On the otherhand, they also are wanting a campaign that includes a consistent, meaningful background. The last game I ran focused on a fairly two-dimensional dungeon crawl, where the background details tended towards the fuzzy side (the main purpose of that game was to explore 3E mechanics). They didn't want to go back to that. That's totally okay with me, too.
Now, I have my own homebrew setting, but it's still Not Ready For Prime Time (it could be argued, never ready, hehe...). I also have this hang-up about players bringing in characters generated in other campaigns into my context-sensitive pride-and-joy. I'm going to be a lot more comfortable with them bringing in who-knows-what funky characters if I'm using a published setting. They're not in the mood to create new characters, and I want some more time to spend on my home project anyway, so that's pretty much out of the picture for now. There's is also a level issue - we've been stuck in lower and mid levels lately, and I think we'd all like to break out into the upper ten levels this time around. I told them Saturday I'd like to start them at 7th level, and got some minor grumbles off the bat, heh!
So my goals are shaping us as follows:
- Find published setting and adventure material to save me time to continue work on my homebrew.
- Plot out a game which starts at approximately 7th level and quickly accelerates the characters to 10th.
- From there the game will throttle back a bit and provide over a year's worth of gameplay, advancing all the way to 20th. (We play 6 to 12 hour sessions, every other week.)
- The setting needs to be both general and flexible enough to accept a variety of pre-existing characters, if needed.
- Since no one is currently publishing a complete campaign-in-a-can that covers this level range (that I am aware of), I'm looking at assembling a pastiche of modules cobbled together with some side plotting of my own to create a simple story arc that will keep the game engaging and in forward motion.
- I have two weeks to prepare for the first session, which will mostly cover character conversion, background, and placing the characters in the intial adventure setting. This isn't really a deadline, but I would prefer not to take much longer than this.
One thing that is not an issue for me is cost. Neither is ESD vs. print, or cross-edition conversions. It's all good, as far as that goes.
So, if I haven't bored you out of this thread yet, I can use some specific suggestions or advice. I'm currently leaning towards using Greyhawk as the basic setting, mainly because I already own a lot of it, and my players have some exposure already. So one possible direction would be an old-school GH game based on 1st and 2nd edition modules converted for 3E. Not all of the classics are available (because we played a lot of those in high school when they were new, haha) - however, it occurs to me that most (and maybe all) of my group never played all the way through the G-D-Q series. There's a ton of 2nd edition GH stuff I am completely unfamiliar with. RttToEE is out of consideration, by the way, for several reasons.
I won't completely rule out Forgotten Realms, but there's some bias in my group against that setting. The adventure material would need to be pretty compelling.
On the otherhand, I like the idea of using a lot of new d20 generation stuff. I've already picked up Hall of the Rainbow Mage, since the starting level range is perfect and a lot of you liked it. There seems to be an implied setting tying some of the Necro Games modules together, but I'm unsure how much value that really has. I can always plop that adventure into just about any setting easily enough. Necropolis also looked kind of interesting as a second act, but would be harder to stick in just any ole setting. Dungeon crawls are fine, but I don't want to overdo it.
I gave Banewarrens a close look (I like Monte's stuff), but Ptolus is a pretty specific setting. I'd almost give running that setting a go based on the notes he's published on his website. Unfortunately, there's only the one published adventure to go on, and Monte's publishing schedule for the next year is pretty much focused on AU/Diamond Throne, so I think I'll give Ptolus a pass this time around.
Oathbound would seem to be an ideal setting. However, there's a risk that the 'captured' nature of that setting, which has many advantages for me as DM, would make the player's unhappy and reduce the relevancy of their characters' backgrounds. The bigger problem is that it looks like most of the product is setting, and very little in the way of actual scenarios are available right now.
I still need to examine the Scarred Lands settings some more. I bought the original world gazetteer when it came out, and I know a lot of excellent setting material exists. However, I'm not sure how much adventure material is available at the levels I'm running. That's another pretty specific setting, which while very cool, makes adapting generic modules a bit more difficult. So I'd need to feel like there was enought scenario material to support a campaign right now, or in the very near future.
There's serveral other d20 settings with varying levels of support that I know less about (Troll Lord, Paradigm, etc.).
Adventure Path: Shackled City sounds like a very useful source (I'm still looking for Dungeon #97), but I get the idea that it starts at 1st level, and I'll have to wait to see what the subsequent adventures look like.
I'm sure this project is doable, it's just a matter of how ugly the stitching gets around the seams, hehe...
If money is no object, but your short on time, can you draft a basic D&D 3E campaign arc that covers levels 7 though 20 over the course of 280 to 360 hours of gameplay, whose setting accepts retread characters from previous campaigns/editions (while keeping some background context), and based almost entirely on setting and adventure products available currently or in the very near future?
Any suggestions for settings/adventures that can be used in this fashion are appreciated!
--------------------
My situation, in detail (feel free to skip this
):I'm starting a new D&D 3E campaign for some old friends, and have some odd challenges to deal with this time around. First off, we're older gamers and a few of my players are suffering "new character burn-out". They'd prefer to be able to bring in a character they've already created and played previously, even if that means 1st or 2nd edition conversion. A couple of these guys have a veritable library of characters, going back eons.
On the otherhand, they also are wanting a campaign that includes a consistent, meaningful background. The last game I ran focused on a fairly two-dimensional dungeon crawl, where the background details tended towards the fuzzy side (the main purpose of that game was to explore 3E mechanics). They didn't want to go back to that. That's totally okay with me, too.
Now, I have my own homebrew setting, but it's still Not Ready For Prime Time (it could be argued, never ready, hehe...). I also have this hang-up about players bringing in characters generated in other campaigns into my context-sensitive pride-and-joy. I'm going to be a lot more comfortable with them bringing in who-knows-what funky characters if I'm using a published setting. They're not in the mood to create new characters, and I want some more time to spend on my home project anyway, so that's pretty much out of the picture for now. There's is also a level issue - we've been stuck in lower and mid levels lately, and I think we'd all like to break out into the upper ten levels this time around. I told them Saturday I'd like to start them at 7th level, and got some minor grumbles off the bat, heh!
So my goals are shaping us as follows:
- Find published setting and adventure material to save me time to continue work on my homebrew.
- Plot out a game which starts at approximately 7th level and quickly accelerates the characters to 10th.
- From there the game will throttle back a bit and provide over a year's worth of gameplay, advancing all the way to 20th. (We play 6 to 12 hour sessions, every other week.)
- The setting needs to be both general and flexible enough to accept a variety of pre-existing characters, if needed.
- Since no one is currently publishing a complete campaign-in-a-can that covers this level range (that I am aware of), I'm looking at assembling a pastiche of modules cobbled together with some side plotting of my own to create a simple story arc that will keep the game engaging and in forward motion.
- I have two weeks to prepare for the first session, which will mostly cover character conversion, background, and placing the characters in the intial adventure setting. This isn't really a deadline, but I would prefer not to take much longer than this.
One thing that is not an issue for me is cost. Neither is ESD vs. print, or cross-edition conversions. It's all good, as far as that goes.
So, if I haven't bored you out of this thread yet, I can use some specific suggestions or advice. I'm currently leaning towards using Greyhawk as the basic setting, mainly because I already own a lot of it, and my players have some exposure already. So one possible direction would be an old-school GH game based on 1st and 2nd edition modules converted for 3E. Not all of the classics are available (because we played a lot of those in high school when they were new, haha) - however, it occurs to me that most (and maybe all) of my group never played all the way through the G-D-Q series. There's a ton of 2nd edition GH stuff I am completely unfamiliar with. RttToEE is out of consideration, by the way, for several reasons.
I won't completely rule out Forgotten Realms, but there's some bias in my group against that setting. The adventure material would need to be pretty compelling.
On the otherhand, I like the idea of using a lot of new d20 generation stuff. I've already picked up Hall of the Rainbow Mage, since the starting level range is perfect and a lot of you liked it. There seems to be an implied setting tying some of the Necro Games modules together, but I'm unsure how much value that really has. I can always plop that adventure into just about any setting easily enough. Necropolis also looked kind of interesting as a second act, but would be harder to stick in just any ole setting. Dungeon crawls are fine, but I don't want to overdo it.
I gave Banewarrens a close look (I like Monte's stuff), but Ptolus is a pretty specific setting. I'd almost give running that setting a go based on the notes he's published on his website. Unfortunately, there's only the one published adventure to go on, and Monte's publishing schedule for the next year is pretty much focused on AU/Diamond Throne, so I think I'll give Ptolus a pass this time around.
Oathbound would seem to be an ideal setting. However, there's a risk that the 'captured' nature of that setting, which has many advantages for me as DM, would make the player's unhappy and reduce the relevancy of their characters' backgrounds. The bigger problem is that it looks like most of the product is setting, and very little in the way of actual scenarios are available right now.
I still need to examine the Scarred Lands settings some more. I bought the original world gazetteer when it came out, and I know a lot of excellent setting material exists. However, I'm not sure how much adventure material is available at the levels I'm running. That's another pretty specific setting, which while very cool, makes adapting generic modules a bit more difficult. So I'd need to feel like there was enought scenario material to support a campaign right now, or in the very near future.
There's serveral other d20 settings with varying levels of support that I know less about (Troll Lord, Paradigm, etc.).
Adventure Path: Shackled City sounds like a very useful source (I'm still looking for Dungeon #97), but I get the idea that it starts at 1st level, and I'll have to wait to see what the subsequent adventures look like.
I'm sure this project is doable, it's just a matter of how ugly the stitching gets around the seams, hehe...
