Help a poor goblin with making new PCs, a new world and... more...

[RagingGoblin]

A small group of my freinds and I have decided to start a campaign. There are by no means standard role-players (three are skater/punks and one is a football/hockey/lacross jock). We played a one shot the other night that they liked, and though all but one of them perished. Now they would like to conitinue playing. How would you go about doing this? The rules I plan on using are as follows: All Core Rulebooks, Relics and Rituals, Psionic Handbook, Oriental Adventures (just in case) and the Martial Artist from Asgard Magazine. Suggestions one what to do with the world, the plot and the PCs?

 

[Mr Fidgit]

well, you need to start with a setting, so here are some choices...

Forgotten Realms! there are no other setting! tons of history and flavor! nothing compares with Realms!...er..um. there are plenty of other settings with worldbooks on the market. Scarred Lands, Kalamar, i'm sure people who know more about these settings (and others) could pop in and give a plug for their favorite.

you could also create a world of your own. there's plenty of rules for this in the DMG.

you could even include your players in on the creation of your setting.

if none of these appeal to you, keep your game totally generic (bear with me on this). 1) create a (relatively) small area that all the PCs will be from (a town, kingdom, region, etc.). describe it as much or as little as you wish (you could also 'borrow' a region from any other source - worldbook, homebrew website, etc.)

2) between yourself and the players, discuss why the adventuring group they're going to create is together. if noone comes up with anything good, you could give them the reason (they're all hired by the same person, they meet in a bar, whatever.)

3) create characters from the PH (it may be too confusing for new players to have every class or race from all the books you have to choose from)

4) as far as adventuring, start small. keep them in their home land for now. as they start to travel, you can develop more areas as needed. --they don't need to know about the entire world in the beginning, and neither do you

this would take away some of the pressure to establish an entire world (and the time and effort required)


OR, buy the first WotC 3e mod, Sunless Citadel and run it for your players. if they enjoy it, continue with the entire series


just a few ideas

 

[ced1106]

Hmm. What did they (and you!) enjoy in the previous adventure? Myself, I just use the core books, play various adventures, then make up stuff that connects them all, but that's just me.


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

...i'm sure people who know more about these settings (and others) could pop in and give a plug for their favorite...

So where's Nightfall? The Scarred Lands needs its champion

I think you might have enough setting info. in Oriental Adventures. A quality book, by the way. (Just spent an hour reading it in Borders. Waiting to buy it when they're running a 25% off everything sale for Educators in a couple weeks. Oh yes... so much to buy... Must control impulse spending... )

Personally, I'm not a huge Realms fan, but it has some things going for it. For one thing, there's a LOT just in the Campaign Setting book. Ideas, mechanics, flavor, you name it. I'm sure your pyromaniac friend would love a fire genasi sorceror (or shugenja (sp?) for that matter). If you want HIGH magic and a lot of ideas, you can do worse than picking up the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, and hybridizing it with Oriental Adventures.

How much of a meta-plot do you want? Do you want a Big Bad Evil Empire or something they should be worried about all the time? Or do you want to give the players a lot of freedom to just kind of wander around and explore the world? (they struck me as something of a wandering group from your description of the first game, but that may decrease as they learn the ropes)

 

[Dragongirl]

well, you need to start with a setting, so here are some choices...

:: snip ::

you could also create a world of your own. there's plenty of rules for this in the DMG.

you could even include your players in on the creation of your setting.

:: snip ::

Don't forget homebrew campaign worlds on the internet. You can find all kinds of free examples if you look for them.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Don't forget homebrew campaign worlds on the internet. You can find all kinds of free examples if you look for them.

Like my setting, for example...

OK, there's still lots to do there, but some of the more rural regions of the Siebenbund might make for decent starting locations until you get to the "big cities" - the really big cities.

Eh, who am I kidding? Take a look at the Forgotten Realms Campaign Set - it will take a while until I can reach that level of detail.

 

[mmadsen]

Hmm. What did they (and you!) enjoy in the previous adventure? Myself, I just use the core books, play various adventures, then make up stuff that connects them all, but that's just me.

I think Cedric nailed it. Start simple -- just the core books, just enough setting info to run each adventure -- and build from there. If your friends are new to gaming, they'll enjoy each little thing as it's introduced; they don't need a deluge of info at the start.

 

[Buttercup]

Well, my little gobliny friend, here's my advice, for what it's worth.

If you haven't DMed before, and/or your friends haven't played before, you might consider running pre-made modules. You can hop on over to Necromancer Games and download The Wizard's Amulet. While you're there, grab their pre-made characters. By the time you run through this, your players will be level 2, or nearly there, and everyone will have an idea of how the game works. Then you can go out and purchase The Crucible of Freya, which completes the story arc started in WA. These take place in a generic world, but could easily be set in Greyhawk, or FR, or Kalamar, or a world of your own devising. But since it will take your group some time to play through the whole arc, you as DM have more time to flesh out a world of your own.

The only world-building activities you will need to do to prepare for running these modules will be come up with some gods to supplement the two or three that are mentioned in these adventures. You could easily use the default gods from the PHB.

If you are lacking in either the time or the skill to build your own world, there are lots of products that can help you. Aside from the various campaign settings, there are supplemental products you can buy that have portable ideas. Even if you are building your own world, you would probably find these useful to cut-and-paste from.

By Atlas Games:
Seven Cities
En Route
Backdrops

By Fantasy Flight:
Traps & Treachery I & II

PDF floorplans from Darkfuries:
Castles & Keeps
Mansions & Manors
Temples & Shrines
Inns & Taverns

I use the items on the list above for prep for just about every session, and they sure make life easier.

Good luck, and keep us posted on your game!

 

[Zappo]

I think you should definitely find out exactly what they enjoyed in the game.

 

[RagingGoblin]

Ideas I have so far (based on what you've given me):

* Small town of Willow Brook will be the luanching point. The region is very Scottish in it's terrain. Lots of fog, foothills, constant rain, etc.
* In order to give the PCs support the small town has several; two of them are fighting schools presented in Asgard #5. The Kurshwan Academy specializes in fighting with Falchions and I'm the local lord has hired them to act as guards (After a year of training you are put on guard duty). That school is really small with only 20 student and 5 instructors. Then there's the Thudoun School, which is about Dwarven fighting styles but can be tought to anyone, it's run by the blacksmith (a retired Dwarf fighter). He is the only instructor and he has five students. They're basically the core of the militia. Theres a small temple in the shape of a star and it's where the five main gods are worshipped, each god in a point of the star and then the One God, whom they all make up, in the center. Each God has one priest and one acolyte.
* I'm taking five gods from diffrent sources, I don't know which yet.
*Not sure what kind of enemies.
*Player races are going to be only Humans, only 1 person can be a dwarf and one person can be an Elf or Half-Elf (One dwarf with his wife lives in the town, becuase it's on the fringes of a human empire. Also, one Elf couple, who trains magi.)

Ideas?