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Message: <blockquote data-quote="prabe" data-source="post: 9357198" data-attributes="member: 7016699">I'm afraid I'm going to answer your questions, not by answering your questions, but by working my way through the last campaign I started. It's not the only way to start a neotrad campaign, but it's one I've found to work well for me. Obviously, YMMV. There'll be some links to things in my GDrive.So, this is the third campaign I've started in this world--the first ran 1-20, the second is currently at (I think) level 17. (That is correct, I don't always know what level the PCs in a given campaign are.) I'd established the city of Dhaqi during the second campaign, and I decided I wanted to start a campaign in a big city and see if I could have it orbit that for a long time.(There will be references to things in the setting other than Dhaqi in the files I link, but I don't think any of those will prevent understanding. I can unpack anything at request.)Most of the time, the first time a group of PCs enter or deal with a city-type location, they get a quick-and-dirty thumbnail of the city. Dhaqi's looked like this: <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/19h-axv1U5wFCGq9IykLYAa5wb4wJMLgT/view?usp=drive_link" target="_blank">Dhaqi in Brief</a>I wanted the PCs to be, if not natives of Dhaqi, then long-time residents. They'd know the city better than that, I thought--and I knew I wanted them to fill in some details, which meant I needed to tell them more about the city so they could have a better sense of the negative space they were working in/with. I ended up with this: <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MhcvJc9k-jSExO-73Ujk3IGjIaqal_lr/view?usp=drive_link" target="_blank">Dhaqi in Some Detail</a>(Here I should say that while I probably know more about Dhaqi than is in even the second, more detailed document, I don't have the vast majority of it written down.)After giving the players that, I started with my wife (who I know is good at this sort of thing) and asked her for two people, a place or group, and an event in Dhaqi, and how her character was connected to them; then I rolled a relevant die to determine whom I'd ask next. After all six players had responded, I had this: <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DgfiJwJHC_M4c8Ge-Mv-gUUs04E1lCPr/view?usp=drive_link" target="_blank">Character Connections to Dhaqi</a>(Additionally, they had given me backstories ranging from a couple of paragraphs to over 2,000 words--no novellas this time. I do not have all of those in one place, so I cannot share them easily.)Once I had all their connections to Dhaqi, I set up a situation that started in Ikaz's Ruins involving a group of wererats attempting to take over Dhaqi's criminal underworld (which didn't kick off with wererats, because level one characters) and put things in motion. The PCs have poked around and done some damage to the plans--they're probably just about to unravel the whole thing. I've provided them with information to at least three things from their backstories while they've been dealing with the wererats; once that's done, they'll have options for what to pursue next.</blockquote>

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