Kurtomatic
First Post
- Executive summary: please recommend adventure mods for a prefab, setting-light sandbox campaign. Thanks heaps!
However, I’d like to suggest a thread topic focused more on methods than definitions. Broad and shallow; less QQ, more pew pew.
I’m going to use a hypothetical campaign use case to frame the topic, and I hope it’s one that others find interesting as well. The requirement du jour is the front-loaded content development effort required by a putative sandbox game. I would also like to focus on a popular, lazy DM solution: using canned, published adventures. There’s nothing new about building campaigns from mods (always a popular topic); the twist here is the need to select a variety of adventures that meet the needs of my hypothetical ‘sandbox’ campaign.
So here’s the deal. Let's say we are running a weekly game with public sign-ups (think Meetup or Warhorn). The venue could be public or semi-private, and game sessions are generally limited to 4 hours or 6 hours max (your classic convention slot). The specific rules and edition are not important, except that the game can be roughly described as “D&D”. The table rules in play will encourage the players to first identify some goal(s) within the game, and then accomplish as much as possible in the session time remaining (which is a nice topic for another time). The DM won’t know what PC levels or goals will be in play before the session starts.
While this scenario is a little unusual and a bit over-specific, it is not entirely unrealistic, and it emphasizes certain requirements that I find interesting. To save time, we’re going to build this sandbox out of published adventures, modules, dungeon articles, and so on. Any rules conversions and mod changes required are assumed as part of the campaign prep, as is the design of the setting mashup itself. We are (hypothetically) not going to worry about spoilers, so popular, classic mods are as welcome as obscure ones.
What specific modules (adventures, etc.) would you think of using for this campaign?
We typically want site-based mods that are light on setting assumptions or otherwise self-contained, but can easily be linked to the larger campaign. We want mods that make little or no hard assumptions regarding PC motivations or agendas (outside of the usual advancement goodies). We like strong maps and NPCs. Plot hooks and macguffins are very welcome if they give optional but meaningful choices. Exploration adventures (dungeons, etc.) obviously work great, as long as they can be broken into discreet stages, each with valuable play in limited time slots. The same also applies to for-hire/quest-style adventures.
Simple campaign persistence can be maintained with end-of-session story awards (frex, “My rogue previously found the entrance to the 4th level of the Pit of Irony, can we start there today?”, or “I have a merchant contact in the city that has a job for us.”). Elaborate plots are definitely out of scope, however. Big mods are valuable if they can be decomposed without serious damage. We want to offer some variety of play-styles, so while dungeon-style mods are clearly our meat-and-potatoes, short episodic narratives aren’t out of the question.
There are a few sandbox classics that are obvious candidates (B2, X1, etc, etc…), and those get talked about a lot, and should be included in this discussion too. Feel free to mix and match editions and publishers as you like. We’re looking for the best mods that fit the format, regardless of rules mechanics; they just need to be available in some form.
Thanks for reading!
