Mercurius
Legend
I've started a few similar threads, but have gradually refined the questions as my campaign has been developed, so bear with me if this sounds familiar.
So here's where I'm at. We started our Next campaign a couple weeks ago and are playing again next weekend (we're playing once very 2-3 weeks, the best we can do with busy 40-something lives). My plan is to start the campaign off as a sandbox style. I'm working on a big map of a region approximately 800 x 500 miles, so they've got plenty of room to play in. It is the fringe area to the west and north of the main civilized region and largely wilderness with scattered settlements and nonhuman domains. There's a deep history of tens of millennia, thus the ruins of many past civilizations, most of them unknown or forgotten.
Anyhow, I'm looking for sites to scatter throughout the map. I'd like to drop rumors about said sites and allow the PCs to make their own way. Gradually I'm going to weave in plot hooks for a possible larger meta-plot later on, but for at least the first five, maybe ten, levels they'll be mainly exploring the world. Whether or not they follow this or that plot thread is entirely up to them.
So here is what I'm looking for:
- Site locations that are relatively easy to DM with very little prep. By "very little prep" I mean reading through it for an hour or two. I'm fine with improvising and adjusting monsters on the fly to Next, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem (as those who play Next know, it is so flexible that it is easy to translate anything into it). But its a major plus if I can run it without spending weeks reading and planning.
- Sites/modules that have history and lore to them (e.g. "a mad wizard roaming the halls"), but can be used without a specific plot ("you're on a quest to save Waterdeep"). Even the latter, of course, can be adapted. But the point here is that lore and history is good, gives a site flavor, but if it is too specific, too entwined in a story, then it is harder to adapt.
- Preferably sites that are low-to-mid levels, or at least have low-to-mid level parts. I'm totally happy with higher level denizens, but they should be in the lower levels, for the part (or at least easily avoided!).
- I'd love a range of options in terms of breadth, from mega-dungeons like Castle Whiterock (which I purchased and plopped on the map) to one-shots like a garbage dump with an otyugh in it.
So basically what I'm looking for is a list of your favorite adventure sites, and that preferably hit the above criteria. I'm also going to be looking at the Wilderlands box set for specific ideas, but as far as I can tell they aren't fleshed out at all and will mainly be useful for ideas for simple encounters. I'm hoping for sites that have actual maps and some depth.
Thanks!
So here's where I'm at. We started our Next campaign a couple weeks ago and are playing again next weekend (we're playing once very 2-3 weeks, the best we can do with busy 40-something lives). My plan is to start the campaign off as a sandbox style. I'm working on a big map of a region approximately 800 x 500 miles, so they've got plenty of room to play in. It is the fringe area to the west and north of the main civilized region and largely wilderness with scattered settlements and nonhuman domains. There's a deep history of tens of millennia, thus the ruins of many past civilizations, most of them unknown or forgotten.
Anyhow, I'm looking for sites to scatter throughout the map. I'd like to drop rumors about said sites and allow the PCs to make their own way. Gradually I'm going to weave in plot hooks for a possible larger meta-plot later on, but for at least the first five, maybe ten, levels they'll be mainly exploring the world. Whether or not they follow this or that plot thread is entirely up to them.
So here is what I'm looking for:
- Site locations that are relatively easy to DM with very little prep. By "very little prep" I mean reading through it for an hour or two. I'm fine with improvising and adjusting monsters on the fly to Next, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem (as those who play Next know, it is so flexible that it is easy to translate anything into it). But its a major plus if I can run it without spending weeks reading and planning.
- Sites/modules that have history and lore to them (e.g. "a mad wizard roaming the halls"), but can be used without a specific plot ("you're on a quest to save Waterdeep"). Even the latter, of course, can be adapted. But the point here is that lore and history is good, gives a site flavor, but if it is too specific, too entwined in a story, then it is harder to adapt.
- Preferably sites that are low-to-mid levels, or at least have low-to-mid level parts. I'm totally happy with higher level denizens, but they should be in the lower levels, for the part (or at least easily avoided!).
- I'd love a range of options in terms of breadth, from mega-dungeons like Castle Whiterock (which I purchased and plopped on the map) to one-shots like a garbage dump with an otyugh in it.
So basically what I'm looking for is a list of your favorite adventure sites, and that preferably hit the above criteria. I'm also going to be looking at the Wilderlands box set for specific ideas, but as far as I can tell they aren't fleshed out at all and will mainly be useful for ideas for simple encounters. I'm hoping for sites that have actual maps and some depth.
Thanks!
