Maldin
First Post
Personally, I've never had problems with absentee players, because if someone couldn't make it, another player would run their PC(s). Assuming that you don't allow that sort of thing...
There are several things that came to my mind after reading your initial post that have since been already listed by others... such as a city built on earlier cities, leaving essentially a vast network of "shallow" adventuring locations. The usual megadungeon always eventually becomes a "deep dive", requiring more than a single session to go into and out of, causing problems with absentee players. If it is a large city, there could be multiple generations of large cities, each from different civilizations beneath.
However, going after cache after cache could become old and tired, eventually jeapardizing the longevity of your campaign. If the PCs are going out to the adventures, you eventually have to travel farther (and therefore longer adventures).
So what can you do to keep things new? A city under siege. If the adventures are always coming to YOU, something new is always just around the (same) corner. Now, I don't necessarily mean that your city is under a military seige (although it could go through periods of more blatant military seige). Rather, a constant deluge of visitors from around the world.
Start with the above idea, of ancient cities newly discovered beneath the PCs feet, and play up the global attention that new discovery may incur. The city in question lies in a region that had been claimed by many different civilizations from different directions at different times. The modern successors of those different civilizations will begin sending all sorts of people to the PCs city... Adventurers to explore the ruins of their ancestors (competition! - some friendly, some not). Secular organizations like Greyhawk's Seekers, Dustdiggers and the Silent Ones, and religious organizations (including both national religions and wild-card cults) will come to lay claim, protect, or destroy the artifacts of their ancestors - or enemy's ancestors (depending on their motivations). Military expeditions (secret or not-so-secret) to lay claim to ancient rights. Politicians (and their legal and diplomatic intrigues) to use law and other less scrutible methods. Spies and assassins to achieve gains for their respective homelands by the methods they know best. Freelancers circling the action like scavengers or sharks. Observers there just out of genuine curiosity or legitimate research.
You could go for years and never run out of ideas, without ever going beyond the city walls. You are essentially writing the scripts for an episodic TV series, with each idea an individual one-night episode.
Denis, aka "Maldin"
Maldin's Greyhawk http://melkot.com
Loads of edition-independent Greyhawk goodness... maps, magic, mysteries, mechanics, and more!
And perhaps some material that you can use in the above campaign.
There are several things that came to my mind after reading your initial post that have since been already listed by others... such as a city built on earlier cities, leaving essentially a vast network of "shallow" adventuring locations. The usual megadungeon always eventually becomes a "deep dive", requiring more than a single session to go into and out of, causing problems with absentee players. If it is a large city, there could be multiple generations of large cities, each from different civilizations beneath.
However, going after cache after cache could become old and tired, eventually jeapardizing the longevity of your campaign. If the PCs are going out to the adventures, you eventually have to travel farther (and therefore longer adventures).
So what can you do to keep things new? A city under siege. If the adventures are always coming to YOU, something new is always just around the (same) corner. Now, I don't necessarily mean that your city is under a military seige (although it could go through periods of more blatant military seige). Rather, a constant deluge of visitors from around the world.
Start with the above idea, of ancient cities newly discovered beneath the PCs feet, and play up the global attention that new discovery may incur. The city in question lies in a region that had been claimed by many different civilizations from different directions at different times. The modern successors of those different civilizations will begin sending all sorts of people to the PCs city... Adventurers to explore the ruins of their ancestors (competition! - some friendly, some not). Secular organizations like Greyhawk's Seekers, Dustdiggers and the Silent Ones, and religious organizations (including both national religions and wild-card cults) will come to lay claim, protect, or destroy the artifacts of their ancestors - or enemy's ancestors (depending on their motivations). Military expeditions (secret or not-so-secret) to lay claim to ancient rights. Politicians (and their legal and diplomatic intrigues) to use law and other less scrutible methods. Spies and assassins to achieve gains for their respective homelands by the methods they know best. Freelancers circling the action like scavengers or sharks. Observers there just out of genuine curiosity or legitimate research.
You could go for years and never run out of ideas, without ever going beyond the city walls. You are essentially writing the scripts for an episodic TV series, with each idea an individual one-night episode.
Denis, aka "Maldin"
Maldin's Greyhawk http://melkot.com
Loads of edition-independent Greyhawk goodness... maps, magic, mysteries, mechanics, and more!
And perhaps some material that you can use in the above campaign.
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