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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MerakSpielman" data-source="post: 380544" data-attributes="member: 7464">I posted this over on the Wizards Boards. The responses were interesting but not too helpful.By player request, my next campaign (due to start in about 6 months) is going to be as "realistic" as possible within the D&D framework. Of course, this is still a D&D world, with all the stuff from the core books, but I am going to attempt to eliminate logical inconsistancies such as the following:Characters being led almost as if by fate on a linear progression of adventures towards a climatic, heroic endingCharacters miraculously not running into higher CR monsters until they are at higher levels (and high level characters not running into puny monsters)Intelligent opponents who don't fight to the best of their abilitiesMonsters who can have class levels and, for some reason, usually don't (kobolds, orcs, and trolls for example)Finding magical items that just happen to fit a current need of the party (giving the druid a magical scimitar just because at this level, he should have one)ETC....Again, this campaign is by player request. They want the world to be in no way arrayed to their advantage.This means, as a DM, that there will be considerable prep work involved. What I am looking for from all of you is suggestions for shortcuts.This is what I have come up with so far:Since the characters can explore where they want whenever they want, all locales and items of interest must be worked out in advance, along with a description of the significant creatures, intelligent and otherwise, that live in the area.SHORTCUT: Have only a handful of these worked out in advance, but leave the details of the map and inhabitants vague so they can be adapted to any area quickly. Keep plot elements (if any) the same, though the inhabitants might shift from orcs (in hills) to tribal humans (plains) to elves (forest) to trolls (swamps). For Dungeons, the players need to have the perception that I have thousands all mapped out in advance.SHORTCUT: I'll have about 20 pages of flow charts that could describe anything from a mad wizards basement funhouse to a formian hive to an abandoned undergrond dwarven stronghold to back allys in the city to twisting paths in the forest - just a bunch of circles to indicate rooms and lines to indicate coridors. Personalities of NPCs: I (and my playes) like NPCs to be unique and have personalities, whether they are friend, foe, shopkeeper, or hermit.SHORTCUT: have a list of misc personality traits for NPCs. Have them in groups of three: 1) paranoid, soft spoken, and humorless. 2) assertive, intelligent, and rude. Etc.. Every time they run into a NPC, just roll a quick personality or use the next one on the list. Make every statement reflect one of their traits. The players will think you have every NPC in the world worked out as an individual.miscSHORTCUT: A random list of things to discover via Gather Information.SHORTCUT: a list of Tavern/Shop/Ship/NPC names sorted by local dominant raceLiterally anything can happen - the characters might very well die early, after running into a terribly nasty moster at first level, but they players think it sounds like tremendous fun, and I like the idea of not having to tailer every encounter to be "just hard enough" for their current level.Do any of you have ideas for more shortcuts for a campaign like this?</blockquote>

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