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Message: <blockquote data-quote="reason" data-source="post: 383247" data-attributes="member: 6022">my way of doing thisI ran a D&D2 campaign back when (92-93, I think) that conformed to a lot of your desired campaign traits. How I managed it:RULES TWEAKSTo get that dangerous feeling back into conflict, some rules tweaks were put into play.1) missile weapons cause automatic critical hits when they do hit2) hit points are not real damage; they're just luck, bruising, fitness, etc. After running out of hit points, take CON damage until dead.3) critical hits bypass hit points and go directly to CON (but don't do extra damage).A rules tweak I'd add now is that people can take any or all of their attack bonus and apply it to AC instead of attacks. It makes high-level combat in low-magic games a lot less lethal and much more tactical.(A better version of this for my 3rd ed SORAS game is up at <a href="http://www.twilightminds.com/sorasfull.html" target="_blank">http://www.twilightminds.com/sorasfull.html</a> in PDF form).METHODS:1) The PCs came into a new realm ("The Enclave") from across the seas, so they weren't familiar with the lay of the land. That meant that they were figuring out where things were, who was important, and what was where as time went on. Coincidentally, this gives the GM a lot more leeway in figuring out the same things over time.2) I religiously kept a campaign diary; it's an immense help when avoiding the more obvious continuity errors. Also made good reading. An 8 hour sesssion amounted to 1-2 pages in the ledger.3) The Enclave started out as a map with major areas blocked out in it. The Enclave campaign started out as a basic seed idea ("gobbos from the north are being organized by some villain who is tapping into ancient magic of the liths, and they'll slowly press southward as the campaign progresses").4) The initial opening sessions are fairly steered, in that I presented some obvious plot hooks and they players took them. I needed little preparation for those. As it turned out, they went north to defend a village from evil bandits. 5) Keep NPC cards in conjunction with the diary. If you follow the rule that good games are built on relationships, you don't need to populate everything or work out stats for everything. A village might start out with 10 sketched NPCs before the PCs get there (so you have an idea as to who to run them into first). Each NPC might have a description as brief as Class, Power Level, Mannerisms. e.g. (Ruthus, Warrior, Experienced, high and mighty but clumsy). You only need to start filling out more details if the PCs interact meaningfully with these NPCs. It's also easy to generate new NPCs on the fly or quickly when needed. From my experience, PCs will interact a lot with only about 10% of the NPCs you plan. The ones you create on the fly wind up being campaign centric. Call it Murphy's Law of NPCs, and this card system stops it from being a pain.6) You can do the same card thing for places too, but I never did. I just filled out places as I found time, doing the most likely ones first.7) Steal maps. Never do your own unless you're into that sort of thing. I see you have that down. Maps are a big timesink.8) Keep a big plot going in the background. Drop something about it into the game every so often. Doesn't have to be direct. My players felt that it was damn cool that the Enclave was falling apart and things were happening while they were off doing other things; e.g. that the world wasn't static or only changing because of things they were doing. The Enclave plot started out with the PCs occasionally seeing/meeting translucent magic-using spirit gobbos, and receiving cryptic hints from an evil mage and disease priests that they fought. It wound up with massive destruction and sweeping armies of mithril-wielding gobbos, so you can get to interesting places from small beginnings.9) You never have to fill in details. So long as you're consistant and have an eye on the big plot, the world only has to be prepared for a session or two ahead of the PCs.10) If you're not going to match encounters to PC abilities (which is cool), you should do the following: a) encourage PCs to use means other than direct conflict to establish enemy strengths (the PCs in the Enclave included a priest of knowledge goddess, so they were big on lore and divination), b) make sure that the really, really bad areas are flagged as such -- by this I mean legends, local people know not to go there, a particular class of monster that they know is horrific, etc. c) Make sure your rules and setup allow people to escape from a losing battle if they go about it the right way. d) remember it goes both ways; if the 10th level PCs want to go step on that kobold village that's causing the villagers grief, let them wade in without making uber-kobolds to challenge them. The challenge should come from good player consciences, and the realization that half the stuff in the game can do the same to any human village.Reason</blockquote>

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