My confession: I love to DM. And I suck at it.
I love to DM, my players like my DMing style (I think
), I enjoy making up intrigue and mystery, roleplaying lots of different characters, and everything that goes into a session of playing D&D, but I simply do NOT enjoy making up my own worlds/adventures/etc. The majority of DMs seem to get a good portion of their kicks from constructing their own world and concocting whole campaigns in their heads, writing down details and stats for their own notes. This is not for me. As I said, enjoy DMing while in game, and I enjoy thinking about the game outside of playing sessions, thinking of new little ways to add, but in general the thought of creating a whole world and/or campaign is entirely too daunting for me, and really doesn’t seem like it’d be that enjoyable. Consequently, “campaigns in a box” or “mega-adventures” are the products I buy MOST. I’ve run RttToEE and Banewarrens and loved having that framework to run off of, adding my own little changes (I doubt any other RttToEE campaign had so much time travel), but having the majority of the design work done for me, so I can expend more energy on my and my players’ role playing.
So now you know me, and I now I want a little help. It finally looks like I have gathered a great group of people that all have similar interpretations of how they enjoy D&D, and I want to start on a big campaign. You know, where the character’s backstories have the potential to matter as they come to the fore, where overarching plot lines start and resolve at different points, where the characters go from a nice low level to a nice high level, where important things happen, where there is mystery, smacking monsters, politics, and the whole thing lasts over a year in real time. Don’t worry that I have delusions of grandeur; If the whole thing fizzles out in two months that’s ok with me, I don’t feel that I’m setting myself up for disappointment, I just want to give it a go and see if it works.
Now most DMs would say “Alright, now I get to make stuff up” and begin writing things down. However, as I already stated, that ain’t my cup of tea. My question then, is what’s out there that:
-Has a world sourcebook or similar repository of world information
-Has a QUALITY mega-adventure or string of adventures that could be run together
I do intend to put my own spin on things, so these adventures don’t have to all be heartbreaking works of staggering genius, but I would like them to be good. I’m in the camp that loved RttToEE, so if you’ve got something in mind that could be of that scope or a little bigger that’s right on.
I realize I’m asking a lot, because of my “handicap.” I realize some of you will think that I’m just “lazy,” but really, it’s just how I enjoy the game. Why half-ass my own adventure, a procedure I don’t really like, when I can get an adventure from a genius like Monte Cook or Bruce Cordell?
Candidates that’d I’ve heard of:
Freeport- From “Death” to “Black Sails Over” I understand most of it is great, but certain parts are a little shaky
Kalamar-LOT of stuff here, I like! But I’m not certain that these adventures are what I’ve described. Are they? If so, looks like the best candidate.
Scarred Lands- Everyone and their mom appears to like this setting, but I don’t see a lot of adventure support for what I’m describing
Thanks for listening!
Eltern
I love to DM, my players like my DMing style (I think
), I enjoy making up intrigue and mystery, roleplaying lots of different characters, and everything that goes into a session of playing D&D, but I simply do NOT enjoy making up my own worlds/adventures/etc. The majority of DMs seem to get a good portion of their kicks from constructing their own world and concocting whole campaigns in their heads, writing down details and stats for their own notes. This is not for me. As I said, enjoy DMing while in game, and I enjoy thinking about the game outside of playing sessions, thinking of new little ways to add, but in general the thought of creating a whole world and/or campaign is entirely too daunting for me, and really doesn’t seem like it’d be that enjoyable. Consequently, “campaigns in a box” or “mega-adventures” are the products I buy MOST. I’ve run RttToEE and Banewarrens and loved having that framework to run off of, adding my own little changes (I doubt any other RttToEE campaign had so much time travel), but having the majority of the design work done for me, so I can expend more energy on my and my players’ role playing.So now you know me, and I now I want a little help. It finally looks like I have gathered a great group of people that all have similar interpretations of how they enjoy D&D, and I want to start on a big campaign. You know, where the character’s backstories have the potential to matter as they come to the fore, where overarching plot lines start and resolve at different points, where the characters go from a nice low level to a nice high level, where important things happen, where there is mystery, smacking monsters, politics, and the whole thing lasts over a year in real time. Don’t worry that I have delusions of grandeur; If the whole thing fizzles out in two months that’s ok with me, I don’t feel that I’m setting myself up for disappointment, I just want to give it a go and see if it works.
Now most DMs would say “Alright, now I get to make stuff up” and begin writing things down. However, as I already stated, that ain’t my cup of tea. My question then, is what’s out there that:
-Has a world sourcebook or similar repository of world information
-Has a QUALITY mega-adventure or string of adventures that could be run together
I do intend to put my own spin on things, so these adventures don’t have to all be heartbreaking works of staggering genius, but I would like them to be good. I’m in the camp that loved RttToEE, so if you’ve got something in mind that could be of that scope or a little bigger that’s right on.
I realize I’m asking a lot, because of my “handicap.” I realize some of you will think that I’m just “lazy,” but really, it’s just how I enjoy the game. Why half-ass my own adventure, a procedure I don’t really like, when I can get an adventure from a genius like Monte Cook or Bruce Cordell?
Candidates that’d I’ve heard of:
Freeport- From “Death” to “Black Sails Over” I understand most of it is great, but certain parts are a little shaky
Kalamar-LOT of stuff here, I like! But I’m not certain that these adventures are what I’ve described. Are they? If so, looks like the best candidate.
Scarred Lands- Everyone and their mom appears to like this setting, but I don’t see a lot of adventure support for what I’m describing
Thanks for listening!
Eltern
" Dungeons are good, but it seems that virtually all of NG's adventures are of the same variety, with some undead and co. stomping around in a multi-level dungeon ecosystem w/o a lot of plot. Am I -completely- off the wall here? As such Rappan tastes bitter to my mouth, and Tomb of Abysthor a less intense one, though looking through its reviews it looks like it is a very good adventure, but maybe not what I'm looking for. Maybe I need to be looking for something different. 
