New Campaign, need ideas.

[Barak]

Alright. So I'm currently running the WLD. While I am enjoying it, and my players are as well, I want to run something different once in a while. My major problem, usually, when running an homebrew of some sort, is getting prepared enough to run on game night, and then I rush things and do it half-donkeyed, and I end up displeased with the results, and I scrape it.

Now this isn't a problem, since if I ain't prepared enough.. WLD time!

So here's what I know I want to do. Iron Heroes, loosely based on medieval europe. I say loosely because it will be a tad on the SCA-side of things. If a player is a viking and another a knight, that's ok.

Overall, I'll be using Heroes of Horror pretty heavily. Not really the crunch, but the fluff of it. BTW, I've talked to my players about both of those things, and they are interested, so that's a go.

My idea at this point is to have them start 5-6th level, and be somewhat important already. Probably something akin to the elite "troubleshooters" of a minor king/baron/whatever. The first adventure or two will probably be more "vanilla", since it will be the first time we play with Iron Heroes, so the goal at that point will be more to get with the rule-differences then introduce the story per se... Although..

My thinking is to have it -seem- that way. Perhaps they deal with some bandits who have become enough of a thorn in the side of their ruler to have them sent to dispatch them, somethi9ng of the sort. But.. Knowing my players, they will probably be a tad on the heavy-handed side dealing with any such thing. Therefore, I'm thinking that the main protagonist of the actual campaign will, at some point, be reavealed to be related to that.

Anyway. That's pretty much what I've got so far. Any ideas/advice?

 

[Wik]

First, you should make sure you understand the combat challenges and stunts rules, and make sure that your group has some way to quick access them. We eventually photocopied the relevant pages; even then, stunts were rarely attempted.

Secondly, when making characters, have the Players state their own connections to the local area. If this means that they create a small town or village that you hadn't planned on existing, then so be it. It will help solidify the kingdom in your players' minds. I find this works very well.

Finally, avoid the weapon bond trait. I hate it, I HATE IT. A character with weapon bond that uses dex instead of str is pretty much the height of munchkinism.

 

[Nyaricus]

Well, Wik put it properly that your players should understand the rules beforehand, so I'll go with the fluff here, but I'd love it if I/we could have more details. Any names of the kingdom/barony, etc. Any religions playing a role? Anything we should know that you have in mind?

Thanks

 

[Barak]

Well, going with the pseudo-european theme, I'll be using a map of Europe (without country borders, obviously) as the campaign map. We'll be starting in what is known to us as France. While I figure there will be an empire of some sort, the characters will be affiliated with a smaller "ruler". Probably the equivalent of a baron. That's about all that is, in my mind, set at the moment. As you can see, I'm in the very early planning stages still. Part of what makes the idea interesting to me is that I'm in no rush to get this thing off the ground, since I have a game running at the moment anyway, so it's not like I have any deadline to get this one started.

Religion will most likely be somewhat understated. By that, I mean that any power held by any church will be purely temporal, and what I have as a vision for the ruler they will "work" for is somewhat of an agnostic, as in not being above "using" religion to strenghten his rule, but not constrained by it as well. Obviously, that doesn't mean that he's correct in his stance, and characters are very free to be different in their views from him. Basically, I want the ruler to be a tool for adventure arcs, and in no way a constraint to character concepts/development. Also, I don't want to define the "barony" too much, because while I'll build/have a hand in character builds, The actual backgrounds/views/whatever will be totally to the player's wishes, and as such they easily could end up having a hand in building the "barony" as well.