Placing pre-written adventures in your world

[caudor]

The 3 questions (below) are primarily aimed at those who have adopted a published campaign world that includes nice color maps. This probably is not an issue for those with pure homegrown campaigns and can move mountain ranges at a whim.

Let's say you adopt a published campaign setting as your own campaign world. So now you have a wonderful full-color map of the world you can use, show off, etc. You might also have a stack of published adventures you wish to use (sometime) in that world. If so, my questions are:

If a campaign setting and adventure are related (or from the same vendor), do you ever worry about whether there is already an 'official' place in the world for that adventure, and go off to the message boards or vendor website in search of it? If there is an 'official' spot, are you likely to use it?

If you have to place the adventure yourself, do you often spend significant time looking over the map trying to match the terrain features in the adventure to the terrain features in the world to make it fit?

Finally, do you place 'third-party' adventures or homebrew adventures in unpopular areas of the campaign world in hopes of avoiding a situation where a subsequent published campaign expansion lands right on top of what you already have setup?

My answer to all three questions is yes. I'm simply interested in learning how others handle this is their worlds. Thanks for reading my fairly long post

 

[Nightfall]

I am curious which adventures you are thinking of using caudor.

 

[Southern Oracle]

The 3 questions (below) are primarily aimed at those who have adopted a published campaign world that includes nice color maps. This probably is not an issue for those with pure homegrown campaigns and can move mountain ranges at a whim.

Let's say you adopt a published campaign setting as your own campaign world. So now you have a wonderful full-color map of the world you can use, show off, etc. You might also have a stack of published adventures you wish to use (sometime) in that world.

That is precisely the case...my 3.5 campaign is set in the Forgotten Realms, and I have a plethora of 3E and 2E material for that setting. I only use pre-written adventures...I don't have the time to make my own stuff.

If a campaign setting and adventure are related (or from the same vendor), do you ever worry about whether there is already an 'official' place in the world for that adventure, and go off to the message boards or vendor website in search of it? If there is an 'official' spot, are you likely to use it?

I don't necessarily worry about it. I judge the adventures based on their challenge rating for my party...I keep them separated by terrain type, but I change the recommended settings if my party isn't where the author recommends. For example, the Dungeon adventure "Thirds of Purloined Vellum" in issue #88 is set in Athkatla, but I moved it to Lapalgard.

If you have to place the adventure yourself, do you often spend significant time looking over the map trying to match the terrain features in the adventure to the terrain features in the world to make it fit?

The scale of an adventure map is much smaller than the scale of my Forgotten Realms maps, so it's not much of a concern for me. I try to roughly match up things like rivers and such in the correct climate, but it's easy enough to say a map the PCs have is faulty because the cartographer was lazy and didn't travel the entire length of the river, etc., to explain why a particular village or small forest wasn't on their map.

Finally, do you place 'third-party' adventures or homebrew adventures in unpopular areas of the campaign world in hopes of avoiding a situation where a subsequent published campaign expansion lands right on top of what you already have setup?

This isn't something I can answer, as I haven't used any third-party material. I do have to say that I discourage my party from visiting places for which I know there are supplements (or will be) that I don't own...I don't want my players going to Waterdeep, for example, until I get that supplement. Since I have Unapproachable East and Silver Marches, however, they're welcome to head in that direction.

 

[Arnwyn]

If a campaign setting and adventure are related (or from the same vendor), do you ever worry about whether there is already an 'official' place in the world for that adventure, and go off to the message boards or vendor website in search of it? If there is an 'official' spot, are you likely to use it?

If the adventure does not specifically say where it it is located in the world, then I don't worry about it at all. If there is an 'official' spot, and it's clearly denoted, then I am likely to use it.

If you have to place the adventure yourself, do you often spend significant time looking over the map trying to match the terrain features in the adventure to the terrain features in the world to make it fit?

Significant time? No. Some time? Yeah, sure. However, as Southern Oracle notes above, most of my FR maps are usually of a larger scale than the adventure, so looking for matching terrain features isn't often a problem. For those regions where I have smaller scale maps, then I'll look a little harder if I feel that the adventure is suitable to be in such a region.

Finally, do you place 'third-party' adventures or homebrew adventures in unpopular areas of the campaign world in hopes of avoiding a situation where a subsequent published campaign expansion lands right on top of what you already have setup?

No. (Define "unpopular" areas...?) Since the campaign world I use (FR) is already significantly detailed (and I own everything for it), I do not worry all that much about future supplements (especially since I'm not too keen on 3e FR anyways) - I already know what each area is about, and thus I can easily fit any adventure into whichever area I deem is most appropriate.

 

[caudor]

I am curious which adventures you are thinking of using caudor.

I want to thank everyone for the replies

Nightfall, as requested--here's the scoop: My regular group decided to divide up (and share) d20 resources and material. After discussions, I wound up the DM all the Necromancer Games adventures, to be set within the Wilderlands setting.

By the way, I let my brother borrow my stack of Scarred Lands books (heh, I know where he lives) so he can prepare a grand adventure for our group to play. I decided I wanted to be a *player* in this one. Can't wait!

Anyway, I decided to start with the Lost City of Barakus and have everyone roll up new 3.5 characters for this campaign. True to form, I headed over to Necromancer Games website and after much searching/reading, saw a post by Bill Webb (Tsathogga)--he mentioned that he placed the city on map 3 (Valley of the Ancients area). That was fine and made it official for me. Somehow, having things 'official' makes me feel good about a placement decision. One of my quirks, I suppose

However, trying to find terrain in that area that matched Vault of Larin Karr (Quail Valley) proved to be a challenge.

To make a long story short...I spent about two hours with my stack of Necromancer Games adventures, reading messages boards to see what others have done, and placing then placing the adventures in world fairly near to each other.

Which got me thinking and led to this thread.

 

[~Johnny~]

Finally, do you place 'third-party' adventures or homebrew adventures in unpopular areas of the campaign world in hopes of avoiding a situation where a subsequent published campaign expansion lands right on top of what you already have setup?

For me, that's really the double-edged sword of using an official campaign setting. I like setting adventures in an existing campaign world because it gives you a lot of texture and detail to build upon. Just as it's fun to visit worlds like Coruscant in a Star Wars RPG game, PCs get a kick out of spending time in famous cities or exploring the mysteries of the Underdark. On the other hand, I'd never play a published adventure without extensive tweaking because my group's characters are unique, and I want to create an adventure that plays up their personalities.

I guess it comes down to this: when you're creating something from scratch, you have to spend all your energy laying the foundations of an original world. With published settings and adventures, you can put that energy into personalizing the encounters for your group's PCs or adding fun, unexpected twists that play with preconceived notions.

 

[Nightfall]

Wow. A Necromancer module game! I'm in love. Good luck to you in both the DMing and playing aspects. It sounds really good.

 

[Buttercup]

However, trying to find terrain in that area that matched Vault of Larin Karr (Quail Valley) proved to be a challenge.

In my world, Quail Valley is to the east of the Valley of the Ancients, off the map about 50 miles east or so. The party is currently about 50 miles farther east than that, and heading toward Quail Valley real soon. They're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Twain....

 

[caudor]

In my world, Quail Valley is to the east of the Valley of the Ancients, off the map about 50 miles east or so. The party is currently about 50 miles farther east than that, and heading toward Quail Valley real soon. They're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Twain....

Thanks Buttercup, I didn't even think about going off the edge of the map a bit. That's really a pretty good idea

 

[Quickbeam]

1) Yes, and like Buttercup suggests I'm perfectly happy wandering off the edge of the maps and operating in the vast uncharted reaches of the world.

2) Yes to some degree, but I don't usually spend an inordinately large amount of time and energy on terrain concerns.

3) YES! I always integrate homebrewed ideas and portions of other interesing adventure scenarios into the published setting universe. I find that the time spent working these items into the existing world's parameters benefit the game in two distinct ways. First, the time spent on integration makes me that much more familiar with the campaign setting. And second, it becomes additional prep time for the upcoming sessions which serves to bring the game events off more seamlessly.