Mercurius
Legend
OK, here's the scenario: I'm finally getting back into the game after five or six years away from the table (the last time I played was just before 3.5 came out, if I remember correctly). I'm very excited to run a 4E campaign starting sometime in the next couple months; we can't really get going until November or so, but we'll try to meet, make characters and such, in August and I hope to get the basics of the campaign setting codified in the next few weeks.
The game will, unfortunately, only be once a month, for about six hours per session. The four involved are all in their 30s, have careers and/or families, and once a month is the only way we can make this work. I have previously posted a question about running monthly games and got a lot of good ideas which I will use, in particular a yahoo email group with recaps sent out a few days before each session so that everyone gets a refresher.
My question here is both specific and open-ended. But first let me give some context in what sort of game I want to run. I will be quite limited in how much time I can prepare between adventures, but luckily I like the "points of light" style setting, which lends itself to "design-as-you-go" campaign creation style. In the past I have enjoyed creating detailed campaign settings, but my long-time setting has, in the process of becoming the setting for my writing, moved quite far away from canonical D&D, which is what we all want to play. I like the emphasis of "points of light," which allows for lots of lost histories, artefacts, etc.
The basic premise of the campaign is pretty simple: A magical apocalypse destroyed a great empire 1,000+ years ago (the exact timeframe isn't commonly known), and civilization along with it. A few pockets survived but most people devolved into barbarism. Over the last few hundred years different peoples have gradually gathered in a valley and settled in the ruins of an ancient city; over the last hunded years, the valley has started to thrive, becoming a kind of solace, the center of a new civilization in a fledgling state. It has, of course, also spawned a wealth of adventurers, who go out beyond the valley in search of various artefacts of the fallen empire, into a wilderness that is teeming with monsters. For some unknown reason the lore and history of the ancient age was lost (except to a few, of course!), and the various factions of the new city hire adventurers to seek various artefacts of the fallen empire in an attempt to gain power.
As you can imagine by now, game play--at least to begin with--will involve the characters being hired by an agent of one of the factions to retrieve an item. If they succeed they'll be hired again. But then it will get more complicated as other factions get involve, and a meta-plot starts brewing that involves undead sorcerers, dead and resurrected gods, hidden eladrin kingdoms, and all that fun stuff. The idea I'm going for is a campaign that seems focused on dungeon crawls and loot-gathering, but gradually becomes something much more.
So the basic premise cuts down the campaign setting preparation somewhat; I can focus on designing the city, the valley, and only have an idea of the surrounding regions, filling in the details as needed. I also need a strong sense of what the fallen empire was, how it was destroyed, and what happened to all of the different races, as well as the old gods (who seemingly died in the apocalypse) and the new gods (immortals recently appearing in various contexts, gaining followers). All of that is pretty easy and stuff I can think about throughout the day. Where it gets trickier is in actually sitting down and doing the "drudge work" of adventure design. Due to various factors in Real Life, preparation time will be in snippets here and there throughout the month, but maybe less than I would usually like.
So by way of summary, I'm looking for any advice, but especially as pertains to designing (hopefully good) adventures as quickly as possible. Any short-cuts? Tricks and tips you want to share? Resources? (I'm thinking getting the new dungeon tiles might be a good thing).
The game will, unfortunately, only be once a month, for about six hours per session. The four involved are all in their 30s, have careers and/or families, and once a month is the only way we can make this work. I have previously posted a question about running monthly games and got a lot of good ideas which I will use, in particular a yahoo email group with recaps sent out a few days before each session so that everyone gets a refresher.
My question here is both specific and open-ended. But first let me give some context in what sort of game I want to run. I will be quite limited in how much time I can prepare between adventures, but luckily I like the "points of light" style setting, which lends itself to "design-as-you-go" campaign creation style. In the past I have enjoyed creating detailed campaign settings, but my long-time setting has, in the process of becoming the setting for my writing, moved quite far away from canonical D&D, which is what we all want to play. I like the emphasis of "points of light," which allows for lots of lost histories, artefacts, etc.
The basic premise of the campaign is pretty simple: A magical apocalypse destroyed a great empire 1,000+ years ago (the exact timeframe isn't commonly known), and civilization along with it. A few pockets survived but most people devolved into barbarism. Over the last few hundred years different peoples have gradually gathered in a valley and settled in the ruins of an ancient city; over the last hunded years, the valley has started to thrive, becoming a kind of solace, the center of a new civilization in a fledgling state. It has, of course, also spawned a wealth of adventurers, who go out beyond the valley in search of various artefacts of the fallen empire, into a wilderness that is teeming with monsters. For some unknown reason the lore and history of the ancient age was lost (except to a few, of course!), and the various factions of the new city hire adventurers to seek various artefacts of the fallen empire in an attempt to gain power.
As you can imagine by now, game play--at least to begin with--will involve the characters being hired by an agent of one of the factions to retrieve an item. If they succeed they'll be hired again. But then it will get more complicated as other factions get involve, and a meta-plot starts brewing that involves undead sorcerers, dead and resurrected gods, hidden eladrin kingdoms, and all that fun stuff. The idea I'm going for is a campaign that seems focused on dungeon crawls and loot-gathering, but gradually becomes something much more.
So the basic premise cuts down the campaign setting preparation somewhat; I can focus on designing the city, the valley, and only have an idea of the surrounding regions, filling in the details as needed. I also need a strong sense of what the fallen empire was, how it was destroyed, and what happened to all of the different races, as well as the old gods (who seemingly died in the apocalypse) and the new gods (immortals recently appearing in various contexts, gaining followers). All of that is pretty easy and stuff I can think about throughout the day. Where it gets trickier is in actually sitting down and doing the "drudge work" of adventure design. Due to various factors in Real Life, preparation time will be in snippets here and there throughout the month, but maybe less than I would usually like.
So by way of summary, I'm looking for any advice, but especially as pertains to designing (hopefully good) adventures as quickly as possible. Any short-cuts? Tricks and tips you want to share? Resources? (I'm thinking getting the new dungeon tiles might be a good thing).
(as I have yet to try what I am trying :-D )
