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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 5560021" data-attributes="member: 59082">I'm dabbling with starting up a new campaign with my group at some point - at least some months away, maybe a year, but I wanted to play with ideas. I've always wanted to run a game modeled after classic epic fantasy quest stories. By "epic fantasy quest" I mean your garden-variety, Tolkien offspring: You know, a group of companions called to adventure, an Ancient Evil re-awakening, a quest or three for a magic item of some kind, etc. So how would you do this? Has anyone run this sort of campaign? And how do you do it without railroading too much? I'd be running 4E, but I don't think the conversation has to exclude other games. Some thoughts as I write this:First of all, 4E doesn't really support the "off the farm" type adventurer so I'd have to rig something up. I see three possible starting points:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Off the Farm: The characters effectively start at "0 level." They might have half HP, no classes, feats, or powers (or they might have a rudimentary class with a single at-will power). I would run them through a brief intro adventure, at the end of which they would be 1st level. This would be the equivalent of the Trollocs attacking Two Rivers, or fleeing the Shire, going to visit Old Ben Kenobi, etc.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">New Adventurers: The characters start at 1st level, although are all green to adventuring. Perhaps they are old friends who went off to receive various trainings and reunited at their favorite inn. This could be a variant on the Dragonlance approach except starting them at 1st level (which, in 4E, is closer to what the Dragonlance characters were as AD&D levels around 3-5).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Seasoned Adventurers: This would be closer to Dragonlance - they've all had a few adventures, perhaps are reuniting when the fit hits the shan. Maybe they'd be 3-5 level.</li> </ul>Some thoughts for tiered campaigning:HeroicIntro sequence - home is attacked, first quest; the equivalent of "book one" of a trilogy. At the end the characters think they defeat the evil but what they don't realize is that it was just a servant of a greater evil and that this servant, perhaps through the PCs doings, was able to awaken that Ancient Evil. Which leads to...ParagonMaybe a few years later, all seems well in the land. Now minor heroes, the characters are living the good life, perhaps as lords of a land. Suddenly the Ancient Evil re-appears, darkness falls over the land, the Empire Strikes Back, etc. The characters go on a long quest to recover some artifact or series of artifacts, traveling through a fallen and hostile land to the ends of the world.EpicHaving recovered the artifact(s), the characters travel to the heart of darkness and face the Ancient Evil.Thoughts?</blockquote>

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