Yora
Legend
I got a vague idea for a campaign that is set entirely around a single great river in an ancient forest. Something on the scale of the Volga, Mekong, or Columbia. The setting is a great wilderness that was home to civilizations of giants, high elves, yuan-ti, and even much older beings, but since the yuan-ti kingdom disappeared, the land had been basically uninhabited over a thousand years except for some tribes of ogres, aaracockra, and bullywugs. Human tribes slowly moved into the area and created new homes in the ruins of the great ancient cities at the lower river. From there a new human Bronze Age civilization began that over the centuries learned new technologies from the ruins and discovered many magic items.
The lower river is pretty uninteresting for the campaign, as there are a couple of small city states that are pretty well established and secure. But the upper branches of the river are still largely unknown, and there are still countless ancient ruins that have never been explored by humans. There's of course gold and other riches to be found, but the greatest treasures are magic items and arcane texts. With any ancient roads being completely overgrown for centuries, going up and down the rivers is the main way to get anywhere.
The idea is that parties of explorers go up the river and its side branches to look for old ruins that might have valuables in them. With the population being concentrated at the lower river, settlements there are not far apart and often quite large, but the further up the river you go, the less frequent and smaller they become. It also means the monsters are getting more dangerous, but there's also a lot more treasure still to be found. My idea is that the individual dungeons won't be overly big, and that a large part of the adventures will consists of traveling on the rivers or marching along their banks, and many encounters happening along the way.
I've never done anything like this before, so I am looking for any kinds of suggestions, pointers, or ideas to make this work as a fun campaign.
I think in a way, this could actually be approached like a single megadungeon that has secure settlements scattered throughout it. While there are no walls to confine the party to corridors, the trackless nature of the forests means that the party still pretty much has to travel along the rivers. Though I guess you can go and hide in the trees if you see something approaching from ahead before it notices you. With the river branching out as you get higher, settlements becoming smaller and more rare can serve as an indicator for players how dangerous the encounters on the river and in the ruins will be.
Another neat feature is that it should be enough to make a map of the river and set the settlements where the party can rest and resupply, and there might be some markers that show that there is "a ruin" on some of the river branches, but actual ruin sites can be created as needed and put on whatever branch the players have decided to take. Navigating up the river might get challenging as their maps get less precise, but to make it back to civilization, all you have to do is follow the current until eventually reach a town or city.
The lower river is pretty uninteresting for the campaign, as there are a couple of small city states that are pretty well established and secure. But the upper branches of the river are still largely unknown, and there are still countless ancient ruins that have never been explored by humans. There's of course gold and other riches to be found, but the greatest treasures are magic items and arcane texts. With any ancient roads being completely overgrown for centuries, going up and down the rivers is the main way to get anywhere.
The idea is that parties of explorers go up the river and its side branches to look for old ruins that might have valuables in them. With the population being concentrated at the lower river, settlements there are not far apart and often quite large, but the further up the river you go, the less frequent and smaller they become. It also means the monsters are getting more dangerous, but there's also a lot more treasure still to be found. My idea is that the individual dungeons won't be overly big, and that a large part of the adventures will consists of traveling on the rivers or marching along their banks, and many encounters happening along the way.
I've never done anything like this before, so I am looking for any kinds of suggestions, pointers, or ideas to make this work as a fun campaign.
I think in a way, this could actually be approached like a single megadungeon that has secure settlements scattered throughout it. While there are no walls to confine the party to corridors, the trackless nature of the forests means that the party still pretty much has to travel along the rivers. Though I guess you can go and hide in the trees if you see something approaching from ahead before it notices you. With the river branching out as you get higher, settlements becoming smaller and more rare can serve as an indicator for players how dangerous the encounters on the river and in the ruins will be.
Another neat feature is that it should be enough to make a map of the river and set the settlements where the party can rest and resupply, and there might be some markers that show that there is "a ruin" on some of the river branches, but actual ruin sites can be created as needed and put on whatever branch the players have decided to take. Navigating up the river might get challenging as their maps get less precise, but to make it back to civilization, all you have to do is follow the current until eventually reach a town or city.
