Hussar
Legend
First off, a little background. I've been running the World's Largest Dungeon for the past four months or so and I have to say that this is the most fun that I've had DMing in memory. It's great. I don't have to constantly deal with creating new adventures all the time. I can focus on stuff that brings the setting to life- NPC personalities, background, handouts, whatever. All the stuff I wanted to create before but never had the time or energy to do after spending umpteen hours statting up yet another encounter that the party may or may not ever actually see.
This got me to thinking about campaign settings. If you look at the campaign settings out there, there's quite a few similarities. You start with a large region, probably with a fair number of nations, scattered cities and city states, new background rules, and a bag full of other tidbits and backstory. All of this gets expanded on by subsequent books which people gobble up in the hopes of filling in all the holes in the setting. Whether its an old, established setting like Forgotten Realms, with enough source books to fill a very large closet, or a new setting like Eberron, with a rapidly expanding library, the pattern is pretty much the same. Start with this huge area, fill in a couple of holes, add more material, wash, rinse, repeat.
There's a problem with this though. In the end, none of this actually helps the DM. All it does is give the DM more work. Now, not only does the DM have to keep track of material scattered throughout numerous source books, but also, those source books actually don't do any of the hard work of adventure creation - namely the mindless scut work of statting up encounters, writing out descriptions etc. I bought a large number of Scarred Lands books because I liked the setting. In all honesty, it was the first published setting I've ever bought into. I spent almost three years crafting adventures in SL with varying degrees of success.
But I never had as much fun as a DM as I'm having now.
Thinking way back to the first two modules I ever owned - The Keep on the Borderlands and Isle of Dread, I got to wondering why I had used and reused those modules so many times. Then it hit me. Those aren't modules in the traditional sense, they are mini campaigns. They give a setting and stat up a number of encounters. It's up to the DM to turn that into an actual game. The DM's time is spent making the Keep come to life, not statting up nameless footman #7.
Now, with these mega modules that take the characters from first to twentieth level, I really don't think I'll ever buy another campaign setting again. Why spend money to only have to do all the boring crap work myself? I'd much rather spend my money so that someone else has to do the boring crap work and I get to deal with the fun stuff of telling a story. I really hope that this idea of the self contained campaign, like World's Largest Dungeon or Shackled City become the norm rather than the exception. We could even start to see supplementary material being published for the mega module. Player's packs and the like for those who are going to spend the next couple of years gaming in the same module. Additional material similar to the Undermountain stuff that WOTC is pumping out on their site. Things like that.
There has been a lot of talk recently about the future of modules. To me, this should be where people focus their energy. Self contained campaigns complete with storyline and plot rather than three paragraph descriptions of City X in Nation Y with no help for the DM in actually developing adventures in that city.
Just my rambling 4cp. (This is too long for only two.
)
This got me to thinking about campaign settings. If you look at the campaign settings out there, there's quite a few similarities. You start with a large region, probably with a fair number of nations, scattered cities and city states, new background rules, and a bag full of other tidbits and backstory. All of this gets expanded on by subsequent books which people gobble up in the hopes of filling in all the holes in the setting. Whether its an old, established setting like Forgotten Realms, with enough source books to fill a very large closet, or a new setting like Eberron, with a rapidly expanding library, the pattern is pretty much the same. Start with this huge area, fill in a couple of holes, add more material, wash, rinse, repeat.
There's a problem with this though. In the end, none of this actually helps the DM. All it does is give the DM more work. Now, not only does the DM have to keep track of material scattered throughout numerous source books, but also, those source books actually don't do any of the hard work of adventure creation - namely the mindless scut work of statting up encounters, writing out descriptions etc. I bought a large number of Scarred Lands books because I liked the setting. In all honesty, it was the first published setting I've ever bought into. I spent almost three years crafting adventures in SL with varying degrees of success.
But I never had as much fun as a DM as I'm having now.
Thinking way back to the first two modules I ever owned - The Keep on the Borderlands and Isle of Dread, I got to wondering why I had used and reused those modules so many times. Then it hit me. Those aren't modules in the traditional sense, they are mini campaigns. They give a setting and stat up a number of encounters. It's up to the DM to turn that into an actual game. The DM's time is spent making the Keep come to life, not statting up nameless footman #7.
Now, with these mega modules that take the characters from first to twentieth level, I really don't think I'll ever buy another campaign setting again. Why spend money to only have to do all the boring crap work myself? I'd much rather spend my money so that someone else has to do the boring crap work and I get to deal with the fun stuff of telling a story. I really hope that this idea of the self contained campaign, like World's Largest Dungeon or Shackled City become the norm rather than the exception. We could even start to see supplementary material being published for the mega module. Player's packs and the like for those who are going to spend the next couple of years gaming in the same module. Additional material similar to the Undermountain stuff that WOTC is pumping out on their site. Things like that.
There has been a lot of talk recently about the future of modules. To me, this should be where people focus their energy. Self contained campaigns complete with storyline and plot rather than three paragraph descriptions of City X in Nation Y with no help for the DM in actually developing adventures in that city.
Just my rambling 4cp. (This is too long for only two.
)
