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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 5333005" data-attributes="member: 22779">I've been out of the loop of campaign design for a while.&nbsp; Took a break for the last year and a half or so and played a bunch of very short campaigns.&nbsp; More or less really long one shots.&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />&nbsp; However, of late, I find myself getting the itch again to try to come up with something a bit more significant.&nbsp; It's still just kind of wallowing around in the back of my head, and nothing more than that, but, I had a thought that I thought I would share.When I design adventures, I tend to use modules as a template.&nbsp; Each adventure tends to be more or less self contained.&nbsp; It might link off the adventure before it and preface the adventure ahead, but, by and large, it's a complete unit.For this next adventure, I'd like to make things run a bit more parallel rather than serial.&nbsp; I want each adventure to be fairly porous with overlap between multiple adventures.&nbsp; It might even be possible to engage more than one adventure at a time without really realizing it.OTOH, I don't want to go full bore sandbox.&nbsp; Not to my taste.&nbsp; I want more power to control pacing in the campaign than what a sandbox generally allows.&nbsp; So, I've got this idea.&nbsp; I know what I want, but, I'm not entirely sure how to get there.Obviously, an easy link is geography.&nbsp; That's a bit of a no-brainer.&nbsp; Several events occur in geographical proximity and the PC's can stumble onto them.&nbsp; But, I find that geography also tends to be very forgettable.&nbsp; It doesn't have enough.... what's the word? .... oomph?&nbsp; impact? resonance?&nbsp; Yeah, that's the word, resonance with the players.&nbsp; Sure, you see the geography, the DM hands you the boxed text description, but, the players don't really interact with geography.There's also the idea that certain NPC's could be involved in multiple adventures as well.&nbsp; This one, I think, is a better means of linkage.&nbsp; When the players engage a given NPC, that tends to stick out in their minds.&nbsp; Particularly if the NPC is flavourful enough.&nbsp; Sure, Sarah the Bartender is fine, but, if Sarah the Bartender is supplying a backroom hideout for the Purple Mask Gang and also waylaying customers from time to time to sell to slavers, that makes her a bit more of a connection between adventures.&nbsp; What other things could be used to draw links between adventures?&nbsp; How would you present a sort of &quot;cloud&quot; of adventures, rather than a bunch of soap bubbles?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 5333005, member: 22779"] I've been out of the loop of campaign design for a while. Took a break for the last year and a half or so and played a bunch of very short campaigns. More or less really long one shots. :) However, of late, I find myself getting the itch again to try to come up with something a bit more significant. It's still just kind of wallowing around in the back of my head, and nothing more than that, but, I had a thought that I thought I would share. When I design adventures, I tend to use modules as a template. Each adventure tends to be more or less self contained. It might link off the adventure before it and preface the adventure ahead, but, by and large, it's a complete unit. For this next adventure, I'd like to make things run a bit more parallel rather than serial. I want each adventure to be fairly porous with overlap between multiple adventures. It might even be possible to engage more than one adventure at a time without really realizing it. OTOH, I don't want to go full bore sandbox. Not to my taste. I want more power to control pacing in the campaign than what a sandbox generally allows. So, I've got this idea. I know what I want, but, I'm not entirely sure how to get there. Obviously, an easy link is geography. That's a bit of a no-brainer. Several events occur in geographical proximity and the PC's can stumble onto them. But, I find that geography also tends to be very forgettable. It doesn't have enough.... what's the word? .... oomph? impact? resonance? Yeah, that's the word, resonance with the players. Sure, you see the geography, the DM hands you the boxed text description, but, the players don't really interact with geography. There's also the idea that certain NPC's could be involved in multiple adventures as well. This one, I think, is a better means of linkage. When the players engage a given NPC, that tends to stick out in their minds. Particularly if the NPC is flavourful enough. Sure, Sarah the Bartender is fine, but, if Sarah the Bartender is supplying a backroom hideout for the Purple Mask Gang and also waylaying customers from time to time to sell to slavers, that makes her a bit more of a connection between adventures. What other things could be used to draw links between adventures? How would you present a sort of "cloud" of adventures, rather than a bunch of soap bubbles? [/QUOTE]

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