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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 5333777" data-attributes="member: 2067"><a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Metroidvania" target="_blank">Metroidvania</a>.Create an open space, but link that to other open spaces through the use of "locks" that require particular macguffins/plot points/adventures to pass through.So, the players start off, and they can go anywhere on these three continents, but to get across the Great Sea (where they'll eventually have to go, narratively), there's only one or two ways to do it (and no particular rush to get there). Impact with the geography doesn't happen a lot in D&D (to my despair), but you can play it up over the course of several adventures that are "local." Say, within those three continents, you've got the Jungle Continent and the Ice Continent and the Generically European Continent. The PC's can go anywhere around, and wherever they go, specific encounters show the local environment (jungles are poison and acid, ice floes are aquatic and have volcanoes and vikings, generic europe has a fallen empire, so lots of undead and ruins). But, ultimately, the evil empire across the Eastern Sea must be stopped, and to do that, the PC's need a ship to sail on, and to get that ship, there's one adventure that they need to complete at some point. Once they do that, the ship's ready to take them to the next three continents, which involve, I dunno, a Cowboy World and two Mirror Worlds (one of Darkness that is not evil, and one of Light that is not good).4e actually sets this up in tiers, which is natural to stick to if 4e's what you're using:1-10 affects the world.11-20 affects the planes.20-30 affects all of existence.I also find it's useful to use a "constantly ticking clock" of sorts, so that you have something planned, for, say, the Level 10 adventure, but it's a specific event you have in mind. That event happens no matter where the PC's are when they hit Level 10, and they have to deal with its fall out no matter what they do in the next 10 levels (or whatever). A three-act structure works well in this context: set the stage, let them get a feel, then present them with a big problem, ratchet up the tension, force them to make a big choice, and then present the great opposition to their choice, and let them fight it on their terms. It doesn't matter where they are when the adventure that you've determined will "present them with a big problem" is sprung, whatever they're doing, it becomes the "big problem" in the campaign.</blockquote>

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