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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7476031" data-attributes="member: 29398">To a point, yes.Ideally - and of course ideals never survive first contact with anything - it would work like this: the starting-out PCs learn of a bunch of possible adventures or things to do and then go out and do a few of them.  During these some common elements or threads might appear, which I-as-DM can then jump on and expand into behind-the-scenes stories.  These stories may or may not ever become relevant, based on what the PCs end up doing and-or what piques the players' interests.A hypothetical example: - PCs start out, and end up in Keep on the Borderlands.  Here they meet and defeat some cultists, among many other things; and encounter Hobgoblins.  The PCs get paranoid about the cultists. - their next adventure takes them into the hills after an old ruined temple that's showing signs of life again, as they (correctly, as it turns out) fear it might be another branch of the same cultists getting started.  While here they stumble on to some odd hints and clues regarding something they can't figure out - yet. - they then decide to change tack before the cultists can find them and retaliate, and head down the coast to deal with some troglodytes attacking a village: you get to run U1 or something similar.  While here they notice something odd about the village but the trogs keep 'em too busy to do anything about it, and then the PCs/players forget about it and leave once the trogs are done. - now their attention turns to an island just offshore; they head that way and soon find themselves in Secret of Bone Hill.  Here they trip over some information on what's behind the cultists via questioning the skeleton chained to the post, and also get some more strange hints that might relate to what they found in the temple a few adventures back........  etc., etc.So after only four adventures you've already got the cultist angle, the strange village, and the obscure hints as potential larger stories.  None of these are necessarily related behind the scenes: the cultists are part of a growing underground movement of fanatics that if not curtailed will in the long run become a problem for all decent realms; the strange village is a gateway to a whole bunch of Lovecraftian stuff (which the trogs oppose, that's why they were attacking the village!); and the obscure hints are pointing toward a long-term story involving ancient Hobgoblins (modern ones of which were met in adventure 1) and their possible return to power.It's all a matter of taking what the adventures collectively give you and running with it.Lanefan</blockquote>

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