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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 4721311" data-attributes="member: 59082">Thanks, good ideas. I'm one of those fortunate DMs that has a pretty unjaded group, meaning no rules lawyers, no sense of entitlement ("But I get my +2 circumstantial bonus!"), and only moderate, at most, gaming experience. At this point everyone is open to playing whatever type of campaign I'll throw a them, but as we go further along I will keep your advice in mind and listen for signs of feeling duped, railroaded, etc.The campaign you describe isn't that different than what I am going for, although perhaps one notch over towards "sandboxism" and away from "metaplotism." In essence what I want to capture is not only the obvious pros and cons of both approaches, but the "vibe" that both inspire:*Sandbox - sword and sorcery, exploration of ruins, lost civilizations, treasure, ancient evils, acquiring wealth and fame, etc. In the sandbox campaign there is a sense of timelessness--that the setting is caught in an eternal moment; I get this when I look at the map of the Wilderlands of High Fantasy and think, "That campaign setting has been the same for 30 years and will probably always be the same."*Metaplot - huge events, epic story, monumental choices, a changing world. The metaplot campaign carries a sense of time and change, and the PCs have the opportunity to participate, even be movers and shakers. You get a sense of this when you look at a map of Middle-earth, which is the last age of the Ancient World before the time of men. What will the world become? How can the PCs influence it one way or another?In other words, in the sandbox world nothing fundamentally changes. Something could--the players could take over the world or release a plague of demons, but the underlying feeling is that of timelessness; if there is movement it is the mythic Eternal Return or Round. In the metaplot the campaign takes place during the crux or pivot of great change, on whatever scale. The Eternal Round is broken and a new way forward is found (or created). The world (or region or kingdom) is transforming from one condition to another.So I want to capture something of both: the timelessness of a sword and sorcery world that "never was and always is", but with bits and pieces of change and movement creeping in. In some sense it is analogous to growing up, in particular adolescence: the timelessness of childhood being "invaded" by ever-increasing glimpses of maturity and responsibility as the once-distance graduation day comes closer.Or maybe I'm just a high school teacher and hang out with teenagers too much <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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