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Message: <blockquote data-quote="StupidSmurf" data-source="post: 2613003" data-attributes="member: 35893">Interesting. We've done a campaign re-launch, and it's set in the Silver Marches.  <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    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> Here's what I do in order to sustain a long-running campaign.1. Continuity and Consistency. Have a good back story, have facts make sense, have things fit together nicely, so if/when PCs discover stuff, the players will marvel at your organization and story-telling abilities!  <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=";)" /> 2. Ogres have layers; so does a good strong campaign. In ours, it started with a nobleman who brought together this disparate group of characters, who all happened to be at a roadside inn having lunch. The nobleman sent them out to his ancestral keep to retrieve a valuable family heirloom (Layer 1). Upon further adventuring and discoveries, the group realizes that the noble was actually dead (!), and they were seeing his ghost. Apparently, he wants to revive an ancestor of his, and he needs the ancestor's ashes, stored in the family heirloom (Layer 2). This ancestor was a vampire/necromancer who is the only one that can revive a powerful dracolich that ravaged the Silver Marches a half a millennium ago. The ghostly noble wants this guy back, and needs the blood of five innocents to conduct the ritual (Layer 3). The Cult of the Dragon is behind this scheme. They extracted the vow from the noble while he was still alive, so now, in death, he's a ghost, and makes one attempt every 24 years to do this deed. This is the nobleman's fifth try. (Layer 4). See what I mean?3. Flesh out the area. Although I'm using the Realms, and the Silver Marches sourcebook, I've added my own stuff. There's a small town I've created along the Evermoor Way, and populated it with NPCs, services, a temple, etc.4. Put in side quests. Along with the town, I've "seeded" the surrounding area with a few monster lairs/fixed encounters. The townsfolk recently have had a problem with a dusk attack by a flock of stirges.5. If you're using the Silver Marches, incorporate the stuff that's already hard-wired in the area. My group has already run afoul of orc scouting parties from King Oblerud (sp) Many Arrows, goblin raiding parties from the eastern area of the Marches, and a Cyricist cult in Everlund. It gives the campaign a feel of being fully integrated in a world.6. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Create some interesting NPCs who can serve as friends, foes, or fence-sitters. Familiar faces lend to the air of continuity and realism.7. Nothing happens in a vaccum. While the PCs are doing their things, the NPCs/power groups aren't just frozen in time, waiting for the heroes to come along and interact with them. Plans, schemes, reactions, and counterattacks have been set in motion, though the players don't know that. For instance, that nice little town I created as been burned down and the temple desecrated and and sacked, but they don't know that yet.  <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=";)" />  And yes, it came about as an indirect result of their actions. Anyways, that's my 10 cents worth. Hope it helps!</blockquote>

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