Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="BookTenTiger" data-source="post: 8682049" data-attributes="member: 6685541">My go-to seems to be designing a kind of playground rather than a straightforward path. I tend to build worlds and towns with clear rules that the characters can interact with (or resist) in order to pursue their interests. I usually have some really clear adventure threads the characters could pursue, but I don't rely on them or expect the characters to follow.So for example I was building a campaign based on the idea of vampire overlords in a swamp valley. I decided on the following "rules":1. Vampires are always in charge.2. Vampires are evil, but those who work for them are not always evil.3. There used to be other power structures in the valley, but they are now either extinct, part of the oppressive system, or criminal rebels.4. The valley used to be ruled by knights who forged magic weapons from fallen stars.From there I designed areas in which there were fun things to interact with: dungeons, evil creatures, tournaments, taverns...I also make sure to have some townsfolk who are quick to spill all the tea about what's going on in the area.Inevitably some thread catches the characters' eyes and then we are off on an adventure!In that campaign, the characters started in a village in which the vampiric Baron who ruled it rarely made appearances, and the townsfolk raised huge pigs for their blood (to keep the Baron satiated). There was an upcoming tournament, a dungeon with an imprisoned vampire hunter, a tortle fortuneteller, werewolves in the forest, a tavern with fantastic meals...The characters decided to free a potential ally from the dungeon, then slay the Baron at the tournament. And so they set about following rumors of a secret entrance into the Baron's dungeon...(But had they decided to instead fight the werewolves on behalf of the Baron, compete in the tournament, buy a boat and go sailing down the river, that would have been okay too!)</blockquote>

Verification