Troll Lord Games

How do you prefer to set up a campaign? Is it tailored to the level of the party? Is it status-quo? Do you locate published modules and/or your eon homegrown material in locations in your campaign and then allow the players to explore? Or do you place things as you go? I have always liked placing everything ahead of time and the allowing them to explore and adventure where they may. If they follow a certain story/saga to conclusion, that is up to them.
If they run into a gaggle of trolls at 2nd level, they run. If they find a nest of kobolds at 8th level they leave them or they vaporize them. My group likes to take note of where things are and return when ready. For example, if they are 2nd level and stumble into a troll den, they run for it. But later, they come back when they are high enough level to deal with the menace.
I have found that the sandbox nature of the Wilderlands works best this way. I am thinking of running something in Aihrde, but I have not decided how yet.

It depends on the group. I have two groups and they are very different.

Group one is full of middle aged players who have been gaming for a long time and have experience with a variety of systems and settings. For them, I can set up an area much as you describe - a sandbox with certain known and unknown threats which the party must be smart about dealing with (fleeing when appropriate). They have a whole world to explore and they learn about it bit by bit and they affect the world and creatures in it.

Group two contains players with a wide range of ages and all but one of them are new to RPGs. The sandbox/playground style of explore-anything-you-want doesn't work for them. There are too many choices and they are afraid of picking the "wrong" one - I suspect they have been trained by video games and even though I have told them otherwise, they still overwhelmingly feel that there is a right away to go and a right order to face challenges. It has taken me many months, but I am finally getting them to be more exploratory in ther gameplay. They still prefer a more structured storyline and I provide it for them, but I can now put in extra side locations and rumors and they pay attention and consider the issues before moving on and/or agreeing to come back later. Play feels more organic now and I think they like it.

I wing the entire campaign so I never have to worry about where things are located. I might start with some very vague notes like "there's a snow desert in the south" or "the city has an undead mayor" but I don't try to fit everything into an adventure puzzle -- I just take whatever I want and make it jumble into what's going on.

If I were to do something like plan it in advance, I would just decide features. Then, put things into them. Whichever way the party went, they'd encounter whatever was before them.

Snoring Rock wrote:How do you prefer to set up a campaign? .

Sandbox world. I use published modules (modified) and pre-place them were logical. Any level PC can run into any "level" of monster. Of course you won't bump into a dragon at the local farmers market but there is nothing stopping 1st levels from seeking one out. Low level monsters don't become extinct when PC's gain higher levels.

I don't detail the whole world at the beginning. Details at local level to general at macro scale. It gets fine details as it goes. The world doesn't care if the players decide to create a party of all elven rogues. It changes nothing of what challenges they will run into.

Arduin wrote:

Snoring Rock wrote:How do you prefer to set up a campaign? .

Sandbox world. I use published modules (modified) and pre-place them were logical. Any level PC can run into any "level" of monster. Of course you won't bump into a dragon at the local farmers market but there is nothing stopping 1st levels from seeking one out. Low level monsters don't become extinct when PC's gain higher levels.

I don't detail teh whole world at the beginning. Details at local level to general at macro scale. It gets fine details as it goes. The world doesn't care if the players decide to create a party of all elven rogues. It changes nothing of what challenges they will run into.

This is how I have done it since I started using the Necromancer Games version of the Wilderlands. It works for me.

I'm pretty much a modules guy. A-series has plenty to do, not to mention a good number of other modules set in Aihrde. Haunted Highlands has at least 9 adventures, plus another two from Stephen and Jim Ward. Either way, it's easier for me. One thing I like about my other favorite game, Savage Worlds, is that many of their settings have plot point campaigns, as well as side adventures.

I use large settings as bases for my campaigns - Aihrde, my own Ilshara, Greyhawk, currently Forgotten Realms based on the Sword Coast. Thus I'll have certain things taken directly from the setting material (Durlag's Tower near Beregost, Castle Zagyg is always there near Greyhawk City, etc.) but I tend to create more specific locales and adventures on the fly reacting to what direction the group wants. If I decide to use a module, often it is adapted or condensed to some part and I work in, sometimes I'll just go "here's where this is located" - I dropped X1 into my Ilshara setting, I dropped B2 into the area east of the Blacktooth ridge, I just dropped the DCC Cage of Delerium on the coast just south of Waterdeep.

Most campaigns I have run in Greyhawk and set the adventures where appropriate. Thus, the location in the world of Oerth governs the adventure types I will run unless there is a plot device allowing for teleportation, planar travel, etc.

My most-recent and most-active campaign is set in the Free City of Eskadia within the Haunted Highlands and is made up of a pair of thieves (theives) or rogues (rouges). Thus, the adventures they are going to have will differ from the typical "party of four" that dominate the genre. However, as this is a sandbox more so than any campaign I have yet run (though nothing has even been as linear as the dreaded 7-player (plus me as DM) Dragonlance campaign from Hades). It's been great putting out tidbits for the players to investigate. They've mostly gone after the ones that follow the plotline of the adventure "Jack of Lies" in the Eskadia book, but I used some other works to fill in where needed.

So, the Greyhawk fan in me will set them based on logical locales within that setting as Arduin stated above. With Haunted Highlands, there still needs to be some explanation for the adventures happening where they do, but I have much more leeway at present as most of the area around Eskadia is unmapped (officially by TLG/Casey Christofferson).

Not sure this helps or not, but I believe I answered the original post's question.

*expects a C- for this poor essay effort*

serleran wrote:I wing the entire campaign so I never have to worry about where things are located. I might start with some very vague notes like "there's a snow desert in the south" or "the city has an undead mayor" but I don't try to fit everything into an adventure puzzle -- I just take whatever I want and make it jumble into what's going on.

If I were to do something like plan it in advance, I would just decide features. Then, put things into them. Whichever way the party went, they'd encounter whatever was before them.

This. This is my preferred "style".

tylermo wrote:I'm pretty much a modules guy. A-series has plenty to do, not to mention a good number of other modules set in Aihrde. Haunted Highlands has at least 9 adventures, plus another two from Stephen and Jim Ward. Either way, it's easier for me. One thing I like about my other favorite game, Savage Worlds, is that many of their settings have plot point campaigns, as well as side adventures.

However, my current campaign has been "modules style", and I am eager for it to be over.

Treebore wrote:

tylermo wrote:I'm pretty much a modules guy. A-series has plenty to do, not to mention a good number of other modules set in Aihrde. Haunted Highlands has at least 9 adventures, plus another two from Stephen and Jim Ward. Either way, it's easier for me. One thing I like about my other favorite game, Savage Worlds, is that many of their settings have plot point campaigns, as well as side adventures.

However, my current campaign has been "modules style", and I am eager for it to be over.

Tree, we can stop the current campaign anytime. Actually, right now we are at a logical stopping point having just defeated the Slavelords and taking over their city. We can use the next session to wrap everything up and talk about any ideas you had for the next campaign. Truth be told, I'm ready to roll up a new PC anyways.

R-

Treebore wrote:

serleran wrote:I wing the entire campaign so I never have to worry about where things are located. I might start with some very vague notes like "there's a snow desert in the south" or "the city has an undead mayor" but I don't try to fit everything into an adventure puzzle -- I just take whatever I want and make it jumble into what's going on.

If I were to do something like plan it in advance, I would just decide features. Then, put things into them. Whichever way the party went, they'd encounter whatever was before them.

This. This is my preferred "style".

Also, mostly how I run campaigns.

R-

I typically run my games in manner in which the world is written. That means, that if a group of 1st level nobodies go into the big bad red dragon's den they hear about, they can expect to die horribly. The world/setting should be a living place where things change based on what the PCs do. For example, in my current campaign the PCs tangled with a bunch of PO'd elves. The PCs walked in, killed most every elf because they did not agree with the elves motives, and left. But, the PCs were let loose a very few that they did not stomp into the ground. One of those elves was the son of an elf leader that was slain more viciously by the PCs. The character's did not know that. I as the CK did not foresee that happening. So, the son of the slain elf leader made a powerplay being the next in the line of succession. While the PCs were away doing a dungeon crawl, the elven nations were so fired up with the story of the PCs, that they invaded the PC's home town. Now, the elves are in charge of the PCs HQ.

So in that regard, the world is tailored to the PCs, but the encounters around them a generally static based on the region, or area encounters. When the PCs were 1st level stomping around in the wilderness, they encounters orcs, kobolds, trolls and the like. Now that the PCs are 10th level, stomping around that same wilderness is not all of the sudden going to yield a bunch of wyverns, liches, and elementals. That would not make much sense. That area still has the same low level encounters (generally) because it would not change just because the PCs are now high-level. If the PCs want to see out higher level adventures, they better start traveling or seeking other paths to fame and fortune.

~O

I don't specifically play open-style sandbox-- there usually is an overarching plot to my games, and although I don't 'force' the plot, and allow the characters to go where they will, there are consequences if they let the main plot slide for too long... after all, while they're wandering along, finding all these cool side plots and adventures, the BBEGs are still bringing their brilliant evil plan to fruition, after all.

However, I do tend to tailor the main plot of my games pretty tightly to my players' characters, not simply in level, but all over. I work up subplots and ties that fit in with the characters personalities and histories to give them more of a feeling of a personal stake in the adventure, and even though they can trail off on their own and run into a red dragon at level one, the overarching plot is more of a fit to their character levels... for instance, their first run in with the overall Adversary's group might be a lesser lieutenant with an advance scouting camp at lower levels, but a much more powerful henchman in charge of a citadel at higher ones.

But that's just me. ^_^

I have a group of 4 non-gamers (soon to be 5) and one seasoned gamer. Each made a PC with a detailed back story; public and private. Euro setting about 900 AD, but no Rome and no Christianity over run.. so real world maps and cultures.. We started North of London at a meeting of the PCs masters/teachers... that stirred the pot and got it started (see 9th Hours Social Diversion Society on Crusades for more detail), but here is possibly where it differs from the above.. I used each PC's back story and home location as a place to go and a reason to go... the new PC's hired onto a Viking trader/raider ship crew (owned by one of the Masters) and are making the spring/summer/fall rounds of Southern England, Normandy (both Celtic lands), West coast of England (elven lands), then over to Ireland (more Celtic, Elven and wild) finally up through Scotland and over to Scandinavia .. once within Scandinavia the seasoned player will take over CKing and I think we will take the Underworld passages all the way to Northern Italy where our "Italian" Dwarf is from... all the stops, for all the NPCS are sort of on the fly, but tailored to their back stories.. their teachers, their families, clans, and in some cases their hated enemies. Its all been great fun as a GM (CK) because I react and change to the PCs history and behavior.. fun for me and challenges my story telling.. mind you I'm as lazy as the next CK so as they say, "If Necessity is the Mother of Invention, then Laziness is the Father!" (Allen Dale). Thus I dust off and update/convert my 30+ years of home grown adventures. This too is great fun, to see how silly I was at 15 years old, or simple in my early 30s.. etc. Bringing these key adventures into line or onto the story line and converting to CnC is just as fun as full blown new adventure.. I rarely use canned modules simply because its more work for me to try to play it and keep it straight and learn it.. winging it with some detailed notes seems to work best for me... but the fun here is the key story points are PC driven and I try to unfold the story around their initial ideas and changing desires for character maturation... so far I think fun for all..

Capt K