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View Full Version : Making a free roam campaign



Theres
2009-06-28, 02:26 AM
I'm constantly building new campaign worlds that have either very standard fantasy elements or they have crazy basics such as wars of eternal warfare between two countries founded on the blood of bastard celestial and demons. my old campaigns had lots of un-intentional railroading and nonsensical reasoning. this new campaign I'm working on is going to be a little bit more serious and darker toned with the extreme alignments thrown out ( LG, CG, CE, LE) with the neutral alignments taking center stage. i want to just start the party off in either a remote small region with some class restrictions so they cant question me with the ever so annoying "I'm such and such so why the **** am i here?". from there I'll give em a few hooks and let em go about there merry way across the land serving lords and the poor or resisting authority and wreaking havoc. I'm down to let them do anything that makes sense. how would i operate said free roam extraordinaire ?

Kol Korran
2009-06-28, 02:48 AM
my ideas are as follows:

prepare a lot of background, things that may appeal/intrigue to your characters. give the players some shortened version oif the background, with far less info, but quite a lot of plot hooks.
work with the characters on their personalities and their own backgrounds. find out what their goals are, feel free to insert more appropriate background and plot hooks for them.
wherever they are, know the basics of it- what populations of creatures are where, common creatures stats, (the should be easely adjustable to reflect different classes or such), the laws, dangers of the land, and how the places (especially settlements) work.
throw some hooks, see what the player follow, before next sessions prepare accordingly. try and throw hooks while still inside adventures so you can see in advance where and what they want to do next.


not very insightfull, but that's how i'd run it.

Tsotha-lanti
2009-06-28, 02:49 AM
We already have not just one (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116434), but two (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116462) of these threads going.

Irreverent Fool
2009-06-28, 04:05 AM
http://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/78/grand-experiments-west-marches/

This may prove useful. While it's not exactly what you're doing, I think some of the techniques could help. If nothing else, it's an interesting read and the rest of the website is filled with useful DMing tips, too.

obnoxious
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