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Arivia
Great Reader
Canada
2965 Posts |
 Posted - 12 Jun 2016 : 02:04:46
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So I'm working on preparing a FR campaign and I'm thinking about campaign starting points and how to organize those. It looks to me like published campaign starts in the Realms largely come in two forms:
1) A tightly-designed small area and environs, with a lot of detail provided. Shadowdale as presented in the Old Gray Box and Revised Campaign Setting is an example of this, with a large number of NPCs provided and a LOT of local adventure hooks. The idea seems to be that the PCs start off in this detailed area and stay there for the first few levels of their adventuring career before moving on. (Ed's advice about "campaigns for beginning players" in the DM's Sourcebook of the Realms bears this out.)
2) Lightly detailed small areas that are only set aside from other parts of the campaign setting or product by having a map or an entire page of description. Ashabenford in the 3e FRCS looks like this to me - it's only notable as a starter area because it has a map and key, and its size seems to imply an easy starting area for a new game. (It's also tangentially mentioned throughout the rest of the book, with the discussions of Shieldmeet celebrations and suggested campaign areas in the DM's chapter.)
2 doesn't give you much in the way of adventures in that specific area, but it leaves you with a lot of surrounding hooks in the region to build off of as you choose. So for 3e Ashabenford, you have the entirety of the Dalelands to play with, and you can range far and wide around that area. It matches the regional sourcebook model well because it allows you to run down the rest of the area like a checklist, looking through all the sites and ideas that seem interesting and working on those in turn. 1's model takes away from the checklist because it provides a better-fitting set of local hooks - there's all of this going on right now here, and that all ties together, but it does take away from doing other things across the region.
Notably, Ed's home games seem to follow the first model. Shadowdale in the Old Gray Box is testament to that, as well as the details on Eveningstar in the Haunted Halls module. It also looks like the tight example area was more prominent in early publications and then tailed off in late 2e towards 3e. (There's a stark difference in focus and usability between Daggerford in N5 Under Illefarn and the North box set.)
So which model do you use when you start your Realms games? What do you see as the strengths of a particular approach? I'm leaning towards 1 because it seems tighter, clearer design that's a better way to ease people into the Realms with, but I'm interested in your thoughts.
Also, I've prepared a list of all of the small tightly-designed starting areas (so type 1 above) that I can think of from Realms products. Again, think a well-detailed limited starting area around a central settlement with provided adventurers or hooks that is a notable part of a gaming product. Can you think of any I'm missing?
- Shadowdale - Forgotten Realms Campaign Set
- Shadowdale - Revised Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting
- Daggerford - N5 Under Illefarn
- Daggerford - The North
- The Adventurer's Quarter - Waterdeep: City of Splendors
- Eveningstar - FRQ1 Haunted Halls of Eveningstar
- Loudwater - Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide
- Melvaunt - Mysteries of the Moonsea
- Myth Nantar - Sea of Fallen Stars
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Rymac
Learned Scribe
USA
315 Posts |
Posted - 12 Jun 2016 : 03:16:50
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| Baldur's Gate and Westgate. |
- Ryan |
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11716 Posts |
Posted - 12 Jun 2016 : 13:36:40
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| Depends on the style of the campaign. For instance, in my latest Thayan campaign I'm running, I started in Bezantur, with the presumption that it has portals all throughout the country that its rulers will allow their minions to use (without telling them what activates them) to get from one Tharch to another. Magical long range communication also makes it possible to hear about things throughout the country. |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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Bladewind
Master of Realmslore
Netherlands
1280 Posts |
Posted - 12 Jun 2016 : 16:12:19
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Aye, I second the notion that it depends on what you expect the players and you as DM will want to do. A city based intrigue game is a different beast than an overland wilderness crawl.
I love describing landscapes and making travel an adventure in itself so I tend to go for approach 2, in combination with lots of random encounter, item and NPC generators as starting points for inspiration to fill in details. I love SaMoCon's Art Objects of Faerun thread for sprinkling some odd objects in my scenes. Kuje's NPC's and Diffans builds are handy tools to expediate the stealing/building of NPC's and using Faerun's famous people. |
My campaign sketches
Druidic Groves
Creature Feature: Giant Spiders |
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Campaign Home Base Design
