I am currently running a homebrew campaign that I enjoy a lot. I plan on posting some bits and pieces of it here - setpiece encounters, elements of structure, some background tidbits that I like, stuff like that. This first post is simply an outline of what I've been aiming for so far.
This is what I've been telling each party of players before we started:
- We're playing DnD 5e.
- Human characters only. I actually plan on opening up character creation to other races later on, but I want them to discover how those races might be subtly different than what they imagine before allowing them to interpret them in this setting.
- The game takes place on an island. If your character leaves the island, that's fine, but he or she will be out of the game until he or she returns. You may of course play another character in the meanwhile.
- I asked everyone to roll up two characters from the start, to emphasize that it's actually fine to lose a character. (I never plan on killing characters, but I do believe in keeping things dangerous. Two have died so far.) Having two characters ready also allow me to have the same players interpret a second group of adventurers elsewhere on the island, which can do wonders for storytelling purposes, as the web of intrigue is pretty tightly woven and seeing multiple small bits of the big picture out of sequence helps create a feeling of interconnectedness.
- This is meant to be fun and lighthearted, high adventure, action-packed, with plenty of space left for social interactions and roleplaying. I have a penchant for the ridiculous and the absurd, as long as it fits inside a coherent frame.
In the far north their is a city called Ulbinia. Travel a few days past it and you'll make it to the coast, which in these parts are mostly high cliffs covered in ice. If you know where to go, you'll find the largest bridge in the world. It is three hundred meters high and over two kilometers long, built across the dark waters of the northern seas, where icebergs roam and strange things lurk in the deep. No-one knows who built it - scholars mention an ancient civilization of giants who came from the south, but scholars will tell you anything. The bridge leads to an island called the Isle of Merci. For reasons unknown, the weather here is tropical and jungle covers most of it. There was a big rush of enthusiasm about the island when it was first discovered about 50 years ago - a merchant guild and the university of Ulbinia both sent teams and funds to plunder the place for all it was worth, and for a while things were good. Adventurers rushed in to get their share of glory and gold. It captured the imagination. Imagine! Bananas, growing in the north! These days, though, no-one really goes there anymore. Too dangerous, they say. People have died. Accidents happened. Sure, there was plenty of riches to be had, plenty of knowledge to unearth, plenty of things to kill, but the risks outweighed the rewards. And now, only the desperate go there, hoping to get the looting machine running again, and get the lion's share of the profits.
At the end of the bridge is a vilage called Trignolles. It serves as a gateway to the mine and the jungle - the two sources of revenue for the locals.
And that's it.
It's a simple setting that smacks of pulp and adventure, is cliché enough that it will immediately bring vivid images to the mind of the players, and is located in a remote area that is both specific and nicely generic, so that neither the players or me have to learn about tons of background.
Now to make something fun out of it.
I started by spending some time gathering inspiration and ressources. It's crazy how much great material you can find online nowadays. I'll probably soon post a quick list of websites I have plundered for inspiration, random tables, general advice and GMing tools.
Then I settled on a scale for the campaign. It's not going to be epic. I suck at epic. It will all take place in one small area (a few square miles - call it a hex, if you will), will not feature large armies, battling gods, demon invasions and ancient dragons. It will get big, and very messy I'm sure, but on a local scale - and should the forces of evil one day threaten to pass the bridge into the rest of the world, it will be up to the PCs to stop them before they get there. Not many will know of their deeds, but those in the know will do more than admire them as heroes - they will love them as family.
The next choice was style and structure. I went for sandbox, because I find it easier to set up and more rewarding if done right. I do want to avoid the risk of having a directionless party spending an evening going nowhere, so I made sure that I had plenty of material for them to stumble on. The island is small, but packed with possibilities. I also make sure they always have something obvious to do, but that they know they don't have to do it. It's going to be pulp adventure, with colorful descriptions and fast moving action. Combat will be theatrical and over-the-top, proper swashbuckling stuff, chaotic and vivid. I hope to get them involved in the life of the village at some point, but that has yet to happen.
I focused on creating a series of situations with storytelling potential rather than a structured plot. This gives me plenty of advantages: first, I don't have to memorize much, which is great, cause I'm a bit shit at memorizing things. Also, it makes it easy to let players take agency. They are objectively much better at creating plot twists than I ever could be, and it's more satisfying for them, and entertaining for me. So far, I have been very, very surprised, in great ways.
On the other hand, I do enjoy coherence and depth in my campaigns, wether I play them or run them. So I did create a few underlying plots that I can hint at as they call the shots. And I do have an idea of where this is all going to lead to eventually. After all, if they can't leave the island, they will have to deal with what lurks inside it at one point or another...
I make a point of keeping track of small things the PCs do, in order to make them pop up later on. It does wonders for a sense of continuity.
I like to pay close atention to which NPCs they spend most time with, and try to make them at least a little intriguing. If a NPC survives the session, I might write up an actual character sheet for it. That way, if a PC dies, I can quickly suggest that they start playing a character they already know and appreciate, is already connected to the story, and we can keep playing in a coherent fashion without missing a beat.
I'll leave it at that for now. More soon.
Note of intention
This is what I've been telling each party of players before we started:
- We're playing DnD 5e.
- Human characters only. I actually plan on opening up character creation to other races later on, but I want them to discover how those races might be subtly different than what they imagine before allowing them to interpret them in this setting.
- The game takes place on an island. If your character leaves the island, that's fine, but he or she will be out of the game until he or she returns. You may of course play another character in the meanwhile.
- I asked everyone to roll up two characters from the start, to emphasize that it's actually fine to lose a character. (I never plan on killing characters, but I do believe in keeping things dangerous. Two have died so far.) Having two characters ready also allow me to have the same players interpret a second group of adventurers elsewhere on the island, which can do wonders for storytelling purposes, as the web of intrigue is pretty tightly woven and seeing multiple small bits of the big picture out of sequence helps create a feeling of interconnectedness.
- This is meant to be fun and lighthearted, high adventure, action-packed, with plenty of space left for social interactions and roleplaying. I have a penchant for the ridiculous and the absurd, as long as it fits inside a coherent frame.
General setting
In the far north their is a city called Ulbinia. Travel a few days past it and you'll make it to the coast, which in these parts are mostly high cliffs covered in ice. If you know where to go, you'll find the largest bridge in the world. It is three hundred meters high and over two kilometers long, built across the dark waters of the northern seas, where icebergs roam and strange things lurk in the deep. No-one knows who built it - scholars mention an ancient civilization of giants who came from the south, but scholars will tell you anything. The bridge leads to an island called the Isle of Merci. For reasons unknown, the weather here is tropical and jungle covers most of it. There was a big rush of enthusiasm about the island when it was first discovered about 50 years ago - a merchant guild and the university of Ulbinia both sent teams and funds to plunder the place for all it was worth, and for a while things were good. Adventurers rushed in to get their share of glory and gold. It captured the imagination. Imagine! Bananas, growing in the north! These days, though, no-one really goes there anymore. Too dangerous, they say. People have died. Accidents happened. Sure, there was plenty of riches to be had, plenty of knowledge to unearth, plenty of things to kill, but the risks outweighed the rewards. And now, only the desperate go there, hoping to get the looting machine running again, and get the lion's share of the profits.
At the end of the bridge is a vilage called Trignolles. It serves as a gateway to the mine and the jungle - the two sources of revenue for the locals.
And that's it.
It's a simple setting that smacks of pulp and adventure, is cliché enough that it will immediately bring vivid images to the mind of the players, and is located in a remote area that is both specific and nicely generic, so that neither the players or me have to learn about tons of background.
Now to make something fun out of it.
Structure
I started by spending some time gathering inspiration and ressources. It's crazy how much great material you can find online nowadays. I'll probably soon post a quick list of websites I have plundered for inspiration, random tables, general advice and GMing tools.
Then I settled on a scale for the campaign. It's not going to be epic. I suck at epic. It will all take place in one small area (a few square miles - call it a hex, if you will), will not feature large armies, battling gods, demon invasions and ancient dragons. It will get big, and very messy I'm sure, but on a local scale - and should the forces of evil one day threaten to pass the bridge into the rest of the world, it will be up to the PCs to stop them before they get there. Not many will know of their deeds, but those in the know will do more than admire them as heroes - they will love them as family.
The next choice was style and structure. I went for sandbox, because I find it easier to set up and more rewarding if done right. I do want to avoid the risk of having a directionless party spending an evening going nowhere, so I made sure that I had plenty of material for them to stumble on. The island is small, but packed with possibilities. I also make sure they always have something obvious to do, but that they know they don't have to do it. It's going to be pulp adventure, with colorful descriptions and fast moving action. Combat will be theatrical and over-the-top, proper swashbuckling stuff, chaotic and vivid. I hope to get them involved in the life of the village at some point, but that has yet to happen.
I focused on creating a series of situations with storytelling potential rather than a structured plot. This gives me plenty of advantages: first, I don't have to memorize much, which is great, cause I'm a bit shit at memorizing things. Also, it makes it easy to let players take agency. They are objectively much better at creating plot twists than I ever could be, and it's more satisfying for them, and entertaining for me. So far, I have been very, very surprised, in great ways.
On the other hand, I do enjoy coherence and depth in my campaigns, wether I play them or run them. So I did create a few underlying plots that I can hint at as they call the shots. And I do have an idea of where this is all going to lead to eventually. After all, if they can't leave the island, they will have to deal with what lurks inside it at one point or another...
I make a point of keeping track of small things the PCs do, in order to make them pop up later on. It does wonders for a sense of continuity.
I like to pay close atention to which NPCs they spend most time with, and try to make them at least a little intriguing. If a NPC survives the session, I might write up an actual character sheet for it. That way, if a PC dies, I can quickly suggest that they start playing a character they already know and appreciate, is already connected to the story, and we can keep playing in a coherent fashion without missing a beat.
I'll leave it at that for now. More soon.
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