NorseItalian
2009-09-05, 09:18 PM
So I just finished the second session of a new campaign I'm DMing, and the way it's going is much different than the way I had intended it to (which is not itself a problem, as it's still going in an interesting direction). Originally it was supposed to be an all human low fantasy game based on traditional folklore and faiytales set in the early rennaisance (not on earth, it's a fantasy counterpart world) , with the characters:
*Prince Andrew of Reiske, (Level 1 Warlord) Your typical Prince Charming, the Group Face
*Sir Thomas of Reiske (Level 1 Paladin) a typical Knight in Shining Armor, and the twin brother of Prince Andrew (but Andrew was named heir)
*Abigal of the Eastern Marshes (Level 1 Wizard) A Hedge witch, destined to serve under Prince Reiske
*Kaitlyn the Rose (Level 1 Shaman) A Gypsy Medium/Fortune teller
Alexander (Level 1 Rogue) A common pickpocket
The idea was for it to be a very sandboxed campaign, allowing them to seek out their own adventure hooks and build the world/story as they go along (all of it being made up and improvised on the spot. I started with a blank map and only added locations to it as they found them. I planned on taking any adventure hooks that they chose to pursue and weave them into a coherent overarching story) allowing them to find a dungeon crawl when they want it, and some deep roleplay when they don't.
However, things started to change. By the end of the second adventure I now have:
*Prince Andrew of Reiske, (Level 1 Warlord) A diplomat intent on restoring order to the kingdom.
*Sir Thomas of Reiske (Level 1 Paladin) Andrew's faithful bodyguard and brother.
*Abigal of the Eastern Marshes (Level 1 Wizard) Andrew's court magician and Royal advisor.
*Kaitlyn the Rose (Level 1 Shaman) Ambassador from the Gypsy nation (which she recently created through open revolt) who the Gypsy's believe to be a messiah.
*Alexander (Level 1 Rogue) A mercenary/assassin bound to Andrew by the promise of money.
In that time period they have disbanded a villiage of Robin Hood-esque outlaws, freed Abigail and Kaitlyn from being tried as witches, incited a revolt and thus caused the Gypsies to form their own independent nation, had Kaitlyn appointed by the King as ambassador to this nation and been (for various reasons) appointed to travel together, investigated a serious of sheepnappings, attended a feast with the Gypsy queen, formed a peace treaty and trade agreement with the Gypsy nation, convinced the Gypsies that Kaitlyn is actually a divinity, traveled to the castle of a count who is opposed to the King in order to try and win his favor, stolen a stag from the Duke's forest, been arrested and escaped from jail.
Essentially they've made it clear that they want to play a campaign based more on intrigue than a typical D&D game, which I am all for, however I have no experience DMing such a game, so I'd like some advice on the best way to do so.
Also, we are playing this game in D&D 4E, so their characters are very much built around combat. While some of them like the idea of getting away from combat (as it takes so long) Thomas and Alexander still like combat and will be upset if it goes away (besides, how can you rework characters in 4E so that they aren't completely built around combat?), and I'm not sure how to reconcile this.
I still want to keep my original basis (low fantasy, sandbox campaign), but I want to move the focus to intrigue. Does anyone have any experience running an intrigue based campaign who can give me some pointers?
*Prince Andrew of Reiske, (Level 1 Warlord) Your typical Prince Charming, the Group Face
*Sir Thomas of Reiske (Level 1 Paladin) a typical Knight in Shining Armor, and the twin brother of Prince Andrew (but Andrew was named heir)
*Abigal of the Eastern Marshes (Level 1 Wizard) A Hedge witch, destined to serve under Prince Reiske
*Kaitlyn the Rose (Level 1 Shaman) A Gypsy Medium/Fortune teller
Alexander (Level 1 Rogue) A common pickpocket
The idea was for it to be a very sandboxed campaign, allowing them to seek out their own adventure hooks and build the world/story as they go along (all of it being made up and improvised on the spot. I started with a blank map and only added locations to it as they found them. I planned on taking any adventure hooks that they chose to pursue and weave them into a coherent overarching story) allowing them to find a dungeon crawl when they want it, and some deep roleplay when they don't.
However, things started to change. By the end of the second adventure I now have:
*Prince Andrew of Reiske, (Level 1 Warlord) A diplomat intent on restoring order to the kingdom.
*Sir Thomas of Reiske (Level 1 Paladin) Andrew's faithful bodyguard and brother.
*Abigal of the Eastern Marshes (Level 1 Wizard) Andrew's court magician and Royal advisor.
*Kaitlyn the Rose (Level 1 Shaman) Ambassador from the Gypsy nation (which she recently created through open revolt) who the Gypsy's believe to be a messiah.
*Alexander (Level 1 Rogue) A mercenary/assassin bound to Andrew by the promise of money.
In that time period they have disbanded a villiage of Robin Hood-esque outlaws, freed Abigail and Kaitlyn from being tried as witches, incited a revolt and thus caused the Gypsies to form their own independent nation, had Kaitlyn appointed by the King as ambassador to this nation and been (for various reasons) appointed to travel together, investigated a serious of sheepnappings, attended a feast with the Gypsy queen, formed a peace treaty and trade agreement with the Gypsy nation, convinced the Gypsies that Kaitlyn is actually a divinity, traveled to the castle of a count who is opposed to the King in order to try and win his favor, stolen a stag from the Duke's forest, been arrested and escaped from jail.
Essentially they've made it clear that they want to play a campaign based more on intrigue than a typical D&D game, which I am all for, however I have no experience DMing such a game, so I'd like some advice on the best way to do so.
Also, we are playing this game in D&D 4E, so their characters are very much built around combat. While some of them like the idea of getting away from combat (as it takes so long) Thomas and Alexander still like combat and will be upset if it goes away (besides, how can you rework characters in 4E so that they aren't completely built around combat?), and I'm not sure how to reconcile this.
I still want to keep my original basis (low fantasy, sandbox campaign), but I want to move the focus to intrigue. Does anyone have any experience running an intrigue based campaign who can give me some pointers?