[PF] Starting a Campaign

[nobodylovesyou4]

It's been 2 years, playground, but hello again.

To make this short, our DM of 7 years "Tim" may be moving away soon, and I am attempting to take his place. I've run games before, but they've either been pre-mades, or made with Tim's help. Now, Tim's games have almost always been large-scale, story-driven epics, something that he's proven himself quite adept at. My attempts usually fall flat, as I don't have the planning skills required to make something like that feel truly alive. I am interested in running an adventure-based campaign, something where the PC's keep playing until they wish to retire their characters into a lap of luxury, or die horrifically at the hands of an end-boss somewhere.

My question to you, playgrounders: What preparations are required by me to make such a game work? I already have the following:

-A map of the world, as well as a history of its existence from creation by the gods to the current day
-Seven playable races, each one representing a different nation

...and that's pretty much it. Suggestions?

[herrhauptmann]

Epic quests can often happen on a specific time schedule.
Maguffin can only be retrieved on a certain date/time (alignment of stars)
Maguffin must then be attuned, which takes a specific length of time. This attuning process might require other smaller maguffins. The fewer that the bad guys collect, the longer it takes to attune.
Once attuned, it takes a specific date to unleash the ritual. And often a specific location too.

If your bad guy gets attuned in time, he might be able to unleash the ritual on the spring equinox. But the spring equinox requires the sacred glade of the nature goddess, which means he might need an army to take and hold that territory long enough for him to cast the ritual. Which means he might need to launch the war by december.

However, while it seems like a good idea to launch that war before the item is even claimed, let alone attuned, what about this:
If the heroes slow down his attunement enough, he'll miss the spring equinox. Now he might be able to launch his ritual on the summer solstice instead. But that requires taking and holding the throne of the Sun-King half a continent away. Which means he'd need probably a year to take that by conquest, if not longer. And that'd be impossible if he was in the middle of a war for the sacred glade.
ALternately, he could launch a lightning attack (scry'n'die) the day before the solstice to take the throne.
Rather than stopping an army, the PCs now have to make it to the Sun-King, and warn him of the threat. They'll then have to find a way to stop the BBEG. Either by defending the throne, or by attacking him early.



A flowchart might be useful in figuring what order things happen in.
It can also be good to reward the players, early victories make later battles easier (not just through more/better loot), or happen in more advantageous locations. It really sucks to be a member of a party that wins every battle leading up to the last one, but still find yourself with every disadvantage possible. Heroes of Battle gives some suggestions on how to do this.

[nobodylovesyou4]

As compelling as that all is, I am actually interested in running something NOT on an epic scale. I find that saving the world grows a little too blase if it happens every game we play. I'm looking for something a little humbler - more Morrowind, less Skyrim, if that helps.