Yora
2017-04-01, 09:47 AM
I've been reading this piece on the passage of time during a campaign (http://udan-adan.blogspot.de/2017/01/the-long-haul-time-and-distance-in-d.html) and I really like this idea of having the party hunker down somewhere to spend the winter before going back to adventuring the next year. Something like this goes all te way back to Pendragon, but the idea of a home base or sanctuary is also a pupular feature of Mouse Guard and The One Ring.
I really like this idea, which seems quite well suited for campaigns of long expeditions to strange lands. Some editions of D&D have a rule that characters can only level up once per adventure, whose length is not further specified. If the campaign is meant to run for a long time and not get to very high levels then I could see awarding XP to the characters only at the end of the year when they set up camp for the winter. A year would not have to take up a great lot of play time. If a good amount of the adventuring season is spent on the road, on ships, or burning through the loot of the last adventure, then the season might only consist of 4 to 6 sessions. The idea is not to make the game play slower, but to have the calendar speed past much faster. A new recruit becoming the best warrior the world has ever seen in 3 month is somewhat unbelievable. But when your 20th level fighter is a 50 year old veteran who has been slaying monsters and sorcerers for over 30 years that's a lot more epic and legendary. While still having done the same amount of play time.
Also, after each winter you can have antagonists and allies develop their bases and resources further a good deal while not having major changes suddenly spring up from nowhere.
But I still think there is a place for winter adentures. They just wouldn't be long expeditions but political situations or emergencies. Doing two or three summer adventures followed by a winter adventure would certainly be one way to do it. But I am going with much more unscripted adventures and love the element of the players getting into trouble due to bad luck and having missed to prepare for all eventualities, rather than chosing what should happen to them based on what I know they are capable of and what their preparations are. So I want to make some type of Random Winter Events table filled with hooks for short adventures that could happen while the party is staying in a castle or a village over the winter.
Some options are obvious:
- Barbarian raiders come to steal vital supplies.
- A big scary monster is attacking farms in the night.
- Since a big snow storm no word has come from a nearby village.
- A special medicine is needed from a magic glade or a witches house and it can't wait until spring.
Any other ideas for random events that force the party to go outside in winter, or general thoughts about the concept?
I really like this idea, which seems quite well suited for campaigns of long expeditions to strange lands. Some editions of D&D have a rule that characters can only level up once per adventure, whose length is not further specified. If the campaign is meant to run for a long time and not get to very high levels then I could see awarding XP to the characters only at the end of the year when they set up camp for the winter. A year would not have to take up a great lot of play time. If a good amount of the adventuring season is spent on the road, on ships, or burning through the loot of the last adventure, then the season might only consist of 4 to 6 sessions. The idea is not to make the game play slower, but to have the calendar speed past much faster. A new recruit becoming the best warrior the world has ever seen in 3 month is somewhat unbelievable. But when your 20th level fighter is a 50 year old veteran who has been slaying monsters and sorcerers for over 30 years that's a lot more epic and legendary. While still having done the same amount of play time.
Also, after each winter you can have antagonists and allies develop their bases and resources further a good deal while not having major changes suddenly spring up from nowhere.
But I still think there is a place for winter adentures. They just wouldn't be long expeditions but political situations or emergencies. Doing two or three summer adventures followed by a winter adventure would certainly be one way to do it. But I am going with much more unscripted adventures and love the element of the players getting into trouble due to bad luck and having missed to prepare for all eventualities, rather than chosing what should happen to them based on what I know they are capable of and what their preparations are. So I want to make some type of Random Winter Events table filled with hooks for short adventures that could happen while the party is staying in a castle or a village over the winter.
Some options are obvious:
- Barbarian raiders come to steal vital supplies.
- A big scary monster is attacking farms in the night.
- Since a big snow storm no word has come from a nearby village.
- A special medicine is needed from a magic glade or a witches house and it can't wait until spring.
Any other ideas for random events that force the party to go outside in winter, or general thoughts about the concept?