Yora
2019-01-13, 03:07 PM
I have created a setting that has something of a bronze age style and now started preparing for a player driven open world campaign. At the start players don't know anything about the world and its culture (because players never want to read it when you write it for them) and also have not yet decided what motivates their characters, so at the beginning they need easy to spot and follow hooks to grab and get the campaign rolling.
I got this idea to present them with three hooks. The one they chose to follow will lead to a small adventure and things will turn out fine. The two they don't follow won't turn out fine. These will start ongoing conflicts that provide potential for future asventures chosen by the players. I would like to know what you think of this so far.
To begin the campaign, I want the players to make characters. It is encouraged to make members of the lower aristocracy, or are in some way connected to it. Once that is done, they are introduced to the starting location:
They are in the hall of a palace on a hill overlooking a harbor town, and their king has just performed a great sacrifice at the temple to thank the gods for the birth of his third son. For the occasion, he also invited the noble warriors of his small kingdom to a feast where he will present gifts to those who served him the best in recent years. The PCs are not among those, but it's still expected that they show up to witness it.
One of the players will introduce his character to the others and what he's currently doing in the hall. Then he will be asked questions about his background, where he lives, and other details that might be interesting. After that, the king will call forward one of his warriors, proclaim his great deeds, and present him with a gift. Then the second player introduces the next player and the king calls forward another warrior. This repeats until all PCs are introduced and the players get opportunities to connect their backstories and build on each other's ideas.
The short interruptions by the king are meant to give the players quick impressions of what kinds of deeds heroes can achieve in this setting, what kinds of rewarda they can expect, and that gifts are an important part of this culture. It also introduces some NPCs that could become important later in the campaign.
Once character creation is completed and introductions wrap up, the players get introduced to the hooks:
First, they spot some shifty people looking suspicious in the corner who are planning to lure a nobleman down into the town and then kidnap him and escape on a ship in the harbor.
Unless the players immediately interrupt to jump on it, they get approached by one of the king's nieces who has seen a foreign ambassador steal a key while the guards were distracted by the warriors being presented with gifts. She doesn't want to alert the guards, because then the ambasador will know he's being watched, and she also can't accuse an honored guest to the king. And the PCs are the only ones she can find on such short notice who could find out what he plans to do with the key.
And to make things more complicated, after a while some warriors rush out the hall, grab their spears, and get on their horses because there's a glow of fire in the diatance.
The idea is that they can either prevent the kidnapping, catch the spy, or catch a gang of bandits before they disappear in the forests with theie loot.
I guess the biggest risk is that the players immediately decid to split the party to pursue all three hooks at once. :smallbiggrin: But I think the solution to this is to simply tell them that someone else is going to look after the other two things. It's just that those other groups will fail. And the party might fail as well, success isn't guaranteed.
I feel that after that first session, the players should probably have developed a couple of connections and got to know the surface details of various different things in and around the starting area. And it also makes them familiar with there being many things going on in the world that they can chose to get involved with, but none of which are required of them.
I quite like the idea, but I wonder if this might still already be way too complex and complicated for a campaign start.
I got this idea to present them with three hooks. The one they chose to follow will lead to a small adventure and things will turn out fine. The two they don't follow won't turn out fine. These will start ongoing conflicts that provide potential for future asventures chosen by the players. I would like to know what you think of this so far.
To begin the campaign, I want the players to make characters. It is encouraged to make members of the lower aristocracy, or are in some way connected to it. Once that is done, they are introduced to the starting location:
They are in the hall of a palace on a hill overlooking a harbor town, and their king has just performed a great sacrifice at the temple to thank the gods for the birth of his third son. For the occasion, he also invited the noble warriors of his small kingdom to a feast where he will present gifts to those who served him the best in recent years. The PCs are not among those, but it's still expected that they show up to witness it.
One of the players will introduce his character to the others and what he's currently doing in the hall. Then he will be asked questions about his background, where he lives, and other details that might be interesting. After that, the king will call forward one of his warriors, proclaim his great deeds, and present him with a gift. Then the second player introduces the next player and the king calls forward another warrior. This repeats until all PCs are introduced and the players get opportunities to connect their backstories and build on each other's ideas.
The short interruptions by the king are meant to give the players quick impressions of what kinds of deeds heroes can achieve in this setting, what kinds of rewarda they can expect, and that gifts are an important part of this culture. It also introduces some NPCs that could become important later in the campaign.
Once character creation is completed and introductions wrap up, the players get introduced to the hooks:
First, they spot some shifty people looking suspicious in the corner who are planning to lure a nobleman down into the town and then kidnap him and escape on a ship in the harbor.
Unless the players immediately interrupt to jump on it, they get approached by one of the king's nieces who has seen a foreign ambassador steal a key while the guards were distracted by the warriors being presented with gifts. She doesn't want to alert the guards, because then the ambasador will know he's being watched, and she also can't accuse an honored guest to the king. And the PCs are the only ones she can find on such short notice who could find out what he plans to do with the key.
And to make things more complicated, after a while some warriors rush out the hall, grab their spears, and get on their horses because there's a glow of fire in the diatance.
The idea is that they can either prevent the kidnapping, catch the spy, or catch a gang of bandits before they disappear in the forests with theie loot.
I guess the biggest risk is that the players immediately decid to split the party to pursue all three hooks at once. :smallbiggrin: But I think the solution to this is to simply tell them that someone else is going to look after the other two things. It's just that those other groups will fail. And the party might fail as well, success isn't guaranteed.
I feel that after that first session, the players should probably have developed a couple of connections and got to know the surface details of various different things in and around the starting area. And it also makes them familiar with there being many things going on in the world that they can chose to get involved with, but none of which are required of them.
I quite like the idea, but I wonder if this might still already be way too complex and complicated for a campaign start.