Ok, so, I’ve managed to get Act 1 mostly done (The latter part of Act 1 still needs some work), and Act 2 is well under way. Act 2 needs some reorganization, but its nothing major. So yeah, progress bitches!
Anyways….. something I haven’t done yet is say anything about how this setting and campaign came to be. Mostly because I really don’t think its that interesting. If anything, its a testament to procrastination, and probably ADHD. I say this because, well, yeah, it was likely a factor in why its taken me as long as it has to get to this point. Maintaining motivation and staying on task is tricky, I can lose both easily, and when it happens, I’ve learnt that (for me) its best to step back, and, when possible, walk away until an inspiration moment hits, then come back to it. And that was definitely a factor here.
But yeah, it started with the idea of a desert oasis city, located on the shore of a large, lush oasis with enough water to support a bustling city (As long as water usage was carefully managed). From there, I started trying to come up with various different businesses and structures would exist in such a city. How would the societal structure look, the government, that sort of thing. Then, instead of putting any of that to paper, I instead started drawing a grid map on some graph paper.
So, I drew this giant map, with tons of buildings, and one page wasn’t enough. Eventually, before I knew it, I had a city map covering 11 8.5″x11″ sheets of graph paper, taped together with scotch tape. I still had no idea what stories could be told, what any of the businesses were, or anything. It was just a bunch of empty boxes and lines on a bunch of pages taped together. But I started coming up with some possibilities for businesses and structures. I even made some maps for a whole 19 of them in Dungeon Alchemist. But then I felt like I had no other ideas. The motivation had petered out.
Recognizing that I had hit a sort of wall, I left the map taped up on my office closet doors, and largely forgot about it. For almost a year. At one point, a poorly taped section ended up tearing a corner and I had to fix that (Well, make sure it stayed taped up at least), but that was about all I could bring myself to do.
Then, about 6 months ago, with a Lost Mines of Phandelver campaign getting into the late stages of the game, I had a party wonder what might be next, and I didn’t quite have an answer. I had a location at least, so I said I’ve got something cooking. And I started to look at the map again.
This time, I looked at the map differently, I started asking myself, “How would a new adventurer to this city look for work?”, and “What kind of work would they likely be looking for?”. The answer to the first question was easy. Go to the tavern and start asking about rumors and work opportunities. Someone is bound to have some job or quest available. This quickly led to Harim the Recruiter. A connected individual who matches adventurers and workers with job opportunities, for a small fee. Harim has open worker contracts ranging from working farmlands to high risk security jobs, and a knack for matching the right people to the right jobs. Harim is effectively a story hook point for me to use to bring the party together and get them onto the storyline, and the best part is that, by using Harim, I can put the party onto the main story path discreetly and organically.
Next, I wanted to come up with a broad story arc, but I wanted it to make sense, and I wanted it to be something that I can use to build further stories in this setting. So, I came up with the basic premise of a dark/evil cult who is actively working to acquire the magical items needed to summon their fell god into the world, bringing death, destruction, and a new reign of terror and tyranny on the world.
From here, I had to quickly figure out how the story would progress, so, I put some thought into how a group of individuals would actually go about building a name for themselves. And I realized that it involves getting in good with a few key folks who could, in turn, unlock other connections. That means starting small, building trust, and demonstrating to a larger audience that one can execute. So I decided Act 1 would be all about the group starting to make a name for themselves, good or bad.
This means that Act 2 needs to be their big break. Their chance to go big or go home. It can never be straight forward, there has to be a twist, otherwise its predictable and boring. So I came up with a twist and worked it into the climax of Act 2. I don’t really want to reveal anything here (Not like you can’t just go look in any event), but I think how Act 2 works out, once re-organized, will put the story in a very good place.
Act 3 is the fallout from the events of Act 2, and put the players into a position where they receive an offer they cannot refuse (Well, they could, but it would not end well for them). At this point, the veil will be lifted, and the truth will come out (Maybe?). At this point, the offer that cannot be refused would be a no brainer, so this act is centered around doing an investigation to track down a secret cult, and the antagonists in this story.
Act 4 will be the confrontation, and, for my initial test runs, because it will lead to tweaks and improvements/adjustments and fixes, the test runs will not be considered Cannon for this setting (Yeah, I want to maintain some sort of cannon timeline for the world, I’ve gotta work on that though). Once I deem the campaign to be version 1.0, the first run that I take a party through on that version will be considered a cannon storyline and determine key pieces about the setting and world that will be used to tell future stories.
Well, this was supposed to detail how the world came to be, but, true to form I dovetailed into a high level of the Pendant of Dusk story arc, although, it at least makes sense in the context of explaining how the story/campaign came to be….. but I rambled like a madman somewhat and lost the plot :).
Anyways, the TL:DR is I made a map. I ignored the map. I made up an NPC and then pulled some basic pieces together. Yes I am an asshole for hiding the TL:DR at the end of the post, and I revel in it 😀