In which we start a new campaign

 

Forgot all of the stuff that goes into starting a new campaign. I'm posting this about a month after we started so as not to spoil any of the good stuff. As has been suggested I've been building/designing from the bottom up AND the top down.  The previous campaign was more of a test-run to help me get my chops back.  And it did!

In the last ten days I've walked all of the party through character creation. Still waiting for some backstory seeds and cleric stuff from one player but otherwise the party's ready to go: two fighters, a bard, a ranger, a dwarven cleric and a sorcerer. A little tank heavy and the bard will need to double on rogue but I think it's playable.

In lieu of a tavern they'll be awakening in a tomb. Grabbed a nice map from Dyson. Plopped a trap, a couple creature encounters and a skill check in there. Set up a sound pad for the creature encounters and picked a couple background music tracks for the rest of the night. Not gonna display map. Instead will rely on theater of the mind and a nice misty animated dungeon floor as needed. I've set up my “open at once” list to be ready to go so my base level opening session stuff is ready. So much for bottom up.

Top down stuff is a little rougher. I've used World Spinner to generate a nice accurate planet, place the dominant races in various and sundry locations and let it establish kingdoms and roads and random locations and stuff. A few minutes of editing cleaned it up to the point where it's usable. I then converted THAT to a 20-mile hex version on Worldographer and let THAT program create the 6-mile and 2-mile hexes. Populated areas, ruins, temples, roads and rivers are mostly placed (at least for the “three horizons out.”) Using the same calendar and weather system as last time so that's all done.

I REALLY wanna implement a Tao of D&D/for h in hexes style economic system. I've spent a LOT of lonely fun time trying to get it to work but it keeps feeling like I'm missing just one little step here and there and I usually give up when I realize I've built a Cargo Cult landing strip. Pretty comfortable with the infrastructure level on my 20-mile hexes. Not as comfortable with my 6- and 2-mile hexes but I'm at the point I'm just gonna hafta swallow hard, make it work and fix it on the fly if it sucks.

The biggest sticking point is the assigning of the resources and the design of the spreadsheets that pull it all together and make it work. Once THAT falls into place (or at least STARTS to fall into place) Tir Newydd will be playable.

That brings me to storylines. I have the germ of my over-arching storyline is place but need to formalize it and flesh it out. Have been waiting on the characters to bring some things to life first. I'll probably resume that task after session two or three. They'll be leveling up automatically after each of the first two sessions (if they live that long) so by level three I should have some additional hooks and angles. Two of the players have given me characters that are ripe with plot-line stuff. I'll begin to rough out some adventure ideas for them as well. And I have two other set-piece adventures I've been wanting to write but I've just been putting it off. I now have my motivation. Let's call these 1) The Plague Arc, 2) The Six Abyssal Symphonies, 3) The locket of Blood, 4) Who's the Fairest? And 5) NOT Tony Stark.

I have my initiative spreadsheet set up and my Notion.so template from
Sly Flourish started. Session one will be a “meet the team” night. Session two will be a “survive in the wilderness” night – but five of my six players know I love to use the elements as an adversary. I'll have at least three things ready to go by the time we get to session three. Schools start in 2-3 weeks so I'll have significantly more “desk time” in which to take what I'm given. Just need to remember to ask the party for their “Player Do List.” And keep planning three horizons out. Ooooo – and fronts. I need to keep an open mind to fronts!

We play to find out what happens. And “Huh. What's that? Let's go find out!”