In which we walk the borders

 Scarcity creates conflict.  LOTS of things create scarcity.  Piracy.  Monsters.  Landslides.  Border disputes.  Also plague, production shifts and ... well ... you name it!

So every game-month I "walk the borders."  OK, not that complex, but I DO use Azgaar to reconfigure events on the planet.  This generates all KINDS of fun stuff around the planet.  The current map highlights a handful of light houses and bridges, the destruction of any of which might results in calamity.  The Coclinalian River flooded - lets reduce food production there.  The southern boarder of Invarel is suffering from Bloody Fever and boarder skirmishes have erupted as internal squabbles.  A volcano 200 miles north of Kunduz erupted.  Copper and salt production is increased in multiple wilderness locations between Invarel and Kinduz.  Avalanches have rocked the region west of the high elf homeland and there have been rumblings along the Numundunese fault line, endangering the mountain dwarves.  

Every ONE of those events creates plot hooks.  The news of these events may or may not reach the parties ears and they may or may not choose to investigate.  If/when they do I'll flesh out the nature of the problem and away we'll go.  And NEXT game-month (about three game-weeks away) and I'll let Azgaar create another set.  And I'll figure out how long it'll take word to reach the party, and I'll plant the events in the "rumors" list and the world will wash over them.

And when the year changes?  States, provinces, armies, cultures and diplomacy changes, cities grow (and shrink) and some production is shifted, and the cycle starts anew giving not just the illusion of a living, breathing world, but an ACTUAL living, breathing world.  IF this campaign ends or IF the current players decide to place their secondary characters in a new location or IF a new party wants to play in my world ... I can give them choices.  Wanna be thrust into the middle of the eons long struggle between dwarves, elves and orcs?  Maybe the viking-like culture beset by sea monsters.  Or negotiating trade deals between two countries who recently discovered a mountain pass that could connect them.  It's ALL already there and has been all along.