Must all Blackmoor Campaigns be epic?

[Havard]

This is something I've been talking to Rafe about. The DA series in particular emphasizes the imminent war with the Afridhi and the underlying threat from the Egg of Cootis always present.

Must all Blackmoor campaigns revolve around this however? How about some more down to earth exploration games? I'm guessing many of Arneson's own games were traditional dungeon crawls, even though war was also a prominent feature.

Any ideas for more exploration oriented or other types of campaigns?

Havard

[garolek]

There are plenty of places to explore in Blackmoor, or more properly surrounding Blackmoor.

The most obvious to my mind would be searching the Valley of the Ancients for the City of Gods. And what is across the North Sea? Some Skandaharans must have legends and rumours. What's north of the Skandaharans? What's across the vastness of Hak? What other frontiers does Thonia have?

I really like it when my players aquire ships. I like it even more when they get interested in trade (but I have found that this takes some encouraging and many would rather be pirates than traders). Exploring becomes "easy" once the PCs have ships... not that it becomes any less dangerous than overland travel, but longer distances can be mapped out and far away exotic places can be found more quickly.

Does Blackmoor have a silk road? Is there anything Thonia could want that possible routes to have been cut off by the Afridhi? Is anyone daring enough to attempt exploration in Afridhi occupied territory?


Alfred

[AKsuel]

Nah, Blackmoor is diverse enough that not every thing need be epic. Sure you could campaign against the Egg and try to thwart his minions at every turn, or you could just be adventuring in the muck of the Black Swamp with amphibian loving inbred swampdwellers as your primary antagonists.

[Havard]

There are plenty of places to explore in Blackmoor, or more properly surrounding Blackmoor.

The most obvious to my mind would be searching the Valley of the Ancients for the City of Gods. And what is across the North Sea? Some Skandaharans must have legends and rumours. What's north of the Skandaharans? What's across the vastness of Hak? What other frontiers does Thonia have?

All great ideas! I guess you can either see the edges of the map as the limits of the campaign or you could view what lies beyond those edges as adventure opportunities?

I really like it when my players aquire ships. I like it even more when they get interested in trade (but I have found that this takes some encouraging and many would rather be pirates than traders). Exploring becomes "easy" once the PCs have ships... not that it becomes any less dangerous than overland travel, but longer distances can be mapped out and far away exotic places can be found more quickly.

Interesting. The FFC mentions trade wars between Dan Nichols on the one side and Mello and the Blue Rider on the other.

Does Blackmoor have a silk road? Is there anything Thonia could want that possible routes to have been cut off by the Afridhi? Is anyone daring enough to attempt exploration in Afridhi occupied territory?

There are quite a few details on the various roads of Blackmoor. I think the main trade route between Thonia and Blackmoor goes through Rug's Station?

One trade route blocked by the Afridhi could be the one leading to the Duchy of the Peaks. The duchy produces gemstones among other things, which ought to be of interest for just about anyone willy to deal with those corrupt scumbags

Havard

[Havard]

Nah, Blackmoor is diverse enough that not every thing need be epic. Sure you could campaign against the Egg and try to thwart his minions at every turn, or you could just be adventuring in the muck of the Black Swamp with amphibian loving inbred swampdwellers as your primary antagonists.

One of the challenges here, is that the Egg is so close to Blackmoor. I like what Rafael did in this respect in the Grim Winter/Promised Land PbPs. If it is made clear that the Realm of the Egg is inaccessible, it means the players will be less inclined to go there.

Havard

[garolek]

I guess you can either see the edges of the map as the limits of the campaign or you could view what lies beyond those edges as adventure opportunities?

I tend to not see the edges of a map as a limit at all. It is something that prompts me to doing too much work in my own designs - I keep going further and further afield.

Players almost never like to keep it small, they always (at least in my games) go off in some random direction or go to follow the rumour of some distant place. I have always hated railroading, and my players always seemed to be conscious of that.

On the down side, it sometimes takes a while for my new players to start showing initiative. It has been about five years since a player has built a castle in my world.

Alfred

[Havard]

I tend to not see the edges of a map as a limit at all. It is something that prompts me to doing too much work in my own designs - I keep going further and further afield.

Exactly. This is a pretty good idea. I loved the map from the BECMI Master's Set (by Frank Mentzer) since it showed several continents and provided some names, but left all the details for the DM to flesh out for himself.

Players almost never like to keep it small, they always (at least in my games) go off in some random direction or go to follow the rumour of some distant place. I have always hated railroading, and my players always seemed to be conscious of that.

Small can mean alot of different things. My most successful campaigns have been those where the PCs have gotten attached to some community or other where they felt that they really knew the NPCs. If they saw a chance to help this community or protect it from danger they would feel much more motivated than when asked to help the villagers of random village #15 from the local orc tribe.

On the down side, it sometimes takes a while for my new players to start showing initiative. It has been about five years since a player has built a castle in my world.

This is my challenge at the moment as well. I have been trying to use the strategy above for this, but the fact that so much time passes between each session makes it difficult.

Havard