Using the FFC as a model: Dungeon Crawls, Wilderness or...?

[Havard]

One thing people bring up when we are talking about the FFC is how the stories from Dave's campaign can be used as a model for running new campaigns in Blackmoor. What type of adventures presented in the FFC would you consider using as models for future Blackmoor campaigns? Would you focus on Dungeon Crawls, Wilderness adventures, or would you even consider exploring some of the more experimental types of gaming explored by Dave Arneson's group? Running baronies, mass warfare, trade wars, naval warfare etc are some examples.

Whether you choose the more traditional or the more experimental types of adventures, what ideas from Arneson's games interest you the most?

-Havard

[Yaztromo]

While my earliest years of roleplaying were full of dungeon crawls of all kinds, the more time passes, the less I use dungeon crawls and I tend using more plot-driven adventures, that can move from place to place without staying never too much in the same location, so you may well find sone underground locations, but they are never really mega-dungeons, but small places where you need to use your brains more than your hands, hopefully.
In DA works we have plenty of both options, so we are lucky enough to be able to choose.

[Jacobite]

The most famous character in my campaign was a human midget thief named Pee Wee. Pee Wee spent a good chunk of his adventuring career wandering around the setting solo and causing absolute mayhem whenever he stopped. Very much in the tradition of Marfeldt the Barbarian.

[finarvyn]

The FFC is (to me) a great model of how a campaign should be run if it combines adventure level play with army level play. It has sample dungeons and whatnot, but also troop breakdowns and construction costs and other "big picture" elements that most players don't bother with any more.

I remember back in the day when players would hoard treasure, then go to the castle construction tables in OD&D and draw out their castle to scale while actually keeping track of their construction costs. They might start small and then go out and adventure again so they could acquire more loot and add on to their castle. That phase of the game has been largely lost over the decades, but FFC shows a lot of how this was done in the early campaigns.

[Havard]

The FFC is (to me) a great model of how a campaign should be run if it combines adventure level play with army level play. It has sample dungeons and whatnot, but also troop breakdowns and construction costs and other "big picture" elements that most players don't bother with any more.

I remember back in the day when players would hoard treasure, then go to the castle construction tables in OD&D and draw out their castle to scale while actually keeping track of their construction costs. They might start small and then go out and adventure again so they could acquire more loot and add on to their castle. That phase of the game has been largely lost over the decades, but FFC shows a lot of how this was done in the early campaigns.

Agreed. Is this something you have considered doing in your own campaign? I think the BECMI rulesets handle these things quite well with the more abstract Warmachine rules from the excellent Companion Set as a good alternative for those of us who arent that fond of mass miniature battles.

Back to the original question, I think that you could model a campaign directly after the FFC, but I also think you could use elements of the FFC and discard others as well. The book is packed with ideas afterall.

-Havard

[Jacobite]

BECMI seems to push the characters to semi-retire at about Companion level and expects them to run their domains. The info supplied in FFC makes it clear what later became known as domain management was a big part of Arneson's original campaign.

[Dave L]

I remember getting the Companion set back in the day and almost wearing it out re-reading the domain rules.

I mapped out a wizard's tower for my Mage and a castle for my cleric along with retainers, all of which would easily have fit into the FFC model.

Sigh, I wish I still had all those notes. Those were the days ...