Need help with my first big campaign [Archive] - Wizards Community

Need help with my first big campaign [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Wildonion
05-29-07, 10:44 PM I have played Dungeons & Dragons for almost 3 years now and I have had fun running mini-adventures and small scale campaigns with my friends. Now I want to graduate up to something larger and have set my sights on the County of Urnst from the Living Greyhawk campaign setting—since my players and I live in Colorado. My friends and I are not part of the Living Greyhawk world, or the RPGA, but we think it would be an interesting place to hold a campaign and I, in my youthful optimism and sleep deprivation at the time, volunteered to run something in the world of Greyhawk. Now it seems like I am in over my head, from what I have been reading through the County of Urnst is very large and I have no idea where to start; it feels like I just opened a history book and started reading halfway through it. There is just too much history and other lands that I don't know about, it seems.

I was wondering if anyone could give me some pointers on running a larger scale campaign, as Urnst is easily larger than any of the areas I have created by myself, and if there are tips for playing in the County itself. I have no ideas for adventure hooks or for a campaign spanning goal, these are big concerns of mine as I have no campaign with no adventures and my players need a long term goal aside from being a bunch of mercenaries or do-gooders. Thanks for taking the time to read through this and thank you in advance for any help, I need it and this was the only place I could think to turn to.
Araes
05-30-07, 04:20 AM One suggestion that I would highly recommend for getting an idea of where to start, and how some of your contemporaries have handled similar problems, would be to read This Section (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=lg/region/countyurnst&page=2)on Wizards' main page for the County of Urnst adventures. There are tons of examples of adventures running from 2007 and 2006. Plus, the link to the Triad Website (http://www.onyxgate.com/turbine/page/urc/)they give is quite useful as well.

Not direct help, and I'm sorry for that as I'm not a Urnst player myself, but hopefully this will give you some help on how to tackle what looks to be insurmountable right now. If you need help on the specifics of how to set up the general parameters of an epic arc, just not specifically related to Urnst, I'd be willing to help you with any questions you have.
GoriceXII
05-30-07, 08:35 AM Sometimes this happens--you love a setting but in fact can't think of a single thing to do with it. The above post should be helpful to you--also consider looking through some of the free adventures (both old and new system) to see if anything there seems fun to you. When I started my present campaign I knew I wanted to run it in my homebrew game but had no idea really how the main game plot would work or whether my players would like it or anything, so frankly I considered what fantasy/adventure stories I had liked recently. One that came to mind was actually a slightly silly but fun series by James Silke based on Frank Frazetta's "Deathdealer" concept. I liked the idea of a horde attacking people, liked the idea of various cults being involved. When I found "Into the Dragon's Lair" and "Red Hand of Doom" I was very pleased because I'd wanted goblinoids to be involved but had almost no idea how to do that in a fun way--I got good ideas from both published adventures.
Wildonion
05-30-07, 06:45 PM I think I have Into the Dragon's Lair, borrowed an adventure from a friend in our group and that sounds like the title.
GoriceXII
05-31-07, 06:13 AM You might also give some thought to how you want to present the county--do you want the pcs involved with the court, or are they going to start at some border village? Are they going to be from Urnst or arrive from various other parts of Oerth?

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Wildonion 05-29-07, 10:44 PM	I have played Dungeons & Dragons for almost 3 years now and I have had fun running mini-adventures and small scale campaigns with my friends. Now I want to graduate up to something larger and have set my sights on the County of Urnst from the Living Greyhawk campaign setting—since my players and I live in Colorado. My friends and I are not part of the Living Greyhawk world, or the RPGA, but we think it would be an interesting place to hold a campaign and I, in my youthful optimism and sleep deprivation at the time, volunteered to run something in the world of Greyhawk. Now it seems like I am in over my head, from what I have been reading through the County of Urnst is very large and I have no idea where to start; it feels like I just opened a history book and started reading halfway through it. There is just too much history and other lands that I don't know about, it seems. I was wondering if anyone could give me some pointers on running a larger scale campaign, as Urnst is easily larger than any of the areas I have created by myself, and if there are tips for playing in the County itself. I have no ideas for adventure hooks or for a campaign spanning goal, these are big concerns of mine as I have no campaign with no adventures and my players need a long term goal aside from being a bunch of mercenaries or do-gooders. Thanks for taking the time to read through this and thank you in advance for any help, I need it and this was the only place I could think to turn to.
Araes 05-30-07, 04:20 AM	One suggestion that I would highly recommend for getting an idea of where to start, and how some of your contemporaries have handled similar problems, would be to read This Section (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=lg/region/countyurnst&page=2)on Wizards' main page for the County of Urnst adventures. There are tons of examples of adventures running from 2007 and 2006. Plus, the link to the Triad Website (http://www.onyxgate.com/turbine/page/urc/)they give is quite useful as well. Not direct help, and I'm sorry for that as I'm not a Urnst player myself, but hopefully this will give you some help on how to tackle what looks to be insurmountable right now. If you need help on the specifics of how to set up the general parameters of an epic arc, just not specifically related to Urnst, I'd be willing to help you with any questions you have.
GoriceXII 05-30-07, 08:35 AM	Sometimes this happens--you love a setting but in fact can't think of a single thing to do with it. The above post should be helpful to you--also consider looking through some of the free adventures (both old and new system) to see if anything there seems fun to you. When I started my present campaign I knew I wanted to run it in my homebrew game but had no idea really how the main game plot would work or whether my players would like it or anything, so frankly I considered what fantasy/adventure stories I had liked recently. One that came to mind was actually a slightly silly but fun series by James Silke based on Frank Frazetta's "Deathdealer" concept. I liked the idea of a horde attacking people, liked the idea of various cults being involved. When I found "Into the Dragon's Lair" and "Red Hand of Doom" I was very pleased because I'd wanted goblinoids to be involved but had almost no idea how to do that in a fun way--I got good ideas from both published adventures.
Wildonion 05-30-07, 06:45 PM	I think I have Into the Dragon's Lair, borrowed an adventure from a friend in our group and that sounds like the title.
GoriceXII 05-31-07, 06:13 AM	You might also give some thought to how you want to present the county--do you want the pcs involved with the court, or are they going to start at some border village? Are they going to be from Urnst or arrive from various other parts of Oerth?