Post/Author/DateTime	Post
treehouse916 08-08-05, 11:40 AM	I'm at the outset of my first Eberron campaign, as I've been saying for several months now. My homebrew is taking considerably longer to resolve than I had first anticipated. Blah blah, you've heard my excuses. Anyway, I am trying to decide whether I want to have a 'focus' in the campaign or not. Originally, I thought that if we played a campaign that lasted from 1st to 20th level, I could have the PCs thwart major plots of every single 'big player' in the game, moving from the Aurum, the Order of the Emerald Claw and the Lord of Blades right on up to the Lords of Dust, the Dreaming Dark and the Daelkyr. But now, I am starting to think that the campaign will suffer from a lack of focus, especially at the higher levels. Should I focus on one or two specific foes for my PCs, or can I really use most of the organizations in the game at length? I know there probably haven't been a whole lot of Eberron campaigns truly spanning 1st-20th level, but my players and I are pretty dedicated.
polt 08-08-05, 11:59 AM	I think it's better to keep the focus. If you try to squeese in a lot of orginizations at the same time, it's gonna be confusing. And remember to make sure the whole thing makes sense. Why are orginization x working with orginization y?
Cloud Divider 08-08-05, 12:13 PM	I've got a mild counterpoint to that, however... There's something to be said for moderation. While the focus can be a good thing, I think things may work a bit better if there were multiple things going on. Let's say at First Level, the PC's thwarted a puppy-kidnapping ring. At Fifth Level, they thwarted a plot to sell a deadly variant dreamlily that spontaneously made people insane AND gifted with wacky powers. At Tenth Level, they thwarted an an assassination attempt and a heist of ancient artifacts at Morgrave University. At Fifteenth, they saved Boranel himself from some horrendous fate, and staved off the Next War...for now. At 20th level they saved Eberron itself from an extradimensional invasion from...wherever. I mean, sure you COULD have all of the above major plot arcs perpetrated by the Dreaming Dark, or Khyber Cults, or whatever. But y'know, I think it would work better, suspension-of-disbelief-wise, to not have EVERYTHING be because of Evil Badguy X. Have a criminal mastermind that is NOT actually an agent of COBRA, for once. It'll help shake things up a bit.
Grymar 08-08-05, 12:26 PM	<edit>Added the wrong post to the wrong thread</edit> I like a slightly tighter focus. My players are going to slightly be exposed to many things, but there is a central story about just one area of the BBEGs that it focuses on.
Charles Phipps 08-08-05, 02:37 PM	<edit>Added the wrong post to the wrong thread</edit> I like a slightly tighter focus. My players are going to slightly be exposed to many things, but there is a central story about just one area of the BBEGs that it focuses on. I find "Seasons" are good with plots basically mostly divided around battling a specific foe to annihilation then moving onto the next one to be very good. Usually this can be "trilogies" of 1-3 adventures for Mid-Level baddies and 1-12 adventurers for say...destroying the Quori.
Sereno 08-08-05, 03:37 PM	I mean, sure you COULD have all of the above major plot arcs perpetrated by the Dreaming Dark, or Khyber Cults, or whatever. But y'know, I think it would work better, suspension-of-disbelief-wise, to not have EVERYTHING be because of Evil Badguy X. Have a criminal mastermind that is NOT actually an agent of COBRA, for once. It'll help shake things up a bit. I'm with you! I'm currently trying to run my Eberron campaign *without* a main story arc at all. I've presented my PCs with several "patrons" all of whom have their own agendas and affiliations (mostly unknown to the PC's so far; they're only 2nd level) but there's no big story for them to follow. Each adventure sets up a hook or two for future adventures, but the PC's don't have to keep following one small number of threads because they need to save the world. If they end up making an enemy of House Cannith because the play Lady Elaydren for a chump, that will spawn more ideas for more adventures. But, so far they haven't and she's still a source of income and adventure. Certainly, as they grow in power and renown, they'll start butting heads with the OotEC, the DD, LoB, and the LoD but I'm not going to start them off at first level with a story where a Daelkyr Lord is plotting to escape from Khyber and make Sharn his throne as he proceeds to twist all of Khorvaire to his will and then make every adventure they play were they go about thwarting schemes.... Certainly, peeling-back-the-onion campaigns can be fun, but I don't want to run one and risk my PCs getting sick and tired of dealing with the same bad guys....
zambuka 08-09-05, 02:57 AM	I'm with you! I'm currently trying to run my Eberron campaign *without* a main story arc at all. I've presented my PCs with several "patrons" all of whom have their own agendas and affiliations (mostly unknown to the PC's so far; they're only 2nd level) but there's no big story for them to follow. this is similar to my campaign. I have presented a number of beginning adventures, each leading on to more adventure but nothing dealing with an overall, Eberron consuming plot. As my players advance along one adventure I will advance the other plots, some resolving leaving nothing further for the PCs (there are after all other adventurers in Eberron), some leadin onto further, only loosely related adventures (Professor X said you were a good bunch of people to ask to deal with my problems). I have tried monolithic, onion like plots before. They get dull when every second adventure is the same badguys. Mr Phipps above stated the use of "seasons" this is one of the best analogies for such an organisation rich setting as Eberron. You can play around with the factions, maybe starting with a minor player in season one, moving up t the PCs getting caught between 2 others in season 2, season 3 sees the return of someone from season 1 but now wrking for a new organisation with a new agenda, etc, so on and so forth.