The thing is, I'm kind of lost as to how to start it off. The overall terrain is mountains to the north, forests to the west, and open plains to the south with a swamp to the southwest. East of the starting city is the known world.
Could you all help me, please? *puppy eyes*
Note: I think this is the right place for this post.
There are all the stock legends and rumours to be heard about the area: Lost Kingdoms, lost tribes, cannibals, ruins of long lost civilizations and treasure to be found, as well as uncounted riches. Vague legends and accounts of the area gathered by scholars hint at the existance of a 'pre-human' civilization that once existed within the newly opened territory. What the nature of this was and who or what created it is largely unknown - only stories and supposition remain. Brave heroes are needed to explore the area and test the truthfulness of these stories.
In other words as the player's explore the area they can discover the 'enemy' of the rest of the campaign and have to not only warn the Kingdom of the threat but convince them that it is real. Then they also have to help defeat the enemy. Another idea is simply to have the players discover the people and locations within the area to be explored.
I suppose it really depends on the style of game you and your players enjoy.
For the start of the exploration it may be best to have the players commisioned to explore the length of a certain river that flows out of the explored area. Something like the Lewis and Clarke exploration of the 1800's. That might give them a good starting point rather than just go out the west gate and see what you can find.
Just some thoughts. Like I said I don't know much about your gaming style or what you really want to achieve here
The colony is accessed via ship or portal (depending on your preference). This allows for lots of exploring, as well as a reason to curtail certain purchases by PCs if it suits you. Maybe it is a prison colony full of exiles and people deemed "unworthy" of living in regular society.
Keep in mind that a sandbox exploration game of this nature features equal opportunities for the PCs to run into weaker critters, equal level critters, and grossly stronger critters - it is up to the PCs to know when to fight, when to negotiate, and when to run.
Not knowing when to run may result in a few PC deaths.
What might save you time in the long run is to use random tables and be prepared to improvise. Get a hex map and do some internet research on how exploration games have been run in the past (West Marches, for example) under different rulesets, then apply the current rules and enjoy.
When they arrive in the New World, the Duke finds out that there are inhabitants, that they have made a pact with the original, Imperial scouts centuries ago when there was an Empire, and that pact requires the Empire to protect the locals from danger. So the player who had the Ducal title and lands handed to him at the beginning of the campaign, finds it comes with strings attached in the form of frightened native villagers who just know that the Duke has come to fulfill the pact.
That way, you still have a massive sandbox for the PC's, but there is a goal you can direct them toward if they start to become aimless.
I have a couple Primal characters (Dwarf Druid and Goliath Warden), a Divine character (Deva Cleric of Erathis, could be my Duchess if I go that route), an arcane character (Gnome Feylock), and a martial character (Half-Orc Rogue). They could also be part of a larger group of adventurers hired by said noble.
The Gnome Feylock, Wrenn, was part of another party, composed entirely of Arcane characters (Warforged swordmage, Shadar-kai wizard, Eladrin artificer (using the character builder), and a Dragonborn sorcerer), all of whom were members of the Arcanist's Guild, except Wrenn. He was working on becoming a member of the guild when he received a vision from his fey patrons about a location to the west (not sure on the specifics yet). He looks at a map with the swordmage and realizes that the location is in an area that hasn't really been explored (aside from a small town next to a river). Wrenn decides the mission from his patrons is more important than that of the guild and decides to head west at first light.
He arrives at the location of the small town and finds a great deal of activity of the construction type. He finds out that a newly titled nobility has come into the area, claimed the town as his/her headquarters, and commissioned several adventurers explore the surrounding area. Wrenn heads towards a tent flying the Adventurer's Guild banner next to the Arcanist's Guild banner, passing a dwarf and a goliath wearing animal skins arguing with what looks like a statue in chainmail.
Inside the tent he spies a tiefling arguing with the Guild chief about his last mission. He interrupts the two of them and offers an alternative, the tiefling can take his place in his former group, thereby gaining a second chance to join the Arcanist's Guild.
That's what I have in my notes so far for Wrenn. The whole thing isn't a real game, its an exercise in story-telling. I've had the idea for exploring a previously unknown territory as an adventure for a long time. It really began taking shape when a friend wanted to start a campaign. So I made the dwarf druid and the goliath warden, but the campaign is proceeding exceedingly slow (the DM has most everything plotted out, just need players and a place/time to play), so I decided to write a story involving them and three other characters (the gnome feylock, the deva cleric and the half-orc rogue). The gnome feylock is kind of taken from the PHB2 and adjusted, the deva is kind of a balance for the primal characters, and the half-orc is kind of an extension of a previous test character that I'd built in the character builder.
I have mini-backstories in my head for Wrenn's previous group, but they're not important to the story so I shan't bore you with them unless you want me to post them.
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I figured out the dwarf and the goliath's relationship before I even came up with the superadventure. No ideas yet for the deva or half-orc. If you have any suggestions, please post them. I reserve the right to adjust them as necessary.
The dwarf's mother was from a clan in the mountains to the northwest, but the clan was attacked by goblins (or should I make it orcs?) and overrun. She managed to escape, though wounded, and gave birth in the goliaths' camp, naming her Donna, shortly before dieing. Donna had difficulties jumping as far as the goliaths or running as fast as they could, but she was not as easily moved. There was one goliath, named Vimak, that was especially mean to her growing up, but they became close friends as they learned the duties of a druid and warden.
When Donna came of age, she was told how she ended up in the goliaths' camp. After she'd completed her training, she and Vimak went to see what the could of her former clan stronghold. Most of the outer portions of the stronghold had been abandoned. When the goblin patrols became too numerous to continue, Donna and Vimak returned to the surface and began the journey to the town on the river where they'd planned to provision themselves and either find adventurers there or continue east to a larger city.
Arriving at the town, they spied several tents to one side and workers constructing a wooden palisade. They crossed the bridge and continued past the town to where the trees had come from and noticed that no effort had been made to replace the trees used. Vimak ran back towards the town, intending to speak with somebody about the issue, with Donna huffing and puffing along behind him ask quickly as possible to make sure he didn't cause too many problems. When a pair of guards tried to stop him, Vimak simply vaulted over him and continued running, with the guards chasing after him. Donna came trotting along five minutes later, shaking her head at her friend's actions. Vimak soon reached somebody standing over a map just before the guards grabbed his arms, with Donna joining them shortly thereafter.
1. Finding a trade route that isn't plagued by goblins. Could this terra incognita be the way? Perhaps ancient maps or friezes on temple walls give clues as to this possibility, sages and priests back it up, and the pcs are asked to help out with this...
2. Legendary civilization full of treasures! There could be any number of problems such treasures could solve, from empty coffers to need for magical relics to end a plague. However the ruins the pcs initially discover might only lead gradually to the real treasure trove...
3. Military scouting. It's not so much exploration at first as attempts at dealing with the goblins. However as the pcs are helping scout things out they discover more and more interesting stuff. This could lead to the above two ideas.
4. Colonization. As victories or successes occur the pcs find themselves spearheading a new branch of the township as quarries, mines, excellent timbers or furs, fisheries and possibly even magical stuff is discovered. Regardless, harvest of some kind is necessary and heroes are needed to make it all possible to wrest civilization from the wilderness.
5. Rescue: mysterious creatures, people, bandits, rebels etc abduct a number of people; the pcs are requested to help deal with this.
I'm also looking for names for the various terrain features and town(s).