Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 UlfrBattlehardened Feb 12, 2015 23:04:15	I am familliar with creating my own towns and NPCs and such, the things that make up a campaign. I have a new playgroup so I get to make my own new custom campaign adventure! I want to do something new and unique this time around. Now, I have been really into open world video games recently, recescovering The Elder Scrolls and Fallout and such all over again. I've been thinking about ways to make an almost open world type of campaign but without making countless towns and NPCs just to have most of them never touched. **Note: town in this explination is an all emcompassing term, including dungeon areas and whatnot** What I was thinking of having a normal campaign in which they would have to find 3 sacred objects before finally fighting the big baddy, but make the players feel like they are more in control on where they go and which part of the campaign comes first. Maybe use a pre-existing map without towns and such on it. I would make a town that they start out in, with the beginning of the adventure pre-set by me. They would learn about how they need to save the world and whatnot before they decide what to do next instead of me telling them where they have to go. I was thinking of making 3 seperate towns and depending on who they talk to in the original town it will determin what info they get. The two towns they go to will simply get repurposed as the next towns. After this first initial "choosen" town it will turn more or less back into a normal campaign, mainly because I can't think of how else to do it. The only thing that would make it different will be the players will think they are choosing which town they go to, I was thinking of giving them names and locations of towns around the one they are in, but only make 1 town and just label it whatever town they  chose next. I don't know how much of these words make since out side of my head, but I would gladly appreciate any feedback and suggestions, ideas about anything would be greatly appreciated.
#2 Imaculata Feb 13, 2015 5:49:18	Well I might be able to help out here. I run a 3.5 pirate campaign that is completely open. Players not only explore towns, but also entire islands, jungles, mountains. I started with a basic world map, assuming that it only contains the locations of well known cities and outposts, and of course the names of countries and islands. As soon as the players enter an unexplored region (such as an island) I pull out a seperate map for that region, in which every square on the grid equals 1 hour of travel. Every time the players explore a square on the grid, I roll my random tables, and decide what encounters or features the players find there. Those are then added to the map.   So I randomly roll for swamps, deserts, mountains, volcanoes, rivers, lakes, caves etc. I have very elaborate tables, which include exotic locations as well. These exotic locations often lead to dungeons, or treasure. I also have encounters with monsters and npc's on the tables.   The trick is to not restrict yourself too much with an end goal. Instead, I have the players learn of local events, and respond accordingly. This allows them to freely explore, without feeling like the DM is urging them to go somewhere. The story can wait. It's the exploring that is the heart of my campaign, and the story flows from that.
#3 Timpookie Feb 13, 2015 6:21:34	Don't have it truly open-world - Give it the appearance of being open-world, but subtly manipulate things to go as you want them to.   For instance, if you have someone hiring the party to explore ruins but they don't take it and instead head eastword to see what's there, have them encounter a village under threat of a mad lich, and use the same dungeon you originally had for the ruins as the lich's lair.
#4 DM_Craig Feb 13, 2015 8:28:26	Open world doesn't mean blank. Those are two different concepts. Open world games are all predefined as far as layout and such, but allow for freedom of movement, sidequests, random exploration, etc. You can very easily incorporate these play concepts into any campaign simply by allowing the party to decide what they do next. If they finish a quest, instead of telling them what happens next, ask them: "What would your party like to do?" They might point to a spot on the map they want to explore. Let them go there. A balance between structure and open play is probably the best way to go.   You could also go the route of having established cities on the map, but leaving everything else blank and allowing/requiring exploration as part of the campaign. Give players the ability to either randomly or explore certain areas of the map, and create a table to roll on which determines what they find (dungeon, cave, small town, random encounter, ruin, etc.) Keep track of what has been explored by overlaying the map with a grid (I prefer hex, but square works just as well), so that players can be specific as to where they are exploring.