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Howdy y'all.
A couple of days ago I found and dusted off my DVD copy of Gurren Lagann, and after rewatching some of that, on top of finding a very interesting animation on the internet, I've decided to run a big sweeping adventure campaign, the kind that will take my PCs all across the world in search of some fantastic treasure.
But before I begin, I wanted to scope out on the forums a little for some ideas. Basically, what I'm looking for is input from you guys: what in your mind comprises a great sweeping journey? Windy deserts? Heaven-piercing mountain ranges? Haunted, centuries-old forests? Fast and narrow urban sprawls? What? Gimme all your best ideas and experiences.
On top of that, if anyone has any recommendations for adventure pathes or modules that have a similar bent, or even inspiration from other media (movies, books, etc.) that deals with this topic, feel free to share that as well. I'm all ears folks. What do you think makes up a really epic quest?
I can't recall the source, but somewhere I read about a secret city of mages carved from the petrified remains of a great purple worm.
I always wanted to visit that place.
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Differing terrain. To me nothing emphasizes the idea that characters are crossing a large distance than seeing them move from the windy desert across the mountain range and into the old forest on the other side (or in reverse). Including a variety of cultures helps, too. If your characters are literally travelling the world, well, most worlds have a lot of different sorts of places in them.
One of my favorite campaigns I was in was an epic that went like this (in forgotten realms):
Started in a small town with a mission to travel up the road to a castle to get an item (which turned out to be a highly specialized concubine with her personal handmaiden and two body guard eunichs, all their stuff, and two palanquins. Came back with the "gift" and was instructed to take them to another kingdom as a gift to the leader of a nation - on the other side of the world. We then embarked across some plains to a river town (with adventures in the plains - to include someone trying to rob our little caravan). Once there, we boarded a riverboat and traveled down stream (facing orcs firing at us from the shores, giant spiders making webs blocking the river traffic, and having to solve problems with the boat as it was run by tinker gnomes who always thought they had to upgrade things - oh, and the boat was powered by giant hamsters in hamster wheels turning the water wheels). We made port in a large metropolis (waterdeep), and had a few city adventures. Even got involved in some gladiator style arena combat.
Then we boarded a ship and sailed to another city - with a ship ghost adventure. Once at the other city (Murann), we had another mini-plot. We had to meet up with a guide for the next leg, and the plot involved getting the guide out of trouble so he'd help us. We then traveled though a forest to the mountains and had to make a choice: do we go over the mountains through the pass, or under the mountains through the caves. We chose the caves and had a fun dungeoneering/cave adventure. On the other side was a large expanse of desert that we had to cross (where we found an old catacomb that had recently been unburied in the sand). At the end of the desert, we made it to another large city (Calimport), where we got onto another ship to cross the oceans to the other side of the world - on our way to the lands of Al Qadim. We took port and crossed the desert to our final destination - with some more desert adventures. Once in the final city, we met with the ruler we were supposed to meet and gave him the gift. While in town, there were several ambushed against our characters when we were off on our own - and we soon quickly found wanted posters for people matching our descriptions for crimes we didn't commit. It turned out that it was an honest case of mistaken identity once we actually captured the culprits and found out that they did indeed look like us.
After that, we were simply teleported back, which really pissed us off (why couldn't we just teleport there?!?). But you could send them back by ship, with all new adventures, such as getting shipwrecked and dealing with natives on an island or getting captured by a slave ship or a pirate ship and having to escape. Or, let the players decide what to do next. Do they like it where they are? Run some more arabic style adventures. Do they want to go back home? Take them by ship or however else they want to get home. Did the sultan decide to hire them protect some merchandise that he wants to send to Karatur (or Tian Xia in pathfinder)? It's a whole new epic adventure! :)
If you follow any stories about great journeys along on the map what you'll find is that the journey is really just a series of vignettes where something interesting is happening. The ultimate goal is to get to the Lonely Mountain. On the way we'll have some troubles with trolls, stop by Rivendell, have some adventures in the misty mountains and mirkwood, etc. I think those vignettes are what make the journey so interesting as a player. When you finally reach your destination you can look back at all the obstacles you had to overcome to get there.
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As someone posted about terrain, also weather effects - they often go along with terrain, but can have a huge impact, both dramatically and technically on encounters. A severe thunderstorm, a hurricane, a blizzard ... all can help heighten the sense of drama.
I also enjoy taking a creature that most players will surely think is evil and making them neutral or even good aligned. In my current home game I put a goblin trapped in a pit, and the party encountered him and actually didn't attack, and now he's the cleric's cohort. I was impressed that the party didn't try to kill him outright, but they talked first.