Hi, just thought I'd mention a few things I'm doing with my AoW campaign:
I'm using a Hero Point variation. Nothing worse than a PC dying to lowly thug's crit with a great axe in the middle of a session.
I'm using Log Sheets -- anyone who plays RPGA campaigns knows what I'm talking about. Never used them for a home campaign before, but they can serve as a good info tracker and campaign diary for PCs.
I decided, since Diamond Lake is a pretty dirt poor place to start, to slightly change the starting gold/equipment rules. Each PC starts off with a piece of equipment worth up to 75 gp and 10% of their classes' usual maximum starting gold. I also introduced a loan shark situation, so PCs could go for more gold, but start off in debt to some scary fellows.
Also, since I really want this colourful town to be the heart of the campaign, I thought it might be better to run a short, one session adventure primarily set in the town.
A visiting merchant from Greyhawk (yup, set there!), needs someone to track down his son, his son's friends and drag them out of whatever gambling pit they put themselves in in Diamond Lake night life and bring them back to their rooms. It's a small, probably safe job that will earn them a quick 10 gp each for what should only be a few hours work at most. . . of course, things don't quite work out that way.
That should get the PCs to meet many of the NPCs around the town while visiting some of the main locations. The treasure and payment they recieve from this session should be enough to bring them up to PHB starting gold or make sure they have coin to start paying off their debts as I get The Whispering Cairn ready for my next session and the official start of the campaign.
If anyone is interested, I can post the gist of the scenario after this weekend.
~Richard
That'd be awesome dude. Good idea.
Sounds good man. To quote from the remake of Starsky and Hutch... "Do it!"