Hail Adventurers! It's me again! (Happy to see me?!? lol) I've run into a snag...again. Since it's cliché to have but one MAIN campaign, I figured two should suffice, seeing as how it would allow me to show my players the world. SO, what kind of campaign should I throw at them?
The Avatar, spawned from a Good diety and an Evil diety, has returned, threatening the powerful (40th level) Master Malakie, but also the world itself! A sacred arrow, broken into several pieces, must be recovered, and reforged by the Master Weaponsmith, Griff Sorkol, before the world sees the end!
Searching for a safe haven for a fellow player's love, the group must scour the planet for a place where constant light is shed.
One of your ideas! ^.^;
Well from your post I think thte question is how to geat the character to move, as always my answer is to look to the real world then tweak it:
Characters Fight: A war far away needs fighters/mages etc.
The priest is sent on a mission to build a church in a farawy land and takes his friends.
Characters get information on what a rare spice/flower/pelt/etc. is worth in some faraway lend and put together a shipment and have to get it there. Or the demand is for some foriegn substance - ivory say - and they go to get it and bring it back.
hey go to serve a cause - disrupt the slave trade on the coast Zanzybea
Two kingdoms are at war but the war blocks the trade routes, merchants need a pass through the mountains (or under them) to get there goods through safely
Characters are as ambassadors (or in the service of an ambassodor) to some other land
Characters go to study under a great sage in some faraway place
Characters get lost and wander through a portal and have know idea where they are and have to find their way back
They go as tourists to somewhere and get got up in a local intrigue
Their is a storm and they have to make port in a distant country.
Personally I like trade and exploration based adventures they still go on today, I understand international business and can add lots of detail, and they involve profit rather than world saving - I try to stay away from world saving - I think if you have to save the world all the time the world is pretty broken, I don't think its epic I think its lazy. But that just me. I also think that its less sustainable, in business there are always opportunities for growth, and the environment is always changing, there is an innate insinuation into thte local political system, taxes, laws, governments and their powerful people as customers. If you have to wait for the next demon invasion or undead legion to rise - well, you could wait a while.
The world we live in a wondrous place - if you take the time to explore it, a magical world even more so. Dragons live in those mountain passes, druids protect those paths, forgotton jungle gods protect those elephants, merchant-mages want to protect their monopolies on exotic goods, ogre bands raid caravans. To my thinking the opportunities for role play and adventure are better in exploration trade type environments, than save the world - or find the pieces of the artifact adventures - because in those the players are pigeonholed into what tasks they need to perform.
If I misunderstood the question - please forgive the rant.