Hi!
I need a bit of help and some pointers, so if you can bear to read me 'till the last line, your opinions will be appreciated… :)
Almost a decade after the days where I played D&D with some friends from high school, I re-discovered the fascinating world of RPGs and of Dungeons & Dragons, version 3.5… A lot of things have changed since "da ol' days" and it seems that 10 years is a long enough time to lose the creative and imaginative spark that drove my friends and I into night-long sessions.
10 years have passed now… I've read the D&D Core Rulebook time and again and I'm ready to start off a new campaign. But two important things are still missing: a few good people to play with… and a campaign world to play into. While the first "problem" can mbe taken care of quite easily, the latter one is more difficult. One question always spring to my mind: where to start?
I don't even talk about the technicalities such as planar locations, currency, traditions, etc. I'm stuck at the beginning: what world should I use? As a "reborn" D&D player/DM, I'm a bit bewildered by the sheer amount of campaign settings published. What could be the best for a "rookie" like me (let's face it, 10 years without table-top RPG is too long a time to ever hope to stay "in shape"!), considering that the players I've "scouted" will also be newbies to RPGs?
I was considering the idea of adapting to 3.5 rules a campaign setting I used back then. It was The Lands of Legend, a campaign setting/RPG created by Dave Morris (does Cornumbria or The Selentine Empire rings a bell to someone?) that I'm quite fond of, but converting the material I have to D&D "standards" is a bit daunting to say the least…
Can you help a fellow RPG player? It seems I've lost the touch of "playing God" with the passing years… :)
My first suggestion would be to play through a few games first, but it sounds like you still have a lot of that 'creative spark' bursting out of your seams (why else would you take on such a daunting task as DM ;P).
I personally feel that my best campaigns come from the energy of the group as a whole, so finding your group would be a good first step. From there you can gather what type of world or setting you and your compatriots would enjoy playing in. Don't give up on your world ideas that you mentioned, but definately be willing to negotiate and compromise a little. From there you could start slowly, maybe a 3-4 adventure campaign, which gives everybody a chance to feel out the group and possibly readjust (make less or more combat oriented characters or maybe you the DM can make changes that interact more with the party).
After my last job where I had 4 friends playing 4 different campaigns, I realized that they each had their own styles. None play quite the same way as me, but they all had unique quirks that I found interesting and affected my own campaign. Your players are similar to this, the way they play may change the way you play your own campaign.
And on the side note of being 10 years lax, welcome back! 10 years to me is a deep well of creativity and life experiences. I hope you find a good outlet for that creativity and remember that pros and veterans alike forget the rules from time to time!
Begin at the VERY beginning.
Under Illsfar
http://paizo.com/store/brand/forgottenRealms/roleplayingGames/1stEdition/v5 748btpy7md9
Legends are made, not Born
http://paizo.com/store/downloads/goodmanGames/dungeonCrawlClassics/v5748btp y7ns4
Treasure hunt
http://paizo.com/store/byCompany/w/wizardsOfTheCoast/byProductType/roleplay ingGames/dungeonsDragons/aDAndD1/adventures/v5748btpy7mc1
Or stay with a tried and true classic.
Temple of elemental evil
http://paizo.com/store/downloads/wizardsOfTheCoast/aDAndD1/greyhawk/v5748bt py7me5
In search of adventure
http://paizo.com/store/downloads/wizardsOfTheCoast/classicDAndD/adventures/ v5748btpy7muk
I cannot begin to express the massive amounts of support for the ToEE, being in a somewhat similar boat we decided on the ToEE.
Shackled City. It is awesome. Get the hardback. 20 level campaign in a book.
And even if you dont run it, get it to show you how to design a campaign. It is proof you dont need to design cultures and a whole world. One cool city and some surrounding locations are good enough for a 20 level campaign. Dont fall into design paralysis, which many DMs do, thinking they have to desing everything first. Good luck!
Clark
Don't create everything bafore playing.
Start small. A village and it's immediate suroundings should be fine. You can draw one up or take one from the many maps found in Dungeon Magazines. Have a few small adventures around that village. Then, around fourth level, have your group leave town and either go to the next settlement or adventure area.
Think of your campaign as LEGO. Keep adding (building) on it little by little.
By the time your party reaches tenth level, you'll have created a pretty big area filled with cool places and history.
Ultradan
Whoa... Thank you all for your advice! ;)
In fact, since I last wrote, a friend of mine decided to join my soon-to-be game and she asked to play something I've never considered, a satyr... And it gave me ideas for my campaign!
I think I'll take it slow first, as Ultradan and Orcus mentioned, and let things go by themselves, just to see where they will take me...
I used to run a campaign set in the Lands of Legend. It's a fantastic setting. I used the Dragon Warriors rules that they came with though. Did you use them or convert it into DnD back in the day?
I used to run a campaign set in the Lands of Legend. It's a fantastic setting. I used the Dragon Warriors rules that they came with though. Did you use them or convert it into DnD back in the day?
In "ye old days", I used to play with the LofL rules, with some tweaks here and there taken from a couple of RPGs (skills from D&D, fumbles tables from... Rolemaster, if I remember correctly, etc.). When I decided, a couple of months ago, to get back to RPGs, I was going to use the old LofL rules, but as I was adding and adding a lot of stuff from 3.5, I decided to switch completely to 3.5, with ONE rule I loved in LofL: the tactical use of shields (you roll a d6 when you have a shield) which is, IMHO, something that should exist "natively" in D&D.
For now, I'm reading all the material I have from LofL (I never, curiously, bought the book with the Elementalists), especially the last book, and trying to picture the world from a D&D point of view (the religious pantheon is one tough cookie to figure out actually). Thus far, I've remade the maps... :)
I'm still a long way to go, eh? :)