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DUNGEON MASTERY: 101 PIECES OF DM ADVICE
We all have ideas as DMs as to what builds a strong campaign.
1. LET THE PCS DIG THEIR OWN GRAVES
The PCs will do things as they swan about the country side seeking adventure, glory, and personal gain; and it is those things that should be used against them both in a court of law and in justification of a dark conspiracy of revenge.
WTF?
There are consequences for your actions. The penalty for the Killing of Farmer Frentil (aka Dern the Kidnapper) involves Sara Frentil seeking her revenge on the PCs for their execution of her father, seeking out the village where the PCs come from, poisoning the well, marries a PCs cousin, and sells family members to slavers.
Sure there are world spanning conspiracies, but the PCs are incapable of simply identifying that from the background noise and striking with surgical precision. They will wade through a bus load of Collateral Damage to get to Bob the Baby Killer - damn the consequences.
Unfortunately the collateral Damage has family and family get angry. Family want revenge/justice for that stray crossbow bolt that misses the BBEG and takes out 12 year old Kim looking out the window of her residence at the street fight going on below.
2. THE BIG VILLAIN SHOULD BE INVISIBLE
RATIOCINATRIX: The Reasoning Mind; This Villain has the ability to interact with the world in such a subtle way as to be indiscernible from the background noise.
WTF?
The Villain might flush Goblins from a cave using Spiders...so that the local Village is put under pressure and the woods becomes off limit to logging because of Goblin Occupation. Now consider this occurring across a region. So that groups of Woods across the region that were once subject to local logging eventually becomes a Forest a century from now occupied by a Goblin.
PCs saw Goblins taking up residence in woods (and if they go looking as to the cause - it is a spider infestation happening in the caves where they live - no BBEG there). This loss of a Logging industry might cut growth to a region so that a City will develop impoverished zones where the buildings fall into disrepair and become home to Stirge. The BBEG might introduce breeding pairs to a ruined manor. The Stirge infestation spreads to infect the city.
BBEG introduces Yellow mould into the city Sewers and causes sickness in creatures living in the sewers to the point where they surface more often for the healthy air - instant Were-rat Invasion of the Alleys and Streets at night - Disapproval of the Government because they have failed to maintain the infrastructure and let the economy fail. Other Criminals and enemies of the state see an opportunity to help this along.
3. SETTLEMENTS ARE UNSUSTAINABLE IN A DRAGON BURNED MY HARVEST ECONOMY.
Settlements require Food, Fuel, and an assortment of produce that gets turned into Wine, cheese, swords, and other stuff that Players of D&D take for granted.
WTF?
This means land beyond the city wall must be used for the production and harvest of firewood and food. Mines must be dug where the minerals are to be found.
This means armies actively patrolling the rural country side guarding shipments, and keeping bandits and monsters at bay. How much land are we talking about?
FUEL GROWTH: 25 acres of Accessible Light Forest per unit of population.
FUEL TRANSPORT: 20 Wagonloads/unit population/year.
FUEL LABOUR FORCE: 6% of population/days travel.
The crowded city of Dungpuddle (pop. 10,000) literally requires three hundred and ninety one square miles of fuel forest. This looks like a six and one third mile radius of Forest surrounding a half mile radius city. All of which must be well guarded and patrolled to ensure sustainability.
For our city of 10,000, Fuel requires 547.9 Wagons per day x days travel. At a day’s travel each way that is 1085.8 (1086) Wagons (6% of population/days travel).
DUNGEON MASTERY: 101 PIECES OF DM ADVICE
We all have ideas as DMs as to what builds a strong campaign.
1. LET THE PCS DIG THEIR OWN GRAVES
2. THE BIG VILLAIN SHOULD BE INVISIBLE
[b]3. SETTLEMENTS ARE UNSUSTAINABLE IN A DRAGON BURNED MY HARVEST ECONOMY.
This is pretty insightful and relevant stuff, and gets my big +1.
May I add: 7th Level Characters are famous everywhere they have been. People look for them to solve problems, or immediately report them to the police/army/guild force when they come into a population center. Imagine that news spreads at about half the speed of actual travel: Everyone in Farsville (10 days travel away from Nearsville) knows what happened in Nearsville only 20 days later. Your characters ARE the local entertainment, there's no such thing as TV.
