Advice on chaining modules into a campaign?

[EJDean]

I've starting running a campaign with one player, who currently controls three hirelings as well. We're looking to take on a couple of other players too.

I don't have much time to write homebrew scenarios, so I'd like to add pre-written adventures to the campaign to flesh it out.

I'd like the campaign to lean towards being a sandbox, rather than Module 1 -> Module 2 -> Module 3. The party has arrived in Falcon's Hollow, in Darkmoon Vale, and I plan to set the Hollow's Last Hope module into action. The idea would be that the party can encounter module hooks, but aren't obliged to follow them. If the player likes Falcon's Hollow, there's the whole series of Darkmoon Vale modules to run, if not they can move on.

Ideally, I'd like to say to the player, "oh you've heard about rumour A, rumour B, and news of event C has just arrived. Where would you like to go?"

Although the player's character has an overarching goal, it won't be focused on achieving that in the short term. The option of joining the Pathfinder Society will be there, allowing me to add PFS scenarios (not for credit), and giving the excuse for the player to leave the Darkmoon Vale area, if they like.

I'd like to ask if anybody has experience running a campaign like this, and if they have any advice to offer?

[Devilkiller]

Getting a couple more players is a good idea.

I've often ended up running a campaign kind of like what you're describing "by mistake" for a few levels when I had to insert published adventures since I didn't have enough material ready for my homebrew game. If you can find any old issues of Dungeon magazine they have a lot of adventures intended for PCs of a certain level, and each one generally includes advice on how to run it for parties a few levels higher or lower. Monster templates can also help a lot with adjusting adventures by a level or two.

Even if you don't have Dungeon I'd consider grouping the adventures into rough categories by level, say 1-3, 4-6, 7-9, etc. Any adventures the party doesn't follow up on by the time they reach the next XP band might "expire". Maybe some other adventurers dealt with the situation or the threat has grown and is now represented by some other adventure.

As for presenting the hooks, maybe there could be different NPCs who offer different adventures.

[silverrey]

Something that can work as well, if you hit a dead spot in levels, is reskinning a module that doesn't fit the story but works mechanically. Keeps everything flowing right and just changing a little fluff is easier than trying to build a new area because your players went sideways on you.

[Gnomezrule]

Link things to the characters. Connect to their backstories, involve NPCs they are concerned with link the missions to the character's reputation. Bring back a trivial monster or NPC for revenge. Drop something on them the cannot turn down. There is a darkmoon vale source book which is great. Hollow's Last Hope and Crown of the Kobold King are hard to turn down. But they area itself can offer a but of fun beyond random encounters and rumors of trouble on the road.

The Darkmoon Vale stuff is great and has a few options though if you do Hollow's Last Hope you may not want to do Pallid Plague as it is just another plague disease plot.

You just need to balance things out so that you are not always pulling the same string.

[Gnomezrule]

silverrey wrote:

Something that can work as well, if you hit a dead spot in levels, is reskinning a module that doesn't fit the story but works mechanically. Keeps everything flowing right and just changing a little fluff is easier than trying to build a new area because your players went sideways on you.

This totally works. Bandits can be pirates. Humanoids can be genre appropriate humanoids. Temperate forrest bears can be polar bears.

In my Skull And Shackles game one of the characters took a trait that gave them a treasure map. So I needed a short jaunt side quest to go for. I use a jungle adventure and had the location near enough to water for the pirates to give it ago. The module was small basically just a couple encounters. The found the buried treasure and dealt with the module. In my flavorful description of the area I said something to the effect that the map lead them to a city overtaken by the jungle and that the treasure was simply in one if the areas of the ruins. So after finding the buried treasure they wanted to explore the entire ancient city. So my Skull and Shackles group turned a short trip visiting the Ruins of Tamoachan into tackling book 3 of the Serpent's Skull AP.

[silverrey]

I don't have my books in front of me but the "festival" there in Darkmoon is very... memorable... and would be very easy to reskin and drop on any town your players happen to go through. Added bonus: It would be a hell of a hook if you wanted it to be.

[silverrey]

"Carnival of Tears" is the one I was thinking of.

[Prometeus]

Here is a great post that I hope to run it by the end of the year

Modules ideas..