Connecting adventures

[spacemonkeydm]

I am planning to mostly just run the DCC adventures as they come out, I was wondering how are people connecting them together and how is the world shaping up.

[nerdwerds]

I started my players with the Portal Under the Stars and said the portal was just north of their home village, which I still haven't named! They've traveled to the east and come across the village of Rywick, where the keep from Sailors of the Starless Sea is. They've been to a city to the east of Rywick which is the city described in Perils of the Sunken City. Whatever village outside of the cit they come to next will be the village of Hirot from Doom of the Savage Kings.

Apart from that I haven't planned for much else, but I've magically foreshadowed elements from the Monolith from Beyond Space and Time so I do plan on using that accessory at some point.

[IronWolf]

I kicked off a DCC RPG campaign about 5 or 6 weeks ago now and came to the same issue. After running DCC RPG one-shots for so long that didn't require weaving of adventures and such together I suddenly needed to tie things together a bit. I am running the Sunken City adventures from Purple Sorcerer at the moment - Perils of the Sunken City first and now we are on to Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk. I came up with a tie-in for Ooze Pits by putting an object the group desired into Ooze Pits. So far it seems to be fitting together even better than I expected.

I figure as the characters evolve I will have an even better of idea of motivations for the characters to weave adventures together.

[Flexi]

Playing it pretty loosely but have started to connect things together.
Bought Punjar: The Tarnished Jewel out of curiosity but liked it so much that I dropped it straight into the game to use as the major city.

I think it was hinted on another thread but I would like to see a new updated release of DCC 35: Gazetteer of the Known Realms.

[beermotor]

So far my campaign has been:

Portal Under the Stars
Sailors on the Starless Sea

now we're at a fork, either People of the Pit or Doom of the Savage Kings. (Very likely if they go People of the Pit first, Doom of the Savage Kings will follow it, but the converse isn't as likely methinks.)

After that ... I may do some homebrew ideas, perhaps Jewels of the Carnifex. My "home town" isn't as big as Punjar, though, so I may need to adjust some scales.

[cthulhudarren]

I'm trying to think of a way myself to link everything together. My idea is to do "Sailors" first, then have the boat drop them out somewhere else on an unknown shore where the accents are strange. Then run Doom of the Savage Kings. But I have to have some kind of village to make the new start after "Sailors" so they can go forward for the "Doom".

I want to run the old "Against the giants" series of modules eventually, so I need to figure some stuff out for the middle levels.

[finarvyn]

Many of the "Appendix N" books are actually collections of short stories and they weren't really connected together but instead just toss the hero into an interesting situation and move on from there. Conan, Elric, Fafhrd/Mouser ... all mostly short story collections where order doesn't matter much. That's my favorite approach.

[GnomeBoy]

all mostly short story collections where order doesn't matter much.

Personally, I'd be happy running a campaign where even the current level of the characters could jump around -- but I know the group I'm in wants more continuity than that...

[finarvyn]

Well, I was thinking more of plotlines jumping around than levels. I can see where it could be problematic having character levels changing up and down becasue you also might have to consider magic items.

Conan never really had magic items but a character might own one at 5th level but not at 3rd, so in a game campaign if you played the 5th level version then the 3rd you'd have to take it away. And give it back again if you played 6th level characters later on. That could be a bit strange and probably seem surreal to the players. I suppose you could have the players write a "history" that ranges from low level to high level, complete with magic stuff and all, and then you could decide at which point in the character's career the current adventure was taking place.

Anyway, that wasn't what I had in mind with my earlier post. It could be fun, though!

[GnomeBoy]

...could be a bit strange and probably seem surreal to the players...

Wouldn't phase me a bit, but I realize everyone else's mileage may vary... I am very not-married to what level my character is, but for some the game is all about leveling up.

But... I could imagine simply starting a clean character sheet when you level up, and there not being too much hassle in keeping a sheet for each level handy. Eventually, you could run a story for any level (or at least for levels you've already passed), and just pull out the correct version for that night.

Actually, come to think of it, I used to do this, so I could pull out a properly leveled character for games at conventions.

[Skyscraper]

To the OP:

I use commercial adventures only as part of my homebrew campaigns that I usually tweak a bit or a lot, mixed in with my own adventures. But I like to have an overarching background story. I usually don't plan ahead too much, i.e. I don't have a dozen adventures at the ready, I see where one adventure leads before choosing the next. But all adventures are linked.

I think that it's in some of the details that adventures can be linked. For example, the evil boss in one adventure migth be the lackey of the evil boss in the next. Or the area in one adventure might be owned or protect an item owned by a NPC in the next. Or the like. It doesn't need to be really complicated IMO. In my campaigns, I have an idea of what's going on before the first adventure starts, so it's fairly easy to tie anything in with the overarching storyline. But you can even do it restrospectively, letting players learn that this slaver they killed was actually finding and selling slaves for this other evil warlord who needed them for making weapons and equipment for his army in planning an invasion of a town or region. Big scale or small scale, it usually works relatively well.

In fact, I often end up with the problem that everything that happens is linked to the main storyline, which is kind of statistically improbable in any given person's life, but what the heck I like it that way. Even things that happen on the fly, I find a way to tie up to the main storyline: NPCs are someone else's allies, items have a previous owner, whatever the PCs do, they usually step on someone else's turf; or whatever friendly they tie up with, usually has a stake in the PCs' interests.

In the end, it's about thinking of a story for each NPC or area the PCs encounter. Who's this person, what does he do, what's that place, who made the building, what's its purpose? You can often find answers to those questions in other adventures.

[The Venomous Pao]

I'm very early in my campaign, but the rough idea for me is to use homebrewed adventures as bridges between the published modules I'm interested in running. So I started with Portal Under the Stars and now we're in something of my own design as the players are making their way to Hirot for Doom of the Savage Kings (they heard there was a witch there who might be able to help them locate a dryad's tree). When they're done with DotSK they'll probably pass through another thing I put together on their way to whatever module I decide to use next. And so on, with the distinct possibility that I'll run out of published things I want to use, leaving me just to respond to whatever these crazy people get up to in a semi-sandboxy kind of way.

I've run plenty of disconnected episodic campaigns in the past, though, and enjoy them as well. Assuming this campaign reaches some kind of natural conclusion and the group wants to stick with DCC, I can see doing precisely that for a new campaign.

[themightyeroc]

I started the campaign with the players all being residents of the same village in Sailors, the survivors then traveled on foot to the nearby market town. On the way they played through "Portal under the stars" I had an aged NPC wise man lead them to the portal. They are now in the market town of Tegal, from the Judges Guild module Tegal Manor. It is here that I have based "People of the pit" (which they are currently playing through) and where I am going to base "Emerald Enchanter". Those who survive the pit will then move on to the "manor" where I will move in the Emerald Enchanter. If we keep playing I plan on slotting in the other modules pretty much in order of release.

Check out my blog for a better view of how things have been progressing and to see how they are linked.

[ragboy]

My current group had already played Portal with other characters, so I started this group of 0-levels in their home village -- a "viking" village. Their opening scene was that they were all around the village going about their tasks (gathering gong, farming and whatnot) when the village was attacked by a rival clan. Each character (most cases groups of characters) had to fight their way out of the village (essentially a single encounter per group). The net result of this got us down to two characters per player and added a few resources to the pool (a horse, couple of shields, couple of spears, etc).

They all met up and headed to Hirot, which was believed to be outside the fighting. They arrived there and we went through Doom of the Savage Kings. After completing that, the party was reduced to just 1 character per player -- but we had 8 1st level characters. After about a month -- the characters became integrated into Hirot, a bit. The cleric reconsecrated the shrine in town to his god (and made some strategic conversions), fighters and thieves tried to track down the sorcerer dude that was counselor to the old (and murdered) jarl. Then refugees began to arrive from the village Penwick, where, though the war had not yet touched, the villagers were being kidnapped by beastmen from the evil castle.

Queue up Sailors on the Starless Sea -- The characters went through this module, lost all of their magical treasures from Doom (into the well of chaos) and only two characters survived.

I had grand plans of an underdark connecting adventure that got them to People of the Pit, but that puttered out due to other projects -- so, I shot them off to the south seas city-state of Zothay (from this great fan-created resource: Zothay, and gave them a bit of city adventure. So far, I have connections in this region to Barrowmaze (into which the newly reformed party has had one successful foray), a Lizardman Temple (from the old Judges Guild Treasure Maps I), the Halls of Tizun Thane (old AD&D adventure from White Dwarf), the Lichway (another White Dwarf adventure) and a loose connection to People of the Pit (transplanted onto a mysterious jungle island).

I haven't spent much time thinking about the rest of the adventures, but I can see Emerald Enchanter fitting in great (probably transplanted to the city -- which is very Punjar-like), as well as that free RPG day adventure (Stardust or something)... I have the rest of the modules, but haven't read them deeply enough to think about incorporating them. Since the city is surrounded by mudflats and then quite a big swamp, I'm making room for Frawgs, Perils of the Sunken City, and Ooze Pits...

Unfortunately, Barrowmaze has me all aflutter to expand the connections found therein into some overarching plot. But, I've resisted the urge until Barrowmaze II arrives.

So many adventures, and so few hours!

[romprecentor]

Same problem, I decided to use an ally.

My group started with Portal and I set it in a Valley ruled by plantation owners who secretly worshipped Bobugbubiltz. The party decided their goal was to overthrown them and set out to find the means to do so as they were vastly more powerful than the 1st level PC's.

They traveled to a known sage/witch for advice. She had been imprisoned and replaced by an imposter. The party figured that out and freed the real witch. She offered to aid them in acquiring power and influence to achieve their goal. She uses a cave/house/? That opens into multiple locations as needed. Kind of like the house in Howl's Moving Castle. She tells them about an artifact or person needed and they go and find it which is how I insert the modules I want to.

Works well as I can bypass the travel issue in the wide world.

[IronWolf]

Works well as I can bypass the travel issue in the wide world.

I am keeping my stomping grounds for the players relatively small at this point. To help give me a tool to drop in adventures that might dot the campaign landscape though I am using the "sending stone" from Purple Sorcerer's Perils of the Sunken City to ease some of that. Initially it sent you to a random location, but the players are questing for a magical artifact that will allow them some semblance of control as to where they go. Still a small campaign world, but they can head to the swamps one day, the mountains the next or farmlands the next week.

[sheriffharry]

I am using a relatively simple scheme to connect adventures: getting from smaller to bigger towns
- The party starts in a smallish village in Sailors..
- Then they level up and want to adventure in the wider world and come to Doom of the Savage Kings' Hirot
- Established 2nd level characters hear of and can now tackle the Emerald Enchanter, before..
- ...getting to a larger "capital" city for the Jeweler that dealt with stardust (or possibly the 13th Skull, depending on the party state.)

As my game is monthly (and exceptionally bi-monthly right now..), that's a solid year+ of gaming.
I'll tell you how it went along the way!

[TheNobleDrake]

Thus far, my world consists of three non-descript villages within about 40 miles of each other. I have intentionally left them unnamed so that the players are forced to speak of them in a realistic in-character context for characters that thought of one of those villages as "THE village" until just a few days prior in their lives... now they have 'my village,' 'your village,' and 'his village' when talking to each other, and next session they will have a new location to add to their ever-expanding knowledge of places in the world.

To link the DCC modules into the campaign, which will also have modules of my own design, I am ever-so-slightly reflavoring things in each module to tie them all back to an "evil" invading army and it's nefarious General - who is an all around bad guy looking to harness what powers of chaos he can, ally with the rest, and dominate the world.

Examples of reflavoring plans thus far: Sailors of the Starless Sea - there is a banner mentioned in the description of one area (a red skull on a field of black) which I have appropriated to be the banner that this General flies, and I have created a uniform that the General's soldiers wear (blue-dyed leather in a design similar to both the Nazi uniform of WWII and the soldier uniforms from various Final Fantasy games, with a simple steel helmet) that will be found on the various mutant beastmen stretch-burst like the Incredible Hulk or Wolfman's clothes.

Then, all it takes to finish the tie-in is to have the PCs pick up word that the General sent some men to this ruined fort on a nearby hill, and they'll ask around and find the rumors listed in the module - and everything else is the adventure as written.