FOcus of your Campaigns

[Whizbang1963]

Okay DM's

What if any focus do you have in your worlds?

Do you focus on quests and logic puzzles or hack and slash and experience/treasure giveaways?

Do you restrict the max level you allow your PCs to attain?
Have you ever let anyone establish their own cities, castles, countries, in your worlds?

 

[Dr Zaius]

Do you restrict the max level you allow your PCs to attain?

I don't see the point in doing that. There are more than enough powerful adversaries to keep even the most experienced party busy for a long time.

 

[Palantir]

I don't have limits but with the # of times we get together to play that in itself limits their progression. But at around 16th lvl is when I begin to expound upon the beauty of owning /ruling your own piece of the world.

I had group with a Paladin, 15th lvl, in it that "destroyed" a gateway into an evil dimension, to my surprise the guy playing the paladin scarificed himself to save the group (he was a great roleplayer). This selfish act brought down an "angel" of his religion to help close the gate (a spur of the moment decision by me- little did I know the chain of events that would cause).

Anyway the Paladin lived and he then decided to build a castle/church/shrine on that very spot. That once incident led to years of adventures I never had planned on. Some of the players stayed to help, which suddenly split my 1 party into 2. They had to defeat all the area creatures, beat back raiders from the north who claimed that land already and carve out a support town, harbor, bring in/escort workers, make roads, etc etc. That was my most comlex DM undertaking.
An interesting side note was that I had the location of the Assassins Guild located only 100 miles away. That was one bloody mess to resolve.

 

[Dr Zaius]

Did the players enjoy running these high level characters vs. running the lower level ones?

 

[Palantir]

Well, it's hard to say but they never indicated that they'd rather skip the long hard road (lower lvls) it took to get there. The part they seemed to like the most was all the effort it took & character history (story-lines) they had getting there.

The guy playing the paladin made a huge notebook (which I still have) all about his undertakings to build the castle/shrine/town right down to where they were quarrying the stone. In the mean-time he had rolled up another starting character so he could continue traveling with the "split-off" second party. A second player with a 9th lvl cleric stayed there & started his own little church in the developing town-allowed only because it was also LG. He also started a new lowly PC.

So they liked the mid lvl's but we're just as eager to start over at 1st lvl.

 

[Maedhros]

Hmmm...probably intrigue, politics and dark magic.

One campaign: players began as teenagers in a small village within an occupied nation. Events conspired to push them into a guerilla war between Loyalists of the previous monarchy and the Imperial occupiers. Lots of internecine politics and sabotage. Campaign went regularly for two years, at the end of which the players had raised a Rebel army, threw down the Emperor and dispatched the Black Dragon who had been behind it all to begin with...

Next campaign: Different part of the world. Players were shipwrecked on a tropical island and became pawns of a Dark Elf who used them to recover a fantastic artifact he needed to (what else) rule the world. Feuding pirate clans were at the center of the action, as well as an "Apocalypse Now" type expedition up the Oane River to race a rival Pirate to find the artifact. Also went for two years, ended with one character becoming Pirate King and unlocking the secret of the artifact - and promptly being killed by his compatriots because the artifact had driven him mad with power and bloodlust.

A forthcoming campaign will take place in the capitol city of a former Imperial province (which had been freed by the characters in the first campaign) as a dormant aristocracy tries to assert itself in the power vacuum left in the wake of the Imperial retreat. The players will be members of an organized crime faction in the city.