Hey Patrons
In a previous post, I had talked about 2 campaigns waiting in the wings. This is one of them, previously known as The Grand Expedition. I really want to run this campaign, and I'm looking for a way to make it happen ASAP.
The current title is still pending, but I'm digging it. Not only would it's acronym be VODD, which is the level of nice pun I strive in my naming, but it hints the nature of the campaign: Seeking out something that has ended on the behalf of something that is just starting. Oh, and they're on a boat.
The original design was to have Vincent Mapper get Rift Dancer, the magic ship, from the warlock in Rise of Drekis Chapter 5; however, I think I want to start this before that ends. This presents a problem.
1) We assume success in RoD chapter 5, which going by Jeff's performance in RoD chapter 4 is not super likely.
2) We make sure he succeeds (ew)
3) We find a new leader for this voyage who doesn't have a magic ship, and now we either embrace with the possibility of it sinking at sea and ending the campaign randomly, or we just don't let there be a chance of sinking. The magic boat helps us manage terrible storms.
4) We play RoD 5 like 3 times a week to finish it up SUPER fast. I'm inclined to do this, but it's more of a scheduling thing than anything, and at this point in time I'm super swamped with IRL stuff, so this is the worst point in time to double down on campaigns.
The next piece of the puzzle is the impetus for this quest comes from something that hasn't quite happened yet in Hardly Heroes. We're so close that I might just give them a tiny little nudge to make the inevitable happen slightly faster. I'm leaving this undiscussed for now.
Lastly, we've got the crew. I had wanted to do auditions, but that's a long process, and I'm inclined to get this going faster than that, so I'm thinking about reaching out to other D&D streamers / players and inviting these people I don't know into the game as the expendable crew. If they can't make a session, well then their characters are sick with some local disease. If they miss a few sessions, their character has died of the disease or been left behind.
If you have any suggestions for other D&D streamers / campaign groups, please leave their names in the comments or @ me in discord with them. I can live under a rock and don't really know who else is out there.
So that's our production schedule. Well, most of it.
I also want a solid introduction. I'd really like it to be a boat moving across a map with a little dashed line coming out the back, landing at wherever the party is currently. But that means lots of different intros, and they keep getting longer as the campaign runs on, and then I also have to make really high quality maps of regions they're going to for the into. Doable, but again, huge time investment.
Why do all the things I want to do take a lot of time? :/
I've already got the boat figured out. I've got details from IRL world ships. I know the general path the party would take, and have a few key destinations sorted out. Surely this campaign wouldn't explore everything in the world, but it would go a long way to mapping out undiscovered sections of Arcadia.
The session to session vibe would be to arrive in an area, have a specific quest there, wrap up that quest in 3-6 sessions, and then move onto the next port / island / location. A fun part would be that not all areas are created equally. They party might run into an area for which they are too low level, and leave it for the return voyage. It's real hard to get parties to decide to play it safe instead of choosing suicide by monster, but we'll see what we can do.
That's it for today's post! Thanks for your continued support, it not only means the world to me personally, but it's what keeps the campaigns rolling out.
gl hfNeal / Koibu