My new campaign. Suggestions appreciated.

[Scipio]

I'm going to be starting a new campaign soon with a group that is fairly new to Ravenloft. After wrestling with what kind of plot to throw at them (and realizing that I have too many different player styles to come up with one plot that would satisfy them all), I decided on something a bit unusual. I'm going to start the group off in Vallaki just before the fire that destroyed the bookshop (basically I'm going to run 9 of Hearts.) After this "introduction scenario" I'm going to just open up the world for them and let them decide where to go and what plots to be involved in, anywhere in the core.

So far it's going to be a daunting task as I'll need to have several possible plotlines going on behind the scenes at one time (at least one per domain.) Are there any other potential problems I'm not seeing with this idea? Anyone ever tried a "sandbox" game with Ravenloft like this before?

[HuManBing]

I just played Fallout 3, which is admittedly post apocalyptic and not Gothic. But that has a wide-open sandbox style of play, with a main quest that the player can take or leave as he sees fit, and dozens of side quests.

Some side quests are small and are not even listed. They're little things that can be done here and there.

Overall this works best when the landscape is dotted with small agrarian settlements, with people isolated. This means that settlements develop their own problems in isolation, and a travelling band can solve them (or in the case of an evil group, profit off them).

Go to GameFaqs, look up any of the Fallout games, and read a walkthrough to get a sense of the open-ended quests the designers give the player. And see what you can adapt to your campaign.

[Zettaijin]

But whatever you do, you have to make sure to use the mutated toe on Frank Horrigan!

[Isabella]

I've seen a lot of groups completely lose momentum without a sense of what they "should" be doing at any given moment, so at the very least make sure your players understand that you expect them to be self-motivated.

[HuManBing]

Give them a handful of potential quest ideas, and keep maybe six or so open-ended encounters at the ready. The encounters can have an immediate solution, but enough leeway to lead to something further on down the line.

E.g., a travelling priest asks them the way to a humble thorpe. He doesn't know the way himself. They may make a Knowledge check and tell him what they know. He thanks them and gives them a small blessing (+1 to rolls for an hour or something) and then leaves.

Later they find him up a tree, taking shelter from wolves. The PCs might be able to scare off the wolves or keep them at bay. Now the priest needs their help. Why is he going to the thorpe and why doesn't he know the way?

Time to get creative. He's heard of trouble there and the Ezrites, low on manpower at the main church, sent him. What could be troubling the main church? What could have happened at the village that required him to set off through unfamiliar territory?

So on and so forth. Build it up from small blocks onwards to give them a feel for an area. Make a few quests mutually incompatible. Perhaps there's a particularly big wolf with an unusually large cranium, coordinating the attacks. The village elder tells a story of Red Jens, a ne'er do well who raided convoys. The villagers chased him away eventually one night many winters ago, and the snows set in long before he could make it out of the woods to his camp. Rumormongers whisper that he became a wolf, leading the pack as he led his cutthroats. The village elder wants to bring back the skull to show the village he's dead, and he'll give them a reward for it.

But the strange envoy from the gypsies say the skull has special magic in it, and they will offer safe passage if the PCs give it to them.

And who knows... when your campaign progresses out from the village, to the towns, and then to the cities, and finally into the rest of the kingdoms, perhaps there will come a time when the PCs will be in sore need of a friendly gypsy's guidance through the mists!

That's one way of creating a campaign. Keep copious notes of names, facts, and story ideas you dream up on the fly. Never underestimate your players' ability to see clues that aren't there... and make sure you harness their unwitting ideas into your overall plan!

[Zettaijin]

OK, so my Fallout 2 reference didn't pan out...

I'd go with HuManBing here, but add that in my experience, players arguing for hours about what to do/where to go or, on the opposite side, doing what they believe I want them to do have always hampered me.

Face it, if given too many options and too much freedom to explore, the group may very well start bickering and force you to prod them into a consensus in typical RPG DM fashion which sort of goes against the whole idea of giving them a sandbox game-like experience.

I'm assuming you have previous experience with these players, right?

Have they played as a group before? What types of settings/games have they played together (if any)?

Whatever prior knowledge you have of their patterns and tendencies. Again, players can be predictable at times and there are limits to the distance between their own views and those of the character they play.

Of course, if you have no experience with these people then you'll have to take notes not only on what you've set up and what they think you have set up, but also on what encounters made them react.

What questions are they asking and to whom? What are they looking for? Which characters/situations struck them as important? Which of them didn't?

Knowing the players is probably the biggest challenge you'll face next to keeping up with them and refraining yourself from using time honoured railroading tactics to keep them from ending the session prematurely.

[Scipio]

I've been gaming wth most of them in different games for the last 2 years, just the first time I'll have run for them as a group. Half of hte group tends to be very self motivated and story/character driven. The other half is mostly RPGA min/maxing ROLLplayers, so it should be intersting to say the least. I plan to have at least one active plot going for any given domain in the core that they might choose. Most of these plots I have a scenario planned for what happens if they don't get involved in them. (The world doesn't stop turning just because there's no PCs around after all.) Other than that I'm going to try and get the open ended scenarios also for them to make their own plot. One thing I've gotten good at is letting the players write the plot just about. Last year at this time I ran "The STrange STory of Dakagnon Estate" to great effect without any preplanned plot besides the basic "fleas of madness" premise.

[MadStepDad]

I had the same intentions with my group. They were hardened D&D veterans but RAVENLOFT novices. We had been playing in our homebrewed world for so many years, that it became simply a matter of unfolding the maps and asking the players "where do you wanna go today?" I wanted that same effect with RAVENLOFT. But you've got to guide them.

You need to educate them on the world, places and people before you can expect them to know what to do. So my solution was simple - play them through a streamlined campaign and open all the doors in their mind, so when we came back for Chapter 2 they would know exactly what they were getting in to. I chose the GRAND CONJUNCTION as that starting point. The reasons were simple - RAVENLOFT has such a vast rich history, I felt it was a gip to my players if I started anywhere else but at the beginning. I strongly suggest you consider this as well. You say they are all so different that one campaign cannot possibly accomodate them. But the GRAND CONJUNCTION can.

Start there, build the history, introduce all the important NPCs, places and people (I focused on areas that experience the most change - Arkandale, Il Aluk etc). So when the time comes to close the book on the Black Box - the Red Box and all future supplements will be fair game. And your players will no longer be RAVENLOFT virgins, but dedicated monster hunters. Good luck.

*edit* By the way, would love to hear how you used the STRANGE STORY of DARKANGON ESTATES in your campaign! I'm honored!

peace,

MSD

[CorvusCornix]

As Isabella already mentioned, there is always the danger of the players losing their momentum when they feel like there is nothing they "should" do. You seem to know your players fairly well, and if you think they are motivated enough to explore the world on their own: go for it. However, I've had serious problems because my first group couldn't see the line they "should" be following clearly enough. My solution for my current group is therefore: I give them one important, overarching plotline, but aside from that I give them a generous amount of hints of the rest of the world outside and let them explore as much as they want. And if they happen to wander into a completely different direction: well, the planned wererat-infestation can always strike in Barovia instead of Darkon .

[HuManBing]

OK, so my Fallout 2 reference didn't pan out...

You have saved the forum by your brave deeds. And now you must leave forever. I am sorry.