Hey Veeky Forums I'm pretty new to DMing and am starting a new campaign where the key role is to explore a new continent never before seen by civilized people.
I want to be able to install the feeling of wonder as players traverse new areas. How do you guys do this in your campaigns?
Also posting some interesting landscape pictures to hopefully get some attention
Other urls found in this thread:
arsludi.lamemage.com
en.wikipedia.org
twitter.com
...
...
For that kind of feeling, I feel mystery is an important factor. Include some kind of grand mystery that is everywhere they look. It will drive them to discover the source of the mystery, and will do more to create a sense of wonder than description of strange creatures ever will.
Having creatures/plants/etc that are just alien in appearance/culture/etc doesn't go as far as you think it would, because it is already a fantasy RPG. Though it can help.
Make sure your players are actually onboard, for starters. If they want to be full murderhobo, there's not a lot you can do.
Beyond that, make sure there's cool shit to do, don't spend an hour wanking off your fantastic landscape while your players sit there bored to tears - give them role-playing xp for exploring shit, have neat rewards like useful magic items obtained by doing shit (ie breaking off a stalagmite and crudely fashioning it into a weapon gives it a free Keen property ) or things like that. If there's interesting, rewarding things to do, the players will keep going with it. Just avoid dumb shit like big scary guards or anything that would make it seem like you're trying to punish or dissuade exploration, at least until you can comfortably bait them with delicious shiny things (that may or may not be guarded by a clan of gnolls)
give them a reason to wander and explore beyond ' you should '. How the game progresses should make them want to move from place to place. There shouldn't be anything permanent along their path (at least initially), either there is danger or little life, and what they discover along the way inspires them to keep moving. Let's say they find some useful rare herbs, and they know that there are even better things to be found.
Rumors, legends, lack of a home. I find when players have a hub, they are less likely to want to move. If they are comfortable, they become placated. Make them uncomfortable, make them need to move. If they have something permanent, take it away. Not necessarily by force, but by nature.
Above all, the most important thing you must do to run ANY kind of game successfully is to not be afraid to imagine what you want without restriction. I've found myself at times compromising my vision because I feel certain players dont/wouldn't approve. I'm telling you the best games ALWAYS come from your unbiased imagination. Don't be afraid of people, don't succumb to fear. Your gift of imagination is ultimately the greatest gift of love you can bestow upon a party. A work of passion and enthusiasm beats the hardest worked campaign. Every. Time.
Magical places. I make up a dozen or mor random encounters that are places to see, if I there is a good, high roll on an encounter table, they find a neat place benificial to the party. If low, a bad places... put them on the map as they're dscovered.
Get pictures of neat places, unique places... etc. Think up interesting story bits, things to explore and discover. Things worth breaking up the monotony of exploration for a day or two.
Example: mana fountain growing crystalized mana, a spring in a vale that might or might not restore youth, a stretch of pines around a cave system that extends deep into the ground.
Evocative but sparse descriptions of majestic landscapes, mysterious beings, wondrous cities. Focus on narrative, roll only when and if dramatically appropriate. Atmospheric music playing quietly running in the background. Comfortable chairs and dimmed lighting. Weed and/or acid in reasonable doses. And most importantly, players that have the appropriate mindset.
If your players are min/maxers, you can sadly forget about it.
>wonderlust
Wanderlust?
Wonder lust just sounds uncouth.
Just imagine fucking up a turn on that river, and then you have to get off the boat. You're standing there on that ledge, inches away from falling to your death, wishing these crazy Elves or whatever just had normal rivers, like back home.
By picking people who care about it. There is no other way. You simply need specific target audience.
Without it - you are fucked, no matter what.
arsludi.lamemage.com
Take a few pointers from this. Basically you need to give a lot of agency to your players who will feel that the more they put in, the more they will get out.
Do what Everquest did. Drop them off in an unfamiliar city with no goal or plot arc other than to explore the world around them. Don't explain anything beyond the barest of details, make them discover the world as they play and interact with the NPC's.
This thread is relevant to my interests. I'm planning a hex exploration campaign for my group, and I'm having trouble thinking of ways to have them wander.
Interesting terrain and landmarks was one thing I thought of. I wanted to make each hex feel special in some way, rather than having an endless expanse of nothing that just wastes time.
Something I'm worried about is including towns and villages. I'm concerned the players might latch onto one and start fortifying it, taming the surrounding wilderness and basically removing the danger from the region. I do want some of the focus to be on surviving, but at the same time it'll be boring if there's nowhere to go
Make it their goal to find a certain something in an unfamiliar area. If their goal is to search the area, than they will naturally explore.
OP here, the whole reason I actually made this thread is because I'm running a west marches game. This thread has been great, hopefully it dosen't die out.
If anyone has pictures of landscapes to help bump the thread i'd greatly appreciate it
when I say landscapes I really just mean anything that inspires awe
...
...
...
>wonderlust
The word is "wanderlust". They lust to wander.
Not all who wonder are lust
eyyy
I lust for wonder
Also
Previous GM in a GURPS game absolutely misunderstood the disadvantage "Bloodlust"
Guess how...
Haemophilia?
essentially. Fucker made me roll versus self control whenever someone got bloodied, and then I would "frenzy"
Fuck you Tyler, thats some bullshit. Read the books you fuckup
>mfw you just made the same error
en.wikipedia.org
I had an experience like that with a DM who would explain a spell effect as "now you will do everything I tell you to". And then you look at the description, and there's loads of ifs and buts that are supposed to make it hard to use the spell in the way he liked to use it.
For some reason people sometimes have this ridiculous way of interpreting shit to their advantage, or just how they want to see it, while the rules are RIGHT THERE.
huh
egg on my face
To err is human, user. Both for you and Tyler.
yeah, but man, FUCK TYLER
If you met him....Uuuughhhh
Back to topic.
I don't think that having a base is a bad thing, the players will try to build a temporary camp or settlement. They can start exploring the nearby area, learn some new animals and plants and so on.
To force them to move and possibly abandon their camp you can use outside forces (a volcano or earthquake, a dragon that made a lair too close or awoke, swarming giant ants eating and destroying everything in their path, armies getting too close in a civilized area) or an encounter with a foreign species (can be friendly or hostile - also needed if a PC dies). They can then follow the gold / strange magic / desire to meet a civilization etc.
Some more ideas: Casting magic deprives a certain zone of mana resources, so after a certain time magic won't work anymore (hello Dark Sun), and will perhaps even attract unwanted attention (animals will behave violently, spirits will haunt the players, and so on).
I'm torn. On the one hand, I like it when players get invested and try to build things up, and hate just arbitrarily taking that away by dropping a dragon on them. On the other hand, keeping them moving is important.
I feel like moving on should feel like the goal, rather than a setback.
Rule number one: don't give them a proper map.
So many people want to give their players a map of the world, encouraging them to go visit this archipelago or that peninsula.
As much as everyone here scoffs as Quests, Banished Quest did this amazingly well. We heard rumors of far-off places, supposed in-universe "facts," about them were leaked in casual conversation. We'd occasionally see foreigners, and after spending a period of time immersed in our own culture, they truly felt foreign. We had no idea what was out there except for stuff that was considered character knowledge.
Then, one day, the QM gave us a little taste by posting a map that only showed what we KNEW and had everything else blacked out. We were a puny corner on the world. It freaked us out. It also gave us a tremendous sense of wander-lust, but we were already busy exploring what we knew was there because it was still mysterious as shit.
Soma did it right, and frankly speaking, people should read Banished Quest (please ignore the posters, it's shit-post supreme in there) for world-building advice alone. It's a tremendously awesome world, and Soma presents it in a way I've rarely seen others manage.
don't punish them for exploring. traps and ambushes need to be strongly tied to something worthy.
It's called Wanderlust and doesn't mean what you think it means. That would be awe or whimsy.
wonderlust sounds like you want to hump the pyramids or something.
>wonderlust
>want to hump pyramids.
Unless I'm mistaken, to say someone has wonderlust is to say that they want to explore. OP chose the right word.
You are mistaken. Wanderlust is wanting to explore. Wonderlust isn't a thing.
>not Wanderslust
What I'm going to do is have a main base that isn't really super interesting other than it being a safe haven (also far away from the more interesting areas). But I'm also going to allow the players to build settlements that may or may not be destroyed at any given point
pic is probably my favorite setting art picture thing ive ever grabbed from tg. i really love the idea of a magic/spooky door just showing up at the outskirts of a small comfy village to kick something off
bump
These are all really good tips guys, Thanks for everything!
The greek says something like "May the Gods grant you all that your heart desires"
That sounds strangely ominous.
I second this op. They might find it difficult at first, having almost no direction, but that way they can make the world real to them and create their own goals that you extrapolate and improve on
I'd put in a sort of introductory task at first, just so they're still completely free to explore but still have some north to go to if they don't feel like it just yet
It all boils down to what kind of people your players are I guess, so giving them the choice of " how do you want to play" can never be the wrong take on it
>How do you guys do this in your campaigns?
Tbh I'd just set it up as wandering from the start.
Give them a means of transportation, they all come from one place but they all want to go to different ones all over the world so they travel together through their destinations.
Let them take advantage of resources they find out in the wild. Part of why I loved NwN2: Storm of Zehir was that when you walked around the overworld you'd have a chance of finding stuff based on what skills your leading character had. For example, Craft Weapon would let you quickly carve a small zulwood tree into a slightly magical spear, or identify the nuts on a certain tree as ideal sling ammo. Spellcraft would have you finding ancient ruins that would give you a bit of XP. Craft Alchemy would let you turn sticky sap into tanglefoot bags. Heal let you make bandages out of certain leaves. Search would give you all sorts of abandoned goods. Etc, etc.
Small details like that both add to the immersion and let players feel a bit more useful, in addition to making them want to see what they can find beyond the next horizon.
I don't know about your players but generally I keep mine fairly interested in what's happening by writing out how I plan to describe areas to them. I don't go into minutia of every location but when they arrive somewhere new or important I break out the thesaurus and bash out a paragraph or two describing it. As for how you deliver that description, that just comes with practice. I read to my nephews a lot, it was good practice. My players have expressed appreciation for my delivery, but it's not something I know how to teach through text, more of a learn by doing thing I guess. In the end, just go with it, don't be afraid to make an idiot of yourself, I've flubbed a lot of things and it's lend to numerous in jokes for my group. Just try to have some fun with it and it should be catching.
bimper
I lack imagination and GM talent, so I'll just post pix
...
...
...
>wonderlust intensifies
stop laughing at a typo, zoggit
Five-star post, user
If you are interested in these kind of thing I would highly recommend you to read Baudolino by Umberto Eco.
The novel takes place in the historical middle ages. After the protagonist venture more to east to find the nation of Prester John they encounter a strange and mystical land.
Also I don't know your game's setting but it might be a challenge to amaze players in an already fantastical setting like in DnD.
...
FUNKY TOWN
It reminds me of the town from the newer Willie Wonka movie.
>If they want to be full murderhobo, there's not a lot you can do.
I think you can still save the situation w/murderhobos following the formula in Princess Mononoke: confrontation with the unknown/magical.
That'll probably mean the characters will look unimpressed (they're putting themselves in a conquistador position , after all), but it's not impossible to pull out.