On second thought...

Yesterday, I started a new series; how would I actually approach setting up a campaign?  I discussed my campaign brief (and wrote one) and what I'd do before and during the first session before play actually began. But then, this morning another thought occurred to me: I've already talked about potential campaigns for some time. (Heck, although I haven't updated it in a few weeks, I'm in the middle of one right now!) While I ultimately decided that I wasn't terribly happy with the final result of CULT OF UNDEATH project, because even trying to trim and rework published adventures just isn't my style of running the game; how can I have this material prepared if I have no idea that the PCs will ever get to that direction anyway? It's just not my style to prepare games very far ahead of time. But... if I did want to run Cult of Undeath, focusing more on the set-up and less on the plot beats that the adventure path that it's very loosely based on (Paizo's Carrion Crown), how would I do it? And for that matter, wouldn't that be a fitting ending or finale or epilogue or whatever you want to call it to the Cult of Undeath? Finding out that I'd never run an adventure path, even heavily reworked, because it still implies a level of pre-written expectations for the campaign that is out of synch with how I work—but how would I take the same material and actually use it, then? Well, now we're cooking with gas!

I do like the campaign brief that I wrote yesterday, but I've whipped up a second one focused on this newest idea. I could potentially run both of these campaigns in my setting, seriously. But let's shift from the first idea to this resurrected Cult of Undeath project. If I'm not going to relying on the actual modules that I read, because modules are nothing more than raw material that is only useful to someone who runs like I do if taken completely out of context. Even then, I can't plan too far ahead on using any of that raw material, because it depends on the direction the campaign goes as driven by the players. But what I would prepare is the following campaign brief, then I'd dedicate the first hour or so of the first session to being a kind of "session zero" phase, as described yesterday. Following the link, I'll rework the details of how I'd do that.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GJJsv0l-7RN1YIv5tdIyQGAgxP5TXDK-/view?usp=sharing

I also yesterday said that I'd send the rules system out with the brief. I've actually changed my mind. Because the rules are easy to explain and I can help anyone play the game, I'd rather just say that the rules are available upon request. It'd be great if my players read them thoroughly before the game, but I don't want to ask that of them; I want them to want to do so, otherwise, we'll do without, and we won't miss a beat doing so.

The number one task to do when sitting down and getting everybody settled in and ready to go is to have them build characters. You'll notice that in my prior campaign brief, I had them choose from patrons that may be their reason for being involved; in this case, I have instead a brief background sketch that would connect the PC to the deceased Professor Lechfeld that they can choose from instead. As before, I'd go through the character ties exercise, which will make for an immediate hook for roleplaying and investment on the players' part with the group. 

I do want to keep the initial set-up, which is based on a pretty heavily reworking of the first two modules though, and maybe create out of them the "fronts" that I want the game to eventually focus on. The haunted house that makes up much of the first adventure should be a "Grim Portent" from the first Front, which will be around Grigore Stefanescu and his attempt to unlock one of the Primogenitors. More on that in my next post on this topic when I create the fronts.

The second module, which is about the murders associated with a Frankenstein monster can be tied to the second front, and will be a "Grim Portent" for that one, which also highlights that things are moving before the PCs even know much about the nature of the threats facing them. This will be where I rework Otto von Szell, who will be the former protégé mentioned in the new campaign brief. Here, I'll decide that he was a Timischer noble, who has since become a vampire. In the past, he worked with Prof. Lechfeld on an exciting yet forbidden project that became the monster. Once it came to unholy life, and von Szell let slip his ambitions to become undead, Lechfeld cut off communication with him, and eventually fled Timischburg entirely to set up here in Cockrill's Hill. However, the professor had a crucial piece of the research that made the monster experiment successful, and von Szell has finally felt confident to come for it in a more direct fashion. I like this front, because not only is it important to the story of the campaign, but it would be a pretty big (and dark) twist if any of the characters picked the background that they were related to von Szell, and thought they were coming on a peaceful mission of reconciliation. If nobody picks that, I'll almost certainly still use it, but I hope that they do, because I love that connection.

Although too vague for me to tell you how I'm going to end up working these, I'd like to have two additional, albeit somewhat smaller in scope and threat, fronts based on geography. The Tazitta Death Cult lands are located nearby, and I'd love to find a way to use them. I did mention in my old Cult of Undeath outline that there could be signs of ghoulish activity in the cemetery where the Professor is to be buried, and maybe that can be the first clue that points towards these sinister tribesmen. Secondly, you can't get from Cockrill's Hill to Mittermarkt (unless you go way out of your way) without going through the Eltdown Pass, including the foreboding small town of Eltdown itself, and the Eltdown Fens where the lost, sunken city dedicated to Bokrug is hidden. And the malevolent Eltdown Shards themselves should make at least a cameo appearance! I haven't yet determined what this front would look like, but it seems pretty obvious to include it somehow since it begs the question otherwise; the PCs will almost certainly have to travel right past it. Plus, it gives me the opportunity to potentially use some of the thematically similar Deep Ones stuff from the adventure path.

A final thought that's noodling around in my head; of course, I expect this to be limited in scope relative to the campaign setting's full geography, but it's a bit unusual in that it pulls from a Hill Country hinterlands village towards Timischburg. I wonder if I shouldn't use the "main" setting map as a template, but then draw entirely new, more regionally relevant maps for each campaign? Huh. Lots of work, but then again, I like drawing maps anyway, and I've got loads of sheets of sketch paper and few immediate plans to use them. Why not, other than that I might get tired of doing it before I'm done? When has that ever stopped any of my hobby endeavors before, though?