Ai is fun. But... the Future of 5x5 Fronts

A new possible iconic brawler for me

I realized that I was having too much fun generating campaign images with AI. More to the point, I was spending too much effort generating and posting those images and less effort on any actual, significant development. I was pleased to have finally done the Cult of Undeath supercut, but also disappointed, honestly, that I hadn't done it months ago. I certainly could have, but I just didn't put the effort in to it. As a question of some discipline, I will no longer create posts that have no other purpose other than to show off some AI generated art that I've ginned up in the last couple of days. Even if they are settings or characters from Old Night, I don't need more than one or two images (mostly) per post, for visual engagement and guidance on the look, not just for its own sake without any other meaningful content. Rather, what I want to spend more time on is creating 5x5 Fronts. I've got two that are mostly done, or at least at a sufficiently detailed outline format that if I needed to run them, I could sit down with less than 24 hours to plan the first session or two and actually run them, and have a good idea of where the campaign would be going the entire time. (For what it's worth, I've run quite satisfying campaigns before where I had no idea where I was going and was making it up more or less on the fly, and that works just fine for me. But I do like to have a solid campaign outline nonetheless. If I change my mind and don't use everything the way I originally planned it, that's fine. It's still nice to have an idea of what I think is likely to happen.) 

In addition to the two that are done: DARKNESS IN THE HILL COUNTRY and CULT OF UNDEATH, I have another that's spelled out super high level, and another that I've done a lot of research for and am (more or less) ready to start working on: TERROR IN TIMISCHBURG and CURSE OF THE CORSAIR COAST, as well as a couple of others that are just concepts so far: MIND-WIZARDS OF THE DAEMON WASTES and ICY GRAVES OF HYPERBOREA. Hill Country is mostly a completely unique one, of my own invention, whereas Cult of Undeath was always based on the idea of adapting the Paizo adventure path Carrion Crown, although as it went along, it became much less and less like the adventure path, and now resembles it relatively little. I've had very little focus on these, which is why my progress has been very slow, but it certainly occurs to me... well, two things.

1) If I focus on one of these 5x5 fronts, it really shouldn't take me more than a few weeks to do one, honestly. Even going slowly, we're talking 6-8 weeks being plenty of time to write the five fronts with their five steps, creating the 5x5 matrix, and filling it out from just a sentence or two to a few paragraphs that's a sufficiently detailed outline that I could actually run the game if needed based on that, preparing more details one session at a time. If I'd just freaking been doing that, I'd have easily two or three dozen of these done instead of two and a a brief outline of a third. Of course, that's the actual writing, but.... well, see below.

2) I really like how turning Carrion Crown into Cult of Undeath worked, and I think that I could do that with other campaigns and adventure paths, i.e., reading through one and then taking some elements or themes out of it, but remixing them to such a degree that they hardly resemble the original anymore except in terms of themes and a few notable beats. Of course, if I use these adventure paths and campaigns as starting places for 5x5 Fronts, then I have to actually read the adventure path or campaigns first, and I've only systemically done a few of those (relatively speaking) so far. Of course, not every adventure path is created equal; some of them are way too meandering, with some good chapters but overall a weak theme, or one that maybe I'm less interested in, while others may have a good theme, but need to slot and adapt some completely different ideas in order to actually meet the theme. And some of them I'm just not really that interested in trying to do because they focus a lot of very specific D&Disms. The earliest adventure paths are like this: Shackled City, Age of Worms, Savage Tide, Rise of the Runelords, etc. Curse of the Crimson Throne is the first one that has a theme and overall arc that I think I could see myself actually being interested in. (Although there are individual modules or chapters or whatever in those that I think are absolutely excellent, and I've been looking for a way to integrate them into something that I would run for a long time, like "The Skinsaw Murders" from Runelords for instance, and some of the early adventures of Age of Worms or Savage Tide.)

Of course, there are now other competitors to the Paizo adventure path model, and WotC's own campaign books are arguably easier to use for someone like me because they don't over-detail, and they stay a little more focused on the theme... although I don't necessarily care for their themes as much, because again, so D&D. I actually think the second SPCM campaign with the unfortunately stupid name of Yig Snake Granddaddy is a good alternative too, as well as some other 3pp campaigns. In fact, the next one that I'm likely to develop beyond Terror in Timischburg is one that's a synthesis of all of the Freeport stuff that I've read kind of recently from Green Ronin, and Yig Snake will contribute to one a little further down the line. Which brings me neatly to...

So; what new 5x5 Fronts can I envision that I will want to do? I already think working on a synthesis of Yig Snake Granddaddy, the Sertrous chapter of Elder Evils and the Serpent's Skull adventure path, which I have already read, is a doable 5x5 Front and one that I have some interest in. SHADOW OF THE SERPENT GOD I'll call that one, and it'll start to eventually get the 5x5 Front treatment. I want a dark ancient Egyptian-themed one, but I've got stuff I need to read before I'm ready to do that. It'll be my first exploration of Porhomok, the red desert beyond the jungles of the Corsair Coast. THE SLEEPER BENEATH THE SANDS will be it's tentative title, although if it isn't something sleeping after all, maybe I'll change it. But c'mon. Of course it will be something horrible that sleeps beneath the sands. Would I do anything else? Something icy and set in Hyperborea is already on my radar, I've got the Icy Graves of Hyperborea established, but have no idea what material I'd use or what plot beats I'd hew to. I'd probably start with Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden and look for other wilderness themed adventures set in the ice to layer in and substitute out for elements of Rime that I'm not interested in. And there are a number of urban campaigns or at least adventure paths, starting with Curse of the Crimson Throne which I've already read (although it's possibly a bit less urban than you'd expect) and shortly I'll also have Council of Thieves, and lots of other modules, including much of the Freeport stuff or Enemy Within stuff that I don't end up using in Curse of the Corsair Coast could easily be used here too. I'll tentatively call that one DAEMONS OF THE GUTTER and put that on the plan.

OK, so what have I got in terms of 5x5 Fronts?

• Darkness in the Hill Country - a full 5x5 Front outline is already complete
• Cult of Undeath - a full 5x5 Front outline is already complete
• Terror in Timischburg - a brief executive summary-style 5x5 Front outline is already complete
• Curse of the Corsair Coast - no outline, but I've read a lot of source material, so I could make one quickly based on that material
• Mind-Wizards of the Daemon Wastes - a concept is thought out, but no outline and no obvious source material to draw from yet another than a non-fantasy comedy movie.
• Icy Graves of Hyperborea - I have some small bit of source material identified and a concept, but not much yet. I'll need to trawl my titles for other potential materials to use. Maybe some Father Llymic stuff from Elder Evils can be worked in too and some "Mountains of Madness" material from Cthulhu.
• Shadow of the Serpent God - I've already read enough source material to draw from that I should be able to quickly create an outline. 
• Daemons of the Gutter - I've read some source material, but I have more available. Could probably start a draft of the outline right now.
• The Sleeper Beneath the Sands - I have to read source material that I already have first, so this is probably the one that will be among the farthest from being done.
• Secrets of the Blackness Beneath - set in an alternate dimension that's combination Plane of Shadow and Underdark, accessed as if it were the Underdark, but behaving in many ways like alternate worlds once you reach certain destinations.

There are, of course, many more that I could use, but these are the ones that I have at least an idea of where to go with them. I've highlighted the first two in green, because there's nothing really that I'm doing with them right now; the big outlines in supercut format are already done. What I want next is keep to the following milestones:

• By the end of August, I want to have brief outlines, like I currently do with Terror in Timischburg for Curse of the Corsair Coast, Shadow of the Serpent God and Daemons of the Gutter, at least. By mid-September, I want to have a supercut full outline for Terror in Timischburg based on the quick one that I already have. By the end of October, I can turn Corsair Coast, Serpent God and Daemons of the Gutter into supercut full outlines. 
• Also during this time frame, I want to identify which adventure paths and campaigns I need to read to support Icy Graves, Mind-Wizards, Sleeper, and Blackness Beneath.
• Identify two to three additional ones to add to the plan by end of October as well. I'm thinking in particular of some kind of exploration of some of the dark forests of the Three Realms+, and some kind of expedition to the Plateau of Leng, but I need to do a lot more work before I can even consider those still.