For the campaign, over all I want to do what I’m calling an “ensemble collaborative sandbox campaign”. Yeah, I know that sounds kind of crazy but hear me out.
“Ensemble”: Every player is going to have two characters. The main reason is character death. That’s going to happen and I hate when a player gets stuck sitting there half the session rolling up a new character. This way they can have one waiting in the wings. Players can switch out characters at logical times based on mood or whatever. Since I’m planning on using FATE Aspects, the tweak on Fate Points I’m throwing in there is that Fate Points are earned by the player. So how ever many Fate Points they have get transferred from character to character. The characters should stay about within a level of each other and the party. And I’m planning on a “This is what happened to you while you were off screen chart”. The entire cast of characters should have some sort connections so it won’t be like some random guy just shows up and everything is hunk dory.
“Collaborative”: Once again, I’m stealing a page from FATE. I’ve been in a little email exchange with Mike from Wrath of Zombies about how much work a GM should put into a background. Let’s face it a lot times players just ignore something or latch on to something that the GM was minor or insignificant. My cunning plan to get more player investment in the setting is to have them help make it. For pre-campaign planning, I plan having them throw out suggestions for major things like gods, races and major lore about the “world” Additionally, I’m going to try a little trick. Each player will get one “World Point”. This point refreshes when their characters level. Basically, they would spend the point and make some sort of world declaration like “Elves hate owlbears and get a bonus to track them.” Then, they’re stuck coming up with some bit of lore for the world as to why that is. And consensus and GM approval, it is so and becomes part of the lore of the world. Of course, there’s a good chance that some of their lore might come back and bite them in the ass. But that’s the idea.
“Sandbox”: As I mentioned before I picked up the Umbrage Saga and Haunted Highlands for C&C. Both of these are a series of sandbox style adventures. So with a little creativity, editing and imagination, I can take both of these and smush them together into one coherent sandbox campaign. Being a devious GM, I can gently mold the collaborative lore from the players on top of that as well.
House rules.
That’s it folks. That’s my fun pitch for a campaign. Stay tuned tomorrow for some crunch bits.
7 Responses to “What I plan on doing with Castles &Crusades: The Campaign”
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Chuck on 
Philo Pharynx on 
Wow. You have come up with a really awesome plan for a sandbox style campaign. I particularly like what you are doing with the “collaborative” element. The concept of “World Points” is a really solid idea and gives the player a real incentive to contribute. I would recommend having them reset with each level so that they cannot be “banked” for later use. Also, might have more than 1 per level above level 5 or 10. I guess that would also depend on how well the players are using them and how much input you want the group to have on the world.
This is really great stuff an. Wish I lived nearby so I could join. :)
Alfred Bonnabel recently posted..Sega Genesis Challenge – Pier Solar
Thanks. I think player interest and player investment go hand in hand. No banking and one per level are good ideas. Don’t know if they should get more as the characters level. I’m guessing that the group would have already made serveral declarations. If anything I might think of doing more World Points at lower levels so the changes are something that makes more of a difference in the world plus it would the GM time to think of ways for those bits to come back and bite the PC’s in the butt.
I really do like your idea of the World Point.. I think that is an awesome way to get them engaged in the story. Also with the checks and balances it allows veto by the GM and players if it is A) far fetched. B) Clashes with something already established by GM or previous World Point additions. C) Just plain stupid.
You may have to give me permission to try that in my Vornheim campaing. lol. Cough.
wrathofzombie recently posted..My Vornheim- Overview and System
You know you got it, dude. That’s why I throw this stuff up here. And the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of more world points at lower levels to load up the lore on the front end so it can be used later on in the campaign.
Yeah, earlier on would be better since later in the campaign something may be created that should have been common knowledge, but the opportunity was missed.
wrathofzombie recently posted..My Vornheim- Overview and System
That is a good point to front load the world points. I guess the only reservation I can think of concerning it would be that lower level characters would not have as much connection to the world so players might find it harder to come up with meaningful things to spend world points on.
How powerful, or what limits have you considered putting on the world points?
Alfred Bonnabel recently posted..Sega Genesis Challenge – Pier Solar
It’s really going to have be one of those gut calls. Just follow your instincts. I’m not really envisioning World Points as means to gain an advantage through game mechanics but more as way to expand the myth and legend of the world. A way to let the players add fluff to the world to explain and expand the fluff. To put it in a FATE way, it’s sort of like letting the players declare world aspects and since they are aspects they should both help and hinder the characters.