The Path Ahead...

One of the problems my gaming group has been wrestling with - aside from the always present issue of basic encounter balance - is the issue of enthusiasm. For whatever reason it has taken a dip recently and I'm not certain why that is. Mainly I'm not certain because I don't feel the same way in a way - I'm just happy to play and find the story thus far fairly compelling and interesting. I think our DM may be burning out a bit and that's fine and happens from time to time. No biggie. But when my DM burns out it means it is time for a switch. Meaning I DM for a while instead. So I need to kick my adventure production up a notch or three and get-a-going with creating the sandbox world of the Feywild connected to the Midlands setting detailed earlier in this blog.

So the requests for what they'd like to see in the next adventure are:

Raid Planning - The players want to reemphasize the need for a tactical approach to objectives. This is something that, for whatever reason, we seem to have moved away from. The PCs want their plans to have impact on the adventure.

Simpler Enemies - In this I think they mean less PC inhibiting powers perhaps. The main issue is that they feel that the feeling of the PCs as somehow special has slipped away.

Personal Motivations - More organic long-term goals. Alliances to groups and what not is all fine and good but it lacks the personal touch which aids role-playing more. To a certain extent I don't feel that this is a fault of my own as the players are responsible for role-playing their own characters and coming up with their own back stories.

That is the challenge they posed to me. In addition to the overall challenge of creating a sandbox setting, of course. I have been working on it only sporadically but I did manage to create the first draft of the section of the Feywild it will take place in. Here it is:

It needs a little work yet. The Feywild is supposed to be a wilder reflection of the Prime Material world and this is reflected in the more curving landscape, more extremes in terrain, and, superficially, more intense map colors. For each portion of the map I have a particular terrain in mind. This will help me in a variety of ways. It will give the world a more interesting feel and will help in the planning of maps for fights in that terrain as well as providing me with with hints on how to build that particular region for maximum gaming fun, conflict, NPC interaction, etc.

My plan is to start with that, subdividing the region up and giving each section a descriptive and simple name for ease of discussion. We'll see how it goes from there.