Anyhoo, I admire those who do have homebrew settings because I struggle with proper motivations for characters and getting a story that pops. I have similar challenges with writing stories, so it doesn't quite surprise me that this would be a hurdle I face in the TTRPG sphere.
But... I've found a story... Uhm, no. Let's call it an fledgling idea. So I've found a fledgling idea that I like. I have victims to try it on. And I have ample enough time to plan the crap out of it.
This is already sufficient motivation to try it out.
And then, the key ingredient, I have committed myself publicly to try. Guilting me into action is always key. Sadly. Damn.
Future post will probably include more detail as I figure it out and ramble about it.
What I can say now is that I have a starting world map thanks to Inkarnate, Roll20, and Mythic Portal Games' Cartographers Guild tokens. I have both a city and a town that's slowly taking shape, and I have maps for them thanks to Medieval Fantasy City Generator by watabou.
So the resources are in place. Now to populate the world and make it interesting. That's the next challenge.
I don't know how much I will share of the world here. Perhaps a bit, depending on interest. Perhaps only vaguely in case the only interested parties are my players. Tricksy players.
So here's my question for those game masters out there. How would you start off a level 1 party? How does one work towards levelling them up and making those experiences meaningful without it just being a goblin slog? That seems to be something that's done to death.
Depends.
ReplyDeleteWhat kinds of adventure do you want to run? There's a few options: there's the clear out the sewers of rats, go find the goblin hideout and so on. The typical tropes, which you shouldn't dismiss out of hand.
Then there's others - for a young player party, it could be as simple as go from point A to point B, and deal with the challenges in between.
Other idea's; spitballing here - fetch something, find out why something is happening, protect someone, convince a party to do something for another party, focus on using the parties skills, have the players scout an area and deal with strange animals, or fey creatures.
Don't worry too much about the player's level - think more on the story you want to tell, and what makes your world yours.
Mostly: HAVE FUN!