Quote from: RPGPundit;949661Yes indeed. Or the War of the Roses! There's even a really good OSR product about that one!

How would one go about making a war in a setting?

Like what would make it different than a regular game.

I happen to have your book too but I'm curious here since I haven't paged through it yet.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;952208One caution.. I have learned to my sorrow that for players weaned on modules, the first rumor is usually taken to be "The Adventure." The idea of making the rounds, collecting a bunch of rumors, and choosing which adventure hook to nibble on seems to be a lost art.

Actually my guys choose the one that sounds lowest-level. "Hmmm, a shrine taken over by demons sounds too hard. Are there perhaps a band of disgruntled arthritis kobolds we could deal with?"

So after they were able to unload some treasures they had found, the three oldest characters were able to level up to 4, and the problem sort of took care of itself with very little effort on my part.  To address the issue, I dropped a *bunch* of new rumors on them (after all, they were stuck in town for 6 weeks healing).  They were intrigued, but instead they latched on to an elven crown they found and a interest in returning it to the elves.  But I know (and they knew) that on my campaign map, the elves are about 150 miles to the north, which is far, far away from what they've so far called "home."

So they're diving into the deep end of wilderness travel (though most of it would be considered "civilized" wilderness) and now I have to figure out how to do a hexcrawl for next session.

Quote from: drkrash;952396They were intrigued, but instead they latched on to an elven crown they found and a interest in returning it to the elves. . . . [N]ow I have to figure out how to do a hexcrawl for next session.

Good on your players for taking the bull by the ho . . . err . . . the crown by the prongs, and good on you for rolling with it. From this great campaigns are made.

Warms my heart to read that. I love it when I offer a bunch of rumors and leads and invitations from NPCs, and the PCs instead decide to get interested in doing something creative and interesting like that.

Quote from: Skarg;952435Warms my heart to read that. I love it when I offer a bunch of rumors and leads and invitations from NPCs, and the PCs instead decide to get interested in doing something creative and interesting like that.

Just so. 'Rumor mill' tables and such are a staple of old games, but are the thin edge of the wedge toward passive players and rail-road games.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;952235How would one go about making a war in a setting?

I'm not really sure I understand the question... have two or more sides who really hate each other?

Quote from: RPGPundit;953109I'm not really sure I understand the question... have two or more sides who really hate each other?

Yeah.

And the possibilities are so endless!  If you're lower class, you're going to get called into the Levy.  If you're upper class they're going to want you for the cavalry. If you have merchant connections, the opportunities are endless... supplying either or both sides, or pork-barreling with inferior goods to profiteer, or being part of the royal inspectors trying to eliminate shoddy goods, or selling arms to the Rebels, or trying to interdict arms sales to the Rebels, or being a healer, or being a phony healer, or trying to arrest the phony healers...

I prefer adventures more along the lines of "Kelly's Heroes" in a war torn setting. War can create and odd mish mass of order and chaos and reasons for a small heavily armed party to just sort of be around.

Quote from: drkrash;947866When I set up the starting area, I placed Stonehell about a day away to the south, a 1st level dungeon very close by to the east, Stone of Sakkara (ACKS' version of B2) about a day to the west, and another 1st level dungeon hidden about a day away to the southwest (this last one has never been found, so it's irrelevant to my question).

The party has been diligently exploring Stonehell.  They've seen about 70% of the 1st level and maybe 20% of the 2nd level.

They've "defeated" the Stone of Sakkara and the 1st level dungeon, though both were done in stages.

The party right now averages 3rd level and, with their henchmen, numbers 14.  Usually 10-12 go into a dungeon.  So here's my question/problem:

They are now high enough level that these low-level encounters are less challenging.  The players don't mind the ease, but the treasure they're uncovering is keeping their advancement slower.  They don't complain about the easy combat encounters (why should they?), but they have expressed some disappointment that a session or two delving yields only a couple hundred XP.

Obviously, they can just go deeper in Stonehell; they know that and they have a way to level 3.  And I think they're planning to do that.

This is the problem with dungeoneering, you continue to go back again and again until you finish the dungeon or get too good for the dungeon.

Quote from: drkrash;947866But how can I offer them something else? It seems unreasonable to suddenly say, "Hey! Here's a new encounter site just a day away from home base! And it's conveniently level-appropriate! How strange that no one has encountered it before!"

I could offer them incentives to travel further from home base, but other than a fairly safe highway journey to a nearby city that takes a few days, they have been well-trained to fear the wilderness.

Any thoughts? I understand that we're not doing anything wrong, and the players and I are still enjoying ourselves greatly, but I think we're reaching the point where another bandit lair or clutch of goblins is just not going to be enough anymore.

Would a master thief be interested in knocking off a local convenience store? No, he would look for challenging and rewarding targets.

Similarly, a dungeoneering party would look for more challenging and rewarding dungeons. At first level, going to a mjor dungeon is probably too dangerous, so they go to smaller/less dangerous dungeons first. However, they can then go to more challenging dungeons afterwards.

I would give some ideas of other dungeons in the area, some being weak, others being dangerous, the party can decide which ones to explore.

Don't bother with rationalising why dungeons are there and how they work, the best dungeons are just there. So, the party find a new dungeon that is more challenging and they haven't met before? So what, that is a good thing. perhaps they stumble on it by accident, perhaps some bandits retire to the dungeon as a base.

Also, a more advanced party should be able to conquer their fear of the wilderness. As they become more powerful those foes that would have been a challenge become inconsequential. So, travel through the wilderness and find new dungeons.