With the summer down to its last third, it's time for our gaming group to reset. Having sort-of finished the Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign super-module, it's time to get back to our regular favorite, D&D (3.5 of course), in our favorite setting, Forgotten Realms.

(speaking of Forgotten Realms, even though I already knew a bunch of stuff about what was happening with the Realms in 4.0, I decided "what the hell" and thumbed through a copy of the 4.0 Realms hardcover yesterday when I bought my weekly DC comics. My conclusion? The new Realms book reminds me of some women I've known in the past- nice to look at, but hideously foul to be around and not worth my time or attention).

Ahem..so where was I? Oh yes. New campaign.

We do this a lot. We usually start an FR campaign, play it until PCs get to about 15th level or so, then start up a new one in a different area of the Realms. The old campaigns become part of our continuity, and references are made to NPCs and events of those past games. The last one we had was a bit of a failure, so we stopped early, some people dropped out indefinitely, and the rest of us took up Call of Cthulhu.

Now, in mid-August, we start our new D&D campaign this weekend. And I've been planning this one ever since the other one collapsed. Even the people who buggered off in the last campaign are back, and everyone's eager to start the new game off.

The first question, of course, is where to start/center it? In recent campaigns, we've started off in the Silver Marches, the Moonsea (several times), the Dales, Cormyr-Sembian border, the Pirate Isles, and the Dragon Coast. I try to throw in some variety, and I do believe I know where to start this one (actually, no "believe" about it, I definitely know). Unfortunately, a few of my gamers are on RPGBomb, and since I don't give anyone, including my family members, any advance warning as to where it's going to be located, I can't disclose it now. Shouldn't be too hard, though, by process of elimination.

I don't tell people where it's starting so that no one tries to get an extra edge (e.g. "Why yes, I have Local Knowledge (Waterdeep), what a coincidence!" or "My family lives close by; surely I have some resources/contacts we can turn to?"). If it turns out, by random chance, that someone comes from that region, well hey, that's great!

Secondly, as a rule, I don't tell people who's playing what. That way, people play what they want to, and no one feels obligated to put together a certain character. Of course, I usually release a Public Service Announcement, where I give people a heads-up on what the party's light on. I find that helps those who are as yet undecided.

Our current makeup thus far, if everyone goes with what they told me, looks like two Druids, two Paladins, a Dragon Shaman, two Rangers, two BattleMages, two Fighters, and two Rogues. At one point, we had THREE people playing Paladins, but one changed.

So, things are falling into place. I'm seriously considering posting our game recaps here on RPGBomb, if people would be interested.

Next blog entry: How I approach a campaign, design an adventure, and what my characteristic quirks are (all hopefully without tipping off my players here on RPGBomb about too much of what to expect in the ensuing weeks).

Tags: DM Campaign ForgottenRealms D&D 3.5