A World of Adventure

A big focus of my Solo TRPG Campaign project, 'Journal of a Mixed Elf Mercenary Hero', is exploration.

The Enchanted Lands

As a Gamemaster, I absolutely love World-Building. It is by far my favorite part of the pastime. It allows me to do something with all these ideas that are constantly forming in my head, threatening to burst out of my skull and spray all over the place. Sorry. I know that's a little intense but that doesn't make it untrue. Besides, no one wants to clean that up, trust me.

As a player, I want to explore the world or universe of the game we're playing. I want to see the Gamemaster's vision, be it an original creation or their take on a known IP, and I would like the opportunity to get to know it up close and personal.

In either role, my preferred way to go about this is through an Open-World Exploration Campaign. That is essentially what I am hoping for with this Solo RPG and I feel pretty confident I can achieve it since I am occupying both positions.

Let's start by looking at the map and filling in some general ideas on what exists and where...

  

The usual recommendation when going about the act of world-building is to start small, really local-like, and then only expanding as you need to. For me, that's crap. I can't work that way for a host of reasons, the biggest of which is I want my players (and in this case myself) to be able to go where they want to go as long as they have some way of getting there. To the age old school question of, 'What happens if we travel beyond the edge of the map?', I like to answer, 'There is no edge to the map'. 

To make this work, I need to 'sketch out' some areas so I have a guide for my imagination. Looking at the second map, some points of interest have been placed in the hope that I can explore those areas during the campaign. Some important or at least interesting bodies of water are also included. The Trading Seas are small-to-medium oceanic bodies constantly plyed by merchants and unfortunately pirates. The Strange Sea is almost completely surrounded by lands, from small islands to the large main continent, with many legends surrounding what it is the sails across and roams beneath the waters of this region. Ghost Ships, Sea Monsters, and Vanishing Island that occasionally appears in the center of the sea. 

While I show the homeland locations of the Dwarves, the Elves, the Hairfoots, and the Humans, I purposely haven't defined how large their domains are, how many settlements or citizens they have, etc. I also haven't given the proper name of these places on account of the fact that I haven't decided on them yet. Furthermore, just because I haven't identified where Beastkin or Goblins live doesn't mean there aren't Beastkin and Goblins. This is best thought of as a Visual Outline. 

To this end, I've also pointed out areas of potential adventure and danger by designating Giants in the Northeast and possibly a Dragon in the Northwest. I wrote it in as 'A Dragon?' because I haven't decided if that information is true or merely a fanciful story. Then, as I've already mentioned, there are lands far away to the Southeast and Southwest that have yet to be explored. I've included these known unknowns for exploration and further development later on.

Of special interest is The Ruinlands of an Ancient Empire; a vast expanse of land with numerous dungeons and crumbling temples that are all that remains of a powerful and very magical civilizations from long, long ago.

Finally, I've also noted where my Player Character, Raelyn Riversprite, came from and the fact that the town was basically destroyed. The port is abandoned now - no one lives there to my character's knowledge. 

Exploration

• • PCs are rewarding for discovering something new – a never before encountered (by them specifically) monster, location, thing about the world, etc. For Solo play, these are notated in the campaign ‘Journal’ as ‘I discovered [name or description of thing]’. 
• • Dungeons are ‘alive’: Traps, rival adventurer parties, sentient doors, patrols of haunted armors, and wandering entities that want to chat.
• • Food & Rest: Cooking plants, animals, or even monster meat gives mechanical buffs and restores Physical and Spell Fatigue (a la Delicious in Dungeon). Skipping meals may cause penalties (hungry adventurer/party = comedic failures). Sleep is similar. 

As per usual, more thoughts as they come to me. I am really eager to actually start playing. Hopefully later today. 

Hope to see you on the road...

AD

Barking Alien