West Marshes

This is a general overview of my D&D campaign, mostly for the benefit of my players.

Setting: Orid Kajeth, the region to the east of your kingdom, across an inland sea. The area was formely settled by a tiefling kingdom, long ago, but they migrated away because the area is very dangerous and was not considered valuable. It is most mostly swamp and marsh, criss-crossed with slow, lazy rivers. The weather is hot and humid year round, with frequent rain in the summer.

Recently (as in nearly a century ago), the dwarven kingdom to the east of Orid Kajeth starting mining in the hills of the region, and found rock salt. Your kingdom established the town of Blanche-Piste to be able to import this resource. The town's name means "White Road", named for the chief trade good: white gold... salt.

The town is only 50 years old, and it was built almost entirely at once by an expedition sent over for the purpose. Now it acts as a port for traders, who come into town, drop off their goods, and take salt. Then merchants in Blanche-Piste take those goods to the dwarves by barge, and trade for more salt for next season's traders. This process happens over about a month, each season except summer, when it's too stormy in the sea.

However, the area is still very dangerous. Your kingdom has sent over soldiers of fortune to help explore the area, guard the barges, and defend the town if needed.

Campaign Structure: We already have ten players, and I'm still pushing for more. This is already twice the size of a normal party, but the idea is for smaller groups of those players to schedule games whenever they can, with whomever they can, instead of everyone committing to a weekly session. Some of the players are playing characters who already live in the town, some are characters coming by ship as a soldier of fortune, and some are drifting in for other reasons.

There's a world map divided into hexes. Each hex is about 2 1/2 miles across, and represents one "area of interest". For each session, the players will decide on a hex, travel to it, explore it, and return to town at the end of the "day". Then next session is free to any other combination of players, who can choose another hex or the same one as they please.

Each hex has a certain type of terrain and certain denizens. These will not be adjusted to match the adventuring party. If you're level one, and stumble across the red dragon: run. But as you go, you'll get a feel for how the wildlife and monsters are dispersed. Many of the hexes will not actually have combat, but require exploration and puzzle solving. You will often find things that help you explore other areas.

Each character will receive a flat amount of XP for each time they go out and explore, plus bonuses for overcoming certain situations. XP is not awarded by headcount of defeated enemies.

Roleplaying: All players are encouraged to visit the IRC channel #lovely-lodge on EsperNet. This channel represents the tavern in Blanche-Piste that becomes the de facto headquarters of the adventurers in town. This is where characters will talk about events that have occurred, speculate on what they mean, and plan their outings into the wilderness. This roleplaying is encouraged to take place at any time between sessions, representing the characters hanging out in town between days of exploring.

Players are encouraged to keep a map of the world, to mark where they've found things, or areas to avoid. Many of the "dungeons" will be too large to explore in a single session, or might require higher level abilities and items to get into the deeper places, even if the dungeon is in a low level area. It will be worth your time to keep note of any doors you haven't been able to open, pits you haven't been able to cross, and things of that nature.

House rules:
Sight and Cover:
Instead of tracing from every corner to determine line of sight and cover, we use Maptool's LOS, which traces from the center. This means it's harder (impossible?) to shoot around corners, you can see less of the map than you would "normally", and it's easier for creatures to hide from each other. You're less likely to gain cover by standing behind a wall (instead you'll block off your view of the battle entirely), so keep that in mind and look for low walls, furniture, windows, etc. to hide behind instead.

If Maptool covers a target's square by half or more, they have superior cover from you. Half or less, normal cover. Usually, lines of cover will radiate out diagonally from where's your standing, while orthogonal will be either clear shot, or entirely hidden. That's what happens when everything is a grid!

Light:
All bright light sources now cast dim light in the outer 1/3rd of their radius. Creatures with lowlight vision see that dim light as bright light, and see an extra 50% of the radius beyond that as dim light. Effectively, they see all light sources expanded by 150%, but what seems dim to you still counts as dim light when determining concealment. If you have lowlight vision, keep in mind that what looks dim to you is total darkness to creatures with normal vision. Keep your allies informed, or your enemies confused, appropriately.

Perception & Insight:
I'll be making these rolls secretly. Additionally, if any player notices something using their passive checks, I'll inform that player with a private message, and it will be up them to have their character tell their allies in character. This means, when a character says something, they might not just be making it up, it might be because I told them.