Corum style"planeswalking sandbox"?(Now with mini-hexmaps!)

[AndrewSFTSN]

Hello all!

I bought the DCC rulebook last week and immediately have been buzzing with ideas for a campaign. For some reason Moorcock is the author that comes to mind most prominently to me when reading the rules, and I love the fast-forward style of the original Corum trilogy, with protagonists ending up in radically different places and spheres of existence every chapter or so.

I think this points toward a campaign that is like multiple "mini-sandboxes" layered parallel to each other, each representing a different plane or sphere, with "jump points" as goals to find to progress to the next one. I'm also going to drop demi-humans entirely.

Now, I don't have too much trouble coming up with an idea for a funnel, especially after scanning the forums here. Meteor strike/slave train/plague etc, I think I could come up with something.

BUT after this adventure is done, how do I then link that to this idea of a quest that calls for these newly Level 1'd characters to head off into the ether? I liked the idea of them finding their way out of the initial adventure, only to find that the exit has led them somewhere totally different...

Appreciate your thoughts on a decent funnel/campaign proper combo!

[catseye yellow]

maybe funnel jaunts them to some distant plane and they are now working their way back home?

[finarvyn]

I don't have a lot to offer on this at the moment, but your post has gotten me thinking about the Corum books again. Kind of funny that Moorcock's Elric books get so much press but Corum is largely forgotten. Now I need to dust off my copy of the Swords Trilogy and re-read it.

[AndrewSFTSN]

Any series that feature - even for a short time - a castle made of jellified blood is definitely hitting the tone I think DCC aims for!

maybe funnel jaunts them to some distant plane and they are now working their way back home?

I'm thinking this might be the best way. I think each plane could have a sandbox area of something way smaller than usual, say 48 x 48 miles, with the party having the definite knowledge that these jump points are always found within a short distance of one another.

Perhaps it could be an item that needs activating in some way on each plane-does anyone remember the blackrock gems/moonstones from Ultima Underworld/Ultima series?

[cjoepar]

I don't have a lot to offer on this at the moment, but your post has gotten me thinking about the Corum books again. Kind of funny that Moorcock's Elric books get so much press but Corum is largely forgotten. Now I need to dust off my copy of the Swords Trilogy and re-read it.

And I just found a used copy of the swords trilogy on Amazon for a penny!

[cjoepar]

...Perhaps it could be an item that needs activating in some way on each plane-does anyone remember the blackrock gems/moonstones from Ultima Underworld/Ultima series?

What about a magic map, or tome full of maps? Something like in the movie Time Bandits. It might take a combination of finding some key and some specific location to find the gate to another plane. Perhaps at the end of the funnel they are sent to another plane and the whole campaign can be about their attempts to get home.

[catseye yellow]

Any series that feature - even for a short time - a castle made of jellified blood is definitely hitting the tone I think DCC aims for!

maybe funnel jaunts them to some distant plane and they are now working their way back home?

I'm thinking this might be the best way. I think each plane could have a sandbox area of something way smaller than usual, say 48 x 48 miles, with the party having the definite knowledge that these jump points are always found within a short distance of one another.

Perhaps it could be an item that needs activating in some way on each plane-does anyone remember the blackrock gems/moonstones from Ultima Underworld/Ultima series?

maybe, i would put some connecting factor. like a city that sprawls accross levels. maybe multiple 'jaunt' points that require different tasks or accompishments?

i would suggest you to check out fate's fell hand adventure. it can be built into something like you need of a 'level'.

btw, i really like your idea. it got me thinking and it is nice combo of sandbox and railroad.

[thogard]

Lots of ideas in genre lit. I'm working on something adapted from the lighthouse in Clive Barker's Abarat, plus an idea or two from Lost. An item/location combo like the rings and the Wood Between the Worlds in C. S. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew also has possibilities. Or there's the cave or house or castle that has very different exits....

I'm partial to more sandboxy/less questy models.

[catseye yellow]

on somewhat unrelated note: it is obvious that moonglum is halfling and that his luck fuels elric's more out-there spells.

[finarvyn]

I think each plane could have a sandbox area of something way smaller than usual, say 48 x 48 miles, with the party having the definite knowledge that these jump points are always found within a short distance of one another.

That's a cool idea. Essentially, these collected planes would act a lot like a gigantic megadungeon.

In a way, this reminds me of the old RPG Metamorphosis Alpha, which had more than a dozen levels of a giant starship and each level was a "world" as it was miles wide and miles long.

Anyway, nice idea!

[AndrewSFTSN]

Ok, so my 5 planes/spheres are going to be:

1. A temperate wilderness, mountainous type place.
2. A flooded world, with coral mountains and very little landmass above water
3. A harsh planetoid, possibly a moon of some kind.
4. ??? (Any ideas welcome)
5. HELL

Players will wake up in Hell if they are TPK'd by undead or demons, due to a "bureaucratic error". I'll probably draw heavily on the incredible work John Slater has done with his hexcrawl of Hell over at The Land of Nod (http://matt-landofnod.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Hell).

Meanwhile, the maps I've got so far, mostly using variations on the mini-sandbox method here (http://aeonsnaugauries.blogspot.co.uk/s ... campaign-1) These are 10 mile hexes, as you can see I'm keeping these quite small, as I think there'll be more than enough adventuring when you factor in the possibility of cross planar quests.

This is the temperate one. Red crosses indicate strongholds or castles, red circles are villages, the red square is a city. Black arches are either dungeons, lairs, or ruins. Purple is swamp, and the rest should be self-explanatory.



This is the flooded world. Please note any islands with a blue border are considered to be above the waterline, everything else is submerged in this map. Kelp forests can spill out of the water onto the islands, however.



This is the moon/planetoid. Went a bit nuts here...there's craters, the purple lines are cracks or clefts, the blue swirls are atmospheric disturbances. I deliberately wanted to avoid bodies of water here, just to keep things unearthly.

[finarvyn]

Another interesting thing about Corum was the hand and eye that he had. He could see creatures from another plane, then use the hand to reach out and get them. It would be interesting to populate each of your 5 sample planes with very different types of creatures, then allow some of this sort of magic to cross-pollinate them.