So gist is, I made a PbP campaign thinking nothing of it; I could still plan it out while players slowly trickled in. Spoiler: a lot joined before I had most of it put together for the start.
i ask of you, my fellow DM’s to posssibly help me with the initial actual start of the journey.
i have and introduction for it and it’s essentially the party for some reason or another joined the Void Corps to explore the abyss and document and discover more about it. I need some help with the descent from the first layer and if you could help that would be fantastic. Even some source suggestions with condensed info would be great.
Thank you for all your suggestions. Feel free to PM me if you’d like more info or just would like to potentially join.
When I think of exploring the Abyss, I think of a campaign of survival as much as anything else. Perhaps the new recruits are being lead through a previously explored "safe area" by their commanding officer when, chaotic as the Abyss is, a sudden demon attack decimates their unit, kills their commander, and forces them to flee until they're horribly lost. Now, only the party remaining, they have to find their way back to contact the corps and survive long enough to get an extraction.
When I think of exploring the Abyss, I think of a campaign of survival as much as anything else. Perhaps the new recruits are being lead through a previously explored "safe area" by their commanding officer when, chaotic as the Abyss is, a sudden demon attack decimates their unit, kills their commander, and forces them to flee until they're horribly lost. Now, only the party remaining, they have to find their way back to contact the corps and survive long enough to get an extraction.
I think that could work but the problem is I feel like it's not a mission about getting back to the corps more so at the start it's a mission of getting past the previously discovered layers to the undiscovered ones to research and document them so a demon attack could work to get them ambushed and forced to run down a track that is previously unfound. Also I feel like if the commanding officers were on the mission the demons would barely get two turns if lucky on their initiative rolls so it'l probably be another starting unit.
The main thing I'm worried about is describing how they traverse throughout the abyss between layers. But i think I've kinda figured it out in a way that fits the lore of my story.
Thanks for the help I'll definitely use that to direct the party members towards the new layers I have prepared.
If this isn't what you're looking for, just tell me. This will will be some general advice as I don't have too much information on what you want the campaign to look like. If you need anything else just PM me.
A good way to get your players to do what you want and make sure their exploring in the right direction would to have certain 'safe havens' for the party to rest, resupply, and possibly receive coordinates/orders. Since you said it's more of an exploration campaign, you could have your players follow a map, coordinates, or some sort of a guide to lead them deeper into their journey. You could then slowly remove these as you get farther into the Abyss.
You said you needed help about how their traversing thorough the abyss. My advice would be to mix it up a little. Traveling is known to be a boring and repetitive activity in campaigns, especially with meaningless random encounters. For example, in one layer you could simply have your players find an alter to teleport them to the next location, ride a strange beast for a price, or get some sort of vehicle that they may have to ditch later on. I have some more advice on this, so if this isn't what your envisioning no problem.
You said you needed some help with the descent from the first layer. Would you clarify please? What time zone/tech era are these guys in?
You said you need some help with the intro, if you really are running out of time you can use on of my favorite tactics, send you players right into the fray. Lets say you start off just as they are getting ready. Something goes wrong and they need to go NOW. Players are then forced to rely on little information until later when you reveal it. Just a recommendation, but it's not everyone's style.
Thanks Ash I’ll probably do a mix of what you said and tie it in with my own plans. I mixed—I’m pretty sure—layer 605 with layer one essentially making the first layer habitable and inhabited by celestial influence that tamed the first layer. This ended up causing a great chasm that lead to new layers that were previously unknown and unreachable that then in some cases connected with the overworld. My plan is to have them go down and end up getting some sort of ambush and be thrown into the chasm only to end up finding a lush forest filled with hostile supersized bugs.
The party is also documenting layers and neutralizing threats if any arise. The end goal is to find enough information about the abyss that the Void Corps can seal its growth or, after learning enough information about the true nature of gods or learning about their influence it's possible to force it to come into existence in a vulnerable state (like demon's true names but more so info) this only works if the god is real and does truly have influence over a realm or something. The god isn't mortal--unless already mortal for some reason--but it is vulnerable.
Nice, large amounts of writing can be momentous but it's usually my favorite part of the process. Hope you have fun and feel free to PM for any future assistance you need!
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So gist is, I made a PbP campaign thinking nothing of it; I could still plan it out while players slowly trickled in. Spoiler: a lot joined before I had most of it put together for the start.
i ask of you, my fellow DM’s to posssibly help me with the initial actual start of the journey.
i have and introduction for it and it’s essentially the party for some reason or another joined the Void Corps to explore the abyss and document and discover more about it. I need some help with the descent from the first layer and if you could help that would be fantastic. Even some source suggestions with condensed info would be great.
Thank you for all your suggestions. Feel free to PM me if you’d like more info or just would like to potentially join.
When I think of exploring the Abyss, I think of a campaign of survival as much as anything else. Perhaps the new recruits are being lead through a previously explored "safe area" by their commanding officer when, chaotic as the Abyss is, a sudden demon attack decimates their unit, kills their commander, and forces them to flee until they're horribly lost. Now, only the party remaining, they have to find their way back to contact the corps and survive long enough to get an extraction.
I think that could work but the problem is I feel like it's not a mission about getting back to the corps more so at the start it's a mission of getting past the previously discovered layers to the undiscovered ones to research and document them so a demon attack could work to get them ambushed and forced to run down a track that is previously unfound. Also I feel like if the commanding officers were on the mission the demons would barely get two turns if lucky on their initiative rolls so it'l probably be another starting unit.
The main thing I'm worried about is describing how they traverse throughout the abyss between layers. But i think I've kinda figured it out in a way that fits the lore of my story.
Thanks for the help I'll definitely use that to direct the party members towards the new layers I have prepared.
If this isn't what you're looking for, just tell me. This will will be some general advice as I don't have too much information on what you want the campaign to look like. If you need anything else just PM me.
A good way to get your players to do what you want and make sure their exploring in the right direction would to have certain 'safe havens' for the party to rest, resupply, and possibly receive coordinates/orders. Since you said it's more of an exploration campaign, you could have your players follow a map, coordinates, or some sort of a guide to lead them deeper into their journey. You could then slowly remove these as you get farther into the Abyss.
You said you needed help about how their traversing thorough the abyss. My advice would be to mix it up a little. Traveling is known to be a boring and repetitive activity in campaigns, especially with meaningless random encounters. For example, in one layer you could simply have your players find an alter to teleport them to the next location, ride a strange beast for a price, or get some sort of vehicle that they may have to ditch later on. I have some more advice on this, so if this isn't what your envisioning no problem.
You said you needed some help with the descent from the first layer. Would you clarify please? What time zone/tech era are these guys in?
You said you need some help with the intro, if you really are running out of time you can use on of my favorite tactics, send you players right into the fray. Lets say you start off just as they are getting ready. Something goes wrong and they need to go NOW. Players are then forced to rely on little information until later when you reveal it. Just a recommendation, but it's not everyone's style.
Hoped this helped! -Ash
Thanks Ash I’ll probably do a mix of what you said and tie it in with my own plans. I mixed—I’m pretty sure—layer 605 with layer one essentially making the first layer habitable and inhabited by celestial influence that tamed the first layer. This ended up causing a great chasm that lead to new layers that were previously unknown and unreachable that then in some cases connected with the overworld. My plan is to have them go down and end up getting some sort of ambush and be thrown into the chasm only to end up finding a lush forest filled with hostile supersized bugs.
No problem, that's a good idea! What's the point of the party beside exploration? What are they trying to accomplish?
The party is also documenting layers and neutralizing threats if any arise. The end goal is to find enough information about the abyss that the Void Corps can seal its growth or, after learning enough information about the true nature of gods or learning about their influence it's possible to force it to come into existence in a vulnerable state (like demon's true names but more so info) this only works if the god is real and does truly have influence over a realm or something. The god isn't mortal--unless already mortal for some reason--but it is vulnerable.
Super cool! I bet it will be fun making all the different layers.
I'm only onto layer two and I'm already feeling the writers fatigue... though I did completely remodel it and add a really complex boss fight.
Despite all the writing, as someone with crippling amounts of freetime most days it's actually quite pleasant to pass the time.
Nice, large amounts of writing can be momentous but it's usually my favorite part of the process. Hope you have fun and feel free to PM for any future assistance you need!