The Campaign Pitch

When of Dice and Dragons turned nine last year, I mentioned that one of my goals was to finally get a new campaign off the ground. There’s been a bit of interest but nothing that I would say that’s catching fire and getting things going, and some of that is on me.

Let’s face it, you need to have the GM fired up over his campaign to get the players hyped up, right?

So, I’ve decided that I need to create a campaign pitch. It’s something short and sweet that will cause the players to show some interest and generate the types of discussions that get you from “sounds interesting,” to “here’s the latest take on my character.”

Obviously you need something to build on, a concept of sorts, a direction to take your players, even if you don’t have all the plot lines mapped out yet (or even started).

So I came up with a campaign setting to start with, say hello to The Osrin Empire (I’ve previously stated that I’m leaving my beloved Rylon behind). The name is just a starting point really, there’s no history sketched out yet, other than it’s been in existence for some time. I’ve also decided that the Empire itself isn’t really interested in expanding at the moment, things are comfortable and stable so the powers that be are following the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” model.

That doesn’t leave anything really interesting for a group of adventurers to do, unless you’re into pure urban or political adventurers, so I need somewhere for them to go as a jump off point for adventuring.

I will admit that the merchant’s caravan mechanic crossed my mind, but I don’t want to force-feed things here, so I’m going to put a town on the edge of the Empire, a place where young fools, or adventurers, go based on the tales they’ve heard. This gives me the ability to craft locations, NPCs, and story lines, but it also serves a purpose when it comes to generating characters.

Why did you travel there?
Who did you leave behind?

In addition, it leaves open the ability to start characters above the initial level, as they had to journey there. Since the town is at the edge of the Empire, things will get more dangerous the further out you go, so improvements in battle skills and arcane ability wouldn’t be out of the question.

Finally, no campaign can really exist for me unless it has a cool title as well. I’m also fond of titles that hint at things to come, or not.

So here’s what I came up with for my pitch, I’ll be circulating it to my potential players in the days to come as well.

In the Shadows of Giants

The Osrin Empire has become tame, and there is little adventure to be had within its borders now. The great adventurers of old sit around the fire telling tales to those that will listen and fill their flagons with ale.

But there are those that still yearn to travel into unknown territories, delve into the depths in search of riches, and slay those creatures that were only whispered about in the scary tales told to keep them in bed as children. For those, they travel to the edge of the empire, to Ashbourne. A bustling and growing town that sits in the shadow of the Burning Slopes, the Giant Mountains of Osrin and is the base for many of their journeys.

So, will you pay for another round of ale, or will you take to the road and travel to Ashbourne to make your mark?

Would you play based on this? Why not share in the comments.

May your dice roll well.