So let’s answer @Dave’s question from the other thread:
After reading through the book, I can safely say that the game is about a group of adventurers going on an epic quest that starts with humble beginnings. With that in mind, I see two major series ideas pop out at me.
The Unshrouded Lands
The first series I idea I have involves the Unshrouded Lands (pg. 288). In this series, the PCs would be newly arrived adventurers intent on exploring the Unshrouded Lands for fame, glory, riches, and the like.
This series would run no unlike a West Marches-style campaign: the PCs would have a home base to return to between excursions (the city of Foothold, a.k.a. “Colony Centrum M3G-410-S”) and a majority of the action would involve delving into the uncovered ruins and sites of the Unshrouded Lands. That’s not to say adventurer wouldn’t also take place in Foothold. Far from it.
As the book points out, there are a multitude of factions in the city of Foothold (chief among them the forces sent by the Arlyte Empire to oversee and administrate the newly founded colony) as well as its connected city of “barbarians” Nogra. This means there is sure to be intrigue and playing-and-being-played by different factions between journeys into the Unshrouded Lands.
Features of the Unshrouded Lands Series:
- “Dungeon” Delving
- Home Base/Base Building
- Long-term Storytelling with a Reoccurring Cast of Characters
The Adventurers’ Guild
The second series idea is much closer in tone to what we’ve been doing in Root: wandering adventurers acting on behalf of the will of the people as members of one of the world’s many adventuring guilds (pg. 266). In this series, the PCs would still be adventurers and mercenaries, but rather than isolated to a single part of the world, they would be wanderers—possibly with an airship to travel from holm to holm.
This series would be much more varied with a variety of clients: one week might see you helping a town rescue their citizens from kidnapping monsters, while another might see you performing espionage against the Arlyte Empire to help one of the holms. This would explicitly be an episodic series like Leverage or the X-Files (including the possibility of there being an overarching plot that connects the otherwise separate and stand-alone episodes).
Features of the Adventurers’ Guild Series:
- Monster/Danger-of-the-Week Storytelling
- Episodic Adventurers
- Storylines Tend to be B-Plot
So which of these sounds more appealing? Wandering sellswords and mercenaries, or stationary adventurers who continually delving into a seemingly infinite abyss?