Setting up Dolmenwood

Note: This post was initially going to be about my tour of Scotland and Ireland, along with pictures of the various locations and cultural notes on the difference between life in the UK and Ireland and life in the US from a tourist's perspective. However, shortly into our honeymoon my wife and I were informed that a friend had passed away unexpectedly, and we had to return early. While we did get to see some cool places, I think it's understandable that the idea of a Scotland write-up has been somewhat soured for me.

Warning! The following post and the associated links contain spoilers for the Dolmenwood setting and is for those interested in running this setting for themselves. While specifics are not discussed, those who want to be players in this setting could be screwing themselves over if they continue reading too far.

I've been a fan of Dolmenwood for a while, even going so far as to back it on Patreon for a year leading up to the Kickstarter. It's almost everything I've wanted in a setting, and I even have had the chance to run a couple of small games in it. However, a taste every once in a while isn't enough for me. I want full immersion. To that end, I'm setting up a longer campaign with a group of friends that I'm hoping to start up sometime late this year/early next year.

Will it be everything a gamer could ever wish for? A massive TTRPG sensation that will take on Critical Role and Highrollers, and even dethrone giants like 3d6 Down the Line or Dungeon Musings? No. No, it will not be that. Firstly, that takes way more time and energy than I have, and secondly, I'm not that good of a GM. I do alright, but I am a small-town GM who hasn't had the chance to run a game in almost a year, and only got to run every other month in the times before that. Lastly, I'm not going to be streaming my game. I might be down for that, but I'm reasonably certain my friends wouldn't be.

However, I am going to do my due diligence (and honestly a lot more) because I love the setting, want to give back a little to the community, and because I need the distraction. So, to that end:

To set up a campaign like this you need a few things. Firstly, a theme and a setup. While the ones in the book are fine, I want easy potential for all of them. So, I stole my setup from Morrowind. Here is how it goes:

The King has a number of spies throughout his kingdom, operating on his behalf. This agency is known commonly the Blackwatch or just "The Watch." Its ruling council is the Order of the Eye, members of the gentry and nobility raised up by a combination of merit and nepotism. The local liaison is Sir Aithan Gruewater, a Tyrion Lannisteresque figure who's lack of political standing has seen him placed in the "low risk/low interest" border province. However, Aithan's recent reports have aroused concern, and his "quiet posting" is turning out not to be so quiet.

The King's mages, diviners, and fortunetellers have explored their options and concluded that a large scale military operation is inadvisable. Instead, they suggested a different tactic: free a few prisoners that are politically expedient, potentially useful, are unlikely to lash out at the Crown and are likely to stir up the right kind of trouble. The Crown agrees and the fortune tellers begin screening for potential candidates.

Our PCs are the first selected and we open the scene up with them being discharged on the streets of Brackenwold, and told that if they leave the province of Dolmenwood without special permissions they will be killed. What they do from here is their business, but The Crown has given them paperwork that they can take to Aithan who will help them get started.

From there we can have them take on The Pipes of Droomen Knoll adventure that comes with the campaign book.

So, why am I doing things this way? A few reasons.
1. I think that a good player driven campaign needs some kind of a main quest. It doesn't have to be much, just something the players can come back to if they get tired of doing their own thing. The Morrowind formula of "main quest with plenty of offramps" should work perfectly for this.
2. It narrows my scope. Why are my players in Dolmenwood? Because the king will have them killed if they leave. They are free only so long as they remain in the region. I don't have to worry about them heading south, I can just say "if you head south, your character drops out of the campaign and you'll have to make a new one.” I could do that anyways, but now I have a narrative reason to point to as well as an external reason.
3. My players are coming from (mostly) 5e. So, it's likely that characters are going to die off regularly. This setup gives me an easy way to introduce new characters into the party as old ones die off. "The king's magi felt these prisoners might be useful." done. Everyone is on the same page, with roughly the same goal. If (Dark Gods forbid) there is a TPK, we can revisit and take things in a different direction.
4. Aithan lets me drip feed the party hooks and information in a way that will feel somewhat natural. He isn't going to dump a ton of lore on them, but a little direction can go a long way to keeping of slog.
5. I have flexibility to adjust the "main quest" as needed. Aithan's reports aren't getting told to the players, and they are vague enough that any of a dozen threats can be the one concerning the King's mages. Of course, it's probably the Nag Lord, but it doesn't have to be the Nag Lord. It could be the Cold Prince, or the Drune, or the church is having a crisis, or the war between the Breggle houses. Any or all of them will work out.

That is the setup. It's great. It's also not exactly gameable. So, I went ahead prepped it. You can find my notes here in a Word .doc format along with links to the battle maps I decided to use (all of which were free or came with the campaign book). Tokens were more difficult, and I can't share most of mine because I didn't create the base art, but there is instructions for how to make your own included in the doc as well. Lastly, I included statblocks and tokens for the characters I could, namely the Pedlar, Aithan, and Arda Vague from the adventure. But wait, there's more! I also included in this link a file to my Dolmenwood Calendar/Weather Planner. It makes it really easy to log weather (I prefer to roll a months’ worth of weather ahead of time) and track time under the boughs of the 'Wood.

Sorry this one is so short, but it took quite a bit of creative energy, and I wasn't up to much more than this. Next post will be the read-along coverage of Laird Barron's short story "Nemesis," which I really enjoyed, and found nearly impossible to write up into a post.