Home › Discussions › Campaign Portal Building › Looking for some advice - Campaign Portal Building Discussions on Obsidian Portal Community Forums
Looking for some advice
So I started this new campaign, called Verlora. That can be found here: http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/verlora
I was just looking for some advice, or feedback from experienced DMs (or unexperienced idc), as this is my first campaign.
Any feedback whatsoever: negative, positive, or neutral I don't care. I just can't seem to find people who are willing to give me some feedback. But I need some in order to make it the best that I can.
So if you have time, I'd appreciate anything you have to add.
Thanks, Derek.
I was just looking for some advice, or feedback from experienced DMs (or unexperienced idc), as this is my first campaign.
Any feedback whatsoever: negative, positive, or neutral I don't care. I just can't seem to find people who are willing to give me some feedback. But I need some in order to make it the best that I can.
So if you have time, I'd appreciate anything you have to add.
Thanks, Derek.
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Comments
I think you've got a good starting idea of the way you want to use the Portal, and are on your way to creating a fine campaign/site. So far I would say that your "house rules" section should probably have it's own link, rather than having them all on your main page, as you're doing with the history/cities, etc.
Like I said, fine start, just keep plugging away...the more you add, the more rich and deep (and fun) your world will be not only for your eventual group of players, but for visitors to your site to enjoy, as well.
I highly reccomend looking around the Portal at some of the amazing sites to see what others have come up with, and see the amazing possibilities. Just remember that not only do these things take time to develop, but that there are a number of skill-sets involved in site creation, and you'll likely need a lot of help along the way. As for myself, I'm not even really a computer guy, so all the fancy coding aspects for making content attractive (you'll see what I mean when you explore the Portal some more) are beyond me. Everyone around here is free with their wealth of knowledge, though, and willing to help you make your site whatever you want it to become.
Welcome to the Portal, and the Forums, see you around.
edit: also, I'm not sure you need all the notes about your site being a work in progress, etc. as this community, like I said, is very willing to help, and everyone realizes that even the greatest sites started somewhere. Don't feel the need to defend yourself before anyone even says anything.
First, I've always liked the concept of an ancient lost civilization (Velora) similar to Atalantis. Whole campaign arcs can be built around the idea of discovering such a civilization (matter of fact I'm using this story arch in one of my campaigns as well). Likewise, the inexplicable rise of a technologically advanced tower adds a sense of mystery and otherworldliness to your campaign. As time allows, these would be features well worth fleshing out in more depth.
Second, your cosmology (The Void vs. The gods) is interesting, but could use some more detail. I'd be curious to know a little more about the War Before Time.
Third, it looks like you've done your own map of Tega. Very cool! It would be nice to see it labeled however. Perhaps you could even include a link to a full scale jpg of the map in your locations section. Also, are you familiar with the "Cartographer's Guild":http://forum.cartographersguild.com/index.php?referrerid=15127? It's a site for map enthusiasts to share their work, share trade cartography secrets and in general, promote the creation of good maps. That is where I learned how to do the maps featured on my sites, and I would highly recommend that you consider checking out the site and posting your Tega Map there for critique. You can glean allot of helpful info from the good people of the Guild.
Fourth, I like your Campaign Banner; it really works well with the Chronos storyline and helps to set the mood of your campaign.
Overall, as I mentioned earlier, you are off to a good start. There are still a number of things that need to be fleshed out, but that will come in time. World-building, Campaign-building, and Site-construction are all time consuming activities, so don't feel like you need to rush to get everything done right away. Take your time and enjoy the ride.
Cheers,
-Arsheesh
@Poutine_Paladin: I like your idea of moving the house rules to a page of its own... seems so obvious when somebody else says it haha. But I haven't had a chance to really look around ObsidianPortal, at all the other campaigns. I'll try to find some time though, so maybe I can get some inspiration about formatting my site; as well as for my campaign itself. The more I look around ObsidianPortal though, the more I see what a friendly community it is (you leaving feedback is proof enough ha). Even if one were to overlook all the cool tools on here, this aspect alone would be reason enough to join the site. So I just want to say thank you again, for making a newbie feel welcome haha. But I'll take down some of those notes you were talking about, you make a good point about that.
@Arsheesh: I have sooooooooooo much planned already for what I want to do with the Cronus tower, and Verlora :D I'm a naturally talented writer (which might be why I'm enjoying DMing so much), so providing tons of story hooks isn't proving to be a problem at all. I'm excited to see how the players are going to react to all these hooks; can't wait :)
As far as the history (war before time etc.), when I was writing it I was just trying to think of some fanciful creation you might expect from any campaign. But to my surprise, you're not the first person who wants to know more about that era haha. So I think I might visit that era in more detail later in the campaign, with some time travel or something. I didn't realize that concept would be so popular :P.
The first thing I did when creating my world was build the map. Then I started adding governments, cultures, and plot twists around that. I feel that's the best way to create a world, by starting with the world itself, and then populating it afterward. But I have heard of the Cartographer's Guild, though I thought they required a payment to be a member? Maybe I read that wrong or something, but I'm a fan of some of there tutorials (at least the ones you can view when you're not a member).
Thanks again for the feedback, feel free to drop me a message or comment anytime. I'd be happy to answer any questions, or present feedback in the same manner that you did for me :)
I haven't had time to check out your campaign yet, but I figured I'd say hi. I will let you know what I think when I look at it later. I'll probably have some time tonight to give it a quick browse.
"DarkMagus":http://www.obsidianportal.com/profile/DarkMagus
My only constructive criticism is that your wikis could be more visitor friendly by centralizing all the pages. If I want to find most of your pages I have to follow link after link to get to them. Which is a bummer because you have some very interesting material. Consider using the main page to put everything out. Maybe you don't have to list every single page, but it is possible to categorize them in such a way that they could only be one one (or two at most) clicks away from the main page. Putting things into categories helps the reader find types if pages quicker. So if I am telling everyone in the forums about how cool the Valtyl'grosh Empire is then they should be able to go to your page and find it rather easily. This requires a little planning out but it makes all the difference. That's one of the biggest things I learned by looking at other peoples campaigns. My first campaign on here, "The Ilumnos Series":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/the-ilumnos-series, is guilty of this to a degree as well. I have been wanting to redo it for a while, but have been busy with other projects, so it'll probably be some time.
Oh yeah, I'd love to see more about the types of monsters that inhabit this world. Such a unique setting surely must have some intriguing beasts!
But I looked through your Ilumnos campaign for a bit. There's some cool concepts in there, it's kind of similar to another campaign I'm planning. Where there's going to be several planes of existence. It's a fun concept to play around with haha
Also, thanks for checking out my campaign. :)
But I also want to point out, that when writing about the continents I outlined MAJOR natural locations and governments/cultures. Within each major region there's going to be sub-regions as well. The Rubnoth Valley in Salafins, for example, is going to have at least six or seven different marsh areas within it; and quite a few water channels, each with its own unique name and properties.
But I don't know if I should add these sub-regions later as the players explore the world, or if I should make them now so I can add more folklore, unique monsters, cultures, etc.
But I like the idea of a machine that brings players to other worlds. Do you mind if I take that concept and run with it in another direction? In the other campaign I'm planning? I think instead I'll go with a building that is actually a giant machine (concept from the movie "13 Ghosts"), but using different runes and/or inscriptions the players can open different portals. I don't know, I'm just spit balling ideas here haha
That is what is so cool about OP. If you want you can just have some brief descriptions of major places, or you can go crazy detailing every possible place/person/thing out there. AND you can make sections of a page or entire pages DM ONLY so your players don't have to know whats out there yet. When they finally do explore it you have already typed it all up.
Hey thanks man! :) Feel free to use whatever you want man. I borrow ideas and get influences from everything out there.
But if you have any ideas for more centralization, I'm all ears. I'm new to formatting wiki pages haha and after looking around OP I haven't seen too many campaigns that are very centralized. The ones that are though, hardly have any information type up anyways. So they don't have as much to organize :P
But, thanks, DM, for the plug! :D
I think swinging from one to the other is actually a lot easier than doing both at the same time. You pour out information, then say, "Golly Gee, I must needs clean this mess up before Mother gets home, wot wot?" Or you spend a month painting pretty pictures and say "I need a campaign for this imagery! TALLY HO!"
...or you make up asinine, incorrect, false, british phrases like me.
Or you try and do arty and content at the same time, and find yourself at a lack of creative gumption, because when you switch to art from content, you lose the steam you had on the other.
Dusk is always the best one to ask. He gives the bestest unconventional answers. Ever. In the history of bestest.
Anyway, just my two cents, looks awesome to me -- great job so far. Looks like you really have a good grasp of how you want your world to look/feel/work which can be a very important part of keeping all the players fully immersed.
Also, images are a big key to making each page in your wiki look unique. That way you don't get totally lost when perusing back through the pages on the 800 cities you just came up with. Even if it just means sticking a generated coat of arms on there, having that visual makes all the difference.
Ok, I'd love to give more feedback, but apparently you've restricted the campaign's visibility. What I can comment on is the banner, however. First off, it looks awesome! However, the tagline seems a bit ... overworked. Consider removing "the world of" and "sure, that you are". If you want the tagline to fill the top of the banner, consider rephrasing the first half, which seems a bit redundant; if that redundancy is intentional, make it obvious that that's the case; also consider rephrasing the second half, which seems more awkward than anything else, adding something that brings out the character more. Don't get me wrong; I really like the core concept for your tagline, I just think it could be better presented. I can't see your actual campaign, so any example I give will likely be crude; but to illustrate, I'd use something like:
"Adventure awaits all who enter ... TEGA ... but will you survive the journey?"
That's more-or-less off the top of my head, and I don't know if it fits your campaign idea very well (I usually try to actually kill my players off - j/k, but not really), but I hope that helps.
Also like people said, check around the other OP sites for inspiration. The CotM is a good place to start or DarkMagus' list is also good. My page was nothing but white pages with incomplete black text until I looked around and saw all the amazing things you can make here on OP (Although I still have a long way to go to get to the standards of Arsheesh and others). Also do not be afraid to ask anything on the forums cause everyone here is really friendly and helpful and you do not have the thousands of douche bags you find on other gaming forums!
-Jaymes
"Changing History":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/l5r-changing-history
-Jaymes
Campaign of the Month Febuary 2013