The Campaign Trail

## **The Battles vs The War**

Most campaigns will focus on a scenario that has easily-defined geographic boundaries, for players if the not the effects. Primal Magic turns the entire Forgotten Realms into a potential theater of war. With this background, DMs can create specific quest lines that take the characters around the world and well beyond it. The scale of the campaign is limited only by time and sanity.

While this framework provides ultimate, inclusive flexibility, it can be overwhelming on where to start. This is why we are play-testing three mini-campaigns to get the ball rolling. Each progressive campaign takes on more of the signature *Primal Magic* and all the custom mods that go with it.

The mini-campaigns are rough echoes for two out of the three full campaign paths that are available: *Allies*, *Insiders* and *Opponents*. The mini-campaigns dive into two of those three options.

* The ***Allies path*** straddles the ***Outsiders*'** and ***Walking the Edge*** mini-campaigns. The characters players build here are assumed to be geographically removed, not adversarial.
* The ***Stonehearth Subjects path*** is full-custom, ridiculously OP campaign-only builds for realists who still have a streak of optimism. The ***Tip of the Spear*** mini-campaign dips a toe in this water.
* The ***Opponents path*** is geared toward evil characters looking to play spoilers or those who feel the Stonehearth Marquisate has lost its way. *Waaaaay* outside the scope of a mini-campaign.

### **First Steps on the Campaign Trail**

Each of the mini-campaigns has self-contained introductory situations and scenarios that will help get the players rolling. Once the table accomplishes the campaign goals, if the players are enjoying that level and tempo, let them jump to other scenarios at that scale. Think of it as a lateral promotion: *just because they level up doesn't mean they're forced to level out*. The Campaign Trail gives DMs momentum to carry a table beyond a mini-campaign and into a full, long-term adventure.

One of the keys, no matter if they move up or they're just moving around, is to occasionally dip back to show the fruits of the efforts on previous fronts. The intent of this campaign is to show that what the characters do *means something*. Even if they weren't the tip of the spear, they participated and contributed. And sometimes, when success backslides and their work is undone, it can also be a great tool to set up a persistent enemy.

Ultimately, this is about big-picture progress against forces that embody death and destruction. How does the DM keep the players relevant in a war that has a dozen fronts? That's easy: *no matter which battles the PCs engage, each of those battles have stakes*. The outcome permanently changes that area, for better or worse.

### **The Building Blocks of Campaign Reality**

Before a DM creates a single map, they need to *get meta*.

Stonehearth is motivated the Ethic of Light and the Duty to Act. What does that mean? When you read about a "Primal Campaign" versus a "Stonehearth Campaign," what does that mean?

Learn what makes Stonehearth tick and more:

* ***Dungeon Meta*** ***for Dungeon Masters***...

## **T-minus and Counting...**

The prelude to every campaign is DM prep and character creation (or import). Here is where players should read ***the Crucible***, then work with the DM to find the common ground between the type of character they're interested in, what kind of pace they're expecting, and what kind of campaign the DM is comfortable guiding.

Once the players have characters, it's time to run a few small preliminary scenarios: enough to familiarize everyone with the Primal additions and modifications. How does one wield a *Wand of Casting?* *What's the rate of fire for a Musketeer's projector? How fast does an ArCorps wizard recover that Fireball?* These preliminary quests are the chance to learn rule mechanics while plot impact is minimal.

Familiarization to the primal rules may take several sessions, maybe even a campaign on its own. This is the perfect chance for a Primal Campaign before kicking off a Stonehearth Campaign.

Once everybody is up to speed, the DM should run the ***Zero Hour*** scenario. It's not *absolutely* necessary, especially if all the players are on a distant "allies" route, but it is designed to mark the beginning of Stonehearth's ***Duty to Act*** policy – and the *tick-tock* of the game's narrative clock.

Assuming characters survive Zero Hour, it is now imperative to House Stonehearth that they make progress on their ***Strategic Objectives***. Whether this is a group of marines heading to sea to interdict a red dragon, soldiers of the Arms running operations against Larloch, or meeting a major troll offensive coming out of the Trollclaw Hills, there is plenty to do.

So, *in order*...

### **The Prelude**

DM preparation is key, but we're going to assume you've got that under control. The other major part of the prelude is establishing that interface between you and the players.

Once a group decides on making a run through the Primal universe, their next step is character creation or import. Direct them to **The Crucible** to give them a sense of context and suggestions for backgrounds. The background they select is going to affect the character, and the character is going to affect how they interact with the campaign's scenarios.

A Session Zero can help players get their characters on the same page – or at least close enough to make a scenario work. If the players are coming from disparate backgrounds, it's going to be a challenge finding logical tie-ins. Not impossible, it just depends on how much homework the players and DM are willing to do.

We encourage players to work together to make a smooth tie-in. For example, they might all be from different regions, but they emigrated to the Marquisate, enlisted at similar times and now they're all members of the same Mobile Infantry unit. If most are newer players and there's one experienced player, you might give the Old Hand a extra couple of levels and make them a corporal or sergeant, guiding the rest of the privates.

If the players go all Roleplay Rembrandt, turning into narrative artists as they build their in-game self, we'll do our best to help the DM figure out the party's "special circumstances"...

### **Warming the Engines**

These are suggested templates for introductory scenarios. There is definite risk to these missions, but it's a controlled pace and should allow familiarization over frustration. As everybody (including the DM) acclimates to the Primal rules, the speed of the encounters can pick up.

* **Vetting the Candidates:** Non-Stonehearth characters start here, especially those on the ally path.
* **Training Room****:** Low-Priority Missions for the Stonehearth Arms.

### **Zero Hour**

As much as House Stonehearth is a force for *good*, it also a force for *change*. Those two factors alone guarantee suspicion and hostility in a world where the status quo was often the key to survival. When a group openly embraces the light as Stonehearth has, it becomes a high-profile, high-value target for every other group looking to make a point at their expense. Now, as Stonehearth stands ready for a major operation in the Troll Hills, chaos is coming to North Point...

* **Zero Hour DM Notes** start here.
* **Zero Hour** also has a convenient, player-facing page to help set the scene...

### **Go Time**

Keep the Operational Tempo at full throttle with these bridge missions to your own content.

* **Ready Room:** High-Priority Missions for the Stonehearth Arms.
* **A Position of Trust****:** High-Risk Missions for Allies.