The whack-a-mole way.
Expanding on a previous post, creating a dynamic campaign world, one approach to campaign design is to use a system to keep track of shifting dangers and measure a region’s power balance behind the scenes.
Creating more threats than a single party can deal with at once gives characters an opportunity to step into a dynamic world in which they have to prioritize and make tactical choices about which direction to take, rather than be led along a linear path. Inclusion of rival factions or opposing threats can lend enough balance to a region that the group doesn’t immediately become overwhelmed, and also adds time-sensitive elements to quests.
The threats and rivals can be tracked and updated using a tiered system, eg. grading their power into five or more tiers with each tier representing a level or challenge rating range of the threat depending on the campaign style, eg. 1-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12, 13-15 for a long-term heroic campaign.
With multiple quest hooks, the threats that are not dealt with can grow in power if dynamic (eg. a villain, monster, or unstable magic), or remain the same if static (eg. a tomb or buried treasure, unless a rampaging guardian or curse is unleashed). The time scale of this occurring (eg. every two weeks) depends on the pace of the campaign, with new threats thrown into the mix at each stage.
However, not all quests will become more dangerous, or even remain. They may vanish if dealt with by a rival group, with rivals’ power tiers growing at a comparable rate. As well as removing static threats or countering dynamic ones, rivals may combine with them according to their aims and alignments, and instead increase their power.
Initially, threats will affect their immediate surrounds, then adjacent areas as their power grows. This can be tracked using hex or grid mapping, with potential threats combining or countering each other if they overlap.
Effects will vary according to threat type, with arcane rifts causing increasingly powerful extraplanar beings to appear, blight beasts spreading rot, or necromantic energies strengthening undead. Hunting monsters may hatch offspring or attract minions to guard their lairs as their hunger grows and causes them to roam further afield. Outlaws evading bounty hunters may gather others to them, becoming bandit leaders, then eventually roving warlords capable of plundering whole settlements.
If this approach appeals to you, one method to generate dynamic campaign quest zones in this manner can be found in our game and GM resource ‘Guilds & Glory’ available on DriveThruRPG. Enjoy!
A big question I have is how do the players know if they are making the right choices about which threats to attend to? If many things can grow in power and influence, the players might start to feel that questing is like a hydra…cut off a head and 2 more grow to take its place.
Should there be a sense of progression in a region that leads to a sense of security (if only temporary)? If the players inaction can shape the region, how do the players feel the potentially positive effects of their actions?
Player knowledge about the ‘right choices’ can depend on character skill checks, research or reconnaissance efforts, and the desired levels of mystery. A sense of progression and security (or not) in a region may depend on the theme and genre of the campaign.
A grimdark campaign may potentially involve sacrificing whole regions to evil forces for survival, or a horror campaign may lead to inevitable doom. But in a heroic campaign, some of the suggested tools may be used:
eg. ‘inclusion of rival factions or opposing threats can lend balance to a region’ (meaning some of the threats may fight each other or cancel each other out, ideally if the PCs are canny enough to engineer it)
Also: ‘The time scale of this occurring (eg. every two weeks) depends on the pace of the campaign’ (meaning that new threats can be introduced at a relaxed rate rather than an overwhelming one, potentially allowing plenty of downtime to enjoy success if that’s what players favor)
And: ‘not all quests will become more dangerous, or even remain. They may vanish if dealt with by a rival group, with rivals’ power tiers growing at a comparable rate’ (meaning that the PCs may not be the only band of heroes/ mercenaries/ murderhobos in the area, and rival parties may clean up problems that the PCs can’t. Of course, the rival parties may themselves prove a problem later on…)