The Campaign Handbook has hit GOLD on DriveThruRPG! It took nearly two years to write, and for all I knew it could have flopped, so this means the world to me. If you’ve bought a copy, sent a link to a friend, or followed me along the way: thank you 🙂
As we draw to the end of 2025, it’s probably time to think about what comes next. I hinted at this in my last post, and I’ve had ideas simmering for months. In some respects, the next project follows on naturally from The Campaign Handbook; in others, it’s completely different.
The biggest shift is system. It won’t be 5e. I was excited by D&D in 2015, but I’ve had my fill: broken builds, over-optimising, combat slog, DM workload, Marvel superheroes. I’ve tried Level Up, but it can’t fix the fundamentals, and the 2024 rules excite me even less. I might run Drakkenheim one day, or Ghosts of Saltmarsh, but that’s probably it.
I also want a smoother writing process. For two years I’ve been working on the Handbook, blogging, prepping sessions, holding down the day job, and raising a wyrmling. Something has to give. If I write a campaign that I can actually run myself and then publish, the load becomes one project, not three.
I’ve also wanted to try an open table for a long time, especially the West Marches model. (Not heard these terms? Read more here and here.) We now have eight players, and a drop-in format probably suits some of us better that a ‘grand campaign’ with multiple story threads would. And then, over Halloween, an AD&D adventure reminded me how charming and fast old-school play could be, and I’ve been scratching a similar itch recently replaying Might and Magic VI: an open world, no hand-holding, no railroading, and meaningful stakes. And then there’s Dungeon of the Mad Mage: still the most fun I’ve had as a DM, and I keep coming back to that idea of a vast, dark megadungeon.
So putting it all together, this is the pitch:
- Open table
- West Marches
- Megadungeon
- Old-School Essentials
Quite a project. Definitely ambitious, but, hopefully, also, fun!
I’ve already sketched out a very basic workflow. I’m loosely following the advice in Ray Otus’s Gygax 75 series. First, I’m going to share a one-page project overview, which is nearly done. Then, the starting town and base of operations. I quite like the idea of ‘discoverable’ towns later down the line, perhaps linked by trade routes or portals, but one town for now. Then, either a short hexcrawl—a few days’ travel from the home base—or the first few dungeon levels. Or both concurrently. I’m not sure which to start with. But that’s a starting point. Once it’s in place, I can start running sessions and refine as I go.
Stay tuned for more updates!
To subscribe, click here. If you like what I do, please support me on Patreon or buy my products on DriveThru RPG. You can follow me on Bluesky @scrollforinit and Instagram @scrollforinitiative. And if you want to make my day, you can buy me a coffee here.