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I run a high fantasy, high magic campaign world. The typical length for one of my campaigns is about two years real time. Under 2nd Edition AD&D, PCs usually reached 18th-21st level. 3.5 Edition is new, and I'm still getting used to it. I've had everything from all-Dwarf parties to mix-n-matches that ended up fighting each other almost as much as they did their common enemies. I have a basic rule that anything the bad guys can do, the PCs can also do. The PCs might have to go on a long, drawn-out quest, or make a deal with a dev... ah, Fiend... to do it (and take some awful consequences), but they can. When the PC wizards get to those 7th, 8th, and 9th level spells, they all seem to acquire the exact same manic gleam to the eyes.
I first started the campaign world of Avamor in summer 1985. I created the city of Dalkhold at the fork of the Earthsblood and Kaldav rivers. I had sketchy notes about the city of Kaldania to the north, on the shores of Lake Fraul; the forests of Cwyn Mar (which was called Mankirth at the time) to the south, the conquered land of Dandria to the east, and somewhere west along the Earthsblood was the City of Anryth. There had been an ancient empire somewhere to the north that had once been ruled by wizards (the Empire of Tesh), but had long since been laid waste. Elves were a barely forgotten memory from that time, as were halflings, gnomes, and other faerie-creatures. Dwarves hailed from a range of mountains called the Lesser Barrier, beyond Anryth. Dalkhold was ruled by a good wizard named Dallod Loguire, who was now at war with Necros of Kaldania for the murder of Dallod's wife. Enter William Gibson's character Maliki, apprentice of Dallod, questing with his companions after lost Elven magics from the First Racewar.
My style of play is narrative with a focus on role-playing. I tend to use a lot of description for the players, giving some of them specific details that their character would notice because of training and/or upbringing, as well as telling them which NPCs (or sometimes PCs) they feel they can trust. Combat is intense and brutal, with fights either over in minutes of real-time, or taking a couple of hours. There's rarely an in-between. My games do tend to focus on combat (it's high fantasy, after all) and individual PC plotlines. I used to run two campaigns during the same game-time period. Sometimes the two groups interacted, mostly they didn't. I learned very early on not to allow a player to have a character in both groups. Players from each group regularly attended the others' session(s) to laugh at them, wince with them, offer solace, or heckle. We called them the Peanut Gallery or Kibitzers (don't ask). Kibitzers and players both seem to take a great interest in making sure the DM is well supplied with food & drink. ;>
These days, real life keeps me too busy to run more than one game at a time. Which is a good thing because this does give me a chance to get used to 3rd Edition rules and figure out where I want to make changes.
In the past, I had a three-ring binder that I give out to my players (the infamous black Players' Book). It had everything from house rules to what their character knows about the world. It also had a complete spell listing, so they didn't have to carry around four or five hardback books of reference material. I am pleased to say that I have been exceptionally lucky in that I've had mostly reasonable, DM-friendly role-players and very few power-gamers, min-maxers, rules lawyers, or other annoyances. And all those rumors about psychological scars are completely unfounded (twitch, twitch). You can look at my 2nd Edition house rules at DM Stuff.
The new 3rd Edition Rules introduced some radical changes to game play. It's taking some time to gather together notes and interpretations. I don't even want to start on the problems that attacks of opportunity caused! As time permits, I'm slowly rebuilding the Players' Book - mostly with information that I make available on the web site.
The last campaigns were loosely titled The Illithid War and "A Lich, Some Orcs, and a Load of Yuan-Ti." The Illithid found Avamor a few centuries ago, and now they're making their move. After the Illithid were taken care of (the PCs succeeded), the Empire of Karanuk tried and conquer the entire continent. The second one has to do with a lich named Atu'an (survivor of two previous campaigns and those PCs' attempts to end his unlife), the Orcs of Mnar, and the greater god Set's ongoing plot to become head of the Avamorian pantheon, and thereby send the world into neverending night. To a certain extent, the Illithid and Set worked together. But the Illithid certainly wouldn't kow tow to a mere god, and it would be pointless for Set to rule over a world that had no worshippers...
I was prepared for most of the possible consequences of the war with the Illithid, and the ensuing conflict with Karanuk. As for Set's plans: He's now the number two Power on this world (after Avaryan, Goddess of the Sun). While the second campaign isn't going to make or break the snake-god's progress towards omnipotence, let's just say it'd be real bad for the world if something permanent and fatal doesn't happen to the Yuan-Ti. I'll post the details about how things turned out here when I get the chance.
Originally, I'd planned to take a break from AD&D after these two campaigns to run a little Cyberpunk in summer 1999. Time to refresh the ol' creative juices and give my poor beleaguered brain a chance to reform some of those lost wrinkles. Unfortunately, those plans fell through. So in 2000, I began slowly revving up my campaign world again. This Sundered Land campaign takes place about 1,000 years after The Illithid War. It starts shortly after the death of Azzeln Vaetha (Drow Elf, long story - I'll put it in the NPCs section). I chose this number because Elves in my campaign live for exactly 2,000 years. It makes a nice symbolic beginning. The City of Anryth and Asrexius, the First Lich, were note destroyed after all. Everyone finds this out when Anryth returns, floating over the crater lake it left when Asrexius destroyed the Dragonstaff. The city's return triggered massive fluxes of ley lines and nodes, causing a moderate amount of widespread destruction. Then Asrexius began conquering.
The players are in a world suffering massive national breakups. It'll be up to them as to what part they'll play... how much of the old Empire of the Hartland they'll try to preserve, which of the forces causing this destruction they'll face and try (successfully or not) to hold off, if they'll simply be adventurers and heroes - a bright spot in an otherwise terrible time, or if they will, in fact, be villains perpetuating their own or their masters' plans.
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