Intent Confusion

What to post about tonight? I could do another "In My Campaign" type post. I have another one brewing about Kusseth. Hell, I have another thirty or forty about Kusseth. Its the country with the most work done on it, everything else is sort of half-finished. I have the core ideas and main cities and whatnot, the form of government, etc. The main points are done, but everything else is left vague. So much is done on Kusseth because my Traith character is a warden of that city (37th District) and because I anticipate it to be the place the PCs set up. Josh wants to become a pirate, but you quite literally have to cross the entire continent (which is about the size of the United States) to get to the pirate nation of Haven. Or you could sail, but to be honest that wouldn't work. You wander into the ocean near Haven without flying the proper flags, you get sunk real quick. If Josh gets his way and the group does go to Haven the only way I can envision them getting in is as slaves and maybe doing a whole pit fighter fight for your freedom type thing.

Plus, their only options are to walk through a few hundred miles of stumpie (Kusseth slang for dwarves) infested mountains or to cross a desert. Although, if they do cross the mountains I have the intention of somehow getting them near a ventilation shaft for the dwarven kingdoms and possibly some heavy explosives and letting them decide whether to suffocate a city or not. It wouldn't be the first city of dwarves they committed genocide upon. If they make it through the mountains they run smack dab into Volungsheim on the eastern edge of Whurent (the dwarven kingdom). Volung was a berserk from my Norse serialized story. He had magic axes and was crazy. After the events of my Norse story he wandered over to Alfheim (which will eventually be retconned into being less Norse Myth and more Clint Myth) and grabbed up the rest of the Ljosalves and Maggot (another character from the same story, but he's a Dvergar which is a dwarf) and they wandered south in boats for many days and nights and found my little continent and started killing whatever they could lay hands on. Anyway, they're black-eyed elves and they are angry and love a good fight. So in closing, getting to Haven will be no easy task. Josh, if you are reading this: Haha!

Hmm. Actually it could be really fucking easy, I'm just an idiot and didn't think of it till now. So here is a hint Josh. The race of elves living in Volungsheim are called the Children of Volung and they are allied with the dwarves. But there is only one elf of that race who is actually a trueblooded son of Volung. His mom "knew" Volung in the Biblical sense. He also calls Cenn the Reaver uncle, but that is not a blood relation because Cenn is not an elf. Well, ok, he's closer to being an elf than anything else, but he's not. Anyway, find him (the actual child of Volung), befriend him, don't piss him off, and he is your ticket to a trip through Whurent and Volungsheim that does not include the normal amount of bodily fluid spillage associated with such a trek through hostile territory.

I just really wish people would tell me what they want out of the campaign. Its pretty open ended, I've basically created a large scale sandbox with plenty to do in it and I'd like them to make a conscious decision on what they want to do. In sixth grade a piece of paper with bare bones monster stats and no room numbers or map was enough, but not anymore. Its boring. I like there to be descriptions that help me see them creeping through musty hallways tentatively raising swords as they open doorways and whatnot. I'm really optimistic about this campaign and people's interest in it. Apparently Josh and Jeff have discussed it on multiple occasions, which is kind of neat. Seriously. To know my campaign world is a topic of discussion at a non-gaming gathering that I am not present at is kind of awesome. As I said, I'd like it if people would tell me what they want to do. They haven't seen the map yet so they don't know much about the shape of the world, but even saying stuff like "I want to kill monsters." would give me an idea. I can keep making scenarios in the world but really without their input it is basically me railroading them and going "hehe, look what I put here" and as much as I like to hear myself talk, that gets old pretty quick.

I dunno. I guess I don't want to be in the midst of a scenario and have them go off on a tangent and have to either A) say fuck no to their choices or B) sacrifice the rest of the scenario to the random chance that they would do something I haven't planned for. Part of it is also that I cannot think well on my feet for creative things like this, and I want everyone to have a good experience when we game. I am a creative guy, but it takes work. I don't just sit down and let the creativity spew forth. For every thousand words I type or write I do a fair bit of hmmm-ing and key poking and cursor staring.

Ah yes, cursor staring, my old friend, how I loathe you. Go fuck yourself.

I am now officially talking to blinking cursors in Word documents. Goodnight.