What is Draconic?
I should probably seed this up to the main description at some point, or link to a longer description of this on my website, but for now I’ll put it here. Below details my current intention for Draconic and the approach I’m taking with it. At the moment, of course, I’m still in the world-building stage, but the general story-arc of the campaign is ever on my mind and world-building is undertaken with this at the forefront of my mind. The two are integrally interwoven. That said, allow me to explain in a little more detail why Draconic is different.
WHAT IS IT?
I’m going to assume here that you know what a roleplaying game is, so I’ll spare the preamble that would go into a book or maybe onto my website. If you’re reading this and you’re not already supporting me, I assume that it’s because you’re assessing whether to go ahead and click that button. So I’ll cut to the chase as to what makes Draconic different.
Most RPGs give you a world setting, lots of story hooks, maybe a starter scenario, and then let the game masters run their own games. They might publish adventures or even campaigns to support GMs short on time or ideas but who still want to run games.
With Draconic I’m doing things the other way around. The world of Draconic is on the precipice of big change. It’s at the start of a big story that’s going to change everything. It’s a journey that I want to invite you to take; a campaign I want you to play or run. Draconic is a world with a very specific story to tell and I want to tell it. An interactive book using roleplaying as its medium. The world is built with the campaign in mind.
WILL I BE ABLE TO RUN MY OWN STORIES?
Absolutely! The world of Draconic is still a rich world full of story seeds and plenty of opportunity to tell stories alongside the main campaign. As your heroes explore the world, the timescale is up to you. While there is lull in the main action or they don’t have any leads to follow, they get drawn into a local problem upon their travels. Perhaps a personal crisis complicates their dedication to their otherwise grander commitment, stalling them until they deal with whatever is going on. Maybe in their dogged pursuit of grand adventure they crossed someone who is not ready to forgive them and interferes with their plans at every stage until a confrontation is forced so they may get back to their adventures.
Whether as one-shot side quests or parallel story-arcs, there is plenty of scope to tell your own stories alongside the campaign. It all really comes down to how long you want to spend telling the tale of Draconic.
DO I HAVE TO USE THE CAMPAIGN?
While the intention is for you play through the campaign, there is no obligation to do so. After all, it’s your game. The campaign provides you with the information and inspiration for the fate of the world of Draconic and the intended path to reach that fate. However, you may decide you want to take a different path, using the campaign as inspiration, or perhaps you want to take Draconic in a completely different direction. That’s up to you. Playing in the world as it is at the start of the campaign without changing the world too radically should provide you with plenty of gaming that should you choose to do the campaign later, it’ll be there.
The campaign is a journey of change for the world and shepherds in a new era for its inhabitants. It unveils secrets, solves problems, and tears down preconceptions.
Once you have the game, what you do with it is up to you. It won’t explode or break if you don’t play the campaign, but I hope you do play it and enjoy the ride.
