cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/8591753

I’ve been guiding my family through a series of serial one-shots in our DCC sessions, where each adventure seamlessly leads into the next. We’ve enjoyed this format, but I’m now considering shifting towards a more traditional “open world” style of play. I have B2: Into the Borderlands on hand, which offers an excellent framework for this, plus my older brother (a player in the game) ran it for me when we were kids.

However, a new temptation has emerged: DCC #100. It’s a bit too advanced for my family at the moment (they have yet to make it past level 3), and setting it up would require additional resources like a good webcam and Discord Nitro. Nevertheless, it’s sparked an idea in me.

Here’s my thought: The back of DCC #100 features a list of factions emerging from the fallout of the… McGuffin. What if I stock the dungeons and caves with these factions in place (or in conjunction with) of mob bosses? I’m envisioning a grand conspiracy to hide the entrance to the… thing… in the caves of chaos and drip rumors and lore about it to them. Maybe they can find it organically but not be able to open it without the key, preventing them from entering before they are ready?

I’m looking for advice or suggestions. I’ve only ever run one-shots, where we start at the start. I just drop them at the entrance of the best thing in the module and go from there (I use the Blades in the Dark inventory system.) But then we played Doom of the Savage Kings which was a more open ended, which is what kicked off this whole thing. It was fun letting them take the reins, for the first time they didn’t find everything there was to find and we kinda just made it up as they went… they invented a ritual to bind the Hound for god’s sake, it was dope!