Tyrnador, Secrets of Tyland provides an immersive world that the heroes can explore which will take them from Funnel Characters (more on that later) up to Veteran level.
The main campaign is time-based and I believe it'll take my group about 12-18 sessions to play through. I like that a lot because it has a definitive story arc which has a definitive ending which will end about 3 months of game time. My group wants to play something that has a clear beginning, middle and end - and this definitely ticks those boxes.
Secrets of Tyland has a combination of the main campaign arc, plus events which are triggered by location, events triggered by time (because the villains are doing stuff) and a number of events which are triggered by players' actions. It's a very clever sandbox which I'm already making plans to extend.
The overall plot is extremely interesting (which I won't spoil), and the PCs will slowly piece together what is going on over the course of time (and adventure). If they deal with the threats/events that come up, they will be better positioned to deal with the end-game. If they don't - either by ignoring threats/events or by failing to deal effectively with it - then it makes things harder for them.
I love the starting setup for the Funnel Characters. The players are playing a few would-be heroes each (Funnel Characters) in the first session - some will die horribly but those who survive will become the heroes of the game (unless of course the players choose to use regular Savage Worlds heroes). I've already test-run this opening adventure and my kids loved it. Basically the heroes are travelling on a stagecoach in the pouring rain, the driver is killed in an attack, the horses bolt and the entire stagecoach goes off the bridge and crashes into the ravine below. The heroes are the survivors of that opening disaster swim ashore and find the entrance to a cave. The cave, of course, is the first dungeon that the would-be heroes need to navigate - they are a mismatched bunch of randomly generated characters, they have limited gear, and the cave is .... occupied.
And even though this opening dungeon may seem to be randomly placed, it isn't. What is going on in that dungeon is the opening act for that main campaign arc.
Assuming the heroes deal with this dungeon and get to their destination in one piece (most won't), some of them (ie: those who will be promoted from Funnel Characters to Savage Worlds Novice-level characters) will stay in the area and start being drawn into the other plots (Savage Tales) that are in flight. There is a good reason provided to stay in this area and not to simply move on. Like I say, this is an immersive world that (I think) will pull the players in.
So this is the next campaign that my gaming group is gearing up to play..... I've read this book cover to cover and am very impressed. (Typically books produced by Gramel are first rate and this is no exception)
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