The Shadows of Adventure

The Shadows of Adventure Journey took place in the Mabean Marches, the extreme southern frontier of the Great Empire. The group was based in the town of Fort Umbrago, which was also the seat of the Prefect of the Marches. Even though it's had an important name, its not all that big. Basically a castle, with a town of around two to three thousand. It was a pretty rough-and-tumble sorta place, even with the military wandering around (or, perhaps, because of it). It was also the base of operations for the 6th Legion, which was the Emperor's primary force in the war against the Gaels (the "savage" people of the southlands).

The thing about this region is that it was only conquered a little more than a decade before the Journey begins, though the fighting had been going on for about thirty years. This means that most of the Imperials running around weren't native to the land. That means that everyone had a reason for being here, beyond "I was born in that barn right there". Soldiers, of course, had the war to bring them to the Marches, but there were a plethora of civilians running around with shady pasts and dark intentions. Some were criminals trying to escape the law from back home, some were merchants seeking a quick, if not honest, coin. Basically, this amounted to a lot of problems, characters, and outright danger which had to be dealt with. In most areas, justice was still metted out by the sword, and the law was just as likely to be as crooked as anyone else. When you throw in the relatively close proximity of Deiros, the Dwarven lands, and Elearean, the Vale of the Elves, you've got a pretty strange mix of people running about.

The Shadows of Adventure was an episodic-style campaign, though there were a mini-quest or two thrown in there for good measure. The direction of the game was very much up to the players, and they were encouraged to take things to whatever level they desired. The big thing was that the direction and activities of the campaign were very, very much up to the players. I had several adventures ready to play, of course, but there wasn't an overriding goal or force or plot that was trying to get them to save the town/nation/world/multiverse.