Hey folks, I’m hoping someone can help me with the fronts I’m developing. I’m having trouble with the distinction between an adventure front and a danger.
So at the high level, I want to have this evil empire that’s trying to invade. They’re trying to do this in two ways: 1. with an army and 2. by infiltrating and sowing dissent and rebellion so it’ll be easier to take over. The evil empire has basically a sultan and a bunch of advisors, who all have their own agendas, so like advisor 1 is warlike, advisor 2 is cautious, advisor 3 is sneaky.
So when I’m writing my campaign front, I got the description and cast part figured out. Now correct me if I’m wrong, the dangers would be something like:
Danger 1: The invading army
Danger 2: The evilest advisor
Danger 3: The internal rebellion
The part that I’m struggling with is what’s the advisor’s impending doom? Step 1, they stir the rebellion pot (but that’s a separate danger), step 2, they declare that their army will march (but that’s also a separate danger).
And then what about the other advisors, and the sultan? They all have their own agendas, they’re not a unified group. So maybe each advisor is their own danger?
And then the other part I’m struggling with is that danger 1 and 2 are both external, like they both are part of the evil empire. Then danger 3 seems quite separate, even though it’s caused by danger 2.
So should the internal rebellion be, a separate front? Because I want this to come up a lot, and within the rebellion they don’t know they’re being incited, so there’s a bunch of personalities and different strategies, and different things going on within this rebellion… so how do I know when something should be a danger and when something should be a front?
I don’t think the advisors are a danger – they’re just cast members for the other dangers.
Edit: you sort of said it up front when explaining to us – “here’s the TWO FRONTS the enemy is moving on”.
The way I read it, a Danger is an opponent who will mess with you. A Front is the actual plan they’re trying to implement. An advisor who keeps suggesting that the PCs be executed is a Danger. When they start trying to frame the party for something, then that’s a Front.
Don’t worry too much about getting it ‘right’. Use whatever terms make sense to you. I honestly don’t touch most of that chapter – I just list a few dangers and improvise what would be the ‘grim portents’. I like to keep things flexible so that I can easily change things up session to session.
I’m with Aaron Griffin. The advisers are part of the cast of characters. They may have some nuance to how they want to achieve the goal but they still have the same goal. You have the cast of characters to identify the interesting NPCs they characters could encounter, but also to come back to between sessions. If the characters find a way to knock off the sultan, then perhaps you bring another adviser to the forefront. Fronts are meant to be reviewed and adjusted between sessions.
Like you suggested yourself, you could look at the invading army and internal rebellion as separate fronts if you wanted, but the system is flexible enough you don’t have to. Maybe your current idea is they are connected, but that may change between sessions. Something more interesting might show its self, so don’t necessarily lock that in.
To get to your final question of when something should be a danger or when it should be a front – a front is just a collection of linked dangers. The “front” is the title of the movie (The Two Towers) the linked dangers (Saruman, Sauron, Golem). So don’t put too much weight on what is the front vs. what is the danger, as the front is just an easy way of keeping a set of dangers categorically linked to each other. Dangers are the real substance.
Hope that helps!
Thanks y’all, this is my first time preparing my own content for dw