Campaign Homebase - Sea Port

Because I like to have easy mission starters, I like to have campaigns based in spots that bring out all sorts of easy missions.  One of these is sea ports.

Sea ports allow for a number of major campaigns and sub-campaigns.  The easiest of these is the basic starter:  trade.  Sea ports are the trade hubs of the fantasy world.  Every manner of good can be found for sale in a sea port, which allows the players to buy what they need, no matter how exotic.  But trade means money, and money means missions.  It is easy to have merchants hire adventurers as guards, to retrieve stolen merchandise, or any number of trade related quests.

Sea ports are also the stepping off point for explorations.  Whether they are sailing over huge distances, charting islands chains, searching for ... well, whatever - if they are exploring, those missions are likely going to start off at a sea port.  Sure there are land based explorations as well, but even those often start at a sea port, because it may be quicker to sail part of the way there.

The other mission that almost has to start at a sea port is anything having to do with the under sea.  These are high fantasy adventures.  Mermaids and sea creatures live underwater, and if your party plans to go there, they are going to be leaving from a sea port.  Whether that means jumping in there and walking along the bottom or sailing out and then diving, they still need to start at a sea port.

Want more?  Pirates!  Pirates work in so many different ways.  They can be encountered on the open sea.  They can be based on islands that need to be invaded.  They can be hunted in so many different ways - as bounty hunters, as treasure seekers, as recoverers of stolen items, or as those seeking to form an alliance with the pirates.  Does that last one sound odd?  It shouldn’t be.  History has shown us many times when “privateers” came to prominence.  Sometimes they don’t even pretend to be privateers, but just pirates, but they still wind up being allied with official governments or rebels.

Of course we’re trying to convince you that sea ports make for great campaign homes, but we’re hoping that most of that has been accomplished.  Not only do they allow for varied styles of missions, so they never grow old, but they allow for a huge number of quest givers.  Work for the merchants, the government, the navy, or the kooky old explorer or map maker.  Any one of these can sponsor missions and get the party moving forward.  That is what you need right?  Something that gets the party active, because an active party is typically a happy party.