I've always had a problem with the mass-market campaign worlds and campaigns because even though that is what they are called, they are just worlds or a bunch of connected adventures. The term campaign does not apply. If it did you could buy a campaign boxed set and be able to play right out of the box, a group a characters from first level to a fairly high one in a tightly woven story line. Seeing this problem I wished and wished that some gaming company somewhere would produce a campaign that was really a campaign.

I know that some of you out there think that what I am saying is wrong. You think that a campaign set up like this takes away all the DM's creative ability and that since it could not cover every possibility then it would be flawed from the start.

Well, you make a few good points, but you fail to realize that

• A) Not all DM's are as experienced as you are and that they are using these products as examples of the "Right Way" of designing a campaign.
• B) Not all DM's are have the desire, ability or time to design an entire campaign in all of its complexity.
• C) A well designed campaign is not the end of the design but the framework of the game that the DM will be running, to be added to as little or as much as the DM sees fit.
• D) Last but not least is the fact that a 'boxed' campaign can give a level of life to a game that no amount of adventuring can add.

What I mean by that is, no matter what the characters do the world will continue on its set course. The best games have a center of action that is not wholly the PC's

I finally decided to take things into my own hands and with help from all my friends I have started to build a true campaign world. 'The Cursed' is a mixture of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, Barbara Hambly's Dark Tower series and Mercedes Lackey's Valdamar series. If you love these works you will like my world as well. The only non-core rule book is the green covered historical reference Mighty Fortresses by TSR, this brings gunpowder and magic into headlong conflict just like in Ms. Hambly's works, and all of this with an Irish Celtic twist. Many other surprises are inside so enjoy.

If anyone feels as I do and wishes to contribute, feel free. Just remember the above works are the tone of this new world and things must fit in to this tone, but other than that feel free to give it a whirl!