My HQ campaign began in Prax, using the Borderlands scenario pack. My players were told to create a Heortling or Praxian character (driven out of Sartar or as a Pavis Orlanthi). They all had to have Hate Lunars 17 as a passion, and an appropriate reason for hating them.
To allow some variation in play, and to act as a backup incase one character was 'missing', we all had two characters. After some fiddling I decided to keep the two character idea and the players were allowed to swap between them at appropriate times duirng the sessions. At times both characters were used. Both characters had to follow the general plot, they both joined the Grey Company etc.
Hero points were awarded to the player, not the character, and the player kept a single pool for both characters. A bonus hero point was awarded each session for the out of play character so advancement remained reasonably constant. HPs were gievn as follows: 1HP at the start of each session, 1HP for staying the session without falling asleep, 1 to 5 HPs for completing a major mission (based on the GMs opinion of success), 1 HP for the inactive character. HPs could be awrded during play for extra good efforts by players. The GMs characters got 2HP per session he was GMing (we swapping GMing at times).
I started off using the Borderlands scenarios, moved on to the Pavis and Big Rubble book, and then started using the story in Pavis and Big Rubble Companion fanzine (a truly excellent fanzine for those wishing to base a campaign in Pavis). After the Grey Company had established itself I ran the Cradle adventure. After that we ran several misc story lines that evolved around the Grey Company having to stay away from Pavis for a time (due to heat from the Lunars). Future plans are to get the players involved in the rebellion, move them back to Sartar (half of them are heortlings), get them involved in a Pavis rebellion timed with the Sartar rebellion (they have strong connections in Pavis after all).
Following will be some of the side adventures that I used (as i get around to putting them up).
As a quick diversion from normal play, and to get things started at a session I developed the following table of random events. They are essentially short (very short) adevntures involving everyday events - the things you would expect to happen all the time as part of a community. This allowed me to give the players a better involvement in the community (at least a little), and allowed me to test skills that were not always used in normal adventures (thus making them think about them). These are mostly for a single player, not a group.
Urgent Medical Aid is required at an outlying settlement, we need someone to ride out there quickly with the medicine:
Mount gets sick and will die.
Find the Way, you have to meet someone (use a relationship) somewhere you havent been before. Know Local Geography vs 20. Fail and a relationship score drops 1.
Protect the Parcel, you are asked to carry an important parcel to someone without damage: Agile/Lucky/Careful vs 15 (Dodge -5). Fail and a relationship drops 1.
Young boy has become lost in the Rubble (has runaway and hidden). The mother is desperately looking for her son, solve the problem. He was last seen at home.
Attend Ceremonies: you must perform your duties - Piety/Know of Religion vs 20. Fail badly and your relation to your temple my drop 1.
Community support: pick a skill that seems appropriate to helping your community in some way, test it vs 20.
Do me a favour! Escort someone around the local area as a favour to someone important. Geogrpahy knowledge and social skills.
Meet My Daughter! You are single are you not? Young, healthy, potential hero?
Charity auction for Community Project. Contest any greedy/thrifty vs your own Community relationship or give over 1 wealth (extra to your 10%).
Embarass the Lunars; the orlanthi community is looking for someone to perform an act of defiance against the Lunar overlords.
Take a message to the rebellion in Sartar.
Drive off raiders/bandits/chaos. A small group of troublemakers are attacking farmlands nearby, you are asked to go out there and take care of them.
Attend a Secret Meeting of the Resistance.