Despite loving
Everway for nearly thirty years, I've never run a campaign of the game—just played it. This is largely because of my anxieties over quest/scenario generation: I can world-build, and I can create characters to inhabit those worlds, but I have trouble creating scenarios for actual play. The resurgence of sandbox play (courtesy of the OSR) has taught me that it's situations that best allow for surprises, and the sandbox is therefore something I've thought about applying to
Everway. Before the publication of the Silver Anniversary Edition, I was overwhelmed by the need to create an entire sphere filled with interesting realms. But the new edition's inclusion of a gazetteer for the realm of Roundwander gives me a way to circumvent that problem. When I looked through the discussion of the provinces of Roundwander, Whiteoar Province stood out to me as a location for adventure. Heroes can combat the insidious corruption of the Cockatrice Fens, exorcise the haunted City of Shades, and intrigue in the piratical, er, entrepreneurial port of Anchorview. The realms bordering the province are equally interesting: the Northdawn pirates are a constant threat to shipping, the city-state of Haven is flexing its muscles as a naval power, and dragon cultists from Snowcap keep sneaking through Dragonbreach Pass. Whiteoar Province also has ten gates to other realms on other spheres, allowing for side quests when the campaign needs a change of pace. There's also a strong reason for heroes to venture to Whiteoar on behalf of the Chamber Platinum: Outsiders aren't bound by the complex web of Roundwander politics and thus have freedom of action. They also give their patron plausible deniability: Anchorview is a wretched hive of scum and villainy, and surely these spherewalkers were acting on their own recognizance. Finally, there's a small bit in the description of the Everway Council about a seat being reserved for the supposedly extinct Whiteoar family, the dynasty that preceded the Emeralds, current rulers of Roundwander. John Till made use of this tidbit in
one of his own Everway campaigns (it's where I found the Glenn Kaino image at the head of this post), and I don't see any reason why I shouldn't follow John's lead here: might there be a Whiteoar heir hiding out in exile? Who would be interested in learning of their existence? I'll post more about this sandbox as I develop it, but I thought an initial description might be a good spur to further writing.
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