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View Full Version : Count of Monte Cristo-like Campaign?



Weirdlet
2010-04-02, 07:59 PM
Hey, all- I'd been thinking about this story lately, and wondered how I might distill its flavors of adventure, mystery and vengeance into a game. It presents some definite challenges- I don't want to be railroading players into a replay of book/movie events by any means, but I do want play with this sort of situation- someone or someones have been done wrong, and they're going to sweep in for an elegant revenge amongst their betrayers.

I figure this can go one of two ways- one, that the PCs are the ones who have been perceived as the wrongdoers, and their adventures spring from trying to evade the vengeance of the Big Bad Righteously Angry Guy. Two- the PCs are the ones who end up betrayed and intent on taking vengeance.

Now, I think the way to pull that one off would be to say 'you're in these hard circumstances- how did you get here?' and see about dropping hints about how intertwined their enemies might be while they work on escaping/figuring out avenues to the hidden treasure that could launch them into the vengeance part of the campaign, should they choose to do so.

Has anyone else tried to do this? Any hints, tips or suggestions as to what would be fun to do with this?

Miyako
2010-04-03, 06:23 AM
Start an innocent adventure, then have a BBEG betray them when it hurts the most. It should make them more interested if the sting is recent, and done in the game, instead of in the character history.

Jack Zander
2010-04-03, 07:21 AM
Start an innocent adventure, then have a BBEG betray them when it hurts the most. It should make them more interested if the sting is recent, and done in the game, instead of in the character history.

The only problem with that is if the players don't react in the way you want them to.

I'd ask each of them to write a back story that includes being betrayed and make vengeance a part of their character motive. Some players may not like being restricted in this manner, but if you explain that that is the whole purpose and style of this campaign then any reasonable person will agree (or they can say, "I'm not interested in that kind of campaign," upfront). Let them pick their betrayer however they want to, but the twist is that they were all betrayed by the same person (may take a little bit of tweaking details to make it work).

I've found that players like to have some sort of restriction to their back stories as it gives them a starting point. Creativity seems to occur most when we limit ourselves in one way (thats why poetry is popular).