Building a Campaign: Pseudo-Dragonlance

[Tokuhara]

Hey Y'all!

Sorry to be gone so long. Had issues at home to deal w/.

So since my Primary DM is gone for college, I plan to reignite the old D&D group with a new campaign: Pseudo Dragonlance.

Here's the story:

In the lands of Kal'Gor, the Emperor has fallen to the hands of assassins known as the Broken Crows. The guild of the Broken Crows has never been infiltrated, and has a very strict policy of membership and a vow of Secrecy. Some officials claim they do not exist. The town guards claim he died of natural causes, but some groups claim to know the truth.

The emperor had no descendants, and the empire is in the hands of Count Valucian: a Half-Orc Half-Elf (weird, I know, but in this world, the orcs and elves have made a pact of peace), who secretly is the guildmaster of the Broken Crows. The empire is steadily falling apart. The rich are few and the poor are dying. The hungry stay hungry, and the homeless freeze in the darkness.

Only one item can save the kingdom: the fabled Lexicon Dragonnis, an artifact left by the Dragon Lords of old, and created by Nicol Bolas (MtG), the Lord of all Dragonkind. To open the lexicon, the blood of the Dragon Princes must be dripped into the mouth of the book's cover, which breks the seal, granting the deemed Lord of Dragonkind one single wish. The last time the Lexicon Dragonnis was unlocked, the world was enveloped in a millennium of darkness.

Valucian seeks the Lexicon Dragonnis to "erase pain" from the world so the world can be rebuilt in his image.

Races:

The Dragonblooded subtyped Alternate Races from Dragon Magic and maybe one or two homebrews (as I see fit) are the only authorized races.

Classes:

Non-ToB, Non-Psionics, non-Incarnum. This makes it easy for my players. Also removing Wizard. Wizards are an NPC-exclusive class, due to the fact that When Valucian came to power, he took control of all wizards with the Orb of Arcanus, which simply put, makes the Archmage his servant

Monsters:

Primarily dragon-themed encounters, with later missions being against high-level assassins. BBEG fight will be with Valucian himself, in his "true darkness" form: an epic Half-Fiend Prysmatic Dragon. He will not reveal himself until the end of the campaign to be the true string-puller.

Mission Plot:

To be Decided upon later.

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My Questions:

1. Are the parameters of this game "fair," considering that for plot-based reasons, only the Dragonblooded Core Races are allowed?

2. The group will start lv. 3, so while not amazing, they aren't new adventurers. Is this a good start-point?

3. The party won't be facing a lot of True Dragons (since the only True Dragons are the Elder Dragons from MtG). I'll be having them face a lot of Drakes and draconians. Is this fair to my players, who are used to Epic-Level campaigns?

thanks for your time

[Tokuhara]

Help me out here y'all... I have dnd friday

[PopcornMage]

I'm not familiar with the particulars of the books you're using, but when it comes to your players enjoyment, it's something you have to judge based on them.

And you could be wrong about your assessment, so you may want to have a backup plan. Don't be afraid to say "Ok guys this isn't going well, let's stop and play a game of <insert some other activity here>. I can't tell you how many bad nights were made fun by opening up something like Flux, Settlers of Catan or Three Dragon Ante.

[Morph Bark]

It won't be a real pseudo-Dragonlance until the world is secretly run by pseudodragons - who may or may not be shadow rulers/advisors to world leaders.

[FelixG]

First you want to find some diminutive critters for the PCs to play as if they are going to be riding PseudoDragons around... :D

[Coidzor]

1. still reading the other parameters of the game. one sec. Well, dragonbloods usually have some advantage to going sorcerer instead, so losing wizard isn't too bad for them. Having the only wizards in the world being antagonistic to them at least potentially probably limits their ability to get gear legitimately as well... To be honest, I don't have dragon magic so I only really know about the Silverbrow humans as things that are dragonblooded other than certain kobolds, dragonborn, and maybe spellscales and I can't remember if I'm even right about those three.

But... Probably as long as the racial ability modifiers aren't such that some archetype is completely cut off from being played. Which seems unlikely anyway.

2. It's arguably better than 1st level due to survivability and them having something to look forward to as they progress. And they don't quite have to worry about problems of survivability at level 1 if they have a specialized build in mind.

3. If starting them at third level is fair to them, this is fair to them. :smallwink:

[Tokuhara]

1. still reading the other parameters of the game. one sec. Well, dragonbloods usually have some advantage to going sorcerer instead, so losing wizard isn't too bad for them. Having the only wizards in the world being antagonistic to them at least potentially probably limits their ability to get gear legitimately as well... To be honest, I don't have dragon magic so I only really know about the Silverbrow humans as things that are dragonblooded other than certain kobolds, dragonborn, and maybe spellscales and I can't remember if I'm even right about those three.

But... Probably as long as the racial ability modifiers aren't such that some archetype is completely cut off from being played. Which seems unlikely anyway.

2. It's arguably better than 1st level due to survivability and them having something to look forward to as they progress. And they don't quite have to worry about problems of survivability at level 1 if they have a specialized build in mind.

3. If starting them at third level is fair to them, this is fair to them. :smallwink:

1. Really, the races aren't MUCH different. Plus, i was gonna make the Hobgoblin, Drow, and Lizardfolk subspecies available to PCs with no penalty (ie: No LA/RHD). As for Spellscales and Kobolds, my players are traditionalists: they don't use "funky" races, unlike me, who enjoys polaying the occasional Killoren Druid or Raptoran Swordsage (Flying and using Desert Wind Maneuvers are sick, especially after Stormtalon, where I quadro-wield tridents and skewer anything within my divebomb.)

2. Most of my players aren't optimizers, minus 1, who is usually either a Drow Sorcerer/Sandshaper/Wild Mage with Mother Cyst or a Ratling Ninja/Assassin. He is simply "That Guy." So with the lv3 requirements, I don't have to worry as much about him being blatantly cheap.That said, I chose this so he'd have to work hard to not get bum-rushed.

3. As above, my optimizer is in need of a wake-up call, so the Draconians are a "fair match" vs him whilst not just blatantly screwing other players. I also plan on adding Draconic Template to several monsters so they fit into the dragon-theme without actually being dragons. Pseudodragons are going to be the "starting" familair, and if my players want something different, they can ask.

I also have 2 more questions:

1. I want to give each player a Dragonmark from Eberron. Is this a good idea, since they are the "Lost Princes of Dragonkind"?

2. Has anyone created a Dragon Heritage feat for Deep Dragons yet? If so, plz link. If not, what should it/they do?