Berenger
2011-03-28, 12:45 PM
Hello everybody,
I'm going to GM a game within a medieval/fantasy/vampire setting. Although I have a setting and some hopefully interesting events which will happen, I lack ideas for an actual plot.
The game is set during a harsh winter in an isolated country surrounded by mountains and untamed forests. This country is very scarcely populated, very poor and very terrorized by its nobles. Most of these nobles are vampires (while this is not exactly a secret, any "incriminations" against them are punishable by death, so nobody talks about this). This vampire aristocracy and their mortal henchmen rule with iron fist, charge their subjects with ruinous taxes and are generally not very nice or forgiving guys. However, the rulers are generally not stupid evil enough to drive the country to a total collapse by reducing the population below a certain point or acting completely erratical.
Two events are upcoming:
1. Every three years the local lord imposes a special tax: three young men an three maidens from the local villages are drawn by lot (the lads are pressed into the battle weary military while the girls fate is less pleasant - all those evil vampires want playthings and fresh blood).
2. A false paladin on the payroll of a third faction (even more evil necromancers) secretly provides weapons to the oppressed peasants and tries to raise a rebellion against the vampire nobles. This is not meant to actually liberate the people, but to wreak havoc across the countryside so it can be invaded more easily.
So I need ideas what the PCs can actually do about this. So far we have Yelena (beautyful daughter of the local forest warden, decent survival and trapping skills, but no fighting ability to speak of) and Dragoslav (former peasant drawn into military, managed to impress his superiors in battle and was field-promoted both to bogatyr [~knight] and vampire - he has fighting skills, but not much else). Dragoslav will have to collect said "blood tax" for his lord (which will probably shake his loyalty to said lord a bit, since he was born and raised in the village in question). The power level of the chars is very low (~level 1 in D&D terms, perhaps commoner for Yelena).
Any ideas?
(Since english is not my native language, please point out if some part of this posting is not understandable, then i'll try my best to improve it)
I'm going to GM a game within a medieval/fantasy/vampire setting. Although I have a setting and some hopefully interesting events which will happen, I lack ideas for an actual plot.
The game is set during a harsh winter in an isolated country surrounded by mountains and untamed forests. This country is very scarcely populated, very poor and very terrorized by its nobles. Most of these nobles are vampires (while this is not exactly a secret, any "incriminations" against them are punishable by death, so nobody talks about this). This vampire aristocracy and their mortal henchmen rule with iron fist, charge their subjects with ruinous taxes and are generally not very nice or forgiving guys. However, the rulers are generally not stupid evil enough to drive the country to a total collapse by reducing the population below a certain point or acting completely erratical.
Two events are upcoming:
1. Every three years the local lord imposes a special tax: three young men an three maidens from the local villages are drawn by lot (the lads are pressed into the battle weary military while the girls fate is less pleasant - all those evil vampires want playthings and fresh blood).
2. A false paladin on the payroll of a third faction (even more evil necromancers) secretly provides weapons to the oppressed peasants and tries to raise a rebellion against the vampire nobles. This is not meant to actually liberate the people, but to wreak havoc across the countryside so it can be invaded more easily.
So I need ideas what the PCs can actually do about this. So far we have Yelena (beautyful daughter of the local forest warden, decent survival and trapping skills, but no fighting ability to speak of) and Dragoslav (former peasant drawn into military, managed to impress his superiors in battle and was field-promoted both to bogatyr [~knight] and vampire - he has fighting skills, but not much else). Dragoslav will have to collect said "blood tax" for his lord (which will probably shake his loyalty to said lord a bit, since he was born and raised in the village in question). The power level of the chars is very low (~level 1 in D&D terms, perhaps commoner for Yelena).
Any ideas?
(Since english is not my native language, please point out if some part of this posting is not understandable, then i'll try my best to improve it)