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View Full Version : The Balancing Act: Good vs Evil [D&D 3.5]



MechaKingGhidra
2011-03-28, 10:31 PM
Long story short: first session will be dull as heck and I can't seem to pad it out. Once I get past the initial bump of establishing the setting and plot, I'm good to go. Critique is necessary to spur development ideas since I feel my players would agree with me in that so far it's kinda bland.

I just need to somehow get it so my game will actually GET to the second part I have designed where things actually pick up. However, we typically play 6-8 hours, depending on when we start, and I'd estimate I only have about two hours' worth at MAX so far.

Any filler or 'fluff' that you'd think would be relevant or thematically-appropriate (is that even a real term?) would be wonderful to hear.

Since 'filler' can really mean any number of things due to the variety of games people may hold with certain ideas, I figured I'd give you the rough, basic outline of how I designed *mine*. I actually do have elaboration to the second point and onwards but I wanted a cleaner-looking list.

1) The players write up, not a character sheet, but only a backstory. In said backstory, they must explain how they have died.


2) Players find themselves on another Plane (good) and I have written it so they could either:

a) wander around and discover devils massing an army against the first of several soul-processing cities, a very loose interpretation of 'heaven', as it were

or

b) go straight to the city where they'd wind up mingling and trying to figure out what's what.

Either way, b) would happen. Just a matter of 'sooner or later'.


3) After being granted entry, some more mingling (or warning and preparation on behalf of the city's forces, should '2-a' happen to be the case) would take place only for the army of devils to arrive and completely flood the city with their numbers.


4) All 'refugees', if you will (except a few NPC volunteers helping the guards), board an airship of sorts with a small escort party taken from the city's defenders and leave for the next closest city. On the way there, there will be an inevitable encounter with a division of more devils along with possibly more threats.


5) The players reach their destination and make plans to 'procure' new bodies as they are merely souls up until this point. The only empty shells are on the Material Plane, however, and they are warned they must make their own way back. Or, however unlikely, they may choose to stop the invasion at the source....


Critique on how I have set up the series of events may very well help me establish what I am missing to really fill out my campaign. Perhaps I haven't accounted for how a player may want to make detours before I can establish to them where I hope to take the game. Maybe they want to keep entertained while waiting in line to get into the city?

I don't really know how I could do something other than, for example, 'after x amount of time waiting to be permitted entry, you are inspected and admitted'. It's not like you can barter for getting ahead in line or else it would give reasonable doubt as to whether one is pure enough to enter such a sanctuary, etc.

I have the typical interaction possibilities to help flesh the setting out and establish a sense of mixed cultures that would wind up in my makeshift 'heaven'. But again, I predict that with everything I have currently laid out so far for them, two hours is all I can really expect to stretch it.

Any help on trying to fill out my idea is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.