Need inspiration for a campaign

[Firechanter]

In the near future we're going to start a 3.5 campaign, and I am going to DM at least a while, then alternate with another player.

Most of the other players I've gamed with for years, mostly in "pragmatic" (i.e. non-heroic) low-magic (non-D&D) games, with one of the others GMing. So now it's my turn and I want to go for something different. So at least mid-magic (I am looking to balance the game to Tier 3), and a more Good-aligned, heroic theme because I'm fed up with this "kill stuff for money" that we've done so long now.

So far it looks like the characters involved will include one Crusader or Warblade, one Beguiler, and some kind of nerfed Cleric or suchlike. Maybe also a Rogue-type but not sure.

As for the theme of the campaign, I'm a bit at a loss at the moment. So far I know that the dislikes of the players include pure dungeon crawls, so we need a bit more than that. One of them hates Lord of the Rings so it would be better to avoid such an approach. One of the players loves Anime while the rest isn't too keen on it.
Personally I hate "Fetch the MacGuffin" plots so that's out, too. I mean stuff like "There is an Evil rising and to vanquish it/keep it from winning, you have to find the four magical strings that were hidden in separate dungeons all over the place". Been there, done that a hundred times, got the T-shirt.

The campaign is supposed to start at 5th level (average NPCs are 3rd level) and hopefully go all the way up.

So if you have any cool campaign ideas you'd like to share, go ahead. =)

[LansXero]

Any particular setting / ambientation you prefer? That would help narrow down options.

[Jacque]

You're limiting it drastically, if you want it to be good and heroic but don't want them to fight some kind of powerful evil. No matter how you arrange it, its always "In order to save A you must do B to fight C". It's just a matter of how you disguise it.

[MerlinTheWizard]

I'm currently running a campaign where the day repeats itself, much like in the movie Groundhog's day. The PCs are effectively trapped inside a city where time resets to the beginning of the day every time it ends. We haven't gotten very far, but as a campaign concept, it's drawn a lot of interest. Time travel is always a fun thing to include in a campaign, although not always easy.

Mysteries are especially fun too, I've learned. Especially murders. It almost always keeps the players hooked and interested, plus they can choose their own path and make decisions for themselves to further the investigation most of the time. If you made a campaign centered around a series of bizarre murders (maybe they also can't be resurrected for some reason?), there wouldn't be a lot of dungeon crawls and you can fit just about any type of encounter in, which is especially useful for high levels. Not to mention it would be easy to involve the characters.

[GodGoblin]

I'm currently running a campaign where the day repeats itself, much like in the movie Groundhog's day. The PCs are effectively trapped inside a city where time resets to the beginning of the day every time it ends. We haven't gotten very far, but as a campaign concept, it's drawn a lot of interest. Time travel is always a fun thing to include in a campaign, although not always easy.

Mysteries are especially fun too, I've learned. Especially murders. It almost always keeps the players hooked and interested, plus they can choose their own path and make decisions for themselves to further the investigation most of the time. If you made a campaign centered around a series of bizarre murders (maybe they also can't be resurrected for some reason?), there wouldn't be a lot of dungeon crawls and you can fit just about any type of encounter in, which is especially useful for high levels. Not to mention it would be easy to involve the characters.



Oh that is so getting stolen! :smallbiggrin:

As for ideas you could put them in the middle of a political struggle, if they want to they can do it all through negotiation, or assasination, skirmishing, blowing up enemy buildings ect. A well thought out city sandbox game is good when you arent sure what the players want as they will naturally follow the clues and take actions that they find fun and that should give you an idea of where to take it from there.

[Morghen]

*A purely urban campaign could be fun stuff. Urban campaigns mean DRASTIC changes in thinking for thieves and MUs. Maybe they're good guys and they're way down the totem pole of the King/Whatever's internal security team and round-about level 12 or 13 they start running into clues telling them that maybe the King/Whatever isn't such a great guy. Or the big church in town is working to take him down.

*Protect the [Blank]. The PCs are trying to protect a city/country from outside whatever.

With both of those, working with the resources of a State can lead to balance issues, but having them screw up one time can turn off the tap.

(Related to that first one: I played in a Shadowrun one-off at Origins a hundred years ago where we played FBI agents instead of runners. It required an ENORMOUS shift in how we operated. We need to get inside that building? Screw the dice. Get a search warrant.)

[Radar]

You're limiting it drastically, if you want it to be good and heroic but don't want them to fight some kind of powerful evil. No matter how you arrange it, its always "In order to save A you must do B to fight C". It's just a matter of how you disguise it.
Not quite. You can have open-ended campaign with no obvious or set in stone ways of solving problems. IMO for such a goal, one could set the theme by a recent world-changing event in the setting instead of a defined BBEG.

Emperor Tippy once described a magical world, right after discovery of teleportation magic and brought it to a logical conclusion (Tippyverse). During the transitive period the world in question was a very dangerous place with many opportunities for adventurers to rise to power or accomplish heroic deeds.

Possible campaign hooks: finding of a new Material Plane (think discovery of America in a fantasy setting), sudden outbreak of magical talents or emergence of a new type of magic/powers (arcane casters in a world with mostly just soulmelders, Binders and Warlocks with some Spirit Shamans here and there).

[Firechanter]

Hm. Maybe I can get them interested in a pioneer/settler campaign. They weren't too keen on that when I proposed it in the past, but maybe that had other reasons and their opinion has changed. I certainly would like to play such a theme.

[Quietus]

I suggest not worrying about the "middle" of your game. Choose to base things in a smallish area - a country at most, or a city and the surrounding area. Develop interesting things happening in that area, design an overarching problem plaguing it, and maybe one or two individuals that are involved somehow. Leave it vague, because everything will change after the first couple sessions.

An example from a PbP I'm running on these forums : Volos, Cyrix, Dexam and arguskos, stay out!
When I started this PbP, I left things fairly wide open; I gave a list of places and some information about each, and asked each player to pick an area and develop around that. There was a lot of stuff related to the Central Plains (think barbarians on horseback following herds of dinosaurs, with islands floating in the sky above them), so I started with that, starting off in a small city on the northern edge, where the barbarians would meet with traders and swap goods.

Original plan : We have a Shadowcaster character, which I play off of heavily for the plot, as he's the only one in the setting, come from a far away land. Plot was originally a vague something relating to weakening the walls between the material plane and the plane of shadow, to be noticed while they were beneath the shadow of one of those floating islands.

First alteration : Through roleplay in that trading town, they decided to go in the entire opposite direction. I'd mentioned a town that had been recently fortified, and the shadowcaster wanted to go to a more urban area. They decided to go south, off the trade routes, to try and sneak around to the fortified town without being noticed, which would bring them closer to the urban area. We had a jungle gnome who came from a forest somewhere; I decided the forest they were going to cut through was his home, and was going to do something with that. Then he disappeared, so I changed on the fly so it was the hideout of the group the party Scout used to belong to, who had a very shady past. Then HE vanished. I've dropped some other hints cementing shadow-problems in that forest, including a dusk beast, which almost killed a party member. They're now aware that there's something there to chase after.

Second alteration : Rather than investigating the forest, they're continuing toward the fortified town. The forest problem will remain, and I'll tie a mention to it into most things the party does till I get the feeling they aren't interested. Along the way they came across a logging camp, where they picked up a new player - making two Dragonblooded in the party, a homebrew race that fluffwise is spontaneously emerging from presumably pure human bloodlines. This added something in my head : Exploring the cause for this sudden appearance of humans with draconic traits. The new player also brought in a minor hook; A nastymean NPC from the other Dragonblood's past is rumored to be in the fortified town they're headed to.

Current situation : The town has been taken over and fortified by an outside source, and is far enough from the region's center of power that it's difficult to mobilize to do anything about it. This is part of a distraction ploy by that nastymean NPC, who's attached to the problem with the plane of shadow in the forest. In the big urban city the shadowcaster wants to visit, there's rumors of someone else like him - of that outside race, who the shadowcaster is trying to hunt down. That character is interested in the problems with the Shadow, and has his own agenda, working separately from what nastymean guy wants, and not wanting to stop it necessarily. Those three places - the forest, the fortified town, the urban area - are all within a few days travel of each other.

And on top of all this mortal interest in what's going on, there's a deity who is going to try and corrupt the already bad problem, trying to make it not the Plane of Shadow that's breaking through to the material, but the Negative Energy plane. He's going to attempt to use one of the party's dragonblooded to do this, offering arcane knowledge and power if they'll interrupt the ritual (which is the cause of the weakening) in a particular way - without revealing himself, because it's the batcrap insane Chaotic Evil god of undeath that's trying to do this. If things go his way, then the forest becomes Negative Energy Central on the material plane. Meanwhile, the druid of the party will be receiving similar guidance, in the opposite direction - canceling the ritual and returning things to the way they are naturally. The play between the dragonblood and the druid ought to be interesting. And as all this is unfolding, everything else the players give me will be used to flesh out interesting ideas and situations.

So, to paraphrase the stuff in the spoiler, without spoiling my game for my players : Start with one interesting idea, pulled from the characters themselves if you can. Then drop them somewhere and let them run around, and take their characters into account as your plot naturally shifts. It makes your game become more personal to your players. And even just making one overarching idea like I described in the spoiler, take note : I didn't describe anywhere HOW to solve any of the problems I've put forth. The goal is to simply make the players aware that those problems exist, and then let their actions drive the plot. So far, it seems to be working fairly well.

[Yora]

With rotating gms, you'd have to have a campaign based on unconnected adventures, since you never know what the other gms are going to do with their NPCs and locations.
So to not accidentally sabotage each others plots, it should be something that has the characters do a number of short, unconnected jobs.

[valadil]

Why are you asking us? Ask your players instead! They know what they want to play better than we will.

If they're drawing a blank (as seasoned RPGers often will) try something new to get their creative juices flowing. Dresden Files has a brilliant group background generation that I plan on incorporating into all my games from now on. Basically each player writes a portion of his character's story. Then passes that story left and that player writes himself into the first story. It's actually a bit more interesting than that, but you get the idea.


With rotating gms, you'd have to have a campaign based on unconnected adventures, since you never know what the other gms are going to do with their NPCs and locations.
So to not accidentally sabotage each others plots, it should be something that has the characters do a number of short, unconnected jobs.

Not necessarily true. When we did a rotating game we started out doing what you described. Then we started leaving free floating NPCs and plots. The game really took off when people started picking up and finishing off each others material.

A wiki was essential for this. Game elements that were up for grabs were posted to the wiki along with any relevant notes. If someone didn't want his NPC to be taken away, all he had to do was not post it.

[Firechanter]

Why are you asking us? Ask your players instead!

Yeah, most of the time you get answers like "Anything's fine" or "Anything except dungeon crawls" etc., but so far I hardly ever heard "Wouldn't it be cool if we..." -- the only player who did that is no longer in the game due to insufficient free time. :(

[Yora]

I can totaly confirm that. Players never want anything. I play this game with every group at the beginning of every new campaign. In the last 12 years and about 6 groups, I never got any replies!
When forced to give an answer, it's always "whatevery ou chose".

[Shademan]

well I have this ol' setting lying around, which was mostly written at 2 in the morning... so it might be a bit difficult to read or otherwise strangely constructed: http://pdfcast.org/pdf/homebrew-1 (yes i know the armour part is a bit wrong and now I know what a half-plate is. but we learn as we live, eh?)
the document is not complete as I kept many notes in my DM book and in my head, but this is what I sent to my players. maybe it will give you any ideas...

further info: you can find stats for Gorr and watchers in the wall in the critters topic (by bhu) in the homebrew thread.
jotuns are just ogre mages with longsword and different spells, gargantuans are any huge magical beast and Titans...well... lets not go there

The Nether King
Greater God
Symbol: A horned, fanged skull with a barbed-wire crown.
Home Plane: Nether-Realms
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Portfolio: Magic, warlocks, undeath, monsters,evil etc
Worshipers: Warlocks
Cleric Alignments: CE, NE
Domains: Chaos, Evil, Magic, Pain, Undeath
Favored Weapon: Short Sword

The Nether King is the natural enemy of all life, and was imprisoned by the other Gods as they could not fully destroy him, but couldn't allow him to run free either. After long centuries he has withered away little more than skin over bones and a crown of barbed wire fit around his four great horns the only company he has other than his chains. The Gods have the seven keys needed to free him, and his worshipers are ever watchful for signs of their possible appearance.

Dogma
Worshipers of the Nether King are required to do whatever is within their means to undermine and bring down the other Gods. Various forms of atrocity are encouraged.

Clergy and Temples
Being a member of the Nether Kings priesthood requires one to eliminate any morals or qualms one may have. Nothing is impossible or to be rejected if it furthers his aims. No act is too vile or unthinkable. In short, he's willing to overlook your little personal quirks like murder, forcible rape, cannibalism, and possible mental disability. Temples are therefore quite secret unless they are the defiled shrine of an enemy God, and the corpses of sacrificial victims are on prominent display. His original temple is said to be hidden somewhere in Nightcloud mountain and is the nightly scene of horrific events replayed over and over by the shades of the participants.

The Nether King
Warlock 20
Large Outsider (Chaotic, Evil)
Divine Rank: 20
Hit Dice: 20d6+200 (320 hp)
Initiative: +14
Speed: 80 ft. (16 squares)
Armor Class: 84 (-1 Size, +10 Dex, +33 Natural, +20 Divine, +12 Deflection), touch 51, flat-footed 74
Base Attack/Grapple: +15/+49
Attack: Claw +44 melee (1d8+30) or spell +44 melee/ranged touch
Full Attack: 2 Claws +44 melee (1d8+30) or spell +44 melee/ranged touch
Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: Domain Powers, Salient Divine Abilities, Spell-Like Abilities, Eldritch Blast 9d6
Special Qualities: Divine Immunities, DR 30/Epic, Fire Resistance 25, Spell Resistance 52, Spontaneous Casting of Divine Spells, Understands/Speaks/Reads all Languages, Speak directly to all beings within 10 miles, Remote Communication, Godly Realm, Teleport w/out Error at Will, Plane Shift at Will, Divine Aura (20 miles, DC 42), DR 5/Cold Iron, Energy Resistance 30 (Acid, Cold), Energy Resistance 20 (Electricity, Sonic), Fiendish Resilience 5, Detect Magic, Deceive Item, Imbue Item
Saves: Fort +36, Ref +36, Will +42
Abilities: Str 30, Dex 30, Con 30, Int 30, Wis 30, Cha 35
Skills: Bluff +55, Concentration +53, Intimidate +55, Knowledge (Arcana, Planes, Religion) +53, Listen +41, Search +41, Sense Motive +43, Spellcraft +53, Spot +41, Use Magic Device +55
Feats: Ability Focus (Eldritch Blast), Eldritch Claws (see Dragon 358), Flyby Attack, Improved Initiative, Improved Precise Shot, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Extra Turning (B)
Divine Immunities: Ability Damage, Ability Drain, Acid, Cold, Death Effects, Disease, Disintegration, Electricity, Energy Drain, Mind-Affecting Effects, Paralysis, Poison, Sleep, Stunning,Transmutation, Imprisonment, and Banishment.
Salient Divine Abilities: Battlesense, Divine Blast, Divine Inspiration, Divine Warlock, Energy Burst, Energy Storm, Extra Domains (Pain, Undeath), Hand of Death, Increased Energy Resistance (Acid, Cold, Electricity, Sonic), Know Death, Lay Curse, Life and Death, Mass Divine Blast, Mass Life and Death, Undead Qualities, Wave of Chaos
Domain Powers: Spells with the Chaos or Evil descriptor are cast at +1 Caster Level, May use "spell completion" or "spell trigger" items as a 10th level Wizard,
Spell-Like Abilities: The Nether King can cast the following spells at will as Spell-Like abilities: Animate Dead, Animate Object, Antimagic Field, Blasphemy, Chaos Hammer, Cloak of Chaos, Control Undead, Create Greater Undead, Create Undead, Death Ward, Desecrate, Detect Undead, Dispel Good/Law, Dispel Magic, Energy Drain, Identify, Imbue with Spell Ability, Magic Circle Against Good/Law, Mass Inflict Light Wounds, Mordenkainen's Disjunction, Nystul's Magic Aura, Protection from Good/Law, Protection from Spells, Shatter, Spell Resistance, Spell Turning, Summon Monster IX (Chaos and Evil only), Unholy Aura, Unholy Blight, Word of Chaos. Save DC is 42 plus the Spell Level. Caster Level is 30.
Invocations Known: Least: Eldritch Glave, Eldritch Spear, See the Unseen
Lesser: Curse of Despair, Deteriorating Blast, Fell Flight
Greater: Noxious Blast, Repelling Blast, Vitriolic Blast
Dark: Path of Shadow, Retributive Invisibility, Utterdark Blast
Possessions:
Create Magic Items: The Nether King can create any magic item dealing with his portfolio.


Other Divine Powers
As a Greater deity, The Nether King automatically receives the best possible result on any die roll he makes (including attack rolls, damage, checks, and Saves). He is immortal.
Senses: The Nether King can see, hear, touch, and smell at a distance of 20 miles. As a Standard Action he can perceive anything within 20 miles of his worshipers, holy sites, objects, or any location where one of his titles or name was spoken in the last hour. He can extend her senses to up to 20 locations at once. He can block the sensing power of deities of his rank or lower at up to two remote locations at once for 20 hours.
Portfolio Powers: The Nether King sense any act involving his portfolio up to 20 weeks before it occurs, and will retain the knowledge up to 20 weeks after it happens.
Automatic Actions: The Nether King can use xxxxx as a Free Action if the DC for the task is 30 or lower. He can perform up to 20 Free Actions each round.




Pain Domain
Granted Power:
1: Inflict Light Wounds
2: Wracking Touch *
3: Inflict Serious Wounds
4: Inflict Critical Wounds
5: Wrack *
6: Fleshshiver *
7: Avasculate *
8: Wrathful Castigation *
9: Mass Pain **

*Can be found in Spell Compendium
** New spell


Mass Pain
Necromancy (Evil)
Level: 9
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 Round
Range: Medium (100 ft. +10 ft./Level)
Area: 60' Radius
Duration: 1 Minute per Caster Level
Saving Throw: Fortitude Negates
Spell Resistance: Yes

All creatures within the spells Area of Effect must make a Fortitude Save or take a -8 Penalty on Attack rolls, Skill Checks, and Ability Checks for the duration of the spell.

Material component is the heart of a sentient being you have killed.

and here is a song I wrote for the campaign just because:
Olidammara's bogus ballad

Oli-damm-ara, he stole Pelor's rays
Made off with Kord's sword
and did so with grace
And then blamed it all on Hextor

He left all the rays, in Nerrul's dark hall
made it all cheerful
he was having a ball
but the gods were cathcing up on his antics

Oh what a god what an awesome god
He's stealing and drinking and more
Oli-damm-ara, you are our god
you'd never follow no law

He fled the scene on tiamat's back
stole all the stars
put them in a sack
the gods coming fast behind him

He took love from Ehlonna, and Obad-hai's shalm
Heroneus shield stolen without a qualm
and no one knew what he was planning

Oh what a god what an awesome god
He's stealing and drinking and more
Oli-damm-ara, you are our god
you'd never follow no law


He came back to Nerull, and begged him to forge
a chain made of sun rays
of love and a shalm
and whatever he had in his pockets

The chain then was mighty, beyond the divine
Could not be crushed, nor broken with lies
for vecna's hand was the padlock

Oh what a god what an awesome god
He's stealing and drinking and more
Oli-damm-ara, you are our god
you'd never follow no law

[fiddle solo]

Oh what a god what an awesome god
He's stealing and drinking and more
Oli-damm-ara, you are our god
you'd never follow no law

Oli-damm-ara. he got off scot free
the chain bound up the foul netherking
and trapped him away forever

He was a hero, loved by all gods
praised and respected and given the stars
which he'd allready sold in a tavern

Oh what a god what an awesome god
He's stealing and drinking and more
Oli-damm-ara, you are our god
you'd never follow no law

Oh what a god what an awesome god
He's stealing and drinking and more
Oli-damm-ara, you are our god
you'd never follow no law

[Sillycomic]

Personally I like it when heroes fight the cult that "wants to ressurect some dead evil god... that's probably gonna destroy the world."

So develop a country and every major city has this underground cult. The cult is trying to get members of high political power and who have lots of money. With money and power this cult should be able to help do what they need to do.

Then just figure out things for the cult to do.

The cult will invariably need maguffins. They'll need to have rituals and monsters (minions) summoned as protectors and guides for stuff. They'll need to recruit high end adventurers. They'll need to take over a city's underground. They'll need to play political games to take over a town.

So, any and every city will invariably have one of these things going on. Then it's just a matter of where your players go so they can find out and stop what's going on in each town.

That will eventually lead them up to some sort of climax with the cult group, which has them on the edge dealing with the leaders of this cult, or perhaps even a weakened version of the resurrected god himself?

[danzibr]

Here's what I'll be using for my next campaign idea:

Start at low level, don't allow any pure casters. For the past century or so magic has been "thinned out." Ultimately party finds out a group of people have been assassinating all wizards/sorcerers/clerics/psions/whatever with weapons of a special material which steals their power. They've been gathering the powers in a big red stone for some reason (haven't worked this out yet, durr) and the party finds and breaks the stone. Magic is again abundant and the party gets to gestalt with pure caster class.

Then some time passes, maybe a dungeon crawl.

Next is the more interesting part of the campaign. A massive iron tower appears in the distance, but no matter how far one walks it never gets any closer. Also, devils start attacking places. Eventually it's revealed that Dispater has been stripped of (some of) his powers and banished from hell. Ultimately the party kills his minions and finally him after some strategizing (thinking BoVD stats). Should be 20 to kill Dispater.

[McSmack]

Exploration campaigns are fun. Was in a campaign once where everyone was a criminal sentenced to hard labor on another plane. Something happens and the portals back home get shut off. As well as the wards that keep the natives at bay. So now you have guards and prisoners working together to establish a settlement and figure out whats going on.

Had another where everyone was possessed by demons and on the run from the law. Every 6th night we'd lose control and wake up covered in blood.

Or a game where the PC's have to establish a new world after the old one was destroyed by a magical war/cataclysm. Strange happenings make them wonder if they'd managed to evade their enemies after all...

The trick that I use most often to keep things interesting is to present the PC's with things unknown. Experienced players can rattle off monster/NPC stats with only a few clues. Something as simple as changing the appearance/type of a monster can really throw them for a loop.

I've ran a few military themed campaigns before. PC's doing things like hijacking supply trains, sneaking into enemy camps to assassinate commanders/disable equipment. These were also interesting because they weren't allowed to keep loot. Instead they were paid in a special currency for each item they brought in and for each mission accomplished. They could trade the currency in for better gear. Missions were also time sensitive, I had an egg timer at the table. It definitely added more excitement to the missions.

[Zaq]

I once tried to run a police beat campaign. That was interesting. It got derailed pretty quickly (in an awesome manner, but I digress), but it's still a fun concept. Say that they're all part of a special ops unit (or perhaps just an elite guard squad, if you prefer) and they're stationed in the capital city of a large and generally neutral-to-good country. Let 'em tool around the city for a few days, seeing all kinds of good and bad things going down. Do they run around trying to stop every crime they see? That's great, but they'll miss the deeper workings of the human[oid] trafficking ring who's been selling folks to the Illithids, or the spy group who's looking to leak a few national secrets to just the right (wrong?) people. Do they go and hunt down the deeper underworld elements? Then they have to explain to their boss why they haven't dealt with that group of muggers who's been terrorizing the harbor district, or why they've completed so few cases this month. It can be very episodic (which can be fun), but it can also have a few more layers to it. If you're good, it can be both at once. In other words, it lends itself well to both an ongoing plot and to monster-of-the-week shenanigans.

It also means that you have to approach the game differently, which is cool. Magic, especially AoE magic, is very different in an urban setting than it is in a dungeon setting, after all. Sure, it might not cause property damage, but dropping a Solid Fog in the market square (even if it DOES stop the fleeing criminal) is going to get a lot of people complaining to your superiors. This isn't any different from any other urban campaign, but hey, it's still a factor.

So given that you don't want some world-spanning evil, you don't want dungeons, and you don't want macguffins, but you do want to be a heroic and fundamentally good party? Yeah, I think a police beat campaign might be for you. Think about it.

[Major]

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/frcc/20070606

Bout halfway down, on the right side. There you go. All the inspiration you could need.

[Noneoyabizzness]

atypical good aligned d&d plots

-the players aid a local yakuza style gang from an overpowering and demonically enabled thieves' guild to are destroying they home town. over the course of the tiem they begin to find themselves in control of this gang which also fidns itself the only bastion of justice as the law enforcement seems to be ensnared by the new guilds exotic vices. do they take over and become defacto powers, play politics with other neighbors for aid, try to run everythin vigilante style as forces of good from the shadows?

-a good short run I did a man of mean's wishes to get his son's body to the graveyard to be buried and sanctified to prevent from being made undead. why such a concern, because great grandpa doesn't like his bloodline going to rot in the ground when they could be useful after death.

-worshippers of a less popular but till good god are tired of second class treatment and want to take up stakes and settle elsewhere, again you have the politics, you have the need to kill to help settle the land, plus to carve a name and degree of fame or notoriety by being irreplacable local heroes

[Firechanter]

Okay, here's one setup I am currently pursuing. Working title "Conquistadores".

So the idea is: there is a "New World" -- either simply a continent on the same planet that was out of reach, or a different plane, or a different world on material prime. The characters are involved in the "discovery" of this new world. But I still need to make it consistent.

1. Where? I listed the main options above. Implications:

a) different continent, separated from the Old World by a wide and wasteful ocean. Magical travel is only possible via Greater Teleport or similarly powerful magic, so most of the traffic will have to happen by ship. This explains why the far side is still a "New World"; they simply weren't able to make sufficiently seaworthy ships before.

b) different plane: travel only possible via Plane Shift or better. Thus, no mass transit.

c) different planet on material plane. Afaik, the different prime worlds are linked by the Shadow plane. Travel by Shadow Walk.

2. Why? This even trickier. Do the home countries just want to exploit wealth and resources of the new world, or do they want to colonize it for other purposes, or are there entirely different reasons?
Here I'm pondering a "Crusade" theme, to mix a little "Good vs. Evil" flavour in the batter. But how do you sell off the invaders as the good guys? I mean, even if the native population of the New World is all evil, if they can't get to us, why don't "we" just leave them alone?
(Typical D&D problem: a game with alignment system is not so well suited for gray shades or moral dillemas)

Now as I'm writing this, maybe it's really the "second part" of a war. First the evils came zerging in from the "New" to the "Old" world (motivation: they are evil, duh!), however they are repelled, and now the "old" kingdoms move to take the fight to them.
Question here is whether to play the first part (to make it more personal - "these are the guys who burned your home town") or skip straight to D-Day.

Normally I'd say it would be cool to start at the beginning, but that would make for a very long campaign, and the players may lose interest if the defensive war is dragged out too long, or fail to see the necessity of a counterstrike if the invaders are repelled too easily.

Any thoughts or ideas you'd like to share on the matter?

[big teej]

if I may offer two insta plots from two of my favorite novels "riders of the dead" and "fell cargo"

the first might not be what you're looking for, but the second should have progress.

1 - the armies of hell are riding out of the north, led by the dread archon url-shekk, his armies have been invinicible on the field of battle and have swept all opposition before them until now.
the siege.
you must help break the siege, by fending off traitorous sabotours, plauge, and assaults at the wall.
break the siege, turn the tide of the war.


2 - "the butcher ship" has plauged ocean trade between three continents, you have signed up with the privateer fleet tasked with destroying this ship in return for a royal pardon of all crimes. fight savage island natives, confused townsfolk who have mistaken you for the crew of the butcher ship, track down and find the actual butcher ship.... sink her, and her daemon spawned/possessed/zombified crew.

[McSmack]

Ok Firechanter here's some ideas for your suggestion.
I think you'll be fine with whatever you go with. One fun idea a friend of mine had was to make the world a Dyson sphere (aka a hollow world). A miniature sun burns at the center of the world and there are oceans, life, and creatures living on the inner surface. Perhaps the people from the new world delve too deeply and open up this new world.

Using your invasion idea, perhaps demons bored up from the Inner world to conquer and are defeated. Now the fight is being taken to them.
I like the idea of the new world being physically linked to the old. Otherwise adventurers in the new world are beholden to the high level casters to get home again. So I think a new continent-type thing would work best.

Perhaps a never-ending storm in the middle of the ocean prevented travel across the sea, but now mysteriously the storms have abaded.

I don't know there's lots of options.

As far as the Crusade idea it sounds fun.
Maybe you could have the invaders do something to the land making in inhabitable, and the population (what's left of it after the devistating war) must flee to parts unknown.

Buddy of mine had a game once where the PC's were the last remaining heroes of a great war. Good lost, but managed to destroy the necromancers controling the undead. Of course now there's an endless horde of mindless undead destroying the countryside. The PC's must lead the surviving peoples across the sea to a new land where they can start over. This approach can be fun, as it combines Kingmaker type elements with exploration and conquest.

[Karoht]

All Rogues and Bards party, maybe allow a tough guy like a Fighter or Barbarian or some variants thereof. Allow 1 caster other than the Bard. Start at Level 1.

The Concept:
You guys are all part of the thieves guild. You're criminals, end of story. You take contracts to go steal stuff, kill people etc.

Give them 3 that are just there for warmup sake. Then give them the hook. The caper that everyone remembers as the time when 'snot got real'

4th caper should be hard. Really hard. But basically, the 4th caper is where the players end up crossing the line. Maybe they do something horrible and it's a wakeup call. Maybe they steal something from someone they shouldn't, or they fail to steal something for someone that doesn't accept failure. Where you take it from there is up to you. Characters on the run? Characters trying to fight the other bad guys? Characters competing to get the macguffin or treasure before someone else? Sabatogue and Subterfuge everywhere. Think Assassins Creed here with a higher degree of fantasy.

You'll need to stat out all kinds of stuff, really give your players all kinds of solutions to problems. Stealing something from a castle should not feel like entering a dungeon per se, nor should they fight an army to get the object in question. Stealing something from a crypt should be 1 part Indiana Jones and 1 part Oceans 11, with just a subtle hint of dungeon crawl.


Good luck.