Plot Help Request

[Jallorn]

Alright, so I'm all set to get started on a campaign in my homebrewed setting, I've got the setting fleshed out enough to be usable, I've got my villain more or less worked out, and I've even got an idea for the starting scenario. In order to permit my players to use any of the races in the system, I've set the campaign in the one (civilized) place where they could be together without horrible things happening to them (there's a lot of racial and cultural tension in my world). The problem? I can't quite figure out the specifics of the starting situation.

Specifically, my plan is for the PCs to be mercs hired by a noble lord to do something for him. I know that I want that something to have to do with an antagonistic, not-goodguy-but-not-evil other noble who has done something to the first noble that is bad enough to merit offense, but not enough to merit immediate martial action. Although I do want the tension to be there, that this situation could escalate into a battle between the nobles' armies (nobles are allowed some leeway, as long as their conflicts don't last too long or get too big or disruptive, they are more or less okay to do whatever. This means minor civilian casualties, minor disruption in commerce, etc. at most.)

Any ideas Playground?

[Stumblebee]

Badnoble has kidnapped Goodnoble's daughter and Goodnoble has hired the PCs to retrieve her (art thou a base enough knave to rescue thy princess?). However, the daughter refuses to go with them; it turns out Badnoble and Goodnoble were once lovers and the daughter is their child. The daughter left the Goodnoble estate in a noble-hearted but foolish bid to end the rivalry that rose between the nobles when their affair ended.

Badnoble wants her to stay and raise her as his heir as he has no other children.

Both nobles love their daughter just as deeply as they've come to hate each other and are willing to start a war over her. The PCs will have to choose a side and try to stop the war, ultimately earning a loyal ally--and potentially a bitter enemy--for the rest of the campaign.

That's all I got.

[EDIT] Also, the "noble-hearted" pun was completely on accident, but I'm leaving it in :smallamused:

[Jallorn]

While a fun idea, it neither fits into the overarching campaign, nor the world's themes. The idea of a kidnapped member of the household was on the table, but I didn't want to do the whole "Rescue the princess thing."

Although... in medieval times, nobles were often captured for ransom by another noble, perhaps the "bad" noble decided to ask for far more than was reasonable as ransom (possibly more than the "good" noble could conceivably pay without their holding's suffering), and so the "good" noble hired the PCs... I'll put that on the table as a maybe, but I want to hear some other ideas.

[Bobby Archer]

The badnoble has hired a band of mercenaries to harass some of goodnoble's farmers and peasants in places where goodnoble's lands border his own. Badnoble's plan is to use the excuse that goodnoble cannot protect his own people as an excuse to gain more land (and thus more taxes, soldiers, etc) at goodnoble's expense. Because badnoble has plausible deniablity ("I don't know who hired those men...really!"), goodnoble can't strike directly back at badnoble, and if badnoble's mercs are basing themselves in badnoble's lands, then sending actual soldiers after them could be construed as an act of war. Hiring the PCs allows goodnoble to deal with the problem without escalating the conflict.

[Funkyodor]

How about manipulate the PC's into doing something bad to the bad noble prior to them becoming Mercs for the good noble. Then when the bad noble finds out what they did, and who they now work for it can present minor tention to the PC's and the good noble. Plus it's incentive for the good noble to send the PC's around to correct the problem, because they inadvertently started it in the first place.

I've found the easiest way to do this is pit the PC's up against an unknown loudmouthed braggart of middle to low skill with 'yes' men cohorts. Loudmouth could be the bad nobles distant relative who's father financally supports the bad noble. Important enough to be affront, but minor enough to not cause swift retribution.

All their actions could culminate with the minor conflict you mentioned.

[Jay R]

You've told us practically nothing about the world, so these two ideas are all I could come up with:

1. Noble A hires them to take back some land stolen by noble B of a race none of the PCs belong to. Noble B has kicked out the farmers originally there, and supplanted them with farmers of his own race.

Hilarity ensues when the PCs discover that these two noble families have been fighting over this land for centuries, and nobody knows the original owner.

2. Noble B has been setting up outposts near Noble A's borders. Noble A wants an investigation to see if it's a pre-cursor to invasion. While Noble B is just trying to set up a trade route, he distrusts Noble A enough that he is ready to go to launch a pre-emptive strike if Noble A sends any troops (say, an adventuring party) as advance scouts.

[Jallorn]

The campaign starts in The Kingdom of Valen (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9146357&postcount=3), so A would never work.

Option B, on the other hand, has a lot of potential, and I think I will employ elements of it in my campaign. However, I do want the bad noble to actually have done something wrong, he's just not out and out evil.

[Jay R]

The campaign starts in The Kingdom of Valen (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9146357&postcount=3), so A would never work.

Option B, on the other hand, has a lot of potential, and I think I will employ elements of it in my campaign. However, I do want the bad noble to actually have done something wrong, he's just not out and out evil.

You could leave it open whether he was really opening a trade route or trying to get Noble A to give him cause for an invasion. Also, what's the trade route for? Is he trying to cut Noble A out of a trade agreement with his neighbor? Is he trying to open up trade with the kobolds who live under Noble A?

Finally, the trade route could be cutting through Noble A's land -- possibly to hide a mine on deposits that Noble A owns but doesn't know about.

[Serpentine]

This is for the very, very start of a campaign, right? Are you after ways to introduce the party to each other, as well? Here's my idea, anyways:
The party, individually (or in pairs or more, if characters already know of each other) are up for trial for a variety of semi-serious crimes - perhaps not enough for the death sentence, but enough that it would result in something unpleasant they'd prefer to avoid. Let the players decide what crime they're accused of, and whether they're guilty or not.
One of the nobles - either one - comes in on the sly to hire them on to do something underhanded to the other. Or Hell, maybe they both try - presumably without knowledge of the other - and the party gets to choose their allegiances. The party gets snuck out at some point or other, and goes off to do the deed.

[JonRG]

The party, individually (or in pairs or more, if characters already know of each other) are up for trial for a variety of semi-serious crimes - perhaps not enough for the death sentence, but enough that it would result in something unpleasant they'd prefer to avoid. Let the players decide what crime they're accused of, and whether they're guilty or not.
One of the nobles - either one - comes in on the sly to hire them on to do something underhanded to the other.

This is so awesome.

[DontEatRawHagis]

Bad Noble wants the Good Noble's land is usually a good plot device. But maybe add in a bit of revenge in there, the Good Noble is over reacting because in a conflict(Maybe a gentleman's duel), the bad noble killed a relative of the Good Noble. Or maybe the woman that the Good Noble loved fell in love with the Bad Noble.

Either way, the case had already been settled, however the Good Noble still holds a grudge. But there is another element underneath the surface the Good Noble has some Macguffin that is effecting his judgement. He is growing paranoid and more irrational each passing day.