Pathfinder Campaign idea - Looking for C&C

[Silus]

I've been recently pestered by one of my group members (or several members, I can't remember. The last bit of the last session is a little fuzzy) to start a Pathfinder campaign in a few weeks or something (no real timeline). Thankfully, I've experience in DMing, so that's not a major problem (and all the problem players are gone this time :smallbiggrin:). Anyway, I've been ponderin' the plot for the campaign, and I figured I'd run it by ya'll first to iron out the kinks and whatnot.

The world (homeworld):
I figured that I may go ahead and start fleshing out a personal gaming world so I have something to work off of if I should need to DM again. My idea for the world is that there is nothing.....special about it (a poor choice of words, but just go with it). There are no magical creatures or supernatural whatnots (Though there are the stock races). Dragons, griffons, unicorns, ect. ect. are all fantasy creatures and would never be encountered. The world itself is heavily populated, almost at a Ravnica (http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Ravnica_(plane)) or Coruscant level, but wilderness still remains uncharted and unpopulated.

Despite the "normalness" of the world, with Dire animals being the most strange thing you'll normally see (not including magically created undead), there are things that will....slip through. Monstrous things from other planes, alien life from beyond the stars, that sort of thing. Also is the underground, a vast network of caverns not dissimilar to the Underdark, which has only been briefly touched and where horrors writhe in the darkness. But with the constant expansion of the cities aboveground, it's only a matter of time before the surface races starts pushing underground and unleash the horrors that live in those dark places.

Plot and stuff

The start of the campaign is going to be pretty open ended. I'm pretty good at improv, so if they the players decide on something I've not planned out, I feel that I can work with it. Ideally, I'll lure them in with the following plot:

An organization (an explorers guild of some sort) has managed to get ahold of an unusually stable version of the "Interplanetary Teleport" (Second Darkness Adventure Path: Children of the Void) and has turned it into something similar to a Stargate. They plan on locating a hospitable planet and setting up an outpost there, where either the organization or private contractors (aka the PCs) will help keep the explorers safe and facilitate the acquisition of supplies (wood, formerly rare starmetal, food, ect.). But of course, things won't go smoothly at all.

As it's an alien planet, here's a short list of monsters I plan on using:



Bestiary 1
Aboleth
Ankheg
Assassin Vine
Basidirond
Basalisk (maybe)
Bulette
Chuul
Ettercap
Giant Flytrap
Froghemoth
Gibbering Mouther
Mimics (maybe)
Neothelid
Otyugh
Purple Worm
Shambling Mound
Shoggoth (oh heck yes)
Violet Fungus
Yellow Musk Creeper

Bestiary 2
Akata (defiantly)
Aurumvorax
Catoblepas
Chaos Beast
Chupacabra
Death Worm
Decapus
Denizen of Leng (maybe)
Drakes
Faceless Stalker
Grick
Grindylow
Gug
Leng Spider (maybe)
Moonflower (defiantly)
Mu Spore
Neh-Thalggu (maybe)
Peryton
Reefclaw
Seugathi
Shantak
Shining Child
Tendriculos
Water Orm
Yrthak


I haven't thought past the first couple encounters though. The first will be something to do with hostile flora (Moonflowers mostly. They arrive in a jungle area), and then, as the base/outpost is being set up, a pack of Akata will attack, and then the PCs will be given to option to either help take care of the outpost or hunt down and destroy the pack.

After that....I dunno. Exploration? Loot in the form of extremely rare trade goods? I want the planet they arrive on to be something just shy of a WH40k Death World, where everything that moves is hostile. Name of the game is survival.

And at some point have them stumble upon ruins of some long dead alien civilization (where the Shining Children come in).

So, yeah. Suggestions on things to improve thus far, monsters to add/take out, encounters, plots, ect. ect..

[Silus]

So, consequence for actions thing: The PCs start colonizing and sending resources back to their own world. After so long, they decide to return (for whatever reason. Maybe spend their hard earned gold on upgrades?) and find that the things they had been sending back had begun...transforming their world. Moonflower pods and Akata corpses result in packs of alien monsters hunting in the streets and alien flora overrunning the wild places.

[OracleofSilence]

or, you could take that idea a little further, and say run a normal exploration campaign, until one day they get a totally bizarre (read creepy/disturbing) response back.

the stuff they have been sending back is not only transforming their world, it is rewriting it. something (that is just flavor) is opening up your world to the various elemental and aligned planes, creating poles (fire air, water, earth, good, eveil, law, chaos, positive and negative energy) and magic life is spreading like a cancer from them. some are unofficial, but others are horrifying, and every day the lbight spreads. the colonization group is returning with their resources to a world that is steadily becoming more alien then the on they are on

keep in mind, this idea requires a very immersive feel, and moreover, is very roleplay heavy. if your party doesn't do that stuff, feel free to disregard.

[Silus]

Well I figure that at some point they'll ask what the point of the exploration is, so I'll let'em know that it's all about exploration and resource gathering. But I do like your idea. Like the overly "normal" world is getting turned into a more "proper" D&D/Pathfinder world.