Ideas for Celtic-style campaign?

[Almost_Elven]

I'm considering starting a campaign with a Celtic feel- with highland geography, woad, the lot. It's going to be- probably- a long-term thing. I can pull off a sort of half Irish/ half Scottish accent without looking like an idiot too, so it should be fun.:smalltongue: Anyway, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for Celtic villains, towns, or the like. Perhaps, if someone feels truly inspired, they could give me a baseline for a new/altered class with such a feel? I'm not too great at homebrew classes myself.

Thanks in advance,
the lyrical DM Almost_Elven

EDIT:
For the record, I'm playin D&D 3.5e.

[Cipher Stars]

Hold on lemme go find my book...
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Slain: The Roleplaying Game of Celtic Heroes.

google eet.

[DarkestKnight]

a lot of Celtic lore focuses around the Fae and nature, so doing the same would be interesting. lycanthropes also rear their heads so they would make good villains as well. in terms of altering classes, you could make some alternate class features mandatory as opposed to optional, like giving rangers a favored terrain as opposed to creature.

while not truly Celtic, adding in some Scandinavian elements would be neat, as they have a lot of stories that tell of things that go Nom in the night. like trolls. and wolves that eat mountains.

hope this helps.

[Gandolfi Feesh]

I'm from Scotland, so I'll give you what I can on my side of it.

Monster-wise;
The infamous Scotch Mist (I'd treat it like a gelatinous cube for engulfing purposes) Either that or the Fearful Mist from Ravenloft.

For NPC minions, you're looking at Barbarians in kilts for the Scots & Irish, Knights and Rangers for the English.

Campaign-Wise;
I would center it around the retrieval of the Stone of Scone (also known as the Stone of Destiny), a stone used in the crowning of Scottish Monarchs. After being housed in England for a number of years it was reclaimed by four Scottish students on Christmas Day back in 1950. Swap students for PC's..winner.
Details of the stone: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_of_Scone

Keeping it in the Christmas period is a good idea, Britain is renowned for being cold so that would get you a good feel. This also allows you to hamper combat with vision based effects (such as Sleet Storm), as well as fortitude saves for extreme weather conditions whilst travelling. By the time they retrieve the Stone I would have the campaign around 90% complete, with the return to Scotland as the final 10%.

Be smart about encounters, and the more you read into them the more your PC's will appreciate the effort. Don't bore them with a history lesson, but explain your reasons for specific encounters after the session. One's that spring to mind are:

1: Stonehenge. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge
En-route to Westminster Abbey (Where the Stone is Housed). Many theories have been constructed to the function of Stonehenge. With regards to your campaign i would recommend the Neopaginism section of the Wiki page. Enter druids (& perhaps a druidic summoning in the center?), you could also horde the journey to this monument with undead as it was also used as a burial ground.

2:Westminster Abbey. This could effectively be a dungeoneering section to your campaign. Clerics, Priests, Undead (Royal Tombs lie under the abbey) and some bad ass monks. The stone is housed here, as the PC's escape with the stone you could have any survivors ring the bells of Westminster, alerting everyone around it, making the PC's feel the need to flee.

3:Tavern Brawl. Cliche is some respects, but Britain is famed for it's pubs.. have a scrap between the Scots and the English in there. Heck, even get the Irish involved.. they love that sort of stuff.

4:Battle of Scone. Every campaign I write has some form of battle in it. Use the 4th edition 'Minions' rule (All minions have 1hp) and go nuts with it. Personally, I would have this as the final battle in your campaign. The PC's triumphantly return with the stone only to reach the village of Scone (where the stone is to be housed) and find that it is overrun with the English.
If you wanted a little bit of cheese, William Wallace (Frenzied Beserker :)) fought in this battle. Have him meet the PC's beforehand and lead them into the final encounter.

In a nutshell, PC's journey from Scotland to England to retrieve the stone. Find monuments and historic sites online and base them around their journey. It also would not be as simple as walking down the road, the Scots and English hated each other. This way they can traverse countryside allowing encounters involving savage animals and the like.
After retrieving the stone I would have the PC's form an alliance earlier on in the game, then regroup them after the stone has been taken. This would allow you to sail up the coast and not bore PC's with the journey back up.

Hope this helps.

Apologies on there being no real structure to this. I just read your post and started typing.

[Almost_Elven]

Thanks guys. I like the idea especially of Stonehenge- I could add a sort off druidic cult here, with a fiendish lycanthrope or some other style of thing as the cult leader. Should be interesting.:smallsmile:

Scotch mist sounds interesting as a creature. I'm definitely going to put that in.

[bladescape]

I've never been in Scotland, but I ha'e a wee bit of Scottish lineage. I'd love this campaign! :smallbiggrin:

My thoughts immediately is this: Fae.

There are LOADS of legends and tales around the many, many fae of the Seelie and Unseelie courts. The battle for Scone may be an interesting scene, of course, but having the Fae meddling in it will only make it all the more interesting.:smallbiggrin:

I can go more indepth later, but I've little time now. I really love the complexity of the Scottish Fae, just in case you were wondering. :smallbiggrin: