PF: Looking for campaign ideas.

[Zach J.]

Our group's regular GM wants a break so I am supposed to start a Pathfinder game tonight. I am not entirely familiar with the rules, but I have played a lot of DnD 3.5 and I've been reading the core rulebook's chapter on combat.

What I know about the party:

LG Human Paladin: This character is older than the others and once served as an advisor to a young princess. He was exiled from his order for unknown reasons and has spent the years gathering intelligence for...someone. A mounted combatant.

LN Halfling Cavalier: A halfling raised by humans to love the glory and honor of "the charge." He's spent the year before the game starts guarding a bridge. Another mounted combatant.

LN Human Magus: This character plans to start a series of schools for young magi. He mixes magic with a quarterstaff.

LN Human Samurai: This character lost his clan and has made it his life's goal to enact vengeance on those responsible. He's not from the same country as the rest of the PCs and was a guest on the pirate ship. The rogue does not know the samurai survived. Possibly a mounted combatant. I don't know how long he'll actually survive; the player has a history of playing every character with a Lawful (very) Stupid personality and they usually die fairly quickly.

TN Human Rogue: This character served as a map-maker and forger on a pirate vessel the start of the campaign. When he learned that the other pirates didn't respect him...he crashed the ship. The character is looking for companions to help him find the ship's treasure.

CN Half-Orc Sorcerer: I am not even sure if this character will be a part of the game. If he is, I am expecting the player to use the Abberrant bloodline.

I don't really have any kind of game-world ready other than what I know about the characters' backgrounds. I do know that the game will start near a coast, but that's about it.

I thought about working the rogue's desire for the sunken ship's treasure into some kind of adventure, but I doubt the rest of the party would want to help him until they can all trust each other.

Basically, I'm looking for suggestions on how to start the game. I just need a beginning and then I think I can fill the rest of the story in as I go along. It doesn't even have to be a good beginning. Most of our group doesn't like our current GM's gaming style and the GM just wants to play so it's not like they have to be blown away or anything. I apologize for this rambling mess, but if any one in the playground has a suggestion then I would love to hear it.

[NeverSleep]

How about this for a jumping off point:

Everyone shows up(in various ways/times) at the bridge that the cavalier guards. It is one of the safest roads in the city/nation/world, so they are travelling alone(or with hired people if they pay for them).

They all show up in their own moments and get their spotlight/solo time when the guards ask them their business. This will allow everyone to introduce a bit to the guards, while really for the players. Let them spin their personal tales of why they need to get in/out of wherever the bridge leads.

They are only being held up for an hour or so before the bridge's minor repairs are completed. They can talk or not talk to each other.

Then, spot and listen checks.(my favorite dm moment.... hahahahahah!)

A band of knights on the most impressive steeds hurtles by the bridge ignoring the repairman, injuring one, and blows past the group. These are the good guys. They drop a package for the cavalier that says, yada yada, recruit everyone you can to ..... fill in the blank/fight the nearby enemy in two hours. Pay is however much you think will motivate most in coin, plus a favor from the king/ruler/noble nearby.

Give the cavalier the info on the special guard that just came through, saying they are only called out in the most dire of circumstances.

Then go defeat said thing with help of awesome guys, and earn a minor favor from leadership. Hopefully they'll band at this point. Or you could have them lose or get captured at some point to wake up in an unknown area and need each other's help to survive/solve the mystery of how to get back.

Just putting an idea out.

[motionmatrix]

This idea will take your group into a war scenario, the rp is mostly between players, at least at first. As a dm you will probably be busy with all the fight details.

Since they will be at a coast, have them all in the port area of the city. Some are there to start a new life, others just happen to live in town.

Some will be in the docks, a few would be proper, such as the one who sunk the pirate ship could be swimming to shore into the docks area as part of the opener.

This city that they are in is the first target of a Githyanki invasion.

You will start the fight at the docks, where witnesses see the night sky light on fire, as a (enter appropriate size here) red dragon flies in, towards the higher parts of town.

They don't have time to react, as debris falls around (conveniently separating most random npc's, yet giving the pc's a playground where they are already located) and where gith begin to port in and attack anyone.

There should be some guards, especially as the first round of combat begins. they should be more visible at the beginning of this grand combat scenario, dwindling as the clock moves and they are systematically mowed down.

As another dragon swoops down after a few rounds of combat, the pc's are rushed by the wave of another dragon landing opposite the direction you want them to go (or killed if they decide to try to take on a dragon backing Gith).

Pause them there.

The next set of pc's are helping npc's and guards surround some children and women. Let them fight a bit, eventually creating a circle/semi circle to protect them from the gith porting into this area.

Reinsert the first pc's, as they are running their path leads right into a group of people who are resisting in another war torn section. They can flank the damn gith attacking your second set of pc's.

That damn second dragon and the retinue is now making their way here, to the second battle area, forcing everyone to run.

continue this trend until every pc is actively part of this group of people running for their lives, with debris railroading them to whatever ending you see appropriate.

I would probably let them escape, as long as they don't do something horribly stupid on the way. make sure you have some townsfolk there to get stabbed and grabbed by a dragon and whatnot for realism. (I would probably be using something like a god of war soundtrack for this).

As some of the very few who escape, probably with an npc of some authority, either a noble or a guard of some type, to drop hints of what is the next best move; to go to a certain town for protection, or to the bigger city to inform of the fall of this town.

Be sure to have all your npc's covered since you seem to have alot of Lawful characters playing, which can be detrimental if they just get themselves slain (although its easy to replace when a major war is actively happening, as all kinds of people are on the move.)

You now have a couple of people who might have known each other before from living in the same town, another who traveled on the pirate ship before it sunk and knew the map maker, etc, etc and ultimately they are now brothers in arms, trying to survive an invasion no one foresaw.

Btw, the Gith leading this is a rebel Gith commander trying to take over this place unknown to his Queen in the hopes to overthrow her, so she cannot continue killing her own.

Does any of that work for you? Hell, if anyone reads this and can use it, please do ^.^

[NeverSleep]

Update please!?

Did you end up using any of this? If not, what did you end up doing?

[Zach J.]

Thank you for the suggestions. I wound up using the bridge scenario. The PCs are currently en route to help some knights out with a manticore problem.