Help a new DM kickstart a plot! All suggestions welcome.

[Dark Kerman]

Ahoy hoy! After a lengthy absence, I have returned, and with it, a boon I would like ot ask.

I am currently planning to run a 3.5 game, I am using a homebrew world, and I have already mapped out the first few concepts and main plot line of what I would like to do, despite this, I am having issues with starting my campaign.

As it is, the PC's are going to end up getting dropped off/stranded on this island (Which is relatively close to a larger one, think Isle of Man in comparison to Wales). From this point, I have no clue what to do, I want them to leave this smaller island at some point, but lack a clear cut thought of what to do and would very much like assistance. :smallbiggrin:

Some current plot ideas:

1) Have them caught up in a hunt (with them as the prey) and let them escape.
2) Wander into a cabal of wizards summoning and have them clean up the mess.
3)...

[Undercroft]

Hmm. How about a volcano on the island with some nice rumbling thrown in. it'd give urgancy to get off before it blows. You could throw in some bits of shipwrecks (easily found) to allow them to fashion a simple ship to escape with.

Depending on how long you want them on the island you can drag out the ship building (like them needing to sort out supplies or figure out how to fix up a sail/other ship bit). Maybe an indiginous tribe of kobolds to be an irritation and attempt to do little bits of sabotage at times.

[inexorabletruth]

Sounds like you've got all the ingredients to bake a survival campaign. :smallcool:

But first, I should ask... how soon do you want them off the island? That may be your first issue. If the island is a hindrance to the plot, then get rid of the island. Start them off somewhere more versatile, like in a city, or major port, a prison cell, coincidentally at the mouth of the same dungeon... whatever.

[JonRG]

Hmm. How about a volcano on the island with some nice rumbling thrown in. it'd give urgancy to get off before it blows. You could throw in some bits of shipwrecks (easily found) to allow them to fashion a simple ship to escape with.

Depending on how long you want them on the island you can drag out the ship building (like them needing to sort out supplies or figure out how to fix up a sail/other ship bit). Maybe an indiginous tribe of kobolds to be an irritation and attempt to do little bits of sabotage at times.

And maybe the wizard's summoning is the reason for the uptick in volcanic activity! :smallbiggrin:

However, I'd advise against artifically extending the adventure through impromptu shipcraft. Rise of the Phoenix was a great movie, but it's not very heroic. Maybe the natives know a thing or two about the strange men in robes who went into the volcano a few weeks back...

[Andorax]

Have there be some sort of lurking terror on the island...something that they can't directly challenge at their current levels, but that isn't specifically interested in coming after them either.

Use it to keep them nervous and always thinking "how do we get outta here" in the back of their minds. Natives of the island (if there are any) know how to avoid/appease it.

Depending on how things go, either defeating it can be the end of the island plot with there being nothing more to do, or they'll leap at the first opportunity to get away (smugglers, shipwreck, whatever is available).

[Dark Kerman]

You're beautiful people. All of you. You just reminded me of a plot I had in the back of my head for higher levels, but your combined effort allowed me to merge it into one.

The original idea was a collossal and possibly fiendish centipede that bursts from a mountain. I never developed it further, but now I can see a nice little plot catalyst occuring, hehehe... :smallamused:

@nexorabletruth They will be leaving the island, I just wanted something of a simplified bonding session before going into something a tad politics related, with lots of crime-solving and mercenary oppurtunities.

Thanks to all of you. :smallbiggrin: Once again the playground triumphs!

[Andvare]

One of the easiest ways of creating a story, is to take hints from the players.
Just take their ideas and run with them.

A couple of off-the-top ideas:

A fantasy castaway.
Having the party try to just survive in a foreign environment, in a fantasy setting, is something that is rarely seen, and could provide some fresh experience to the group.
Strange beasts, with odd immunities or weaknesses, with no help from knowledge skills, or only hints on what their known relatives can/cannot do.
Odd magic from the locals, something different. Tribal based sorcery. Use real life examples for inspiration (just don't use the already overused north America cultures, people tend to know them). I have used Yoruba, the forbearer of Vodou (Voodoo), because no-one knows it, and yet some of it, via Hollywood, is oddly familiar.
Tribal contact. The problem of communication can add to the fun. Perhaps the old stereotypes of 19th century explorers, with cannibals and the like.
Escape. How to, not only navigate, but also build a seaworthy vessel without access to civilization. This could lead to a island-hopping trek with new encounters, and new tribes, on the way. Friendship and possible future alliances could be made, for the players to recruit in a future assault on some evil. You could even throw in a pirate city further along the way (and, yes, pirates have existed a long time before the invention of gunpowder, at least in the form of sea raiders).
Most of these only works with groups of low levels

New people, new technology.
This depend heavily on the players selection of skills, mind you.
But you could have them meet a new civilization, that just hasn't quite invented that thing the players can make, making them potential king makers. Say, craft arms n' armour in a civilization without metallurgy, complete with the opportunity for the divine character to create a church, the mage to teach his arts and so on.
This could of course go both ways, with the players discovering an Atlantis type civilization, perhaps a dying civilization, black plague, people being turned into undead from some disease.

New resources.
It could be that the island contains a lot of some valuable thingy. Not necessarily something with a strategic value, just a mercantile value (say a dye, spice or perfume. I often use dye as something extraordinarily valuable, because it isn't something that is viewed as such today, but was extremely valuable throughout history).
This creates an opportunity for the players to potentially exploit it, but they can also just ignore it if it's a more standard game they want (I like my fantasy games mixed with kingdom building. Supreme power kinda lends itself to kingdom building).

These can easily be mixed, of course.
You could have a new fabulous metal, that was strong, and dealt more damage, but also spread a disease (a uranium alloy for example). And the reason why the natives didn't know it was carrying the disease, was that they had no knowledge of metallurgy, or simple ignorance (the Romans did use lead for their aqueducts).

Or you could go with a more traditional story, with some necromancer that was forced to flee, because he just wasn't powerful enough on the mainland. Mixed with plenty of classical Voodoo witchcraft, and you have a classical , if a little overused, story.

[JonRG]

You're beautiful people. All of you. You just reminded me of a plot I had in the back of my head for higher levels, but your combined effort allowed me to merge it into one.

The original idea was a collossal and possibly fiendish centipede that bursts from a mountain. I never developed it further, but now I can see a nice little plot catalyst occuring, hehehe... :smallamused:

Thanks to all of you. :smallbiggrin: Once again the playground triumphs!

That sounds really awesome. If you need any more ideas, just holler. :smallsmile:

[Dark Kerman]

@Andvare - A lot of the elements of what you say i'm putting in. I had the setting for it done already - a planet of which is almost entirely archipelagio in mostly tropical areas, and the main island of which the smaller island is actually of great resource importance (quite what I hadn't decided yet). However, as this is for a group of people I don't know yet (probably) I wanted a little intro part with this smaller island to begin with. Also, the world will be of a highly magic situation, but not quite eberron or FR (Think more of a cottage industry of minor wizards producing and selling goods).

I get the feeling you use a lot of the worldbuilding stuff I use, a lot of it will be based on a real life culture, then corrupted to hide the difference (So whilst names may be similar, there will be enough difference to hide it).

I like the new people, new tech scenario, I believe I shall use that in future. Thanks. :smallsmile:


Plot line so far for all who's interested:

The party gets set up by a certain trader they paid passage for, they're left on the island for an orc tribe to hunt (For ceremonial purposes, i had this part planned out already, I just couldn't think of a reason). The reason, for this, is that the orcs are actually worshipping a gigantic (like bite the head off a mountain kind of big) centipede that lives at the center, who, after a ritual hunt, the PCs are to be sacrificed by being thrown into a pit at the tip of a strange mountain at the center of the island. The goal is to escape the hunt, find shelter, and try and leave before someone... or something, consumes them.

(there will also be other things on the island, but this is just the bare bones of the plot in a paragraph. :smalltongue:)

[Andvare]

Yeah, I butcher history and cultures all over the place.
:smallwink:

[eclipsic]

The original idea was a collossal and possibly fiendish centipede that bursts from a mountain. I never developed it further, but now I can see a nice little plot catalyst occuring, hehehe... :smallamused:

Then you should definitely find Dragon Magazine #289, which has an article on how to make kaiju, which are basically Godzilla-style monsters. One of the three sample monsters given is a colossal fiendish centipede, IIRC.

EDIT:Also, since you mentioned the Isle of Man and Wales, and I've always associated this myth with its coverage in the "Celtic Mythos" section of the AD&D Deities and Demigods book, The Wild Hunt might be a good thing to base your "get the heck out of Dodge" concept on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wild_Hunt

[JonRG]

I like it. Maybe I'm just assuming that the centipede likes its sacrifices alive and wriggly, but doing a hunt followed by the sacrifice seems a bit odd.

[Orsayan]

I sometimes have this hidden mystery in my campaigns and although my goal wasnt for the PCs to leave the island persé, it was the result of some sessions of playing.

The main jist was that a village with a handfull of strange individuals and one of them a necromancer incognito, after finding clues on undead activity, the PCs are lead to believe that they need to travel to mainland in order to get the info on "who is the person behind the undead activity?".

Basicly they left the small island and went to the university/magical academy in the big coastal town next to the island, they get the info and when they return the village is a ghost town. All villagers are gone and slowly the PCs learn that the necromancer has come in contact with an artifact (also given clues about before) and has undead'ified the whole island bar some survivors. This then turns into a classic "zombie survival theme" campaign.