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View Full Version : 2 Campaign Suggestions. Which do ya prefer?



Duboris
2012-09-24, 05:00 PM
So I have 2 Campaign ideas, both of which would be lengthy games which would take quite some time to finish. The themes in both are completely different from the other, and the methods of how you should approach both are also different.

The 2 campaigns are "Arctic Nightmare" and "The Clockwork City"

Arctic Nightmare is a story about a band of hunters, (4-6) that are commissioned by a native village to hunt and slay a monstrous Wendigo, a creature that's been causing nightmares, not to mention stealing and killing the villagers.
The story is dominated by the sense of dread, and poor survivability in an arctic wasteland. Blizzards are constant because of the Wendigo's doing, and the wild-life isn't exactly forgiving either. Avalanches, Wolves, Dire Polarbears, and Constitution damaging from blizzards will make the game a true fight for survival as the hunters both avoid, and hunt the Wendigo, eventually resulting in heavy losses, a sense of being insignificant, and a final Predator-esque stand against the beast that wants nothing more than to kill you all.

The Clockwork City is a story about a band of soon-to-be heroes in a great, colossal, moving city made of steel, steam, and stone. It starts out rather safe, but slowly but surely things go from bad to worse as the clockwork constructs that patrol the city start to act weird. Guards start cattle prodding people for miniscule offenses, and word of a group of refugees inside the city leaks out, which puts everyone on edge.
What was previously a bustling, advanced city of its time turns into a war-hungry machine of death that runs on paranoia, and eventually begins to attack other villages. The goal of the campaign is to learn as much about what's going on as possible, and either join the refugees to destroy the clockwork constructs and usurp the current king, or simply find and remove the reason for the sudden hostility.
Either way, espionage rides high, and many backs will be stabbed, as well as unlikely alliances.


Which of these would you guys most likely choose, and if you have any questions inquiring as to what may or may not happen, please ask. It'll help me make the campaign itself better.

Murg
2012-09-24, 06:12 PM
I would choose the Wendigo campaign. A battle against a formidable enemy in unforgiving terrain is always fun. You can do all kinds of fun stuff with combat encounters in an arctic setting.

Besides just snowstorms and poor visibility and strong winds that blow your arrows off course...there's hypothermia, slippery ice, falling through weak ice into freezing lakes/rives, avalanches, maybe the wendigo hiding in ambush in a snowdrift, ect ect.

Invader
2012-09-24, 06:29 PM
I like the clockwork city campaign. It seems more unique and story drivin than go kill a big monster in the wild :smalltongue:

Duboris
2012-09-24, 07:30 PM
The Wendigo is more for unforgiving terrain, and "Roleplay story" rather than being story driven itself. They'll make the story based on where they decide to walk off too.

The Clockwork Campaign is very story driven, with lots of espionage and qwerky fights.

Glad to see this. Keep suggestions coming if you guys can, this stuff's helpful :O

Kelb_Panthera
2012-09-24, 08:34 PM
Two things:

1) shouldn't you be asking your players this question?

2) I could go either way, depending on my shifting moods. ATM the wendigo hunt sounds more appealing. I'm not sure why though. It could be for something as simple as the fact it's listed first.

rollforeigninit
2012-09-24, 09:07 PM
I'd go city based. The survival thing can become a grind pretty quick. Story all the way.

Duboris
2012-09-24, 09:57 PM
It was a pretty unanimous decision amongst the players that the clockwork campaign would be our new campaign, so yeah. That's good. Wendigo will come later.

More to the point, the reason they preferred the clockwork one is because a Stipulation with the Wendigo campaign is that if they die, they stay dead till the campaigns over, and, in total, the campaign would last 5 total sessions, with a player dieing every session due to some unfortunate turn of luck.

watchwood
2012-09-24, 10:02 PM
That's a rather important detail. :P

gr8artist
2012-09-24, 10:06 PM
I must not have understood correctly.
You told the players that the wendigo campaign would feature (roughly) one PC death per game? If your campaign starts with 4-6 players, that's at best leaving only a single survivor to face the Wendigo.

Duboris
2012-09-24, 10:07 PM
Well the original idea was a survival horror that's really really fast. Every time a PC would die, all the other characters would get 2 levels. That's the "Survival Horror" way of doing it, because the players would lose interest in it really quick, or atleast the survival horror part of it anyway.

Plus it wouldn't be horrifying if you died and just re-rolled a new character who JUST SO HAPPENED to also get recruited late, and mind you, has no business hunting a Wendigo.

Needless to say, we went with the clockwork thing, which is much more lighthearted and fun, and much more long-term friendly because of the bajillions of ways the story can split up.

Duboris
2012-09-24, 10:08 PM
I must not have understood correctly.
You told the players that the wendigo campaign would feature (roughly) one PC death per game? If your campaign starts with 4-6 players, that's at best leaving only a single survivor to face the Wendigo.

In a brilliant display of arnold schwarzaneggar manliness.

In other words, the game ends like this:
http://americanmonsters.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/wendigo1.jpg

Duboris
2012-09-24, 10:14 PM
At that point it would be a lvl 18-20 fighting a CR 16 Wendigo in its home field. At that point it's anybody's game.

ThreeDSix
2012-09-25, 06:23 AM
I get the feeling you really wanted the Wendigo campaign to happen. :smallsmile:

I'd prefer the Wendigo campaign myself. Nice and short and and scary. Very different from what my group usually plays.