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MelfalcDM
2013-01-16, 06:31 PM
So I am running my first ever campaign for d&d 4e and was hoping to get some opinions and ideas for the storyline of it. I have a basic idea in my head of what I want to do but I could use your suggestions and critiques to help smooth it all out. We have already had the first session so here is a short recap of what has happened so far:

The four PCs are summoned by the King of the city that they live in to go and investigate what has happened to his daughter who was an ambassador in an elven nation to the north at the time. They are promised gold and riches if they can discover what happened to her and bring her back safely. They traveled to the elven nation and after some investigating they learned that a cult had kidnapped her with the hopes of resurrecting their old leader who had been killed by the Human king (princess's father). They are told that the cult resides in a large natural rock formation in the middle of a desert called the hellspire. The PCs traveled there and fought there way to the top where they found two wizards channeling magic into the unconscous princess. They killed the wizards and the princess wakes up. That is where last week's game ended and they will be continuing on from that point this week.
(sorry its so long)

TLDR: PCs are hired to save a princess who was kidnapped by a cult to resurrect their leader.

My plan for the rest of the campaign is to originally have the princess act like normal but after the king dies a mysterious death and the princess becomes the Queen of the land, it becomes clear that the evil lord of the cult was indeed resurrected and is in the princesses body. As the pcs realize what has happened they will be encased in ice by the cult lord and frozen for a number of years. The characters then awake to a changed world where the cult leader has become the supreme ruler of the entire continent and they must forge a rebellion to take down the empire and defeat him.

My biggest question is what are some interesting ways that they can fight the empire at large? I was considering having them go around in secret to various places around the kingdom collecting some secret magic items to help them defeat the empire.

Any critiques, suggestions, and ideas are welcome sorry it was so long.

ArcturusV
2013-01-16, 06:45 PM
Here's my random thoughts about this:

If you're starting out at level 1 (And I suggest you do as a new DM), it makes a little less sense for a King to personally seek out the PCs to solve a problem. After all, at level 1 they are probably only as famous and power as any random town guard/soldier. You might want to build up to this event. Have some low level adventures where they encounter the cult in minor ways. And what those minor ways are depends on the nature or activity of your cult. Remember that a lot of villainous plans require building up, there's a lot of ground work so you can have the PCs encounter the low level build up/prep work for these plans long before you run into the main plot that you want to run.

It also gives the PCs a chance to learn about the cult rather than just being told "Go there and kick their asses!" so they can get more of a personal drive as players and as characters to want to do so.

Once they have a few levels under their belt (Maybe starting to creep up on Paragon Tier depending on the pacing you like) is when you unleash the plot you actually mentioned. It should be the culmination of a plot arc, perhaps apply some misdirection so the PCs are off foiling some other plan/action (Real or Imagined) while the Kidnapping is happening. By this time logically the PCs should have stomped out enough cult activity that a King might have an adviser tell him "Oh, there's this group of heroes who have been kicking their asses for a few months now and been highly successful. Maybe we should ask them?" and it makes a lot more sense for the King to personally approach them for this mission. It also builds on a sense that their actions mattered, and they are getting this quest/mission not just because they are the PCs, but because of how well they've done as PCs (Which is a good thing).

By then you should have a lot more DMing experience under your belt. But I'll warn you the "Frozen in Ice" thing can come off as heavy handed if you don't play it right.

A similar effect, but not as heavy handed might be used by having them take a jaunt to another Plane, or special location to find the Deus Ex Machina to kick the cult leader out of the Princess's body. This gives the PCs something to do. And with planar mechanics it can be worked out that when they finally DO come back, it's not exactly just after they left. Maybe while off in the Astral Realm they THINK only a few months have passed while it was really years in the mortal realm.

This is something that happens often enough in literary fantasy it shouldn't feel like a huge screw you button to the Players either, which is a bonus. You never want to have the players feel like "Despite doing everything right, **** just got worse and you can't mitigate it". It is okay for you to go, "Despite you doing what is MOST right, the things you were forced to sacrifice for it got worse".

Sebastrd
2013-01-17, 10:22 AM
My plan for the rest of the campaign is to originally have the princess act like normal but after the king dies a mysterious death and the princess becomes the Queen of the land, it becomes clear that the evil lord of the cult was indeed resurrected and is in the princesses body. As the pcs realize what has happened they will be encased in ice by the cult lord and frozen for a number of years. The characters then awake to a changed world where the cult leader has become the supreme ruler of the entire continent and they must forge a rebellion to take down the empire and defeat him.

My biggest question is what are some interesting ways that they can fight the empire at large? I was considering having them go around in secret to various places around the kingdom collecting some secret magic items to help them defeat the empire.

Any critiques, suggestions, and ideas are welcome sorry it was so long.

If you're going to do something like this, you should discuss it with the players beforehand. That way they know they're getting railroaded for the good of the campaign.

It sounds like you're shifting course from "dungeon crawl" to "political intrigue". Those are two very different styles. Make sure your players are interested in a political campaign, and that you're prepared to run it. IME, it takes a lot of time and expertise to run such a game well.

Hyena
2013-01-17, 01:18 PM
Give your antagonist sympathetic traits, but never make them too sympathetic - players should not forget for long that their enemy is still a monster and killer, no matter how sad their background is or how noble their goals originally were.

Kolonel
2013-01-22, 11:37 AM
Also, you seem to have decided that no matter what they do, the PCs will be frozen, and stay frozen for at least a decade.
I'm not sure this is a good idea, because usually players hate when a supreme spell takes over the scene and they cannot do anything to prevent or counter it.
If I were you, I'd let them escape from the castle after the reveal (it wouldn't be easy of course).

The daughter/cultlord will not be less of a threat even if she is "only" the queen of one state. (Or maybe she will, but if the PCs are low-class, maybe it's better that way.)
The PCs won't be able to ask assistance from the neighboring kingdoms, because nobody would believe them, so they are basically still on their own against a foe who commands armies.