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View Full Version : Campaign Ideas/Brainstorming. Thoughts from the Playground?



Gemini Lupus
2013-07-11, 09:02 PM
Warning and apologies: Wall o' Text ahead.

So I've begun the (ambitious) process of writing an epic campaign, complete with several prologue one-shot/short campaigns. The format I'm using divides the campaign into "seasons" and "episodes," a la Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel. In between episodes, there will be some downtime, allowing the players to pursue other goals, commission/create magic items, train, etc.

It will be an epic, save-the-world type campaign, wherein the arch-plot will fold out and be slightly railroady. My players know this and are ok with it but know that I'm flexible, so please leave that aspect out of the discussion. :smallwink:

Background: The world has been (mostly) at peace for nearly a century. The High Seer has prophesied that an era of darkness is nigh and omens are appearing that show it to be true. One of the Lords of Darkness is making his return to the world to cover it in his shadow and rule with an iron fist.

The Prologue games will cover various aspects of the world and how the darkness is creeping into the world, to sort of set the stage. For this bit, I'm wanting some help coming up with some possible one-shots to help set the stage.

Here's what I've got so far:


Elven "campaign," where the players are all elves who are fending off incursions into their homeland;

Dwarven "campaign," where the players are dwarves and investigating the disappearance of a group of miners who dug too deep, releasing a Balrog expy;

Urban "campaign," which will probably play most directly to the players, where the leader of the city where a good part of the game will take place is deposed and replaced by an agent of the Dark Lord;

Political "campaign," where the old king of the main nation dies without an heir and a despotic regent takes the throne (possibly resolved in campaign proper?);

Evil campaign, where the players create villainous characters who serve the Dark Lord and may serve as antagonists in the campaign proper and will be the one-shot directly prior to the campaign.

The Campaign Proper, which I am naming "Legacy of the Immortals," will follow a group of adventurers who meet up and band together (like many a campaign) to face numerous challenges and adversaries and go on adventures. They will each bear a "birthmark" known as the "Mark of Altana" (which I am still trying to figure out the significance of *hint hint* :smalltongue:), and a minor, scaling artifact, which shall be created at a later date. They will become involved with the arch-plot, save the world from the BBEG, etc.

So the help I'm asking for here, is what sort of adventures could they go on? I'm looking for both side-quest/"filler" episodes and main plot episodes.

Once again, here's what I have so far:

Note: There will be a mini-session with each individual player where we will actually role-play their backstory and them becoming adventurers, with the first session together being where they come together. How might this be done?

Adventure Brainstorms:

Season 1: 1-6
The party is hired by a mysterious man to retrieve a "spellbook" (which will actually be a powerful, evil artifact that will come back to bite them in the buttocks :smallbiggrin:

The party become heroes of the city by fending off brigands.

The party deposes the agent of the Dark Lord from the Urban Campaign.

Season 2: 6-11
The party is invited to a Faire/Tournament. This will mostly be a filler episode to just have some fun while they are still low enough level to adequately participate without them being a shoe-in for winning or more work for me to make things a challenge. :smallwink:

The party fights a local giant who has set up shop near a small castle a few days journey from the city, which will become their new base of operations.

The party finds a foe that they cannot defeat, so a mentor figure tells them of a jewel that may allow them to transcend their current limitations (i.e. go beyond level 6).

I want the BBEG of this season to lead to the main plot train for the next season, which will involve them doing a bit more world travelling.

Season 3: 11-17
Here's where things get hazy for me. This is the season where I want things to get serious. I want the players to sort of "follow the breadcrumbs," until they come to the next BBEG(s), who I think will be their former characters. Along the way, I want to wrap up most of their personal sidequests (which I know y'all can't help with just yet :smalltongue:), as well as have some time to find some more sidequests if they want (which you can!)

In the episode before they face down their foes, I want there to be a serious blow to the forces of good, where basically the entire high command is annihilated and it's left to the heroes to save the day.

Season 4: 17-19
This is going to be the next to last season I think, where things get a little bit more mundane, though they are at higher levels. I'm thinking that I will (if it's alright with the players) have them take on more authoritative roles, i.e. make one of them the new king.

I'm also thinking of having them rebuild the army in a Dragon Age-esque fashion, going around the land, rallying the people. Basically this season will feature more or less the war and the new BBEG, who will serve as the Harbinger of the Dark Lord. Possibly have one of their allies turn against them.

Season 5: 19+
The final season, where the Dark Lord returns to full power (think if Sauron had gotten the Ring) and the party must gather artifacts that will both weaken him and strengthen them, so they can defeat him and end his threat for good.


As you can see, as the campaign progresses, I have fewer and fewer ideas for adventures/episodes. And so, my fellow Playgrounders, do y'all have any ideas of how this can be remedied? What do you think of the concept? Any of it really. Any feedback will be awesome, if you have adventure ideas, please specify which season you think it would go best in.

And if there is enough interest, I will keep you updated as I fill in the campaign and recruit the players.

Thank you so much in advance for your help!

Edit: This will most likely be for Pathfinder, if that makes any difference in assumptions, though it will be in my own world, which I am also still developing.

Gemini Lupus
2013-07-14, 03:09 PM
I know this is a pretty steep request, but since its been a few days and there haven't been any replies, I'm gonna go ahead and bump the thread.

Arkhosia
2013-07-15, 12:36 PM
An interesting idea for the paragon tier could be that maybe they join a secret organization that is trying to stop the BBEG. A very important, long awaited meeting is called, but on the way there, the party is ambushed. When they get to the meeting place, they find it besieged, with many of the members dead, dominated, or taken prisoner, with the previous party of the one-shot in the second category.

Mordar
2013-07-15, 06:14 PM
I might recommend finding a way to make the story more relevant to the players. When I saw "prologue" I thought of Vampire the Masquerade (wherein you could play out the "embrace" where the PC is turned into a vampire).

I think that doing individual prologues and finding a way to link the events/characters therein to the overarching campaign has great value...but it needs to be events/characters drive by the player, not the campaign.

For example, in VtM you often chose details about your sire (the vampire that "made" you) as a PC instead of the storyteller deciding for you. In much the same fashion, have your PC prologues be about an obstacle the PCs overcome individually in their past and then find a way (over time) to tie it to the main story arc.

Alternatively, there's the route of asking for each player to submit their personal enemies, worst nightmares, nemesis and the like...any of which could spawn a great personal connection that makes saving the world more than just a day job.

- M

Gemini Lupus
2013-07-15, 07:56 PM
@Arkhosia: That's a very interesting idea, and a way to really get the players to want to get revenge. Not only was there the plot-spawned blow, but they themselves were waylaid in the attack. I like it.

@Mordar: I am going to have a session with each of the players, where their backstories play out and they get started on their individual adventures, with plans to bring them back as both side-quests and tie back to the main plot. And I already have my players fill out a questionnaire to help flesh out their characters. :smallbiggrin:

Thank you both for the suggestions. I'll keep them in mind as I work through the game! I hope that many more come up!

Arkhosia
2013-07-15, 09:39 PM
Curses! Now I want to find a way to play in your campaign, but now that I know the plot...
Oh well. At least I can have some solace in the fact that I've helped making your campaign even more enjoyable in some sort of way. :smallfrown:/:smallbiggrin:

tasw
2013-07-15, 10:50 PM
More information about the main villain would help with suggestions a lot. What is it? What are its minions? How does it plan to spread darkness over the world?

You want filler adventures to be like the filler episodes of those shows, generally having their own individual plot but to at least tangentially, at some point suggest something about the main story. Even if its just at some point having an NPC bring an important message about their research.

Without knowing those things about the bad guys and his plots its hard to suggest adventures that would be able to stand on their without stepping on the main plots toes and still have a hint to the greater darkness in them.

Gemini Lupus
2013-07-16, 04:32 PM
More information about the main villain would help with suggestions a lot. What is it? What are its minions? How does it plan to spread darkness over the world?

You want filler adventures to be like the filler episodes of those shows, generally having their own individual plot but to at least tangentially, at some point suggest something about the main story. Even if its just at some point having an NPC bring an important message about their research.

Without knowing those things about the bad guys and his plots its hard to suggest adventures that would be able to stand on their without stepping on the main plots toes and still have a hint to the greater darkness in them.

All things that I'm currently working on. I'm thinking that the main villain will be some sort of demonic god/demi-god/Sauron figure. Much of the story will involve him/it exerting its will over mortals and tempting them with great power. His followers will consist of all manner of races, from the typical Orcs, Trolls, and Ogres, to Humans, Dwarves, and Elves, and other creatures that he gains power over, such as dragons, giants, etc.

For his plots, I'm trying to come up with something other than to destroy civilization. I'll gladly take suggestions regarding this :smallbiggrin:.

And to Arkhosia: Alas, this is for an in-person campaign. Otherwise, I'd be glad to have you in it! Unless of course you're in the Kansas City area, then you very well could play in it!

Arkhosia
2013-07-16, 05:08 PM
East coast, sadly. :smallfrown:
I never really got why anyone would want to destroy civilization. After all, thanks civilization is just an organized group who help each other to survive. How could the BBEG be powerful or have a mighty army/empire/etc. if those groups couldn't exist?

Gemini Lupus
2013-07-28, 03:33 PM
East coast, sadly. :smallfrown:
I never really got why anyone would want to destroy civilization. After all, thanks civilization is just an organized group who help each other to survive. How could the BBEG be powerful or have a mighty army/empire/etc. if those groups couldn't exist?

Ah well. Sad times.

As to destroying civilization, a lot of times, the best way for this motivation to work is when the villain wants to destroy civilization so that it can be rebuilt with him/her at the top. A la Vandal Savage, although his goals are more to conquer the world so that he can rule it as the supreme dictator, but I think some of his plans involved the destruction of civilization.

Arkhosia
2013-07-28, 06:52 PM
Ah well. Sad times.

As to destroying civilization, a lot of times, the best way for this motivation to work is when the villain wants to destroy civilization so that it can be rebuilt with him/her at the top. A la Vandal Savage, although his goals are more to conquer the world so that he can rule it as the supreme dictator, but I think some of his plans involved the destruction of civilization.

I forgot about that logic.
Oh! Just thought of another!
Wreck civilization to rebuild it in a way that it will better everyone, ignoring the fact that the process would leave millions dead.

Here's my suggestion for a goal: he's lord of shadow right? Maybe he wants to integrate the shadowfell, Baator/ Nine Hells, and natural world together so that no one can ever die: they just return in different form to the world!