Would like help with campaign ideas [3.5]

[slaydemons]

I sadly can't say much in the title but I was planning a seafarer campaign, I was thinking perhaps a seafarer campaign with stronghold building guide stuff making it a mix of protecting sea routes or plundering them then running back to the castle on a magic island for repair and stuff.
Edit: I feel like an idiot, I am asking if anyone else has any fun or neat ideas.

[TripleD]

In the distant Archapelago of Sas Nagori, there lay three ancient kingdoms. One day the sons and daughters of one of the kings set out on an adventure to see the world. Years passed without any word of their whereabouts, and slowly the old man withdrew more and and more from the world until the day of his passing.

You, a nameless adventurer, are unaware of this fact. Orphaned at an early age, you don't remember much about your parents, until the fateful day when a message from Bavrael, the court wizard, summons you to the island of Pso. When you reach there you notice other warriors of fortune who have been summoned, all of whom share oddly similar features with yourself.

Bavrael wastes no time. The rival kingdoms have been nibbling away at Pso for years now, and the rogue pirate gangs don't even pretend to avoid the "half-manned patrols of a senile old codger"! All the great artisans and warriors have left, trade is almost gone; Pso is dangerously close to extinction.

You and your long lost cousins have a great task ahead of you: restore your grandfather's kingdom! There will be times of shawshbuckling (pirate battles), daring vision (construct an even greater Capitol), and courtly intrigue (it was awfully convenient for all of your parents to die and leave the lot of you with no knowledge of your heritage).

[Honest Tiefling]

Any word on characters yet? It would probably help if your players have ideas on what they want to play. Have you decided on a campaign setting?

[slaydemons]

Any word on characters yet? It would probably help if your players have ideas on what they want to play. Have you decided on a campaign setting?

I haven't decided on a campaign setting yet, I was probably going to go mill around world building for that one world where they designed everything based on voting. I distinctly remember one of them being a bunch of islands and many many different kinds of gods. As for the characters We have at least 1 rogue and 1 psion and 1 monk last one is undecided. The group doesn't minmax too much, as the monk and rogue haven't played before and the psion is going to go with levels of fighter.

[Zero grim]

As a DM who has run a seafaring campaign for a long time I can say that there probably isn't a better setting for adventure, The way I've been building my world was piece by piece starting with one island and working outwards, you might want to start with a fairly simple island that the character live on and have a few sessions of simple problems that need solving that lands them a caravel or other small ship, by that time you should be able to probe for what sort of adventure the players want and then let sea tales of a nearby island entice them in.

I find religion can be a powerful driving force, so how about the players hear of a nearby island that apparently has a strange new religion spring up, have the island and customs be drastically different to what the players are used to.(everything made of coconuts or something)

[Honest Tiefling]

Ah, so a lot of combat focused characters, I assume, unless that psion picked up a bunch of non-combat powers. Of course, with a pirate themed campaign I'd say that treasure is the best bait for a plot hook, followed closely by gaining their own ship and crew.

With a rogue, I would forego a heavy undead campaign unless you can give him Grave Strike, and you are certain none of your players will refer to their captain as 'LeChuck'. But they do seem pretty standard for the genre, and might be interesting.

Of course, you are going to need to come up with rival pirate captains for them to steal/loot/defeat bring to justice.

What items are being traded in the area, BTW?

[slaydemons]

I never have a lot of undeads in my campaigns regardless, though I do toss them in. To be honest I never played monkey island so I had to google LeChuck. I don't think I have to worry about that, as for trading items besides exotic foods they will probably haul ores or weapons for export and import stuff like meats and farm animals.

[Honest Tiefling]

Perhaps it is because I play with a group where such is more of a concern.

And ores and such, eh? I imagine a trip to the mine would be a bad idea--something to save for a more land based campaign. But perhaps a town is being blocked from trade by bad pirates, and the PCs have to smuggle food in? Or perhaps the goods come from a place that the town doesn't trade with legally, so the PCs have to sneak in to trade and then find a buyer?

If you have lots of gods, perhaps one is planning on a festival (or even a wedding between two high ranking people, at least one of which is a part of the church) and they hire the PCs to make sure it goes well, or someone else hires them to embarrass the church.

Perhaps someone is attempting a monopoly of a certain trade good (likely ore, hard to hoard animals the same way) and attacks any ship thought to carry it so they are the only provider of it?

[slaydemons]

Perhaps it is because I play with a group where such is more of a concern.

And ores and such, eh? I imagine a trip to the mine would be a bad idea--something to save for a more land based campaign. But perhaps a town is being blocked from trade by bad pirates, and the PCs have to smuggle food in? Or perhaps the goods come from a place that the town doesn't trade with legally, so the PCs have to sneak in to trade and then find a buyer?

If you have lots of gods, perhaps one is planning on a festival (or even a wedding between two high ranking people, at least one of which is a part of the church) and they hire the PCs to make sure it goes well, or someone else hires them to embarrass the church.

Perhaps someone is attempting a monopoly of a certain trade good (likely ore, hard to hoard animals the same way) and attacks any ship thought to carry it so they are the only provider of it?

I like this idea and am totally going to use this along with everything else thus far said. Thanks surprisingly honest tiefling, next I will meet a dishonest aasimar ... wait that is already something I had as an story idea.

[Honest Tiefling]

Said dishonest Aasimar could be a dishonest merchant using or opposing the PCs, doing various things such as supporting piracy, setting up secret hidey-holes, hoarding materials, creating false shortages, and bribing officials. They could even hire the party to protect them on their boat, staging a fake attack upon themselves by stooges who don't know who really hired them.

In a religious area, thye could use their heritage to get in good with one religion, perhaps even use it to get several to cooperate. Of course, that would mean that the chruches have a more unified force to attack (their) pirates. To counteract this, they would have to worm themselves into a position to know of the battle plans of the church to sabotage them to set someone else up. And, they could drum up funds to 'aid' the family members of those killed by pirates, but in reality be skimming it and perhaps putting these survivors on plantations and pay them very little.

[The_Jester]

For my seafaring campaigns, I've always added an element akin to the real world's "Age of Exploration".

Consider how big your world is. Then consider how much of it is known to the civilizations your players have contact with.

Having unknown locales is a nice way to introduce new flavor elements over time.

When the party reaches an appropriate level, why not throw an armada of exotic, unknown origin into the mix? Do they come in peace, or they here in the name of conquest?

[Envyus]

Having recently read this plot hook in Fiendish codex 1. I think this is a good idea for an villain group in your game.


The Waverazer. Captain Herask was a terror in his time. In addition to being a sorcerer of great power, he was also the captain of a ship of well-trained and loyal gnoll thugs. Herask’s greed for power outstripped his skill,
however. When he used greater planar binding to conjure a sibriex, the demon escaped the bonds of the spell and used its feeblemind spell-like ability to reduce the captain to a simpering idiot.

The sibriex claimed the Waverazer as its own, charmed the gnoll crew and enhanced them with grafts, and now uses the ship to haunt trade routes. When they capture a ship, the gnoll pirates are allowed to loot as they will. The sibriex retains the claim on a captured ship’s crew, though—it uses charm monster to make the crew members yield to its experiments. Rumor holds that the Waverazer has built a fleet of a half-dozen ships of deformed pirates, but as of yet, no one suspects the true nature of her demonic captain.

The Sibriex along with this plot hook can be found in Fiendish Codex 1, while grafts can be found in Fiend Folio if your interested in this.

[Phelix-Mu]

I was going to suggest aliens on sailing vessels. But then I remembered....

SPELLJAMMER!

Why not just set the whole thing in a spelljammer setting. It's very novel, has a nice, unique flavor, and has all of the seafaring elements built in (BUT IN SPACE).

If you google wizards of the coast and spelljammer, I believe the 3.5 edition was basically just a series of articles, but maybe there were books. Back in 2e, this setting was pretty cool.

Anyway, if you want planet-bound stuff, let me suggest a bit of the Mary Celeste and the Bermuda Triangle. Have an area of ship that is somehow part of some unexplained phenomena involving fog, getting horribly lost, and strange things that move just beyond the range of vision. A ship that floats about, with no crew or passengers, and a series of unexplained incidents.

Could be good fun. I can elaborate, if you wish, but you already have some good ideas above. Good luck.:smallsmile: