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View Full Version : DM Help Completely without consistent idea about Campaign



Spore
2014-06-28, 05:42 AM
Greetings,

I want to start a PF campaign soon (2nd level so basically more experienced commoners) in a city setting. It is part of one player's homebrew setting.

City setting:
The whole area is like imperialistic Spain/Portugal. The nation only survives through a contract between the King and the largest assassin's guild on the continent constantly killing warmongers from the hugely superior neighbour. It's a large city located on one of the country's most important trade routes. And as Spain and Portugal did they make the most of their money by trading and imports. Guns are common (1/10 price, same is ammunition), the whole thing should have a feel of piracy but I want my main plot to revolve around an uprising revolution of the commonfolk.

Thing is the merchants are almost as powerful if not more than the nobles so they want their part of the share as well and cut deep into the land's finances. The assassins are loyal to the king so more often than not a merchant vanishes. In return the merchants threaten to bankrupt them. And as always the commonfolk are used as pawns in that conflict. So are the players. So I want a secret revolution brewing. Ine of the Admirals of the royal fleet actually lets ships "vanish" and reappearing without cargo to finance the revolution. He even has freed some pirates to cover up his tracks a bit.

So my group is composed of a prostitute (dervish dancer), a gnome illusionist, a noble (wind oracle) and her hired muscle (ranger/gunslinger). First I need a way to cut the noble from the finances of her father a quite rich guy. And then I have NO idea where to begin.

They need a job but I want meaningful quests and not stupid fetchquests from the beginning on. But on the other side they are just overqualified henchmen. No sane high level NPC would trust them with an important mission. Because all they see is a girl that has never worked in her life, a guy with questionable morals, a prostitute and a slightly insane spellcaster.

My main plotpoints are far more believable and fun when played with higher levels imho. But I want the players to not loose a connection to their character progression. I will still give the first levels relatively fast but this forces me to throw items at them. So how to start? I have three main ideas for the mainquests.

a) Assassins have killed/kidnapped McGuffin. Learn more about them and rescue him.
Problem: the Guild is made out the be one of the deadliest on the continent. How can I make the guild ignore their exploits while keeping the questline important?

b) The group gets hired on a trade ship. There I can introduce them to treasure, a bit of island adventuring and let them witness the raid of their ship. Still being guttersnipes no one will believe them so they have investigate themselves.
Problem: How do I get a noble girl accept being on a ship for months for little to no money?

c) A merchant bankrupts the oracle's family. They have to investigate.
Problem: I have no idea how to do that.

Doleth
2014-06-28, 10:36 AM
If the noble lose her money, what keeps her hired muscle around? What's the motivation for the prostitute to change profession? What's the deal with the illusionist?

Is the group already a group by this point in the game? Then the noble's father could simple cut her off since she's undermining his reputation by hanging out with prostitutes and gnomes while still keeping the ranger/gunslinger on his payroll to keep her safe. Then, it's fairly easy to justify hers and the mercenary's presence on the boat. The problem I could see here is if your players expect a game of social intrigue and urban adventuring, they may be a bit disappointed when the first few sessions are all about naval adventuring.

Instead of cutting her off from her father, you could have Noble Dad be their boss at the start. Here's a powerful and influential NPC who has reason to trust the group to investigate various happening on his behalf. If your group wants naval adventure, have Noble Dad involved in maritime trade, he's sending his daughter and her entourage on one of his ship to find out why some are disappearing.

The quest line A could be more of a later game thing, when the characters can actually fend off the assassins going after them in retaliation for getting involved in this plot.

Where does the noble's family money come from? Maybe there was no actual income for the last few generation and they have been getting by with their actual saving, by selling valuable heirlooms and by taking loans based on the prestige of their name. Then the loan sharks finally had enough and cut off all funds, bankrupting the family. Another way is to simply have the merchant(s) involved in the same kind of industry as Noble Dad but with unfair advantages.(Noble Dad is involved in the spice trade? The merchant has/is a high level alchemist who can create better and cheaper spice! Noble Dad is involved in metal working? The merchant has a bunch of dwarves and gnomes on his payroll.)

If your group likes intrigue, you could start off with a conspiracy against Noble Dad. Not only is a merchant/organisation systematically undermining his various commercial ventures(and thus his income) but some rival nobles are also conspiring his downfall. Suddenly, some evidence that he was selling state secret to the other countries come to light and he is executed for High Treason, all his remaining asset seized by political rivals and his prestige dashed. Now it's up to her daughter to discovered what really happened and seek vengeance against those responsible. Maybe he was really a traitor, maybe he had link to the underground revolution, maybe he ran afoul some nefarious plot or maybe it was a simple reckoning between rivals.

Spore
2014-06-29, 02:45 AM
Your plot hook is good because my player has imagined her father as caring but heavily distracted. An alchemist trying to work hard against bankruptcy fits the bill quite nicely. She also gets practically thrown money at her which is a major sign of someone either too fearsome of the future or someone desperate to create the illusion of a good life for his one and only daughter. With the gunpowder guild being a major influence in the city I would actually see making cheaper gunpowder and refusing to being contracted under them as the general offense. They would trace his gunpowder to some foreign clients and then an execution for high treason is actually believable (if you don't know the backstory).

So they basically start off asking some NPCs, maybe stir up enough dirt to actually provoke some fights with underpaid mercenaries and house guards. They can play their social game I advertised, and later on everything goes south and they practically have to flee to the harbour onto a boat for a few months.


If the noble lose her money, what keeps her hired muscle around? What's the motivation for the prostitute to change profession? What's the deal with the illusionist?

That's actually a good question. Him being neutral evil as well he could actually sell her into slavery. Originally I thought about a assassination of "noble dad" and him being the prime suspect with only the noble girl being able to testify for him. Maybe in your idea he could by a prime suspect because he has served on various pirate ships in the past. Maybe they'd want him to testify selling gunpowder to pirates (the type of confession involving hot irons and not-the-truth).

The prostitute is just looking for someone to finance her change of profession as she is a dancer and actually just working in a brothel because you need either strong workers or sex slaves in this city. Big money will haul her basically everywhere. She's an Ifrit from the desert and her family vanished after making deals with an Undine water merchant. I may use them later on for a farther ship travel quest.

As far as the illusionist goes I think he wants to play our light comic relief. I have no actual idea. He blurted out something of: "Of course my character wants to take over the world, one Summon Monster I at a time."

Your ideas helped me greatly, thank you.