Talakeal
2014-12-09, 02:53 PM
Ok, so I am going to be running an adventure this weekend.
The setup is that there is a magical kingdom A ruled by two princesses. One of them has innate ice magic, the other innate fire magic. Think Frozen but with Anna as an evoker with a fiery temper (both literally and figuratively).
The two princesses have been feuding, and their kingdom is in the middle of a long civil war with each trying to take the throne and trying to kill one another for past offenses; the elder sister was going to marry someone whom the younger sister thought dangerous and below her and arranged an accident to remove him from the picture. She was successful but her plot was uncovered.
The party are the minions of the Empress of a neighboring nation B which is currently at war with a third nation C.
Kingdom A is allied with Kingdom C. The goal of the party is to break this alliance up and if possible establish an alliance between nations A and B.
So the straightforward way to do this is for the party to side with one sister and then go kill or capture the other, and this is what I am expecting the party to do.
Here is the thing though, I want to make it possible for the party to take a more difficult path with greater risks and rewards that ends up with the sisters forgiving one another and uniting their kingdom.
The problem is I want this to be both more rewarding and more challenging. Simple diplomacy meets one of these objectives, but not the other, and will likely bore several players.
One way for me to do this is for the PCs to attack both of them and act like a bigger threat, forcing the sisters to work together or die against the united force; but I don't know how this can end up better for them, as now they will just have a united kingdom A who is more firmly allied against them with Kingdom C.
Can you think of any way in which the parties have to face both sisters, but end up allied with both at the end? I sure can't, but I am sure some of you out there are much more clever storytellers than I.
I am toying around with the idea of using magical or mundane disguises to make the party appear as agents of kingdom C. The problem with this is I want to have dialogue between the princesses and the PCs as themselves. Also, I have used this plot before, as unbeknownst to the PCs their whole war between kingdoms B and C was actually started by an illusionist in kingdom D tricking the armies of the two nations into fighting one another hoping it will end in mutually assured destruction for both and then he can sweep in and take over the region. I am afraid if the players go with this plot it will seem either repetitive or too obvious when that reveal happens, although if I do it right it might be a nice bit of foreshadowing.
Also, I know this seems a bit rail-roady. The final decision for what and how to do will rest in the players hands, but they are a group that suffers from analysis paralysis and I sometimes have trouble improving NPC reactions on the fly, so I like to have all possibilities prepared before hand.
The setup is that there is a magical kingdom A ruled by two princesses. One of them has innate ice magic, the other innate fire magic. Think Frozen but with Anna as an evoker with a fiery temper (both literally and figuratively).
The two princesses have been feuding, and their kingdom is in the middle of a long civil war with each trying to take the throne and trying to kill one another for past offenses; the elder sister was going to marry someone whom the younger sister thought dangerous and below her and arranged an accident to remove him from the picture. She was successful but her plot was uncovered.
The party are the minions of the Empress of a neighboring nation B which is currently at war with a third nation C.
Kingdom A is allied with Kingdom C. The goal of the party is to break this alliance up and if possible establish an alliance between nations A and B.
So the straightforward way to do this is for the party to side with one sister and then go kill or capture the other, and this is what I am expecting the party to do.
Here is the thing though, I want to make it possible for the party to take a more difficult path with greater risks and rewards that ends up with the sisters forgiving one another and uniting their kingdom.
The problem is I want this to be both more rewarding and more challenging. Simple diplomacy meets one of these objectives, but not the other, and will likely bore several players.
One way for me to do this is for the PCs to attack both of them and act like a bigger threat, forcing the sisters to work together or die against the united force; but I don't know how this can end up better for them, as now they will just have a united kingdom A who is more firmly allied against them with Kingdom C.
Can you think of any way in which the parties have to face both sisters, but end up allied with both at the end? I sure can't, but I am sure some of you out there are much more clever storytellers than I.
I am toying around with the idea of using magical or mundane disguises to make the party appear as agents of kingdom C. The problem with this is I want to have dialogue between the princesses and the PCs as themselves. Also, I have used this plot before, as unbeknownst to the PCs their whole war between kingdoms B and C was actually started by an illusionist in kingdom D tricking the armies of the two nations into fighting one another hoping it will end in mutually assured destruction for both and then he can sweep in and take over the region. I am afraid if the players go with this plot it will seem either repetitive or too obvious when that reveal happens, although if I do it right it might be a nice bit of foreshadowing.
Also, I know this seems a bit rail-roady. The final decision for what and how to do will rest in the players hands, but they are a group that suffers from analysis paralysis and I sometimes have trouble improving NPC reactions on the fly, so I like to have all possibilities prepared before hand.