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View Full Version : DM Help Upcoming campaign themes and plot advice



mucco
2015-01-25, 01:04 PM
Hey all, I'm starting a new campaign soon with friends and I'd like your help. We will be using 5E, not that it is relevant. I'm in the process of brainstorming some key points about the part of my setting they're in, the main plot points that I think they will go towards, and what not. I feel that this is kind of an important moment as I want to establish a solid theme that can carry world events forward for most of the campaign.

What I've got: it's a generic Pangaea-like setting, and the party of 6 will be starting in the elven nation. My elves are quite vanilla thus far, they have no central government and are organized in city-states which gather impromptu councils to solve problems when they arise, their architecture uses mainly wood and crystal, they have no concept of exclusive sentimental relationships. Trying to convey the CG alignment a bit here. Other political entities in the world are the neighboring, large, and very dysfunctional kingdom which is mainly human, a dwarven Kingdom in the mountains on the other side, and an undead nation-city which had been quietly and peacefully (mostly for lack of fighting resources on the humans' and dwarves' sides) expanding its sphere of influence and is now looming over the humans quite threateningly.

Recent events: the last campaign I ran with this group resulted in the party "accidentally" awakening a long-forgotten generic god of trickery and death. During this process a human city was razed... repeatedly. I would like to pick it up from here as I believe it is a strong setup for the campaign.

Clues/hooks I left from the previous campaign: there is some ancient dwarven runic magic which was a recurring theme of the last campaign and which certainly played a role in the awakening, as the BBEG used this magic to force events forward. The BBEG was not the only one to employ this magic though, as it was found in other parts of the world - most notably, a baby born in the refugee camp from after the first razing of the city did carry these runic inscriptions on his body, and he misteriously got to be adored and venerated by the entire refugee camp in a matter of days after his birth. I was preparing the groundwork to make him some kind of avatar of the awakening god - maybe that will happen in this campaign.

Ideas I have got so far: the undead nation trying to forge some kind of alliance with the god; this could see the party fight the undead nation first, and the god later. I think I want some NPCs called Emissaries or similar, somewhat carrying out the awakening god's will on the world as he prepares to take over. I still have to figure what peculiarities do these Emissaries have, and if they're all the same or they can be different creatures (or things). Maybe the baby is one of those. I'd like the party's reaction when confronted with one of these to be "oh crap", I want them to be instantly recognizable in some way - maybe something only the party can recognize. Another thing I thought up regarding undead/god interactions: the boss of the undead city-state is of course a lich and he has spread his various phylacteries around various dungeons. Maybe these phylacteries "act up" and make stuff happen in the area, and draw the party to these dungeons via some kind of hook.

Potential problems: the bane of every DM - an evil murder-hobo party. Yup, pretty sure I'll be DMing one of those for the third time in a row, getting used to it by now, but still.

So, what are some nice methods I can use to keep the party on the plot? Do you have any ideas or feedback regarding my setting, the kind of plot I'd like to create, some possible ways to unfold things I can prepare for my players? Some interesting NPC with an interesting angle on the thing? Oh, one of the players of my last campaign will make a return with a crazed monk intent on furthering the awakening god's will and generally wreaking havoc. He left the group because he won't be able to attend a lot, but he will play this recurring character.