Island of Ruins, Adventure, and Pirates

[IcarusWulfe]

Hello Playground, I have recently started a new campaign and would like some input and tips that can help both me and my players enjoy it. The campaign takes place on a recently discovered chain of islands, on which there are the ruins of an ancient civilization. The ruins are that of the first wielders of Psionics but were powerful magic wielders as well. The ruins are filled with unknown wonders and lost knowledge. Long story short, the BBEG is the emperor of this long dead civilization, who preserved himself using Quintessence and Necromancy. Now that people have re discovered the islands, he has recruited/mind controlled a select few explorers and colonists to become his own organization, The Right Hand. The Right hand has been sent out to collect the pieces for a true immortality machine that the emperor commissioned before the cataclysmic event that colapsed his empire. Once he obtains the device, he will no longer be tied to his container of Quintessence, and he will begin the conquest of his empire anew. The PCs have discovered a device in a ruin that left a message in the form of a vision, warning anyone who hears it that the pieces found in the ruins of the Grand Workshops must not fall into the hands of the emperor. What does the Playground think of this concept and what can I do to make it an enjoyable experience for the players?

Also there's an entire island that is controlled by pirates and brigands that has dragons on it.

Thank You,
Icarus Wulfe

[Creed]

Alright, so a few questions.

What scale are you looking at here? Do you intend this to be your entire campaign, do you want to run this for one or two sessions, or is this a mega-adventure style game you want to run for quite a while, but expect to transition out of?

What level of involvement do you want from us, the supporters of DMs everywhere? Are you looking for general dart-boarding and feedback, or are you looking for help developing this setting further, pushing the world-building out?

Do you have a map of this area yet, or an idea of what you'd like it to look like?


Anyways, seems to me like you have a pretty firm grasp on your setting's core details (i.e., the Quest to Reassemble the MacGuffin, inverted). One thing that strikes me is that the victory condition of the players and the victory condition of the Last Sovereign Emperor are asymmetrical. The Players can't win by simply preventing the Emperor from building his machine, they have to kill him, while the Emperor can't win by surviving, he has to build his machine. So, realistically, the players are probably going to favor the direct assault on the villain, above trying to find a bunch of machine parts and guarding them, presumably forever.

Here's a little questionnaire you can use to punch up your central conflict:
Is there any way to break the machine for good? If they throw one part into a volcano, does it render the whole machine inert, since the civilization that could build it no longer exists? If no, why can't the Emperor just fabricate all the parts he needs, instead of searching them all out? Can the players put the parts together in a different configuration to kill the Emperor for good? What has kept the Emperor from mind-controlling all the savages and monsters on this island long ago, reassembling the machine long before the players even arrived on the Islands? If he can still communicate with the outside world, in addition to using his psionic abilities and negotiating terms, why does the Emperor need corporeal immortality to begin his conquest?


In addition to all this, it probably wouldn't hurt to flesh out the actual details of your setting further, especially if you expect to stay here for a while. Fleshing out the details of this ancient empire is probably a good idea too, since it'll give you an idea of how to map out ruined complexes in a logical way, and give you some great fuel for puzzle or riddle construction.


I like the general idea of your setting, and will stick around to help punch it up in whatever way I can. Always love to see people DMing, and will put whatever forward you need me to! :smallbiggrin: Keep creating!

[IcarusWulfe]

Thank you for your input, I will try to answer some questions and include some more details in this post. On the subject of scale, I was aiming for this to be a campaign that will run for some time, but not for an insane number of sessions, so lets say between 12 and 20ish 4 hour sessions. As far as involvement goes, I was hoping to more or less throw some ideas out there and get some feedback(Its my second time actually DMing a full campaign so I wan't to do it right). I have a map of the islands completed and am working on fleshing out the settlements. The chain consists of three large islands and many small ones in the waters between them. There is Hatharos, the largest of the islands, Exile's Paradise(the pirate haven) and Regnon(the second largest of the islands.

As far as your questionnaire goes, I have given some thought to the questions and I answer thus. The machine itself was made piecemeal by the six Grand Workshops to speed up the production process and to keep the project as a whole as secret as possible. Once the pieces were completed, they were sealed in containers that are more or less indestructible, and only open at the emperor's touch. As such, while it is possible to destroy the pieces themselves, the containers prevent the PCs from doing so. The emperor can't fabricate new parts simply because he is stuck in hsi container of Quintessence and his minions do not have the skill, to build it, nor the hyper rare materials to do so. The reason the emperor has remained dormant until now is that there simply nobody within range of his powers, and his citadel was made to be completely shielded against all supernatural effects (incoming or outgoing) so he couldn't simply send out a telepathic mind control signal or something(he thought the shielding was a good idea at the time). When explorers started coming to the islands, a few wandered into an old teleport gate to the entrance of the citadel and were subsequently mind controlled to lure more explorers through the gate:smallsmile:.

As far as details of the world go, here's what I've come up with so far in a sembelence of chronological order.
-The Emperor sought immortality and conquest in an attempt to one up the gods and prove that his kind didn't need them(because inborn Psionics and crazy magitek)
-He secretly ordered the Grand Workshops to create the immortality machine as well as soldiers made through twisting the natural world(i.e. Lycanthropes, bestly races like catfolk,abberations,etc.)
-Ordered the eradication of all divine casters in his domain(using his new soldiers to do so)
-A resistance group formed(which included the researcher who left the warning
-A bolt of pure Divine Retribution struck the capitol and split the large island the empire was based in into multiple pieces(the campaign setting)
-The citadel survived thanks to its anti-everything wards but was sunk beneath the sea
-the few surviving members of the Balitar(that's the ancient race's name) fled into the world, scattered, and the empire crumbled
-One Balitar researcher(same one mentioned above) left small crystals to people he knew he could trust, and psionicaly infused them with the power to eventually lead a worthy bearer to the first of the Workshops, gain entry to it, and discover the first of his hidden messages

The power groups on the islands are the following
-Colonies established by countries on the mainland
-Pirate town
-Society of scholar pilgrims, who seek to escape the bounds of censorship and government regulation

other then that my only thoughts are that I want the bosses to be grotesquely "immortalized" members of the emperor's entourage, such as a golem with the brain of his most trusted bodygaurd inside. Also i'd like to leave messages from that Balitar researcher in the workshops, telling his own story(a la audiologs in Bioshock)

Thank You,
Icarus Wulfe

[Everyl]

Have you put much thought into how the Immortality Device and its indestructible containers work? I could imagine players finding odd ways around your intentions to abuse that. Like, maybe they kill the Emperor, then touch his corpse to the six containers, assemble what they find inside, and grant themselves immortality.

Overall, it sounds like an interesting campaign idea. I like the idea of the backstory being revealed through records the players find along the way, in particular. One thing to keep in mind there is that the records the players find don't necessarily have to be strictly factual - they'll reflect the knowledge and opinions of the person who left the records. If you have them find records created by people with biases or incomplete knowledge of the situation, you can keep the players on their toes, making them less certain of what to expect next or who they can trust. Even better if they find messages created by people with contradictory biases, coloring the same facts or events in radically different ways.

[IcarusWulfe]

Thank you for your feedback. As to how the containers work I suppose they exist partially outside the time stream or some such, and after thinking about it, ill probably set them so that they open not at the emperor's touch, but the call of his mind or another psionic ability exclusive to the emperor. Also, thanks for the idea to make wildly varied messages, I was originally intending to only leave messages from one researcher along with a few miscellaneous messages to help provide some clue to the original purpose of the dungeons.

Again, thank you all for your input,
Icarus Wulfe

[Creed]

The power groups on the islands are the following
-Colonies established by countries on the mainland
-Pirate town
-Society of scholar pilgrims, who seek to escape the bounds of censorship and government regulation



Alright, what are each of those groups like?

What are the mainland nations like? What is the technological level of the world outside of this island chain? How independent are these colonies, and how much operational discretion do their leaders have? Where are the colonies, geographically? Do any of the players have ties to a specific nation, do several players have ties to separate factions? Are there ever conflicts between these colonies, either over land rights, dogma, or resources? Why have they come to colonize these islands in the first place?

Where are the pirates from? How long have they been here? Do they have a King (or Queen) who coordinates them, or is this settlement more a Tortugan safe-haven for buccaneers the world over? How well armed are these pirates? Now that the nations of the world are colonizing these lands, has there been talk of heading for yet more distant grounds to serve as a base? Where is this town, geographically? Are certain nations funding the pirates to harry their rivals, while leaving their ships undisturbed? Do any players have connections to these pirates?

Where have these pilgrims come from? Where are they at, geographically? Or are there so few of them that they are roaming about these ruins in small groups? What knowledge do they hope to find? What are their relationships with the various nations, and with the pirates? Do any players have connections to the pilgrims? What regulations did they hope to circumvent?


In addition to all this, I still heavily encourage further fleshing out of the Balitar Empire, through archaeological and anthropological lenses.




Other then that my only thoughts are that I want the bosses to be grotesquely "immortalized" members of the emperor's entourage, such as a golem with the brain of his most trusted bodyguard inside.



There's a PS2 game called Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows where most of the bosses are the twisted advisers of an ancient king. The game itself isn't the best, but because I've played it I get where you're coming from with this idea of these half-immortal leftovers that came out of hiding when the Emperor returned to the world. Dig it as an idea, for sure. You could go as far as to link one of these characters to each of the Workshops, like they're the ones the Emperor is sending to lead his cultists and explorers to recover the Immortality Engine.

[IcarusWulfe]

Hello, and again thanks for all of your input. I have already put some thought into the factions and think that they could lead to some interesting situations. The colonies are somewhat of a mish mosh, some are controlled by a representative of their home country while others are more or less completely detached from their homeland. The pirate haven is just that, a pirate haven akin to Tourtuga. Some individual crews may be on the payroll of some nations, but the settlement as a whole is not funded by any one nation. The pilgrim scholars have taken up residence in the ruins of ancient Balitar cities, using magic to patch up hollow shells of buildings and make their own structures. They are fleeing for a variety of reasons, most of them involving the strict regulation of magic and all magic related knowledge on the mainland. Speaking of the mainland, I haven't put as much thought into the countries on the mainland simply because I don't intend to have the players visit them. The general technology level of the world is more or less your standard D&D post-medieval affair with a limited amount of magiek based on ancient Balitar designs. The most influential power groups on the mainland are the Kingdom of Filore(a relatively standard medieval European kingdom using the feudal system), The Vashlorn League(a group of otherwise unaffiliated territories which are all under the protection of the Vashlorn mercenary company), and a as of yet unnamed Elvish kingdom.

I pictured the servants of the emperor to have been waiting at the workshops all this time, guarding the pieces of the Immortality Engine from being stolen. I thought I might have the emperor give certain passwords to his followers or a special mark that will allow them to pass by the guardians and retrieve the pieces for him.

Again thanks for the input

[TalonOfAnathrax]

"Also there's an entire island that is controlled by pirates and brigands that has dragons on it."
I love how you just pop that out at the end :)

What's their place in this setting? Are they just there as random encounters, or do they have the some of the pieces of the McGuffin?
I wonder how they interact with the colonies: do they try to manipulate the pirates into attacking the other colonies, or do all the colonies just try to annihilate the pirates? This seems like a group dynamic that the PCs could want to meddle with to get to McGuffins - they could even HAVE to, and make some hard decisions about it: it causing a war to destabilize a country enough to be able to access a McGuffin needed to possibly save the world from a potential threat worth it? After all, maybe the defenses that can defeat the PCs can also defeat the BBEG...

[Grimstaff]

Give your players a chance for some underwater exploration. How about a ruined city submerged in a sparkling blue lagoon, only the tops of a few spires jutting above the waves. The city itself is covered in magnificent opalescent corals of all hues, but in addition to mundane threats such as sharks, giant gar and octopi, the city is the haunt of a group of lacedons and kuo-toa who pay homage to a trio of lich-queens.

[sktarq]

Well some questions: what kind of adventures do you want to run? Dungeon Delving over all? How much research/investigating in order to tturn up clues, keys, and locations they need for latter, how much dealing with underhanded groups that might be after the same things.

Also how do various locals see the ruins? Does one workshop sit under a Loxo or catfolk city who. Worship the ruins? Does one sit on an isle claimed by the trade league who claim sole rights to all booty from the ruins and actively hunts trespassers?

If the party gets a piece of this machine what do they do with it? Both while they search for the other pieces and when they have them all. Are the defences they have really better than the grant workshops? And what about imperial minions (say were-rats for example) stealing the parts that the party collected while off searching for part four or five.

Also power groups would include whoever is native to the island, dragons for certain (possibly gem dragons) any surviving "native races" which would probably draw as much from those bio-experiments as anything else (original imperial citizens who have lost the skills of their ancestors but have useful oral history for example or decendents of shipwrecks from between the cataclysm and colonization).

[IcarusWulfe]

"Also there's an entire island that is controlled by pirates and brigands that has dragons on it."
I love how you just pop that out at the end :)

What's their place in this setting? Are they just there as random encounters, or do they have the some of the pieces of the McGuffin?
I wonder how they interact with the colonies: do they try to manipulate the pirates into attacking the other colonies, or do all the colonies just try to annihilate the pirates? This seems like a group dynamic that the PCs could want to meddle with to get to McGuffins - they could even HAVE to, and make some hard decisions about it: it causing a war to destabilize a country enough to be able to access a McGuffin needed to possibly save the world from a potential threat worth it? After all, maybe the defenses that can defeat the PCs can also defeat the BBEG...

The island that the pirates control is indeed the location of one of the Workshops, and I think I might have the piece of the Immortality Engine fall into the hands of a pirate captain....
The colonies have mixed feelings about the pirates, some (The Vashlorn League) want to eradicate the pirates and claim the port as their own, while others (Confederacy of Breaton) simply don't care enough to do anything.

[IcarusWulfe]

Give your players a chance for some underwater exploration. How about a ruined city submerged in a sparkling blue lagoon, only the tops of a few spires jutting above the waves. The city itself is covered in magnificent opalescent corals of all hues, but in addition to mundane threats such as sharks, giant gar and octopi, the city is the haunt of a group of lacedons and kuo-toa who pay homage to a trio of lich-queens.

I'll be sure to keep this in mind, thanks:smallsmile: