DnD 3.5 Straight Outta Story Ideas

[muzman5000]

So I used to have a group to play with until I moved country, until recently I had no one to play with but have now found a few friends who have been looking to try it. Unfortunately I just can't think of a fresh story idea for new players, I have idea block. If anyone has ideas I could use or stories you have used that I could tweak I would be very grateful.

[Stuvius]

My current campaign centers on the party being kidnapped by a King of a distant island nation. His land has recently undergone a civil war, you see, and his power base is fragile. To further complicate things a dangerous cult that was active prior to the war has reemerged. He has brought the party to his kingdom in secret in order to hire them to both shut down the cult and assure the recently rebellious lords under his control are not planning any more treachery. His primary mandate is that they accomplish these tasks with no support from him. He believes if the lords of the land know why he has brought in outside help, they will view him as weak and attempt a coup. It has been a fun campaign mixing in the political and intrigue elements of a fragile government while the threat of the cult looms throughout. We are nearing the end of the tale and the party is till unsure of who to trust amongst the feudal lords. Honestly, I am not entirely sure they trust the King.:smallbiggrin:

[Psyren]

There are a bunch of Adventure Hook/Plot Hook generators online you can try playing with and see if you can get the creative juices flowing. Or just run a module/adventure path, and tweak it in places if needed.

[muzman5000]

My current campaign centers on the party being kidnapped by a King of a distant island nation. His land has recently undergone a civil war, you see, and his power base is fragile. To further complicate things a dangerous cult that was active prior to the war has reemerged. He has brought the party to his kingdom in secret in order to hire them to both shut down the cult and assure the recently rebellious lords under his control are not planning any more treachery. His primary mandate is that they accomplish these tasks with no support from him. He believes if the lords of the land know why he has brought in outside help, they will view him as weak and attempt a coup. It has been a fun campaign mixing in the political and intrigue elements of a fragile government while the threat of the cult looms throughout. We are nearing the end of the tale and the party is till unsure of who to trust amongst the feudal lords. Honestly, I am not entirely sure they trust the King.:smallbiggrin:

Very interesting, I like it a lot, especially the political intrigue aspect. I just think that for a first session for newbies it should be fairly action based to draw them in to the funner parts of the game. I could make it so they earn a bit of a reputation from outside of the island taking on certain bounties and such. Which will in turn get the attention of the king and have those events you described unfold. Thanks man!

[muzman5000]

There are a bunch of Adventure Hook/Plot Hook generators online you can try playing with and see if you can get the creative juices flowing. Or just run a module/adventure path, and tweak it in places if needed.

I suppose I could try that, I just don't like the idea of getting an idea of the internet, as long as it's just a bit of inspiration though it's fine

[Novawurmson]

To go off Psyren's idea, here's a bunch of random charts (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/tools/random-charts) to pull from. The "All Random (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/tools/random-charts/all-random-charts)" chart seems especially fun, because you can reroll each element individually while keeping the others constant until you come up with something you like.

[muzman5000]

To go off Psyren's idea, here's a bunch of random charts (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/tools/random-charts) to pull from. The "All Random (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/tools/random-charts/all-random-charts)" chart seems especially fun, because you can reroll each element individually while keeping the others constant until you come up with something you like.

Pretty awesome actually, I do quite like that, thanks!

[Psyren]

Glad to help!


I suppose I could try that, I just don't like the idea of getting an idea of the internet, as long as it's just a bit of inspiration though it's fine

Er... isn't that why you're here though? To get ideas from the internet? The thing we're talking on? :smalltongue: :smallwink:

[muzman5000]

Glad to help!



Er... isn't that why you're here though? To get ideas from the internet? The thing we're talking on? :smalltongue: :smallwink:

Well technically yeah haha, but I feel like asking for other peoples ideas feels more original and real other than the typical fantasy generator stuff, it's hard to describe haha sorry.

[Kol Korran]

Hmmm... Ideas, Ideas, Ideas. I'll try to dredge up some memories, some threads and the like:

1) Doom kas, Isle of the White King, Black Queen, Potatoes and the Chi-Ga-Si, spirit of Discord: An idea I wasn't able to play, due to a pirate campaign falling apart. This small arc takes place on an island, either a smuggling port, or some other lightly populated island. Check out the following links, the first details the general idea (Skip down to "The Scene is Set up") The second one deals with the end location and enemy- Garden of Chi Ga Si:
Who, or what, is The White King? (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=14715372&postcount=20)
Garden of Chi-Ga-Si (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?276177-Help-designing-the-deadly-mischevious-garden-of-the-trickster-Chi-ga-si!&highlight=Chi+Ga+Si+garden).

2) The first adventure on that campaign, which was supposed to be a pirate campaign, was a sort of "find the treasure" contest between several crews, each given a small boat, in the same archipelago of islands. Basically, each group got a clue that directed to two places, each with their own tiny adventure/ encounter. Each place gave rise to other clues. 5 clues were marked as more important (Names of islands on silvered plates, that could connect to a circle, and a central piece with a sign on it) the 4 island names created an X, which pointed to the island with the treasure, and the middle piece held a sign which was above the ruined building.

Note the party doesn't have to dutifully go over and look for all signs, they can barter/ threat/ attack other groups, gain information by other means, or just follow a group that succeeded or more. A really open and fun adventure, my players had a blast!

Some other ideas:
- The great hunt! A great duke calls a contest, to hunt some legendary beast/ magical animal. It lives further into the wild. Several groups of hunters are hired, with the winner getting a hefty reward! The party may need to travel a bit (and fight meanies) till they come to come near the beast, but on the way they find it's some sort of a cursed/ poly morphed person, who escaped the duke, which cannot kill it outright (Due to a prophecy or such). The party may spare the cursed person/ creature, but then they may need to fend of the other hunters, and exact revenge. The duke may learn of their "betrayal" through divination or such, and deem them outlaws...

- Crash! A story taken straight from one of our campaigns- simple and to the point. The different party members all traveled on an airship, which due to bad weather, crashed in a snowed closed valley, with but one opening. The party needs to first survive the wild (And those pesky goblin hunters with their wolves and worgs), to reach the village. Alas, the entrance to the valley is blocked by a military force, trying to contain a mysterious plague of a supernatural character in the village. The party needs to investigate. (You can check my log, "began with a crash" in my sig for more...)

- Besieged! The party are sent to find the location of some person (Archaeologist/ scholar/ young noble and so on), which went to some secluded area. On the way they fight monsters, who seemed hell bent to not allow anyone to get in, or out, of the area. They find the person (Maybe a bit of support staff) in a location (Old castle/ manor, temple/ someplace a bit defensible). he tells of monsters attacking, their presence draws more of them for some reason, but they will not go! There is something important that needs to be done there (Excavation, exploration, discovery, revelation...) The party ends up needing to defend against several waves of monsters, with some respite between waves 9Perhaps they attack mostly at night?), till the person is willing to go. But each wave is bigger, meaner, more deadly...

- You can check out my "monster manual" sig for making monsters into a whole adventurer even campaign material, with some changes... Check out the "In a D&D table near you!" sections... There could be something to inspire there I hope...

Good luck to you!

[Brova]

Some higher level adventure hooks. Some could be tweaked to work at a lower level.

The hunt is on. The players need to...

...find one of the Twelve Lost Swords of Power, the only weapons strong enough to kill a god.
...retrieve the Warforged Psions who formed a gestalt consciousness able to understand the true nature of magic.
...get into the personal demiplane of a dead Wizard of unimaginable wealth.
...discover the location of the Midnight Market, where the greatest thieves of the multiverse sell their lucre.
...steal the plans for an eldritch machine powerful enough to grant wishes.
...navigate the Implicit Maze hidden within the streets of Sigil.
...recover the crown of the Efreet Sultan before his Vizier pressures him into attacking Djinn.
...reclaim the regalia of Set so they can slay the Thing That Cries In The Night.
...gather the fragments of the ancient planar calendar of the Thran.
...locate the seven hearts of Koschei.

The players must do something about a cult trying to...

...resurrect their dead god.
...merge the Negative Energy Plane with the Prime.
...turn all humans into demons.
...destroy the Elemental Plane of Fire.
...open a portal to the deep Astral prison of the Legion of Avatars.
...remove magic from the multiverse
...turn one of their members into a perfect image of a god, usurping his power.
...feed Sigil into the powerstone core for their giant Spelljammer.
...attract the attention of the Far Realm.
...restore the power of the ancient Xul dominion.

War is brewing in the multiverse! Can the players relieve tensions over...

...mining rights on the Elemental Plane of Earth. The Dao say the Khan owns it all, the Dwarven mining consortiums are moving in, and all this excavation is just pissing off the natives.
...the renewal of the overall contract for Yugoloth mercenaries in the Blood War. Each of the great houses wants a better deal, and someone is trying to escalate the usual shadow war.
...the inheritance of a particularly prolific Red Dragon. Only his half-dragon children are legally adults, but they're younger than his dragon children.
...hunting grounds for two packs Ethereal Defilers. Neither borders nor treaties mean much to race of compulsive liars who can travel between planes on a whim.
...a city using the Torrasque as a source of power. Druids insist it's bad for the environment and seers warn of an explosion of horrors it once hunted, but the city can't afford the loss of food or income.
...the great march of the Modrons. The path the Modrons have scouted leads through a number of planar metropoli, but they never change their path.
...a lost Elven Spelljammer found drifting on the Negative Energy Plane. The Elves want to bury their dead, but some of those dead are walking around and don't want to be buried.
...which of the Princes of Elemental Evil is Tharizdun's favorite. Absent a way to contact the Chained God, they've decided to see who's element can kill the most mortals.
...a flood of new Inevitables. The only thing harder than convincing the forces of ultimate law to allow more crime is fighting your way through a creche-forge.
...the disappearance of a god of nature. Crops are failing, the only people who could help are squabbling over succession, and plagues are running rampant.

Orcus has something you want (the soul of your beloved, a nice wand, the title "Demon Prince of the Undead"), and you'd like him dead. Unfortunately...

...you'll have to find and destroy his phylactery first.
...a council of Liches have invested some of their power into him in exchange for an unlimited supply of souls.
...his necromancy has attracted the attention of Atropals, which will go berserk if he is killed.
...he's deploying demonic strikeforces against your holdings on the Prime.
...killing him will allow Tenebrous to return to life.
...the gods of death refuse to accept someone who has denied them so many souls.
...his alliance with Demogorgon gives him too much of a numeric advantage.
...he's diverted enough souls from the afterlife to become a god.
...striking the killing blow on him requires a weapon that is sentient and good-aligned.
...he's acting as a stabilizing force in Abyssal politics.

What are you going to do about...

...a Lich who set up his base in the corpse of a dead god and is attempting to reanimate it.
...a cabal of Aboleths who have eaten enough memories to piece together a ritual that will enslave the population of an entire world.
...a Wizard who has turned himself into a living dream and can replace the minds of others as they sleep.
...an alliance of elemental lords who have decided that the primal elemental material from which the Prime is made should be returned to its original planes.
...a planar merchant who wants their souls to pay off his debt to devilish creditors.
...an expansion fleet from the authoritarian Prador Dominance.
...a series of giant monsters emerging from the Far Realm (ELH Pseudonatural + Titanic).
...a Witchknive crusade, lead by the Wielder of Names.
...a despotic godking sitting on top of the largest known supply of atium.
...an "option" invitation to battle the greatest warriors of the multiverse on War World.

Points to anyone who can name all the references.