Difficulty with campaign premise

[Rusvul]

Inside the next couple of weeks, I'll be running a dark low-magic game centered around a single hamlet, a tiny village in the middle of a terrifying swamp. I'm having difficulty with the plot, though. Plot hooks are easy enough- People's limbs start vanishing, the river the town relies on dries up, someone goes missing, weird artifact is found, etc. I just don't know where to take them. River dries up because... why? Who's making the limbs vanish and to what end? Why does the weird puzzle box drive the finder insane, what do the otherworldly visions mean? Help would be greatly appreciated- whether in the form of specific ideas or tips on how to go about formulating them.

[RazorChain]

I think you are starting at the wrong end, you are envisioning cool scenes without knowing how to use them. It is better to start on who is or what is the bad guy.

Let's take this scenario and look at it. A hamlet and a swamp. Let's build a legend around it.


20 years ago a young maiden was accused of witchery. The villagers took the matters into their own hands, put her into a sack and threw her into the swamp. She cursed them, vowed revenge, that she would return one day and make them pay.

Now as the people await the blood moon, an accursed event that happens once every 100 years, strange things start to happen in the village. Children go missing, strange and cursed artifacts are found that were thought to be lost to the swamp long ago. Strange visions makes the wise woman in the village to put her eyes out.

The PC's will be scrambling to react to omnious things before the climax of the blood moon when the evil witch returns.


Things that can happen:

Bodies start to vanish from the graveyeard and a strange creature is seen in the swamps. It is a creature that is put together from the vanished bodies. Think of something horrible with lots of limbs and heads.

The puzzlebox of madness. The only way to break the curse of the puzzlebox is to solve the puzzle. You could even set it up so that the players minds get trapped and they must get out before it is too late.

The Missing children. Children are being lured into the swamp by willow wisps who speak to the children in a sweet childlike voices "Come play with us *laugter*". The PC's must put a stop to it before more children go missing.

Old missing things that have fallen into the swamp start to be found again. They are all cursed. That favorite knife that farmer Joe found again cuts his finger off. The necklace Missus Jones lost gets snagged on something and chokes her to death. Time for the PC's to round up the things and get rid of them.



Well these are just a few ideas from the top of my head. Don't fall into the Jessica Fletcher trap. That is a lot of different bad things are happening to the same village. Just make the source of the villages misfortunes be a one thing.

[Rusvul]

Hmm. I think that's good advice. The witch in particular doesn't work so well with the setting, but I think some kind of malevolent trickster god/demon/fey/spirit might work quite well. I'm thinking perhaps a long time in the past a powerful mage accidentally let a bunch of spirits into the material plane and had to send them back, but a few he couldn't contain indefinitely. That would also open up the possibility of future story arcs with different spirits... though I wouldn't want to overdo it. Thanks. You've got me thinking. :)

[sktarq]

Two other similar ideas would be that is that one something happened in the swamp and as a result of that one even other bad things now happen there. A cursed swamp empowers witches and dying breath curses and holds the souls of the murdered as ghosts and allows dark fey to feed. The singular cause may not even be a problem directly - it is just that it attracts problems.

Another option is that a cursed swamp contains several hamlets within a couple days travel plus loose farmsteads-as the whole swamp is cursed. Various hamlets having separate issues could prevent a single hamlet being driven to abandonment by the number of bad things happening there (and having hamlets being abandoned if the players don't pass certain hurdles could be a good way to keep the stakes high)

Also what kind of playstyle do you want? Talky and mystery solving-with political solutions possible? Mystery to find what to kill? Dungeons? Episodic adventures or one great adventure in serial form? How often do you want down time?

Also what system? D&D? D&D with parts of Ravenloft or Eberron rulesets perhaps? FATE? CoC? WoD? Iron Kingdoms? Fading Suns pulp system (I forget its system name for older eras)

Speaking of which-what kind of tech level/time period are we in?

Finally: Mood and Themes? Picking a/a few mood words (Claustrophobic? Fated? And themes (Tthe Past is always with us? Blood is thicker than water? Sins of the father are inherited? Love and hate have more than emotional meaning) can really help drive the creative process. Do you have any in mind?

[Gildedragon]

Swamp: have the watersource be a well: the river is probably part of the swamp and probably not the most salubrious to drink; in fact, drinking the swamp water is afflicting people with visions (but you don't know that yet)

Why is the well dry: sacrifices to gods haven't been made, and they want blood. the 'gods' aren't real gods but some sort of fiend that can stop the underground water... one will have to go down into the well and into the deep dark caverns under the earth

puzzlebox: a ghost's anchor. solving the riddle of the puzzlebox (ie stopping the haunting posession) is only the first step. the ghost has a legitimate grievance against the living and will resurge as long as the issue is unresolved. it will expose some of the corruption in the town (perhaps corruption associated with the blood sacrifices for the well... perhaps the PCs stopping the ghost (and the blood sacrifices) is what leads to the well drying up)

[Lvl 2 Expert]

You could always try to go the Lost route. If you have no idea why these things are happening, they can't guess it! :smallamused:

I really like the vanishing limbs by the way. It's almost the ultimate in "if they can do that and get away unseen, what else could they be doing under our noses?" Maybe this story (http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/27p01/) could be a bit of an inspiration on that track? (go to page 68 to have it spoiled, if the rest of the story isn't catching your interest).

[Knaight]

Part of the upside of setting things in a tiny place is that you constantly use the same characters, everyone knows everyone, and there's a depth you can give the NPCs. So, I'd recommend making some fleshed out characters to start with (maybe a dozen or so), working the PCs into said hamlet, and then using the character side of things to elaborate on the eerie events.

[Rusvul]

Two other similar ideas would be that is that one something happened in the swamp and as a result of that one even other bad things now happen there. A cursed swamp empowers witches and dying breath curses and holds the souls of the murdered as ghosts and allows dark fey to feed. The singular cause may not even be a problem directly - it is just that it attracts problems.
I've got a villain lined up now- the jester of a court of unseelie fae or dark spirits (or perhaps somewhere inbetween) tormenting the village for entertainment. Perhaps if and when it's defeated, some of its dark energies have spread and caused more problems that must be dealt with. (Unless I end up with a better idea for a second villain.)

Another option is that a cursed swamp contains several hamlets within a couple days travel plus loose farmsteads-as the whole swamp is cursed. Various hamlets having separate issues could prevent a single hamlet being driven to abandonment by the number of bad things happening there (and having hamlets being abandoned if the players don't pass certain hurdles could be a good way to keep the stakes high)
This doesn't fit so well with what I've got written down so far, but it's a good idea in its own right. Part of the setting is that Arkwillow is the only human settlement. If there's others it ought to be a big plot point, and even then I'm not sure I want there to be anywhere to run to.

Also what kind of playstyle do you want? Talky and mystery solving-with political solutions possible? Mystery to find what to kill? Dungeons? Episodic adventures or one great adventure in serial form? How often do you want down time?
Hmm. I haven't thought much about it, though I really should have. Mostly mystery, with a good dose of exploration and confusion. Combat will be very lethal, so that ought to be a last resort. The players will be integrated members of the town, perhaps some of the more capable ones, but they're not heroes or adventurers at the beginning of the campaign.

Also what system? D&D? D&D with parts of Ravenloft or Eberron rulesets perhaps? FATE? CoC? WoD? Iron Kingdoms? Fading Suns pulp system (I forget its system name for older eras)
Savage Worlds, using a reworked magic system and several variant rules to make things more dark and lethal.

Speaking of which-what kind of tech level/time period are we in?
Early medieval technology in theory, though in practice, Arkwillow is limited by the lack of iron nearby. Any metal at all is difficult to obtain in a swamp, and most of what's available is copper, and to a lesser extent, tin. Copper and bronze are common, iron is used primarily for warding off the supernatural.

Finally: Mood and Themes? Picking a/a few mood words (Claustrophobic? Fated? And themes (Tthe Past is always with us? Blood is thicker than water? Sins of the father are inherited? Love and hate have more than emotional meaning) can really help drive the creative process. Do you have any in mind?
I like this idea. Let's see... Mood words. Arcane (in the unknown and obtuse sense, not in the magical sense), hostile (as in the environment), strange. Themes. Hmm. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. United we stand, together we fall.



Replies in bold.

@Guigarci: The water source certainly is a well- It's been there forever, or at least as long as anyone remembers. It's the only thing built of masonry in the town. It's always had water, but all of the water drawn elsewhere has caused problems. I might have the well become dry or tainted at some point, though that would be likely to kill the whole town if not solved quickly, so I'd have to be careful with that one.

@Level 2 Expert: I'd much rather know what's going on myself- I do want the players to figure it out eventually, and if I can't properly drop hints if I don't have hints to drop. (A flesh golem that's an amalgamate of all of the missing limbs would be awesome. I'll have to use that at some point.)

@Knaight: Yeah. I'll certainly put some effort into that, though having three or four distinct farmers may prove tricky. I want a bunch of unique NPCs without making any of them too wacky...

Thanks for the help, everyone! I've got a pretty good idea of what I want to do now. :)

[Lycanthrope13]

I would go with the Lost Empire theme.

10,000 years ago, there existed a powerful Empire that was corrupted by demonic influences. The Emperor, who had undergone dark rites to become the avatar of a Demon Lord was overthrown in a cataclysmic battle, and bound using powerful, ancient magic. His fortress was razed to the ground, and the surrounding area reduced to a wasteland. Over the centuries, nature began to reclaim the land, and now the great battles of the past are long forgotten.

Now, a rare alignment of the planets has focused the cosmic energies of the universe on his resting spot, allowing him to regain a measure of his power and strain against his bonds. His corrupting power is leaking out into the world, and the spells that have held him for so long are failing.

[neonchameleon]

My answer? You don't know. Let the players tell you. Just drop hints and listen to them speculate about it. Pick one of their answers as the real one.

[Rusvul]

See, the trouble with that is that then I'm just making random things happen for no reason. If I don't plan out a cause for the effect, then when a player has a bright idea I'll have to shoehorn it in there and probably either retcon something or have weird plot holes. I don't think I'm up for that much improv.