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View Full Version : DM Help New Setting, new campaign



loodwig
2016-07-25, 04:18 PM
So I've recently GM'd two campaigns fairly successfully. The first one ran a year and a half and ended when I moved from Chicago to Phoenix. The second one started up after I moved, and I used the same world and most of the same story arcs to just "re-run" what I already did. This was fun because events played out very differently with different PCs, different NPC deaths & resolutions, etc.

Now I'm starting a 3rd campaign. This is set in a different world using Pathfinder with a number of homebrew features. Notably, I've set up my own pantheon (including domains, alignments, and holy symbols), a number of nations (no Golarion), a general history, nations with different leadership styles & predominant attitudes, etc. I feel by backstory may need a bit more flesh, but it's probably enough to get things started.

Where I'm sort of hitting a wall is with story arcs. With the previous campaigns, I set up a number of main running stories (tropes, cliches, whatever):
* A demon parasite plague started by a noble house conspiracy that got out of hand and started to spread to other towns.
* A dimensional anomaly that is slowly destroying the reality the players are in. A variety of magical stones that can stop the anomaly if all found and the proper lost spell is cast the right way.
* A powerful sorcerer driven mad in his quest to save the world to the point of becoming a Lich, and a Paladin seeking the ultimate weapon to destroy said Lich.

Now, I was able to create a bunch of plots based on these main threads, and I linked in world events to the progression of these threads (basically doom counters). There were minor story arcs I weaved in now and again as well based on random ideas I had, but for the most part the players stepped between the legs of these major story arcs, and eventually were coming face to face with them.

So, I'm kind of looking for some story arcs to throw in. I appreciate "end of the world" stuff to a point, though you can only use that trope so much (unless you're a JRPG, of course). I'm looking for something that can be woven into a narrative with a degree of subtlety and allow for a world that is otherwise functional on the surface... except the world has monsters, magic, and elves.