Rfkannen
2017-12-27, 05:06 PM
Hello! So, I have dmed a bunch of one shots, and an episodic campaign, and I want to start a campaign where players will spend more than one session in an area and have recurring npcs. So, I have been writing up a campaign idea, and want your opinions and critique on it. Or advice on pulling it off!
So, the basic idea: there's a theocratic empire that around 10 years ago conquered a country of hobgoblins. In the middle of nowhere, in that conquered country, there is a goblin village where a monastery was started to try to “civilize” the rural goblins by teaching them the empire’s religion. The monastery is in a long abandoned temple to an old goblin god (that the hobgoblins that were ruling the country also banned the worship of).
There’s been some trouble in the monastery, and the party (who is from the empire) has been called to help. (Not sure how they were called, thinking they might work for the government or the church, or maybe were just hired as guards). They are on contract monthly, so they have to stay for at least one month.
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Part 1 (levels 1-3)
The adventurers come to the town, they do some side quests for the villagers and the monks, and learn that the monk’s animals are going missing, the monks think rogue goblins are doing it but it turns out that it is actually skeletons that are coming from somewhere inside the temple.
Part 2 (level 4)
Eventually (either with some careful searching or by convincing the townsfolk to tell them) they find the old catacombs under the temple, and find that the walls of the catacombs themselves are coming to life. They battle through the dungeon of the catacombs (a goblin may give a hint that they can stop the undead if they go deep enough.), and find an older deeper still used part of the temple.
Part 3 (level 5)
In the older part of the temple they find a group of old goblin priests. They say the upper part of the temple doesn’t matter (it’s basically a decoy to make people not discover them) and while they were aware of the undead they didn’t know they were going to the upper part of the temple. It turns out that some underdark monsters (still can’t decide what, but i’m thinking koa-toa) are trying to destroy the temple, and their god made the undead to help defend it. Even if the players decide to kill all of them, the undead will keep coming until they stop the koa-toa from destroying the temple. They have to go through cavernous tunnels of the underdark to find the hiding place of the koa toa and then finnally
Part 4 (level 6)
They find the lair of the koatoa, it is a very quick dungeon, and there is a bossfight! After this they can decide whether to leave the goblin priests alone and bring peace to the temple, or kill them, which would cause the entire goblin village to turn against them and have another cool boss fight.
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So that’s my main idea! Here are some other things
If the players take too long the monks start being driven slowly mad by the god. You may have to fight them or find a way to cure there madness
The god might start speaking to them in their dreams, trying to convince them to abandon their gods and worship him (if they do the game will be similar except after the koa-toa they will have to kill all the monks)
If the players turn against the goblin priests, more powerful intelligent undead will start showing up
If the players kill the koa-toa, but also somehow manage to really piss off the god (killing priests wouldn’t be enough, need to do something bad) he won’t stop making the undead, and they will have to find some way to destroy the true temple.
Think the empire might worship gods of the four seasons, and the area there in doesn’t have four seasons because it is close to the equator or up north. May contribute to monks going mad.
Things i’m having trouble with.
I don’t want the goblin god to come off as evil, more chaotic neutral, any tips for doing this? (aka I want his side to seem reasonable, he is just defending his people and his temple after all)
I am still not satisfied with the monsters being koa-toa, they just don’t feel like they would be a good enough final boss for a campaign. Do you think they would work or have any ideas for monsters to replace them?
Not sure what type of environment the temple and village should be in. Jungle? Swamp? Hills? Mountains?
Ideas for magic items (I want to hand some out)
The monks find ink they can use to give you a tattoo that acts as a spellcasting focus, secretly the ink was originally used by the goblin priests, and you find that the character with the tattoo isn’t attacked by the unintelligent undead unless they attack them first. They also learn to speak goblin
The goblin priests have a potion to turn you into a lesser ghoul, giving you a 1d6 claw/bite attack, darkvision, you stop ageing, and you don’t need to eat or sleep anymore, but you feel constantly hungry for the rest of your life and all food except meat tastes like garbage. Rotten meat tastes better than anything you have ever eaten your whole life.
If you do a side quest for the goblins, they will give you a pot of awakening (but instead of a bush it gives you a mushroom sidekick who can telepathically communicate with you and can translate goblin and whatever language the underdark monster speaks, this is important as only a few goblins in the village speak common)
In the underdark you find the ghost of a goblin cleric possessing a +1 sword with the ability to disappear (you don’t disappear, the sword does)
Your thoughts? Does it seem like a fun campaign? What would you change?
So, the basic idea: there's a theocratic empire that around 10 years ago conquered a country of hobgoblins. In the middle of nowhere, in that conquered country, there is a goblin village where a monastery was started to try to “civilize” the rural goblins by teaching them the empire’s religion. The monastery is in a long abandoned temple to an old goblin god (that the hobgoblins that were ruling the country also banned the worship of).
There’s been some trouble in the monastery, and the party (who is from the empire) has been called to help. (Not sure how they were called, thinking they might work for the government or the church, or maybe were just hired as guards). They are on contract monthly, so they have to stay for at least one month.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part 1 (levels 1-3)
The adventurers come to the town, they do some side quests for the villagers and the monks, and learn that the monk’s animals are going missing, the monks think rogue goblins are doing it but it turns out that it is actually skeletons that are coming from somewhere inside the temple.
Part 2 (level 4)
Eventually (either with some careful searching or by convincing the townsfolk to tell them) they find the old catacombs under the temple, and find that the walls of the catacombs themselves are coming to life. They battle through the dungeon of the catacombs (a goblin may give a hint that they can stop the undead if they go deep enough.), and find an older deeper still used part of the temple.
Part 3 (level 5)
In the older part of the temple they find a group of old goblin priests. They say the upper part of the temple doesn’t matter (it’s basically a decoy to make people not discover them) and while they were aware of the undead they didn’t know they were going to the upper part of the temple. It turns out that some underdark monsters (still can’t decide what, but i’m thinking koa-toa) are trying to destroy the temple, and their god made the undead to help defend it. Even if the players decide to kill all of them, the undead will keep coming until they stop the koa-toa from destroying the temple. They have to go through cavernous tunnels of the underdark to find the hiding place of the koa toa and then finnally
Part 4 (level 6)
They find the lair of the koatoa, it is a very quick dungeon, and there is a bossfight! After this they can decide whether to leave the goblin priests alone and bring peace to the temple, or kill them, which would cause the entire goblin village to turn against them and have another cool boss fight.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So that’s my main idea! Here are some other things
If the players take too long the monks start being driven slowly mad by the god. You may have to fight them or find a way to cure there madness
The god might start speaking to them in their dreams, trying to convince them to abandon their gods and worship him (if they do the game will be similar except after the koa-toa they will have to kill all the monks)
If the players turn against the goblin priests, more powerful intelligent undead will start showing up
If the players kill the koa-toa, but also somehow manage to really piss off the god (killing priests wouldn’t be enough, need to do something bad) he won’t stop making the undead, and they will have to find some way to destroy the true temple.
Think the empire might worship gods of the four seasons, and the area there in doesn’t have four seasons because it is close to the equator or up north. May contribute to monks going mad.
Things i’m having trouble with.
I don’t want the goblin god to come off as evil, more chaotic neutral, any tips for doing this? (aka I want his side to seem reasonable, he is just defending his people and his temple after all)
I am still not satisfied with the monsters being koa-toa, they just don’t feel like they would be a good enough final boss for a campaign. Do you think they would work or have any ideas for monsters to replace them?
Not sure what type of environment the temple and village should be in. Jungle? Swamp? Hills? Mountains?
Ideas for magic items (I want to hand some out)
The monks find ink they can use to give you a tattoo that acts as a spellcasting focus, secretly the ink was originally used by the goblin priests, and you find that the character with the tattoo isn’t attacked by the unintelligent undead unless they attack them first. They also learn to speak goblin
The goblin priests have a potion to turn you into a lesser ghoul, giving you a 1d6 claw/bite attack, darkvision, you stop ageing, and you don’t need to eat or sleep anymore, but you feel constantly hungry for the rest of your life and all food except meat tastes like garbage. Rotten meat tastes better than anything you have ever eaten your whole life.
If you do a side quest for the goblins, they will give you a pot of awakening (but instead of a bush it gives you a mushroom sidekick who can telepathically communicate with you and can translate goblin and whatever language the underdark monster speaks, this is important as only a few goblins in the village speak common)
In the underdark you find the ghost of a goblin cleric possessing a +1 sword with the ability to disappear (you don’t disappear, the sword does)
Your thoughts? Does it seem like a fun campaign? What would you change?