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Mad Bishop
2018-08-28, 01:59 PM
Hey all, first time on this forum. I've been playing tabletop RPGs for 20 years now and been DMing for most of that time. We are starting a new campaign after the New Year and I am starting to work up the plot. I recently lost my sounding board for my campaign ideas, as he is now one of my players, so I figured I would reach out and see what ideas and input you all might have.

My players have played through much of my homebrew world at this point (we've been playing for 15 years or so) and, recently, one remarked that we never do anything with the Orcs of my world. So I decided to take that to heart and design an Orc-centric campaign for them. My players prefer a more focused story that helps direct their path and draw them in rather than free-roaming, which makes for more work for me.

I have always loved the Warcraft take on Orcs and was heavily influenced by that lore when designing the Orcs of my world. There are 8 clans of Orcs that all wander a barren desert region and have, until now, largely been defined in board strokes only. They have been manipulated in the past by the Demon Prince, Orcus, and many are still under his sway through the shaman of one of the major clans. Knowledge of the Demon Prince's involvement is nearly non-existent. The Orc clans simply believe that the Shaman found new magic that gave them great power. They followed him fanatically as he was the source of their power. Only the Shaman and couple of others know about the Demon Prince and none but the Shaman know the extent of the exchange.

In the history of my world, there have been 2 times that the Orcs have banded together into a Horde and attacked the rest of the continent. The first wiping out much of the northern realms and only turned back after they slaughtered thousands. The second time, they were empowered by the Demon Prince but they refused to do as he commanded. In retribution, the Demon Prince caused the Second Horde to turn on itself and they scattered to the winds before they could inflict much damage.

This campaign will focus on the rise of the Third Horde. Several of the Orc clans are still under the sway of the Demon Prince and he will stir their blood and cause them to collect the wayward clans to spread destruction and death on the kingdoms my players have come to know so well.

They will restart at 1st level and I think I want them to start in a small town near the edge of this desert region. (I have very detailed maps of the lands if I can figure out how to post them) One of the Orc clans, who refused the power offered by the Demon Prince and are not under his influence, has a settlement nearby and they trade with the locals from time to time. This will be the hook to draw the players in. I am thinking I will give them a few adventures to level up, explore, and become invested in some of the NPCs. Once they have had a chance to grow a bit, I want the "friendly" Orcs to provide the means to draw them into the path of the coming Horde and be swept up in the events that lead to a major showdown with the Demonic Shaman at the head of the Third Horde.

That's what I have so far. It needs a LOT of work but I have a few months before we start up and even longer before the players are ready to be hooked into the main story. I would love to read your thoughts, opinions, suggestions, etc. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Here is the link to the OneNote with all my world information.

1drv.ms/u/s!Ag_2HLcSLos9j2l6wrlaUlKXmojM

Feel free to browse and let me know what you think. Important parts for this campaign are listed below.

World History -> all pages

Races -> Orcs

Kingdoms of Bremen -> Dramerus and Kham'Shar

Orc clans of Kham'Shar -> all pages

Kyrell1978
2018-08-28, 07:18 PM
Hey all, first time on this forum. I've been playing tabletop RPGs for 20 years now and been DMing for most of that time. We are starting a new campaign after the New Year and I am starting to work up the plot. I recently lost my sounding board for my campaign ideas, as he is now one of my players, so I figured I would reach out and see what ideas and input you all might have.

My players have played through much of my homebrew world at this point (we've been playing for 15 years or so) and, recently, one remarked that we never do anything with the Orcs of my world. So I decided to take that to heart and design an Orc-centric campaign for them. My players prefer a more focused story that helps direct their path and draw them in rather than free-roaming, which makes for more work for me.

I have always loved the Warcraft take on Orcs and was heavily influenced by that lore when designing the Orcs of my world. There are 8 clans of Orcs that all wander a barren desert region and have, until now, largely been defined in board strokes only. They have been manipulated in the past by the Demon Prince, Orcus, and many are still under his sway through the shaman of one of the major clans. Knowledge of the Demon Prince's involvement is nearly non-existent. The Orc clans simply believe that the Shaman found new magic that gave them great power. They followed him fanatically as he was the source of their power. Only the Shaman and couple of others know about the Demon Prince and none but the Shaman know the extent of the exchange.

In the history of my world, there have been 2 times that the Orcs have banded together into a Horde and attacked the rest of the continent. The first wiping out much of the northern realms and only turned back after they slaughtered thousands. The second time, they were empowered by the Demon Prince but they refused to do as he commanded. In retribution, the Demon Prince caused the Second Horde to turn on itself and they scattered to the winds before they could inflict much damage.

This campaign will focus on the rise of the Third Horde. Several of the Orc clans are still under the sway of the Demon Prince and he will stir their blood and cause them to collect the wayward clans to spread destruction and death on the kingdoms my players have come to know so well.

They will restart at 1st level and I think I want them to start in a small town near the edge of this desert region. (I have very detailed maps of the lands if I can figure out how to post them) One of the Orc clans, who refused the power offered by the Demon Prince and are not under his influence, has a settlement nearby and they trade with the locals from time to time. This will be the hook to draw the players in. I am thinking I will give them a few adventures to level up, explore, and become invested in some of the NPCs. Once they have had a chance to grow a bit, I want the "friendly" Orcs to provide the means to draw them into the path of the coming Horde and be swept up in the events that lead to a major showdown with the Demonic Shaman at the head of the Third Horde.

That's what I have so far. It needs a LOT of work but I have a few months before we start up and even longer before the players are ready to be hooked into the main story. I would love to read your thoughts, opinions, suggestions, etc. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Here is the link to the OneNote with all my world information.

1drv.ms/u/s!Ag_2HLcSLos9j2l6wrlaUlKXmojM

Feel free to browse and let me know what you think. Important parts for this campaign are listed below.

World History -> all pages

Races -> Orcs

Kingdoms of Bremen -> Dramerus and Kham'Shar

Orc clans of Kham'Shar -> all pages

I'd suggest you read at least a synopsis of The Hunter's Blade Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore (yes it's a Drizzt book series). I thought he did a masterful job in this trilogy show how dangerous an orc horde could be.

Pleh
2018-08-28, 08:35 PM
If I were a player, I'd want to know what will be different about this horde. If it's literally just run #3, it's possibly fun, but not very interesting.

It seems like the first time, the unique story was, "the orcs have finally formed a united front."

The unique part of the second horde was the demonic leadership.

But what is unique about this third horde? Clearly, the involvement of the PCs is different, but that's a meta concern. Is it the first time that the clans would be united against their will?

SirGraystone
2018-08-31, 12:24 PM
The story shouldn't start at level 1 with an horde, it should start with trouble against one orc tribe, as the group get more levels you can introduce more tribes or clans in your story and the fact that one tribe take over the tribes one by one getting bigger.

Each tribes should have different looks, once they learn that the bloodspear tribe have red tatoo on their face, you can just tell them that they are facing a orc with a red skull tatoo over his face. The swiftblade tribe can be know for riding giant lizard, the blueraven have blue feathers, instead of just bring all orcs they are different, calling a bloodspear blueraven would be insulting.