Running an undeadesque campaign

[cullynthedwarf]

I am thinking about running a game in the new year surrounding this minor artefact level weapon.

Campaign will start in the year 500, a paladin crusader type finds his lover stolen away by a vampire lord. After party is formed they storm the castle and get the girl but not before she has been bitten and is 1\2 way through the ritual to turn. Bringing her to a healer, confirms she will rise with the next nights moon, she offers to bind her self to his weapon. Party goes back and kicks ass.

(If you recognized that plot then congrats)

The part two will take place 100 years later, one PC will be descended from the original party and must take up his ancestors weapon for reason X (not sure yet) the party deals with threat and round two ends. Smallish plot but want to have players see the uprising of family at this point.

Part 3 is 200 or so years later a BBEG has taken up the mantle of the ancient enemy from first round. Investigate, examine and exterminate. The goal here is to see that the enemy did not die but has been in torpor since the beginning. Family falls from grace and once allies with church and rangers and druids now have fallen out of favor.

Part 4, the family has lost ancestral home the final PC must decode clues about his family to discover the weapon and his families lore mean time the ancient enemy tries once again to enslave/conquer humanity.

This is all loosely and not so loosely based on the Belmont clan from Castlevania, with each player getting a chance to be one of the family and gaining control of the Vampire Killer whip. Whether its still a whip in the campaign, who knows.


So looking for a party of 4 with 4 characters each, moving through time as members of this family.

Is there anything I should push for or try to steer away from class wise when I pitch this to my friends?

[firelistener]

It will depend a lot on how your friends like to play. For example, my friends like to just go fight stuff in dungeons and won't do anything without feeling they have an ironclad promise of a reward like money or magic items. My friends probably wouldn't do any of what you described since a lot of it, as written, seems to just be motivated by the PCs being altruistic good guys willing to enter danger.

I suggest you modify part two so it isn't so main-characterish. If only one character has a reason to be on this quest, either the party must bow to their whims all the time or the party will overrule the main character and send the game off the rails.

The descendents thing also implies your players need to make new characters at some point, so you should run that by your group. Some people don't like making new characters and like to stick with their favorite.

As for classes, I don't think a DM should put limits on that. You're free to do so, but I always hear players complain a lot when they can't play exactly what they wanted because the DM thought it wouldn't work well with the story. I believe the DM's role is giving the players a chance to tell their stories, not for the DM to tell a story and the players just following along.