Campaign Prep Help Needed!

[Sparky McDibben]

Hey Playgrounders,

I need some help with setting up a campaign. It will be an urban adventure, highlighting the themes of Law vs Chaos and Hope vs Despair. I run for one player, who will be using a Wild Magic Sorcerer (tiefling), in a Ravnica-inspired setting. She wants to be a cop, which means using the Azorius Senate as her faction.

What I need from y'all: Chime in on anything in particular. If there's something I should watch, listen to, etc., tell me. If you've got a great plotline that worked in your campaign, help me out. Even if you just have a cool NPC, let me know. I have a list of specific problems down below, but I love how creative this community is, so don't feel limited by what I'm asking for.

Here's what I have so far:

Inspiration List: Dredd, Tango and Cash, Lethal Weapon (the original, dammit)

Plotting:
A Plot: An orc horde from far away is bearing down on the city, but won't arrive for months. They are actually tools of Tyranthraxus, the Flamed One, who is using quori to manipulate the orcs into following it. Tyranthraxus has possessed a dragon. It wants to breed Inspired to help the rest of the evil quori escape into the Prime Material, which can most easily happen at this city.

B Plot: A group of star spawn have entered the sewers from a gate to the Far Realm below the city, and are hard at work destabilizing it for Tyranthraxus' arrival

C Plots: Unifying the city against the orc horde (which means either crushing or unifying the gangs under her banner), a despairing cop becoming an Inspired and betraying her, a wizard needing a rare spell and sending her to get it (this spell is the Invoked Devastation from Greyhawk)

Filler: Bounty Hunting

Pacing:
Tier 1: A sandbox urban crawl dealing with gangs that slowly reveals infiltration by aberrations and the advancing orc horde. This tier ends with an omen of doom - a glyph writ large in multi-hued fire spreads across the night sky, weakening conjuration spells and slowly strangling all forms of extraplanar contact as the Flamed One tightens its grip.

Tier 2: As the gangs continue to fight, star spawn appear in numbers, popping up and destroying parts of the city, sowing terror and making a stable defense impossible. This Tier ends with the betrayal by the Inspired cop as the fire glyph intensifies.

Tier 3: As she investigates the star spawn, hopefully closing the gate to the Far Realm, she encounters quori who try to turn or possess her. She must also unify the city, prepare for the orc horde's siege, and hopefully does some scouting to reveal the true power behind the advancing orc horde. This tier ends with her sealing the gate, and either becoming Prince or not, as the fire glyph reaches its final form.

Tier 4: As the orc horde arrives outside her gates, the last few levels deal with handling wave-style attacks from insane orcs, madness spreading inside the city, and betrayals by quori-Inspired sleeper agents. Hopefully, this tier ends with her defeating Tyranthraxus and annihilating it, because otherwise the gods decide they cannot allow this Elder Evil a foothold, and send a meteor smashing into the city, causing a nuclear winter and really setting my setting back about 1,000 years.

Problems:

I have four level 20 ex PCs running around this city (an evoker wizard, an arcana cleric, a thief rogue, and an open hand monk). How do I take them out of the equation? Yes, I could kill them, but one of them is my player's ex-PC, and the mother of her current character (for this game we're discussing), so I would prefer to save that until absolutely necessary.

I need characters. I've got a list of stock characters: the commander, the scrounger, the adorable intern, the dirty cop, the dispatcher, gang leaders, the helpful citizen, and the snitch. What am I missing?

I see the struggle to control the city as a mirror image for how she's struggling to control her powers. Does anyone have any good systems, mechanics, or storytelling beats I can hit for that?

I need a good foil to my player's character; her nemesis, someone (preferably unrelated to the aberrant threat) who can challenge her in unexpected or creative ways.

What is a good, subtle way to play up the difference between law and morality in D&D? I've explored some of this before, but I always seem to come across ham-handed.

Thanks in advance!!!

[Vessyra]

With the nemesis, is this person going to be a villain (an antagonist to be fought), or an antagonist not to be fought. For instance, if the nemesis isn't an overt villain, it could be a rival cop who's always cool, calm and under control (this could be used as a foil to the wild mage's struggle to control her powers), but while lawful this cop doesn't possess the same morality as the wild mage. The nemesis could also have a rivalry with the wild mage, trying to gain credit for her work, or beat her to the punch when catching criminals.

What is taking the orc horde so long to arrive? Is it distance, difficult terrain, other countries in the way?

With getting the ex-PCs out of the way, if it's a Ravnica-inspired setting, then it's a big city; plus, if this a cop, then that player's investigations will be yielding a lot of plot, which the ex-PCs won't have access to; the PC, on the ground, will know about and be in a position to stop the villains, while the ex-PCs, dozens of kilometres away and without this information, will be clueless. At the higher levels, once the PC uncovers more of the plot, this plot may start attracting attention from the ex-PCs and city guard. Fortunately, there are two plots going on, so there's always something to keep the ex-PCs occupied. If the player wants to scout the orc army, or is planning to take down the cult, then the ex-PCs are busy preparing defences against the army, or trying to root out quori spies. The important note here is that, when the ex-PCs are preparing defences against the orcs or searching for spies, they aren't actively interfering with he plot; they haven't actually defended against the orcs yet, and they haven't actually rooted out the spies yet; that'll mostly be the PCs job. And once everything comes to a head, when it's all hands on deck and there's no reasonable excuse for the PCs to be doing something else? Then you're probably in a mass battle scene, in which you can feel comfortable with describing the ex-PCs crashing into the enemy army, dealing a great blow.
Although, do the ex-PCs have to be in the city? You could simply have them be doing hero stuff halfway across the world, or be working to evacuate villages in the horde's path.

With the conflict of law vs morality, there are several shades one could go with. It could be a conflict between morality and an archaic law which, while accepted in its time, is no longer quite as applicable. It could be conflict with a law which, while intelligent when thought of, isn't as applicable in this situation; for instance, many inspired are born unable to resist possession, so the laws for what to do with possessed people may not be applicable. Probably the best way to use play law vs morality in my opinion is to disguise as a clash of morals. The law, in many ways, was built around morals, such as murder and thievery is bad. There could be a difference in morality between the law makers and the cop; for instance, the laws and the cop may difference in the belief of the punishment a criminal should get. The cop may attempt to let a prisoner escape if the sentence is to harsh; conversely, the cop may know that the standard prison can't hold a particular criminal, and may attempt to kill them rather than risk them walking free. A lawful good society may have laws to enforce good principles, but not everyone agrees on what Good is.

[Sparky McDibben]

[ snip]

I'm thinking the Nemesis won't be a combat opponent. I see them as swooping in to get collars and credit (excellent idea!) but doing it because they believe that the PC isn't going to do a good job, and without them, the perp will walk. So, a hardcore lawful neutral cat who doesn't tolerate grey areas. Excellent! Thanks!

As to the orc horde, they're coming from two sub-continents away, conquering as they go, so by the time they get to the city, it's going to be a substantial threat.

One or two of the ex-PCs might conveniently disappear if I want them to get out of the city for a bit at high levels - they've got a quest to rescue so-and-so from the clutches of Villain X and get them back to the city in time to make a difference! Might dovetail nicely with another questline I was considering for that same level range. All this is going on while the rest of the ex-PCs are helping with defenses and evacuating people, or scrying to get a handle on the horde's approach. Great ideas, thanks!

Finally, I love the idea of the prison which couldn't hold this criminal. This is good stuff, and exactly why I like asking for help from the Playground!