PhoenixPhyre
2020-11-04, 09:48 PM
Note: if the character names Crow, Morgan, Sargas of Tor Elan, Verdawn, and Tsun are familiar--STOP READING NOW.
----
One thing I like to do when planning a scenario (arcs and campaigns mostly) is to avoid the "one big boss" and "everything's connected to the same root" concepts. Instead, most situations will have several pieces, each of which is only part of the problem at hand. These could be multiple independent (and possibly conflicting) factions, faction + natural phenomena (independent of the factions), etc. Often, some of these are obvious but minor[1], while others are more subtle but more dangerous. Or the reverse.
Why do I do this? I'm not sure. I think some of it is due to feeling like the "everything is because of one master manipulator/BBEG" is contrived. It seems to me to risk raising the questions "why hasn't he won already if he's powerful enough to do X, Y, and Z?" and "why do the PCs (especially low-level ones) have any hope of beating him/doing anything about it if he's that powerful?", neither of which I have great answers for most of the time. Also, I have a preference for low-level threats. Not low level as in "he's a level 3 fighter", but low-level as in "the situation is messy, but not world-threatening or super urgent." I prefer slow simmers to having the world ending tomorrow. In part because it lets the PCs set the pace and discover things as they go. And explains why there's still enough time to stop the whole mess--it's only growing slowly or it was in a precarious balance beforehand. As the party starts investigating, the pace picks up because the factions notice the meddling and start reacting. This makes it all snowball in a gratifying way.
Does anyone else do this? Any good experiences? Bad experiences? Cautions?
I currently have a party investigating a wanna-be port town with issues. They're trying to turn this natural harbor into a good port to capture some of the local trade and break the monopoly of a (hated because they're religious zealots) port town a medium distance away. But things have been going...poorly.
They've had random animal attacks on supply caravans (the nearest major town is a ways away over some low passes). No deaths or serious injuries, except to pack and draft animals, but lots of lost goods.
They've had issues with what's ordered showing up wrong/broken/decayed. Like termite infestations in wood that was good the day before. Nails that arrived rusted through, despite being good when they left. Shipments of lacy unmentionables instead of tools. Etc.
They've had nets cut and holes drilled in the fishing boats that currently supply the town while in dock or at sea. Again, no deaths, but lost cash and time to repair.
And there's an aura of, well, laziness around town. It's just hard to get things going--it takes effort to do more than the bare minimum.
What's really going on? Four different issues.
1. There is a bandit group up in the mountains, led by a ranger/nature type. He has a grudge against the local lord who's pushing this port construction and is trying to bleed him dry, paid for by one of the lord's business rivals. They're the ones doing the caravan attacks. They don't know about the rest of it, except for suspicions. The party has already kicked in their teeth, mostly (missed the boss). This one was pretty obvious.
2. There's a party of rival adventurers, hired by the zealot town to mess with construction. They've inserted themselves as major figures in the town and are using powers of illusion and tricks to mess with people's minds and turn them against each other/suppress investigations of the other issues. They have nothing to do with the boats or the aura or the attacks. They've sent for backup, who will arrive "soon"--they themselves will prefer not to fight. This one is much more subtle, I hope.
3. There's a band of tritons who are trying to keep people away from an undersea site nearby. So whenever a fisherman drags up something from that site, they cut the nets/cut into the hull (while in port, they're not evil) to retrieve and replace the items while remaining unseen. The party doesn't know anything about them; they might be able to persuade them to let the party handle the site (it's active and demonic and the tritons have already lost most of their people fighting it due to <raisins>).
4. And there's a powerful fey protecting a valley of gnomes to the south. No one knows about it, but she basically was asked by their ancestors for protection. So she's done so, at the cost of basically stopping all progress (because if they grow in numbers, they'll have to/want to leave the valley, and then she can't protect them any more). And due to an attempted suicide in her cave, she's trying (in good faith) to extend that same protection to the nearby town. She doesn't understand mortality very well, so she doesn't understand that the people don't remember the deal their grandparents (or earlier) made. She's good hearted though. She won't fight, but if attacked will pull back into the valley and lock it down totally. The party only knows about the aura and has some sort of direction to the general area where it seems to come from.
Fixing #1 and #2 would mostly fix the issue of the port troubles. The underwater threat will grow, but slowly, unless taken care of. And the fey isn't really a threat, but I'm betting the party will want to fix things and see if they can free the gnomes.
----
One thing I like to do when planning a scenario (arcs and campaigns mostly) is to avoid the "one big boss" and "everything's connected to the same root" concepts. Instead, most situations will have several pieces, each of which is only part of the problem at hand. These could be multiple independent (and possibly conflicting) factions, faction + natural phenomena (independent of the factions), etc. Often, some of these are obvious but minor[1], while others are more subtle but more dangerous. Or the reverse.
Why do I do this? I'm not sure. I think some of it is due to feeling like the "everything is because of one master manipulator/BBEG" is contrived. It seems to me to risk raising the questions "why hasn't he won already if he's powerful enough to do X, Y, and Z?" and "why do the PCs (especially low-level ones) have any hope of beating him/doing anything about it if he's that powerful?", neither of which I have great answers for most of the time. Also, I have a preference for low-level threats. Not low level as in "he's a level 3 fighter", but low-level as in "the situation is messy, but not world-threatening or super urgent." I prefer slow simmers to having the world ending tomorrow. In part because it lets the PCs set the pace and discover things as they go. And explains why there's still enough time to stop the whole mess--it's only growing slowly or it was in a precarious balance beforehand. As the party starts investigating, the pace picks up because the factions notice the meddling and start reacting. This makes it all snowball in a gratifying way.
Does anyone else do this? Any good experiences? Bad experiences? Cautions?
I currently have a party investigating a wanna-be port town with issues. They're trying to turn this natural harbor into a good port to capture some of the local trade and break the monopoly of a (hated because they're religious zealots) port town a medium distance away. But things have been going...poorly.
They've had random animal attacks on supply caravans (the nearest major town is a ways away over some low passes). No deaths or serious injuries, except to pack and draft animals, but lots of lost goods.
They've had issues with what's ordered showing up wrong/broken/decayed. Like termite infestations in wood that was good the day before. Nails that arrived rusted through, despite being good when they left. Shipments of lacy unmentionables instead of tools. Etc.
They've had nets cut and holes drilled in the fishing boats that currently supply the town while in dock or at sea. Again, no deaths, but lost cash and time to repair.
And there's an aura of, well, laziness around town. It's just hard to get things going--it takes effort to do more than the bare minimum.
What's really going on? Four different issues.
1. There is a bandit group up in the mountains, led by a ranger/nature type. He has a grudge against the local lord who's pushing this port construction and is trying to bleed him dry, paid for by one of the lord's business rivals. They're the ones doing the caravan attacks. They don't know about the rest of it, except for suspicions. The party has already kicked in their teeth, mostly (missed the boss). This one was pretty obvious.
2. There's a party of rival adventurers, hired by the zealot town to mess with construction. They've inserted themselves as major figures in the town and are using powers of illusion and tricks to mess with people's minds and turn them against each other/suppress investigations of the other issues. They have nothing to do with the boats or the aura or the attacks. They've sent for backup, who will arrive "soon"--they themselves will prefer not to fight. This one is much more subtle, I hope.
3. There's a band of tritons who are trying to keep people away from an undersea site nearby. So whenever a fisherman drags up something from that site, they cut the nets/cut into the hull (while in port, they're not evil) to retrieve and replace the items while remaining unseen. The party doesn't know anything about them; they might be able to persuade them to let the party handle the site (it's active and demonic and the tritons have already lost most of their people fighting it due to <raisins>).
4. And there's a powerful fey protecting a valley of gnomes to the south. No one knows about it, but she basically was asked by their ancestors for protection. So she's done so, at the cost of basically stopping all progress (because if they grow in numbers, they'll have to/want to leave the valley, and then she can't protect them any more). And due to an attempted suicide in her cave, she's trying (in good faith) to extend that same protection to the nearby town. She doesn't understand mortality very well, so she doesn't understand that the people don't remember the deal their grandparents (or earlier) made. She's good hearted though. She won't fight, but if attacked will pull back into the valley and lock it down totally. The party only knows about the aura and has some sort of direction to the general area where it seems to come from.
Fixing #1 and #2 would mostly fix the issue of the port troubles. The underwater threat will grow, but slowly, unless taken care of. And the fey isn't really a threat, but I'm betting the party will want to fix things and see if they can free the gnomes.