MysticSkyWhale
2021-04-23, 07:45 PM
Hello there,
This isn't something I've really expected to ever need to ask. But I've hit a strong wall of writer's block in the campaign I've been running for the past year. I've put more of the details of the campaign in a spoiler below so your screens don't get flooded by a wall of text and I'll put the big thing here.
Essentially what it boils down to is that my players are really good at roleplaying their characters and none of them are good at investigations or interrogations. That's not to say the players aren't good at that. The players enjoy mystery/puzzle plots. However, I've noticed that they're getting frustrated with those sorts of things because they also value staying in character and, as I mentioned, their characters are not the investigative type. Unfortunately, this has thrown a bit of a wrench in the works of my near-future plot ideas. So tell me, what are your favorite twists on a more kick-in-the-door style plot?
The Party:
Zephyr - Silver Dragonborn Fighter (Samurai)
Caius - Human Ranger (Beastmaster)
Elvira - Human Wizard (Necromancer)
The campaign in brief:
This campaign is very heavily inspired by My Hero Academia. The characters are young adventurers learning the ropes at a prestigious college. They've had plenty of fun, little excursions and are slowly finding plot hooks leading to a necromancer/lich doing nefarious things that they haven't quite figured out yet. The nice thing about this campaign is that I've been able to run lots of mini-adventures and organize them into separate school years. Currently they're in Year 3. So far they have found that the necromancer (named Leo) is working with an infamous pirate named Gorokk Redmoon. In exchange for using magic to power up Redmoon's crew to absurd levels, Redmoon was to provide the necromancer with souls en masse. The players handed off the interrogation of one of Redmoon's fleet captains (kudos to them for owning up to their weaknesses) and learned some terrifying news. Redmoon's crew/fleet is now strong enough to attack several major cities at once. While his crew do a little bit of pillaging, he can fire his guns indiscriminately and pay his end of the bargain.
The writer's block:
I'm not quite ready to pull off the session(s) where Redmoon's assault actually happens. In the interim, the part I'm struggling with is coming up with ideas to tide over the sessions until I have the assault ready, but also ideas for years 4 and 5 (the final year). Year 4 was going to be the players investigating how the Queen's vault was broken into during the raid and hurrying to retrieve a mcguffin to keep an ancient curse on her family at bay. Year 5...not quite sure yet, but I have time to plan for that.
This isn't something I've really expected to ever need to ask. But I've hit a strong wall of writer's block in the campaign I've been running for the past year. I've put more of the details of the campaign in a spoiler below so your screens don't get flooded by a wall of text and I'll put the big thing here.
Essentially what it boils down to is that my players are really good at roleplaying their characters and none of them are good at investigations or interrogations. That's not to say the players aren't good at that. The players enjoy mystery/puzzle plots. However, I've noticed that they're getting frustrated with those sorts of things because they also value staying in character and, as I mentioned, their characters are not the investigative type. Unfortunately, this has thrown a bit of a wrench in the works of my near-future plot ideas. So tell me, what are your favorite twists on a more kick-in-the-door style plot?
The Party:
Zephyr - Silver Dragonborn Fighter (Samurai)
Caius - Human Ranger (Beastmaster)
Elvira - Human Wizard (Necromancer)
The campaign in brief:
This campaign is very heavily inspired by My Hero Academia. The characters are young adventurers learning the ropes at a prestigious college. They've had plenty of fun, little excursions and are slowly finding plot hooks leading to a necromancer/lich doing nefarious things that they haven't quite figured out yet. The nice thing about this campaign is that I've been able to run lots of mini-adventures and organize them into separate school years. Currently they're in Year 3. So far they have found that the necromancer (named Leo) is working with an infamous pirate named Gorokk Redmoon. In exchange for using magic to power up Redmoon's crew to absurd levels, Redmoon was to provide the necromancer with souls en masse. The players handed off the interrogation of one of Redmoon's fleet captains (kudos to them for owning up to their weaknesses) and learned some terrifying news. Redmoon's crew/fleet is now strong enough to attack several major cities at once. While his crew do a little bit of pillaging, he can fire his guns indiscriminately and pay his end of the bargain.
The writer's block:
I'm not quite ready to pull off the session(s) where Redmoon's assault actually happens. In the interim, the part I'm struggling with is coming up with ideas to tide over the sessions until I have the assault ready, but also ideas for years 4 and 5 (the final year). Year 4 was going to be the players investigating how the Queen's vault was broken into during the raid and hurrying to retrieve a mcguffin to keep an ancient curse on her family at bay. Year 5...not quite sure yet, but I have time to plan for that.