HeloDragon
2022-06-16, 03:33 PM
For the first time in my life, I have a group interested in a campaign with a long meta-plot, and I'm quite afraid of messing it up from the get-go. I'd really appreciate any helpful suggestions on the campaign skeleton here, or on how to keep long campaigns from spiralling out of control!
Fiction that inspired the campaign: "Edge of Tomorrow" and "Mother of Learning."
Sketch of plot on large scale: Way back in prehistory, three nearly-indestructible primordial monsters (PMs) are destroying the world. Some good guys make a magic device that can create time loops, and trap the monsters' brains in a 1-second loop. The PCs are tricked into breaking the device by minions of the BBEG, freeing the monsters. This lets the monsters escape to cause the apocalypse, and it puts the PCs in a time loop that starts 1 week before the apocalypse. The PCs must figure out what is going on, re-trap the monsters and defeat the BBEG.
Sketch of plot on week-to-week scale: Each week, the PC group will tell me what they're planning to try during that week's session (e.g. "This week, we're going to see how long we can avoid the apocalypse. We're renting a boat and going this way on the map as fast as possible."). I'll then make a little adventure based on the plan. I also maintain notes for the campaign as a whole, mostly to make sure that we can keep the plot in mind.
Intermediate time scales - mystery boxes and time-travel mechanics: I want to have a bunch of mystery boxes for the players to open. My main concern is here: I want to make sure that the underlying mystery makes enough sense that the PCs can figure it out.
Some current ideas: Here is what I've been thinking about:
Intro (Days 1-6): PCs are scoundrels, and got into trouble with the law pre-campaign. Campaign opens as they are doing short-term indentured work in a magic jail. They meet each other and some NPCs and do some introductory adventure. Main jail officer is a jerk (which encourages PCs to try to escape) and has a memorably annoying good-morning call (which, like "I got you, babe" in Groundhog day, is a bit of a signpost for a new loop).
Start of loop (Days 7-9): PCs are contacted by Bad Guys 1 and 2, who tell them that the force field around the prison is maintained by a Crystal Maguffin. BG1&2 tell the PCs to break the CM to escape; they say they can't do it themselves because they are locked out of the item's room, but they give the PCs enormously powerful one-use items to get through to the item. They also say that breaking the item will curse the PCs, and they must meet at BG1's house in a nearby town within 48 hours to get de-cursed or die.
PCs break the item, complications make them miss the meeting, and they witness a fiery apocalypse & die. Loop starts.
Immediate change: PCs will now find that the apocalypse starts on Day 7, around the time that the PCs would meet BG1&2 (and thus earlier than in initial loop). Information the PCs don't know yet: with the loop broken, the PMs are free as of day 1. Time travel mechanics let the BBEG notice this on day 7 when the PCs touch the maguffin in the original timeline, and he wakes them up.
Actually escape from jail: Jail is a dead end (nobody believes them; they are now locked out of the item's room; BG1&2 don't ever show up). They must break out of jail to investigate outside. Cue playing with time-loop puzzles (e.g. guessing keycodes, instant-death traps, etc).
Initial investigations: PCs will find out:
-BG1 is a low-level employee of MegaBank, receiving written instructions.
-BG2 must be involved in time loop, as he doesn't meet BG1 in further loops.
-Breaking into low-security parts MegaBank (cue more time-loop puzzles), PCs find that BG1's ultimate boss is Bad Noble 1.
-(Sidequests to get BN1's attention)
- BN1 knows that the CM is keeping the three PMs asleep, and that PM1 is responsible for their city's huge fire energy source. He's been working to wake up PM1 and believes that he has an item that will let him control it (this is not true).
-BN1 can lead them to BG2.
-First time PCs meet BG2, he transfers one of their souls into a lizard; he remains a lizard for future loops until fixed. (Sidequest to fix lizard status, learn about "soul" campaign mechanism). (Aside: BG2 initially planned to lizard all of them in the first loop. This is why he recruited low-level PCs and why he insisted they meet him within 48 hours, pre-apocalypse. This doesn't work now, as the PCs are aware of the time loop and have levelled up).
- PCs watch BG2 and find he is a local representative for the PM cult. He gets instructions from a magic time-travel box in MegaBank. (Sidequest to do things like break into bank, take control of magic box, etc. The first time BG2 views the PCs as dangerous the PCs capture BG2, he will kill himself and vanish from future loops entirely.).
- PCs learn basic plot and the time-travel-box mechanics from BG2s room and/or bank vault: BG2 belongs to some cult with the same time-travel tech as the original maguffin. They used the PCs to free the PMs. The cult will always wake up the PMs on day 7, at the time the PCs get locked into the loop. The PCs may be able to store the monster bits in their new time-travel box in the bank.
Arc 1: Monster bits.
PCs travel around to capture monster hearts and store them in the bank. There are three essentially-unrelated parts here. I want to make sure that I have foreshadowing and that the PCs meet important characters.
-PM1: Fire monster that generates power for the only "advanced" city on the continent. Need to dungeon-crawl to get to the source of the fire, also convince people who know about the monster that it is OK to get rid of their main power source.
-PM2: the awesome Taralsqua (city built on a Tarrasque) setting you can find elsewhere in this forum.
-PM3: TBD.
Arc 1 (Sidequests):
-Use "soul" mechanism to bind personal magic items to time loop. I think this is necessary so the PCs don't lose all their cool stuff.
-Figure out how to use PM bits they've captured.
-Usual time-travel shenanigans about getting temporarily rich, etc.
Arc 2: Cult backstory.
When all three PM bits are contained, the apocalypse is averted and the remaining cult figures figure out something has gone horribly wrong with their plan. It turns out that (characters PCs have met) have been (doing cult stuff) all along, and now must be stopped. I'd love to figure out some reasonable candidates for this before starting! Here is my favourite so far:
The MegaBank was started by some super-wizard from another plane back at the dawn of history (sort of like Bayaz in the "First Law" trilogy). They don't care about this plane, but can take advantage of the PMs when they wake up.
If that's the plan, the PCs should be meeting bank agents in all of their earlier quests. The BBEG in charge of the bank is in another dimension and can only communicate through the time-travel boxes, so he basically has no idea of what is going on inside of the time loop (he gets a confirmation message from BG2 when the PMs are set free at the start of the campaign, but he doesn't see much else. He might be getting messages from other bank branches as the PCs pick up the monster bits, but this mostly happens too late for him to do anything before a new loop starts).
Once the apocalypse is averted, he can get the other bank branches involved and try to steal back the bits. The PCs will need to defend them and figure out who is behind the bank. The "soul" mechanism should allow some threat.
Arc 3: Wrapping up.
(TBD). Perhaps PCs find out that the BBEG is in charge of MegaBank and track him to his home plane.
Other stuff:
This is a long post, but I'm missing the following:
-I have a pretty small list of recurring bad guys connected to the metaplot. Any ideas on how to get more? How to get some who can show up repeatedly without too much PC abuse?
-The time-travel mechanics aren't fleshed out. I don't want primer-style hard sci fi. However, I want to make sure that the basic rules make sense so that the PCs can make reasonable decisions.
Fiction that inspired the campaign: "Edge of Tomorrow" and "Mother of Learning."
Sketch of plot on large scale: Way back in prehistory, three nearly-indestructible primordial monsters (PMs) are destroying the world. Some good guys make a magic device that can create time loops, and trap the monsters' brains in a 1-second loop. The PCs are tricked into breaking the device by minions of the BBEG, freeing the monsters. This lets the monsters escape to cause the apocalypse, and it puts the PCs in a time loop that starts 1 week before the apocalypse. The PCs must figure out what is going on, re-trap the monsters and defeat the BBEG.
Sketch of plot on week-to-week scale: Each week, the PC group will tell me what they're planning to try during that week's session (e.g. "This week, we're going to see how long we can avoid the apocalypse. We're renting a boat and going this way on the map as fast as possible."). I'll then make a little adventure based on the plan. I also maintain notes for the campaign as a whole, mostly to make sure that we can keep the plot in mind.
Intermediate time scales - mystery boxes and time-travel mechanics: I want to have a bunch of mystery boxes for the players to open. My main concern is here: I want to make sure that the underlying mystery makes enough sense that the PCs can figure it out.
Some current ideas: Here is what I've been thinking about:
Intro (Days 1-6): PCs are scoundrels, and got into trouble with the law pre-campaign. Campaign opens as they are doing short-term indentured work in a magic jail. They meet each other and some NPCs and do some introductory adventure. Main jail officer is a jerk (which encourages PCs to try to escape) and has a memorably annoying good-morning call (which, like "I got you, babe" in Groundhog day, is a bit of a signpost for a new loop).
Start of loop (Days 7-9): PCs are contacted by Bad Guys 1 and 2, who tell them that the force field around the prison is maintained by a Crystal Maguffin. BG1&2 tell the PCs to break the CM to escape; they say they can't do it themselves because they are locked out of the item's room, but they give the PCs enormously powerful one-use items to get through to the item. They also say that breaking the item will curse the PCs, and they must meet at BG1's house in a nearby town within 48 hours to get de-cursed or die.
PCs break the item, complications make them miss the meeting, and they witness a fiery apocalypse & die. Loop starts.
Immediate change: PCs will now find that the apocalypse starts on Day 7, around the time that the PCs would meet BG1&2 (and thus earlier than in initial loop). Information the PCs don't know yet: with the loop broken, the PMs are free as of day 1. Time travel mechanics let the BBEG notice this on day 7 when the PCs touch the maguffin in the original timeline, and he wakes them up.
Actually escape from jail: Jail is a dead end (nobody believes them; they are now locked out of the item's room; BG1&2 don't ever show up). They must break out of jail to investigate outside. Cue playing with time-loop puzzles (e.g. guessing keycodes, instant-death traps, etc).
Initial investigations: PCs will find out:
-BG1 is a low-level employee of MegaBank, receiving written instructions.
-BG2 must be involved in time loop, as he doesn't meet BG1 in further loops.
-Breaking into low-security parts MegaBank (cue more time-loop puzzles), PCs find that BG1's ultimate boss is Bad Noble 1.
-(Sidequests to get BN1's attention)
- BN1 knows that the CM is keeping the three PMs asleep, and that PM1 is responsible for their city's huge fire energy source. He's been working to wake up PM1 and believes that he has an item that will let him control it (this is not true).
-BN1 can lead them to BG2.
-First time PCs meet BG2, he transfers one of their souls into a lizard; he remains a lizard for future loops until fixed. (Sidequest to fix lizard status, learn about "soul" campaign mechanism). (Aside: BG2 initially planned to lizard all of them in the first loop. This is why he recruited low-level PCs and why he insisted they meet him within 48 hours, pre-apocalypse. This doesn't work now, as the PCs are aware of the time loop and have levelled up).
- PCs watch BG2 and find he is a local representative for the PM cult. He gets instructions from a magic time-travel box in MegaBank. (Sidequest to do things like break into bank, take control of magic box, etc. The first time BG2 views the PCs as dangerous the PCs capture BG2, he will kill himself and vanish from future loops entirely.).
- PCs learn basic plot and the time-travel-box mechanics from BG2s room and/or bank vault: BG2 belongs to some cult with the same time-travel tech as the original maguffin. They used the PCs to free the PMs. The cult will always wake up the PMs on day 7, at the time the PCs get locked into the loop. The PCs may be able to store the monster bits in their new time-travel box in the bank.
Arc 1: Monster bits.
PCs travel around to capture monster hearts and store them in the bank. There are three essentially-unrelated parts here. I want to make sure that I have foreshadowing and that the PCs meet important characters.
-PM1: Fire monster that generates power for the only "advanced" city on the continent. Need to dungeon-crawl to get to the source of the fire, also convince people who know about the monster that it is OK to get rid of their main power source.
-PM2: the awesome Taralsqua (city built on a Tarrasque) setting you can find elsewhere in this forum.
-PM3: TBD.
Arc 1 (Sidequests):
-Use "soul" mechanism to bind personal magic items to time loop. I think this is necessary so the PCs don't lose all their cool stuff.
-Figure out how to use PM bits they've captured.
-Usual time-travel shenanigans about getting temporarily rich, etc.
Arc 2: Cult backstory.
When all three PM bits are contained, the apocalypse is averted and the remaining cult figures figure out something has gone horribly wrong with their plan. It turns out that (characters PCs have met) have been (doing cult stuff) all along, and now must be stopped. I'd love to figure out some reasonable candidates for this before starting! Here is my favourite so far:
The MegaBank was started by some super-wizard from another plane back at the dawn of history (sort of like Bayaz in the "First Law" trilogy). They don't care about this plane, but can take advantage of the PMs when they wake up.
If that's the plan, the PCs should be meeting bank agents in all of their earlier quests. The BBEG in charge of the bank is in another dimension and can only communicate through the time-travel boxes, so he basically has no idea of what is going on inside of the time loop (he gets a confirmation message from BG2 when the PMs are set free at the start of the campaign, but he doesn't see much else. He might be getting messages from other bank branches as the PCs pick up the monster bits, but this mostly happens too late for him to do anything before a new loop starts).
Once the apocalypse is averted, he can get the other bank branches involved and try to steal back the bits. The PCs will need to defend them and figure out who is behind the bank. The "soul" mechanism should allow some threat.
Arc 3: Wrapping up.
(TBD). Perhaps PCs find out that the BBEG is in charge of MegaBank and track him to his home plane.
Other stuff:
This is a long post, but I'm missing the following:
-I have a pretty small list of recurring bad guys connected to the metaplot. Any ideas on how to get more? How to get some who can show up repeatedly without too much PC abuse?
-The time-travel mechanics aren't fleshed out. I don't want primer-style hard sci fi. However, I want to make sure that the basic rules make sense so that the PCs can make reasonable decisions.