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View Full Version : Brainstorming Hooks for Rebuilding a Ghost Town



RukiTanuki
2008-12-11, 05:08 PM
With one month to go before I get my 4e steampunk campaign setting up and running, I realize I'm going to need a campaign as well as a setting.

I always find "You All Meet In An Inn (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YouAllMeetInAnInn)" to be the most ridiculous and immersion-breaking part of a campaign. During the preceeding one-off adventure, I managed to dodge it by having the players be individuals brought together by a trading company magnate (who called in a few favors to hire them), in order to rescue the boss' nephew (the crux of the adventure). Conversely, I was pleased to see the second Pathfinder campaign hinge each PC's involvement on that person's personal beef with Gadren Lamm, providing several examples of vendettas they could use. I approached this campaign from the same angle: what sort of event would provide numerous reasons for PCs of various types to get involved? Better yet, could I find one that'd generate enough plot hooks for a full campaign? As an added bonus, can I get the PCs personally invested in the location they're saving?

One sprung to mind quickly given the flavor of the setting: rebuilding a ghost town. The idea instantly sparks several brainstorming questions:

* Why was the town abandoned?
* Did people flee or were they killed (or did they disappear)?
* Who's interested in rebuilding the town?
* What other organizations is that person going to bring in to help them?
* What organizations or individuals would prefer to stop them?
* Does any group have a separate claim or interest in that land?
* Are there any hard-to-acquire items necessary to rebuild, and how would they be obtained?
* How will people be encouraged to settle there?
* How will law be enforced?

I'm hoping to design this organically; I'll determine what happened to the settlement, set up the organizations and individuals attempting to move on the new project, and watch each of them unfold their Xanatos Gambits (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/XanatosGambit) on each other. The NPC actions should generate enough conflicts for the PCs to pick and choose.

So, if your players were working to investigate a ghost town, rebuild it, and help folks settle in, what would you place in their way?

Tacoma
2008-12-11, 05:32 PM
* Why was the town abandoned?

About a hundred years ago the town was suffering from drought due to desertification and exceeding the carrying capacity of the land. Their cattle grazed them into their current predicament.

A stranger rolled into town and offered to solve their problems if they would pay his fee. Their coffers opened and the coins fell out through his hands. He said he wanted blood. They gave him blood. He said he wanted devotion. They worshipped. He left.

At dawn a green line appeared on the horizon. It steadily advanced. People cheered. But some watched. As the line go closer, twilight obscured it until morning.
It was then in the dawn's light they saw it. The advancing wall of jungle, enveloping the land, leaping the dry gulleys and slithering up the stony riverbeds.

* Did people flee or were they killed (or did they disappear)?

The people had but hours to escape. There was much confusion. People left goods in the streets. Some escaped. Many stayed, hoping it would be okay or too afraid to flee in the desert, or knowing they were too old or infirm to leave. The jungle enveloped them and their blood coursed across the thirsty landscape.

* Who's interested in rebuilding the town?

Years lago explorers building a road through the jungle found a much older trade road. They thought it might lead to the mythical city. But their job was to build their road, and they soon left it behind.
Then adventurers began to explore. They returned with tales of ruins and wealth, but strange beasts and the dangers of the dense jungle. A scholar stayed with an archaeological expedition.
The next season a supply expedition found the camp ruined by vicious animals and some kind of weird blowgun darts were found stuck in some trees around the camp. Everyone assumed there were no survivors in the carnage.
That night the supply camp awoke to a lunatic raving at the night watch guards. He was the scholar! Apparently he had survived somehow. And he was carrying a golden scepter with a bejeweled skull atop it. They questioned him but he couldn't be understood. He rambled about the "great temple" and "the Dark Man of the Forest". They took his scepter and tied him up so he couldn't hurt himself. He was missing the next day, his ropes cut by claws, blood on the ground.
A certain merchant is very interested in the rumors of this temple. If the scholar took one of the temple's lesser treasures, surely there must be far greater wealth to be found there. And surely this stranger who destroyed the desert so long ago isnt still alive.
But the Wizard's Guild is also very interested. They convinced a noble to finance an expedition.

* What other organizations is that person going to bring in to help them?
The merchant wants to send support troops to secure the camp, porters to carry loot, scouts and trackers to cut a path, and various other camp followers. The PCs might be in charge of the expedition, or perhaps the merchant sends some more trusted (and more powerful) liaison.

* What organizations or individuals would prefer to stop them?

The Wizard's Guild is afraid that whatever the ruins hold is very dangerous. They will be digging in other parts of the ruins, but will keep an eye on the PCs to see if they spend a lot of time in a certain place.

* Does any group have a separate claim or interest in that land?

The people who escaped have long since filtered through the land and nobody in the outside world lays claim to it. The local kings consider the jungle to be their borders as none can enter to control it and there seems to be nothing of value inside it.
That said, whichever place the PCs go to sell off their loot will try to tax them. Merchants willing to deal with people who have no tax records for their goods won't offer as much for them, so the PCs have to shave a little off their finds anyway.

* Are there any hard-to-acquire items necessary to rebuild, and how would they be obtained?

You need to survive the jungle creatures. The diseases. The terrain is often muddy or tangled, and you have to cut a path. Visibility is low. At night there is little moonlight and during the day it's a little bit dimmer than in the sunshine. It's very hot and humid, and equipment will be damaged by mold and fungus. Unless they're 5th level or so, finding potable water is a problem. Hunting is easy and fruit is readily available.

* How will people be encouraged to settle there?

Nobody will settle here until the jungle is cleared. But the opportunities for settlers include scavenging, rebuilding structures and roads, clearing drainage ditches and sewer pipes and aqueducts and wells, hunting exotic creatures for food and parts but also training and export, collection of weird spell components, etc. The value is that none of the kings controls it (yet) so taxes are low and liberty is high.

* How will law be enforced?

It's pretty lawless until it's settled by a bunch of people and there's a government in place to collect taxes and establish a military. Justice is enforced through violence.

RukiTanuki
2008-12-12, 01:24 PM
Not a bad set of hooks... but this corner of the campaign setting is very un-jungle-like. That would certainly make the appearance of a jungle environ very surprising to the locals, but I'll probably try to make the events fit in the environment, rather than deliberately play against type. The adventure's supposed to show off the world, after all.

Tacoma
2008-12-12, 02:22 PM
I thought the jungle thing could work as a vintage-pulp kind of adventure. And I wanted to give something different from "desert ghost town near the played-out gold mines." But that's cool.

I guess I'd have to really read more of your campaign notes via your sig.