Would someone like to share an idea?

[FireFox]

Hello all,

I have decided to bring all of my freinds together and start up a DnD game. Only two people besides me have expierince with the game, and one of them is graciously lending me some of the books. Because our party is 50% hlafling and 50% human, I was contemplating making it a racially themed campaign. Our party also has a rnager, druid, and cleric of Ehlonna, so I am thinking to make it an environmental campaign as well. So what I would greatly appreciate is ideas about plot hooks and monsters that would go well with a game like that. This is my first time Dming see, and I was wondering if there was a specifc type of thing in general that had the power to destroy the general ecosystem of the world. That the PCs would have to go out and stop, because they are more or less deeply tied with nature. If you have questions for me, I'll be happy to answer them...

So to sum it up, I would appreciate any suggestions for a nature themed campaign. Thank you all!

[Newtkeeper]

Let's see- there are several angles you can take.

1) The frontier: You are the vanguard of civilization- the pioneers. Explore, settle, and protect those who come after!
2) The ecoterrorists: Civilization is encroaching on pristine wilderness and sacred groves. It must be stopped- by force, if necessary!
3) The outlaws: Robin Hood and his companion, Druid Tuck. Protect the peasants, restore the true king! Oh, and try not to get caught.

[FireFox]

The second one isn't bad, but are there any Evil monsters I can make high level that pollute the earth? Or an Evil deity? Like a "so you guys like nature? well, if you dont kill that guy, he's going to destroy it all" sort of thing. But thanks, those would be good suggestions if I didn't know my friends were going to play as chaotic stupid

[leperkhaun]

hmm, i might recommend getting a premade campaign. I would suggest the one by pathfinder... i cant remember the name though.

[Newtkeeper]

The second one isn't bad, but are there any Evil monsters I can make high level that pollute the earth? Or an Evil deity? Like a "so you guys like nature? well, if you dont kill that guy, he's going to destroy it all" sort of thing. But thanks, those would be good suggestions if I didn't know my friends were going to play as chaotic stupid

Hmm.. the tarrasque occasionally rampages, destroying everything in his path, but he's only one monster. Decent final fight, though. Perhaps a cult dedicated to summoning him?


Extraplanar beings would be nice- perhaps the Princes of Elemental Evil have opened a gate from the Elemental Plane of Fire into the wilderness- you must stop them, or our fair plane will become just another burnt wasteland! For extra credit, have *different* elemental planes all pouring in at different locations, and striving for dominance! Talk about upsetting nature's balance.

[Khanderas]

The second one isn't bad, but are there any Evil monsters I can make high level that pollute the earth? Or an Evil deity? Like a "so you guys like nature? well, if you dont kill that guy, he's going to destroy it all" sort of thing. But thanks, those would be good suggestions if I didn't know my friends were going to play as chaotic stupid

A goblinoid army should do the trick. Just make sure they got casters of their own and classlevels so you dont just walk though their camp and slay it on your own. The army should be tough enough to not be a good idea to take on without guile.
While they are just passing though (presumably to an elven kingdom somewhere) they do trample and deforest the place from sheer numbers (scouts hunt anything for food for the army, trees to make siege engines (if they need to take a keep of somekind) and firewood... and the occational forest fire (to burn out elven snipers and accidental).

Your heroes might not even be able to stop them at all, giving them their main goal to delay and destabilise the army. Such as making it harder for them to get food. Take out the supply trains. Burn their siege engines. Make the different factions distrust eachother so the goblins attacks the hobgoblins. Have the scout / hunting groups "disappear". Evacuate settlers in the path (and the food they store). Find out where they are going and send warning.

This does sound like alot, you should problebly have a "high command" who contracts this group to do one of theese things, with other groups doing their part. Say your groups job is to take out the supply train and leave evacuating civililianse to a NPC group or two, and so on with the infiltrating and the killing and so on.

[FireFox]

Oooh, I like the extraplanar idea , as newcomers to tabletop RPGs, I kind of want them to be introduced to a creative atomsphere...

[Storm Bringer]

The second one isn't bad, but are there any Evil monsters I can make high level that pollute the earth? Or an Evil deity? Like a "so you guys like nature? well, if you dont kill that guy, he's going to destroy it all" sort of thing. But thanks, those would be good suggestions if I didn't know my friends were going to play as chaotic stupid

Saruman!

seriously, off the top of my head, the best bet with a standard cosmology setting for a BBEG:

a great wyrm green dragon seeking to corrupt the forests

A Xenophobic and industial clan of dwarves seeking to get rid of those pesky tree huggers who stop them getting at thier firewood.

A Liche.

Nature itself, manifest as a manlevolent enity seeking to kill the humaniods that so mistreat it (maybe married with druidism/nature god worship being a minority faith at the start of the campgain, with the players managing to re-establish it as they suceed.)

[FireFox]

a great wyrm green dragon seeking to corrupt the forests

Yeah, that one sounds nice... maybe having a dark cult helping the dragon...

[kamikasei]

Blighters are evil ex-druids who poison and destroy. Walker in the Waste is a PrC from Sandstorm that - I think - lets desert-oriented druids become a sort of divine dry lich and spread deserts, which might also help (and would create an interesting clash-of-ecologies motif as opposed to a must-destroy-all-that-is-pure-and-good BBEG).

[Storm Bringer]

Yeah, that one sounds nice... maybe having a dark cult helping the dragon...

..who conveintly form the low level threats for the plays to lvl up on. The trick would be to have the cult play a part in most dungons/adventures, but not anvilliously. maybe have them spoil a meeting of one of the cult's cells in the early stages, thus introducing them to it. then, play a few seemingly unrelated adventures dealing with this, that and the other evil dudes. at the end of that bit, the players find evidence that the last few bosses have been working together for this cult, seeking to bring the green dragon into power.

Cue Arc music.

[GolemsVoice]

A Druid who was guarding an are which was by some means horribly detroyed, which broke the druid's mind, and turned the peaceful, nature loving, silent and reserved protector of the wilderness into a rampaging, mad avatar of self-styled nature's vengeance. This allows you to introduce various tones into your campaign, from the simple "He must be stopped, think of the children!" to a more horror oriented, twisted nature campaign with warped plants and corrupted treants.

[FireFox]

..who conveintly form the low level threats for the plays to lvl up on. The trick would be to have the cult play a part in most dungons/adventures, but not anvilliously. maybe have them spoil a meeting of one of the cult's cells in the early stages, thus introducing them to it. then, play a few seemingly unrelated adventures dealing with this, that and the other evil dudes. at the end of that bit, the players find evidence that the last few bosses have been working together for this cult, seeking to bring the green dragon into power.

Cue Arc music.

...*bows* That is an awesome bit of... errhm... awesomeness? Right, that sounds wonderful, thank you so much!

[Storm Bringer]

...*bows* That is an awesome bit of... errhm... awesomeness? Right, that sounds wonderful, thank you so much!

meh, It's cribbed form a pre-wirtten campgain (the one involing Ashardalon, the dead black dragon that's seeking to RULE THE WORLD!!1) we did once. In that campgian, the BBEG was actaully dead for most of the arc, and the cult was working to bring it back to life (just in time for us to pwn him).

may i suggest that you locate a few pre-written scanerios for low level play and work them into the plot by changing names a motives? If this is you're frist time DM'ing, having all the adventure ready for you is a real help and lets you worry about keeping those stupid players alive dispite themselves.

oh and don't forget: you can't cheat as a DM if your bending the rules in the players favour.always roll where they cannot see the result.

[PlatinumJester]

In Heroes Of Horror there was a mini quest which involved taint destroying the forest and making of the animals psycho/cannibalistic/warped. You could say that some cult was responsible for this. If you are using Eberron (which I would recomend), there is a templaye in 5 Nations or Forge or War (can't remember which one) that is for creatures that live in the Mourn Land. Even if you don't use Eberron, it is easy convert over.

[Driderman]

Note that nature itself can be an enemy as well.
If the balance of an ecosystem is disturbed, certain species may grow out of check and need to be culled. Druids preserve the balance (as a general rule) so it certainly wouldn't be out of bounds for them to go kill the wolves, if the wolf packs have become too large and predatory.
As I see it, Rangers are primarily the people that defend PC-races from the threats of the wild, while still respecting the wild, while druids are the people that defend the wild from PC-races, while still trying to respect PC-races.
So there could definitely be some sort of conflict there as well, between civilization and wilderness.

Threats to nature comes in many forms, human civilization being one of the primary threats. Overeager loggers, farmers, industrialists, hunters and poachers and the like all threaten the natural balance, without necessarily being evil themselves. Although some certainly could be.
Perhaps an industrial organisation has set up a logging camp and intends to cultivate the area, threatening the wildlife and natural balance. While most of the employees of this organisation are simply honest labourers and the like, there could very well be a malevolent entity working behind the scenes with the direct goal of laying waste to nature.

You may want to read up on the Dark Sun campaign setting. It's been a while since I looked into it, but it has a class called Defiler, a magic user of some sort who syphons the energies of the land to power his spells, turning places into barren wastelands.
Of course, it's 2. edition so the mechanics won't help you much, but thematically it seems to be a good bet

[ChaosDefender24]

Really, the main objection that druids and the like have about things that go on in the world are the undead. Undead are a perversion of nature and anyone who gives life a healthy respect tends to attack the undead on sight. Any real infestation of undead that's encroaching on a natural area should be enough to get the PC's riled up. I won't provide any more specific ideas on the plot; this is so general and so easy to work with that you can probably run riot with this one without help. Although I would suggest that you get as bizarre and weird with the undead as possible; troops of skeletons marching through the woods are one thing, the players finding flayed animals (be careful with something like this if your players are squeamish) and then shortly being attacked by particularly furry skin kites (Libris Mortis) is another.

Or you could have some evil force (I like evil outsiders or something similarly perverse, perhaps an undead for double trouble) actively working to corrupt nature, poisoning water, grafting stuff onto animals, and generally making stuff get worse. Fun templates include gelatinous monster (Savage Species), bone creature, corpse creature, corrupted creature(all three from Book of Vile Darkness), symbiotic (Savage Species), multi-headed (Savage Species), ghost brute (Libris Mortis), horrid (ECS), and just about anything else that could really screw up an otherwise perfectly happy animal. And yeah, grafting undead body parts onto a bear or something would also get the PC's attention.