The Pilot Episode of a Campaign

Hi all,

My current campaign is at 12th level, and I've got it mapped up to 18th. So I turn my mind to my new campaign for when this wraps up, or there's a TPK.

I'm looking at being more cinematic this time round, setting up an urban campaign in the vein of Thieves' world or Lankhmar, and I have a number of ideas. However, I've got writer's block for one thing -- giving the party a good reason to keep adventuring together after the first adventure.

Here's the outline

1. Each of the players will receive a formal invitation to a party of a well-to-do architect in the city of Escalant (on the Wizard's Reach in the Forgotten Realms) to celebrate the new narthex for the Temple of Bane. Players will have to create characters that would be invitable to such a party.

2. The very first thing I want to do is have a 'flash-forward'. Soon as characters are rolled, I'm going to say 'roll initiative' and have them fighting Zhentarim in a burning warehouse, fighting over some Untheric artifacts in a box. Then after the fight, I'm flashing back to the party, where events will unfold, a Red Wizard will die of poison, some Untheric artifacts on display will go missing, and the story will unfold...

My main question is this ... what's a good idea for 'glue' for keeping the party together? Initially it could be 'band on the run' from the Zhentarim, or being accused of the Red Wizard's murder, but that's not a great overall reason to keep the party together.

I've got long term goals for the party - ultimately as a story arc, I'd like to culminate the campaign with the egyptian fiend Iubenti, the Eater of the Dead, trying to collect the seven parts of Re's soul to become a god, and the party putting him down in his own egyptian hellish realm. The party will eventually get involved with cultists, then direct servants, them Iubenti itself. Heck, I could even tie the Untheric artifacts in to a first step, but the party shouldn't be initially aware of this plot line for a while.

So what's a good reason to glue the party together? Or, even better, reasons to bring other PCs in if and when a character dies? I'd like to set up some sort of campaign premise/theme in the first adventure that will direct the campaign for time to come, and I'm having problems with the particulars.

Ideas?
Blair / Archade

I'm running a similar type campaign in Hollowfaust of the Scarred Lands.

The way I've been able to keep the group together and focused is by having them all members of the city's secret police. In Hollowfaust, the secret police is used to quell insurgency, spy on neighboring governments, etc. I really like the way it has evolved. I've found I can keep the main plot progressing quite easily without feeling forced. The group can pretty much do as they please for about one or two sessions, then I feed them a "job" to do which brings them all back together again. Kind of like the way the X-Files would branch out of a few episodes, but always return for the main plotline.

At first I thought it might be a bit heavy handed, but it has worked out well.

From your description it seems that the PCs will belong to the same social class (or be near it). You could have them come up with backgrounds where they know and are friends with (or related to) at least one of the other characters. This puts the ball in your players' court, which is something I personally prefer as both player and DM.

Well, I was watching the movie Hudson Hawk last night, and one way to get them on the path is have them all drugged/knocked out, and have them wake up together. And I could keep them together thinking that the Zhentarim/Red Wizards/Temple of Bane/Shadowmasters are all out to get them...

Could you possibly make them all distant relations?? (unknown to them untill they find out somehow in the game).

Make a creature or organization target each of their families in order to whipe them out???

Make a big city event where all of their families die and they are the only remaining memebers.

Their families get arrested and convicted of heresy against the local (biggest religion) and they were somehow left out. The church has taken the family property as payment for the wrongs.

They are kidnapped as slaves and shipped to some distant land.

Some disease poisons the cities population and they seem to be immune somehow???


Just off the top of my head

My main question is this ... what's a good idea for 'glue' for keeping the party together? Initially it could be 'band on the run' from the Zhentarim, or being accused of the Red Wizard's murder, but that's not a great overall reason to keep the party together.

Ideas?
Blair / Archade[/QUOTE]



Well, are they likely to win someone's favor or gratitude for the first adventure? How about a reward that ties them all together for a while until natural bonds form from being comrades in arms.

The most obvious, albeit cliché, choice is to reward them with another adventure. This has been done many times--deed to a distant fort or castle that’s a bit of a fixer upper, a treasure map etc. The next most obvious choice is to have someone they've just helped out ask them to solve some other little problem for a reward of course.

I'm dying to find the right setting to use the tactic from the Usual Suspects--the party members are all arrested together. I've seen some success in a city game with giving the players a house as a group. Also in an early adventure the group saved the daughter of a wealthy innkeeper. He let them stay in the penthouse suite for an extended period at no cost. Poor low level adventurers even a small run down place can be enough to keep them together if the alternative is to go back to living on the streets. Of course if they are all living together then when any one of them comes across a new plot hook he/she naturally invites his roomies to come along. I've heard of adventuring bands ending up with taverns and theaters as well, which should similarly tie their fates together. For an island based game I'm working on I'm planning on the characters ending up with joint ownership of a boat.

One of my personal favs was to have the party mistakenly aid a bad guy and delay the legitimate authorities from catching him. They were then Geased to track down said bad guy and bring him to justice. This was a bit more heavy handed than my usual tactics, but I thought it necessary since several players were new to the group and I couldn't count on them being willing to jump at the chance to work together the way my regulars usually do.

Another one I’m working on involves membership in a gentleman’s club in the big city. I have worked into the back story of each player a reason to have inherited or been given a membership in this club in the big city. They players are all low level yokels coming to the big city to seek their fortunes. The club offers enough resources to keep them dropping by and thus running into each other regularly—workout/training facilities, bathes, mundane library, cheap lodging, a free fancy dinner once a week, lots of knowledgeable old gents to consult, etc. I think this one will work out well of course the kindly old gents at the club might be something more…but that’s for my player to discover later.

Scotley