New adventure path from ENP

[Rechan]

As far as the future APs go:

I think a Tier-based AP would be a great thing. Either a different story for each tier, or one that builds upon the last. It also offers a bit of finality/climax if you stop after the first tier - as some people don't want to play a higher tier.

An alternative would be an AP with 3 separate stories going on. Story A, story B, and story C. These stories are not really related to one another (r are only loosely connected, perhaps sometimes by coincidence alone). And so, the AP consists of following these 3 stories separately. So you'd have Adventure: Story A, then Adventure: Story B, then Adventure: Story C, then Story C, then A, then B, then... Or at least, in each adventure there may be a subplot relating to one of the others, but it is one where multiple things are going on.

Also, for villains? What I would genuinely like to see is a BBEG who is a nobody, and becomes the BBEG due to meeting the PCs and the players screwing him over or otherwise making him hate them. For instance he's a nameless ally or enemy lackey in the first battle of the module, and he is somehow crippled by an explosion/something falling on him. So he has a vendetta. Motivation on both sides is so much better when it's personal. And when the players realize WHO is gunning for them, and why, it will be a golden moment.

My ideas:

[sblock=#1 Poison Glamour and Cold Iron]One thing about 4e I think that has not been utilized fully is the Feywild. Wolfgang Baur did a great job with it, but otherwise I think that it's not all that fleshed out, and nothing has truly used its potential.

So a story where the PCs delve into it, and into faerie politics would be engrossing. Or perhaps just exploring it, the dark corners.

Perhaps the PCs need to court multiple factions. Deciding WHO to ally with (and how to ally with them) would effect how the other groups react to you. If you have become the Herald to the Parliament of the Emerald Frond, The Coral Estuary shall greet you with held tridents.

And to contest with faeries is an entirely different ballgame - instead of battling one noble fey in combat, you need to best him at musical performance.[/sblock]

[sblock=#2 Changing Ages]I want to tell you a little bit about Exalted. There is a large central government, ran by a powerful theocracy and people who have innate magical power. These people have influence in all corners of teh world. And they hunt down characters who manifest true power. There are also various dangers to the existence of the world - dream-sucking entities of Chaos (the Fair Folk), and undead Warlords, ghosts of the most powerful beings in the world ages past.

Now, I'm not saying ripping this off completely. But I think that it's a very good starting point. Why? PC classes are Special. They are treated differently. So, build that into the game. Those with PC classes are inherently special, therefore hunted.

Heroic Tier: The PCs are hunted by the Big Government. Their goal is to basically survive; lay low, engage in local adventures, get competent, find out what it means to be a member of this Hunted Group.
Paragon Tier: Build a nation. A safe place for people like them to come, to be protected. The PCs start cleaning house, knocking over despots and gaining allies.
Epic Tier: Take them all on. Take on the Big Government and smash it to the ground. Take on the Big Threats that threaten the world and drive a stake through their heart.

The point being that the PCs are agents of change. That they can change things. And thus, they should.[/sblock]

Other thoughts:

I would like to see something that begins with the PCs in Jail, and initially on the Run. Possibly as political prisoners, or framed, and thus part of it is trying to clear their names, or overthrow the government that put them in there in the first place. The first adventure I can see where the goal is to escape, and there are multiple avenues the PCs could take, while dealing with gangs and other Prison Pecking Order issues.

Or even a city based AP.

 

[Jhaelen]

What I would genuinely like to see is a BBEG who is a nobody, and becomes the BBEG due to meeting the PCs and the players screwing him over or otherwise making him hate them.

As in The Incredibles?

 

[Rechan]

As in The Incredibles?

Same idea but something a little more serious.

Another way to make this villain more than your typical villain is through giving the players something to care about, then threatening it. Rise of the Runelords did this with Sandpoint. You have the PCs get attached to something/someone - and then the villain seeks to destroy the things the PCs hold dear before coming after them.

Now, this is tricky because it's a module, so you need to set it up with enough flexibility to account for any type of PC, and multiple choices on the players part. But if you can do it at the beginning of WotBS ("All PCs start sympathetic to the Resistance") then you can do it with a little engineering on the module's part.

 

[Rechan]

I guess I'm a little late to the party.

 

[Odysseus]

I'm a little late. But my interest would be for either.
1. A city based campaign, then actualy all took place in the city(1st to 30th )
Harry Dresden never leaves chicago. The bad guys come to him. Plus a city based campaign gives you options for rival Parties/gangs/fractions etc

2. Some sort of mobile base of operations. This could be a ship with a time bandits /pirates campaign, or just some teleporting castle. But some way for the BOE to move to the adventure.

Also if your like me and have players who like using the character builder. Houserules / additional setting rules become a hindrance. The CB is not houserule or 3rd party friendly. So a steampunk campaign becomes very unappetizing.

 

[RangerWickett]

Actually, I've been thinking on that last concern: the character builder.

The trick is to come up with character options that have minimal impact. It's easy enough to add a couple new powers here and there, some new magic items, but it's hard to swap class options.

For a steam/industrial-revolution campaign, I figure we'd do themes, a la Dark Sun. Those are easy enough to just make our own pdf so if you want to print them out it's a cinch.

The hardest thing is firearms if we wanted them. I figure the work-around would be, like, just use the stats of longbows for muskets, shortbows for carbines, hand crossbows for pistols. Greatbows would be those rare sniper rifles. (Crossbows and superior crossbows, with their 'load minor,' are kinda sub-par.)

Making character powers, feats, and so on fit a unique setting is mostly just a matter of reskinning.

 

[Phaezen]

The hardest thing is firearms if we wanted them. I figure the work-around would be, like, just use the stats of longbows for muskets, shortbows for carbines, hand crossbows for pistols. Greatbows would be those rare sniper rifles. (Crossbows and superior crossbows, with their 'load minor,' are kinda sub-par.)

Most probably the easiest way to go about things is to have firearms use the stats for bows or crossbows, add a brutal 1 or 2 or high crit to make them a little more deadly. You could also add load minor for the slower weapons.

 

[RangerWickett]

Most probably the easiest way to go about things is to have firearms use the stats for bows or crossbows, add a brutal 1 or 2 or high crit to make them a little more deadly. You could also add load minor for the slower weapons.

Oh, there are lots of ways to design firearms, but not a lot of ways that are consistent with the character builder. I don't have any clear sense on how acceptable it would be to players to have to scribble notes onto every power card: enter crossbow in the CB, then add brutal 2 in pencil.

Alternately, we could go really weird, and make guns as 'magic items,' which have a rechargeable power. Expend it as a free action when using a ranged attack, and it deals X instead of Y damage. Recharging requires Z actions. But that meshes very poorly with multi-attack powers.

 

[Morrus]

I never really liked the tendency to try to make guns more deadly than crossbows and the like. Frankly, getting shot in the face by either is going to ruin your day!

I honestly would simply rename the bows and leave it at that. Don't worry about changing the mechanics in any way. D&D isn't exactly a simulation, anyway; just a thematic tweak is more than enough.

 

[Rechan]

Well honestly, if they're going to have the stats of existing weapons, what's the point of having them?