Ok, bare bones of my campaign world:
* PCs live in a small village at the edge of a peaceful & prosperous land.
* There has been no serious military threat to the nation for centuries.
* Nation is reasonably magic-rich: e.g. mages have mastered art of constructing fixed portals through which people can travel - there is one of these portals in the local mage's tower in most towns and cities.
* Govt = magocracy of 7 Archmages + King with ceremonial functions only. Lower level mages perform admistrative functions throughout the land, magic and mages are regulated.
* The 7 Archmages also entrusted with defence of nation - the people assume they are so powerful that they are all that is needed. Only a token army in the present day.
* Over the centuries successive Archmages have declined in power: these days the 'Archmages' aren't all that powerful (say 10th-12th level max). But no-one knows this (it's their dirty little secret).
That's the setup, now the campaign:
* Early games will set up the home village, flesh it out so that the players establish some emotional bonds with NPCs etc.
* PCs (who will be 1st or even 0 level, very green), will be sent on some errand/mission into the mountains. Of course it will go pear-shaped and there will be some battle etc etc.
* When the PCs are returning home, they will see a flight of DRAGONS flying overhead. Presumably they hurry home to find...
* ...Village burned by dragonfire, people enslaved by the minions of the Dragons (but actual dragons & most of their minions have moved on to capture the major cities). Perhaps the invaders have hijacked the portals and conducted a blitz attack through them.
* Because nation is poorly defended it will fall quickly to the invaders, who will then...(not sure - put the population to work doing something? Hunt for an important artifact?).
* PCs will have to try to free their village, prevent word of their resistance getting back to the invaders, then go from there - try to work out how to eventually save the day (which would take most of the campaign presumably).
* Eventually they will find out that the dragons are coming from another world where dragons are (relatively) commonplace, and colours vs. metallics are locked in eternal struggle. PCs homeworld is in some way strategically important to this struggle.
Various inspirations here: Transformers; Dragonlance; RE Feist; 'V'. Idea is sort of to put the PCs out of their depth from very early on and see how they react.
Any thoughts? Too ambitious perhaps?
* PCs live in a small village at the edge of a peaceful & prosperous land.
* There has been no serious military threat to the nation for centuries.
* Nation is reasonably magic-rich: e.g. mages have mastered art of constructing fixed portals through which people can travel - there is one of these portals in the local mage's tower in most towns and cities.
* Govt = magocracy of 7 Archmages + King with ceremonial functions only. Lower level mages perform admistrative functions throughout the land, magic and mages are regulated.
* The 7 Archmages also entrusted with defence of nation - the people assume they are so powerful that they are all that is needed. Only a token army in the present day.
* Over the centuries successive Archmages have declined in power: these days the 'Archmages' aren't all that powerful (say 10th-12th level max). But no-one knows this (it's their dirty little secret).
That's the setup, now the campaign:
* Early games will set up the home village, flesh it out so that the players establish some emotional bonds with NPCs etc.
* PCs (who will be 1st or even 0 level, very green), will be sent on some errand/mission into the mountains. Of course it will go pear-shaped and there will be some battle etc etc.
* When the PCs are returning home, they will see a flight of DRAGONS flying overhead. Presumably they hurry home to find...
* ...Village burned by dragonfire, people enslaved by the minions of the Dragons (but actual dragons & most of their minions have moved on to capture the major cities). Perhaps the invaders have hijacked the portals and conducted a blitz attack through them.
* Because nation is poorly defended it will fall quickly to the invaders, who will then...(not sure - put the population to work doing something? Hunt for an important artifact?).
* PCs will have to try to free their village, prevent word of their resistance getting back to the invaders, then go from there - try to work out how to eventually save the day (which would take most of the campaign presumably).
* Eventually they will find out that the dragons are coming from another world where dragons are (relatively) commonplace, and colours vs. metallics are locked in eternal struggle. PCs homeworld is in some way strategically important to this struggle.
Various inspirations here: Transformers; Dragonlance; RE Feist; 'V'. Idea is sort of to put the PCs out of their depth from very early on and see how they react.
Any thoughts? Too ambitious perhaps?