give me your over-arching plots NOW!!! please :)

[howandwhy99]

Cool idea for Pcat:
[sblock]The edge of world is just that: the place where chaos dwells. The further from civilization (the known world) one goes, the more the more fantastical the world becomes. The lands are a mix of dream desires and reality altered by subjective imperatives. It's classic Law vs. Chaos with evil and good undefined.

I'm thinking along the lines of Faerie or The Neverending Story. The cosmology of the real world is flat, not based on contemporary science, but upon medieval superstition.

One core mystery would be the nature of the lands as the PCs explore. In the wide buffer zone (beyond "the wall") previously travelled through areas might change a little next time around. This allows you to reuse and alter all sorts of maps, NPCs, monsters, and whatnot. Drow certainly have a place, as do evil fey, creatures beyond time, and chaoses incarnate. I'd probably add at least one interesting new race like a race of greater doppleganger fey with greater influence over the willed "flux?" than noninhabitants. In normal lands they would be stuck in one form and thought; probably viewed as mad streetpersons or aimless mute wanderers. Supposedly harmless.

Your own maps would have to be drawn (and redrawn) in pencil though.[/sblock]

 

[darkseraphim]

Epic plot from my last campaign world and contest entry:

D&D Waterworld. Oceans are warming and rising, humanoid and demi-human populations have been pushed onto constricted tropical archipelagos (former mountain ranges). Competition for land is intense and bloody. Also provides a great excuse for mashing lots of diverse monsters into small places. Dungeons and caves are always populated, because extra land is extremely valuable. Cities tend to be filled with bridges and towers. Some cities are floating rafts, others are cloud cities, some are under the sea protected by magic, etc. Sargasso tangles tend to be built over and become drifting towns.

Goal of the campaign: Current generations only have myths of the ancient world. The rising oceans are not the result of global warming, but rather a magical war catastrophe, similar to the Invoked Devastation. Goal of the campaign is to get powerful enough to learn to deal with a water environment, explore the depths, and search ancient ruins for the answers to the coming deluge. The deepest ruin is also the home of the only creature to survive the flood, a beastie I called the Eldritch Kraken. As a supra-genius with many minions, it made an intriguing evil mastermind and nemesis.

Have fun.

 

[pawsplay]

Ripped off from FFI: Some CE moron discovers an ancient temple to a forgotten evil god and releases his imprisoned avatar. In short order, the evil god has activated his plan to gain control of the world by calling forth his four servants, each master of a given element. To defeat him, they must first defeat each of the four servants who guard a powerful altar. Then they must travel into a demiplane to defeat the god's avatar. Various subplots include stamping out nests of worshippers (mostly giants and monstrous humanoids), rescuing princesses, and trying to gather information on a foe who was last defeated centuries ago.

 

[Nifft]

This thread rules!

My players (Demon Haunted Earth) stay out, please.

[sblock]
Long-Term: Lolth is planning on sacrificing an entire race of non-humanoid critters to fuel her ascent into godhood. Their deaths will also give the Drow a nice clean planet to live on, instead of the dry & hostile place they live now.

The Drow have made an alliance with a certain faction of this race, which is insectile and thus "aesthetically pleasing", but plans on sacrificing all of them. Hey, Drow are evil like that.

Mid-Term: The PCs recently awoke the ancient guardian of an old battle site, and the ancient guardian moved, which was their goal. However, the old battle site is now being mined for souls -- and is a new battleground between various fiend factions, and some mortal factions, too. Some souls are being used by the insectile race to create novel constructs -- Warforged. (Some Warforged are "awakening", but two thousand years as a frozen soul-spark isn't good for anyone's memory.) This new army is being put to use in various ways that are mostly bad.

Long-Term: Back on Earth, the Fisher King, aka the Maimed Lord in the North, has been gathering souls himself. He once failed to ascend as a god, and he wants to try again. There are various restrictions on which souls he can consume -- high-level mages are most tasty. One of the PCs will have trouble soon.

Short-Term: While traveling on Carceri, the PCs killed a blue dragon. They found some eggs, which they took home. Eventually, the eggs hatched, and three heavily templated blue wyrmlings came out -- shadow creatures AND half-fiends. The PCs kept them as pets. Mom's pissed. Being LE, she put out some contracts. She got one back... she wants the others. Various mercenaries will be showing up to collect.

Short-Term: Why were the PCs on Carceri? They were working for a mercenary vampire named Valdemar. They still owe him some favors... and he's being paid by Pazuzu right now.
[/sblock]

Cheers, -- N

 

[Rhada]

Some day I will run this campaign:

Eberron - Orien Express
It´s going to be a adaptation of the Call of Cthulhu pulp adventure "Orient Express", replacing the locations, enemies and encounters with Eberron sites and organizations (like the Orien Lighting Rail, the Daelkyr, the Emerald Claw, the Nations, etc.). I´ll use the rules from Heroes of Horror, change the encounters to give them the D&D feel (I mean, fighting the enemies instead of running from them) and replace the supernatural creatures from CoC with aberrations and evil outsiders.

If you don´t know the original adventure, it´s a campaign that takes place inside the famous Orient Express, and the different places it visits during it´s course. The PCs are in a quest to find an ancient (and dangerous) artifact composed of various parts as a lot of enemies (humans and supernatural horrors) try to obtain the artifact, kill the PCs, or simply drive mad anyone who is involved in this adventure.

As always, excuse my English, i´m not very good at it.

 

[Nathan P. Mahney]

OK, so in my campaign the D&D cosmology is altered a fair bit - the multiverse is composed of what is called the Spiral of Worlds, with each planet and the planes that surround it in an area that corresponds to the world's overarching alignment. If the basic nature of a world changes, it will slowly shift from one alignment area to the next. Eventually, if a world becomes screwed up enough, it vanishes into CE oblivion and is destroyed, often taking nearby worlds with it.

There's a group of extradimensional guys, kind of devil/cyborg nihilists who are hastening the demise of the multiverse by fomenting as much chaos as possible - naturally they are doing this on the PCs world!. Their opposite number (angel/cyborgs, of course) are trying to save worlds, or barring that just blowing the hell out of any worlds that are beyond salvation.

My campaign world is beyond salvation, because the PCs got TPKed in the last campaign - evil won, the dark god Malak was released from his prison, and the world is swamped in eternal night. So all the PCs have to do is restore the sun-god to the sky, defeat Malak, convince the angel/cyborg guys not to blow up their world, and then aid them in the battle for the whole multiverse.

In all honesty, It's way too complicated for a game that gets played less than once a month.

My second campaign's overarching plot?

There's a dungeon outside of town full of monsters and treasure. Go loot it!

 

[Gerion of Mercadia]

My current campaign began ironically, with an implosion that unmade the universe as we knew it.

Certain items (Relics and Artifacts) certain places (Custom Temporal Fortress) and possibly a few individual entities "survived" this Cataclysm, and as a consequence were able to help shape the reborn world.

Now, the first part of the "Adventure" is of course figuring out the nature of the cataclysm, and learning that the different "fragments" even exist. The second part usually involves tracking down one or more fragments - and the conflicts that result.

 

[Firedancer]

Let's see....some very traditional stuff

1) King, tired of the rise in Ducal power sets about reclaiming some of his royal power. He undermines Dukes using several avenues, the PCs starting as mere hirelings for one of these plots. PCs can chop and change allegiance's and decide on their own moral position. Subplots: a) a hedonistic (and heretical) cult spreads avarice, drawing in nobles and those of power. The cult takes on a life of its own, beyond the kings ability to govern. b) the barbarians on the border receive supplies and leadership (the border forces are paid for by the king, so he can raise more troops). c) sea borne raiders return (from pacified lands) and harass the coastal regions. The coastal Duke seems ineffective and the king plans to step in, claiming the fleet for the crown to command. Various other machinations.

2) The long defeated goblinoid horde returns to the peaceful human lands, smashing through the countries and sending nations of people fleeing. Legends of an Arthur-esque figure return, his legends pointing to salvation, but first the group must survive as refugees. The new faith quells or alters the legend as it continues its subjugation of the old faith, and it is the tales of this old faith that point to the fate of the ancient hero.

3) Outsiders have their eyes on the realms of man. Nothing that hasn't happened before; every 1000 years they try again, something to do with the alignment of stuff. Legendary items aided turn the invasion last time around, off they go to recover these lost treasures. However, the empire that fights this incursion does so at whatever the cost, and is evil. Should the incursion be halted, the PCs can treat with other kingdoms.

3.5) having successfully stopped the invasion the pc's retire, taking with them the truth of the threat. With them they carry the leftovers of 3 above - an item the outsiders used to secure entry to this world, the bloodline of treason and the responsibility of protecting it, the exiled Dragon Crown Heir. They must protect these, nurture them and return them 1000 years again in the future. Wierd campaign that jumped here and there with a variety of PCs, loss and victory.

4) A simple game of protecting the sacred woods from the taint of man.

5) A rather villainous npc, a liar, cheat and all round cad seeks power. Always has and always will. But, these clues that start small, suggest maybe, just maybe he's onto something with this book he's found....

6) Survival on the streets of a large city, taking steps to get off the streets and into a position of power. Worked best with a small group.

7) A colonnial power seeks brave folk to pioneer the way in a new land. Rewards and riches await, power but a sword thrust away! Fixed sites for plundering, some rivalry amongst the pioneers, allies and enemies to be made amongst the indigenious people and then a discovery of a power far worse than anything encountered before.

Basically a few recuring themes for the overarching plot, need to have a reason why these things are happening. Needs to adapt to PCs actions. Have room for subplots to develop out of these actions. Avoid railroading and be able to think on the hoof!

 

[RedWick]

Eberron.

A thousand years before Xoriat open upon the ancient Dhakaani, a demon tried to wage a war against the goblinoid nations. A coatl, working with the best weaponsmiths of the time, crafted seven swords. Each sword was inscribed with a mystic squiggle (aka schema). When all the swords were placed and arranged in a particularly auspicious location and a ritual was enacted over them allowing the coatl sacrifice itself in an attempt to bind the demon. It worked and the demon has remained bound for the past several thousand years.

The swords were distributed amongst the various Dhakaani tribes, going to the leaders of said tribes. Each tribe rose in power and the swords came to be recognized as emblems of power and whatnot. Over time, the swords were lost or buried with their wielders or whatever. Eventually the swords drifted into legend, and then into myth.

Enter the PCs. With the end of the war and an interest in surveying the ruins dotting the landscape, some evidence of the swords existence has come to light. Currently, there are three groups looking for the swords. The Heirs of Dhakaan, who wish to use the swords to restore the former glory of the ancient Dhakaani by crushing the other civilizations(bad); The modern nation of Darguun, who simply want to keep the swords away from the Heirs and establish their nation as a legitimate modern power (somewhat good); and a group of cultist worshippers who have discovered the location of the ancient seal binding the demon and who need the swords to weaken/break the seal (very bad).

The PCs have just recovered one sword from a group of Dhakaani. I haven't figured out where the rest are quite yet.

 

[Bad Paper]

Piratecat's players keep out

[sblock=Pcat reminds me of a setting]There's a British scifi author named Richard K Morgan (who I believe recently dropped the K for some reason). His books include Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, and Woken Furies. The political setup of your suggestion is a bit similar to the Envoys in these books. The Envoys ostensibly exist to keep a farflung empire loyal, but TK the protagonist frequently finds himself doing more interesting stuff. The books are heavy on sex, drugs, and profanity, but hey, they don't get in the way of the adventure, so it's all good. You may want to look those up for ideas.[/sblock]