Looking to brainstorm "better" plots

[Herobizkit]

This is going to be a short and succinct post.

I'm looking for fantasy campaign starter ideas that do NOT revolve around any of the following:

- A war. There's ALWAYS a war.
- demons, devils, undead, or cults (of same or otherwise).
- dragons. I know, but I'm 25+ years in; dragons aren't magical any more.
- assassin/thief guilds.

And a few particulars:
- no kobolds/rats/skeletons and their ilk as first level opponents.
- any setting is fine, but I want something that is not vanilla. Eberron is close to what I have in mind, as is the world as presented in WoW.

In all honesty, I'm getting burned out on fantasy... if I were to run a Modern game with human characters who also interface and meet online in a fantasy (maybe sci-fantasy [like Phantasy Star Online]?) MMO, effectively having two characters... how could I best do this using a D&D system?

 

[SLOTHmaster]

You could start things off with a personal drama. Killing off a PC's relative would be too cliche, maybe have one of them framed for a crime? They wold then hunt down the culprit to prove their innocence, find the person who framed them, learn he's part of Something Biger, and so on.

 

[darjr]

From a paizo pfs mod I recently ran. From season zero, frozen fingers, spoiler alert!

Spoiler

A dead viking king and his living wife, an arranged marriage that has saved countless lives, not war, but bloody violent 'conflict', think sports rivalries so brutal that athletes often die and fans often riot.

Another viking king falls in love with the kings wife and only partially saves her from the trip to Valhalla condemning her to a purgatory. His honor ruined he leaves in disgrace but has marred the honor of the dead king who is cursed to carry on but not alive.

The kings son in a mad rage goes after the other viking king and instead of challenging him to a fair fight, one that he knows he'll lose, figures out a way to curse him to die by a slow wasting disease sure to have him die in his bed, A terrible thing for a Viking, and the son's honor is thus destroyed.

The land is thus cursed and it's people suffer greatly, the characters are charged with fixing things. What will they do?

I see several ways this could be drawn out to a full campaign, even though it was only a single mod. And my players surprised me with how they solved things and made everybody happy. In hindsight what they did was an obvious solution, but so are all the really great ideas.

Anyway it could be a campaign like this, the players first suffer from the whole state of things, maybe that's why they become adventurers. As they gain in power and stature they get embroiled in court intrigue and find out a bit about the king and his plight. Trying to fix things they figure out more and maybe confront the dead king at one point. To fix the kings honor they find the dying other Viking King. They must figure out what is wrong with him in order to get anything else done. That's when they find out about the kings son and must hunt him down only to find out he cursed the other Viking king. Then things build to a confrontation where the players must solve this problem with all the main characters in audience.

 

[Derren]

One suggestion, turn to history for inspiration.

How about exploration? (Marco Polo (at least the travels he claims to have been on), Christopher Columbus, Magellan, Macartney or the more fantastic searches for the Grail, the Fountain of Youth or El Dorado?). And there is always intrigue (Tudors, the Roman Senate, the Holy Roman Empire etc. Mixes very well with politics.).

I agree with [MENTION=6684832]SLOTHmaster[/MENTION] that a more personal plot would be a good idea, but I prefer those plots to be proactive and not reactive. Do not let your players react on some misfortune you cast upon them, let them decide what the goal of their character is (This of course doesn't work with all type of players).

 

[Mark CMG]

http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/blueroom/plots.htm

 

[Morrus]

Ooh, ooh, I got this!

http://www.enworld.org/forum/dnd_view_block.php?id=1001

 

[MJS]

In all honesty, I'm getting burned out on fantasy... if I were to run a Modern game with human characters who also interface and meet online in a fantasy (maybe sci-fantasy [like Phantasy Star Online]?) MMO, effectively having two characters... how could I best do this using a D&D system?

a generic d20 base? sounds like a fun experiment if the group is down. Or maybe theyd be up for a different genre as well for a while -

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'm looking for fantasy campaign starter ideas that do NOT revolve around any of the following:

- A war. There's ALWAYS a war.
- demons, devils, undead, or cults (of same or otherwise).
- dragons. I know, but I'm 25+ years in; dragons aren't magical any more.
- assassin/thief guilds.

And a few particulars:
- no kobolds/rats/skeletons and their ilk as first level opponents.
- any setting is fine, but I want something that is not vanilla. Eberron is close to what I have in mind, as is the world as presented in WoW.

As always, there is the campaign ideas link in my sig.

Besides that, there are 2 kinds of mercantile campaigns I really like:

1) The Caravan: essentially a sandbox-style campaign, the PCs are part of a caravan (either as hired mercenaries or as members of one of the mercantile houses- maybe even the Families) that travels the world. Challenges on the road include all kinds of highwaymen and brigands on the road- possibly even rogue or coreupt army units- monsters and the like, while any stop along the way can present a variety of urban adventures. Errands, mistaken identity, jealous rivals in bars, business rivals doing unethical things, and so forth.

2) The Suppiers: the PCs are employed by a mercantile house, sage, magic school, government or guild to go out into the world and come back with material components for powerful spells. That means they on missions...all over the world, war or peace.

 

[Herobizkit]

Thanks for the replies, all.

To add to my own thread, I've always liked the concept behind the TV series Ghost Whisperer. As you'd expect from the title, life revolves around a woman who can 'see dead people' and help them find peace by helping them complete a final task. Not every ghost is friendly, of course, and some aren't even exactly clear on what it is they want. I would love to run a game like this.

As an added bonus, have one of the PCs actually BE a ghost. This works amazingly well in a d20 Modern setting and, for the right player, dealing with the benefits and complications of being constantly insubstantial is a campaign in and of itself.

 

[Derren]

if I were to run a Modern game with human characters who also interface and meet online in a fantasy (maybe sci-fantasy [like Phantasy Star Online]?) MMO, effectively having two characters... how could I best do this using a D&D system?

Btw, FFGs short lived Fireborn did something like this. The main characters lived in the modern world but from time to time "replayed" events from a previous live/age.