Pathfinder 1E Toying with Campaign Ideas.. have I stumbled on a good one here?

[wlmartin]

Two words : Dwarf Fortress

OK, perhaps it needs more than 2 words

There is a Free to play PC game called Dwarf Fortress. It is the spiritual progenitor of games like Rimworld and Prison Architect.
The aim of the game is to start a dwarven settlement and assign jobs to your dwarves (anything from miner, woodcutter to mason, carpenter and even Milker and shearer)

The idea is that the Dwarves are sending out exploration and colonization parties into the world after spending so long in the mountains and under the earth.
In the world I have created, its very dwarven centric... Dwarves make up the largest amount of civilized peoples. Much like most worlds are human-centric, this one would be dwarf centric.

So most of the towns the players will come across will instead be Dwarf Fortresses than are at varying stages of development.

Other races be
Gnomes = Live alongside dwarves as a cousin race in their mountain homes
Elves = the ones who live in them trees
Lizardmen = Tribal aggresive and the typical role Orcs/Goblins fill

Then you have the Imperium.
This would be a storyline where invaders are crashing onto the shore of the realm and eager to conquer and colonize. The majority race of the Imperium and its ruling class will be Humans. The rest will be made up of races they have conquererd and made part of their empire. This is less slave-races and more like a 2nd class.

Depending on how I think it would play out, we would either enter the storyline as the Imperium invades or a number of years later.

I like the idea of later and If it is later, the idea would be that the Imperium steamrolled over the Elves, making them part of the Imperium.
The dwarves fought back and were too strong to be beaten down, ending the hostilities with an uneasy peace.

There would also be pockets of elven resistance to the new regime, perhaps even some rebel Humans.


Do i have the makings of a good setting or am I just in love with dwarf fortress to much to not see the wood for the trees?

 

[Crothian]

It sounds fun. It has a pretty heavy plot going on with the invasion so as long as the players are fine with that then go for it.

 

[wlmartin]

It sounds fun. It has a pretty heavy plot going on with the invasion so as long as the players are fine with that then go for it.

My thinking is that if you think about a continent like North America. (not nessecarily to scale!!!)
Dorfs make up the east (where their mountains are) and poking out into the midwest
Elves are all over including the west
The invasion makes landfall in the west

Much like any invading army through history, they make great immediate success at the beachhead and as they expand onwards, they run out of puff

I am basing the invasion model on a powerful empire but it still has limitations on its resources.
Its most likely a similar old world vs new world scenario, otherwise I could imagine them running into each other before. So travel between the old and new lands is weeks at a time.

So by the time the invasion forces meet the dwarves, the combination of distance, limited resources and strength of the dwarves will result in a stand-off.
Since the point the dwarves meet the invaders will be in virgin territory for them (their own expansion) it will be a case of the weakest part of their empires meeting.

This will then serve to create a boundary and all further reinforcements to the invading force will concentrate on building a power centre in the lands they control and wiping out the elves.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

I'm a fan of any setting that has a race other than Human as the focus, so points for that one.

This sounds like a great setting. Racial assignments aside, the idea of a civilization being assailed by an overseas force and large scale skirmishes, invasion and war can always make for a good story. Players can go up and down the coast, dealing with the enemy forces as they land, or dealing with the forts and settlements the invaders establish. Players can travel around inland, attempting to rally the different races together to repel the invasion.

This idea really brings to mind for me what it may have looked like from the Native American P.O.V. when Europeans began to settle and invade. Trying diplomacy, repelling invading forces and uniting tribes. Which then leads me to think of the movie Avatar.

 

[wlmartin]

I'm a fan of any setting that has a race other than Human as the focus, so points for that one.

This sounds like a great setting. Racial assignments aside, the idea of a civilization being assailed by an overseas force and large scale skirmishes, invasion and war can always make for a good story. Players can go up and down the coast, dealing with the enemy forces as they land, or dealing with the forts and settlements the invaders establish. Players can travel around inland, attempting to rally the different races together to repel the invasion.

This idea really brings to mind for me what it may have looked like from the Native American P.O.V. when Europeans began to settle and invade. Trying diplomacy, repelling invading forces and uniting tribes. Which then leads me to think of the movie Avatar.

Yeah

The interesting thing is that there are some aspects of the DF I really love.. such as all their months being named after types of rock/stone.
I love the different types of food/drink in the game, thats something I can bring in


Just want to revolve it around a dorf society and just need to make sure that race selection outside of dorfs makes sense.. no point in saying "pick an elf" if all elves are slaves

 

[Storminator]

Just want to revolve it around a dorf society and just need to make sure that race selection outside of dorfs makes sense.. no point in saying "pick an elf" if all elves are slaves

I've been running a Goblins of Eberron game for years. Every PC is some kind of goblinoid (or close ally). But I let the players pick any race. So one "goblin" is a deep gnome, a "hobgoblin" is a half orc, a "bugbear" is an earth genasi, etc.

PS

 

[wlmartin]

Nice!

I had the idea of just having EVERYONE a dwarf
I mean racial specialization is important for some people but making it JUST dwarves kind of creates such an impacting story and with enough classes perhaps that can be overlooked

 

[wlmartin]

OK so i have a rough outline for my campaign :

Strike the earth is a pathfinder RPG campaign based in a custom campaign world, beginning in Mydenstolt.


Mydenstolt is the name of the dwarven nation where our adventure starts Mydenstolt represents the entire dwarven lands, underground and inside the mountains of the world. Mydenstolt represents the edges of the map for dwarven kind but that is soon changing.


Dwarves are exploring further and further and recently expeditions have found an above-ground world that is very new to them. New challenges and opportunity await the many expeditions preparing to journey to the new world and adventure is to be had for all.


What adventures are to be had? Who will the dwarves of Mydenstolt run into and how will this new world change the fabric of dwarven society?

So the next step is to figure our what races I want to include


Since my adventure involves underground dwarves, my first thought is go Duergar but I don't want the inheritent magical abilities that come with them so will just respect existing dwarven traits accordingly.

The next thing is to figure out what other races I will permit.

My thoughts were :
Gnomes
.... and thats where I got stuck
I can only come up with dwarves and gnomes, any others i could consider?

 

[Ramaster]

Oreads seem thematic enough. You can have half-lings living on nearby hills. Drow and duergar would make great rivals, too.

Also, great idea for a campaign!

I don't know if this has been done in fantasy much (it is a common theme on Sci-Fi, though), but a clash between two similarly advanced cultures who had not seen each other previously seems quite interesting!

 

[Evilhalfling]

2 thoughts:

1. make sure to get buy-in from your players.

2. involve boatmurdered. its the root of all evil.