D&D 5E Campaign Concept (Feedback Welcome!)

[Wrathamon]

I probably use a Hobgoblin warchief over an orc. Seems like they are more about bossing around goblins, then orcs, or maybe even a Barghest.

Lets break down the factions.

Aboleths: Race of ancient psionic fish-like aberrations. older they are the bigger they are. They view themselves as the first being in existence and hate the upstart races. They live deep in the underdark in ancient underground seas. They do not worship gods (they're that cocky; but some might) but they do have respect/reverence to ancient powerful aberrations (like cthulhu stuff - see warlock) they make thralls (mind-slaves) to do their dirty work on the surface world. In your campaign, it seems like instead of just killing the gods while they are mortal and defenseless. They want to enslave one. They use minions to do their dirty work ... which is the warchief and his tribe.

The god-baby: Who is it? Why this mother? Why this town? Why did the aboleths pick this god?

Warchief: I would go with Hobgoblins seems to work better with goblins (and they are underused in my opinion) and you can use bugbears later on Hobgoblin is a thrall of the aboleth (or his shaman is and is using the chief to do his masters bidding). The chief sends in his goblin scouts to steal the baby for (needs reason) if he is directly working with the aboleths or the aboleths mind-slaves (cultist) then he does that but if you wanted it to be something more mysterious, then maybe he needs to sacrifice the baby deep in the underdark to gain power but unwittingly he is bringing it to the aboleths. The cultists screw him (which allows a chance for an alliance with the warchief if the players are creative)

Players: Why do they want to save the child? Once they save the child, why do they want to protect it? If it is an evil god child, why not kill it? They need motivation, and that helps if you tie it in with the players back stories. What if the player's are all god-babies? They just don't know it yet.


The players need strong hooks to want to save/protect the baby. After that ... what happens? If they cant protect the child does it become the villain of the campaign?

 

[Wrathamon]

what if the gods are placed in powerful intelligent weapons?

problem with making One player the god-baby is that if he dies what happens? or the other players are like what I want super powers?

We played a game where the prophecy was the One would come and defeat the evil ... no one knew who the One was. It didnt matter untill the moment it did and it was based on our actions during the campaign to determine it.

I think (for me) if the players failed to protect the baby it would make for a much more interesting and personal story. It was our fault and now we have to pay the consequences. I agree with someone else, if I have to protect the super child for the entire campaign, then I am just a side-kick. It depends on your players thou.

I think a good god is more interesting that gets corrupted to evil btw

 

[Boarstorm]

When initially reading your write-up, I keyed on this passage:

"It is a little-known part of the cycle of power which maintains the Gods that they must, every few hundred years, walk the earth in mortal form and live out the life of an inhabitant in the world which they oversee. This serves as a binding between the material plane and the higher planes; in all cases, the mortal vessel does not know that they are truly Divine until the moment of their death, and the God continues to exist in the higher planes too; think of it as a kind of Avatar of the God's will. This is one of the deepest kept secrets in all the churches, for this vessel - whilst incredibly difficult to tamper with - is still one of the few times those of divine power can be harmed."

Emphasis added.

I might add a twist there that the child they're protecting turns out to ... just be a child with a birthmark. It was one of the PCs, acting as agent of a deity of protection or some such who was the true avatar.

 

[Wrathamon]

When initially reading your write-up, I keyed on this passage:
I might add a twist there that the child they're protecting turns out to ... just be a child with a birthmark. It was one of the PCs, acting as agent of a deity of protection or some such who was the true avatar.[/COLOR]

or they All are ... they don't know this till they die.

 

[Kai Wren]

Thanks for all the thoughts guys! Its really helped me clarify a lot of the campaign details in my head - though I'm probably still going to shy away from making one of the PCs the avatar (for the reasons mentioned earlier), and the weapons sound like a cool-but-separate concept for a game...

The point about elves/dwarves being long-lived is something I hadn't considered at all, and has definitely shaped how I see those species interacting with the rest. The elves in particular generally wind up with one avatar following another, and few enough of their species are born that it is fairly obvious who it is. In-setting, I've given the elves the Goddess of the Moon as their particular deity of choice, and although outsiders don't know it (as they are incredibly mysterious and detached for fear of this becoming known), the Goddess has followed a looping cycle as their King or Queen since the first days. This also explains why the Goddess of the Moon is particularly distant - she has never NOT been in the world in some form, and has therefore always been partly separated from the divine. I may play with this some more into the background of the shifters in the setting (one foot in the divine plane, one in the material, some good material there...)

I've also written the Drow and their relationship with Lolth very strongly into the background of the setting. Her tight grasp on an entire society makes her one of the scarier Gods, and I'm undecided on whether she may exist in a similar form to the Goddess of the Moon, or whether she actually has some sort of separate and unique arrangement. Her avatar having learned how to cheat death and remaining immortal and never-changing seems appropriate to me...

I've written a ton of extra material on the proposed setting, history and world though (about 2000 words) with a pantheon and more plothooks for later. I'm almost certainly going to use hobgoblins over orcs, too (because hobgoblins ARE cool), but in order to avoid spamming my own thread with even more settingdump info, I'll hold off posting that stuff unless people wanna see it - thanks again for all the help so far!