D&D 5E Actively Evil PCs & a Pirate Sandbox?

[LostSoul]

As I was writing last night, I wondered: how detailed do my nations have to be?

I also realized I a terrible at naming things.

I don't think the home nations need to be very detailed. I'd focus on how they deal with trade, how they use magic, and how they deal with piracy. These are what the PCs are going to be interested in - should we ally with this nation over another? This nation turns a blind eye to piracy and stolen goods but they don't pay well, while this other nation really tries to crack down on piracy but they pay well. Design the nations to give the players some interesting choices to make. As for personality, a little bit of colour will go a long way - ruled by a despotic king; warlike and aggressive; industrious and amoral; etc.

Fleshing out individual ports will be more important. I'd try to make sure that they're all at arm's length from their home nations - that'll give the PCs more leeway to change things. If every port can call on the full resources of its home country's navy, the PCs won't have much room to operate. If they need help from the PCs to get things done - a governor of a port wants to kill a naval captain because the captain slew his son in a duel when the two countries were at war, but now there's a truce and he's forbidden from taking his revenge, he'll be willing to pay the PCs for an assassination - then the PCs will have more options for adventure. (That's actually a bad example, because that kind of revenge plot could happen at any time. A better one might be that a port town is under siege and he needs the PC's help to break it, or at least smuggle in food and weapons, because the home country's navy is stretched thin; he'll pay the PCs but also turn a blind eye to piracy and maybe give them a port to trade in/do repairs in for the future.)

Don't worry about naming things. As long as the players can remember the names and tell the different ports apart you'll be fine.

 

[Inchoroi]

You know, it occurs to me. I could probably copy the real world's civilizations on a new map, with just a little modification. That will probably be a lot easier.

 

[Inchoroi]

Okay, so: update.

Haven't gotten onto the details, yet, but I've had some progress. After much thought, I'm going to make mithril the most important metal that exists in the setting, for quite a few reasons.

The major source of mithril is the long bombardment from a ring of mithril orbs (read: asteroids) that the Church calls "God's Halo"; these orbs circle the planet in that configuration, and, occasionally, fall to the planet below. They believe that the metal is sacred because of its magical potency and power; this means that all spellcasters need and use mithril to perform spells, modifying spell components a little bit (but not much, since most of those are handwaved). This includes clerics, druids, sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards, and the half-casters. Over the course of millennia, mithril has fallen from the sky, been buried in the ground from the resulting crashes, earthquakes, volcanoes, etc; so, this mined mithril is not as pure, and therefore not as potent. The most potent, however, is that which has recently fallen--its power thrums in the air, tingles your skin, and is the most sought after, by almost everyone.

On the other side of the world, there are several governments that control mithril; it forms the basis of their economies, and religious doctrines. Each nation has similar religious views, with minor (and sometimes major) differences; compare to modern time's abrahamic faiths for the same basic idea. In addition, mithril, through it's mystical properties, can change a being in different ways, imparting grace, luck, or magical ability; this is the formation of spellcasters and magic, and has been thus for centuries upon centuries. Because of its properties, though, mithril can occasionally change a person themself, making them different from other humans. These 'others' have become two different races, the mithrins, and the mithlings. The mithrins are terrifyingly beautiful, capable of great deeds almost from birth, while still maintaining a link to the rest of humanity; mithrins use the halfelf stats. The mithlings, on the other hand, are blessed by fate itself, it seems, light of foot and lucky beyond chance; they use the halfling stats, with added darkvision, most likely. The only other 'race' is humans; I have yet to decide whether or not there will be different types of humans, or just the same race; I'm edging toward not.

Mithrins and mithlings, however, are treated as second class citizens, at best; at worst, they are slaves--or dead. The churches view those 'tainted' by mithril has cursed by god, because their ancestors stole some of god's grace, and it must be returned to Him--usually by killing them in the Trial. Often, however, they are captured, forced into slavery, and put to work in mines for mithril, as their ability to see in the dark makes them good at that sort of work, and they can serve the God they profane, until such time as they are cleansed (i.e. they die of old age).

Outside the empires, such as in the area the group will be adventuring in, the mithrins and mithlings (derogatory: mitzies), are treated little better, but at least they aren't taken on sight, save in the colonial cities of the empires. In the pirate colonies and amongst the pirate kings, they are treated as people, and many of those who sail the pirate flag are one of the "tainted".

Big events that will occur (these will happen mostly in this order, at least at this early stage):

1. The Pirate King they serve (whichever they choose), has a subordinate that does not like how successful the party is, and must somehow remove them from the picture, so he can discredit the current King and take his place. Haven't figured out how he's going to do that, yet, however (could use some help with this idea, as it happens fairly early on).

2. Death of the Emperor; his son takes over, and has his protege lead a small fleet of the best naval vessels to waylay pirates, and end their depredations. The group will run afoul of him eventually, and will have to battle him, as his orders are to take no quarter from those who sail under a pirate flag.

3. An undead lich's cult uses necromantic magic to take control of a pirate king's fleet and the pirate king (an opposing, or at least not actively hostile one to the one that the party join), and uses it to gather Mithril, as much as possible; the cult needs it to resurrect their "God", the undead lich. They take other pirates for their loads, and will probably sack the party's pirate king headquarters, killing the pirate king, so they can eventually, hopefully, take command. How I'm going to get them to that point is beyond me just yet. They should eventually take the fight to the controlled pirates, taking them down (hopefully) and hopefully find out about the cult; they can tackle a cultist headquarter somewhere, and then find a clue to the lich's secret headquarters, so they can destroy his phylactery in an enormous necropolis.



During this will be the sandbox-y parts, I think. I had the idea of using the four "levels" of play (1-5, 6-10, 11-15, and 16-20) as the four random tables for what they encounter in their sandbox, so as they get more money and experience, the average of the tables gets more difficult. Pirate fights, fights against the navy's of the world, encounters with sea monsters, finding treasure maps and hunting down what they say, etc, will populate the tables.

I am still unsold on using Gold-for-XP, however. As good as it would be for this game, especially, I am not sure how likely it will actually work. I might do something similar, but they're used to getting xp for monsters, so I'd not be sure of how to get to use both. Don't want them to progress that fast. Maybe allow them to spend money on XP, so they can choose to spend it on weapons, magic items, or XP, but not XP + items? Dunno.


EDIT: I think I'll make the seven Pirate Kings (Pirate Lords? Not sure which I like better.) actual organizations, and, if they can gain renown, the amount that they have to pay the Pirate King from their booty (lol) actually goes down, because their rank goes up. Gives them a reason to actually do some things for the King to raise their Renown, and also gives a trackable way to show when the King's subordinate gets uppity and decides to do something about the party.

Also, do you guys think I need Backgrounds?

Ideas:
1. Pirate Crewman - Served on pirate crews before, know where to find other crewman and/or other ships to crew on. Don't make much as a crewman, but its better than nothing. Now you want to branch off with your own ship with the party.

2. Heathen Devil Worshiper - Similar to Acolyte? You worship one of the gods of the islands, or similar deities, etc, something off the beaten path of the big three religions.

3. Mage of a School - You belong to one of the schools of mages; you know the proper marks to find safehouses, maybe, and maybe advantage on fencing magic items rolls?


EDIT EDIT: Maybe I can think of a way to work in Necromancy in general, and the lich in particular, to the early adventures, so the theme will be present, but mostly subliminal--would that be the appropriate word? Not sure.

I'm also going to need more sea monsters. Lots more sea monsters.


EDIT EDIT EDIT: Actually, including necromancy/lich wouldn't be hard, because that could be ruins.

A large deposit of mithril destroyed his continent during the ages long before the current era when it fell to the sky; he was slain, but his phylactery survived, and his cult are trying to resurrect him by loading up on the mithril because of its power. So, a lot of the ruins in the area could be parts of that sunk nation, which the lich will attempt to raise from the sea floor should he be raised from the dead.

 

[LostSoul]

Sounds cool!

1. The Pirate King they serve (whichever they choose), has a subordinate that does not like how successful the party is, and must somehow remove them from the picture, so he can discredit the current King and take his place. Haven't figured out how he's going to do that, yet, however (could use some help with this idea, as it happens fairly early on).

I'd probably just say that the Pirate Lord that rules over the PC's starting port has a subordinate that wants to usurp him. That leaves more options for the players - they can side with one party or another, or pit them against each other and take power themselves, or just stay out of the whole thing.

I like the necromancer idea. Having them slowly grow to become more and more of a threat is a neat idea. I'd probably do something like expand the territory of the necromancers each week/month and start replacing random encounters with necromancers with growing frequency.

(You might want a mechanic to determine who, if anyone, "controls" the sea lanes.)

Is there a relationship between the new Emperor and the necromancer?

As for the PC's status with various groups, you could use the Loyalty and Morale mechanics - when the PCs ask someone for aid, make a Wisdom save at DC (10 - current group Loyalty). Or maybe expand Loyalty so that it starts at 10 and works up to 20 and down to 0, where 20 is the new 10 and 0 means they'll risk life and limb to harm the PCs. Then you can make Wisdom saves to see if they'll aid the PCs (DC 20 - current Loyalty) or try to harm the PCs (DC is the current Loyalty score). Or just eyeball it.

 

[Inchoroi]

Sounds cool!



I'd probably just say that the Pirate Lord that rules over the PC's starting port has a subordinate that wants to usurp him. That leaves more options for the players - they can side with one party or another, or pit them against each other and take power themselves, or just stay out of the whole thing.

I like the necromancer idea. Having them slowly grow to become more and more of a threat is a neat idea. I'd probably do something like expand the territory of the necromancers each week/month and start replacing random encounters with necromancers with growing frequency.

(You might want a mechanic to determine who, if anyone, "controls" the sea lanes.)

Is there a relationship between the new Emperor and the necromancer?

As for the PC's status with various groups, you could use the Loyalty and Morale mechanics - when the PCs ask someone for aid, make a Wisdom save at DC (10 - current group Loyalty). Or maybe expand Loyalty so that it starts at 10 and works up to 20 and down to 0, where 20 is the new 10 and 0 means they'll risk life and limb to harm the PCs. Then you can make Wisdom saves to see if they'll aid the PCs (DC 20 - current Loyalty) or try to harm the PCs (DC is the current Loyalty score). Or just eyeball it.

The Loyalty and Morale scores is a great idea to include, actually. It would apply not only to the Pirate King and themselves to him, but also their hirelings and others (I plan on them being able to hire sailors to go with them, both for fodder, beef up their strength, and to draw money away from their hordes; hireling rules FTW). Morale and loyalty, especially, makes sense in that case, too, so, if the PCs are actively bad at how they treat their hirelings, there be a mutiny as a result (pirate-y talk).

I have yet to decide if there is a link between the new Emperor and the Necromancers; I wouldn't imagine so, however, as the new Emperor is the pious kind of guy that goes on Crusades to wipe out those that don't agree with his view of imaginary friends. Now, some of the pirate kings might side with the necromancers, sometimes willingly--maybe that could even be more fun; in return for serving, the loyal pirate kings will be the commanders of the lich's new navy, which will then sail across the Seas to destroy the idolaters and pathetic nobles and their pet clerics.

Siding with the Usurper is an idea I hadn't thought of, yet. Not sure how well that would work, either, but I do like the idea of giving them a choice between them. I wonder how that would play out; the problem with it is you'd have those pirates loyal to the usurper, and those loyal to the Pirate King--he couldn't just go out, splitting the fleet between them, because, by agreement of the pirates (there will be a sort of "pirate suggestion manual"), there can only be Seven pirate kings (I also plan on the number seven appearing a lot). So, the usurper, in Drow fashion, has to take out his king without every other pirate king figuring it out first, or the current King figuring out just what he's going to do.

Hm, I wonder if the usurper will try to use the PCs to take out the King...maybe try to trick them into waylaying one of the King's private vessels, holding the woman ransom to draw the king out of his hidey-hole--through an expendable intermediary, of course--and then take out the King, the Party, and everyone involved, frame the PCs for everything, with paperwork (and bodies) to prove it, then crown himself as the new King.

Controlling sea lanes would be hard; it'd be easier to control the assets a ship needs; fresh water, food, wood, canvas, etc. That would be the likeliest idea; you can't very well continue sailing if your hull or sail has an irreparable hole in it, and if you can't get a replacement, you'll be hard pressed. So, the sea lanes will probably follow likely ports-of-call, both for repair, resupply, and as a way to offload some cargo; following this logic, to control the sea lanes, you have to control the ports, and have the fortified enough to prevent a force from taking them back from you, or, at least securing them long enough to strip them of everything of value and sail away.

Hm; rumors. For the necromancers, each time the party puts in at a port, they can roll some sort of roll to get rumors, probably Investigation. The rumors can be about the necromancers.

As an organization, the cult needs, ultimately, as much mithril as possible to resurrect their lich-king (or Queen? Hm); to get the mithril, they need manpower, so they can be hiring ships and crews for them from the various ports around; working for them has to be desperate, though, and needs to be tainted by bad juju; rumors say, quietly, of course, that if you sign on with them, bad things tend to happen. You change, grow all pale and deathlike; sure, the pay is good, but those sailors...they don't seem human no more! More rumors can say that some ships have disappeared in certain waters, too; nothing at all has been heard of those ships, not even some drunken sailor boasting about having taken them...just gone into the mists.

Note: need to come up with pirate and sea jargon to put into NPCs.

Thanks, btw! I don't know anyone else who's brain I can pick for ideas for this...lol

 

[Inchoroi]

How long do you guys think it would take for evidence of a catastrophe to be erased from the scenery? Said catastrophe is the falling of dozens of asteroids to the planet below, with a large enough concentration to destroy a continent and leave only islands remaining.

 

[Thyrwyn]

Ooh, good idea! In a magical world? 500-1000 years, maybe.

 

[LostSoul]

How long do you guys think it would take for evidence of a catastrophe to be erased from the scenery? Said catastrophe is the falling of dozens of asteroids to the planet below, with a large enough concentration to destroy a continent and leave only islands remaining.

A long time - it appears Pingualuit crater is over a million years old.

 

[Inchoroi]

Hm. I don't even think it needs to be erased, either. One thing I do wonder, though, is if ruins would actually survive or not, on the islands that remain after the bombardment by asteroids. I remember reading a few years ago that a large enough impact might cause the beginnings of a continental shift (although I couldn't tell you where I read it...I read too much).

Well, that just gave me an idea.

Many thousands of years before, a large portion of humanity was ruled over by a despotic wizard. Obsessed with his own mortality, he invented the practice of necromancy, using it to prolong his life as long as possible. Through his work, he discovered mithril's magical properties, and began mining it, even though it was horribly rare. He required more. Through the sacrifice of many lives, he gathered enough energy to draw from the outer sphere one of the moons, shattering it into a halo around the world; made of pure mithril, this moon rained down in pieces on the planet; however, this necromancer miscalculated. Mithril rained down upon the world, destroying so many fledgling civilizations that the only remnants are the ruins found beneath the ground and those legends that founded the religions of man. The wizard's own empire bore the brunt of the destruction.

Where his nation is now is an enormous sea; the world shook with its impact, and the only things that remain are scattered islands with even more scattered ruins, preserved only by the lifeforce used to build them. One of the slaughtered was the wizard--he had planned for his demise, however. He had prepared a phylactery, a necromantic advice that can hold his soul in stasis until such time as his body can be rebuilt, and he taught a few of his cultists the rituals necessary to draw life from one being and transfer it to another, so they may continue his work and eventually bring him to life.

The survivors numbered 144,000 (because biblical references are the best references) across the world. A small group of the survivors, maybe totaling 20,000, survived in a desert on the opposite side of the world. The group was led by three brothers; they carried the oral traditions of their peoples, which told of the destruction of the greatest empire, smited by God's anger. What caused the split between the groups is not recorded in anything save the holy books of the three empires. The story they tell speaks of a woman who came to them; she was fair beyond comprehension, spoke words that only God should know, and all three brothers loved her. Thus, they fought over her beauty. All the while, this woman was draining the life out of this small group; they were listless and torn and beaten down solely by her presence. Once the brother's realized what she was doing, they formed the Trials. In a ruin that had no name, they staked her through her stomach to a wall with a cold iron spike, and left her to die. Her curses rang out for miles. The brothers vowed that this would never happen, but the damage between them was done. Her presence showed the brothers their true natures in whole, and so they took their private supporters, and each fled in three directions away from that ruin that had no name.

Through time, the oral traditions would be recorded in scrolls and books, became religions, lost the other two brothers from each, and the brother that they hold high is named the Prophet of God, and be changed to fit specific needs of their environment, and eventually came to forge nations. The woman came to be known as a mithrin, a person who stole God's grace, and she was served by mithlings, those who stole God's luck. Her punishment formed the basis of the Trials, and the hatred of magic users, and the eventual formation of the Inquisition.

 

[LostSoul]

How is it going, [MENTION=6752135]Inchoroi[/MENTION]?