All Your Lands Are Belong to Us

[Andor]

I'm slowly brewing up a campaign where the human lands have been conquered, repeatedly. Most recently by the centaurs who are unstoppable in the open field and dammed tough everywhere else. However after 300 years of ruleing the centaurs have suddenly pulled out leaving only their goblinoid jannisaries to man the garrisons. Nobody knows when or if the centaurs are coming back.

 

[mattdm]

Yes, this means that the PCs not only get to control their own mini-kingdom, but also play games of backstabbing intrigue with some more more powerful nations, each of which could potentially wipe their realm out, but risks weakening itself in the process. .

So (and I say this in all seriousness), that sounds cool, but as a DM I have no idea how to run that sort of thing with the tools before me in 3.5, let alone 4E. I mean, I guess it could be a whole bunch of skill challenges, but, let's face it, the core of this game is: a party gets into combat encounters. I'm not meaning to discount the RP aspect — the game group I'm in tends to have sessions about 50% combat, 20% exploring with combat-guard up, and 30% social or other non-combat-oriented activity.

So, do the rulers of this kingdom also moonlight as an adventuring party, or what? (Again, I don't mean this in a snarky way; I'm genuinely looking on how I can improve as a DM.)

4E skill challenges can answer this somewhat, but that part of the game seems more designed for abstracting away detailed non-combat encounters in a way that engages all the players at the table — not as the basis for an entire game. So I'm pretty sure that's not the answer.

 

[Kichwas]

See I'd flip this...

Pull out the MM's racial template in the back of the book...

PCs are Orcs, Minotaurs, and anything else that can fit in as a level one toon (cause 4E is an MMO, so we're toons now, not characters, but that's another topic )...

You're all out there enjoying life in the plains, badlands, swamps, forest, or whatever, and then the humans start landing en mass and razing your villages, cities, and tribal bands.

-shrug-

But that's me.

It's also pretty much the story that happens in DnD usually anyway, but from the "monster's" POV.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Of course, you can always ruthlessly destroy the safezone just after they've left it.

Do this and when the players whine, blame Tallarn.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Do this and when the players whine, blame Tallarn.

I read his story hour - this is exactly the sort of the The_Jester would do!

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

So (and I say this in all seriousness), that sounds cool, but as a DM I have no idea how to run that sort of thing with the tools before me in 3.5, let alone 4E. I mean, I guess it could be a whole bunch of skill challenges, but, let's face it, the core of this game is: a party gets into combat encounters. I'm not meaning to discount the RP aspect — the game group I'm in tends to have sessions about 50% combat, 20% exploring with combat-guard up, and 30% social or other non-combat-oriented activity.

So, do the rulers of this kingdom also moonlight as an adventuring party, or what? (Again, I don't mean this in a snarky way; I'm genuinely looking on how I can improve as a DM.)

Naturally, non-combat activity will be a lot more significant in this kind of game. But combat and combat-related activity doesn't need to be ignored. The PCs could:

- Track incursions of monsters into their territory and defeat them (and afterwards try to discover which faction was responsible for them).
- Desperately quest for ancient artifacts which will give their own faction some kind of edge.
- Infiltrate enemy territory so that they can spy upon their enemies (and fight their way out once they have been discovered).
- Fight large battles once they pick a faction - or once a faction picks them as enemies.
- Fight possible usurpers and assassins hiding among their own faction.

 

[ExploderWizard]

So, what makes the "cleared" area stay cleared? Are there, like, spawn points which, once disabled, no longer spit out bad guys?

(And I say that in a sarcastic sort of videogamey way, but with the right story could actually be made to work. Maybe the invasion was accomplished via a large one-time ritual which set up teleportation circles in all major settlements....)

ROFL Yeah just keep whacking those little piles of bones until the monsters stop appearing.

 

[the Jester]

I ran this basic idea by my players the other night and got pretty much universal joy from them, so it looks like I'm gonna run with this idea.

I'm liking some of the ideas in this thread- I dig the idea of the pcs eventually encountering some surviving nobles, for instance, and maybe cleaning out and reclaiming an area or something.

I think the basic structure of the enemy will be a tremendously large alliance held together by the mutual hate of the human (? dwarven, eladrin, who knows) empire. But as they crush the empire, the humanoids start to fall to squabbling amongst themselves, and soon you have a pretty ugly sort of free-for-all going on.

I think the first game session, maybe the first two, will take place in a city in the path of the enemy army. It's coming, and everyone knows it- and tons of people are starting to flee (but where??)- but there's a lot of pro-war, "our empire is invincible" propaganda everywhere, and no one admits that the cause is lost, even though everyone knows it. The pcs' first couple of adventures could include things like:

-scouting out the advancing army before it reaches the city.

-a chase after a fleeing spy with a map to the secret escape route from the city. If the enemy gets that map, there's no hope of evacuation!

-a harrowing fight through said secret escape route, maybe while it floods or something equally dramatic.

-holding off a group of bad guys long enough for the young heir to the throne to be spirited out of the city.

-attempting to reach mounts or crucial supplies while the enemy sacks the city, and then to escape with them.

-attempting to reach and burn crucial information before the enemy reaches it. Alternatively, attempting to reach and destroy a crucial bridge, road, access point, or other strategic point before the enemy seizes it.

And that's before they even get to be on the run out of the city! I see a lot of potential adventure in this setup...