BCCS Idea Thread for me, Not for any in Rel's playgroup!

[Hjorimir]

Riggs,

A couple of random thoughts...

My favorite saying as a DM is "Wheels within wheels within wheels". Deception and misdirection are two huge factors in the BC universe, especially for a Taken that has recently escaped the Lady's clutches and is intent on building its own kingdom in the East, so I am going to posit a different angle on this.

The initial employer of the Company is an old merchant concern that has fallen on hard times. The recent return of a prodigal son has re-energized the trading coster and it sets about re-establishing old trade routes and engaging merchantile rivals in small, back-alley wars through the cities of the East. This would be perfect for small unit actions - guarding caravans, bullying unwilling merchants, etc. I kinde of liken it to Merchantile Italy during the 14th and 15th centuries...Pisa, Genoa, Florence, Venice, Siena all duking it out. This of course, leads to lots of employment opporunities for mercs.

The real set-up, however, is that the Taken has run across an ancient manuscript that describes an ancient weapon/foozle/whatever that was broken up by the Lords of Light (a cabal of sorta good wizards) long ago and secreted/incorporated into a number of mundage objects (works d' art, furniture, the heriditary crown of the merchant king of Ade, that type of thing).

The merchant house is the cover for the Taken to start recovering and assembling said artifact. Initially, the missions will be fairly mundane, allowing the PCs to get their feet wet in the BCCS world...but as time goes on, they will start running across other power groups looking for/fighting over the same seemingly mundane items.

This is where you bring in the wizard and agents...he/she knows about the Taken (but not the artifact) and will try to capture the Taken to fuel his/her own rise to the 4th magnitude. You can have a doomsday cult and/or "good cult" that finds out about the Taken and is determined to bring about their own apocalypse or thwart the Taken (and since the Company is working for the Taken...they are fair game). You can make the "good" cult nice and honorable, so killing them sets up a nice moral dilmemma.

As the Taken starts to assemble more parts of the artifact, the typical meglomania starts to take over and the Company/employer relation begins to change. A nice twist might be for the Company leadership to discover the truth and try to defect with the company to a rival merchant house/city.

This, of course, leads to a bad end for the Captain/Lieutenant (who, of course, didn't tell the rest of the Company why they were defecting) at the hands of the Taken's other agents. Of course, they make it look like a rival merchant house set the Company up...to keep focus off the Taken. Clues to the defection might be in the Annals, which are stolen by Taken agents.

If you really want to muck things up...have the Lady be perfectly aware of what is going on (she planted the manuscript, let the Taken escape and has been following the progress through a mole in the company ranks). She will let the Taken assemble most of the weapon and then either show up to take it or send another Taken to retrieve it.


Wheels within wheels within wheels...!

~ OO

I want to play in Old One's campaign!

 

[Riggs]

Right on, Old One! I like the possibilities you put forth. I have been thinking to try and keep many threads going, mostly to allow deeper play by the players but also to keep me honest and not married to any one plotline (avoids railroading and consternation by me).

As for your startup, I also like the possibilities of rival houses as well (young heir bringing up the old house by the bootstraps makes old rivals unhappy), and the Taken could be the real force that allows the old house to prosper through the bad times, so debt is high to him/her.

Another option for the end result of completed item is that the Lady has allowed it as you said, or perhaps she has simply detected it and the Company has been on the move under attack for a while and perhaps she deals with them for it (like, either hand it over and gain my favor or face my wrath) so the Company, rather tired of ambushes and agents, decides favor is a "good thing" and is rid of it. (and gets a cameo by The Lady). The mystery and clues to why the defections and such that left them leaderless is still there, as is the real source of manipulation by the Taken.

I could also end a night on the point of them reforming a new leadership/name with The Lady 'negotiating' the acquisition of the artifact... "So now that you have so shrewdly chosen my favor, to whom do I credit for this item? Yes, that is what I see on your emblems and banner, but are you not without your officers? You are but men together at present. I will return tomorrow and ask you again. Consider your future and choose well as others I know have." That way they get to email and talk and pick a name if they like or keep the old name I gave them. (as in Starship Troopers when Jelly takes over)

 

[Old One]

I want to play in Old One's campaign!

Thanks !

I do love me some BCCS...

~ OO

 

[Old One]

Right on, Old One! I like the possibilities you put forth. I have been thinking to try and keep many threads going, mostly to allow deeper play by the players but also to keep me honest and not married to any one plotline (avoids railroading and consternation by me).

Happy to help...let us know how this proceeds or bounce any other ideas around. I like to have lots of dangling threads, so I can see what the PCs bite on and how to proceed.

Free will, baby !

~ OO