Campaign idea: comments, suggestions, ideas welcome

[Altamont Ravenard]

I guess I'm growing a little tired of the usual "medieval fantasy" theme common to about all the campaigns I'm involved in as a player or DM, and I want to try something new.

I'm not ready to go all-out and change everything (ie go Modern or Sci-Fi), because most of the players prefer to play in a typical medieval, fantastic world.

So I though about a campaign that would basically be the arrival of the conquistadores in South America. The characters would play the natives, and the "enemies" would be the invaders.

The players would get a chance to play more "savage" races (I was thinking allowing humans, wild elves, "wild" halflings, half-orcs, half-elves and "modified" versions of goblins, orcs and gnolls), while they would be confronted by humans, dwarves and gnomes, and possibly warforged. Yuan-tis will also be present, opposed to the natives and the invaders.

The following classes would be available to the players: Barbarian, Savage Bard (Unearthed Arcana variant), Druid, Ranger (normal Ranger/Horizon walker mesh), Wilderness Rogue (Unearthed Arcana variant), Sorcerer, Shugenja (I'll change the name - Complete Divine), Spirt Shaman (Complete Divine), Hexblade (I'll change the name - Complete Warrior), while the invaders would probably be your usual Fighters, Clerics and Wizards. While the natives will be "technologically impaired", the invaders will have access to better technology: gunpowder weapons and armaments, and machines of war (devised by industrious dwarves and gnomes).

The characters would live on an "undiscovered" continent, in tribes and villages, where an ancient civilization once lived. This ancient civilization worshipped magic and developped it to a point where they voluntarily fused with it and evolved beyond the need for a physical body. The civilization wasn't a terribly big one, so not many cities exist. Only one big city that the natives (including the characters) avoid out of superstitious fear.

The invaders are here, basically, to pillage the continent's resources. Also, some of the invaders will know about the ancient civilization and will look for its relics.

The campaign should start a few months after the invaders have arrived: Many villages and tribes have been decimated or made prisoners, and the surviving natives (there are still a lot) are getting organized and mounting a war against the "men of metal".

Most of the adventures will revolve around the conflict of natives vs. invaders:
- free slaves
- get free if made slaves
- attack the invaders
- get rid of natives that have allied themselves with the invaders
- explore the "ruins" of the ancient civilization to find artifacts that could help the natives.
- find / protect sacred sites or creatures
- destroy the invaders' war machines
- organize a resistance
- etc.

Have you done something like this? How did it go? What do you think? etc?

AR

 

[NewJeffCT]

Sounds like an interesting idea in making the PCs part of the lower tech civilization. I will say that some of those societies may have been fairly advanced from a social perspective, but just behind when it came to making war. Maybe they did not have a lot of natural enemies and did not need to develop the art of war, while the Spanish conquistadors in real life (IRL) were at war for centuries, be it with the Moors, the Crusades, infighting on the Iberian Peninsula, or with other European kingdoms, etc.

Because of the social perspective, I might allow clerics and mages and other ‘more advanced’ classes for the PCs, while possibly having the Conquistadors relying heavily/almost exclusively on gunpowder weapons instead of pure swords. Swords were for melee, when necessary, but the butt of the gun as a club or a bayonet were just as likely to be used. IRL, the European heavy knight died when gunpowder became prevalent.

An interesting angle might be the Conquerors trying to spread their religion to the ‘savages’ as well. Do they have completely different gods? Maybe they have a monotheistic religion, a la Catholicism? Maybe they have the same gods, but worship different aspects of them (sort of like the Greeks had Zeus, the Romans had Jupiter and the Norse had Odin, while the Egyptians had Osiris or Ra (I forget which))

I had had a tech level difference idea a while back, just never got to implement it. But, it was also taking a page out of history with a bit of a twist. In the 1200s, IRL, the Mongols invaded Europe, annihilating a Polish/German army and demolishing a Hungarian one before withdrawing when their Khan died. In this campaign, the Mongol equivalent culture waited before invading Europe and consolidated their hold on China and both cultures sort of integrated themselves into one. The Mongols/Chinese developed technology rapidly, including making use of Chinese gunpowder (developed centuries before it came into use in Medieval Europe) The huge empire, instead of just Mongols, then marches forth with the combined population of China & Mongolia and sweeps towards the Middle East & Europe with an overwhelming amount of soldiers. However, the huge empire’s goal was ultimately, peaceful. Just a Pax Romana type peace.

 

[Dogbrain]

You forgot some other important activities:


Capture invaders to keep as slaves.
Steal from the invaders.
Make unholy alliance with the Yuan Ti, intending to destroy them after the invaders are gone.

 

[Turanil]

I suggest that rather having something reminiscing of Catholic conquistador, to opt for the evil empire (from beyond the sea) that sends dark priests, demon-summoning wizards, dragon-riding blackguards, and else. My reasonning is that typical conquistadors are mere human(oid)s, and only a few of them would be of high levels. As such, your players might grow quickly bored, and their PCs too high level for the chalenge offered by a score of normal soldiers. If you would opt for that way of doing things, just get a look at a character race I made for NPCs, and that was intended for that purpose: the Atuanean, that you can found here.

 

[NewJeffCT]

I suggest that rather having something reminiscing of Catholic conquistador, to opt for the evil empire (from beyond the sea) that sends dark priests, demon-summoning wizards, dragon-riding blackguards, and else. My reasonning is that typical conquistadors are mere human(oid)s, and only a few of them would be of high levels. As such, your players might grow quickly bored, and their PCs too high level for the chalenge offered by a score of normal soldiers. If you would opt for that way of doing things, just get a look at a character race I made for NPCs, and that was intended for that purpose: the Atuanean, that you can found here.

Good thought, but perhaps the higher tech level society, with their conquistadors, has already sent word back to the main empire that there may be trouble and request their Emperor/Empress send some more elite forces - be they a group of sharpshooting rangers, some demon-summonging mages, and/or dark clerics, elite blackguard types and just more troops in general. So, it could be a race against time as the PCs & the rebels rush to at least establish a defensible area before the elites arrive.

Another thought I had is perhaps the Conquistadors are generally good, but the leader of this expedition is: (a) just plain ruthless & greedy, meaning the PCs need to get evidence back to the goodly Emperor/Empress (b) was good, but was corrupted by his/her fiendish aide (a la Wormtongue) on the voyage over (c) bitter at having been given such a remote assignment so far from his/her true love and has been taking it out on the natives.