Campaign Plot Help

[Fallen Seraph]

Normally I am pretty good with figuring out overarching plotlines for my campaigns. But I am having difficulty with this one.

The basic outline of the world is this:

A cataclysm a couple centuries ago radically altered the supernatural landscape of the world. The Spirit World became more pronounce and the barriers between it and the World became looser and more fragile, once hidden Ley Lines and Nexuses now dominate the terrain, the energy escaping from them causing spirits both within and without bodies to grow mutated and insane.

Many spirits died off or could no longer become attached to their original embodiment, this create a Spirit Winter, where animals, plants and the weather itself died and brought about a endless winter. Those spirits that survived have either possessed beings, cling desperately to their embodiment or become roaming spirits, sometimes growing mad in the process.

Humans being resourceful as they are adapted to this change. They have found ways of fighting spirits through both supernatural and natural means, be it silver swords or rotes that can pierce the barriers and injure spirits. They have also learnt to harness the energy of Ley Lines and areas with weak barriers by the means of Dowsing Rods that are embedded into the ground and through cables siphons the energy off into things such as lights, equipment, etc.

They have also found themselves in the company of new beings. The Symbiote (shown through Spellscarred) who are people who share a united mind and spirit with a possessing spirit. A Grounded Spirit (Genasi) a spirit that has taken mortal form and has found virtue and promise in this new form and the Wholey Possessed (Tieflings) those that have been completely posessed by a spirit to the extent of having physical mutations but the majority of the spirits powers have wained.

There are also the rare beings the crisscross the barriers of the World and Spirit World (Eladrin) but their motivations are unknown.

Some minor plot ideas I have:

-Hunting down a spirit that has been posessing people and forcing them to commit deeds against their will.
-Bringing back someone who has "slipped" (given the fragile nature of the barriers, sometimes a person's spirit can simply slip out of their body and into the Spirit World).
-Finding out the source for a Spirit World contamination which is running rampant through the city that mirrors it in the World.

So those are a couple ideas for minor plots, but I can't think of a major plotline. Any help be greatly appreciated, and anymore info needed just say so. Thanks

 

[ExploderWizard]

Nothing says major plotline like the end of the world. Someone or some thing caused that cataclysm a couple centuries ago and the world as it currently exists is the result of a job that is only partially finished.

Whatever is responsible is looking for a way to complete what it started. As the campaign progresses the PC's discover more clues about how and why the world came to be this way. There are a few things to consider about this worlds set up (which is a very cool idea BTW )

1) Long lived races- are there people still living that were alive when the cataclysm took place? If so then determine why they wouldn't know who or what caused this.

2) The spirits - how much do the spirits know about the barrier, the weakening, and what caused it.

3) Gods and other divine beings- where do these guys figure in to the intrusion by the spirit world and are they all knowing about it or not?

Once you determine what is already known, and by whom you can begin to think of ways that the PC's can discover this information a bit at a time.

 

[LostSoul]

Try this:

Get each player to write a one-sentence character concept. A <descriptive term> <character role> is trying to <some kind of goal>.

e.g. A hyperconfident half-elf Ranger from the Everwinter, who sees an opportunity in this Age of Upheaval for a daring man to win himself a crown.

Take all those goals, weave them together, and come up with something that provides opposition to all of them. There's your plot.

 

[GlaziusF]

The eladrin are trying to figure out which world to destroy. The worlds can't exist hanging on like this, but if everything in the physical world died, would that create enough spirit energy to materialize a new physical world? If the entire spirit world were shunted into reality, would whatever survivors exist be better able to create their own, new spirit world?

For a further twist, they may be right that one of the worlds has to go, but someone has stolen their notes on building world-destroying devices and is trying to drop the hammer on both of them...

 

[Irda Ranger]

LostSoul is one the right track - have the PCs help you write your quest. Make them do it as a group too, so you don't have 5 divergent quests.

Also, why does it have to be an over-arching plot? I'm not a fan of "Save the world." The best stories are about people, not places and kingdoms.

Working backwards from the PCs, it looks like this:
1. Have the players write down what's important to their PCs.
2. Figure out what would threaten that.
3. Figure out what kind of NPCs would want what threatens what's important to the PCs.
4. Stat out those NPCs and their henchmen.
5. "You're sitting at the local pub when you overhear a conversation from by the bar 'Yup, riders come down from the north with news; war is brewing, and the Count of Yrr is threatening ...'"

et voila, villain, quest & motivation all in one package.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Well my players enjoy having a long-term story narrative to our campaigns, thus the overarching plotline.

So while their off going about doing smaller quests and being engaged in party-conflict, PC-oriented quests, etc. each of those, or most of them tie into and work their way towards the main overarching narrative.

I unfortunately cannot get that much feedback right now with what the PCs will be like, since a couple of them are going to be Mutual-Possessed, and as such over the course of a couple sessions their personalities, what memories they have, etc. is going to be decided.

Sooo... It is hard for me to orient the plotline around that yet, since well it is almost like their newborns in this world.

 

[Rechan]

Yo ho, Fallen Seraph me matey! I apologize what for the time it took me to respond to this 'ere SOS.

Me gamin' joneses feel the need to throw me lot with this sailor's suggestion:

The eladrin are trying to figure out which world to destroy. The worlds can't exist hanging on like this, but if everything in the physical world died, would that create enough spirit energy to materialize a new physical world? If the entire spirit world were shunted into reality, would whatever survivors exist be better able to create their own, new spirit world?

For a further twist, they may be right that one of the worlds has to go, but someone has stolen their notes on building world-destroying devices and is trying to drop the hammer on both of them...

Finer suggestion than a free rot at a cathouse!

The only other thought me addled mind what can generate is the notion o' the death of death. Some force be wantin' to detroy death itself, binding spirits to the body forever, makin' all immoral and whatnot. This would of course destroy the spirit world, and some other effects which would be quite unfortunate.

But a noble effort, no?

What ever became o' that beaut of a campaign ye had, me hearty, about the necromantic technology and aberraion nobles? That were a prize, says I.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Oh those two settings still exist, the Reality-Bending one I have on hold right now, since it is less traditional (this Spirit one is as about traditional as I get with my settings) and I have some new players, so figure be better to have a more traditional setting.

The necromancy-technology one is on hold till the Shadow Power Source comes out, since it will tie very nicely into it.

Thank you all for the all the ideas, still considering somethings for it. I am pondering whether or not, to emphasize that with the boundaries being weaker that the world is being overflowed by Spirits.