Campaign Story

[Fiskonian]

Not sure if this is right place, but it seemed like it.

This is the campaign story for a game im hoping to start up soon. I was hoping to get some advice and feedback on it.
I've also thought about swapping the dragon theme out with undead and making the lord a polymorphed dragon necromancer.

Heroic Teir - The first adventure is looking into what happened to a few local farmers who have gone missing in the past few days. After finding the villagers and stopping them from being sacrificed by the goblin tribe to a local dragon, they are thanked by the village elder and then introduced to the local lord. The players then do a mission for the lord and unfortunately it ends badly(I havent thought out any more adventure plots, but I'm working on it plus a few side quests and such). The lord betrays them and they are imprisoned in the Empirical Prison. A few years pass and as the PCs rot away in their cells, the guards and royal advisor come down and tell them of the assassination of the Emporer (I know, Oblivionesque) and how the lord who had them imprisoned was behind it. They release the PCs and return their gear.

Paragon - Not as much thought out, but I'd like it to be along the lines of the PCs investigating more of the assassination and finding out that the lord was an agent of Tiamat and had had the goblin tribe raise the dragon and feed it his subjects. The lord is an evil paladin with a dragon companion and is marshalling an army of chromatic dragons to overtake the Wyrm Isles(The continent my campaign takes place on). The PCs quest for a group of artifacts to help defeat the dragon army (Thinking Orbs of Dragonkind or maybe dragonslayer weapons).

Epic - Not sure what I want to happen at this point.

Hope to hear what you guys think!

 

[eriktheguy]

The heroic tier sounds like fun.

One thing to be sure of when you decide the players will fail at a mission ahead of time: make sure the players have attainable goals and objectives they can succeed at. If they fail outright they will feel frustrated and powerless. For example, the lord may charge them to rid the land of a magical beast destroying crops. They succeed in killing the monster, but it does not change the horrible famine because the monster was never the cause in the first place. Nevertheless the players are blamed and imprisoned.
Another way to make the players feel good about the mission is to allow their successes before their imprisonment effect the world upon their release. Maybe the guards that spring them from jail were born in the village the monster was plaguing, and wish to return the favor to the PCs. Deeds the heroes performed pre-jail might earn them allies in taking down the lord.

I should point out that you only have two or so adventures planned for heroic, then imprisonment, and then taking down the lord is the paragon tier. It makes more sense to me that they would go after the traitorous lord as soon as they escape from prison.

 

[Fiskonian]

Yea, it's just the basic concept. It still needs thought out a little more. I plan on having about 3 adventures before the lord, about 3 for the lord, and then an adventure with the actual imprisonment.
The intent was for them to get to the Paragon Tier at the end of the imprisonment adventure and as you said, be pursuant of the lord afterward. (Who wouldn't want revenge for a few years wrongly imprisoned?)

I like your idea about the state of the area relating to how thoroughly and well they completed the previous adventures too.

 

[Mentat55]

I really like the name "Empirical Prison."

Another thing you could do is actually have the PCs succeed -- but their success gives the bad guy just the advantage he needs to gain more power and frame the PCs. In essence, the PCs are working for the bad guy.

It might also be nice to very quickly after being betrayed and imprisoned, let the PCs have the opportunity to strike back, directly or indirectly, at their betrayer, in a substantive way. They are going to hate this guy's guts at this point, and getting some measure of revenge will be very satisfying.

 

[the Jester]

Beware of planning the party's actions for them. In your description I can see multiple choke points- what if the party doesn't go to work for the lord? What if they succeed at the mission that is supposed to 'go bad'? Etc.

I prefer creating a compelling environment and turning the pcs loose, while keeping track of the important power players in the region and how their agendas are advancing in case the pcs interact with them.

 

[Quickleaf]

Well this same scenario (with the imprisonment) happened in A3/A4 in the Scourge of the Slave Lords series. I think it's great so long as your players are on board. "We get taken captive and are held like the Count of Montecristo for years? Cool!"

On the other hand some groups/players respond negatively to this kind or 'railroading'...
" There's no way my PC would have done that!"
"Death before surrender!"
"I cast <insert DM plot wrecking spell/ritual>"
"Whoa Mr DM, before *years* go by I want to attempt..."

Your group might be fine with this imprisonment plan, but generally it's one of those things players resist (along with running away and losing equipment).

 

[aco175]

I would 2nd the point of getting your players on board with years of imprisonment and not being able to do anything about it. Maybe have a few adventures in prison. I would have a few spaced out encounters that span the years, but this would just be the 5-minute day over and over again. Maybe you can have the prison need adventurers for something and have them go to the basement, or the graveyard to deal with things the guards would rather have prisoners being killed over. This could lead to an attempt on escape when they try and hide weapons and gear they find. Perhaps some of the guards become sympathtic towards them and their injustice, maybe feeding them information and secret aid. Heck, the guards could even be bought off with the pc gold they have found along their adventures.

You could also have the prison be some sort of fight club for the nobles to come and bet on, sounds like a Van Dame movie. The prison could be a seperate island off the coast, like that movie that had the guy from Highlander in it, or the Steve McQueen movie- Papilion (sp). I guess the point is to make the prison part cool enough that they can have fun and advance or gain contacts and/or knowledge before the next scene.

 

[Noctos]

it's not a bad idea but as others have said having things the preplanned has a tendiency to back fire. players are capable of some very impresssive and untimely rolls that can ruin your plans very fast. secondly if you change the plot enough to just have the king or noble decide to throw them in jail anyways. but who knows what the players might decided. most people i know would fight it and refuse to be jailed. other might give in to being captured but attempt to escape shortly after.
thieves would find ways out. players with crazy strenght modifiers would simply bust out.
preist who are extremly loyal to thier gods might be set free by them or assisted is some small way. plus a priest only has to pray to be restored with spells.
wizerds arn't likly to accept being imprisoned either though it's hard to remember spells on the fly a high lvl wizerd might have cast a lvl one spell enough time to just know it by heart. Plus you have lvl zero cantrips to consider. weak but i could use them to escape.
if the players are above 11 then they would have hirerings or servents who might attempt ways to free them.
resourceful players would have things stashed in places that guards might not find.
i think your idea is nice but no player who ever was in one of my games would have allowed jailing more than a week.