Challenging PCs in a world that make sense?

[kigmatzomat]

ANYWAY. Has any of you suggestions, comments, etc., to run high level adventures that make sense from a story development perspective?

First thing is to have a grand concept with lots of substeps possible. Mine (a Dragonlance variant) is "Dragons take over world after gods are leave; players should fix this." This involved getting them information on earlier gods, making contact with various pre-cursor races, learning the new religion, releasing trapped individuals who may be allies but are definitely enemies of the dragons, and generally getting them enmeshed with the world and the overall plot.

My goal was a) immerse the players in the world and b) advance the plot, in that order. If they aren't involved, the plot is moot. I put off several adventures for months to let the group develop bonds in the game.

Here's condensed campaign notes starting at 11th level:

party goes to visit friendly town (through a swamp) and encounters a lernian cryo-hydra, which escapes. The existence of a hydra seems abnormal, but they continue on. When they reach town they learn the town has been able to keep the hydra at bay, but just and would *really* appreciate an assist. Defeating hydra involves a running chase through the swamp (it tends to freeze the water their in and then swim off when too injured) with numerous other critters getting in the way.

They are rewarded with coin by local noble and given letters of commendation.

On their own initiative they go to visit a friendly dragon, knowing they will be fighting evil dragons in the not-too-far future (DragonLance). They train with the dragon for several weeks (several almost die when the dragon overestimates them, so there is real risk).

The cleric & paladin both start having dreams about similar things and the group heads off to find out what nasty is forming. They find a town where a child-murderer's body is missing except the skin (Mmorgh) and several strange people were seen in town. They pursue (landing squarely in my masterplot) and find themselves trailing a necromancer who is in the process of ascending to the currently-unclaimed position of death god. Much chaos and hilarity ensues when they release a super-monster, but they decide the necromancer's not a bad guy and do not stop him at the end.

The deathgod has to deal with the supermonster, interfering with his duities as guide to dead souls. A massive plague is starting in a distant city that will wipe out 40% of the populace on that side of the continent; without the deathgod many will be come ghosts/spectres/wraithes and ravage the world. So the players now have to go and prevent the plague (which is being caused by a barbarian horde sieiging a city.)

After their return there is a renewed attack by a longstanding foe (not really their enemy per se, but they have something he wants). A series of pitched ambushes followed by negotiations where they decide the item they have will either prove he's not bad or destroy him, so they give it to him.

Repurcussions from the monster they released cause several high-HD undead to rise up and several liches are suspected of returning from their extradimensional exiles. The party has to go and find the most powerful lich's hidden fortress and destroy/befriend the army he has entombed within.

Lastly, and most recently, they had to find a relic that will enable them to contact the lost gods and get help to prevent the great monster from releasing a horde of undead across the world.

At the moment they are trying to gather information about an elven land that has been taken over by undead that possess a potent artifact that enables them to blot out the harmful aspects of sunlight. One of the characters is *very* hyped to stop this and is the driving force for this arc.


You'll note a lot of the situations were player driven and many of the ones that weren't involved previous player actions. That is part of the immersion. If someone gets away, they may hold a grudge. If they let someone go, they might gain an ally.

In at least one case, their actions had consequences they never figured out (one insulted a high ranked official, who arranged for bandits to attack the party and focus on the offender) To them it was a random encounter, but it's a plot ripple that may yet come back to haunt them at a bad time.

 

[Rackhir]

Well there are several story hours that deal with high level PCs. Try reading some of those like Pirate Cat's or Sepulchrave's. The primary trick I've noticed to "challenging" the higher lvl PCs is to make the threat one that they can't overcome through sheer firepower. Ie, it's a political threat, economic or religious one.

I strongly agree that if you are worried about the world "making sense" you need to throw in references to the kinds of threats they will encounter at higher levels, while they are still at low levels so that they aren't something that suddenly appear. You might want to for example have them encounter the terrasque while its sleeping. Or have them catch the fringe of a high level encounter where a group is taking down a demon or dragon. Have a inn or tavern they've stayed at be burnt down or swallowed by an earthquake caused by one of these battles. Someone they know could be killed or enslaved by some high level monster. That could even be a good path for a long term goal or enemy ("My Name in Indigo Montoya. You killed my Father. Prepare to Die").

Expectations can also be used to play with the characters heads. Piratecat recently stymied his high level party for an hour or two with just a single 1 hd zombie, because they were sure it had to be something more than just that.

Moral dilemmas are also good foils for high level characters. Assuming of course that your characters have morals.

Perhaps sometimes you could make the adventure, the PC's trying to get the assistance of a high level group. "A balor has taken over a town! We can't stop them, but the Liberators of Tehn can! We have to reach them." It would introduce high level allies and probably enemies as well.

In Gordon R. Dickson's Dragon books, apprentices and such are protected by common agreement from having to face master wizards (of course this does require a governing/ruling body of some sort). In Stargate, there is a treaty between the Gou'alud and the Asgard that protects certain planets from attacks or meddling by the Gou'alud. Something similar could be in place for certain areas. "This is the domain of Sir Eadric. No demons allowed" Where any high level threats get crushed by the local lord/protectors, but they can't be bothered to hunt down every orc that lurks about in the woods. That could also make for some dramatic moments later on as the PC's have gained more power and the old protector is killed crushed by some more powerful entity for them to seek revenge upon later.

 

[Voadam]

Foreshadowing, foreshadowing, foreshadowing.

Have big dangerous things in the world that they can't succesfully deal with yet but hear about.

For myself this meant when I took over DMing our campaign after the other DM did the banewarrens I got some high level modules and thought about how to integrate them with the world plots as they existed, some banes that got out but had only been hinted at as far as identity or powers before, some plots with the god behind the Spire's cult, etc. So they started knowing these banes were out and led into the new modules to hunt them down.