Classic Campaigning...

[nikolai]

I've been thinking of starting a new campaign, and rather than doing for something new and original, basing it upon one of the big fantasy cliches. So:

• A Dark Lord wants to plunge the world into darkness, or
• A PC has secret birthmark proving him to the rightful heir to the Kingdom, his family was slain by an evil overlord who usurpsed the throne, he was hidden a child and does not know of his birthright, or
• The kingdom is ruled by powerful wizards, who command dragons, however a split on the council of archmages threatens to plunge the realm into war.
• etc.

I just think doing something like this might be a refreshing break from the D&D cliche of mercenaries who kill monsters and take their stuff. Has anyone done something like this? And are there any other tropes or motif would think I could use or should consider?

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

And are there any other tropes or motif would think I could use or should consider?

An ancient artifact of great power (maybe a ring...? ) that was lost has been rediscovered, and the heros must take a perilous journey to destroy it, all the while being tempted run away and keep it for themselves.

 

[HeyLookItsMe]

Sounds to me like your on the right track. Just make sure your main hero has only one surviving parent before his hometown is annihilated, forcing him to set off an an adventure with nothing but his insanely oversized sword.

I myself have always enjoyed taking those classic cliches, and tweaking them just a little to make them interesting. One campaign I ran involved a human kingdom that bordered with a desolate waste called the Dead Lands, and of course....deep within, lied the hordes of the Necromancer, who just for that extra bit of cliche, was called Necrom. The kingdom had warred off and on with him for centuries, durring breif flare ups of tension. As the campaign continued, the PC's began to learn the true strength of Necrom, and came to realise that their kingdom stood no chance, and that for reasons unknown to them, Necrom simply allowed the kingdom to endure. The truth was, that for those many centuries he had also been posing as the Archmage of the human kingdom, making sure that their wars would go on endlessly. The necromancer had been working on a magical item that was basically a huge wall of living corpses all stiched together to form a gateway. It was an epic spell (pre 3.x... just....plot device-y) that would allow him to trancend the mortal plane, but required countless thousands of fresh corpses to complete... more than could be reaped by the annihilation of the kingdom. It was pretty much an on the fly story that turned into a two or three year campaign that was enjoyed by all.

 

[rbingham2000]

Your homeland has been taken over by an evil empire. Magic is outlawed, and those who practice it are burned at the stake, Inquisition-style.

It is up to you and your plucky band of adventurers to travel the world in search of allies and lost magic tomes, sabotage attempts by the empire to annex more lands, and gather support for a rebellion so you can take back your homeland and/or bring the empire crashing down around their ears.

And you're going to need all the magic you can get, because the rulers of the empire are sorcerer kings who use their powers to lord it over the people -- and the reason for the "witch hunts" is because the sorcerer kings do not like competition.

That cliche enough for ya?

 

[The Goblin King]

You can apply some (or all!!) of these.

The party will encounter what appears to be a monster but is really just misunderstood and wants to be left alone.

One of the plucky NPCs who follow the party gets wacked by the BBEG just to show just how mean they are.

An enemy captain is sympathetic to the goals of the party. They will eventually change sides and join the party. If they are cute it might be because of romantic interest in one of the PCs.

One of the PCs is unknowingly related to the BBEG in some way. (son or daughter usually)

Ninjas.

One of the NPCs (or PCs!!) has a change of heart and joins the Big Bad Evil.

The party has to convince a master artisian who has given up his craft to make them a something (sword/armor/ring/ship/painting) so they can finish the quest.

 

[Torm]

One of the party's NPCs seems like a commoner, but is actually (insert long missing famed person key to the story here.) A princess has been abducted, and of course.....

The heroes MEET IN A TAVERN!

 

[Nasma]

Have many NPCs/PCs who have been rejected from their traditionally evil races for being of good alignment. The BBEG shall not be defeated till burnham wood moves against him (make sure they've got a druid). You could have an orc leader make a speech (when he reaches low HP):

I am an Orc
Hath not an Orc eyes?
Hath not an Orc hands, organs
dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, heal'd by the same means
warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer, etc?

Sorry.


How about this: The evil people, long thought dead, are trying in secret to open a permenent gate to the abyss in their misguided attempt at power. Anyone with sense, however can see that this will simply involve demons spewing forth and destroying everything on the planet.

One thing to watch for though, try not to have the campaign world revolve around the one PC who has a birthmark, special destiny, etc... In my limited experience it makes it less enjoyable for the rest of the party.

 

[Cassander]

Your PCs will have to find statues that are so well made that they look like real people... and of course they are, turned to stone either by a monster or a spell. (I think Dungeon has done this one 3 or 4 times....)

The PCs must fight their way through a ship full of undead.

The PCs will have to rescue a princess from a dragon! Actually, I've never heard of this in an rpg, but people act as if it is a cliche in gaming. Still should give a nice feel to it

Actually, if you wanted a good humor element, you could have a princess that keeps getting captured and the PCs have to keep rescueing her from different captors. From her own castle is always a good one too

Oh, and you must have a doppleganger posing as a friendly NPC, as well as a lycathrope doing the same.

 

[Torm]

The PCs will have to rescue a princess from a dragon! Actually, I've never heard of this in an rpg, but people act as if it is a cliche in gaming.

I don't believe I've seen that exact scenario in an RPG, either. Zork II, on the other hand.....

Oh, and you must have a doppleganger posing as a friendly NPC, as well as a lycathrope doing the same.

A dopplethrope? Or a lycaganger? Combine with my idea above about an NPC that's actually a missing famous person, and we get a shapeshifting noble who accidentally killed one of his servants due to his lycanthropy, and since the servant had a large family, he has been masquerading as that servant since. He has taken up a job working for the party, and has occasionally been slipping off to let the inner wolf out, and then using his shapeshifting abilities to throw suspicion off himself - comes walking back into the party camp bloodied but in the form of one of the other party members and so forth. Weirdness.

 

[babomb]

Throw something in about an ancient evil and a prophecy, preferably something to do with 1000 years.