Delete this post Please.

[Death_Jester]

Greetings Everyone,

Recently I have been working on a campaign set in the Forgotten Realms with a gentleman from another board. Originally I posted some of my thoughts here and since then the ideas have grown through the contributions of other board members. What I would like to do now is to update and revise those plans in order to keep things straight for the up coming game and get some more feedback on these ideas and how to make them better still.
​

Thanks to everyone that helped me out the first time and to all of you that will be taking a look and giving input this time.

I would like to give special thanks to the below people from ENWorld that helped ideals and suggestions with the original posting of this request.
Spatzimaus, Wraith Form, Nifft, Rel, Softwind, Davek, Steverooo, starwolf, mmadsen, Saeviomagy, Imperialus, Mistwell


The premise of the Campaign:
​

The players are a group of young children that live in an, as yet, unknown region of the Forgotten Realms setting. Their villages (at most maybe two or three) are within a few days ride of each other. Due to the circumstances of the campaign the players will become friends. Later they will get into minor adventures together during their formative years and later still become a real adventuring group with the help of an older group of adventurers lead by one of the player’s estranged father.

Tragedy strikes the small villages and the band of minor adventures suddenly become the only hope to save their hometowns from certain destruction. They will later seek vengeance against those that attacked their families and threatened their homes. This of course leads to the first arc of the story and that will eventually lead others.

This first arc of the story will be a prelude for the real game to come. The games will take place about a year apart with the people playing humans starting about 13 or 14 year of age. The non-humans will be mostly grown but just short of going out on into the world as full adults by about 13 or 14 years. After about five game sessions the players will do the sixth session as apprentice level characters and have their first adventure.


My Goal with this game:
​

Overall what I want to do is make a game where the stats are NOT the character. A game where the characters are not defined by how many magical items they have. I would like to see personalities develop before that level of play comes around. The characters should have a deeper motivation to go out into the world of adventuring then to just get stuff. It would do me proud to see a group of very complex characters come out of this with their own specific goals and motivations.
The stories should be a series of interconnected arcs that eventually leads the player away from their home to fight evil all over the realms.

Campaign history:
Note: All the names used throughout this document will be generic as to not confuse them later on and because we don't have an actual name for any of the characters. Nor do we know what the players will be playing as of yet so this is a very rough outline.

About 15-16 years a man (we will call him Mr. Bard for now) in one of the local villages had an affaire with an unmarried woman (we will call her Mother for now) in another local village. That woman became pregnant and the baby was taken by a druid (we will call him Mr. Druid for now) and adopted by a family in another village. The reason for the child being removed from Mother has never been explained. Mother remained in the area until before the campaign started but never found out where her baby was taken. She has since moved on to parts unknown. Shortly after the baby is born the Mr. Bard’s infidelity came to light and it almost wrecked his marriage. The news of his fathering a child out of wedlock spreads though the area and the people make his life hellish. Even though he cheated on his wife he still stays with her out of a newly rediscovered love for her.
​

While the villagers are focused on the scandals a new evil makes it way into the area. He is a half-fiend cleric/black guard (we will call him Mr. Fiend for now) of the god Iyachtu Xvim the Baneson. Accompanied by a demonic friend of his family (we will call him Mr. Demon so as not to confuse the two) and soon finds a twisted local merchant/hermit (we will call him Mr. Vile for now) that is susceptible to his plotting/blackmail and brings him under his sway. His goal is to throw the area into chaos and then while things are unstable establish himself as the only hope of bringing peace and order. His plan is subtle but long reaching as he uses Mrs. Bard’s death to gain a small following of like-minded individuals on his side. He will also use the chaos to infiltrate the cult of Cyric that he knows is in the area and subvert them from within leaving only him to bring the faith of the Baneson. Once he has that following in place he will use this power base to destroy or discredit all the other clerics in the area. Leaving the church of the Baneson as the only one left in the area.
Mr. Fiend has Mr. Vile kill the wife of Mr. Bard (We will call her Mrs. Bard for now) (no one to this day knows about Mr. Vile's involvement in the murder) this of course puts a load of unwanted attention on him and forces him to flea his home town just one step ahead of a mob determined to punish him for a crime he did not commit. He escapes to the to a major city and makes is way living by his wits and eventually becoming a true bard.
Meanwhile Mr. Fiend, Mr. Demon and Mr. Vile are busy infiltrating the cult of Cyric, getting ready to kill the current head cleric and take it over. Mr. Fiend has been using the cult and the frenzied citizens to further those plans. After a few months Mr. Fiend has managed to kill off the other clerics of Cyric convert the cult to the worship of the Iyachtu Xvim, while also establishing himself in the area as a cleric of the Baneson. While not popular there are a few overt followers that attend services. He then puts his misguided followers and cult members to work on a plot to systematically remove and or discredit the other clerics in the area. Making him the sole source of divine healing and intersession.
After all the chaos with Mr. Bard, a circle of Druids make themselves known publicly at the Shieldmeet celebration and bring blessings to the villagers. This blessing results in a population explosion as the birthrate rises in the area for the next year.
Mr. Fiend’s plan works except for the return of Mr. Bard with a party of adventures and the intervention of the Druid Circle. They confront Mr. Demon and Mr. Fiend in their cavern hide out under the hidden temple of the Baneson and while trying to destroy them only manage to collapse the roof. Mr. Bard is sure that they are dead so he and the adventures leave the area. The Druids do not leave but with no signs of either Mr. Demon or Mr. Fiend they relax. They never find out about Mr. Vile, as no one alive knew about his involvement in the events. He is still free but unable to get to either of the places where Mr. Demon or Mr. Fiend are trapped and most of the cult was destroyed in the raid on the hideout. The Adventurers along with Mr. Bard leave because no one in the village will believe that he (Mr. Bard) didn't have something to do with the death of his wife. He makes the Adventures promise to bring him back to town when he dies so that he can be buried next to his wife. Because even though he was unfaithful to her he is still in love with her. He also makes them aware of his love child but does not know the identity. He tells the adventures to give his gear to the child, if they can find out who it is, when he passes on and to tell the child about their real father when the time comes.
For a while things were quite and the fear died down to in the area. A respectable mage (we will call him Mr. Mage for now) moved into the area and had set up his tower within a few days ride from the village cluster but far enough away that no one had much contact with him. People knew he was there but he was reclusive like most powerful mages and no one ever saw him so he was quickly forgotten about.
The Black Tongue tribe of Kobolds was driven out of their home by a powerful group of Goblins lead by a Sorcerer. The Black Tongue settled in an area near the old temple of the Baneson and have been using the old Bard estate as a meeting place for a weapons dealer. They have been raiding the local areas to raise the money to buy weapons in order to take back their homelands. The raids have been causing all kinds of havoc on the trade routes recently.

Some people in the surrounding areas claim that the ghost of Mrs. Bard is wandering the halls of her estate looking for her husband and crying for his return and occasionally help. That rumor has only started about six months ago or so. What the villagers do not know is that for quite a while the ghost of Mrs. Bard was at rest till a local group of rogues started using the place as a hide out/base of operations for selling weapons to the Kobolds. They meet in the caverens that run from under the house to the old temple of the Baneson that collapsed so long ago. The Bloody Tongue has been exploring the area and tunnled to their way though the debris and even made new tunnels. While exploring the house a rogue uncovered the well that Mrs. Bard “drown” in and ever since Mrs. Bard has wandered the halls of the house lost and confused about what is going on.
​

The head of the rogues is a very charismatic women (we will call her Mrs. Rogue for now) that has a will of iron so when confronted with a ghost she did what she does best and lied. She has Mrs. Bard convinced that she is still alive and that her husband will be coming back soon. Since Mrs. Bard is mostly disoriented all of the time it is fairly easy to keep her busy and distracted from asking to many questions. For the time being the ghost of Mrs. Bard is under the influence of Mrs. Rogue but there will come a time when she will want to know why her husband hasn't shown up yet.

Just before the campaign begins there are a couple of things that happen pretty much within a few weeks of each other. The first event to happen is the death of Iyachtu Xvim and the return of Bane. The Second Major event in the local campaign setting is a great dragon (Wyvern) moves into the area and begins eating some of the livestock. None of the villagers ever see it as it mostly takes food at night. The local villagers claim either that it is the Kobolds stealing livestock or it is a band of thieves stealing the animals. No one in the area has gotten good look at the "Dragon" yet and not a lot of people have see it at all because it mostly hunts at night.
​

Mr. Mage that moved into the area so long ago is visited with a vision of where to acquire the information he needs to fulfill his quest for immortality. The knowledge was within his tower all along and now that he finally has that information within his grasp he sets off on the path to Lichdom. Leaving his apprentice (we will call him Mr. Vampire for right now) behind to guard his valuable collection of books and the magical items he has prepared for his transformation. He begins looking for the items he will need to complete the transformation.

While Mr. Mage is gone Mr. Vampire indulges his appetite on the local population and people start talking about a devil in the woods. While not directly on the near the villages in the campaign setting close enough for some of the local people to have heard about the demon of the woods.
This is the End of the Timeline/Back-story for now.


The Prelude to the Campaign (The Children of the Villages):
This is where I will try to put together the 0 level adventures for the characters before the main campaign starts. So for the first five of these adventures the players will be little more them 1st level commoners with hero points to keep them from getting killed. Prelude will be the beginning of and lay the foundations for the first story arc. Any feed back or thoughts about the below sessions would be greatly appreciated.

Session one-Getting together, Missing Cow

Stated Goal for the game:
​

Introduce the players and characters to each other and familiarize them with the lay and history of the land. During this game I would also like to lay the foundation for friendships later on by having one player know one other player at the table.

Premise:

The players are all gathered together for the Shieldmeet celebration and there is a famous bard (not Mr. Bard from the history) coming to play for the assembled villages. At the end of the celebration there will be fireworks imported from Lantan. The players will either be approached by an older person in the village about a missing animal or the one of the players will have to find a missing farm animal of their family’s and will have to bring in the rest of the players in on the search.
​

This will lead to a late evening/twilight search out to the pastures and beyond to find the animal. While out there the party sees a Dragon (Wyvern) attack the missing animal and eat it.

Encounters/Creatures (type): In no particular order.

Some of the NPC Elders of the village (Role-Playing as the players try to describe what they have seen in the in the pasture)
The Parents of the players (Role-playing as the players try to get away from them in order to help their friends. Then later on when the players have to explain what happened with the cow/Dragon.
​

The Bard (Not Mr. Bard form the history section) (He might want to meet with the young heroes of the village that ran into the great dragon.)
The Wyvern (Role-playing, as the players have to deal with what they are seeing. The description of the "Dragon" should be shadowy at best to give the impression because it will be near dark and the players will need to misdirected as the true nature of the creature they are seeing.)

Old Bessie the cow, (Very short cameo as the players find her grazing on some grass and then running from the "Dragon". Eventually Old Bessie will die in the "Dragon's" jaws.
​

The Owner of old Bessie/and or Parents of the PC (Role Playing, getting the players to try to find old Bessie)

Session two- Faire Day, Burning Down the House

Stated Goal for the game:

Introduce Mr. Bard and created a sense of mystery around him. This game will also give the players a chance to be heroes in the small village by rescuing the family in the burning house or possibly Mr. Vile. Slowly I want the players to become known as heroes/troubleshooters for the local area. Also introduce the information the players will need in order to lay the ghost (Mrs. Bard in from the history section) in session 4 to rest. This session also sets up session six by explaining how and why Mr. Bard will die.

Premise:
​

During the festival of Midsummer a stranger (Mr. Bard from the campaign history) comes into town to find his the child he had with the local village woman. He found out from one of the Druids (Mr. Druid from the history) which families children were given to in the area and hopes to find him or her. A bit of background here as Mr. Druid has fallen and was kicked of the circle. Mr. Bard has come to find the child and tell them the truth of what happened. All he has to do is figure out which one is his child. While in the village the stranger (Mr. Bard) stops to speak with the one of the player's family.

The NPC parent and the stranger will exchange harsh words and hopefully get the attention of the player in question. Once they exchange has taken place the stranger will leave the house, without talking to the player character and go talk to a few other people in the village.
After following the stranger around for a while the faire begins and the players will have a chance to participate in several of the local tournaments or whatever they would like to do during the faire.
​

At the end of the evening as the players are heading back to their home village they see smoke in the distance. They will be to far from the village to get back in time to get anyone to help so they will have to decide what to do all on their own. It will be clear that someone is in the house as there is a horse outside tied to the post and no rider to be seen.

I might have this be Mr. Vile's house and have some evidence there of his involvement in Mrs. Bard's death. Not so sure about this as of yet. If this is Mr. Vile’s house I will have Mr. Bard inside trying save Mr. Vile and. Mr. Vile will of course think that Mr. Bard is there to kill him and perhaps give up the evidence needed to release the ghost in session 4. The item in question will be a scarf of a particular color of light blue with a light green design in the center.

Note:
During this adventure Mr. Bard gets hurt in the burning house and takes smoke inhalation damage to his lungs that will slowly cause his death in session six.


Encounters/Creatures (type):
​

Mr. Bard (Role-Playing and as a focus of the evenings attention as the players try to follow him to visiting several families in the village.)

Random people in the village (Need some specific encounters that the players would encounter in the middle of a fair. Mostly role-playing.)
​

Those competing in the lists of games.

Might want to play up rivalries between the villages.
​

Visiting Nobles/Merchants/Knights

Druids

Session three-Learning a hard lesson, Bullies,

Stated Goal for the game:
​

I want the players to role play with some of the shadier parts of the local villages and find out that there is more going on then meets the eye in their little hometowns. Maybe introduce someone affiliated with the Zhentarim into the mix just to add a little Forgotten Realms spice to the whole thing.

Premise:

One player is entrusted with an amount of gold for buying monthly provisions and sent to the market. While on the way to market the player is pick pocketed and loses the money and has to find it before he or she has to face the music. The adventure is mostly trying to find who might have taken the purse of money. While making trying to find out who might have taken the money they come across some local bullies that taunt the players about losing the money. Leading the players to either confront the bullies or watch them or perhaps telling someone that the bullies were involved somehow.

Encounters/Creatures (type):
​

The Bullies of course.

Locals that might know about thieves or grown people that the players can trust to help them with a delicate situation.
​

Local thieves if the players get that far.

Local constables
​

The Haunted house of the Bard’s (Mr. And Mrs. From the history) I don’t really have a way to get the players involved with this as of yet so any suggestions would be helpful.

Session four-Haunted House,
Stated Goal for the game:

To put the characters directly in touch with the supernatural. To show that Mrs. Bard was slain by someone other then her husband and to allow the players to find out about the thieves guild dealing with the Kobolds in the area. Also to allow the players to find out about the goblins driving Kobolds out of their homes. Possibly setting up the location of the tomb of where Mr. Fiend is located.

Premise:
​

The players have encountered the Haunted house but have not explored it as of yet. The thieves capture the players while snooping around the house. While trapped in the cellar the players will have to find a way out and get past the ghost of Mrs. Bard (From the history). The ghost of Mrs. Bard will either lead the players to safety though the kobold caves or get distracted and bored and leave.

Encounters/Creatures (type):

Mrs. Bard (Role-Playing)
​

Mrs. Rogue (Role-Playing)

Thieves (Combat as the players are captured and thrown into the cellar of the Bard House.)
​

Kobolds (Role-playing as the players try to get out of the caves.)
The city elders Role-playing as the players tells them of what is going on.)


Session five-Harvest time, Trip the City
Stated Goal for the game:

To show some of the surrounding areas near the villages. Have the players get some equipment that they would not normally have access to otherwise. To give the players a motivation to hunt down the kobolds and become adventures later on.


Premise:
​

A group of adventures (The same adventures that used to be with Mr. Bard) come to the local villages after raiding the tower of Mr. Mage (the one from the history) and nearly slaying Mr. Vampire (Mr. Mage’s apprentice). They have a load of valuable and dangerous books recovered from Mr. Mage’s library. They pass though the villages on their way to the local keep to place the books into safe keeping and the villages are wanting to head to town to sell their harvest goods. The two groups team up for mutual protection while traveling to the keep/town. While on the road several things happen. See encounters below for incidental happenings.

One evening when the men are out hunting and the caravan is settling down for the night Mr. Vampire and his Orcs thralls attack the hunting parties. The alarm goes up and the remainders of the adventures along with the rest of the village men have to go help their friends. While they are out a group of Kobolds attack and kill some of the humans possibly even character’s families and take a few away for use later.
​

Of course the Kobolds will have take some of the books along with other valuables during the raid. This will eventually lead to the first arc of the game after session six.


Encounters/Creatures (type):

Mundane accidents, (Washed out bridge that needs to be gotten around)
​

Strange new geography (swampy land where the ground has stopped absorbing moisture.)

Natural/unnatural predators (A possible big creature like a manticore or Harpy nest near the road.)
​

Natural/unnatural weather

Inter group rivalries/friendships (Village rivalries spring up over the best crops)
​

The Kobolds (combat possibly but mostly role-playing as this group of very young and inexperienced players run into them.)

The adventures around 3rd to 5th level)
​

Various people in the caravan and encounters with them. (Need details here)

I need a reason why the Adventures do not just take off after the Kobolds and take back the books. As the players will have a good idea of where their layer is after session 4. Any suggestions here would be helpful.

Session six- Death in the family, Inheritance

Note:
This game session will have the players as apprientice level characters per the 3.0 DMG.

Stated Goal for the game:

To have the Adventures take the players under their wings and train them to take up the mantel of adventurers themselves and take revenge against the Kobolds. I also want to let the one player know that they are the child of Mr. Bard and Mother. This will also give me a chance to give the players some more advanced equipment then most starting players would normally have.

Premise:
​

Once the players recover from the shock of what has happened during the harvest they are taken under the wings of the Adventures. They train the young adults to become adventures and when Mr. Bard dies they fulfill his dying wish to be buried besides his wife that he never stopped loving. The Adventures then inform the company of what happened in the past with Mr. Bard and Mr. Fiend. (The Adventures do not know about Mr. Vile’s part in Mrs. Bard’s death)
The will tell the players that the Kobolds are more then likely using a place that they know about in the area as a base of operations but will not help with this act of vengeance as this is a personal matter between the players and Kobolds. Since the player’s have already seen this place in session 4 they are aware of where it might be as well.

The player will then go about hunting down the Kobolds to their layer and kill them. Little do the players know that Mr. Fiend is also the Kobold Caves Trapped and waiting to be freed to wreck havoc again.
​

Once the players release Mr. Fiend he will glory in his release and then leave. If the players try to interfere with him he will attack to wound them but not to kill.

Encounters/Creatures (type):

The Kobolds (mostly combat related)
​

Mr. Fiend (Some Role-playing but mostly combat)(He will more then likely cast hold person on the players and mock them and leave them to the knowledge of what they have done)

The Adventures (Mostly role playing)

Ok this is what I have gotten so far any input would be very much appreciated and ways to make this better are always useful.

Thanks for reading this whole thing and thanks for your time.​

 

[Piratecat]

The number of responses is generally in inverse proportion to the length of the post! I really liked how you broke down the entries with stated goals and the premise, but even I lost track when the paragraph breaks disappeared. If I can offer advice, it would be to edit the above so that you're asking one fairly simple question - and then, in a different post, ask a question about the next session, and so on.

I think on of the best ways to create a campaign where attention is focused on personalities instead of combat is to make sure that personalities are more important than combat. Have the world and the people in it respond to what the PCs do and say. I'd also recommend relatively slow levelling, as fast levelling increases the focus on combat abilities.

 

[Death_Jester]

[/INDENT]Thanks for the input on the post. I will edit it and break it down into bite sized pieces for people to look at and then repost is using this as a reference for history and the like.

I will try to keep the characters from leveling to quickly by limiting the amount of EXP they get. I do this by limiting the combat encounters the players run into and the CR of the monsters as well. My rule of thumb is not to go over 1/6th of what a character would need for current level. I am a little stingy with the exps mostly for the reasons stated. I want to see the players develop personalities before stats.

Thanks again.​

 

[Nightfall]

Not bad...but why couldn't you have made it a half fiend cleric/blackguard/divine disciple of Orcus?! Xvim sucks!!! His dad is better. But other than that nice premise.

 

[Death_Jester]

Because the game will be set in 1372 DR and before that Bane was really dead. Bane will become a major part of the later games and I intent to have the holy war between Cyric and Bane be a point of contention though out campaign.

 

[Nightfall]

Ah I see. Oh well. If you're doing that, that's cool. I still think though an Orcus cleric/blackguard/divine disciple would be cool. But that's just me.

 

[Death_Jester]

OK Since Piratecat suggested it I will make a specific list of questions for leads into what I am looking for. I will also post this in a new topic to allow other to get a chance to look at the topic again.


General questions.
Based on the situations described in the original post where would be a good region in the forgotten realms to place the game?

Does anyone have any good ideals for plot hooks for the non-human players to get them more involved with the game?

From the Campaign History section of the notes.
What could I do with the “Mother” character?

Why did the Druids take the child away from her?

Why would she leave the campaign area before the players came of age?

How did she seduce Mr. Bard in the first place?

Why did the family adopt the child from the Druid?

How did the villagers find out about the affaire between Mr. Bard and Mother? (I have always assumed that it was Mr. Fiend spreading the Rumor around but could it a have been someone else?)

What other scandals could have been going on at the same time as the child being born?

What fun things could Mr. Demon have been doing before he got imprisoned?

What stuff from the book of Vile Darkness can I use to make Mr. Vile really creepy and twisted?

What were Mr. Fiend and Mr. Demon doing before they came into the area and why did the leave it to come to the villages?

Why did the circle of Druids hide until the Sheildmeet celebration even though people knew that there were druids in the area before then?

What has Mr. Vile been doing since Mr. Fiend and Mr. Demon has been imprisoned?
(This has to be very low key so as to keep him free till the players find him out in the second session)

What would be a good name and motif for the Goblin Tribe that is taking over the Kobold lands?

Who is the Sorcerer that is leading the Goblins and what is the goal of disrupting the Kobolds?

Where are the Rogues getting the weapons that they are selling to the Kobolds?

Should the return of Bane effect Mr. Fiend, and if so how?

Does anyone have any good ideas about what to do with the low level characters facing off against Mr. Vampire or how to make it into a whole story arc?

Session One Questions.
Any suggestions for making this a little longer or adding additional role-playing encounters?

Session Two Questions.
Who else could Mr. Bard visit while in the area during the faire?

What happened to Mr. Druid that caused him to be removed from the Druid circle?

What kinds of things will the players find/see in Mr. Vile’s house? (Think of things along the lines something from the book of vile darkness)

Any suggestions for additional encounters for fleshing out the session would be appreciated.

Session Three Questions.
Any specific shady/underworld kind of encounters that players could have would be appreciated to help flesh out the session would be appreciated. I need stuff that the players can see and not become wanted outlaws or have the thieves wanting to kill them.
Just garden variety low level criminal stuff.

Who might a group of commoners know, that would be connected to the thieves?

Any suggestions for what to do with the build up to going to the haunted house would be helpful. I would also like to know how the players get the leads to the haunted house as the source of the problem.

More questions to come.