Death_Jester
Explorer
Hello Everyone,
Earlier today I posted a huge list of campaign notes on here trying to get some help. Piratecat was kind enough to make some suggestions about how to make all that information a little easier to digest for everyone here. So what I will do is repost this original post as a group of smaller post with the same thread name but different part numbers. Hopefully this will make it easier for everyone to take in and give some feed back on. Once again thanks for taking look and any help you could give would be greatly appreciated.
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.
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?
Thanks for your time and look for part Two with more questions.
Earlier today I posted a huge list of campaign notes on here trying to get some help. Piratecat was kind enough to make some suggestions about how to make all that information a little easier to digest for everyone here. So what I will do is repost this original post as a group of smaller post with the same thread name but different part numbers. Hopefully this will make it easier for everyone to take in and give some feed back on. Once again thanks for taking look and any help you could give would be greatly appreciated.
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.
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?
Thanks for your time and look for part Two with more questions.
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