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Dungeoncraft - 4th edition style
- Thread starter Delgar
- Start date
Midgettosser
First Post
Thanks for that link. I read some of those articles back in the day, and have been wanting to finish them ever since.
I love the idea of a matrix style world, with the humans living in a virtual world. I'd love to have the PC's get to a high level, and reveal that they have been living in a virtual world. When they wake up from the virtual world, they're level 1 again. Or better yet, use two different systems (4E, 3E?) for the virtual world and the real world. In order to win, they have to travel back and forth from the virtual world and the real one, gradually revealing the grand illusion tying it all together. It would give the players a chance to play something different (i know i have a tendency to let my characters die heroic death because I want to try something new).
Wiman
First Post
I like the idea that all the people are actually stuck in the Shadowfell and they need to find a path to the sunlit realm. I would also add that maybe in a fit of genius the god of chaos and destruction has imprisoned or even slain the Raven Queen or whatever god of death you had in mind....this has left a power vacuum unknown to have ever existed in the undead world, the key players....liches, vampires, the night shades (kings and queens of each type) are currently in a deadlock cival war to become god of the dead....and the only commodity that will tip the balance happens to be found in lifeforce. Only place to get lifeforce is from living.....hilarity insues.
Hope it helps a little, kinda just went on a tangent there.
Hope it helps a little, kinda just went on a tangent there.
Mephistopheles
First Post
Thanks for the link to Ray's articles, I enjoyed them a lot back in the magazine.
White Tornado
First Post
Evil Humanoids! Vampires! Big evil! Run!
Wow, this is good stuff, everybody.
If I'm going to DM a 4e game, I will probably start with an 'evil humanoids upon you' approach. Tieflings and dragonborn (if I even allow the latter) have lost all their cities and settlements, humans have but a few city-states left, elves, dwarves and eladrin fight their own fights in the woods and mountains, the halflings find it almost impossible to travel between the points of light. The place is filled with orcs, gnolls, kobolds, goblins, hobgoblins, wild animals, and other evil and dangerous creatures. Yadiyadiya, quite standard points of light.
Then they start discovering some weird stuff. Where did those skeletons that roamed the centre of city came from? Why are corpses disappearing from the cemetaries? Why does that charming nobleman insist that corpses shouldn't be burned, but buried? He talks about our duty to the deceased, and passing on to the afterlife. Is het really that religious? You never see him near a temple! Talking of him, why doesn't he ever come out in daytime?
I hope the PC's start feeling uncomfortable long before they discover the true nature of the situation. A vampire has infiltrated one of the points of light, posing as a nobleman, and he is trying to disintegrate the city from within and build an army of undead. They probably destroy him and his army of zombies and skeletons, a bit of peace and happiness returns, and they feel great. Yay!
When they enter the next point of light (say, another human city-state), there appears to be nothing wrong. However, there are mysterious stories of soldiers, rogues, beggars, prostitutes and other people who radically change their lifestyles. Soldier quit the army, sleep in daytime and roam the streets and taverns at night. There are hardly any beggars found in the daytime, but they also roam the streets and night. People whisper of dark forces in their midst.
When the PC's investigate, they find the 'changed' persons very friendly and charming. One (or several) of the changed persons tries to lure one of the PC's away from the party. Maybe a prostitute tries to seduce one of them. When a PC finds himself alone with one of the mysterious 'changed' persons, she tries to bite him. That will result in the first of many nighttime battles the PC's will fight. This city will be tougher to clear than the previous one, since they now will have to fight many vampires, instead of one vampire with many skeletons and zombies. They will also never know if they killed all the vampires, since vampires tend to be very patient and can go into hiding for decades...
When they enter another point of light (for sake of convenience, another human city state), they will be expecting some vampire hiding somewhere and building an undead army. It won't be long before they have found their suspect: a charming, witty swashbuckler, who watches over the city at night. Problem is, people see him as their hero, and they certainly won't thank the PC's for getting rid of him. If the vampire swashbuckler finds out the PC's know his secret, he will set up the people against them, and try to kill them and turn them into vampires. The swashbuckler is indeed 'clearing' the city of beggars, bandits, thieves, and unwelcome visitors - he makes them vampires and takes them to some sort of hidden location. Now the PC's will have to show the vampire for who he really is, wait until his plot comes out (which might be too late), or get their lives endangered by the populace who just lost their hero. Tough decisions...
I've got two other ideas for a vampire infiltrator. One vampire might have taken the place of the guildmaster in a thieves guild, ruling the guild with iron fist, while keeping his true identity secret and turning more and more thieves in vampires (the thieves' guild will be somewhat modeled after the Corleone family of the Godfather movies, since I think they're awesome). Another vampire will work completely in the background, often disguising himself when roaming the streets. The PC's might accuse just about anybody of vampirism, just because the real vampire is so hard to find. Or maybe they start thinking there is no vampire in this area, but alas...
Somewhere along the line, the PC's will discover that all those vampires are really vassals of a vampire wizard I called Therian. He maintains contact with his vassels by means of magic, and he has a messenger called Runner (a halfling vampire) that supplies some of the vassals with scrolls to raise zombies and skeletons. Therian lives in a ruined castle, far away from any civilization left and infested with undead, wild animals, traps, and perhaps some other interesting dangers. He and his vampires hunt the forests nearby for blood, and have been able to stave off any threat of evil humanoids.
I haven't decided in what way the PC's find out about Therian and his plans. Perhaps the vampire swashbuckler might tell the PC's, right before he plans to kill them. When the PC's survive, they can then track down Therians castle. I also haven't decided why Therian is sending his vassals into different territories to build undead armies. Perhaps he despises the evil humanoids (or just the orcs or the hobgoblins or the gnoll), so he also forbids turning evil humanoids into vampires. But what if one of his vassals doesn't obey, and turns a gnoll band into an army of vampires and zombies?
I'm also looking for a third layer for the campaign, a big, all-encompassing story that the PC's eventually get into. I liked the idea about the evil cultists who were tieing the Prime Material plane closer and closer to the shadowfell. Perhaps these evil cultists were somehow released or facilitated by one of the evil humanoid races. But that still doesn't explain why the evil humanoids became so powerful.
Perhaps a powerful goddess fell completely in love with the most beautiful man there ever lived. She tried to seduce him, but he was a man of virtue and didn't return her love. Some other god, perhaps her own husband, or maybe a powerful demon found out about this, and turned this handsome man into the first vampire: his beauty remaining forever, but his virtue corrupted. Since then, the entire Prime Material is a abomination to her, and she works to ruin the entire plane by the hands of the evil humanoids. She hopes to kill her ancient lover in this way. This ancient vampire, in the meantime, is the one behind Therian's plot, and also behind the evil cultists who try to draw the Prime Material into the Shadowfell.
Well, I just made up that last story on the fly ^_^
Wow, this is good stuff, everybody.
If I'm going to DM a 4e game, I will probably start with an 'evil humanoids upon you' approach. Tieflings and dragonborn (if I even allow the latter) have lost all their cities and settlements, humans have but a few city-states left, elves, dwarves and eladrin fight their own fights in the woods and mountains, the halflings find it almost impossible to travel between the points of light. The place is filled with orcs, gnolls, kobolds, goblins, hobgoblins, wild animals, and other evil and dangerous creatures. Yadiyadiya, quite standard points of light.
Then they start discovering some weird stuff. Where did those skeletons that roamed the centre of city came from? Why are corpses disappearing from the cemetaries? Why does that charming nobleman insist that corpses shouldn't be burned, but buried? He talks about our duty to the deceased, and passing on to the afterlife. Is het really that religious? You never see him near a temple! Talking of him, why doesn't he ever come out in daytime?
I hope the PC's start feeling uncomfortable long before they discover the true nature of the situation. A vampire has infiltrated one of the points of light, posing as a nobleman, and he is trying to disintegrate the city from within and build an army of undead. They probably destroy him and his army of zombies and skeletons, a bit of peace and happiness returns, and they feel great. Yay!
When they enter the next point of light (say, another human city-state), there appears to be nothing wrong. However, there are mysterious stories of soldiers, rogues, beggars, prostitutes and other people who radically change their lifestyles. Soldier quit the army, sleep in daytime and roam the streets and taverns at night. There are hardly any beggars found in the daytime, but they also roam the streets and night. People whisper of dark forces in their midst.
When the PC's investigate, they find the 'changed' persons very friendly and charming. One (or several) of the changed persons tries to lure one of the PC's away from the party. Maybe a prostitute tries to seduce one of them. When a PC finds himself alone with one of the mysterious 'changed' persons, she tries to bite him. That will result in the first of many nighttime battles the PC's will fight. This city will be tougher to clear than the previous one, since they now will have to fight many vampires, instead of one vampire with many skeletons and zombies. They will also never know if they killed all the vampires, since vampires tend to be very patient and can go into hiding for decades...
When they enter another point of light (for sake of convenience, another human city state), they will be expecting some vampire hiding somewhere and building an undead army. It won't be long before they have found their suspect: a charming, witty swashbuckler, who watches over the city at night. Problem is, people see him as their hero, and they certainly won't thank the PC's for getting rid of him. If the vampire swashbuckler finds out the PC's know his secret, he will set up the people against them, and try to kill them and turn them into vampires. The swashbuckler is indeed 'clearing' the city of beggars, bandits, thieves, and unwelcome visitors - he makes them vampires and takes them to some sort of hidden location. Now the PC's will have to show the vampire for who he really is, wait until his plot comes out (which might be too late), or get their lives endangered by the populace who just lost their hero. Tough decisions...
I've got two other ideas for a vampire infiltrator. One vampire might have taken the place of the guildmaster in a thieves guild, ruling the guild with iron fist, while keeping his true identity secret and turning more and more thieves in vampires (the thieves' guild will be somewhat modeled after the Corleone family of the Godfather movies, since I think they're awesome). Another vampire will work completely in the background, often disguising himself when roaming the streets. The PC's might accuse just about anybody of vampirism, just because the real vampire is so hard to find. Or maybe they start thinking there is no vampire in this area, but alas...
Somewhere along the line, the PC's will discover that all those vampires are really vassals of a vampire wizard I called Therian. He maintains contact with his vassels by means of magic, and he has a messenger called Runner (a halfling vampire) that supplies some of the vassals with scrolls to raise zombies and skeletons. Therian lives in a ruined castle, far away from any civilization left and infested with undead, wild animals, traps, and perhaps some other interesting dangers. He and his vampires hunt the forests nearby for blood, and have been able to stave off any threat of evil humanoids.
I haven't decided in what way the PC's find out about Therian and his plans. Perhaps the vampire swashbuckler might tell the PC's, right before he plans to kill them. When the PC's survive, they can then track down Therians castle. I also haven't decided why Therian is sending his vassals into different territories to build undead armies. Perhaps he despises the evil humanoids (or just the orcs or the hobgoblins or the gnoll), so he also forbids turning evil humanoids into vampires. But what if one of his vassals doesn't obey, and turns a gnoll band into an army of vampires and zombies?
I'm also looking for a third layer for the campaign, a big, all-encompassing story that the PC's eventually get into. I liked the idea about the evil cultists who were tieing the Prime Material plane closer and closer to the shadowfell. Perhaps these evil cultists were somehow released or facilitated by one of the evil humanoid races. But that still doesn't explain why the evil humanoids became so powerful.
Perhaps a powerful goddess fell completely in love with the most beautiful man there ever lived. She tried to seduce him, but he was a man of virtue and didn't return her love. Some other god, perhaps her own husband, or maybe a powerful demon found out about this, and turned this handsome man into the first vampire: his beauty remaining forever, but his virtue corrupted. Since then, the entire Prime Material is a abomination to her, and she works to ruin the entire plane by the hands of the evil humanoids. She hopes to kill her ancient lover in this way. This ancient vampire, in the meantime, is the one behind Therian's plot, and also behind the evil cultists who try to draw the Prime Material into the Shadowfell.
Well, I just made up that last story on the fly ^_^
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Part II
Wow, I’m so glad that I posted this here; I never imagined that I would get so many views and responses. Lot’s of great ideas lets see if I can put some of them to some good use.
Okay so where I left off I needed to pick a secret for my new world and the obvious choice was as to why the undead are a dominant force in my world, so here goes.
Secret #1: Thousands of years ago great battle raged in the heavens (as they still do today), in one of those battles the gatekeeper, and Ferrier of souls into Shadowfell was slain and his corpse plummeted to earth. Miles around the area where his corpse landed has become a dark and twisted place, pulsing with dark energy. Because there is no longer anyone to ease the passing of others into the Shadowfell, the lines have become very long and although some can still pass into the realm, many wander off and continue to haunt the world. For a few days a month during the new moon, his body begins to pulsate sending off waves of negative energy throughout the land animating corpses, creating rifts and turning undead creatures more aggressive.
Secret #2: During the time that the gatekeepers corpse fell to the ground a great Dragonkin civilization spanned across the land. It was during this time that the necromantic arts were first taken up as undead creatures were becoming more and more common. When their civilization was threatened by a group of “Plaugebringers” (not sure what this is yet) their greatest minds decided to build an undead army to fend off the threat, which worked but ultimately brought about their own doom in the process the zombies continue to roam the land and destroy all living humanoids.
Secret #3: The creator of the zombies, a Dragonkin Necromancer, became so corrupted in his studies that he himself became one of the un-living. He made the zombies his perfect soldier, that those that they kill in battle will rise up and join his army. Through his powerful magic he is now linked to some of his creations and when they consume a brain and return to the hive, he can learn all that was contained within that mind. Using his minions he continues to try to rebuild the world in his own crazed image.
Well there you have it, I have 3 sort of interconnected secrets that should lead to some interesting adventures and provide me with a basic idea of how things are going to work. I definitely plan on having some town being run by an intelligent undead that sacrifices his citizens to keep them safe, so I definitely want to keep that in mind for the future. Well, once again thanks for all the great ideas and comments, keep them coming and stay tuned for next time when I’ll start looking at the government and society around where the characters will be starting.
Nytmare
David Jose
There's a bit in the Scarred Lands that has always struck a pleasant chord for me about a city called Hollowfaust. In all honesty, I have the source books, but I've never actually read through the Hollowfaust stuff, so a lot of this is probably built more off my misconceptions than anything else.
Hollowfaust is a lawful neutral society lead by a ruling council of necromancers that includes it's fair share of both evil mages and lawful good liches.
The culture of this city is one that sees death and undeath as nothing more than a part of the natural cycle, and sees people's earthly remains as just another natural resource.
The city exists in a kind of duality where the living live in the city above, while the undead populate the city below, and protect the streets above at night while the living sleep.
The animated dead (I think they're referred to as servitor dead) are the backbone of the cities workforce and defense. These are unintelligent animated corpses, skeletons and constructs. Intelligent undead hold an equal place in society as any living person.
The basic concepts of "animating dead = bad" and "raising/resurrecting dead = good" are flopped. Undeath is natural. Raising the dead is seen as going against that natural order, regardless of how the person died.
Hollowfaust is a lawful neutral society lead by a ruling council of necromancers that includes it's fair share of both evil mages and lawful good liches.
The culture of this city is one that sees death and undeath as nothing more than a part of the natural cycle, and sees people's earthly remains as just another natural resource.
The city exists in a kind of duality where the living live in the city above, while the undead populate the city below, and protect the streets above at night while the living sleep.
The animated dead (I think they're referred to as servitor dead) are the backbone of the cities workforce and defense. These are unintelligent animated corpses, skeletons and constructs. Intelligent undead hold an equal place in society as any living person.
The basic concepts of "animating dead = bad" and "raising/resurrecting dead = good" are flopped. Undeath is natural. Raising the dead is seen as going against that natural order, regardless of how the person died.
