Help! - Campaign reboot without actual reboot

[Obergnom]

okay, I need some more help here, as this is something I am really bad at: I want to turn my campaign into a site based campaign, with my players being firmly planted in a city with lots of adventuring going on around that city.

I have often done this for low level parties. They come to a big city, are quite overwhelmed and slowly work their way up. There are a lot of NPCs they care for and so on. The higher the PCs raise in level, the more linear the plot gets, until it results in a more or less linear story, based upon what they have done before.

The problem is, I have a bunch of currently 8th level characters running around in the underdark, following a plot that would lead them into Expedition to the Demonweb Pits. (More about that in this threat ) They will start attacking a drow outpost next session. I can come up with something to make that the end of the current storyline.
After that they might go against a City of Kuo-Toa to get a substance called pure hope to find the dragon shamans lost Dragon on the elemental plane of earth. I can (and will) make those excursions short. if they happen at all. At the end of all this, they will be 9th level.

My usual reaction would be to start over, have my players roll up a bunch of third level characters and start a campaign based in Waterdeep using the Undermountain. Not this time. I do not want to do that to them, they like their characters, and rightly so.

So... how to do the "find a place in the world" part with 9th level characters? We began the campaign at 6th level, they have no "roots" established, and thats what really bothers me about this campaign. The way I planed the "quick route" out of my current campaign will have the PCs defeat a baron who tried to seize control of the Kingdom of Cormyr by taking advantage of a giant invasion, started by the very drow they are about to defeat. Thus they would start their "new" carrer as heroes of cormyr. Maybe they would have even been granted a lesser noble titel.

(At the moment I fancy a campaign using maybe the Bards Gate and Rappan Athuk supplements from Necromancer Games, as I own those, and really like them)

 

[Quartz]

How about giving them a mission to take something to Waterdeep? Then a few more missions within Waterdeep, perhaps with rewards of property within the city, then take it from there.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'd go with an explosive result from magic items that don't mix, like a portable hole, bag of holding and, heck, a sphere of annihilation. They get together and KABOOM, everyone's tossed elsewhere, to start over.

 

[Shane_Leahy]

Does the city have to be above ground?

What if they save some underground city from Drow or whatever other underdark baddies you want. The city could be made up of ex-slaves, mushroom men, dwarves, gnomes etc. As the saviours of the city they get some responsibility to the city.

 

[Obergnom]

Maybe I should have been clearer about this: I will finish the current storyline, which will take (depending upon my players actions) between 2 and 4 sessions.

After that, they would be without a base (having rested at the same Inn appr. 8 times hardly counts as a base) and only knowing like 6-8 NPCs in Tilverton.

What I want to achieve after that, is change the location (though I have not yet decided where to go, maybe Waterdeep? Maybe putting Bards Gate into the Dales and Rappan Athuk into the Cormanthyr? Maybe somewhere else?) and start establishing them in that part of the campaign world.

What I do not know is, how to make them move anywhere (Exept with a messenger plot, but aren't they a bit to powerful for that?) and how to handle 9th level characters having to learn their way around like 1st level ones, without them feeling like people do not seem to get that they are quite powerful.

 

[Hand of Evil]

This is where Skullport can come in, at least some form of it, or even a dwarven city fortress. This will allow your players to expand out but return for trade and such. You can contain them bye kicking their butts if they stray too far.

 

[hexgrid]

What I do not know is, how to make them move anywhere (Exept with a messenger plot, but aren't they a bit to powerful for that?) and how to handle 9th level characters having to learn their way around like 1st level ones, without them feeling like people do not seem to get that they are quite powerful.

I think your problem is solved by just continuing with your current plan and sending them to Sigil (via Expedition to the Demonweb pits.) Sigil becomes the new base of operations, and they start off as clueless primes, 9th level or not.

 

[Obergnom]

I that might be pretty cool. I allready have some of the old planescape material (I love those cheap 2nd ed. pdfs ) but there is one major problem with that plan... how to make them stay with out cheating? (Cheating= "Sorry folks, new campaign, old characters, do not try to get back to Cormyr")

They would not know if the story in Cormyr has come to an end, what happend to the baron trying to seize control etc. I think they would feel cheated, in a way. And instead of an all new planescape campaign I would get a "We must get back to Cormyr asap" story. And as they advance in level, it would not be that hard to get to get back, would it? (I'm do not know that much about Sigil, but it is not like Ravenloft, is it? I mean, planar traveling is kind of the point in that setting...)

 

[SavageRobby]

What I want to achieve after that, is change the location (though I have not yet decided where to go, maybe Waterdeep? Maybe putting Bards Gate into the Dales and Rappan Athuk into the Cormanthyr? Maybe somewhere else?) and start establishing them in that part of the campaign world.

Three thoughts come to mind:

1) Do your players want to do this, or do they want to continue wandering around? Have you found that out?

2) If your players aren't adverse to the idea of changing to a more site-based campaign, co-opt them to help you. Ask them to come up with a reason or reasons to go to the desired city - and stay there. Instead of pushing them, let them pull. That is always easier.

3) They started at 6th level? Do they have any backstory? Families, friends? You should be able to find something in their history to give them some knowledge about the city. Think of this like a movie sequel where the audience suddenly gets an influx of information they didn't have before in the original. "Oh, we never talked about where you grew up? Well, as it turns out...."

 

[IanB]

I that might be pretty cool. I allready have some of the old planescape material (I love those cheap 2nd ed. pdfs ) but there is one major problem with that plan... how to make them stay with out cheating? (Cheating= "Sorry folks, new campaign, old characters, do not try to get back to Cormyr")

They would not know if the story in Cormyr has come to an end, what happend to the baron trying to seize control etc. I think they would feel cheated, in a way. And instead of an all new planescape campaign I would get a "We must get back to Cormyr asap" story. And as they advance in level, it would not be that hard to get to get back, would it? (I'm do not know that much about Sigil, but it is not like Ravenloft, is it? I mean, planar traveling is kind of the point in that setting...)

Let them go back and find that the problem has been dealt with in the meantime (it isn't like the Realms are short on problem-solvers) - and before they head back, give them some hooks/obligations that will draw them back to Sigil. You can't stop a high level party from going where they want (and in fact in Planescape a big part of the whole idea is that people CAN go wherever they want) but you can certainly control where the hooks are.