Help Needed Planning A Campaign (My Players (Sounds so pretentious from me) Stay Out)

[Laundreu]

So.

I'm planning on running a few games for a couple friends o'mine in a few weeks. Like, the 28th, which I think qualifies for 'few'. I've played some DnD - enough to get a working relationship going with just about everything but Attacks of Opportunity - so complicated! ;_; - and magic users, who's spell-lists intimidate and terrify me, possibly into crying fits.

Anyway, I've got a lovely image in mind, of a rather small universe filled with floating islands, ranging from itty bitty rocks to Australia-sized behemoths. Generally, the climate of these islands would be something like the Pacific Northwest - cool and rainy and very, very lush.

These islands came into being about 15 years ago, when an elf-lich managed to create or come across an artifact for the sol (it's a pun!) purpose of killing the sun and raising it from the dead as an Undead Sun. The rest of the world was understandably upset at this new corpse-sun, especially what with the undead rising all across the world and the elf-lich leading them on a long, bloody march across the continent. So upset, in fact, that in the annhilation of said elf-lich they managed to drain much of the planet's magical resevoirs. When they went and attempted to ressurect the sun, they succeeded in a fashion (it's a bit weaker now, but stable), but also caused the planet to break up into hundreds of floating chunks of various sizes and transport groups of people all over, handily wiping out any major spellcaster still alive - anyone over 4th level, really.

So there's hundreds of islands, most nations were essentially destroyed - after all, when the biggest empire on the planet suddenly splinters into forty islands, none of which can communicate with any other, it's not really an 'empire - and people are finally starting to rise up above scratching out a living.

And then we come to the PC's island home. About the size (and terrain) of Britain, made up of four city-states with a total population of about 64,000 people. None of these city-states have gone too far into the interior, which is for the most part covered in very heavy forests.

And here is where I'm kinda lost. I want there to be natives in the forests, but I don't know if I want to do something like hobgoblins, orcs, or come up with my own race. Also, for PC races, I'm thinking of dwarves, goblins (who are tinkerers without the comedic bent of gnomes), halflings, humans, half-orcs...I kinda wish I could come up with new races, too, but I'm really not too sure how to do that and keep it balanced.

Also, coming up with the four cities is within my ability, but coming up with plots, and hopefully an over-arcing one as well...I'm not sure how to go about doing that.

So! Any tips, hints, links, and so on? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[cybertalus]

As far as races and the like go, here's a question to ask yourself: did the upheaval of an undead sun and the landmasses splintering create any new races, or destroy or alter any existing ones?

If the answer is "no" then perhaps one way to figure out what lives in the big scary interior forest is to figure out what lived there before the Big Events.

Even if the answer is "yes" you might want to think about what was there before, because you might come up with an idea of how it was altered or what was destroyed. Plus, by knowing what was there before you create a possible source of confusion for the PCs in the form of a new civilization making use of the buildings and tools left behind by the destroyed one.

As for an overall plot, you might start with the powers that were prior to the Big Event. They've had their domains splintered and reduced. Many of them may wish to try to regain what they've lost.

You mentioned that communication between the islands isn't possible. You might want to figure out why it isn't possible, and what means could be taken to re-establish it. Then set up various groups who want to re-establish communications in persuit of their own agenda. A priest who was low-ranking at the time of the sundering may wish to contact his religious superiors for orders. Merchants may wish to attempt to establish trade between the islands for various commodities which are in short supply on their own island. Rulers may want to try to re-establish their dominion over things. Travellers may seek news of their families. And perhaps the followers of the elf-lich believe they've found a way to resurrect him again, but need something or someone from another island to do so.

The only other thing that jumps out at me is that with the passage of 15 years, those 4th-level and lower spellcasters you mention should have easily had time to work their way up in levels. This would give them access to things like scrying and teleporting, which should make moving between the islands quite possible.

Sounds like an awesome premise. I hope you and your players have loads of fun with it.

 

[Laundreu]

As far as races and the like go, here's a question to ask yourself: did the upheaval of an undead sun and the landmasses splintering create any new races, or destroy or alter any existing ones?

If the answer is "no" then perhaps one way to figure out what lives in the big scary interior forest is to figure out what lived there before the Big Events.

Even if the answer is "yes" you might want to think about what was there before, because you might come up with an idea of how it was altered or what was destroyed. Plus, by knowing what was there before you create a possible source of confusion for the PCs in the form of a new civilization making use of the buildings and tools left behind by the destroyed one.

I don't think it actually created any new races - it empowered the undead something awful for a time, and fixing things made the world go boom, but it was a boom caused by a sudden shortfall in magic, rather than over-magical chaos.

That said, possibilities include orcs, hobgoblins, and creating a new one all by my lonesome. Possibly Wood Elf-like, though not actually elves, because the real elves were (or maybe even are) horrible evil bastards. The Wild Hunt, all that jazz.

As for an overall plot, you might start with the powers that were prior to the Big Event. They've had their domains splintered and reduced. Many of them may wish to try to regain what they've lost.

You mentioned that communication between the islands isn't possible. You might want to figure out why it isn't possible, and what means could be taken to re-establish it. Then set up various groups who want to re-establish communications in persuit of their own agenda. A priest who was low-ranking at the time of the sundering may wish to contact his religious superiors for orders. Merchants may wish to attempt to establish trade between the islands for various commodities which are in short supply on their own island. Rulers may want to try to re-establish their dominion over things. Travellers may seek news of their families. And perhaps the followers of the elf-lich believe they've found a way to resurrect him again, but need something or someone from another island to do so.

True, and those all work fairly well. Communication didn't work between islands because...well, there was no way of getting communication between islands. Magic-users were rare, and mostly busy helping rebuild/maintain/what have you, and in addition many, many spellbooks, and thus spells, are lost. Which means, of course, wizards will pay hefty, hefty sums to /find/ old scrolls and suchlike...

The only other thing that jumps out at me is that with the passage of 15 years, those 4th-level and lower spellcasters you mention should have easily had time to work their way up in levels. This would give them access to things like scrying and teleporting, which should make moving between the islands quite possible.

Um.

>_>

Really, it's more because I have this image of a Goblin-manned airship landing at one of the cities, and consternation ensuing within it, with the PCs being sent to find out /what/ it is and how it /does/ what it does. But if there's stuff like Teleport and scry, that doesn't work so well...hrm.

Sounds like an awesome premise. I hope you and your players have loads of fun with it.

Thanks! I hope so, too.

 

[Laundreu]

Shameful BUMP due to disappearing under the server crash.

So shameful.

 

[Piratecat]

Nah! This is an incredibly cool setting, and I really like it. Things you may want to consider:

1. Flying ships. Flying ships are just cool, and there's some real drama involved with the traders who sail from one island to the next. Your goblin air-ship is very evocative.

2. Don't nerf spells. All you need to do is to do is (a) have the PCs' village be isolated by bad weather or inhospitable terrain, so that they're off the beaten track and don't normally see airships or teleporters. I really recommend making the people who can do such things relatively rare (maybe the huge cataclysm had the side effect of a magical backlash killing many wizards?), but not making them unknown. Nerfing them forces you into some convoluted logic justifications that you're better off without.

3. Plots. Start small and work up. If you want, throw me a few elements and we'll brainstorm!

 

[Imperialus]

You might also want to concider that since the PC's island is comperitively small both in terms of population and liveable landmass that there simply hasn't been a spellcaster of sufficant rank to come forward in the past 15 years to allow communication. Now on some of the larger islands perhaps this hasn't been the case. Airship technology, while still in it's infancy has been developed and the society that has developed on the larger island has realized that since they are the only one's that are capable of transport between islands that puts them in a perfect place to conquor the rest of the world peacemeal, literally. How would the PC's react if for the first time in 15 years they see a stranger, only instead of coming with a ship full of trade goods it's an imperial legion bent on expansion?

As for nerfing spellcasters I like PK's idea of the magical backlash killing most wizards and once again the small size of the island works to your advantage as there is unlikely to be a major magical institution capable of training new wizards on it. Once again I would suggest that such an institution exists on the larger "evil empire" island.

I really like the idea and honestly wouldn't mind continuing to brainstorm over the boards. Hopefully we get something hammered together in time for your first session.

 

[jerichothebard]

Wow, just wow. You are REALLY going to want to check out the Realm of Shards Campaign setting by StoryART Games, when it comes out next month. Set on a series of moonlets, with airships and different races...

Might be right up your alley, and will be seeing a major PDF release next month.

(And yes, I work for the company - I'm the web designer. But that also means I've seen proofs and working notes. And it's cool.)

StoryART Games

 

[Yair]

Sounds like a great setting. The only advice I can give is to use it - use the backstory to derive the plot; otherwise, what is it good for?
The simplest path is using the background for the arching plot - perhaps a cult is trying to resurrect the lich-queen and take out the sun, or perhaps someone is seeking out something that got seperated into parts along with the islands (say, following laylines on the now destroyed land).
As for densiens in the forest, I would personally use Mind-Flayers (always trying to snuff out the sun; there is an old three-module AD&D adventure that might give you ideas, but I doubt it will be useful as-is), reptile-men (check out any Green Ronnin products for a host of ideas), or elves (recovering from the lich-queen's efforts, and hated by all other races for being her lackeys; racial-tensions thing going on here).

Hope that helps,
Yair

 

[Piratecat]

The classic approach might be:

- Start the PCs from an isolated settlement, fairly ignorant of the island around them and of other islands
- Let them explore. In doing so, they chance upon a major plot. They don't yet understand the significance of this discovery.
- They discover a bigger city. They get tied into more plot that is seemingly unrelated, but ties into the whole.
- Strangers arrive from another island. The significance of what they've learned strikes home.

for instance, what if they discovered a man living in the wilderness. . . and later discover that he's a refugee from another island? And later still, that he's incredibly rich and powerful? And that he's supposed to be tremendously evil and a betrayer, but that he tells another story?

Lots of possibilities here.

 

[Laundreu]

Hrm. Currently, I am trying to figure out what character classes I want available.

PC Races are as follows: Goblin, 'Half-Elf' (DnD Elf stats, product of seduction or rape by real elves), Human, Dwarf (only male), Gnome (which is, in my homebrew, a female Dwarf), Volcae (wood-dwelling Celtic people who evolved from lemurs the same way Humans evolved from great apes. At a guess, I'd give 'em +2 either Dex or Wis, -2 Con (they're Medium, but a very small medium - something like 4.5 to 5 feet tall, 75 to 100 lbs), darkvision, and probably a bonus to Spot and Listen. I'll need to find out what's a good bonus, whilst keeping it from being an ECL+1 or more class), and half-orc.

PC classes, though...Certainly Rogue, Fighter, Wizard, Cleric, Sorceror, Druid, and Ranger. I'd really like an effective light fighter - I might use CombatWombat51's Duelist class, cunningly renamed so as not to bring to mind images of being a nancing nobleman. (Of course he'd still get credit.) Prestige Classes...

Well, given that the players are starting out at level 1, PrCs shouldn't be a big problem. I intend on using a point-buy system for players - 34 points, actually. Would such a high value change CRs any?

In terms of plot...well, normally, I'd like to avoid coming up with plots until I know what my players will be playing...but I don't have that luxury, sadly. So, I'll need to work something out. On the other hand...look! Map!

Even as I wrote "map!", it dawned on me that worldexploding might be more fun if everyone is kicked way into the future - so the Volcae aren't a simultaneous evolution (yeah, normally, it takes millions and millions of years to evolve, but in this case, it was just thousands, because of Magical Influence from the Center, which is a gigantic volcano with a chewy center gouting fountain of Arcane energy) but a later one replacing humanity - and doing fairly well at it until Humanity suddenly reappeared (and in some cases, immediately started empire-building). So the Volcae are not pleased with the sudden appearance of tens of thousands of people on the beginning islands (Seorig and Sillas) 15 years ago.

Seorig is actually under the control of one Lord Haidan, also the High Priest of the God of Logic and Technology, and his city-state Seorigka is probably the most expansionistic in the region - mostly because Seorigka is growing rapidly, due to Goblin-designed sanitation systems and such, and there isn't as much arable land on Seorig. Sillas has land, Seorig wants it, the three other cities on Sillas aren't too happy about that idea, and bad things happen.

Hrm. More brainstorming is obviously necessary. Either way, however, MAP!