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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guilt Puppy" data-source="post: 545681" data-attributes="member: 6521">Okay, so it look like schedules have cleared up a little for me and my roommates next quarter... So, I figure it's high time to start a new campaign.I've laid out some ground rules for myself: Get the characters from Level 1 to Level 20 within one large story arc. Award levels for story advancement: Each subquest will yield a level. In-game downtime between most subquests. Some may overlap. No random encounters.For the world: Not low-magic, exactly, but low-magic-item. "Craft Wondrous Item" and "Craft Magic Arms & Armor" are now Epic-Level feats. Magic items are things that are found (or, at very high costs, commissioned), and always unique. I'll give myself a total of 30 magic items to distribute throughout the campaign (3 players, meaning 10 each, meaning one for each player every other level, thereabouts)... They will be more powerful than your average magic item, so the power level of the party should work out about right. Virtually nothing from the Monster Manual will be used. Religion, also unique. I want to avoid out-of-game knowledge as much as possible: As a player it bugs me to know what's going to happen if I kill that Balor, and trying to act as though I don't (because I failed my Knowledge: The Planes check, which I only bothered making for out-of-game reasons).Also considering keeping character sheets secret, and trying to limit OOC conversation (a very different direction for the group, which is still pretty metagame-oriented.)Anyway... So I have all these rules I've laid out for myself in designing a campaign, but I still can't for the life of me come up with a good campaign. I want the plot to be continuous -- the final showdown, whatever it is, should be foreshadowed from the very first session -- without getting too obvious or worn out.I want to avoid a straight "end of the world" scenario... But I'm not sure what else is really epic-enough for this kind of game. I have some interesting end-of-the-world scenarios to use if I do stick with that (thanks to whoever posted that Mind Flayer Template a while back <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> ), but I'd like to hear some other options first.I have two ways I'm considering starting the game:- Joan of Arc style. Travels the countryside gathering the PCs, as instructed by her visions. Eventually takes them to the frontier of civilization, where she dies. Possible twist (maybe unseen by the PCs): She really is just crazy. Anything the players get into from there is just (in-game) happenstance.- The players are travelling together (no specific reasons). While camping, an old Paladin sees their fire, goes to rest with them. The next morning, he cannot stand: As he realizes he is dying, he tells them the details of his life's quest, and begs them to complete it in his absence. (It would be a one-sided, skewed perspective on the plot as a whole, and open to many twists).Of course, I need an idea of the overall story arc before either of these work.Any ideas (or suggestions you have if you've run games like this) are appreciated. I've planned out campaigns of this scale (though not quite structured like this) before, so I know I can handle that part -- the difficulty is just, well, writer's block. So if you've got a large plot that you've run, that worked, and/or that could fit in with the above, and you wouldn't mind me stealing it <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> please let me know.</blockquote>

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