Life After RttToEE

Aeric

Explorer
Hello, fellow EN Worlders.

I need some advice on a mid-level campaign I'm going to be running in the near future.

For the past year now, I've been playing in a campaign which has primarily consisted of Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil which, for those unfamiliar with it, is, for the most part, one gigantic dungeon. The campaign is coming to a close within the next month or so, after which the DM has declared he will be taking a break. It's been decided that I will take over as the DM for the group at that point, and they have all expressed an interest in continuing with the current characters. I've never run a game with characters above 10th level before, and by the end of this campaign they will all be 12th-15th level.

Only one of the original PCs (a ranger) is still with the group--he's their leader, in fact--while most of the others are relatively recent additions. The ranger has spent most of his career in the Temple itself, and therefore has garnered relatively little fame or renown for an adventurer of his level (13). The party has had dealings with the temples of Pelor and Heironeous in the nearest big city, as well as that city's magic guild. They are also known to the second-most powerful person in a neighboring kingdom, having rescued her betrothed (a prince) from the Temple. They also have the gratitude of the prince, who is a paladin on par with the PCs themselves as well as the heir to the throne of the dominant kingdom in the region.

I had originally planned to take the party to the Planes to find and slay the Princes of Elemental Evil, thus ending the threat of the Temple once and for all, but the players have expressed an interest in a new story which has nothing to do with the Temple. I have also vowed that they would never see the inside of a dungeon again unless they were arrested :), so another massive site-based campaign is not an option.

A couple of the players are new to roleplaying in general, and the Temple has instilled in them a definite hack-n-slash mentality which I'm hoping to break them of. The rest of the group are veteran roleplayers who are looking forward to a story which involves decisions ranging beyond "which room should we explore next?" I've asked them all what kinds of things they would like to see in the next campaign, and the only one who gave me a definite answer was the player of the ranger, who wanted to take the Leadership feat and lead an army in a war story. Everyone else seemed content to leave it up to me, but I have a feeling that a political campaign (as a result of titles and land grants from the prince and/or his betrothed) would bore them.

If I do wind up running a war story, I definitely know what the background will be.... The countries of the prince and his betrothed are preparing to launch a joint invasion of a neighboring empire controlled by evil humanoids. The two countries will be united as a single, powerful kingdom after the marriage, spelling doom for the evil realm, which has been on the decline for the past 10-15 years. I'm sure that the PCs could find a role to play in this invasion, if they chose to do so.

With all this in mind...what kind of stories do you think would challenge characters of this power level? If a war story, what would the PCs' role be in it? Commanders? Special agents? Elite shock troops? I don't want to turn the campaign into a series of wargames, although there may be nights when that is exactly how things play out. And if not a war story, then what?

Thanks in advance.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

I'm not really qualified to answer your question since I do very little gaming in the 15+ range. And that is important because the game changes after level 14, moreso than how it changes after level 9.

However, I think your idea about going to the planes is not only good, its almost required. After level 15, if you don't add the multiverse to a game, the player's abililty to teleport around really gives them a huge advantage.

Happy gaming!
 

Check out Monte Cook's boards that discuss the module. I think there are posts discussing where other GMs have gone after finishing the module.
 

If you've never run a high lvl game before, I suggest you get ahold of a Dungeon subscription and run one or two high lvl "side" adventures in order to get a feel for it. Don't necessarily tie these in with your big plot, just run them for fun and to get a feel of how PCs and monsters interact at that level. Heck, run them up against a bunch of giants. . . EVERYONE loves killing giants!

Once you've done that and just run some games to have a good time, start working in political/diplomatic adventures to work them free of a hack & slash mentality.
 

As always Piratecat has a good suggestion with the Dungeon Magazine idea. In fact, one of the big events of the last year or so in Dungeon/Poly and Dragon was the Incursion - basically an invasion by the Gith. Perhaps the results of the PCs actions have drawn the attention of the Gith to your campaign world, or they may have weakend some rival evil power that make the Gith see this as a prime opportunity to invade. Doesn't even have to be the all out invasion, it might just be a raiding party or advanced squad. The PCs would serve as the prince's special agents, dealing with high level threats or unique problems while the more mundane forces fight the regular battles and guard the cities and fortresses of the kingdom.
 

Aeric said:
If I do wind up running a war story, I definitely know what the background will be.... The countries of the prince and his betrothed are preparing to launch a joint invasion of a neighboring empire controlled by evil humanoids. The two countries will be united as a single, powerful kingdom after the marriage, spelling doom for the evil realm, which has been on the decline for the past 10-15 years. I'm sure that the PCs could find a role to play in this invasion, if they chose to do so.

I'm assuming by all of your references that you're running Greyhawk. If so, you might check out Carl Sargent's material Iuz the Evil, City of Skulls, and The Marklands. In my opinion, his stuff has been very unfairly maligned. It would be a great source of info for a war based campaign against Iuz, and give plenty of options to add political machinations to whatever level you desired. City of Skulls is a rescue mission in the heart of the evil empire, and although it includes a dungeon as a substantial part of the adventure, you could easily take the basics of it and rework it so that the dungeon was only a small part of the adventure and the main thrust of the story was the attempt to get in and across this hostile land without being discovered.

These old products were written for 2e but are still great for mining for ideas. They are out of print but available as .PDFs at RPG Now.
 

Thanks for all the advice, guys.

Piratecat: I was thinking of running the Istlivin adventures as presented in Dungeon as a lead-in to Against the Giants, which was the first thing I thought of running when I realized I would be taking over this campaign. I may just point them in the direction of Geoff and say "sic 'em!" and let them come up with their own strategy.

Stormborn: Funny you should mention the Gith, as I was thinking of bringing the Githyanki in as the allies of Iuz in the war story. Either that, or on their own as an "Invasion Oerth" type of campaign. Do you happen to have the issue numbers for where the Incursion articles appeared?

Davelozzi: I picked up all three of the suppliments you mentioned (yes, the game is in Greyhawk), and after perusing them, I'm very glad I did. Lots of great information there on the setting. And City of Skulls is a very cool adventure; I'll probably leave the dungeons in there as-is, since they aren't so big as to be overwhelming, and most of the rooms in them are identical cells anyways. I might run this adventure first after the end of RttoEE to sort of wean them off of the dungeon-crawl.

Thanks again!
 


City of skulls is awesome still plent of butt kickin to do but a little subtlety and intrigue make it to be a great adventure. Good luck


The Seraph of Earth and Stone
 

Incursion was a crossover event in Dungeon and Dragon...

Dungeon 100
INCURSION
"The Lich Queen’s Beloved"
The Incursion has begun! Dungeon’s contribution to this three magazine project sends the PCs to the Palace of Whispers in the githyanki capital city on the Astral Plane. There, the characters must brave the githyanki lichqueen’s deadliest tricks and traps to stop her quest for godhood. A D&D adventure for 18th-level characters.
By Christopher Perkins
Also be sure to check out the Web enhancement
+ there is an additional product available on the web at the paizo shop for US$2

Polyhedron section of Dungeon 100
KNIGHTS OF THE LICH-QUEEN
Take the role of the enemy in the Knights of the Lich-Queen Mini-Game, in which you play a githyanki invading a Prime Material world. The rest of Incursion assumes you’re the good guys.We know you better than that.
By James Wyatt

Dragon 309
INCURSION
The githyanki are invading your game. Learn the lich-queen’s plan.
By James Wyatt

Also a great high level adventure is "The Harrowing" by Monte Cook in Dungeon 84 (for 15th level caracters)
 

Remove ads

Top