Looking for some new plot/campaign ideas

[saethone]

the campaign i'm running now:

really really powerful guy is trying to become a god, but the goddess of lies (who he would otherwise probably have to kill) tricks him

he gets taken down by a party of high level adventurers, all but one of them have to sacrafice them selves in the process (i had an amber dragon cast a spell that used their energies - they complied with him for the greater good..there is only one of each gemmed dragon in my world)

the only way they are able to subdue his power is to transform him into the terrasque

the goddess of strife is bored, she hints some high level evil baddies about what happened, old friends of this guy - they begin research on how to release him from this monster form so that he can attain his place in the heavens

pcs wake up in a jail of this guy (research subjects) and escape with their memory erased. someone uses a powerful ioun stone and gives them flashes of their memory, which leads to a pool of water with a waterfall in a forest, a red dragon is burning down the forest and lands on an island at the waterfall - pokes his head behind it smiles and leaves.

said hole is actually a tomb for the heros that sacraficed them selves blah blah im sure you can finish it from there

 

[Yair]

I like my evil BIG. Some current plots/favorites:
* The End: The excrucians are trying to end existence by taking out one platonic Ideal at a time, or perhaps one plane at a time. The ritual that will end this one must be stopped, but that's just the start: the characters better find a way to "resurrect" the lost Ideals, and somehow bring the war to the Excrucians in the Far Realm, which differ by not obeying elementary ideas we have of the world (no objects, for example).

* The Great War. That's the one I'm currently working with, a classic. The players must save the kingdom from a lengthy attrition war against the orcs, which are actually goblinoids led by necromancer (as in flesh-grafts and mutation) drow, with chromatic dragon allies to boot. (Now if I can only get ninja pirates into there somehow... )

* Divine Ascension: The players play deities waking up from amnesia, having incarnated into flesh to save the world. Use XP to mean regaining their divine memories, no magic items but allow the powers of magic items as supernatural/special abilties (i.e. make wealth per level a point-buy pool). Arcane magic is Evil, only non-Evil PCs allowed. NPCs are not classed except for evil wizards/sorcerers, but use plenty of Cthulhu-like minions, dark magic, and a modern setting. And read the first Amber book again before playing. (Possibly go Greek, and have Scions of gods as well as gods, with their levels being normal - e.g. Achilles as a Paladin due to his divine blood.)
I started running it, with the idea that the world was breaking apart at the seams because the god of Evil has taken off the key-stone of the world; the PCs were to combat him but he was basically wanting to erect a new world which the PCs will have to do anyways once everything gets broken.

* Balance: The world of the PCs literally stands at the border between all the elemental planes. As the balance between these shift, the planes physically extend into each other's domain and the border moves - and with it the "known world" changes. One of the elements is thrusting in an attack against another/the others; the PCs must stop the attack or their world will be swept in the onslaught and changed irrecovably. (This idea can be extended to cover the Alignment axes, but thinking in high dimensions make my head hurt.)

* Duality: There are only two gods: evil and good. The world is infinite - there are an infinite number of infinite worlds. The character start on a classic D&D polytheisitc world, and in their first adventure unwittingly let demons loose into the world. They fight them, learning the unity behind creation, and send them back to their Hell. The heroes/bringers of the apocalypse are banished to the outer planes in retribution/just judgement, where they face hell's wrath more directly and eventually confront it, joining into the eternal endless struggle.

Also, just use published works...
* Soul Harvest: Dwarves have unwittingly opened a gateway to hell itself, and the demons are spewing out. The characters must fend off the fiends and drive them back, eventually sealing the gate. (I like this better than a straight invasion. I don't like the actual Soul Harvest book, much, and it's small... but may still be useful.)

* Midnight: The world is overrun by one Evil god, and is severed from all others. The characters must free the nations from the dark god's minions, or perhaps convince his minions to betray their dark lord. They start at the free lands under attack, then move on to free conquered lands, and finally venture into the heart of darkness - the Shadow in the North, aiming to trap him beneath a holy trap, forever sealing his power.

* And more.... like Infernum (playing a demon-lord wannabe in Hell), or Blue Rose done classic-fantasy style (the evil lich-telepath sending his armies to fight the good kingdom, so the heroes need to save it).

 

[Runesong42]

One cool idea that my group came up with but never played: Wild West meets Mecha.

It's the year 20xx, and interstellar travel has finally become a possibilty. On the maiden voyage of the first ship (think of something like the Enterprise), the hyper drive or what have you goes mad and shifts mecha-wielding pilots into an alternate reality.

Earth is now a desert planet, and now has not one, but three suns. The planet is mineral rich, but the tech level of the inhabitants is barely above that of the Wild West era. Civilaztions are few and far between, thanks to the (big bad race of GIANT people-eaters). The 'new' humans have the tools to protect the frontier, mine for materials, and create new gear and weapons.

... as I type, I realize that this bears a strong resemblance to Firefly, minus the Mecha... meh,what are ya gonna do?

 

[NewJeffCTHome]

OK, how about this one?

PCs are on the opposite side of the continent, doing whatever small adventure awaits 1st levle PCs. However, on the opposite side of the continent is a former great empire - think, the Roman Empire in its later days - it had once controlled basically all of Europe, North Africa & the Middle East, but is now a shadow of its former self. Still powerful in relation to other kingdoms of the world, but no longer able to project its power at a distance outside its own much smaller borders.

However, before the PCs start out (maybe even a few years before they do), a new leader ascends to the throne of this formerly great empire. This leader is a: powerful warrior or evil priest or evil mage (or whatever you want) and not only dreams of restoring his empire to its former glory, he/she actually does something about it. This new leader makes a pact with a dark god/goddess to grant him/her great powers & the ability to inspire the empire's demoralized troops to a fanatical level. Of course, in exchange for this power, the new emperor/empress agrees to certain things, including the freeing of demons into the world, and questing to find a certain artifact that will allow this dark god/goddess to block off the influence of other gods from the world and bringing a permanent night to the world. Edited to add, to prove that he wants to gain powers, the emperor must either father a child with a demon, or if an empress, become impregnated by a demon. When born, this demon-child will rule the dark world in the name of the dark god...

 

[Ry]

Stanegau island is about 100 miles across, home to 12 tiny principalities (really baronies, but they call themselves princes), who often raid each other. The inhabitants are basically vikings, from which the PCs are also drawn. Although men of this island raid and adventure far and wide, and maintain a modicum of freedom, all must pay the Dragon Tribute to an ancient Green Dragon named Sargalis (The Crowned Serpent). Sargalis still holds the ancient High Crown, which represents kingship over the entire island.

The plot goes like this:
PCs go on adventures (like Gorgoldand's Gauntlet) on islands near Stanegau.
PCs return home during a raid by another prince on their hometown, and become allies of the Prince.
PCs help to counter raids, or go on raids themselves, and further adventures in the region.
PCs fight a young dragon, bringing its body as a substitute for the Dragon Tribute (a dragon is considered worth its weight in gold for the purposes of making the Dragon Tribute).
PCs begin collecting magical items to make themselves strong enough to fight the Dragon.
PCs fight the Dragon, hopefully victorious, and regain the Crown (assumedly for their Prince).
PCs help the Prince (now King) win the civil war.

 

[alsih2o]

A fleet of ships carying mercenaries, settlers, researchers and soldiers to a newly settled continent gets hit by a major storm and many of the boats are scattered and sink.

The PC's all wash ashore on an island they are unfamiliar with. Through a combination of magic and technologies it is possible to follow the island chain to the settled area. Or they could conquer an island and sit as kings. Or kill each other...wait for rescue...whatever.

The islands can each have their own struggles (My first one had massive lava fields divinding the island into a 2/3 section with polynesian gnolls and 1/3 section with wood elves) And allow a plot to develop. Strings of island chains in real life have loose contacts.

Orcs who sail full time, only landing for supplies can rule an area with their giant turtle slaves who crash ships. Dragons can occupy whole, fertile islands. This leaves them looking safe and beautiful...for a while.

It opens up tons of possibilities.

 

[aerofynn]

Synopsis for my current campaign:

It is set in the Forgotten Realms and utilizes the Spelljammer rules from 2nd Ed. plus the Netheril 2nd Ed. box set. It was started before Spelljammer was redone for Dungeon magazine and Lost Empires.

The PCs wake up in the desert. They know each other but have no memory beyond that. This was an easy way of letting them start at 10th level. The previous campaign fizzled out after the DM moved and they didn't want to start over at first. This starts a series of adventures where they are just trying to reach Silverymoon and find out who they are. They run across several hostile encounters where the baddies apparently know more about them than they do. They even become mixed up in a war with Orcs who tried to conquer the Silver Marches in a series of very well timed attacks and sieges.

Once they make it to Silverymoon, they have a ceremony performed by the church of Mystra and some of their memories are returned. In narrative they learn that they were the crew of a spelljammer ship (not THE Spelljammer but an Elven Warbird) and they were searching for something in Arcane Space that tied into a prophecy. Specifically, they were searching for the banished Netheril enclave of Doubloon, which is now a pirate empire in Arcane Space. The prophecy told of the death of magic when the two cities returned. The captain learned of the return of Shade and when they returned to Toril, a pirate armada from Doubloon ambushed them. The captain sacrificed himself to save the crew and to protect them, wiped their memories.

The ultimate conclusion will see the diminishment of Mystra, when the old magic of Netheril breaks her tentative hold on the weave. Shar will then make her move to seize power with her Shadow Weave. If the PCs can pull it off, the conclusion will see one of the PCs realize she is Mystyl (the original goddess of magic) and another one is Amaunator.

I've built the pirate empire with inspiration from Star Wars. Doubloon is ruled by a cabal of half-dragon wizards known as Zenyths and their army is commanded by magically enhanced monster knights known as Agunals. What the PCs haven't learned yet is they are opposed by a group loyal to Selune known as the Celi Knights, which are comprised of 3 castes - the Arcanamachs, the Socaires, and the Mageliths (each implemented as a PrC).

I don't know. It maybe to specific or corny for what you're looking for.

 

[LostSoul]

How about this one.

Start small.

The PCs are all members of one little town in a mountain pass that is home to goblins, orcs, gnolls, and worse. Winters are long, summers are short and sweet. It's a struggle just to survive.

You can start with the typical adventure - goblins raid the village, kill them & take their stuff - but then draw upon intrigue and other crap like that. Maybe the mayor of the village has make some unholy pact with the old hag that lives under Dead Man's Fall. Maybe he's got eyes for a PC's girlfriend.

The main focus of the plot would be on the relationships between the characters in the valley - how the townspeople deal with each other, how they deal with the monsters, how the monsters deal with each other, etc.

 

[Ry]

How about this one.

Start small.

The PCs are all members of one little town in a mountain pass that is home to goblins, orcs, gnolls, and worse. Winters are long, summers are short and sweet. It's a struggle just to survive.

The main focus of the plot would be on the relationships between the characters in the valley - how the townspeople deal with each other, how they deal with the monsters, how the monsters deal with each other, etc.

*cough* Vault of Larin Karr *cough*

 

[jnauman]

*cough* Vault of Larin Karr *cough*

Yeah, unfortunately I've already done this one...Some other really great ideas though too. THANKS!