Mega-Campagin Help

[Arctic Wolf]

Hello all, I am still relatively new to D&D and started playing with 4e (I played a small amount of 3e but just didn't take to it). I have not really DMed much anyways(1 game atm). I am trying to plan a giant campaign about a character I have made up and his accension to godhood/demon lord hood. I am trying to make a new class based on the idea of the demon lord ritual falling into the hands of a mortal and through each tier he will get closer and closer to becoming a demon lord.What I need help on is making enough content for the game so ideas would be nice. And if I could get any suggestions that would be nice.

 

[S'mon]

You're DMing - how about the players? Always remember the player characters are the most important people in the campaign. The campaign needs to be fun for the players. What are the PCs going to be doing?

 

[S'mon]

. I am trying to make a new class based on the idea of the demon lord ritual falling into the hands of a mortal and through each tier he will get closer and closer to becoming a demon lord.

Not sure what you mean by 'class' here.

Assuming your campaign centres on a mortal NPC villain and his quest to become a demon lord: If you want this to be a full 3-tier campaign, the villain needs to survive for a long time, without his plans being destroyed. But you also need to avoid railroading.

The best solution is for the villain to initially be an offstage, unseen presence, like Sauron in LoTR. Initially he can be personally too powerful for the PCs to handle. Later on, he can (a) avoid direct conflict with the PCs and/or (b) be defeatable, but not permanently killable - due to the power he has gained, his body may discorporate upon 'death' then reform elsewhere after a delay. This approach would let the PCs fight him directly, perhaps slow down his plans, but not achieve final victory until the climax of the campaign. Another idea would be to have him become a psychic entity that can take over the minds of vulnerable NPCs, like the Ravers in the Thomas Covenant books.

You could end the campaign with an Epic-tier maguffin quest where the PCs seek a high-Epic artifact that is capable of permanently destroying the now-partially-ascended demon lord before he gains full power.

 

[the Jester]

I can already detect the discontent of the players who don't want to ride the railroad.

Why not write this as a story? If you have the ending all figured out, or worse yet, if you know what kind of development a pc will have to take over time, you need to re-evaluate whether you want this to be a D&D game at all (or, frankly, any kind of rpg).

What if the players don't go along with your idea? What if the guy you have pegged as the "turns into a demon" class guy wants a different paragon path or epic destiny than you've designed? What if your players would rather be good guys and don't have any interest in ascending into godhood/descending into demonhood? What if the pc with the demon-ascending class dies at 6th level?

 

[Arctic Wolf]

True, it does sound like more of a story and I should prolly write it down instead. I will reconsider maybe making some events the characters can affect and add it in there.

The backstory I had for this guy is that he was a servent of Vecna who searched for rare items and while looking with 2 of his close friends he came across an old tome for the demon lord ritual and stole it before the others could fully investiage. He accidently uses it and finds out his magic is somewhat different then before and he can combine with it like an elemental. I mean I wasn't going to make him evil because he still isn't sure what happens, prolly at paragon is when I was going to start throwing in the demon form that he can't handle and ending up in an area of dread and learning to control it from a dreadlord who found the same tome but just can't bring himself to fully embrace it.

The way I set up the story for when the characters come in is they will meet at the north-most city-state capital accidently from the gangs that will try to attack them. They will then be hired by a mysterious figure (who is the queen) to take out these gangs. For most of heroic they are taking care of local things and then moving south and winding up to that dread area as I said earlier. After that will be paragon and they will end up defending the planet they are on from threats from the east continent. They will come back in epic tier just in time for a war with another city-state who basically can't stand the north city-state because it is basically a melting pot and they are human. So after the war they have to deal with an undead threat from the west and so on from there.

Do you think this is still walking a thin line?

P.S. I do plan on incorporating the character's background into the story so it doesn't feel like too much focusing on this one character.

 

[MortalPlague]

As a new DM, you may be biting off more than you can chew. I would focus on your first adventure only, and see how it all goes. Learn to walk before you try to run.

 

[S'mon]

If you're planning to have a GM-controlled character in the party, and have the campaign centre around him, my advice is: don't. This never works, it will only annoy your players.

 

[Rechan]

If you're planning to have a GM-controlled character in the party, and have the campaign centre around him, my advice is: don't. This never works, it will only annoy your players.

I will bold this. Then underline it. Then draw a few circles around it. And a few arrows pointing at it.

The players want the game to be about them. When it's "Look how awesome other people are", then it's Not Fun.

 

[Arctic Wolf]

I will bold this. Then underline it. Then draw a few circles around it. And a few arrows pointing at it.

The players want the game to be about them. When it's "Look how awesome other people are", then it's Not Fun.

Gotcha. Thanks everyone, I will def rethink about how I will do this campaign. If you guys have anymore feedback, that would be much appreciated.

 

[Randomthoughts]

<good stuff>
Do you think this is still walking a thin line?

P.S. I do plan on incorporating the character's background into the story so it doesn't feel like too much focusing on this one character.

To avoid a railroad, what I do when I prepare a campaign is write some things that I'd like to see (like places to visit and people to see) and events that logically would occur in a certain sequence if there is no PC intervention.

For example, you mentioned this NPC who wants to become a demon lord. So, you may think that he needs to get X, then Y, then perform the ritual at Z to devolve into a demon lord (and X, Y and Z would generally be performed at each tier).

EDIT: Note that the further out the events are (like events in epic tier) the more "fuzzy" they are and the less likely they will occur (without railroading). So, if the PCs want to explore the far-off crypt next adventure, I prepare the journey to the crypt and the crypt itself b/c that's very likely what they want to do. OTOH, a ritual that must occur in the Shadowfell at Epic Tier is much less likely to happen.

I don't have a problem with writing this "wish list" down b/c it's only purpose is to provide a direction to the campaign and is not a checklist for PCs to follow. I know this b/c I asked them (after providing some general details) - this is the kind of campaign they want.

Once you have this direction, you have to decide how the PCs might be hooked into the story line and how they can affect it. They really should be able to, otherwise, what's the point of running this as a RPG?

It appears that this character is one you developed, so he's a NPC, correct? Be careful here (as others have mentioned) - you may want to be both "player" and GM and generally that doesn't work IME. The story should put players front and center.

Now, you can have this NPC as an important part of the story - say the main villain. But he shouldn't be adventuring with the PC regularly. He needs "off-screen" time for him to evolve and pursue his schemes. At appropriate times, the PCs will/can/should intervene and send this story into new (and hopefully interesting) directions.

Finally, I followed this approach when I developed my 4e Dark Sun campaign. I had finished the first story arc (the purpose of which was mainly to get me and players familiar with 4e rules) and will be starting season 2 in a few months. Though I had a rough idea of where I wanted to go, PC actions and player preferences have changed the next story arc quite a bit...as it should.