Need some help with planning a campaign

[TKDB]

I haven't really run games all that much before (a single one-shot for my family when I was home for Christmas, but that's it), but I recently got an idea for a campaign I'd really like to run. Unfortunately, there are a couple aspects of the concept that present some issues that I'll need to address.

The general premise of the campaign is that the PCs are a group of elite adventurers sent to investigate some strange stuff that's been happening to the sacred ancestral forest of the elves after previous investigative teams went missing. Over the course of the campaign the players will discover that everything that's been happening in the forest is the result of the awakening of a long-forgotten fey lord, the Elvenking, who's trying to essentially remake the world into a paradise for feykind, which means uprooting the normal natural order and replacing it with the somewhat bizarre ways of the fey. Naturally, most non-fey won't take too kindly to this change (and in fact, it's debatable whether the elves and other fey folk in the forest would go along with it were it not for the fact that the Elvenking is basically brainwashing them with magic).

There are two main sticking points with this idea:
First, I'd like the campaign to take place pretty much entirely within the forest, under the premise that the fey magic suffusing the place is warping space, making it nigh-impossible to navigate out by normal means, and blocking magical teleportation or communication in or out of the forest. Mainly I think it'd be neat to have a higher-level game where the PCs are cut off from normal civilization for an extended period of time, but normally by the time you get to the point where you can start playing with the fun higher-powered abilities, the players also have access to distance-travel magic that makes such isolation trivial to circumvent. However, this raises the sticky issue of railroading, since I am trapping the PCs in a situation through (basically) nothing more than DM fiat.

The second problem is that I'd like for the players to have a fair amount of peaceful interaction with the elves and other fey in the forest while still maintaining the fey as the main antagonists. My thought was to have four daughters of the Elvenking, each governing a part of the forest while the Elvenking builds his strength, which the players would encounter one by one. While I can easily promote peaceful interaction with the fey during the early stages of the campaign, once the players figure out more or less what's going on with regard to the Elvenking I imagine it will be difficult to get them to treat the fey with any pretence of cooperation or civility rather than simply marking them as enemies to be defeated and commencing with the beatdown. This goes double for the daughters, since I'm sure it won't take long after the first one's chapter is finished to figure out that that they're basically the BBEG's lieutenants. Any tips on how I can encourage the players to approach the fey (and particularly Elvenking's daughters) as NPCs to be interacted with in ways other than violence, despite them being antagonists that will eventually need to be stopped one way or another?

 

[Quickleaf]

The "fey invasion" may be seen by the daughters differently from their father the Elvenking. For example, one may be a bleeding heart who is trying to prevent a plague from wiping out a township...using fey magic to bewitch the townsfolk into becoming immortal (along with all the problems that entails). This accelerates the Elvenking's ascension to the throne of man, but that's not the daughter's main objective - on the contrary she's trying to save people.

Another daughter might be decidedly more nefarious but is enchanted so that her life is bound with the unicorns - if she dies so do the unicorns (and vice versa for evil-minded PCs). This daughter is disgusted at the weaknesses of man and is a fey elitist; however over the course of the campaign her position may weaken as she notices the PCs' valor and self-sacrifice. So in the long run she is redeemable, and in the short run they can't kill her because that would be tantamount to genocide of the unicorns.

The third daughter could be more of a force of nature, like a tempest, working against her father the Elvenking as much as she does against the PCs. Because she is a potential ally the PCs (probably) won't want to kill her during the young stages of the campaign. Later on, however, you might reveal her tempestuous capricious nature is due to having lost her heart stone in a storm. If the PCs retrieve the stone, the third daughter calms down and stops attacking mortal towns.

The last daughter could both be tragic and a villain through and through. Say she only goes along with her father's plan so that she can oust him and steal his power. Whether the mortal world survives or not she could care less, just so long as her father is out of power (and she is in power). This could come across sympathetically if the Elvenking does something really terrible, and the last daughter provides the PCs with secret aid against the Elvenking's despotism.

Just some ideas to get you started.

 

[pming]

Hiya.

Tell them.

Seriously. Have you talked to them (your players) about this? Just ask them if they would be interested in an "all-forest", fey-focused campaign. If they say "Sure, could do that"., then give them the overview of what the campaign will focus on; tell them that it takes place within the confines of a magically-altered almost-demi-plane fey-forest area and that "something" (re: bad guy) is trying to expand it's influence across the whole of the land...maybe the world!

Next, if they like the idea, when playing make sure to drop blunt-hints about the whole plane-warping magics going on...that way, when they do get 'teleport', and you inform them that they don't actually arrive in Capital City, 700miles away, but in stead arrive at Silverspring Enclave, 7 miles away, they aren't totally shocked. Do the same kind of thing with the elves. Drop blunt-hints so that by the third or so session the players have a *strong* suspecion that the elves/fey of the forest are not really themselves. That they are under some kind of outside influence and not in their "right mind" (re: that they are somewhat 'innocent' of their actions). This way they remain 'antagonists', but 'unwilling-antagonists'...this *should* lead the players to at least try and resist wholesale slaughter of the fey-folk.

What this all boils down to...player-DM communication. In my experience, for "big" things, it's best to just tell your players what you have planned for the overall theme/story. That way everyone knows, at least generally, what to expect. No point in the DM writing up a heavy intregue based city-oriented campaign, for example, and then the players all making barbarians, rangers and druids, aquiring a ship, and setting off to explore the island chain to the west.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[delericho]

The general premise of the campaign is that the PCs are a group of elite adventurers sent to investigate some strange stuff that's been happening to the sacred ancestral forest of the elves after previous investigative teams went missing. Over the course of the campaign the players will discover that everything that's been happening in the forest is the result of the awakening of a long-forgotten fey lord, the Elvenking, who's trying to essentially remake the world into a paradise for feykind, which means uprooting the normal natural order and replacing it with the somewhat bizarre ways of the fey.

Sounds good.

Naturally, most non-fey won't take too kindly to this change (and in fact, it's debatable whether the elves and other fey folk in the forest would go along with it were it not for the fact that the Elvenking is basically brainwashing them with magic).

One immediate question: how will this impact on PC elves and/or eladrin? You're almost certainly going to want them to be somehow immune to this brainwashing, but should probably give some thought as to how. (And it may be as simple as saying that their time amongst other races leaves them immune, of course.)

First, I'd like the campaign to take place pretty much entirely within the forest, under the premise that the fey magic suffusing the place is warping space, making it nigh-impossible to navigate out by normal means, and blocking magical teleportation or communication in or out of the forest. Mainly I think it'd be neat to have a higher-level game where the PCs are cut off from normal civilization for an extended period of time, but normally by the time you get to the point where you can start playing with the fun higher-powered abilities, the players also have access to distance-travel magic that makes such isolation trivial to circumvent. However, this raises the sticky issue of railroading, since I am trapping the PCs in a situation through (basically) nothing more than DM fiat.

It's not railroading if it's the entire premise of the campaign. But I agree with pming - talk to your players, and make sure they buy in to the concept. In particular, make sure they're onboard with the whole "communication is cut off" angle, so they don't waste character building resources on powers they then can't use.

The second problem is that I'd like for the players to have a fair amount of peaceful interaction with the elves and other fey in the forest while still maintaining the fey as the main antagonists.

Okay, before you start tying yourself in knots, perform a quick thought experiment: imagine there were no monsters in the world at all. Imagine all your antagonists had to be human. So, how do you go about having both peaceful and combat encounters if all you have to work with are humans?

The answer, of course, is to have different factions amongst the humans, and to have some humans who are friendly, some who are hostile, and indeed some who appear friend when they are in fact foe, and vice versa.

Now, replace "humans" in the above with "fey" and you have the answer on how to do it.

In fact, with the fey it's probably even easier - traditionally, they've been split into the Seelie and Unseelie courts, with some overlap between the two. Just play up on that aspect, and you're pretty much there!

My thought was to have four daughters of the Elvenking, each governing a part of the forest while the Elvenking builds his strength, which the players would encounter one by one.

That's a good thought.

While I can easily promote peaceful interaction with the fey during the early stages of the campaign, once the players figure out more or less what's going on with regard to the Elvenking I imagine it will be difficult to get them to treat the fey with any pretence of cooperation or civility rather than simply marking them as enemies to be defeated and commencing with the beatdown.

Now, this is an area where your "brainwashing" concept loses some of its appeal. What if, instead of the fey being brainwashed, many (most?) of them are choosing to side with the Elvenking? And then, what if there are equally a good many fey who aren't allied to the Elvenking (not to mention a lot of borderline cases who could be swayed either way)? (And, in fact, there's no reason that the Elvenking shouldn't have brainwashed some of the fey...)

That way, if the PCs just start killing fey on sight, not only are they wasting their energies fighting potential allies, but they're also hardening the opposition to what they're doing, by driving the neutrals into the arms of the other camp.

Indeed, you should perhaps track this across the campaign - keep a note of the alliances they seek with the fey, their acts of kindness, any brainwashed fey they rescue... and also any unprovoked attacks, allies destroyed, atrocities committed. Then, in the climactic last adventure, have the PCs be able to call on those alliances they have established. And so, the difficulty of that last adventure will depend directly on their choices throughout the adventure.

This goes double for the daughters, since I'm sure it won't take long after the first one's chapter is finished to figure out that that they're basically the BBEG's lieutenants.

Make them the Elvenking's teenaged daughters (in attitude, if not in actual age). So, they may be his lieutenants, but they're not necessarily entirely focused, they may act out or rebel, they might have their heads turned by various 'distractions' (send in the hottie Bard!), and so on.

And, yeah, don't make any of the NPCs Eeeeevil. Sure, the Elvenking wants to overturn nature, but not because he just gets off on destroying the world - he is merely an over-powered kid who wants things his way and is simply incapable of understanding the damage he's doing to everyone else. The Elvenking's daughters may be his lieutenants, but perhaps (as Quickleaf suggests) they each have an aspect of nature that they care passionately about. Perhaps by presenting the daughters with evidence of what they're actually doing, and the damage they're causing, some or all of them can be swayed.

Oh, and of course it would be a good idea to have the Daughters be rivals of one another, whether for their father's affections, for their own agendas, or for any other reason. Thus, clever PCs might well find it more useful to turn them against each other through intrigue, rather than immediately putting them to the sword - divide and conquer.

(Plus, it might well be a good idea to introduce one or more of the Daughters as NPCs before bringing in the Elvenking, and revealing the relationship. Introduce (at least one of) the Daughters as a sympathetic NPC, possibly as an ally, and potentially even as a love interest, and suddenly the PCs are less likely to just put them to the sword, especially if the Daughter doesn't change with the revelations to come - avoid the temptation to have a "sudden but inevitable betrayal".)

Basically, it sounds like you're looking for a fairly roleplay-heavy campaign, at least where a lot of the fey and especially the Daughters are concerned. So, go with that - in the introductory part of the campaign, while the PCs are still uncovering the real threat, make sure you have lots of roleplay involving a lot of the fey and especially the Daughters.

I hope some of that helps.

 

[TKDB]

Thanks for all the tips, everyone! The thought of splitting the fey into different factions had crossed my mind, but I'd initially rejected it because I felt like it diminished the power of the Elvenking, making him a less imposing threat. However, thinking about it more carefully, it would definitely make the campaign up until the party encounters the Elvenking a lot more interesting, and really in order to justify the Elvenking having such a powerful influence he really should be much stronger than the power range I'm wanting this campaign to fall in.

Another thought that crossed my mind since posting the thread: the isolation issue actually would help provide an incentive for the PCs to interact peacefully with the fey, since the elven settlements in the forest would be pretty much the only source of civilized amenities (particularly acquisition of equipment and exchange of loot for more useful items).

One immediate question: how will this impact on PC elves and/or eladrin? You're almost certainly going to want them to be somehow immune to this brainwashing, but should probably give some thought as to how. (And it may be as simple as saying that their time amongst other races leaves them immune, of course.)

I was actually planning to have the brainwashing effect be a major roleplaying point for any PC elves/fey-types. They'd basically have to make a Will save every few days or so to resist the Elvenking getting a stronger influence over them. It would start with little things, like strange dreams or an indistinct voice in their head, and if they repeatedly fail the saves they'd eventually wind up with penalties to resist charms and such from other fey (such as the Daughters) and ultimately even periods of blackout where they slip off under the Elvenking's control and sabotage the party without realizing it. Of course, I don't want to punish players for playing elves, so there would be upsides to it (not the least of which would be extra insights into the situation with the Elvenking), and I'd never take it so far as to have their character be completely ripped from their control. Even getting to the point of blackouts would be a matter of failing several saves in a row over the course of in-game weeks.
As for why they don't fall completely under the Elvenking's control, that would be a combination of the fact that (1) it takes awhile to get that far even for the NPC elves; the Elvenking started working on the forest several months before anyone really noticed something was amiss, (2) the PCs are, based on the very premise of the campaign, elites, and thus more resistant, and (3) as you mentioned, having spent lots of time outside the forest makes them less susceptible.

In fact, with the fey it's probably even easier - traditionally, they've been split into the Seelie and Unseelie courts, with some overlap between the two. Just play up on that aspect, and you're pretty much there!

I didn't even think of the Seelie/Unseelie dichotomy, that's definitely something I could work with. Especially since one of the themes I'm aiming at with this campaign is playing with the usual roles of good and evil -- the Unseelie are generally considered the "evil" fey, but they'd actually be potential allies for the PCs in this case because the Elvenking and his Daughters fit more in the Seelie court. The Unseelie wouldn't necessarily care about helping the non-fey outside the forest, but they would be very interested in working with the PCs to defeat a common foe.

 

[Grogg of the North]

If they're stuck in the forest can the PCs still shop/craft/seek sage advice? If the Elven city is in the forest then its no problem. I was in a game where the PCs were in one central hub town and we worked in the surrounding environs. That went really well.

For teleportation, I'd just establish early on in the game that something is affecting the schools of magic. It started along the same time that the patrols went missing. In a game I'm running now, I had artifacts affect magic in the area near them. Short range magic, like Dim Door, was unaffected but things like Teleport got scrambled. Plus if you manage to establish along the campaign that the PCs are the only one that can fix this problem, then they won't be running off to the nearest dwarven citadel to raise armies.

Railroading isn't necessarily bad. Just make sure the train can jump the tracks if needed.

For the fey, I'd establish that they are friendly if not mischievous. Perhaps the party has a few encounters with friendly fey early on. Later on they meet them again but they are hostile and obviously brainwashed. This makes it harder for the PCs to kill them outright when their foe is actually Lily The Forest Warden and not just nameless mook.

For the daughters, have the PCs just run into them randomly on the road or in town. Perhaps they are searching for something that their father needs or are trying to negotiate with the denizens of the forest to come over to their side. I'd have them be strongly loyal to their father and not willing to divulge much early on. If the daughters don't attack the PCs right away but talk to them your group may be more willing to talk back.

You could have the PCs learn that they're the lieutenants when they have to defend a town from attack and one of the daughters is leading the attack. One thing I would recommend is that if your group somehow manages to develop a rapport with the daughters, before the final showdown give them a chance to try and bring the daughters to their side and stand against their father. This again gives them another option than "Stab it until it stops bleeding".

If there are four daughters, are they going to be modeled after the seasons? Will the youngest be spring who is kind and caring while the oldest is winter; harsh and uncaring? Just a thought.

 

[TKDB]

If they're stuck in the forest can the PCs still shop/craft/seek sage advice? If the Elven city is in the forest then its no problem. I was in a game where the PCs were in one central hub town and we worked in the surrounding environs. That went really well.

Yep, there would be elven towns and cities in the forest where they could get such things.

You could have the PCs learn that they're the lieutenants when they have to defend a town from attack and one of the daughters is leading the attack.

I don't think I'm going to have there be much in the way of "attacks" perpetrated by the fey. The expansion of the Elvenking's influence would mainly be a gradual spreading of the boundaries of the forest and the changes that entails.

If there are four daughters, are they going to be modeled after the seasons? Will the youngest be spring who is kind and caring while the oldest is winter; harsh and uncaring? Just a thought.

You pretty much got it spot on! Each of the Daughters does indeed represent a season, and in fact their domain is perpetually locked in that season, so as the PCs travel around the forest they'll find themselves abruptly wandering from one season to another, and not always in normal chronological order. Dana (spring) is very cheerful and kind, almost childlike. Ana (summer) is regal and ladylike. Oona (autumn) is sly and manipulative, with a sort of Halloween theme to her domain, and perhaps the only really "evil" one of the bunch (though she's pretty subtle about it). Macha (winter) is harsh, but not exactly cruel -- more of a no-nonsense pragmatism and strict authority. Generally she's more of a boisterous, gregarious tomboy, but when circumstances call for a serious approach, she doesn't mess around.
Agewise I was actually thinking of having Ana be the oldest, since I envisioned her with a very mature, almost matronly demeanor, followed by Macha, then Oona, and Dana as the youngest. Kind of breaks with the natural flow of the seasons, but it fits better with the personalities I had in mind and besides, the whole point of the campaign is that the fey don't quite play by the normal rules of nature in the first place

 

[the Jester]

You note the problem of potential railroading in the OP- this is what I would be most concerned with. What if the pcs decide to throw in with the elven king? What if they decide to disinvolve themselves with the situation?

I'll echo what a couple of other folks said- make sure your players are cool with this.

 

[TKDB]

You note the problem of potential railroading in the OP- this is what I would be most concerned with. What if the pcs decide to throw in with the elven king? What if they decide to disinvolve themselves with the situation?

Those are actually two of the easiest possibilities to plan for. If they side with the Elvenking, the campaign changes to the party working with the fey to stop other outsiders trying to thwart the Elvenking's plan. If they decide not to get involved, then it's pretty much game over -- they're spectators now, basically just NPCs. Without any heroes working to stop him, the Elvenking grows in power and the world becomes a giant fey wilderness, with the non-fey races all mind controlled and/or turned into mutant plant people or something. I figure if you sign up for a campaign that's described up front as focusing on a particular conflict and then decide to just ignore that conflict, you should realize that means effectively removing yourself from the campaign. Not that I have anything against more character-driven, open-ended games, just that that's not the point of this particular campaign. Even if I didn't go into detail about how they'd be trapped in the woods, I'd definitely make it clear to the players beforehand that this is going to be a story-based campaign based on the weird stuff that's happening in this forest.

The main concern I had with respect to railroading would be the restrictions on how the players could go about pursuing the primary intended goal, what with cutting them off from outside help and all despite them having access to resources that would normally make such help trivial to reach. But I guess as long as I clear that issue with the players beforehand it should be fine.

 

[Piratecat]

While the game sounds full of potential and good fun, I really dislike blunt force of steering the PCs. Here's a few thoughts:

1. Don't require PC will saves or any check based on dice in order to simulate the elvenking's growing influence. Instead, let elves and eladrin know that always, at the back of their minds, they have a choice. If they throw in with the elvenking, they gain certain power but risk leaving the campaign. Every fey creature in the forest gets this choice, and the pot is sweetened as the elven king gains in power.

There's a few benefits to this. (a) If the PC goes over, it's entirely the player's choice. (b) You can make enemies tougher as time goes on, just by saying the elvenking's gifts strengthen them. (c) The PCs won't know what they have to give up to bargain for power, so their imagination will think it's something horrible. (d) When the PCs choose to resist, they aren't penalized. They just don't gain those benefits. (e) Corruption by free willed choice is always creepier than corruption by unavoidable saving throw.

2. Develop factions and power groups. There are the sentients who are trapped in the forest. There are the elves who resist the king's sway. There are the homicidal, psychotic gnomes who embrace the king completely. And so on. A clever group will ally with some and use others against a mutual foe.

3. I echo what everyone else says: tell your players first. That way they'll build woods-themed PCs who shine in their element.