New Campaign - Ancient Gate Theme

[wlmartin]

I have an idea for a Campaign and wondered if anyone had tried it or has suggestions.

It centres as a main story plot around an evil Wizard (aren't they the best baddies!!) who is looking to slaughter as many Shardmind's as he can in an effort to create another Ancient Gate. He is experimenting on Shardminds, killing them and torturing them.

The group don't encounter this Wizard until at least Paragon Tier, however the Heroic Tier will be littered with the Wizard's lackies doing his bidding (ie his Lieutenants capturing or torturing shardminds).

The idea will also involve a major coalition of 3 key religious powers (possibly Moradin, Ioun & Kord) who are organizing their followers to imprison as many Shardminds as possible and detain them as they believe (or at least Ioun believes,being one of the 3 that peered into the Ancient Gate) that in bringing them all in one place will create a nexus of energy creating a bridge (not a gate) to the far realm.

The organization above is unaware of the Evil Wizard or any other plans for Shardminds until later in the Campaign when it becomes obvious that someone else has an interest in the Shardminds other than them.


At the same time, there is a man known only as the Shadow - a being said to exist only in the minds of those who work for him, he has no material form. The Shadow is organizing the greatest union of Heroes with Psionic abilities to hunt down the Evil Wizard. It is unknown who he is working for or with, but he knows about both the efforts of the 3 gods as well as the Evil Wizard and he is seeking to stop anyone in any fashion opening a door to the Far Realm.

The Evil Wizard is being protected by an Evil Diety (unknown yet but possibly the one who defeated the Guardian and fractured the gate) shielding his location. This prevents the Shadow and his Psionic followers from hunting him down quickly. They can however act against his agents who are more in the open than he is.

So during the Heroic and the Paragon Tier the adventurers are going to Encounter both the Shadow's Psionic Followers fighting the Evil Wizards group as well as the followers of the 3 dieties who are imprisoning Shardminds across the realm.

There is basically 3 major powers here and they are all fighting each other in various forms... so it isnt just one power fighting a war on 2 fronts, they ALL are.

This opens up many different options for Adventure Plots where the group could be (knowingly or unknowingly) working for one of the parties in question... or perhaps working against them, either as an agent of another party or for another reason.

The Epic Tier will be focused on getting the group to basically Pick a Side.
They are not allowed to choose the side of the Evil Wizard, but they can decide that the efforts of the gods whilst unfair to the Shardminds, since it doesnt involve the Shardminds dying... they could decide that the power is best left in the hands of gods rather than an Evil Wizard or an unknown Psionic Agent.

It is more likely however that they will side with the Shadow... either way they will be against the Evil Wizard and the Epic Tier will involve the following
: A series of small battles and one great battle against the opposing 2nd party (ie not the Evil Wizard) so that they can be left to fight the Evil Wizard alone
: A series of small battles and one great battle against the Evil Wizard

If the group choose the Shadow, then the idea will be that the Good Gods are herding all of these Shardmind together and create a massive Target for the Evil Wizard to attack. The reason he may not have attacked the prisons of the Shardmind Captives is that he wanted them all in one place at one time.

They remove the temptation by freeing the Shardminds thus sending the Evil Wizard's plans into disarray.

If the group choose the Good Gods side, they will have a face down with The Shadow who will protest and insist that the group are doing wrong by going up against him and although his forces will be destroyed - he will escape no matter what.

When the final battle ensues with the Evil Wizard who by now is either
a) Attempting a siege against the Shardmind Captives (if they chose to side with the Good Gods)
b) Found half finished on a weapon that will feed from the power of the Shardminds he has already slaughtered and act as a magnet drawing in all of the shardminds from across the realm wherever they are and creating the Ancient Gate.

There are some bugs to iron out of the main story but it is all centred on the idea that the Shardminds are going to be used as a conduit (but unharmed) by Good guys or slaughtered by bad guys.

What do you think?
Any suggestions?

Has anyone else tried a similar Ancient Gate / Shardmind story?

 

[aco175]

It sounds like a good plot line. I never liked playing with psionics, but the plot itself is good. A good boost in keeping a long campaign going it to give the party a small goal that tops out and is solved at level 10. The group gets mixed up in local affairs and saves the lord's wife, who is a shardmind and was kidnaped around level 8. That fact was hidden when around level6 they met the lord and her at an event celebrating them ridding the forest of a non-plot related sidequest involving orcs. The level 10 BBEG works for the final guy, bu killing him is great satisfaction to wrapping up heroic tier and leaves things open to discovering notes connecting some of the other duchies in the kingdom.

 

[Robtheman]

It sounds like an interesting plot over all.

I would caution you to avoid the following:
- Telling the PCs they can't do something. They may very well ignore your expectations and go with the evil wizard.
- Involving the gods in any direct way until well in to Paragon tier. The players may encounter an unusual number of representatives, etc. but the gods are just too large in scale.
- Writing out an entire campaign ahead of time takes a lot of the fun away from the players. Be open to their unexpected actions and conclusions. They may take you somewhere far more interesting that challenges you as a GM.

 

[Iron Sky]

Some great advice I read somewhere once said "make situations, not plots."

In other words, if you have a rough idea of what you want to happen, but don't want to railroad your players, create situations/scenes/encounters where something is already happening, then they can choose how to get engaged.

For example, rather than having someone hire them to rescue some Shardminds, have them stumble across a minor wizard and his lackeys capturing and/or enslaving them, then the players get to choose what to do - stay out of it, rescue the shardminds, who knows, maybe they'll join the slavers!

If I were running this game, I would avoid planning on the PCs joining any particular side and just have them hearing rumors of battles, evil deeds done by one side or the other (which may or may not be propaganda), and "randomly" coming across confrontations between the sides.

If you do it right, it will really make the players a) feel like they're in a real world where stuff is going on even when they aren't there, b) make them feel like they're deciding what to do, not being forced.

Lastly, if they haven't picked a side by the end of Heroic, I'd be pretty surprised, unless they're somehow removed from the main goings-on for the first half of the campaign.

 

[wlmartin]

It sounds like an interesting plot over all.

I would caution you to avoid the following:
- Telling the PCs they can't do something. They may very well ignore your expectations and go with the evil wizard.
- Involving the gods in any direct way until well in to Paragon tier. The players may encounter an unusual number of representatives, etc. but the gods are just too large in scale.
- Writing out an entire campaign ahead of time takes a lot of the fun away from the players. Be open to their unexpected actions and conclusions. They may take you somewhere far more interesting that challenges you as a GM.

I wouldnt involved the Gods directly until the Epic Tier
In Heroic the most they would see is agents of the church (Clerics, Paladins, Bishops etc)
In Paragon tier the most they would see is agents of the Gods (Angels, Minor Exarchs, Minions who dwell who at least roam in the domain of the Gods)
In Epic tier the Gods themselves will still be just out of reach but their best guys (Exarchs, High End Angels and other servants of the Gods that are higher in the ranks) will be encountered

Since the heroes will encounter monsters of the same level, it is fair to say that their RP interactions will be of the same level but since NPCs dont often have a "level" exactly when in RP interactions (ie the King could be a level 0 or level 1 weakling) but their importance and rank in the world would be equivilant to a level so when considering the Court of a King as an example :

: Heroic players would deal with the stewards or plebian type servants of the crown, they would have restricted access to important affairs of the crown
: Paragon players would deal with the Kings advisors or generals and although the affairs would be important to the King, he is still far too important to be bothered by the likes of Paragon Players
: Epic players are pretty much the bees knees and Kings will often seek their attention rather than the other way around

The above isnt a steadfast rule to dealing with social and political interactions but the concept of a "level" to a player should not just be about what powers they can use and what weapons they can hit with but should also have a socio-political component that means once they grow in fame, they will become more important to the people around them... they would get into the best clubs, people would know of them before they arrive and as they get more and more famous, they will find their employers evolve from a union of local farms, to the local merchant guild to the regional merchants association to the Trade Advisor of the King --- to the King himself

I do also agree that planning a Campaign out can be hard. I try not to make it linear. I often plan for every contingency I can think the players would involve themselves in, this often means that I am wasting hours building maps and scenarios that the players will never use however often I can call upon these scenarios to accomodate the players and whilst they chose to go down the LEFT hand tunnel (towards the bat cave) rather than the RIGHT hand tunnel (towards the Troll Prison) - in 2 levels time when I give them a similar option, since the Troll Prison is unused, by releveling the encounter(s) I can utilize it then.