pukunui
Legend
Hi all,
While I was in the shower this morning, I had a (potentially) interesting idea for a homebrew campaign. I was thinking about how orcs are portrayed in Volo's and was reminded of the mapped stronghold that's provided in the book and that spun out into a loose idea:
Picture a mountainous region with arid plains and fertile river valleys ... not unlike Afghanistan. Once upon a time, there was an orcish nation that dwelt in this region. Some time ago, another nation invaded, killing many orcs, subjugating others and driving some into the mountains, where they took to caves and became guerrilla raiders that the conquering nation has been unable to get rid of.
The PCs would all be full orcs or half-orcs (with maybe one PC of another race who was adopted by the tribe or something). The stronghold from Volo's would be their home base.
In the early levels, the PCs would conduct raids into the conquered territory, perhaps to gather resources for their tribe or perhaps to recover artifacts from orcish ruins (you know, like recovering the magic sword of the great orc king from his tomb before the conquerors get it).
By the mid levels, they might be able to challenge their tribe's leaders and/or fend off threats to their leadership - perhaps by orogs or even a tanarukk. Maybe to prove their worth as potential leaders of the tribe, they have to go and defeat a dragon that dwells deeper in the mountains (or some other monster that dwells deep underground).
By later levels, they could be working to unite the mountain tribes and foment rebellion among the subjugated peoples in order to overthrow the conquerors and reclaim their homeland.
I think a lot of this would have to be homebrew content. Aside from the odd dungeon or short adventure, I doubt there's much pre-existing adventure content I could easily adapt for this purpose. In addition to what's in Volo's, I think I'd also draw on the portrayal of orcs in Eberron for inspiration.
What do people think of this idea?
While I was in the shower this morning, I had a (potentially) interesting idea for a homebrew campaign. I was thinking about how orcs are portrayed in Volo's and was reminded of the mapped stronghold that's provided in the book and that spun out into a loose idea:
Picture a mountainous region with arid plains and fertile river valleys ... not unlike Afghanistan. Once upon a time, there was an orcish nation that dwelt in this region. Some time ago, another nation invaded, killing many orcs, subjugating others and driving some into the mountains, where they took to caves and became guerrilla raiders that the conquering nation has been unable to get rid of.
The PCs would all be full orcs or half-orcs (with maybe one PC of another race who was adopted by the tribe or something). The stronghold from Volo's would be their home base.
In the early levels, the PCs would conduct raids into the conquered territory, perhaps to gather resources for their tribe or perhaps to recover artifacts from orcish ruins (you know, like recovering the magic sword of the great orc king from his tomb before the conquerors get it).
By the mid levels, they might be able to challenge their tribe's leaders and/or fend off threats to their leadership - perhaps by orogs or even a tanarukk. Maybe to prove their worth as potential leaders of the tribe, they have to go and defeat a dragon that dwells deeper in the mountains (or some other monster that dwells deep underground).
By later levels, they could be working to unite the mountain tribes and foment rebellion among the subjugated peoples in order to overthrow the conquerors and reclaim their homeland.
I think a lot of this would have to be homebrew content. Aside from the odd dungeon or short adventure, I doubt there's much pre-existing adventure content I could easily adapt for this purpose. In addition to what's in Volo's, I think I'd also draw on the portrayal of orcs in Eberron for inspiration.
What do people think of this idea?