Plotlines - eh?

[mistress_dodo]

Hi there,

Well I had my first DM session on Monday and things went well. granted a "challenge of champions" is easy to start with, so really it doesn't count does it....

Ok here comes my question. I want to design a plotline something like this:

Background: Characters are attending a 4 year academy. They have just finished their final year and are taking their final exam before graduation. During the last testing a wizard/teacher bursts in, telling them the academy is under attack, hands them a small bag of holding and start to cast a mass teleport spell to send them to one of the pre-defined safe locations (Standard procedure)
The caster gets hit by something and the spell goes awry. The characters still get teleported, but they end up in a location unknown to them..

Plot:
They will get to a village where they are asked to retrieve a 'stolen' artifact from a group of orks nearby. The village elder will tell them the artifact was stolen and his daughter kidnapped at the same time.
twist: The orks are actually good orks, and the artifact and some keyword/phrase etc have been kept safe for generations by both the vilage and the orks. The orks keep the artifact and the vilage elder has the knowledge. The communities are at peace, and have intermarried etc. (larger than normal concentration of half-orks). What has actually happened is that a wants the artifact for and has been terrorising the village using a band of evil orks. The vilage elder has been kidnapped, his daughter has ran away to the good orks. The vilage elder has been replaced by a hired doppleganger. The naughty evil person has not killed the elder yet as he has not found the information the elder is keeping safe. The daughter has escaped capture (was going to be used to 'encourage' the elder to talk) and fled to the orks community. They are protecting themselves from the other orks (their mages etc) and have been cut off from the vilage.

After they complete this they will (hopefully) try to make their way to bluffside (renamed ofcourse) where the sisterschool for the academy is located. This is a journey of some note (haven't decided distances yet) and they will go from the vilage to a larger town, down the river etc... whatever happens there I don't know yet.



My question:
Is this too elaborate a plot? Am I making things too hard for the party? They will be 4th level whatevers when they get there, just won't have too much remarkable equipment, only what is in their "emergency bag of holding".

Feedback would be appreciated

Thanks,
Agnes

 

[Crothian]

My first reaction is won't the PCs be more interested in where they are, getting either to a safe zone or back to the acedemy? I think it would take a bit for the players to get interested in this and not first go off the sister school.

 

[mistress_dodo]

They won't know where they are, or where the sister school is, and trying to find out information and trying to find the school they will come across this. I might jazz it up a bit to get their attention.

 

[Gilladian]

YOu may find that to lure the PCs into being interested in the plot you have to make them feel solving the problem will advance them on the path to getting home.

Possibly the orcs are between them and their destination (or at least the next point on their trip). Or maybe the false village elder tells them he will sabotage their trip unless they help (ie refuse to permit anyone in the village to sell them food or travel gear).

Your overall plot doesn't sound bad, but sometimes PCs get fixated on their own goals and don't see the adventure you're dangling in front of them. Instead make the adventure part and parcel of their goal.

 

[Agback]

The caster gets hit by something and the spell goes awry. The characters still get teleported, but they end up in a location unknown to them..

Plot:
They will get to a village where they are asked to retrieve a 'stolen' artifact from a group of orks nearby.

I don't think it is a good idea. You have made a good start on one set of issues, got players' interest up in the questions 'where are we?', 'are we lost at random or placed where our enemies want us?', 'how do we get home?', 'can we help our academy in its current struggle?'. Make use of that! If you cut away to something unrelated the player's interest will wane before you get back.

I recommend that you run at least one adventure that is related to the main story arc before you cut away to a subplot, and at least two or three before you introduce a self-contained incident. The players should be working on a plan before you send them off on side quests.

You have set up the situation. Now establish the core conflict.

 

[mistress_dodo]

Thanks for that,

So how about the person who has been put in charge of the recovery of the artifact is actually higher up in the command chain of the group who attacked the academy? That way I can give them tid-bits of rumours about the attack, and how successfull etc. How everyone got caught, etc.

They might just 'save-the-day' alltoghether *grins*

 

[Crothian]

That's good, and it doesn't have to be true. If they are really eager to learn things and get involved they can easily be lied to and fooled into doing things the bad guys want them to do.

 

[mistress_dodo]

I didn't even think of that. I wanted to do something out of left field as the group I normally play with (its my first time as GM) has a tendency to kill first and ask questions later. Hence the LG ork community.

Im now leaning towards having them not be teleported as far as they thought, and they can 'relatively' easy find their way back to the academy. They will still have to figure out where they are, but I can then also have rumours in the country side about the academy. If they are too far away that wouldn't happen.

Now for a reason why the academy was under attack......... *thinking*

 

[Nightfall]

In the spirit of utter randomness, just have them be attacked by demons for the rest of their lives...and then get Fiendish Codex I.

 

[Agback]

Right now, the juiciest carrot you can dangle in front of your players is knowledge. Knowledge of where they are. Knowledge of whether they are here (rather than elsewhere) for a reason or were flung at random (this will make a big, big difference to the tone of the rest of the campaign). Send them after knowledge, not after some lame McGuffin.

What say the first habitation they come across is an army camp or grim fortress. They won't want to just saunter up and say 'Hey guys! Where is here?', because it might be the enemy who kidnapped the. So they will invetigate with some circumspection. Perhaps the locals are in a fight of some sort, and they don't know which side to approach for help and advice….

The obvious development is that they be in a place that they have never heard of, and so remote that no-one nearby has heard of where they come from. But there is a metropolis 300 miles away with a famous library. And since they are heading in that direction, could they please…