Psion
Adventurer
Hey all, I am currently running a Second World campaign. For those not familiar, the second world campaign depicts two parallel worlds, one pretty much our modern earth (where magic does not work well), and one that is geographically similar, but fantasy in nature.
I have been bouncing a storyline around in my head, failed to prepare this week, so announced to my players that I was planning on returing to a dungeon crawl in which the PCs got thoroughly thrashed last game. The look on the faces of one player told me that was not a good idea.
So I winged the ill forumulated plan in my head instead. It worked out fairly well -- which should not surprise me, since I typically feel like I am more in my element when running my own adventures than published ones. However, this sort of committed me to rolling ahead with this campaign, and I do feel that I run things better when I know where I am going and could use some help developing some ideas more rapidly than I had anticipated.
I am building this campaign with three basic goals:
1) Spend some time in the first world (i.e., modern). For those not familiar, most PC types in the second world setting are "exiles" and can only spend a limited amount of time in the first world before they are shunted back. However, it seems to me the modern adventures have the most unique flavor so I want to do more.
2) Spend some time in Second World Japan. In the second world, Japan is an region associated with the power of elemental lightining. Elemental lightning is harnessed and makes technomagic possible. The book is vague about what Japan is like, but I envision something like Midgar in FFVII, a land dominated by a single powerful company, and with robots and rayguns (I will be using perpetrated's Arsenal and Factory for this.)
3) Spend some time developing the idea of rival "Dragon Slayer Guilds" which operate in the western Second World US, which is dominated largely by dragons.
I was planning on making the adventure a little clue chase, following a number of exchanges, which I actually started last session. The PCs were hired by BlueCon, a major corporation in new york concerned about maintaining the status quo. Recently, the anarchist movement has been seeing one of their more violent factions armed with magical firearms (from Arsenal). BlueCon found this out, and when they followed some members, they found some of them were making some sort of deals in the first world.
The central edifice I was going to use to drive the story was a string of connections that the party has to follow to unravel the mystery of what is going on. The essential dark is that the Ved Qayat/Army of Tresspass is fomenting rebellion in New York so it can gain legitimacy as a stabilizing force and/or where it can weaken the city to the point it can take over.
The involved oganizations and their connections are:
Army of Tresspass: Provides money and support to the anarchists.
Anarchists:
Receives money from Army of Tresspass
Trades money with red society in exchange for first world weapons, in order to hire their services for the first world mob.
Trades first world weapons for second world (japanese) magical firearms to arm itself.
Red Society:
Provides first world weapons to the red society in exchange for hits on first world targets. (Since 2nd worlders shunt out of the first world in less than 24 hours and typically are difficult to record or even remember, they make great untraceable killers.)
Sells first world weapons to the anarch syndicate for money.
Unamed first world mob family:
Trades first world weapons that it obtains through its channels for the red societies assassination services.
Dragonslayers guilds:
There are multiple guilds, and they are competitive, but also lay low so as to avoid the notice of intelligent dragons. One particular guild hires first world military and trains them as metal wardens to use first world weapons as a tool against dragons. In the meantime, they are selling their services overseas to eliminate good dragons that the Naidanshi corporation 2nd world Japan see as a nuissance and a threat to their dominance.
Guild trades magic weapons for normal weapons to use against magic (and often, energy) resistant dragons.
Trades services to Naidanshi corporation in exchange for magic weapons.
Naidanshi corporation:
Trades magic weapons with the Dragonslayer guild for services of eliminating good dragons.
That's the heart of the plot, but details are lacking. What I am looking for is primarily reasons that the players would have to explore a majority of the chain; it seems to me the driving secret is Tresspass' involvement; once that is discovered, they may have no reason to explore the dragonslayer/Naidanshi leads. I could also use ideas for subplots and futher involvement anywhere along the chain.
I have been bouncing a storyline around in my head, failed to prepare this week, so announced to my players that I was planning on returing to a dungeon crawl in which the PCs got thoroughly thrashed last game. The look on the faces of one player told me that was not a good idea.
So I winged the ill forumulated plan in my head instead. It worked out fairly well -- which should not surprise me, since I typically feel like I am more in my element when running my own adventures than published ones. However, this sort of committed me to rolling ahead with this campaign, and I do feel that I run things better when I know where I am going and could use some help developing some ideas more rapidly than I had anticipated.
I am building this campaign with three basic goals:
1) Spend some time in the first world (i.e., modern). For those not familiar, most PC types in the second world setting are "exiles" and can only spend a limited amount of time in the first world before they are shunted back. However, it seems to me the modern adventures have the most unique flavor so I want to do more.
2) Spend some time in Second World Japan. In the second world, Japan is an region associated with the power of elemental lightining. Elemental lightning is harnessed and makes technomagic possible. The book is vague about what Japan is like, but I envision something like Midgar in FFVII, a land dominated by a single powerful company, and with robots and rayguns (I will be using perpetrated's Arsenal and Factory for this.)
3) Spend some time developing the idea of rival "Dragon Slayer Guilds" which operate in the western Second World US, which is dominated largely by dragons.
I was planning on making the adventure a little clue chase, following a number of exchanges, which I actually started last session. The PCs were hired by BlueCon, a major corporation in new york concerned about maintaining the status quo. Recently, the anarchist movement has been seeing one of their more violent factions armed with magical firearms (from Arsenal). BlueCon found this out, and when they followed some members, they found some of them were making some sort of deals in the first world.
The central edifice I was going to use to drive the story was a string of connections that the party has to follow to unravel the mystery of what is going on. The essential dark is that the Ved Qayat/Army of Tresspass is fomenting rebellion in New York so it can gain legitimacy as a stabilizing force and/or where it can weaken the city to the point it can take over.
The involved oganizations and their connections are:
Army of Tresspass: Provides money and support to the anarchists.
Anarchists:
Receives money from Army of Tresspass
Trades money with red society in exchange for first world weapons, in order to hire their services for the first world mob.
Trades first world weapons for second world (japanese) magical firearms to arm itself.
Red Society:
Provides first world weapons to the red society in exchange for hits on first world targets. (Since 2nd worlders shunt out of the first world in less than 24 hours and typically are difficult to record or even remember, they make great untraceable killers.)
Sells first world weapons to the anarch syndicate for money.
Unamed first world mob family:
Trades first world weapons that it obtains through its channels for the red societies assassination services.
Dragonslayers guilds:
There are multiple guilds, and they are competitive, but also lay low so as to avoid the notice of intelligent dragons. One particular guild hires first world military and trains them as metal wardens to use first world weapons as a tool against dragons. In the meantime, they are selling their services overseas to eliminate good dragons that the Naidanshi corporation 2nd world Japan see as a nuissance and a threat to their dominance.
Guild trades magic weapons for normal weapons to use against magic (and often, energy) resistant dragons.
Trades services to Naidanshi corporation in exchange for magic weapons.
Naidanshi corporation:
Trades magic weapons with the Dragonslayer guild for services of eliminating good dragons.
That's the heart of the plot, but details are lacking. What I am looking for is primarily reasons that the players would have to explore a majority of the chain; it seems to me the driving secret is Tresspass' involvement; once that is discovered, they may have no reason to explore the dragonslayer/Naidanshi leads. I could also use ideas for subplots and futher involvement anywhere along the chain.
