Still no overall plot...

[Gruns]

So, my characters just reached level 5...and I still have no overall story arch in my campaign. Basically I've been getting them through the early levels with "Here are some of the latest rumors going around town. Want to investigate any of these further?". This has worked fine so far, especially since the players aren't exactly big into the whole "roleplaying thing", and I don't like to railroad at all, but now the characters have reached the point where they are able to start having some influence on whats going on in the world. I'm just having trouble coming up with a decent, non-cliche arch. So... How about some good ones you all have had experience with?
This is a simple homebrew D&D campaign, without any major houserules. I'd like to avoid the cliche stuff like "BBEG is trying to gather the 7 fragments of the broken artifact of Uberness, and he already has 5 of the pieces. If he finds the other 2, he takes over the world!!!". I'm really looking for something with a surprise twist. "Mr Evil McEvilson appears to be killing off the town council while slowly moving up the ranks. When the PCs discover the truth, it turns out Mr McEvilson had nothing to do with it, and was just a pawn for the real BBEG, Lich McMindflayerdude!!!" But only a little less cliche than that, too Any suggestions? I dont need any real details, just a cool story arch. Thanks for the replies!

 

[Turanil]

Try to build upon the precedent adventures. Tell us what happened so far, and I can come up with a few suggestions.

Otherwise, just a plot I did once: the little orphan girl had been adopted by the mage of the party. She was so cute nobody would pay attention. However, she really was a succubus in disguise who slowly and discreetly sowed mayhem around the PCs (using Teleport and Polymorph Self at will) and weaved her net of treacherous deceptions. It took many adventures before the PCs realized what was going on. But then the succubus teleported away before they could kill her, and continued her manipulations...

 

[Gruns]

So far...

Try to build upon the precedent adventures. Tell us what happened so far, and I can come up with a few suggestions.

So far the PCs have done a few things that could have backstory potential. They killed a minor BBEG that was affiliated with a local Thieve's guild. Rival thieve's guild hooked the PCs up with the Blacklock Loreseekers(adventure guild from Complete Adventurer). Blacklock Loreseekers sent the PCs to investigate rumors of a new Adamantium mine discovered on an island south of there. BBEG's Thieve's guild sent a pair of assassins after the party, and shipwrecked them on a different island. PCs killed the 2 assassins eventually. (And other inconsequential stuff happened here). PCs get off the island, but instead of investigating the mine from before, they decided to just abandon the whole idea and go someplace completely new(Grr...). In the new part of the world, they [kill stuff] and discover a map to a mountain stronghold. I haven't told them what this is for yet...

I'd like to somehow make the "helpful" thieve's guild (who the PCs dont know is a rival thieve's guild) and the Blacklock Loreseekers somehow end up being the true evil guys... Sending the PCs to do their dirty work unbeknownst to the PCs... But for what overall purpose?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I remember a little bit of Japanese history in which a powerful lord was overthrown, and most of his samurai were either killed or accepted into the forces of those who brought him down. However, several of his most loyal followers cast off most of their posessions (went Ronin) and dispersed throughout the countryside. Many many years later, however, they met in the home city of the men who overthrew their lord (as they had pre-arranged) and rose up and killed THEM.

Similarly, the mountain stronghold of Al Amut was where the Hassashim (whom we in the West now call the Assassins) gathered their power.

The fortress in your campaign could be the stronghold of those overthrown by the Blacklock Loreseekers...

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

I remember a little bit of Japanese history...

The Tale of the Forty-Seven Ronin.​

As I recall, these samurai's lord was wrongfully disgraced and orderered to commit seppeku by his own master, the shogun. The samurai abandoned their honor and their swords. Some became drunkards. Other - whoremongers or vagrants. Knowing that they would be hoonor-bound to avenge their master's death, the shogun had spies follow the samurai. The samurai, now without a master, now honorless ronin were followed by the shogun's spies for year - until he was satisfied that they presented no more threat to him than mangy curs.

Five years had passed when the forty-seven ronin reunited. They slew their master's killer and his guards. They had disgraced themselves by allowing their master's death. They had further disgraced themselves by living without honor for five years. Now they had commited the ultimate disgrace by murdering the shogun, their master's lord. They followed the only path left to them to reclaim their honor.

With their entrails and heads on the floor, these forty-seven seven men had avenged their master, his master, and one-another. Honor was satisfied and the fued was ended.

 

[Saeviomagy]

1. You do not NEED a single, overarching, uniting plot.

2. Every time a bad guy escapes, remember him and work out what he might do in the future, and whether he holds a grudge against the PCs.

3. Every time a bad guy is brought to negative hitpoints, but not brought to -10, check to see if he stabilises. Do this even for nobody-grunts. Then go to step 2.

4. Whenever a bad guy's plot is destroyed, see if you can think of a plot that would have required that plot to be destroyed. ie - if the characters save the city, that would benefit the evil creatures intending to suck the city into an alternate dimension. Etc. Then rewrite NPCs so they were working towards this new group's plot when they helped the PCs. Note that this could be wittingly or unwittingly...

 

[lgburton]

well, you certainly can have this helpful theives guild end up the big bad guy - and you are all set up to do so with no problems.

from here, what i would do (just an opinion) is play with the power vacuum that is left by the destruction of the old theives guild. who trys to take the power? have the pc's continue helping the people they know to take power... then (seemingly sidetrack) once all is peaceful, to the increased crime rates in the city itself.

if you want to take the high-roleplaying, political method, you could have the pcs notice the infiltration of high ranking officials by people who seem to care nothing but for their own pockets, and force the pcs to track the corruption down to its source: the very people they put into power!

or, if you want more combat intensive, there could be a faction in the new theives guild that wants the pcs dead for some reason or other, and has recently taken control of the whole guild. again, pcs track mystery down to its source, revealing that they are the ones responsible...


or any combination of the two would give you many levels worth of plot...

 

[pogre]

1. You do not NEED a single, overarching, uniting plot.

Exactly, your players may not WANT there to be an overarching plot or care if there is one. Are they playing to put together a great story or just kick some butt? Unless they are the storytelling variety don't waste too much time working on plot.

 

[Dark Jezter]

Not every campaign needs an overarching plot that all of the quests revolve around. An "Adventure of the Week" style campaign can be just as fun, and usually require a lot less work on the part of the DM.

 

[RandomPrecision]

I tend to randomly generate stories as I go along, so I can try to find motivations for the Thieves' Guild.

If they sent the party to investigate a new mine, perhaps they're trying to claim it for themselves, perhaps get a monopoly on adamantium and choke the economy until whatever society you've created surrenders more to the guild.

Or, the guild could know that the mine is a trap, either due to monsters, an enemy nation who will attack you on site, or assassins of the guild lying in wait, and they wanted to send the party there to get rid of them. Why would the guild want rid of the party? Perhaps they're about to show their true colours in a very dramatic way. You could leak rumours to the party somehow that the town the guild was situated in is now ruled with an iron fist, and the corpses of those who resist the guild lie in piles on the streets. Or perhaps the guild is led by a figure who knows the party is a threat, by divination, logic, or memory - if any of the characters have a backstory that allows a powerful rival, s/he could be leading the guild.

If you like wars, then perhaps the guild is actually the product of an elite group from an enemy nation, spies posing as a thieves' guild in order to infiltrate and sabotage this area, sending the party off to die while negating other defenses. If the city in which the guild is located is on a shore, perhaps they've sent the party away and trapped the other ships in order to neutralize coastal defenses in preparation for a naval invasion.

Anyway, random thoughts.