Two simultaneous campaigns?

[Sakzilla]

I have a FR campaign that has gone really well for the last year and I was thinking about trying something out to add some spice - any opinions are welcome.

We have a group of players led by a disgraced noble's son playing in Cormyr - they've been on a personal honor-type quest to regain this players family sword that was lost when his father was executed for treason (his plot idea, not mine!). The others were childhood friends of this guy and they make a merry little band. We've reached a good chapter end - he got the sword back - and I am going to direct them (after we run through Into the Dragon's Lair) to the employ of a minor noble on the outskirts of Cormyr to set about cleansing the area of nasties.

My idea is to stop the campaign at this point, hand out new characters (orc and goblin PCs) in this area and have them as a nasty band of scouts checking out the local hunting grounds (the territory of the minor noble above). We would play this for a month or so (4 sessions) as a quasi-military campaign against the Cormyr people. Switch back to the regular characters and get them up to this nobles area and have them start sorting out the orc problem. After another 4 or so sessions (at a good cliffhanger point) switch back to the orcs, and so on.

In effect, the worst NPCs in the game will be the players own alter-egos. The 'good' characters have good maps and knowledge of the area - I would give scraps of hand drawn maps and limited knowledge to te Orcs characters and not hint that it is the same area.

So what do you think? Workable? Suggestions?

 

[Psion]

Interesting. I am sort of doing something similar, but am not poising the groups against each other.

I have a high level and a low level group. IME, players don't like having to be errand boys for powerful NPCs, and don't like to be spectators. My players don't know it yet, but I am planning on setting up the low level group to eventually have to call on the high level group -- that way, I can use the old "seek out a higher power" yarn without the annoyance of handing the action to an NPC.

 

[Nifft]

Could work, but I'd give them an Evil campaign a little farther removed from their own actions. If you want to deal with those self-same issues, make them the evil people into whose lands your current PCs are driving the orcs & goblins.

That way, they could hear about the exploits of thier real characters, and treat them(selves) with grudging respect. "Damn upstart Cormyr lord, driving this cattle into our lands!"

-- Nifft

 

[Fenes 2]

In my old Shadowrun campaign, the (adopted) kids of some of the PCs had their own adventures from time to time, sometimes ending up in such dire straits that the "regular team" had to bail them out next session.

 

[HellHound]

I used to run a pair of CyberPunk 2020 campaigns like this - but not directly adversarial.

One party was a black / grey ops team in Night City.

Another party were Trauma Team (paramilitary emergency medical services).

Well over half the trauma team games were basically mop-up scenarios from the grey ops team games.

 

[candidus_cogitens]

Awesome idea! The only thing I would worry about is that the players might gripe about not gaining experience as fast as they would if they were just playing one character.

 

[Sakzilla]

I'll have to give some thought to a reward system that works on both ends of the campaign - my guys don't look for alot of x.p.s, so that shouldn't be an issue.

My big concern is that different players will like their characters from opposite sides of the playing field and if they figure out what is happening, then they might 'throw' the game a bit to benefit one group or the other.

 

[megamania]

A different version of this I often use is placing different parties through a specific event at a set time and place. My favorite being the events of "Freedom" in the Darksun world. I have had the groups be the gladiators, be spectators and recently Veiled Alliance agents trying to stop it from under the Ziggeraut. It's neat to see the different perspectives.