D&D 4E What will your first 4E campaign look like?

[Jack99]

The game starts in a society approximately equal to that of europe in the 1600s - there is some banking and musketry, but no steam-trains. There are great universities where arcane magic and natural philosophy are debated, and complex political maneuvers involving the church, the nobility, the guilds, and the rising merchant class. Or they did once, in the golden age. That ended two years ago.

The PCs and perhaps 20,000 other souls are the last remnants of this blossoming empire, as the ravening dead have overwhelmed the rest of the sphere. At first it was just an endless supply of infectious, Romero-style zombies, but new types of undead have arisen. Faster, stronger ones from 28 days later. And finally higher forms, undeath-spewing monstrosities cobbled together from a thousand corpses. None of them are intelligent or directed past the hunger for living flesh, but they're slowly beating down the walls, and there's not enough weapons in the world to kill them all. It's the whole rest of the world out there.

The only option left is to leave. The Arch-Professors of the Arcane college have put together a ritual to tear a hole into another world. A clean world, a fresh one, free from the undead scourge. And over the course of three long days, all 20,000 people in the city form a baggage train and take what they can into an uncivilized wilderness.

THe adventure really begins here, in a world that has never known empires, kingdoms, steel, stonework, or law. The initial PCs will most likely be humans, tieflings, dwarves, or eladrin. The civilized peoples. The new world will open up some new options - savage lizardfolk that worship the great firebreathing beasts that rule the wilderness here (dragonborn), wood elves that seem to bear some relation to the eladrin of the homeworld, and maybe others.

It'll be crazy, resource-poor, everything will be wild, untamed, new, unknown, and dangerous. That seems appropriate to a new edition. The fledgeling colony will need a lot of help to survive, and PCs will have their pick of all kinds of missions. There might even be faint remnants of a precursor civilization, an entirely unknown species that could have left some dungeons behind.

I expect it'll run like a combination of the british colonial period and Lost, maybe some Stargate thrown in, along with my own peculiar DM-style of mixed lovecraftian horror and Metal aesthetic.

I actually like this a lot. The ultimate PoL. Hmm tempting to incorporate this into my own setting...

 

[WyzardWhately]

I actually like this a lot. The ultimate PoL. Hmm tempting to incorporate this into my own setting...

Huh. Thanks, guys. Seems like a lot of people like it. I'll consider doing a more detailed writeup and sketchy campaign outline later. I think there's been enough rules-stuff posted that I could start to at least theorize.

Is anyone that interested?

 

[Jack99]

Huh. Thanks, guys. Seems like a lot of people like it. I'll consider doing a more detailed writeup and sketchy campaign outline later. I think there's been enough rules-stuff posted that I could start to at least theorize.

Is anyone that interested?

Definitely.

 

[s.j. bagley]

it will, undoubtedly, be heavily influenced by both lovecraft and clark ashton smith.

 

[joela]

joela's first 4e

What will your first 4E campaign look like?

What setting ideas do you have in mind? What adventures are you plotting out in your head? What NPCs, adversaries, challenges are you brewing up?

Will you be using the races and classes as is? No? How will you be changing them?

Assuming I can get my players to either switch or play in a second campaign....

The Wilderness campaign, the setting of the City State of the Invisible Overlord. It seems closest to the default setting of the new edition. More importantly, it'll be a change of pace from my more urban, mystery/political games.

As for adventures, npcs, etc., I'll translate any of the myriad adventures from the older editions. To me -- and my hapless players, -- an orc is an orc is an orc, regardless of the system. They all bleed prettily.

 

[Andur]

Couple of options rolling around:

1) Everyone starts off in a jail cell...

2) Destiny of Kings has always been a favourite campaign starter for me, been about 5 years since we've seen it at the table...

3) "Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of the sons of Arias, there was an age undreamed of..." For a lil more gritty, more low magic feel. Take it and twist it...

Or it just might just revolve around an orc and some pie...

 

[tombowings]

Huh. Thanks, guys. Seems like a lot of people like it. I'll consider doing a more detailed writeup and sketchy campaign outline later. I think there's been enough rules-stuff posted that I could start to at least theorize.

Is anyone that interested?

I'm re-imagining allot of it (well, mainly instead of undead, demons broke out of the Elemental Chaos and into Thaire. In there attacks the demons destroyed themselves and took the world along with them.) but I'll help with whatever I can.

 

[Khuxan]

2) Destiny of Kings has always been a favourite campaign starter for me, been about 5 years since we've seen it at the table...

What's a "Destiny of Kings"?

 

[tombowings]

What's a "Destiny of Kings"?

I'm not the original poster of that quote, but I'll take a stab at it.

I would think a "Destiny of Kings" campaign would be something like Aragorn in Lord of the Rings or, if you've ever played the Elder Scrolls series, Martin Septum from TESIV: Oblivion.

 

[Graf]

I was considering a mashup: Masks of Nyarlathotep in Eberron.

I'm still struggling to attend to sanity rules. Though I'm thinking I might just do it straight CoC and say that Xoriat is "coming back into sync" as a metagame handwave.

May be too ambitious for a first campaign, especially if I'm running it PbP.

First though, EN2. I must complete that first if it kills me (and it just might).

I think I speak for everyone when I say that we hope it doesn't come to that.

I really like Al-Qadim and Dark Sun, so I'll likely throw in a few bits from each. I love the Aztec feel of the city-states, that fits in great with the "corrupt humans" described ever so briefly in the Races and Classes book. So there will definitely be an ancient city-state of corrupt humans with mass sacrifices for the power of the king. Templars running the place and such. And I'll throw in the city of the undead from so many sources. Ancient ruins that appear empty during the day, but various undead come out at night, hopefully when the party is resting and dividing the loot they find.

Also a very cool idea. I think Tonguez was running something (years ago?) with a similar Aztec theme?

Huh. Thanks, guys. Seems like a lot of people like it. I'll consider doing a more detailed writeup and sketchy campaign outline later. I think there's been enough rules-stuff posted that I could start to at least theorize.

Is anyone that interested?

Very!