Aethoria - A newbie DM's first take on his campaign [Archive] - Wizards Community

Aethoria - A newbie DM's first take on his campaign [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
SeanFitz27
02-07-08, 03:42 AM Hi everyone, I'm a fan of the boards, and this one in particular has been helpful. I'm a first time DM, and I've taken on the daunting task of preparing a campaign world for my party to explore. I was hoping to receive some feedback on what I've written. Here's what I have so far:

Name of Campaign World: Aethoria
Content Allowed: Core Strongly Recommended, Other Books must be approved by DM

Aethoria is a continent with a broad spectrum of geographic features: Mountains, plains, rivers, marshes, deserts, etc. It's people are diverse, though humans tend to dominate the land with their ambitious nature to expand.

Aethoria was once ruled by a king named Grey Septum. He was assassinated by his top advisor, who had planned on seizing the throne and ruling Aethoria for himself. Yet this plan failed due to the rebellious efforts of several major cities in the south of Aethoria. They were successful in overthrowing the advisor and seizing back control of the crown. Unfortunately, they could not decide amongst themselves who would be the new king, so Aethoria's cities fell into disarray as they squabbled over who was the rightful new leader.

This has lead to a darker period in Aethoria's history, as city fights against city, and war ravages the landscape. Monsters have increased their presence in Aethoria in the absence of law and order, giving the public even more to fear. Currently, Aethoria is divided into city-states that vie for control of territory and communities to strengthen their power.

This brings us to the starting point for the party, Greyshaft. It is a small mining community at the base of the Agrocragg Mountains (Global Guts reference) that turns out high quality iron for military use by its sovereign city, Ravendale. Recently though, the mine has been shut down due to mysterious circumstances. This is causing quite a stir in Ravendale, which is engaged in skirmishes with surrounding cities who wish to seize the city for its abundant trade routes. Iron is in high demand for weapon and armor manufacture. The party has been dispatched by the magistrate in Ravendale to travel to Greyshaft and find out what has happened. They are tasked with doing whatever is necessary to return the mine to full operational capacity.

The party will be riding into Greyshaft on carts, and will have the opportunity to meet each other and learn a little about each other and their situation. Once in Greyshaft, they will need to report to the magistrate to begin their investigation. From there, I have prepared several "quests" that they will have the opportunity to take up. They are:

1. Investigating the mine and getting it back to normal operations
2. Resolving recent problems with hobgoblin raiders
3. Investigating a forest nymph and some missing hunters

1. The magistrate will explain to the party that the miners never came out of the mine one evening, and all attempts to send guards or militia into the mine to explore it have failed. (DM's Notes: The miners dug through a wall into a cave where grimlocks were living. The grimlocks attacked the miners and killed them, along with the guards/militia sent in after them.)

2. Hobgoblin raiders have been attacking the town, burning the crops, damaging property, and the like. The magistrate asks the party to find the hobgoblin leader and bring his war banner to the magistrate as proof of execution. He offers the party the chance to interrogate a hobgoblin prisoner. (DM's Notes: The hobgoblin prisoner will relate a story of how Greyshaft's mine was formerly controlled by the hobgoblins, but the humans had come in and stolen the mine from them. This slight has caused the hobgoblins to attack the human settlement. The party will have the opportunity to either try to establish a diplomatic solution to the problem, or they can simply use force to accomplish the mission).

3. A hunter in the tavern approaches the party, bemoaning the recent deaths of his companions. He blames a forest nymph, and asks the party to help him get even, and recover his friends bodies. (DM's Notes: The hunters tried to restrain and capture the nymph when they encountered her, and she retaliated by blinding them and capturing the hunter's companions. She will release them if they agree to not bother her, and also cease use of traps that mutilate and disfigure the animals they use them on. The party can choose to use diplomacy between the hunters/nymph, or kill the nymph).

The grimlock cave will exhibit signs of druidic gatherings, and it will become clear that druids lived in the cave before the grimlocks, but the grimlocks came in and killed them. The party will find a magical amulet that is damaged, and they will find that their only hope of identifying it lies in Ravendale with more advanced magic-users. As they take the carts from Greyshaft back to Ravendale, their caravan will be ambushed by kobolds who seem to be looking for the amulet. A kobold sorcerer will be leading the ambush, and use detect magic to direct the kobolds' focus to the one carrying the amulet. (DM's Notes: The amulet is an artifact that grants the user great power - undecided at this time - but it is damaged and cannot be used. In this campaign, kobolds worship dragons, and a nearby green dragon sensed the power of the amulet once it resurfaced and dispatched the kobolds to retrieve it. Also, future encounters will pit the PCs against evil forces trying to steal the amulet away from them. This will give the PCs a chance to interact with the different factions of Aethoria along the way, whatever they may be.)

That's the basis for the first few sessions, and I have more detailed notes about how things may play out for each encounter. I haven't designed the rest of Aethoria, or most of Ravendale, but I figure that PCs can discover these things later in the campaign, which will give me time to generate these things.

My real concern is if all this has an engaging quality, or if I should be approaching this campaign from a different perspective. It is important to me for this campaign to transcend a "hack and slash" dungeon crawl, so I have tried laying the groundwork for political drama as well as diplomatic resolutions and the ever-present combat solutions. For example, I plan on introducing the existence of a governor of a powerful city-state who is trying to conquer the rest of Aethoria. He is doing this because he believes that Aethoria needs to be united in order to prosper, and sees what he is doing as justified, even though he may crush his enemies and not always show mercy. On the other hand, I may introduce a secret to the party - that the former ruler Grey Septum had an illegitimate son that has been kept secret, and that the party could attempt to unite Aethoria under his leadership instead. This would cause conflict between the two leaders vying for power.

Anywho, let me know what you think about this frame for the campaign. All constructive feedback is appreciated. And I know some of this stuff may seem cliche or drawn from other media, but I tried to make this as original as possible.
Orchomenos
02-07-08, 10:41 AM I like the general set of the World/Country. This serie of petty kingdoms is closer to the true Middle Age than many fantasy settings where various kings governed immutable territories.

Before starting, I suggest you to vaguely design 6-8 cities, so your players will be able to choose a place where their character is coming from. Nothing too complicated, something like this:
Mount Yrvossa is a fortress located on a lone hill, on the far East of the Kingdom. Like Xinoe, it was founded by Norhabian settlers, but the nationality feeling toward Norhaib is mild.
Population: 4710 (30% humans-Norhabian, 55% humans-Mussullan, 7% halflings, 7% half-elves, 5% gnomes, 1% others).
Leader: Duke Enesria Tarenma.

I also suggest you draw a map of your world, or at least the immediate neighborhood.

Also, it could be good to include a brief description of some neighboring kingdoms. Is it possible that some city-states' leaders be linked to remote, powerful monarchies?

The party will be riding into Greyshaft on carts, and will have the opportunity to meet each other and learn a little about each other and their situation. Once in Greyshaft, they will need to report to the magistrate to begin their investigation.
I suppose they will be sent by various interest specifically to investigate the iron shortage?
SeanFitz27
02-07-08, 01:02 PM Hey, thanks for the feedback. I have a lot of free time today, so I'll get working on sketching out other regions in my campaign so the party can have that added choice of where they come from.

I should have made this more clear, but the members of the party were individually hired by the magistrate in Ravendale to travel to Greyshaft to help with the investigation. Only after departing for Greyshaft will they learn of each other's existence.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
SeanFitz27 02-07-08, 03:42 AM	Hi everyone, I'm a fan of the boards, and this one in particular has been helpful. I'm a first time DM, and I've taken on the daunting task of preparing a campaign world for my party to explore. I was hoping to receive some feedback on what I've written. Here's what I have so far: Name of Campaign World: Aethoria Content Allowed: Core Strongly Recommended, Other Books must be approved by DM Aethoria is a continent with a broad spectrum of geographic features: Mountains, plains, rivers, marshes, deserts, etc. It's people are diverse, though humans tend to dominate the land with their ambitious nature to expand. Aethoria was once ruled by a king named Grey Septum. He was assassinated by his top advisor, who had planned on seizing the throne and ruling Aethoria for himself. Yet this plan failed due to the rebellious efforts of several major cities in the south of Aethoria. They were successful in overthrowing the advisor and seizing back control of the crown. Unfortunately, they could not decide amongst themselves who would be the new king, so Aethoria's cities fell into disarray as they squabbled over who was the rightful new leader. This has lead to a darker period in Aethoria's history, as city fights against city, and war ravages the landscape. Monsters have increased their presence in Aethoria in the absence of law and order, giving the public even more to fear. Currently, Aethoria is divided into city-states that vie for control of territory and communities to strengthen their power. This brings us to the starting point for the party, Greyshaft. It is a small mining community at the base of the Agrocragg Mountains (Global Guts reference) that turns out high quality iron for military use by its sovereign city, Ravendale. Recently though, the mine has been shut down due to mysterious circumstances. This is causing quite a stir in Ravendale, which is engaged in skirmishes with surrounding cities who wish to seize the city for its abundant trade routes. Iron is in high demand for weapon and armor manufacture. The party has been dispatched by the magistrate in Ravendale to travel to Greyshaft and find out what has happened. They are tasked with doing whatever is necessary to return the mine to full operational capacity. The party will be riding into Greyshaft on carts, and will have the opportunity to meet each other and learn a little about each other and their situation. Once in Greyshaft, they will need to report to the magistrate to begin their investigation. From there, I have prepared several "quests" that they will have the opportunity to take up. They are: 1. Investigating the mine and getting it back to normal operations 2. Resolving recent problems with hobgoblin raiders 3. Investigating a forest nymph and some missing hunters 1. The magistrate will explain to the party that the miners never came out of the mine one evening, and all attempts to send guards or militia into the mine to explore it have failed. (DM's Notes: The miners dug through a wall into a cave where grimlocks were living. The grimlocks attacked the miners and killed them, along with the guards/militia sent in after them.) 2. Hobgoblin raiders have been attacking the town, burning the crops, damaging property, and the like. The magistrate asks the party to find the hobgoblin leader and bring his war banner to the magistrate as proof of execution. He offers the party the chance to interrogate a hobgoblin prisoner. (DM's Notes: The hobgoblin prisoner will relate a story of how Greyshaft's mine was formerly controlled by the hobgoblins, but the humans had come in and stolen the mine from them. This slight has caused the hobgoblins to attack the human settlement. The party will have the opportunity to either try to establish a diplomatic solution to the problem, or they can simply use force to accomplish the mission). 3. A hunter in the tavern approaches the party, bemoaning the recent deaths of his companions. He blames a forest nymph, and asks the party to help him get even, and recover his friends bodies. (DM's Notes: The hunters tried to restrain and capture the nymph when they encountered her, and she retaliated by blinding them and capturing the hunter's companions. She will release them if they agree to not bother her, and also cease use of traps that mutilate and disfigure the animals they use them on. The party can choose to use diplomacy between the hunters/nymph, or kill the nymph). The grimlock cave will exhibit signs of druidic gatherings, and it will become clear that druids lived in the cave before the grimlocks, but the grimlocks came in and killed them. The party will find a magical amulet that is damaged, and they will find that their only hope of identifying it lies in Ravendale with more advanced magic-users. As they take the carts from Greyshaft back to Ravendale, their caravan will be ambushed by kobolds who seem to be looking for the amulet. A kobold sorcerer will be leading the ambush, and use detect magic to direct the kobolds' focus to the one carrying the amulet. (DM's Notes: The amulet is an artifact that grants the user great power - undecided at this time - but it is damaged and cannot be used. In this campaign, kobolds worship dragons, and a nearby green dragon sensed the power of the amulet once it resurfaced and dispatched the kobolds to retrieve it. Also, future encounters will pit the PCs against evil forces trying to steal the amulet away from them. This will give the PCs a chance to interact with the different factions of Aethoria along the way, whatever they may be.) That's the basis for the first few sessions, and I have more detailed notes about how things may play out for each encounter. I haven't designed the rest of Aethoria, or most of Ravendale, but I figure that PCs can discover these things later in the campaign, which will give me time to generate these things. My real concern is if all this has an engaging quality, or if I should be approaching this campaign from a different perspective. It is important to me for this campaign to transcend a "hack and slash" dungeon crawl, so I have tried laying the groundwork for political drama as well as diplomatic resolutions and the ever-present combat solutions. For example, I plan on introducing the existence of a governor of a powerful city-state who is trying to conquer the rest of Aethoria. He is doing this because he believes that Aethoria needs to be united in order to prosper, and sees what he is doing as justified, even though he may crush his enemies and not always show mercy. On the other hand, I may introduce a secret to the party - that the former ruler Grey Septum had an illegitimate son that has been kept secret, and that the party could attempt to unite Aethoria under his leadership instead. This would cause conflict between the two leaders vying for power. Anywho, let me know what you think about this frame for the campaign. All constructive feedback is appreciated. And I know some of this stuff may seem cliche or drawn from other media, but I tried to make this as original as possible.
Orchomenos 02-07-08, 10:41 AM	I like the general set of the World/Country. This serie of petty kingdoms is closer to the true Middle Age than many fantasy settings where various kings governed immutable territories. Before starting, I suggest you to vaguely design 6-8 cities, so your players will be able to choose a place where their character is coming from. Nothing too complicated, something like this: Mount Yrvossa is a fortress located on a lone hill, on the far East of the Kingdom. Like Xinoe, it was founded by Norhabian settlers, but the nationality feeling toward Norhaib is mild. Population: 4710 (30% humans-Norhabian, 55% humans-Mussullan, 7% halflings, 7% half-elves, 5% gnomes, 1% others). Leader: Duke Enesria Tarenma. I also suggest you draw a map of your world, or at least the immediate neighborhood. Also, it could be good to include a brief description of some neighboring kingdoms. Is it possible that some city-states' leaders be linked to remote, powerful monarchies? The party will be riding into Greyshaft on carts, and will have the opportunity to meet each other and learn a little about each other and their situation. Once in Greyshaft, they will need to report to the magistrate to begin their investigation. I suppose they will be sent by various interest specifically to investigate the iron shortage?
SeanFitz27 02-07-08, 01:02 PM	Hey, thanks for the feedback. I have a lot of free time today, so I'll get working on sketching out other regions in my campaign so the party can have that added choice of where they come from. I should have made this more clear, but the members of the party were individually hired by the magistrate in Ravendale to travel to Greyshaft to help with the investigation. Only after departing for Greyshaft will they learn of each other's existence.