I thought this would make a decent game.. [Archive] - Wizards Community

I thought this would make a decent game.. [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Candin
08-08-07, 01:49 AM I was brewing some ideas for what I thought might be a decent story, and I came up with a general idea, and I was wondering what the community might have to say about it.

The basic idea is that there are four powers. I figured each one would be themed; One is themed after Norsemen (pulled city names from Norse mythology and a couple from Beowulf, and one from the evil half of Lotr), one after Greece (using Greek cities), and one themed after Rome.

The fourth power descended into chaos. A generation before the game would be played it was invaded by the Norsemen out of the mountains in the north, and when it called for the aide of the other, more "civilized" powers, the call fell on death ears.

So the BBEG of the story is going to be some very powerful individual in this fourth kingdom. Either the ruler, or a noble, or diplomat or scholar. The kingdom manages to muster enough strength to repel the invaders back beyond the mountain range, but the war was so taxing that the kingdom collapsed, leaving ruined cityscapes littered across the countryside.

So my idea is that the BBEG loses someone he loves dearly in during the war. I'm thinking it'd be his lover or child. The loss consumes him, and he decides he's going to attempt to bring this person back to the realm of the living. He doesn't have the power, nor does he know anyone who does, to bring back his love (loses the body, just for flavor, whatever), but knows somebody who does.

So he communes with some demonic force, and pledges himself to said demon / devil in return for his wife / child / whatever. The wager? Lives. Lots of them.

The BBEG figures that the best way to meet this end is to spark another war between the remaining three powers. The problem is, a relative peace, however unsteady, has been settled between them. He undergoes the process to become a lich, giving him enough time to meet his goals to be reunited with his love, and begins pulling the strings of fate to reunite the remaining kingdoms in epic battle.

So this is where the game would start. With the unsteady peace, and knowledge of the fallen empire. Maybe the BBEG would have been important enough to have been known, but it doesn't matter, because if he was, then the world thinks he's dead.

They go about doing their business, whatever they decide they want to play, while the effects of the BBEG can be seen subtley influencing the world. I think what he's likely to do is spread plague in a manner that it looks like some crazy sect instigated it, with evidence planted that they were hired by some rival nation. And a couple other to disintegrate what little diplomatic ties have been made between the three.

The players would get the opportunity to do take active roles in these events ("Did you hear what happened at the Manor Farm? Half his livestock dropped dead, they say it's plague! And the Frederick Farm? People think someone's behind it..")

It'd start with them doing seemingly unrelated adventures, but slowly it'd be divulged that each is a piece of a greater puzzle. Eventually they could figure out about this evil guy wreaking havoc, and go after him. It could be some cool adventures for them to learn about this guy, like that he's a lich, or where he's hiding.

I figure looking for his phylactery would be one of the defining moments of the game. It'd be hidden in the ruined kingdom's capital, which could make for a very, very awesome dungeon crawler. I figure his phylactery would be an amulet with the picture of his love inside of it.

Then they could go after the dude himself.

I kind of like the idea. I figure a timeline of events would be set out, with the original destination being war. Depending on how the characters get involved, they could prevent the war, or further it's precipitation. The game could be drawn out, too, by interspersing minor adventures ("side quests") along with the events that are triggered by the lich, or, if that isn't the bag of the group, they could just rush to the end of it.

I figure it makes a halfway decent bad guy too. A lot of the bad guys in a lot of games I've played have been totally evil, self-serving powermongers. I figure the lich being motivated by love, not gain, is a different take on things, and his actions being dictated not by himself but by powers beyond him make him a rather tragic person.

That's my idea for now. I'm debating if I should keep the lich in hiding, or if I should involve him with the rest of the world. Maybe he joins the court of one of the other nations to get a better vantage point. Maybe he Mindrapes one or more of the rulers to make his job easier, or to influence the party when they become noticable to him.

So? Questions? Concerns? Comments? Feedback would be nice. I threw this idea together in maybe an hour, so there's a lot I need to smooth out.
Candin
08-08-07, 02:20 AM Figure I could also have the demon, devil, whatever, not demand the shedding of blood, but that he re-open an abandoned gate that would enable his minions to flood into the world and consume it. Course the key artifacts would be held by people of importance, or very well hidden, which could lead to interesting skirmishes, or races to find the pieces before the bad guy does.

Which, of course, could make the final battle not with the lich (who may not need to be a lich if this were the case) but with the demon and his minions. Would open the bad guy up for redemption, something I'm a big fan of..
Captain_Impulse
08-08-07, 08:51 AM Sounds like an awesome idea.

One question though: why four kingdoms? Other than to have a big war, why do you need four? Seems like it could be simplified to a war between the PCs kingdom and the BBEG's kingdom, and save you some work.
Candin
08-08-07, 02:14 PM I wanted a more fleshed out world than civilization and "those barbarians" over the mountaintops.

It, at the least, gives the world more potential for interesting sessions, and more opportunities for the players to make the story they want to make.

A lot of games I've done usually involve civilization controlled by one powerhouse "King" guy, and then everybody else. I'm playing in one now, and I'm starting to notice that our party (about 11th level) is getting bottlenecked because the only avenue to the power is the King, and he's a bit of a prick.
chimpman
08-08-07, 03:44 PM Sounds like a good idea to me as well. I think that the 4 (now 3) kingdoms work out just fine. It also gives the players more choice as to where they want their characters to be from.

In addition to the plague adventure, consider setting up a "godfather" type encounter between the 2 or 3 remaining nations. It would go something like this:

- Nation 1 and 2 have some kind of dispute.
- BBEG works to get the two nations talking together again. This could involve some adventures where the PCs have to build up trust between the opposed rulers. They may in fact be working for the BBEG and never know he is a bad guy (with proper illusions and intermediaries in place of course).
- Once BBEG gains everyone's trust, he sets up meetings to initiate peace talks. Again, this could involve some adventures, with the PCs goal being to get the diplomats to the meeting on time or some such.
- Now that everyone is in the same room, whack them all. Evidence could be planted incriminating both parties involved, or perhaps pointing to the third, uninvolved nation, thereby bringing all into war. PCs must either prevent this, or stop it after the fact.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Candin 08-08-07, 01:49 AM	I was brewing some ideas for what I thought might be a decent story, and I came up with a general idea, and I was wondering what the community might have to say about it. The basic idea is that there are four powers. I figured each one would be themed; One is themed after Norsemen (pulled city names from Norse mythology and a couple from Beowulf, and one from the evil half of Lotr), one after Greece (using Greek cities), and one themed after Rome. The fourth power descended into chaos. A generation before the game would be played it was invaded by the Norsemen out of the mountains in the north, and when it called for the aide of the other, more "civilized" powers, the call fell on death ears. So the BBEG of the story is going to be some very powerful individual in this fourth kingdom. Either the ruler, or a noble, or diplomat or scholar. The kingdom manages to muster enough strength to repel the invaders back beyond the mountain range, but the war was so taxing that the kingdom collapsed, leaving ruined cityscapes littered across the countryside. So my idea is that the BBEG loses someone he loves dearly in during the war. I'm thinking it'd be his lover or child. The loss consumes him, and he decides he's going to attempt to bring this person back to the realm of the living. He doesn't have the power, nor does he know anyone who does, to bring back his love (loses the body, just for flavor, whatever), but knows somebody who does. So he communes with some demonic force, and pledges himself to said demon / devil in return for his wife / child / whatever. The wager? Lives. Lots of them. The BBEG figures that the best way to meet this end is to spark another war between the remaining three powers. The problem is, a relative peace, however unsteady, has been settled between them. He undergoes the process to become a lich, giving him enough time to meet his goals to be reunited with his love, and begins pulling the strings of fate to reunite the remaining kingdoms in epic battle. So this is where the game would start. With the unsteady peace, and knowledge of the fallen empire. Maybe the BBEG would have been important enough to have been known, but it doesn't matter, because if he was, then the world thinks he's dead. They go about doing their business, whatever they decide they want to play, while the effects of the BBEG can be seen subtley influencing the world. I think what he's likely to do is spread plague in a manner that it looks like some crazy sect instigated it, with evidence planted that they were hired by some rival nation. And a couple other to disintegrate what little diplomatic ties have been made between the three. The players would get the opportunity to do take active roles in these events ("Did you hear what happened at the Manor Farm? Half his livestock dropped dead, they say it's plague! And the Frederick Farm? People think someone's behind it..") It'd start with them doing seemingly unrelated adventures, but slowly it'd be divulged that each is a piece of a greater puzzle. Eventually they could figure out about this evil guy wreaking havoc, and go after him. It could be some cool adventures for them to learn about this guy, like that he's a lich, or where he's hiding. I figure looking for his phylactery would be one of the defining moments of the game. It'd be hidden in the ruined kingdom's capital, which could make for a very, very awesome dungeon crawler. I figure his phylactery would be an amulet with the picture of his love inside of it. Then they could go after the dude himself. I kind of like the idea. I figure a timeline of events would be set out, with the original destination being war. Depending on how the characters get involved, they could prevent the war, or further it's precipitation. The game could be drawn out, too, by interspersing minor adventures ("side quests") along with the events that are triggered by the lich, or, if that isn't the bag of the group, they could just rush to the end of it. I figure it makes a halfway decent bad guy too. A lot of the bad guys in a lot of games I've played have been totally evil, self-serving powermongers. I figure the lich being motivated by love, not gain, is a different take on things, and his actions being dictated not by himself but by powers beyond him make him a rather tragic person. That's my idea for now. I'm debating if I should keep the lich in hiding, or if I should involve him with the rest of the world. Maybe he joins the court of one of the other nations to get a better vantage point. Maybe he Mindrapes one or more of the rulers to make his job easier, or to influence the party when they become noticable to him. So? Questions? Concerns? Comments? Feedback would be nice. I threw this idea together in maybe an hour, so there's a lot I need to smooth out.
Candin 08-08-07, 02:20 AM	Figure I could also have the demon, devil, whatever, not demand the shedding of blood, but that he re-open an abandoned gate that would enable his minions to flood into the world and consume it. Course the key artifacts would be held by people of importance, or very well hidden, which could lead to interesting skirmishes, or races to find the pieces before the bad guy does. Which, of course, could make the final battle not with the lich (who may not need to be a lich if this were the case) but with the demon and his minions. Would open the bad guy up for redemption, something I'm a big fan of..
Captain_Impulse 08-08-07, 08:51 AM	Sounds like an awesome idea. One question though: why four kingdoms? Other than to have a big war, why do you need four? Seems like it could be simplified to a war between the PCs kingdom and the BBEG's kingdom, and save you some work.
Candin 08-08-07, 02:14 PM	I wanted a more fleshed out world than civilization and "those barbarians" over the mountaintops. It, at the least, gives the world more potential for interesting sessions, and more opportunities for the players to make the story they want to make. A lot of games I've done usually involve civilization controlled by one powerhouse "King" guy, and then everybody else. I'm playing in one now, and I'm starting to notice that our party (about 11th level) is getting bottlenecked because the only avenue to the power is the King, and he's a bit of a prick.
chimpman 08-08-07, 03:44 PM	Sounds like a good idea to me as well. I think that the 4 (now 3) kingdoms work out just fine. It also gives the players more choice as to where they want their characters to be from. In addition to the plague adventure, consider setting up a "godfather" type encounter between the 2 or 3 remaining nations. It would go something like this: - Nation 1 and 2 have some kind of dispute. - BBEG works to get the two nations talking together again. This could involve some adventures where the PCs have to build up trust between the opposed rulers. They may in fact be working for the BBEG and never know he is a bad guy (with proper illusions and intermediaries in place of course). - Once BBEG gains everyone's trust, he sets up meetings to initiate peace talks. Again, this could involve some adventures, with the PCs goal being to get the diplomats to the meeting on time or some such. - Now that everyone is in the same room, whack them all. Evidence could be planted incriminating both parties involved, or perhaps pointing to the third, uninvolved nation, thereby bringing all into war. PCs must either prevent this, or stop it after the fact.