New DM Needing Campaign Ideas [Archive] - Wizards Community

New DM Needing Campaign Ideas [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
CaptainPollo
02-25-07, 09:22 PM In the First Campaign, the Party delt with an Evil Prince whom hired an Assasin to kill his Father (The King) to take his throne. After a long battle the party was victorious and a new King was crowned (One of the PCs, he "Retired" his charater). This Current campaign is a war with the Vampires lead by Vlad the Impailer (Becuase Dracula's been done to death ^_^). We sould be doing the final battles soon in this Campaign, but now I'm faced with a problem, I don't know where to go from here. Any Help/Ideas?

The Highest Level guys are a 15 Pally, a 13 Dragon Shaman, a 13 Fighter and a 14 Cleric. Everyone else is 9 and lower becuase we don't have a Stable party (it seems that we get a new charater everytime I come there.)
GoriceXII
02-26-07, 03:59 AM i'm not sure that I understand the nature of the problem entirely--do you mean that you are having trouble figuring out the final battles or what comes after that?
CaptainPollo
02-27-07, 12:30 AM What cames after the battles, The Next Story arc :(
GakkiSai
02-27-07, 01:16 AM Sounds like a good time to introduce a doomsday device/artifact, the secret of it's hiding place being saught by none other than the cult of Vecna, and eventually Vecna himself! Only vague clues from lond desicated scriptures in reversed ancient Lufennish, scrawled by a mad artist slash inventor remain, and our heros have only three months inwhich to decipher the "Lufennish Code" before the artifact opens a massive portal into the nether planes allowing armies of the damned to swarm across the multiverse!
MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! ...
...
...
I'm boreed and without gamers.
taradusis
02-27-07, 07:18 PM Marvel comics did a dracula vs. dr. strange and they were battling over the montessi formula.This was a mystic formula that if perfomed correctly would destroy all vampires in the marvel universe?Amazon has the collected books.Or, how about a mission to redeem a vampire,perhaps find a cure for the terminally anemic?RANDOM THOUGHTS
The_Shade_XIV
02-27-07, 07:28 PM When in doubt, crazy cults.

Cults are my fall back plan. Always. If I don't think I can come up with a full story in time, crazy cults. They usually don't cover much ground, so destroying them won't have much impact later on. (Unless you want it to).

Cult stories, I find, are real easy to write. Assuming the cult still exists, it might be terrorizing a village, sacrificing people and stuff, or maybe trying to raise/summon a dangerous being from a prison plane. The cult just needs a charasmatic leader and the rest writes itself.

If the cult is no longer alive, you can always make a fun-filled, trap covered tomb where they used to reside. These make excellent places to throw out some magical items...if the players are stong enough to get them!

Like I said, this is only a back-up. More thought out stories are generally better, but if you're on a time budget then cults are the way to go.
Johnny_Angel
02-27-07, 09:17 PM Well, it is a war, so...

The Vampires come up with a plan to attack the king of the non-vampire nation, and they are succesful, but they don't kill him; instead, he is now a spawn of the vampires. The king who is now a vampire is now controlled like a puppet by the vampire nation, and this has a very serious effect on the war as the king starts making logistical and tactical choices which don't seem to be logical (i.e. moving troops away from an area the day before it is attacked, not sending enough supplies to troops, and etc.)

Nobody knows the king is a vampire because he takes steps to hide it. The only thing that anyone has heard is that he has recently fallen ill, and he now spends most of his time in his private chamber; orders are given by his personal servant who is the only one the king allows in his chamber because the king claims that he was poisoned, and that is why he is so sick. If anyone insists upon seeing the king, the lighting is always poor, and he is wrapped in blankets and robes.

Many of the military leaders begin to grow frustrated with the king's seemingly inability to make good decisions, and they feel that someone else should take the throne. The problem is that none of them can agree upon who it should be; even in the face of war with the vampires, greed for the throne twists the minds of a few of the leaders. This disagreement leads to many different factions being created among the government of the nation. Loyalty becomes a very divided thing. Many of the nobles and military leaders take the troops which are loyal to them and leave the capital city, leaving it vulnerable for attack, but, strangly, the vampires choose not to strike the capital. Instead, Vlad's massive army begins striking at each noble lord's castle and laying siege to each one - one at a time. Unless the PCs can unit the splintered factions, resistance is futile.

If the vampire nation wins, the land is now ruled by the unholy iron fist of the vampires; all the living citizens of the land are now used as hardly more than cattle and food for the vampires.

If the non-vampire nation wins, the factions once again splinter and start to war amongst themselves over who has rights to the crown. Many of the noble lords offer a commission to the pcs if the pcs join them, but who the pcs join is up to them.

Alternatively, the pcs could decide they want no part in the war between the various factions. As such, this war continues for 10-20 years because no side can get a clear upper hand. This era of war leads to many advancements in warfare, weapon, and armor technology, but other aspects of life begin to degrade as the land falls into a dark age. The common people are oppressed, and the problems of the common person are generally not taken care of; as such, this leads to many adventure opportunites for the pcs.
dpity1
02-28-07, 09:13 PM Well, I have a nice one that tends to fit in, the only problem is that it involves vampires, which you may be sick of by now.
(Well, a lone vampire, not an army of them, just a single 20th level fighter vampire)

I'm not sure how developed your campaign world is, so inserting a kingdom ruled by a vampire may be difficult. But it goes thusly:

I'm working under the assumption the characters are good aligned, and of decent power. The plot goes thusly: (This campaign was actually played with low-level characters, they entered it at level 2 to 4 and continued till 11, at which point I threatened to kill a player, ran out of the session to get coffee, and disappeared without warning for two to three hours. It never actually finished.)

The short version is thus: Marius, a gibbering, old, pitiable wizard is planning on becoming the incarnate of Vecna himself on the mortal plane, and is introduced to the PCs while they are on some side quest that you will later tie in to the main storyline. Marius is apparently an NPC ally of sorts, not helping in any practical way, but certainly being friendly, if creepy. (Properly presented he's more pitiful then scary, suffering from a DM-RPed Parkinson's, MS, and mild dementia all at the same time, while wiping drool off his half-paralyzed jawline) Long story short, the PCs end up stuck between a fight with him and whatever mortal and demonic armies he can summon to aid his quest to rebuild Vecna's old empire and a Vampire King (Preferably initially introduced as a Lawful Evil vampire, sworn to the service of his non-evil people through a centuries-old blood oath, who bears no ill will towards the players and is presented as a mildly likable NPC, who happens to be evil.) who's been possessed by the Sword of Kas, and is now leading his kingdom, which has been bolstered by massive numbers of Plot Point Undead. The final outcome ends up decent, and dependent on the PCs actions, as either Marius, the Vampire King (I stole from Ravenloft; he was named Strahd), or both try to use the PCs as allies by painting themselves as non-threats to the mortal realm.

It sounds dumb, but it did work well up until the gaming group started getting physically and verbally violent IRL.

The fools thought that the DM Chokehold of Death would only be used on their characters.
malignor
02-28-07, 10:15 PM Get your PCs' background. Something has to come back to haunt them in some way.
taradusis
03-01-07, 05:35 PM Someone is setting off UNLIFE BOMBs.An unlife bomb is a black ovoid that releases a burst of magical energy that kills and then ressurects its victims.Imagine being in a town and a burst of ebony energy sweeps thru town killing everyone who fails a saving throw.A few minutes later the corpses begin to twitch and the skeletons rip themselves loose from their mortal remains and begin to attack.The PCs could survive the first attack and try to track down the mad bomber?The unlife bomb could create ghouls or zombies as an alternitive.RANDOM THOUGHTS
CaptainPollo
03-04-07, 01:26 AM Thanks for the ideas guys ^_^ (I Might try the Cults ones at a later date). At This time my PCs are loving fighting Vampires So I guess we're not sick of them yet =P.

The Pally (as a Player)has been acused of being a heavy metagamer (With some justice), but outside of that his Charater is the Party Leader with a few black marks on his name (Mainly becuase when he started off he didn't know what to do so I let that slide). He Already fought (With some Major Assitance) his old mentor whom was a fallen Paladen/Blackgaurd in the Last Campaign (it was during one of the last battles in that one).

The Dragon Shaman, is just simply....The team ladies man, it shocks me that he doesn't have any illegitament kids...yet...(I might change that...BWHAHAHHA!!!)

The Fighter is simply a Draven Merc, the Player really hasn't bothered to RP this charater, he's just a silent dude that kicks butt.

The Cleric on the other hand might bring the most potentail, at level 8 (While the Pally and my Rouge were at the same level), he betrayed the party and became Evil for a while. He was just re-introduced in the campaign as someone working for Vlad, but in tipical comic-book style he wears the "I'll betray the leader when I feel like it" Shirt. He just Rejoined the party fighting for the greater-good (Lesser-Evil). The Main Reason the Pally hasn't killed him is becuase he knows too much about Vlad's Plans and Secrets.
GoriceXII
03-04-07, 04:40 PM I like the idea of an undead cult. I had a campaign in which a necromancer led a cult and an army of undead and cultists and were defeated by forces the players were involved with. After this the players used the country that had defeated the necromancer as a base for adventuring, having become lauded heroes there. However the cult lived on, the necromancer faking his own death and leading it in secret. Which they never figured out the source of. They even hung out in a wealthy and popular inn called the White Grin club which was funded and spied on by the cult! They thought it was a good place to meet in discretion with some nice wine and service to go along with it. It was a grand manse turned into a club for the wealthy, with dark red carpeting, soft dark tapestries that muted the sound, and pale beautiful women as servers. A pale man in dark robes was the perfectly competent, discreetly and suavely impressive maitre'd. He spoke with a slight lisp and was pale with dark hair slicked back hair. He was able to appear whenever they needed service almost like...magic.

They never suspected a thing. They knew SOMEONE was spying on them but always blamed other enemies. I had the cult often somewhat affiliate with others so that they really did a lot of havoc but never caught the spy system.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
CaptainPollo 02-25-07, 09:22 PM	In the First Campaign, the Party delt with an Evil Prince whom hired an Assasin to kill his Father (The King) to take his throne. After a long battle the party was victorious and a new King was crowned (One of the PCs, he "Retired" his charater). This Current campaign is a war with the Vampires lead by Vlad the Impailer (Becuase Dracula's been done to death ^_^). We sould be doing the final battles soon in this Campaign, but now I'm faced with a problem, I don't know where to go from here. Any Help/Ideas? The Highest Level guys are a 15 Pally, a 13 Dragon Shaman, a 13 Fighter and a 14 Cleric. Everyone else is 9 and lower becuase we don't have a Stable party (it seems that we get a new charater everytime I come there.)
GoriceXII 02-26-07, 03:59 AM	i'm not sure that I understand the nature of the problem entirely--do you mean that you are having trouble figuring out the final battles or what comes after that?
CaptainPollo 02-27-07, 12:30 AM	What cames after the battles, The Next Story arc :(
GakkiSai 02-27-07, 01:16 AM	Sounds like a good time to introduce a doomsday device/artifact, the secret of it's hiding place being saught by none other than the cult of Vecna, and eventually Vecna himself! Only vague clues from lond desicated scriptures in reversed ancient Lufennish, scrawled by a mad artist slash inventor remain, and our heros have only three months inwhich to decipher the "Lufennish Code" before the artifact opens a massive portal into the nether planes allowing armies of the damned to swarm across the multiverse! MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! ... ... ... I'm boreed and without gamers.
taradusis 02-27-07, 07:18 PM	Marvel comics did a dracula vs. dr. strange and they were battling over the montessi formula.This was a mystic formula that if perfomed correctly would destroy all vampires in the marvel universe?Amazon has the collected books.Or, how about a mission to redeem a vampire,perhaps find a cure for the terminally anemic?RANDOM THOUGHTS
The_Shade_XIV 02-27-07, 07:28 PM	When in doubt, crazy cults. Cults are my fall back plan. Always. If I don't think I can come up with a full story in time, crazy cults. They usually don't cover much ground, so destroying them won't have much impact later on. (Unless you want it to). Cult stories, I find, are real easy to write. Assuming the cult still exists, it might be terrorizing a village, sacrificing people and stuff, or maybe trying to raise/summon a dangerous being from a prison plane. The cult just needs a charasmatic leader and the rest writes itself. If the cult is no longer alive, you can always make a fun-filled, trap covered tomb where they used to reside. These make excellent places to throw out some magical items...if the players are stong enough to get them! Like I said, this is only a back-up. More thought out stories are generally better, but if you're on a time budget then cults are the way to go.
Johnny_Angel 02-27-07, 09:17 PM	Well, it is a war, so... The Vampires come up with a plan to attack the king of the non-vampire nation, and they are succesful, but they don't kill him; instead, he is now a spawn of the vampires. The king who is now a vampire is now controlled like a puppet by the vampire nation, and this has a very serious effect on the war as the king starts making logistical and tactical choices which don't seem to be logical (i.e. moving troops away from an area the day before it is attacked, not sending enough supplies to troops, and etc.) Nobody knows the king is a vampire because he takes steps to hide it. The only thing that anyone has heard is that he has recently fallen ill, and he now spends most of his time in his private chamber; orders are given by his personal servant who is the only one the king allows in his chamber because the king claims that he was poisoned, and that is why he is so sick. If anyone insists upon seeing the king, the lighting is always poor, and he is wrapped in blankets and robes. Many of the military leaders begin to grow frustrated with the king's seemingly inability to make good decisions, and they feel that someone else should take the throne. The problem is that none of them can agree upon who it should be; even in the face of war with the vampires, greed for the throne twists the minds of a few of the leaders. This disagreement leads to many different factions being created among the government of the nation. Loyalty becomes a very divided thing. Many of the nobles and military leaders take the troops which are loyal to them and leave the capital city, leaving it vulnerable for attack, but, strangly, the vampires choose not to strike the capital. Instead, Vlad's massive army begins striking at each noble lord's castle and laying siege to each one - one at a time. Unless the PCs can unit the splintered factions, resistance is futile. If the vampire nation wins, the land is now ruled by the unholy iron fist of the vampires; all the living citizens of the land are now used as hardly more than cattle and food for the vampires. If the non-vampire nation wins, the factions once again splinter and start to war amongst themselves over who has rights to the crown. Many of the noble lords offer a commission to the pcs if the pcs join them, but who the pcs join is up to them. Alternatively, the pcs could decide they want no part in the war between the various factions. As such, this war continues for 10-20 years because no side can get a clear upper hand. This era of war leads to many advancements in warfare, weapon, and armor technology, but other aspects of life begin to degrade as the land falls into a dark age. The common people are oppressed, and the problems of the common person are generally not taken care of; as such, this leads to many adventure opportunites for the pcs.
dpity1 02-28-07, 09:13 PM	Well, I have a nice one that tends to fit in, the only problem is that it involves vampires, which you may be sick of by now. (Well, a lone vampire, not an army of them, just a single 20th level fighter vampire) I'm not sure how developed your campaign world is, so inserting a kingdom ruled by a vampire may be difficult. But it goes thusly: I'm working under the assumption the characters are good aligned, and of decent power. The plot goes thusly: (This campaign was actually played with low-level characters, they entered it at level 2 to 4 and continued till 11, at which point I threatened to kill a player, ran out of the session to get coffee, and disappeared without warning for two to three hours. It never actually finished.) The short version is thus: Marius, a gibbering, old, pitiable wizard is planning on becoming the incarnate of Vecna himself on the mortal plane, and is introduced to the PCs while they are on some side quest that you will later tie in to the main storyline. Marius is apparently an NPC ally of sorts, not helping in any practical way, but certainly being friendly, if creepy. (Properly presented he's more pitiful then scary, suffering from a DM-RPed Parkinson's, MS, and mild dementia all at the same time, while wiping drool off his half-paralyzed jawline) Long story short, the PCs end up stuck between a fight with him and whatever mortal and demonic armies he can summon to aid his quest to rebuild Vecna's old empire and a Vampire King (Preferably initially introduced as a Lawful Evil vampire, sworn to the service of his non-evil people through a centuries-old blood oath, who bears no ill will towards the players and is presented as a mildly likable NPC, who happens to be evil.) who's been possessed by the Sword of Kas, and is now leading his kingdom, which has been bolstered by massive numbers of Plot Point Undead. The final outcome ends up decent, and dependent on the PCs actions, as either Marius, the Vampire King (I stole from Ravenloft; he was named Strahd), or both try to use the PCs as allies by painting themselves as non-threats to the mortal realm. It sounds dumb, but it did work well up until the gaming group started getting physically and verbally violent IRL. The fools thought that the DM Chokehold of Death would only be used on their characters.
malignor 02-28-07, 10:15 PM	Get your PCs' background. Something has to come back to haunt them in some way.
taradusis 03-01-07, 05:35 PM	Someone is setting off UNLIFE BOMBs.An unlife bomb is a black ovoid that releases a burst of magical energy that kills and then ressurects its victims.Imagine being in a town and a burst of ebony energy sweeps thru town killing everyone who fails a saving throw.A few minutes later the corpses begin to twitch and the skeletons rip themselves loose from their mortal remains and begin to attack.The PCs could survive the first attack and try to track down the mad bomber?The unlife bomb could create ghouls or zombies as an alternitive.RANDOM THOUGHTS
CaptainPollo 03-04-07, 01:26 AM	Thanks for the ideas guys ^_^ (I Might try the Cults ones at a later date). At This time my PCs are loving fighting Vampires So I guess we're not sick of them yet =P. The Pally (as a Player)has been acused of being a heavy metagamer (With some justice), but outside of that his Charater is the Party Leader with a few black marks on his name (Mainly becuase when he started off he didn't know what to do so I let that slide). He Already fought (With some Major Assitance) his old mentor whom was a fallen Paladen/Blackgaurd in the Last Campaign (it was during one of the last battles in that one). The Dragon Shaman, is just simply....The team ladies man, it shocks me that he doesn't have any illegitament kids...yet...(I might change that...BWHAHAHHA!!!) The Fighter is simply a Draven Merc, the Player really hasn't bothered to RP this charater, he's just a silent dude that kicks butt. The Cleric on the other hand might bring the most potentail, at level 8 (While the Pally and my Rouge were at the same level), he betrayed the party and became Evil for a while. He was just re-introduced in the campaign as someone working for Vlad, but in tipical comic-book style he wears the "I'll betray the leader when I feel like it" Shirt. He just Rejoined the party fighting for the greater-good (Lesser-Evil). The Main Reason the Pally hasn't killed him is becuase he knows too much about Vlad's Plans and Secrets.
GoriceXII 03-04-07, 04:40 PM	I like the idea of an undead cult. I had a campaign in which a necromancer led a cult and an army of undead and cultists and were defeated by forces the players were involved with. After this the players used the country that had defeated the necromancer as a base for adventuring, having become lauded heroes there. However the cult lived on, the necromancer faking his own death and leading it in secret. Which they never figured out the source of. They even hung out in a wealthy and popular inn called the White Grin club which was funded and spied on by the cult! They thought it was a good place to meet in discretion with some nice wine and service to go along with it. It was a grand manse turned into a club for the wealthy, with dark red carpeting, soft dark tapestries that muted the sound, and pale beautiful women as servers. A pale man in dark robes was the perfectly competent, discreetly and suavely impressive maitre'd. He spoke with a slight lisp and was pale with dark hair slicked back hair. He was able to appear whenever they needed service almost like...magic. They never suspected a thing. They knew SOMEONE was spying on them but always blamed other enemies. I had the cult often somewhat affiliate with others so that they really did a lot of havoc but never caught the spy system.